A Brief Talk About Work

http://chrispiascik.com/daily-drawings/work/

When you get a job, you'll love it or either way you'll hate it. Working is not only about the job itself but also the people who will be your partner, your boss, your friend, and "your enemy".

I've been working for more than two years after I completed my bachelor degree. Before that, I did an internship in a government institution when I was still in college. I felt excited when it was my first day of work. It's like wow cool I got a job...I'm not a kid anymore...I could earn my own money...yeah.

That's what all I thought at first. But then it changed.

You are lucky when you get a job that is really your passion. I think that's the first thing to be considered when looking for a job. The next thing is, of course, salary. We can't deny that we need money. We do need money. However, my suggestion is never get too obsessed with money or you'll regret it someday. To me, there's another thing that matter more than any aspect of my job. That is working environment.

Wherever you are, you feel comfortable when you're surrounded by people who you like, people who have the same way of thinking with yours. The fact is there must be at least one person, any person, who makes you annoyed, feel irritated, or feel intimidated at worst, but that won't matter if you don't talk or interact with him/her frequently. So just don't care about that kind of person. None of your business.

The big problem is when that 'annoying person' is in the same department or even the same cubicle with you. The bigger problem is when that 'annoying person' is your own boss. Well, it depends on your luck haha.

The 'annoying' term here refers to something that makes you feel like you want to resign from your job. Something that affect your work directly. It's not a personal matter. It's a professional matter.

You'll probably meet someone who claim all of your works as his/hers, keep blaming you when something wrong happens, or tell your boss any non-sense thing about you. Some of my friends had been there, facing that hard situation, then they wanted to resign.

Well, actually you have to be strong on dealing with that kind of person. Don't let them scare you, don't let them to stop you to reach you success (what?). The most important is you have to prove them that you are not weak, that you are bulletproof!

Basically, wherever your work place is, there will be something that make you uncomfortable, make you bored, make you want to move out. The thing is how you deal with the situation. Self-control is also really important to keep your working stability and consistency.

Naturally, humans will never feel satisfied enough on anything. They always want more and more.

So, never forget to be grateful of what you have now. It's good to make improvement but don't let your ambition and ego kills you in the end. 

How I become a Reader

I wasn't a reading person. I mean reading books. I thought reading was boring, I prefer comic tho but still I didn't really get into it. I used to like watching more than reading, I love visualization! But everything has changed since I graduated and got a job. I started to realize that reading is a real fun. I bought some books and read all of them and it begun to be addictive. It might be because I chose the right books, they are really in my cup of tea.

I prefer to buy pocket size so that I can bring it anywhere. I don't know if people look at me weird or not but I used to read book inside the train, which is not really common in my country. When you do that it seems like people would judge you as either a genius or a nerd (I guess the second one suits me better). You have to look around before you decide to open your book inside the train, most times the loads are crazy, there's too many passengers that it's even hard to move your legs. Holding your phone is the least you can do. That's why I feel the need to install e-book reader application on my smartphones. Killing the boredom yeah.

What I love most about reading is the feeling of adventuring someone else's mind, someone else's imagination. If you feel your life is boring then try reading! By reading you can rearrange your goals in life, try new things, experience great things you've never imagined before. Reading is like finding my true self, my interests, my passion, and the first of all is Learning. It's like giving courses to my brain to improve its functionality and ability.

Nowadays physical book is not as popular as it was. We know that since PC, tablet, and now smartphone have been widely popular, people start to move to e-book, electronic book. We can buy e-book on Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, and so on. The lovely thing about e-book is we can bring thousands of books in one gadget, or cloud, you name it, you can bring as much as you want. It also encourages us to reduce paper usage, regarding to save our environment, to keep our earth safe. However, physical book seems still promising for some book readers, book lovers, because the feeling of reading physical book is always different and I always want to fill up my bookshelf in my bedroom with it lol. Beside reading e-book makes my eyes hurt, sometimes. 

Become a reader is not a hard job. You don't have to buy books in a bookstore. You can go to library, you can borrow from your friends. But if you're a hardcore or a fan, I know your feeling when you're in a bookstore and you can't resist to buy books as much as you can. It's hard to deny. Sometimes I'd better spend my money to buy books than clothes, even when you actually still have a very-long list of books to-read in your bookshelf. (Anyone with me? High five, fellas!)

