The Colors

Dizzy December

2010-12-27T08:40:00.001+07:00

I used to relate the letter 'd' with 'delightful,' but now I just can
remember 'd' as 'dizzy' - like the things that happens for the whole
month.. (report, curse, another report, grumble, another report, and
more curse - blah..)

I remember that the month used to be a delightfull month back in my
school time. Well, we had target and deadline and everything
(especially because I worked in a hotel which usually had full
occupancy during holiday period) but we still had chrismast lunch and
party and 'arisan' and another party and the holidays..

--but well, that is life.., never ending changes.. :p

Anyway, I found something interesting on te web today (due to the
extreme tension of the boredom which somehow made me realize that I
just missed a friend birthday by a week :p). It's a web to check the
time in another city (I know I know, it's not too wonderful - and I
used to come to the website daily in my youth time, just to ensure
that I contact each hotel and travel agent in during their office
hours)

What I found super interesting about hte web is the fact that it has
my city in it (well, is it even a city? probably it's just a town,
hehe.. :p). And what makes me happy is is the fact that, finally, I
know the correct time in my place - every clock in the office just
doesn't match and I keep arguing with the HR department that I'm not
late, according to certain clock that I believe is corrcect (and even
the usual 103 - a phone number that you dial to check the corrcet
time, when you are in Indonesia - will always give you a weird
misleading time)

Hmm, finally, I will just remind you to check the website in case you
want to call me (in case it's sleeping time here :p) *and it has
weather forecast as well, isn't it amazing? :D

http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=767

The Gratitude

2009-11-11T22:08:00.002+07:00

Setelah membaca sebait email dari sebuah milist yg sedang dibanjiri dengan keluhan bin curhat para karyawan, dika senyum2 sendiri..

A nice comment from an observer.. -kadang kita terlalu sibuk memikirkan hal-hal yang belum kita miliki hingga lupa bersyukur akan hal-hal yang kita punya.. :)

...

Begini kira2 bunyi comment tersebut: (ehm, mas, namanya ga saya sebut gpp kan, takut tersebar berita2 ajaib :p)

"Gw cuma pengen sharing aja, ga bermaksud apa-apa, atau melecehkan.. ...

kalo gw ketemu nasabah, ngomonginnya

- angin selatan sekarang ini, jadi ga bisa melaut....kaga ngarti gw, dulu ngambil IPS sih...
- harga kelapa bagus pak...kalo beli, 2500, jual lagi 5000....gila kan,100%
- sekali isi angin Rp.1000, kalau yang ngisi rata-rata 15, dah dapet 15.000...belum yang beli bensin, kita jual 5000 per liter...gila ya, merka ngumpulin receh ampe malam

BERSYUKUR CHUY!!!!

hehehehe"

*and them, semoga Allah melancarkan dan memberkahi rizkinya... (amin)

The Rich Country

2009-06-02T21:13:00.002+07:00

short news from Kompas: (click here for the complete news)

..../Tanah kami tanah kaya/Laut kami laut kaya/Kami tidur di atas emas/Berenang di atas minyak/Tapi bukan kami punya/

(Nyanyian ”Suara dari Kemiskinan” ciptaan Franky Sahilatua).

what a pity,, (yet it's true,,,)

....

When Money Talks

2009-06-01T21:43:00.004+07:00

*supposed to be posted on the 25th of May.. :p

I was, as usual, tried to switch of the 'noise' -and continue my morning sleep- after hearing my alarm, 4 o'clock in the morning

tried to found my mobile with my eyes closed,

found the rectangular-shaped gadgets and lazily opened my eyes to locate the 'off' button

read the blinking screen of 'new message from 3355' and (still lazily) click the 'read' button: 'just a routine sms,, with less number,,' I mumbled and preparing to sleep again

unfortunately I was too conscious to be able to sleep again,, (I know that lay off are every where,, but it just ridiculous to see that many numbers missing without any prior notice,,)

I decided to take some actions:

1. open my eyes and carefully read the sms, in case I was dreaming (but of course, even with my half-sleep eyes I still caught the numbers correctly,, ;p )

2. connect to the internet and open my internet banking, in case the sms was misleading (but of course bad news are usually not misleading :p)

3. send some PM's to my friends (but of course they are sleeping -and I didn't give up to give some of them a morning call and sms :p )

4. come early to the office (and that only means 5 minutes before the bell ring :p) to confirm about the salary cut (and of course nobody else had the same missing numbers)

--until finally somebody appear and claimed that I, and some other friends, made some mistake with some administrative things in the office (and of course they didn't try to warn us since we have too many things to do anyway -means: we'll never ever read their letters or emails,, and magically, we'll look for them when they took our money,, :p)