If you're going to buy books, I have some tips. I always get book recommendation from my friend or a website called Goodreads. Goodreads is a place where book readers all around the world share their book reviews and rating, and list of books they have read. Book authors can also create their own page, and we as a reader can follow them or add them as friends (if you're lucky enough). So, back again, before I go to the bookstore, I usually check Goodreads to see the rating and review of the books that I'm going to buy. If the rating is not good enough, then I'll consider it once more. If you don't have any idea of what book you should buy, Goodreads provides a section where you can find current popular books based on users' rating and reviews. Another simpler way, find any interesting book that catch your eyes. Sometimes I can fall in love in a book just by its cover, the design, the color. It's weirdly working for me. "Don't look the book by its cover" doesn't really do it for me. Lol.

Now move to the next step, go to a bookstore. Go to the best bookstore in your town, choose the one that offer the best price, this is the most important of all. When comparing book prices, it's actually easier when you do it online. Now almost all bookstores have their own online stores so we don't have to move anywhere to compare the prices. This one really works for my in my purchasing-book experiences. Some stores provide bargain books with far-much-cheaper price. I find a bookstore provide this ones and the book condition is still good and wort it to buy. Remember, I still have to save money. And imported books are always more expensive than local books. I always face the dilemma when I want to buy them. If I'm patient enough, I'd wait for the translated edition.

So, that's it. I've shared my experiences as a reader. Reading is so much fun, trust me. You can explore the world without actually exploring it. If you know what I mean.

When you have to........

Do you ever feel like you really want to do something but you got that big space of doubt inside your mind like everything in this world seems unclear and uncertain and blurry?
Not sure for taking any decision, not sure for any.....thing.

I want to vomit in all of sudden.
That's the worst thing ever happened in my life.

Life is full of confusion. When you're going to take the biggest step in your life, you have to deal with a bunch of thinking, a bunch of consideration,

what about your parents?

what about your friends?

what about your job?

are you sure? 

Man, that's so frustrating.

This is my life, I have my own choice. Why on earth should I care about others?

No, no, no. I know it shouldn't be that way. I'm not alone, I'm not living alone. I have my parents, I have my friends, I have my colleagues, I have my neighbors. As human, the main point of our social interaction is giving feedback to each other, that's what we have to do to stay alive.
We are not supposed to be selfish, right?

Menikmati Masa Tua

Wait, it's not about me, of course. Saya hanya ingin berbagi cerita tentang seorang bapak yang saya temui di bus saat perjalanan saya ke Jakarta dua minggu yang lalu. Beliau duduk di samping saya. Karena kondisi arus balik yang sangat padat hingga macet berjam jam, kami sempat mengobrol cukup banyak.

Beliau asli dari Purbalingga, namun sudah menetap di Bekasi sejak lebih dari 30 tahun yang lalu. Beliau merantau demi mendapat pekerjaan di Jakarta. Kalem, baik, ramah, itulah kesan yang saya dapat dari sosok beliau.

Sebelumnya si bapak bekerja di salah satu perusahaan soft drink ternama di Jakarta. Beliau mengatakan, "Saya ambil pensiun lebih cepat Mbak." Jabatan terakhir yang dipegang oleh beliau adalah supervisor di bagian Sales & Marketing.

Awalnya beliau bekerja sebagai helper. Helper adalah asisten dari salesman. Beliau cukup lama bekerja pada posisi tersebut. Tugas helper adalah membantu salesman untuk mengangkut atau mengeluarkan rak rak botol minuman dari atau ke mobil box pengangkut barang. Ya intinya mah bantu bantu apa aja, namanya juga helper hehe. Tapi jangan salah, tes untuk menjadi helper ternyata tidak mudah karena helper harus memiliki ketahanan fisik yang kuat.

Setelah beberapa tahun bertugas sebagai helper, beliau naik jabatan menjadi salesman. Sebenarnya tugas salesman  tidak lebih ringan dari helper. Untuk mengirim produk ke toko toko atau warung, salesman dan helper pergi keliling menggunakan mobil box atau pick up. Nah, tugas salesman adalah menyetir, menawarkan produk, mencatat, ya pokoknya semua mua dia yang urus. Sehingga salah satu persyaratan menjadi salesman adalah mempunyai SIM A.

Saat diangkat menjadi supervisor, beliau membawahi empat orang salesman. Katanya jadi supervisor itu ribet, apalagi kalau harus menghadapi anak buah yang "bandel".

Dari awal merantau ke Jakarta, beliau tidak pernah keluar dari perusahaan tersebut. Bayangkan berapa lama beliau bertahan, dari seorang helper sampai menjadi seorang supervisor.

"Tadinya saya sudah mau diangkat jadi manager tapi saya tolak, mending pensiun saja...."

NAH. Saya sempat kaget dan heran.

"Lho Pak, bukannya itu kesempatan besar? Kenapa tidak diambil?"

"Tanggung jawabnya besar Mbak, jadi supervisor aja saya udah pusing, repot, kewalahan..."

Saya mencoba berpikir positif, mungkin beliau memang ingin menikmati masa tuanya mengingat usianya yang sudah tidak muda.

"Sekarang saya jadi sopir pribadi Mbak, nganterin anak sekolah. Sebelumnya, setelah pensiun, saya pernah nyoba jadi sopir taksi."

NAH. Saya sontak kaget lagi. Bapak ini sudah pensiun, sudah dapat pesangon yang jumlahnya lumayan juga, kok masih nyari kerja??

"Walaupun sudah tua, saya nggak bisa diem Mbak orangnya. Kalo nggak ngapa-ngapain malah jadi capek, ntar malah jadi penyakit... Ya Alhamdulillah sekarang kerjanya juga nyantai, rumah majikan saya deket banget sama rumah."

Subhanallah.. Beliau yang sudah usia lanjut saja masih semangat bekerja, saya yang masih muda gini kadang masih suka males-malesan hehehe.

Begitulah cara beliau menikmati masa tuanya, menjadi sopir pribadi. Anaknya yang terakhir masih berada di bangku SMA kelas 3. Beliau mengatakan bahwa anak tersebut sangat pandai, rangking 1 di kelas. Biaya sekolahnya ditutup dengan dana beasiswa, beliau tidak perlu pusing-pusing memikirkan biaya sekolah. Terlihat wajah berseri beliau, pasti beliau sangat bangga dengan anaknya. Beliau berharap kelak anaknya mendapatkan beasiswa untuk mengambil pendidikan di perguruan tinggi. 

Selama mengobrol dengan beliau, saya belajar banyak hal. Hidup itu nggak usah dibikin susah, asal kita menikmatinya dengan ikhlas, mengerjakan sesuatu yang memang kita senangi, tapi yang paling penting harus tetap bertanggung jawab pada diri sendiri, orang tua, keluarga, teman, dan orang-orang sekitar. Materi atau uang bukanlah tolak ukur kebahagiaan yang bisa kita dapatkan, melainkan bagaimana kita menjalani hidup dengan cara yang kita senangi.

Pengen kaya? Boleh.

Hidup nyaman dan bahagia? Harus!

Just do what you love and enjoy the life ♥

[BOOK] STEVE JOBS

Steve Jobs. Who doesn't know him? Father of invention. He is big. He is genius.  

I was a computer science student and I have worked as a programmer for a half year. I am an IT person. Wow. Haha. It would be funny if I don't know the man who invented computer and all of its derived devices I have been using until now. To be honest, as a dumb student, I thought Bill Gates were the first man who invented computer. God, microsoft had definitely blown my mind up haha. Yea, the first computer I knew was a windows based computer, and my current computer is also using windows. Well.....

What I knew about Steve Jobs was he is the founder of Apple Inc. I didn't know if he is the man who invented the first computer with GUI even before Bill  Gates. Then my college friend gave me a copy of a movie titled "Pirates of Silicon Valley". It turned out that he is not an ordinary man. He invented everything related to all computers and gadgets we are all using now.

This book tells us all about Steve Jobs from he was born until he became one of the most influential people in the world. It took me three months to finish this book. It's clearly obvious because it is an english book with more than 600 pages inside it and english is not my common language as well. I had tried hard, fellas. But thank God I love the way Walter Isaacson wrote the book. I could easily understand paragraph by paragraph. You know sometimes reading a biography book is boring, right? Isaacson has proved it wrong! 

I won't write the review or resume or whatever because I believe there are already thousands of articles talking about him, completely. Here,  I just want to share some interesting points I got from this book. 

Steve Jobs was a genius, but had bad temper.

It can't be denied. Since he was a child he had learned about electronics from his father. His father gave him a 'working table' therefore he could learn anything he want using some little equipments. He was a curious boy. He also had a high sense of design and art. He knew how to turn simplicity into something elegant and fancy. But badly, it turned him into a bloody perfectionist person. The impact was when he led Apple, everytime his employees couldn't fulfill his expectations of making a product, he would shout to them in a very annoying way, or he could fire his employees right at the moment. I can't imagine if my boss were like him, I'd better resign soon LOL.

That's a complete apple!