*so, at some point, especially not in the wonderland, money really is the quickest way to get everything done,,

dika
*masih sebal,,

The Forgotten World

2009-05-29T23:49:00.000+07:00

Cleaning my inbox and found the following email, before I got an instant smirk,,

Well,, I used to be like that,, once upon a time -the unrepeated era,, :p

Anyway, if you'd like to help, please feel free to read the following email (and do as she said) -dun worry, it's not a virus,, ;p

R, dika

----

*sent by Silvia Wolf, my Dutch acquittance*

Assalamu'alaikum semua,

Bayangkanlah kalau Anda adalah seorang vegetarian dan hidup di Belanda atau Indonesia. Tidak masalah kan? Ada banyak makanan veggie yang enak di semua toko2, ada resto2 vegetarian, dll.
Tapi bukannya begitu mudah di semua negeri. Misalnya kalau Anda hidup di Tunisia, Anda akan makan kacang2 saja. Nah, bukannya kacang tidak enak, tapi tidak enak lagi kalau Anda makan itu setiap hari.
Oleh karena itu, kami ingin memperkenalkan dan mendagang makanan vegetarian yang berbeda-beda di dunia Arab.

Namanya projek ini adalah 'Veggie in Arabia'. Dengan projek ini kami ikut pertandingan 'Voor de wereld van morgen'. (demi dunia masa depan)

Tujuannya bukan saja supaya orang Arab yang vegetarian bisa makan dengan warna-warni, tapi terutama untuk kemajuan dunia, untuk sedunia yang lebih adil.
Keadilan terhadap para hewan. Karena para hewan adalah korban benar industri daging ini.
Tapi juga untuk lingkungan. Yang sudah menonton filem ´Meat the Truth´akan mengerti maksud saya: industri daging adalah penyebab yang paling besar pemanasan bumi. (untuk info lebih lanjut: www.meatthetruth.nl).
Akhirnya juga untuk manusia sendiri. Karena industri daging menyebabkan kelaparan di dunia.

Selain memperkenalkan makanan vegetarian di dunia Arab (yang mulai di Tunisia tapi setelah itu bisa disebarkan ke negeri2 lain), kami juga akan bekerja sama dengan organisasi hak hewan Tunisia SOS Animaux (sosanimauxtunisie.org). Kami ingin menimbulkan kesadaran etika mengenai hak hewan. Kami akan menunjuk kepada syari'a Islam mengenai hak hewan, sesuatu yang sampai saat ini masih sering diabaikan dan tidak diketahui atau dibicarakan di masyarakat.

Tapi semua ini belum diwujudkan. Kami harus menang pertandingan 'Voor de wereld van morgen' dulu. Projek dengan jumlah suara pemilihan yang terbesar akan diberi 20 ribu euro untuk melakukan projeknya.

Karena itu kami meminta tolongan Anda. Gampang sekali untuk menolong kami. Untuk memilih projek ini, kunjungi saja website www.voordewereldvanmorgen.nl,
terus daftarkan diri untuk jadi anggota, begini:

1. klik 'word lid'

Terus mengisi:

1. gebruikersnaam (nama user)
2. wachtwoord (password)
3. password lagi, untuk menentukan
4. alamat email
5. alamat email lagi, untuk menentukan

Terus carilah projek 'Veggie in Arabia'. Ini akan ditemui di 'Ronde 2: aanpak'. Kalau sudah ditemui, klik 'stem'. Itu saja!

Anda bisa menolong lebih lagi dengan meneruskan email ini ke teman2 Anda.

Terima kasih banyak sebelumnya!!

Wassalam,

Eva Zsuzsanna Tuboly dan Silvia Wolf

Kemiskinan v.s. Pertumbuhan Penduduk

2008-12-10T23:37:00.003+07:00

Semakin miskin semakin tinggi laju pertumbuhan penduduk... -- iya ta? :p

Here is a quotation from the news:

Krisis ekonomi diyakini akan memengaruhi pertambahan jumlah penduduk. Penduduk yang menganggur cenderung membuat anak untuk dimanfaatkan guna mencari penghasilan di sektor informal.

*jadi 'membuat anak' (meminjam istilah Kompas :p) juga ada motif ekonominya ya? (interesting.. :p)

The Final Week

2008-12-08T11:09:00.002+07:00

Seven weeks went so fast this time. . :)

I was a bit scared in the beginning..

The point is, if you don't want to remember an event that bad, you don't even want to see anything related with it.. ;) -and of course, being in he head office just make every stupid-annoying memory flooding back into my head.. :p

...

After a while I realized that it's not that bad.. (I mean the head office)
It turned out to be exciting exploration about the cool building :p

I love the toilets (well, they are the best compared to most of the others.. :p)
I enjoy the religious discussions on Tuesdays..
I'm excited with the library's books (not that I have time to read them.. :p)
I fancy the singing contest in the auditorium..
I enjoy running for the bus (and of course spending my salary for the cab, alone.. :p)

And so,, there are lots of things that I didn't do in my previous session in the head office (enough to make me forget about the stupid-annoying memories.. :p)

...

now, now, enough for the mourning session. I'm planning to post about sinterklaas day. just check my other blog soon :)

It's Cured, Finally

2008-10-29T04:31:00.001+07:00

A bule (which happened to be upik's sweetheart) is trying to fix my laptop but end up killing it!! :D (I'm just reciting things that he said :p)

Fortunately it's fine now... :) -after two afternoons of locking myself in the office with a reason of writing the report (it's not lying, I can't write a report without my laptop anyway, so it needs to be fixed before I start writing :p)

The Agnostic Prince

2008-10-09T19:00:00.004+07:00

Bukan kewajiban kita memberi mereka hidayah. Allah lah yg memberi petunjuk. Tugas kita hanya menjadi bukti indahnya Islam & memberi manfaat sebesar-besarnya
Hikmah Surat Al Baqarah 272 oleh Aa' Gym

Guiding others are out of our responsibilities. Allah is The One who gives guidance. It is our role to prove the beauty of Islam and to give the maximum benefits for others
Wisdom of Surah Al Baqarah 272 by Aa' Gym

EXTRAORDINARY EVENING

Sore itu dika sedang iseng membuka friendster (iseng = mengetikkan 'sebuah nama' di kolom 'search' dan berharap sebuah 'profile' akan muncul).

Biasanya keisengan tersebut tidak akan membuahkan hasil yang positif (you know, a blank page with 'your search return zero result' thing.. :p), tapi sore itu memang luar biasa. Sebuah 'profile' muncul dengan indahnya.

Dika pun spontan 'mengganggu' seorang temannya di MSN.

Dia ada di friendster!! :D
Iya kok
Aku gak tau!!! :D
...

THE DISCOVERY

Ada di facebook juga kok dik
Wew, serius?!
Aku gak punya facebook.. :p
(membuka facebook di window lain, berkutat dengan facebook selama beberapa menit, dan kembali ke window chatting)
Kok ternyata aku udah pernah daftar facebook ya? :D
Lupa passwordnya deh.. :p
(mengisi beberapa elektronik form untuk mengganti password, meng-accept beberapa friend requests yg -somehow- sudah mengendap di situ, dan -kembali- mengetikkan sebuah nama di kolom search)
Wew! dia beneran ada lo ta! :D
Tapi profilenya gak keliatan ya? :p
...

HE IS ON-LINE?

Nanti aku add dia jadi friend-ku deh, biar kamu bisa liat dia pake ID ku
Dia udah approve friend request-ku kok.. :D
He? Kok bisa?
Berarti dia onlen donk? Bisa kamu ajak chatting tu dik!
Nope, it's an automatic approval
It's him after all, what an IT guy.. :)
(mencoba mencari setting untuk automatic approval, tapi ga nemu apa2 :D -probably only a person with great IT skill and unlimited cheap internet access is able to do so :D)

THE AGNOSTIC PRINCE

Dika kembali melanjutkan keisengannya dengan menelusuri halaman 'profile' yang baru saja bisa dibukanya. Meski semua informasi di situ bersifat umum (especially if -somehow- you just discover the on-line CV of that person), dika tak kuasa tersenyum saat melihat kolom 'religious view' di facebook (it's a western site and it still bothers about religious view,, awesome! :D). Dika pun segera meng-klik kolom tersebut.

Loading beberapa saat sebelum akhirnya dika bisa membaca tulisan 'agnostic' di sebelah kanan kolom 'religious view'

a few seconds pause,
a smile,
and a (bitter) realization,, *do'a dika belum terkabul.. :p

dika
*harus berdo'a lebih rutin.. :]

The Fifth of October

2008-10-07T21:52:00.007+07:00

Waktu menunjukkan beberapa menit menjelang pergantian hari. Gadis desa lugu imut telah berpamitan pada temannya yang menapanya lewat window chatting malam itu (ngajakin ketemuan di semarang, kota yg baru saja ditinggalkan si gadis desa beberapa jam sebelumnya :p)

Tiba2 sebuah window chatting muncul dengan ceria. An old blogger fellow. Dan dimulailah sebuah dialog panjang

Diawali dengan cerita soal google reader (dan plurk, dan facebook, dan.. :p)
Diikuti dengan jeda beberapa menit.
Dan diakhiri dengan sesi curhat oleh gadis desa lugu imut ( I think he was kind of trapped at that time, but I did ask if he was busy - he shouldn't blame me.. :p)

Sesi curhat berlangsung dengan cukup menarik (for once I could remember my graduation night peacefully; but I won't try to remember that night again, not in a shot term.. :p). Sebuah pertanyaan 'kurang penting' bahkan sempat muncul dengan indahnya:

Do you really have to emphasize that? *gadis desa lugu imut* :)) -the question
Iyaaaa!! Itu kan ikonnya dika :D -the answer (lebih gak penting lagi :p)

Dalam dialog selanjutnya, saat dika sedang bercerita tentang kekesalannya pada ketidakjujuran sorang oknum sebuah institusi, sebuah dialog 'gak penting' pun kembali muncul dengan riangnya:

*I was about to curse him
well, don't hesitate, go curse him now.. *jadi kodok*
:D (smiley ini dipakai agar kelihatan 'cool,' aslinya udah ketawa guling2 :p)
kasian anaknya: 'mama2, papa jadi kodoook' :D

Well, secara keseluruhan sesi curhat berhasil mencapai tujuannya dengan baik :) -setidaknya gadis desa lugu imut jaditahu bahwa 'keputusannya saat itu' cukup keren (considering the circumtances and the objective :D)

*I put five beads for the chat ;-)

...

Baiklah,
Doakan dika ya! (to achieve the dream within four years.. :] )

dika
pursuing the mid-term goal.. :]

P.S. the offer for the old (lovely) laptop is still valid. A comment in this blog (or in shoutbox) will do *preferably for jakarta resident :]

String and Beads, I have a necklace! :D

2008-10-07T17:52:00.003+07:00

Beberapa hari lalu dika baru saja selesai membaca sebuah artikel dari Reader's Digest (punya temen yg ketinggalan :p) tentang tips2 'to be happy.' Saat ini dika sedang mencoba untuk menerapkan salah satu di antaranya (yes, it's a little bit unusual for a cute-innocent-village-girl to do such thing, but the tip was quite interesting, so I am happily doing it :D)

Tips yang sedang dicoba diterapkan oleh dika adalah tips untuk mebanyangkan hal2 (atau kejadian2) positif di sekitar kita sebagai butiran manik2 yg kita rangkai dalam seuntai benang - it should help us to express our gratitude for all the good things around us.

So far, I've had a 'necklace' for each day (except on the 5th of October when I had two :D)

Yesterday, I was only able to complete my 'necklace' in the very end of the day (23.51 :p). I guess it taught me that all the good things will eventually happen, even when I have to wait till the very end.. :)

My Old (Lovely) Laptop

2008-10-06T15:30:00.000+07:00

After I left it on a hand of other for almost two months, I found it with few deep scratches on its cover..

I was upset in the beginning, for, even e careless person like me, was never able to result on such terrible damage to my laptop..

The feeling was loosen up a bit after I remember that the laptop is old anyway (and I've had a new one, of course), but I still feel sad, for not being able to protect it properly. (It's like giving a 'nice present' to my laptop after its long hard work for the past four years: projects, assignments, presentations, dissertations, and internships..)

Well, what happened, happened. I will never find an 'undo' button for that. It's more important to plan for the best use of the laptop now.. (maintaining two laptops is quite hard you know, updating the anti virus and all, and it will be a disrespect for the laptop to just make it lying around in one corner of my room :p)

It has pentium 4 processor with original XP (and of course few deep scratches in the chasing). You may contact me if you're interested ;-)

dika
P.S. I'm not (too) upset anymore, but my old policy still prevail - I'm dika after all.. :p

The Other Eid Festival

2008-10-01T22:48:00.000+07:00

Finally, gadis desa lugu imut, a.k.a dika mengucapkan:

Selamat Lebaraaaan!!! :D

Mohon Maaf lahir dan batin yak!! :D

Hummm, it didn't have any noise in the morning anymore,

didn't (and couldn't) have any panicking phone calls in the preceding night,

didn't have any discussion about the route to the Eid Morning Prayer,

and didn't have any usual 'foreigner commotion' either..

But it's still beautiful..

It will always be.. :)

Another Weekend

2008-09-20T17:04:00.002+07:00

Berencana nyari kado buat bulan, tapi akhirnya dibatalkan dengan sebuah sms yang ditulis sambil nyengir2 :p (How about I transfer the money directly to your account? you could choose the shoes without me anyway.. :D)

Well, itulah kerennya kami: menyisakan budaya perantau di negri sendiri (jumawa mode ON)

Bukan berarti dika kurang romantis... (kalo dipikir-pikir iya juga si, mana ada mau ngado tapi suruh beli sendiri, but we did that ALL THE TIME :p), tapi repot aja suruh mikir kado sendirian.

It used to be the three of us..
And it used to be several weeks of preparations..
*and of course I miss you all, what do you expect? ;)
...

Akhirnya, weekend kali ini pun berlalu seperti biasa:

dengan heboh-heboh mati lampu khas jakarta -sub khas sebelah monas, sub sub khas belakang indosat :p
dengan ribut-ribut proyek translation dengan subyek antah berantah -but the money is good :D
dan heboh-heboh lain tentang hal yg gak jelas ujung pangkalnya -get well soon boy.. :)

My New Feed Reader

2008-09-12T04:54:00.003+07:00

It's started few years back (even before I did my internship) when I first heard about RSS from a friend.

He was very enthusiast in explaining what RSS is (including a bit of elaboration on feedburner)

I was reading his explanation but didn't have a clue about his topic (even until now :p -- I finally gave up and conclude that RSS is 'just' an update grabber and feedburner is a tool to make RSS could be read easily-- the rest was really a bit too complicated for me to understand.. :p)

...

Few days ago, I finally had to come across the RSS business again...

Kinja (my beloved feed reader for blogs) has been closed for about few months, and few days ago was the moment when I started to feel bothered by the needs to click all my favorite sites to get the update

To put it simply, I decided to re-define my old google reader page.

It was quite cool, although the set up was a bit of hassle (it would always add the 10 latest post of our new site subscription on top of the reader list -- made me lost track of the time sequence in the beginning..; but it should be fine once all the sites are subscribed :D)

One cool thing is (thing which make google reader cooler than kinja): it could be viewed in email as well as published page format :D

Well, I guess I have to send another big applause for google ;)

A New Car to Be

2008-09-07T13:14:00.001+07:00

got a simultaneous sms from my parent saying that they are going to buy (me) a car (it's supposed to be for me since no one else in the house insist to have a 'small' car - and currently they are planning to buy a small one..)

it wasn't that shocking since I was just wondering, few days ago, about the evergreen car in the house (it hasn't change from the last three years, while, usually, my dad will switch our car every two years or so..)

it wasn't that shocking but it made me so damn sad..

*humm.., if only I had that much money... :p

dika
*so I called my fairy god mother again (sorry for calling you twice today.. :p) -and finally, FINALLY!! It (the fairy god mother) didn't notice that I was crying (or at least it didn't mention it.. :p)

KPU: Taman Bermain Baru

2008-09-06T10:20:00.000+07:00

Telah dibuka: KPU, Taman bermain baru di Indonesia!!! *suara lonceng peresmian nyaring berbunyi*

Wew, yes, sebel juga baca berita di koran (dan diteruskan di internet) baru-baru ini (iya, puasa harusnya gak boleh sebel :p)

But, mereka itu (baca: KPU), doh, bener2 bikin speechless...

topik utamanya: mereka pengen kunjungan ke luar negri buat sosialisasi pemilu

justifikasinya (menurut Bapak Yang Terhormat Andi Nurpati Burhanudin) adalah untuk melantik pejabat pemilihan umum di luar negri (padahal dua hari sebelumnya, ditulisnya mereka mau ke luar negri karena menganggap sosialisasi pemilu itu penting)

Menurut Jusuf Kalla: "...supervisi dan sosialisasi aturan pemilu ke luar negeri memang penting. ...(namun) sebaiknya ke negara-negara yang jumlah warga Indonesia-nya besar."

Trus ada lagi bapak2 DPR kita yg bilang bahwa kunjungan ke luar boleh2 aja, toh ada anggarannya (halooo, what kind of opinion is that? It's a country!! Not a business!!! you cannot just run away to another country, doing some unimportant stuff while your public is suffering from a double digit inflation!!! -- lama2 kok indonesia jadi kayak nerapin strategic business unit aja.. *huh*)

Trus ada lagi bapak2 DPR lain yg bilang bahwa "anggota KPU (yang) tak ke luar negri (cuma) cari popularitas" (baca: klo ada anggota KPU yang menolak keputusan untuk ke luar negri, itu berarti cuma dilakukan untuk mendapatkan popularitas) (and yes, I was so totally confuse with his opinion: why on earth disagreeing with something stupid should be viewed as something negative?!?!)

So, now, do I need to write about my opinion? (no, no, sure it's not necessary, since you are my loyal reader - and know well what would I say about the matter.. :p)

dika
*ya Allah, berikanlah hidayah kepada para pemimpin kami,, amin.. :D

Freedom of Speech

2008-08-09T19:19:00.003+07:00

I watched this video yesterday, during the bourse game (it means something like 'stock market simulation,' I don't know why people give such a difficult name to it :p), and it was a cool video (have to admit that the US is cooler than us in some aspects - they don't arrest the creator of this video, see? :p)

It's a bit old video, but it's still so cool :D Basically it is a joke about the new Chairman of the Fed (US' Central Bank). Some of the text would probably confusing for some of you, but it's basically just making fun of the man :p (and it's so cool!!! they really are doing a good job in creating the video and all!!)

Enjoy!

*btw, I dunno what happen with keepvid, but I could not download the video from youtube anymore T_T (not without the yellow watter mark in the middle!!), any suggestion?

About Anand Khrisna (and His Writing)

2008-08-03T01:27:00.002+07:00

His name popped up this evening when I was trying to finish up my new blog. The name sounds familiar and the title of his article was quite interesting.

After few minutes of reading (on his article and his blog), I instantly got an impression that he had a negative (and misleading) opinion about islam (I said islam because he could clearly define the differences between islam and moslems).

Whatever he wrote about islam and whatever I disagree about it, won't be discussed in this blog, I'll discuss it in my other blog, the one for specific audiences. However, I'm a little bit puzzled seeing people's (some group of the moslems) calm reaction after reading his writing.

On the contrary, the same group of people are doing many unreasonable things after watching Fitna (not that I ask them to be violent, since, to be honest, I still prefer the calm one ^^).

It's just the same confusion that I got when all people (plus the government) keep calm after the launch of 'the submission' (and her book, with a full page review in Kompas!! a nation-wide newspaper!!! how could the government tried to ban blogger because of Fitna but allow her to 'promote' her book in Kompas?!?! - not to mention her nomination for a nobel prize winner as a peace keeper!!- she was quite peaceful in causing a person to death and some unnecessary conflicts between moslems and non moslems in NL,,) while they are (again) doing many unreasonable things after watching Fitna (which is, as far as I knew, was way friendlier than her movie).

Back to Anand Khrisna,

Having said that I have a disagreement with his view about islam, I still agree with his opinion about Indonesia's independence: Independence is a psychological issue (which is different from, or irrelevant with, other economic and social issues)*

*taken from Jakarta Post, 2 Aug 2008

PS. I'm a bit lazy to update the html, so any link in this post won't be opened in a new window

It's Almost Weekend

2008-07-31T23:17:00.004+07:00

It's been a while since I heard that phrase in the morning (just exactly after after I enter the office and greet people with 'hello xxx, how are you?' thing)

People in here, the same as me, are not as excited as European people in terms of weekend, which is quite helpful sometimes (I just felt uneasy for every 'blank-stare' that I gave when my old colleagues asked me about my weekend, either the plan nor the activity :p)

So I'm finally free from the classic European politeness... (that's how we called it back then: basa-basinya orang eropah -yang bikin bingung dan kurang kreatip karena diulang mulu tiap minggu- :p) - and I miss them..

*not talking about the weekends probably means that Indonesians have more topics to bother with (well, yes, something like bank robbery, or electricity saving, or flood, or delicious foods, or this, or that... :p)

-image is taken from Corbis

Rainbow Flag at Cafes

2008-07-21T19:44:00.005+07:00

So then, I finally know that making a brand new hardware to work properly needs more than a patient here.. (and I've spent lots of money to buy the hardware too!! curse them..)

But well, it's not a story about the hardware, it's a story about the rainbow flag. Yup! a flag, with a rainbow color *berubah menjadi ceria :D

...

Cerita dimulai saat dika ikut outbound beberapa hari yang lalu.

Setelah beberapa menit pertama dilalui dengan perkenalan ~~basa-basi~~ khas indo dengan menyebutkan nama, fakultas, dan universitas (which makes things hard for me to be invisible, and yeah, currently I DO want to be invisible!!); mulailah orang-orang mengajak dika ngobrol tentang hal-hal standard seperti bagaimana kuliah 'di sana,' atau hidup 'di sana', atau red light 'di sana,' atau kenapa gak kerja 'di sana,' hingga akhirnya sampailah kepada topik:

kafe2 dengan tanda berwarna pelangi 'di sana'

Reaksi pertama tentu saja mengerutkan dahi dan bertanya balik 'apaan tuh?'

I got a simple answer from them (and you could find a nice one in wikipedia as well), but still don't get it..

'why do they have to put such a sign in a cafe?' (in Amsterdam?! It's Amsterdam, see??)

Intinya, dika pun di klaim sebagai anak-yang-kuliah-mulu-tanpa-pernah-maen-ke-kafe2 (thing which made me upset like hell, but, nevermind, half of it was right anyway.. --why should we bother to visit a cafe when we could make a perfectly same coffee with less cost at home? :p)

Akhirnya, begitu balik dari outbound, dika menanyakan kepada beberapa teman mengenai keberadaan cafe berpelangi

'gak ada ah, anak2 yg gak pernah hidup di luar tu emang biasanya suka sok tau sendiri' -said one of them
'apa tu dik?' -said the other, dan
'gak pernah liat ah,' claimed the last one

dan ditambahi dengan 'emangnya yg pernah hidup 'di sana' tu siapa? biarin aja mereka ngeyel, kan kita lebih tau - suatu pendapat yg segera dika iyakan tanpa pikir panjang :p

but then.., setelah meminta bantuan pada om google, I got a surprising reply: there are, indeed, lots of cafes with rainbow flags in Amsterdam (wew, speechless, ndongkol ;p)

here are some examples..

Humm.., probably we were just walking too fast back then.. :p (but I'm not totally wrong!! those cafes are for common people as well!! (see the reviews! you must google it yourselves :p) it's Amsterdam after all?! Amsterdam!!! It's a completely liberal city in that aspect ;p)

New Generation of Token

2008-07-14T01:59:00.003+07:00

Barusan baca berita soal token yang bisa identifikasi sidik jari;

So Cool!!!

Well, sebelumnya, in case ada yang belum tau, apakah token itu? -token adalah alat buat login ke internet Banking

*yang warna ijo kayak punya abn amro.nl itu? iya (dan saya lupa biasanya kita sebut apa, klo gak salah kita sebut dengan 'alat untuk internet banking' ya?
*yang bisa dimasukin kartu atm kita kan? bener (angguk2)

*yang bentuknya agak lonjong kecil dan warnanya macem2 kayak punya bank mandiri itu? iya
*tapi dia gak bisa dimasukin kartu atm kita kan? butul (angguk2)

Intinya, saat ini beberapa perusahaan sedang mengembangkan token yang bisa mengidentifikasi sidik jari. Hebatnya lagi, token model baru ini juga didesain untuk mendeteksi 'sidik jari yang panik' (in case ada orang yang maksa kita buat menggesekkan sidik jari kita demi mendapatkan nomer PIN untuk transaksi perbankan). Dan tentu saja, in case ada orang yang berusaha memotong jari kita demi mendapatkan sang sidik jari, token itu juga didesain untuk 'membaca' sirkulasi darah di jari kita.

Hoooo, not bad, not bad, tapi semoga saja biaya administrasi-nya gak jadi naik gara2 penerapan token canggih itu ^^;;

*read the full story here or here

The Outbound

2008-07-11T23:27:00.000+07:00

Wew, makanan apakah itu? (menunjuk kata 'outbound')

Menurut om google, outbound bisa berarti 'going out or leaving; like in "the departing train"; or "an outward journey"; and "outward-bound ships" '

Sedangkan menurut dika, (pada awalnya), outbound berarti kegiatan ribut2 yang dilaksanakan di daerah pegunungan dengan tujuan membangun kebersamaan tim (yang entah apa definisinya --> menunjuk kata 'tim,' mengingat kami toh tidak akan bekerja bersama-sama dengan tim yang sekarang --> baca: 'tim yang sekarang' nantinya akan ditaburkan di seluruh pelosok nusantara, see?)

So well, I didn't expect that much, really.. :p

Tapi..., setelah dika ikut berputar-putar selama empat hari (dan ikut teriak-teriak gak jelas --> baca: menghayati situasi dan kondisi :p), I think that outbound has turned out to be the precious four days in my life. Bravo buat vendor-nya!!!! You guys are sooooooo cool!!

I have to admit that I wasn't the most cheerful participant during those four days, more like getting the 'dika, jangan manyun terus donk' for every other hours, but I guess that was because 'manyun' is my natural expression (not that I did that intentionally.. :p)

So then, I'm sending a Big applause for the event organizer. I owe you guys A LOT. Wish that I'll be there again.. :)

P.S. this post is just a prologue ;)

The Money and The Laptop

2008-07-05T22:01:00.000+07:00

Hooooo, akhirnya uang dika ketemuuuu!!!!! Big applause for ABN Amro.nl!!! :D

...

'Aku nadzar buat beli laptop baru bul'
'he?'
'Iya, kalo uangnya ketemu, aku mau beli laptop baru'
'Kamu nadzar buat dirimu sendiri?'
'Iya (cengir) :D'

Ho ho ho, jadi syukurlah sekarang uangnya udah ketemu :D (big grin)

...

Cerita diawali ketika beberapa minggu yang lalu dika mencoba untuk login ke abnamro.nl

first trial: gagal,

second trial: sadar bahwa access code yang dimasukkan salah, mengganti access code, dan... gagal

third trial: memelototi angka nomer rekening dan access code sa-tu-per-sa-tu, dan... gagal

fourth trial: mulai panik dan tetap gagal

Akhirnya dika memutuskan untuk mengirim email menggunakan form yang disediakan di halaman 'contact us' (well, this is a little suggestion for them: you are a bank which operates in a country in which 70% of its citizen has an access to an internet - a good internet connection, a REAl one; you should consider putting your e-mail address somewhere in your website, not only your phone: international call are so damn expensive, and there is a country where people cannot get an easy access to make a collect call!!). Membutuhkan waktu dua hari untuk mendapatkan jawaban yang intinya: 'ya iyalah kamu gak bisa login, lha rekeningmu udah ditutup'

Sang gadis desa pun menjadi panik kuadrat:

Kok ditutup?

Kapan ditutup?

Cara liat rekening korannya gimana??

Sisa uangnya ke mana??

And well, yes, yes, itu bukan panik kuadrat, tapi panik pangkat empat, habis masih ada sisa uang yang lumayan (dan well, I'm working in a bank, so I know exactly what sort of thing that could happen when you lost your account and you lost of track of the money within)

Dan akhirnya.., setelah men-spam mereka dengan mengisi 'contact form' tiap dua hari sekali, dika akhirnya memutuskan untuk menelpon mereka (bukan, bukan dika lagi kaya, tapi karena setelah dihitung, ongkos telpon -yang mahal itu- masih lebih kecil daripada jumlah uang yang hilang :p)

Dan, eng ing eeeeengg......., ternyata si banknya telah mencoba menjawab pertanyaan2 dika dengan menggunakan surat (iya, surat manual, yang kadang2 diilangin oleh si pak pos yang budiman)

Sampai akhirnya dika mendapat sms bahwa uang dika telah selamat sampai di tujuan.

...

That's not all, that's not all!!

Setelah uangnya ketemu, masalah pun berganti menjadi: bagaimanakah cara beli laptop di sini? (pertanyaan ini dilontarkan oleh seorang gadis desa lugu imut yang sudah keseringan baca -dan dengar- berita soal penipuan di toko2 elektronik indonesia, jadi harap maklum :p). Dan dika pun mulai me-list daftar2 sukarelawan yang mengerti mengenai pertokoan di jakarta untuk mengantar dika membeli laptop baru (la la laaa)

Humm.., I'm missing media markt.. (and marktplats.nl, and dell.nl, and mycom..)

P.S. soal kenapa dika harus beli laptop baru tidak perlu diceritakan, tabu, tabu, tabu :p

The Weddings

2008-07-04T21:49:00.000+07:00

Heran deh ih sama anak2 belanda itu (baca: anak2 indonesia yang kulaiah di belanda dan akhirnya dapat kerja di belanda): kenapa pada milih weekdays buat ngelangsungin akad nikahnya si?

Well, yes, of course. Mereka bisa ambil cuti sehari untuk tiap dua minggu hari kerja mereka , tapi kan para pekerja di indonesia gak boleh ambil cuti kalo belom kerja setahuuuuuunnnn!!!!! (and in my case, I have to work for two -bloody- years before I could take a day off! - so, my old lovely company looks like an angel compared to the current one :p)

Well, ya sudah, ya sudah, tinggal gak usah dateng ke akad nikahnya, gitu aja kok repot.. (bersiap menyusun kata2 bernada protes, but well, what could I do? hanya sekedar gadis desa lugu imut :p)

And see? saking seringnya orang diundang ke acara kawinan di indonesia, temen saya cuma sekedar bilang: halah, cuma nikahan ini, gak usah dateng kan gakpapa. (what?! you don't, you NEVER, say that in NL, for not every one will be invited to the wedding, not even the colleagues in your verysame department;* but well, I'm not there anymore.. -gain a sudden consiousness :p)

Kadang, sesuatu yang terlalu sering jadi mengurangi maknanya... ;)

*of course they are not being invited, the attendant in the ceremony are probably only about 50 people, including the kids and the grannies :p (the ceremony = akad nikah, fyi)