Details are everything.

When his company was making a product, he had to know every part, every tiny part of it. Each part must be perfect. If he said the color is not match then the product wouldn't be released. That's what makes his products are all amazing. He didn't think about money, he just wanted to make good and powerful products.

He was handsome, wasn't he? haha

Father of innovation.

Machintosh?

iPod?

iPhone?

iPad?

iTunes?

He brought everything that seemed not possible to reality. 

I don't need more words.

Steve Jobs with iPad

Oh yes, don't forget PIXAR.

He was also the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. He's one of the founders, along with Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter. Toy Story was their first animation movie, one of the most successful animation movies of all time. Then it followed by another great movies like Finding Nemo, Monster Inc, The Incredible, Cars, Wall E, Up, Monster University, with all great success. 

Edwin Catmull, Steve Jobs, John Lasseter

I do admire Steve Jobs. He was genius. He knew what people need. He knew what was gonna be hits. The world of technology would be nothing without him.

Everything happened for a reason, a good reason, or even some good reasons.

Hari Jumat ini merupakan hari libur yakni untuk memperingati Good Friday atau Paskah.

Hari Jumat ini merupakan hari seharusnya ada di rumah, di kampung halaman, Purwokerto.

Hari Jumat ini merupakan hari di mana saya tersadar kalau pagi ini saya masih terbangun di Bogor.

Kecewa? Sedih? Wajar, itu sudah pasti. Bayangkan saja saya belum pulang ke rumah berbulan bulan, terakhir bulan Agustus tahun kemarin, hiks. Seharusnya semalam saya naik kereta Serayu Malam bersama sahabat saya, Hanna. Namun sepertinya Allah berkehendak lain. Hanya Hanna yang naik kereta tersebut.

Semua berawal dari kemacetan Jl. MH Thamrin. Selesai shalat Maghrib, saya bersama sahabat saya, Bimo, pulang dari kantor. Saat melewati jembatan penyebrangan HI, kami berdua ternganga. Macetnya luar biasa, hampir tidak ada pergerakan sama sekali. Pemandangan saat itu lebih mirip jalan raya yang disulap menjadi area parkir gratis. Kami tadinya berniat untuk naik kopaja ke Stasiun Sudirman, namun pemandangan luar biasa dari ujung thamrin sampai ujung jalan menuju Sudirman membuat kami memutuskan untuk menuju arah sebaliknya, arah ke Stasiun Tanah Abang. Kebetulan kondisi jalur menuju Tanah Abang terlihat lancar.

Namun, kami kembali ternganga (ini bahasa dari mana sih 'ternganga' haha). Baru beberapa saat kopaja kami melaju, pemandangan 'luar biasa' yang sama terlihat dari sebelum halte Sarinah sampai ujung perempatan. Oh God. Saat itu saya masih santai karena waktu masih menunjukan pukul 18 30. Kereta Serayu berangkat pukul 20 36. Selow...

Baru kali ini saya merasakan Jakarta macet luar biasa, sebelumnya macetnya biasa aja. Serius deh. Karena kami tidak tahan dengan macet yang super duper tidak manusiawi, akhirnya kami jalan kaki. Iya jalan kaki. Kami pun sampai di Stasiun Tanah Abang pukul 19 30. Sesampainya di sana ternyata kereta jurusan Stasiun Jakarta Kota berikutnya datang pukul 20 18. Yassalam itu sudah pasti saya bakal ketinggalan kereta Serayu. Untungnya Bimo langsung dapat kereta arah Serpong. Tidak lama kemudian kereta jurusan Stasiun Manggarai datang. Saya memutuskan untuk naik kereta tersebut. Namun, entah kenapa kereta yang saya tumpangi sempat tertahan hampir 10 menit saat akan masuk Stasiun Manggarai. Saya mulai was was. 

Di Stasiun Manggarai saya masih harus menunggu kereta tujuan Stasiun Jakarta Kota. Pukul 20 00 saya berangkat dari Stasiun Manggarai. Saya sudah yakin bahwa saya bisa mengejar kereta Serayu. Namun lagi lagi saya diuji, kereta tertahan lagi saat akan masuk ke stasiun Juanda. Saat itu saya sudah pasrah "Ya Allah apapun kehendakmu, hamba pasrah... Namun sesungguhnya hamba ingin sekali pulang ke rumah". Saya mengirim wassap  ke Hanna, menanyakan apakah keretanya sudah mau berangkat atau belum. Sesampainya kereta saya di Stasiun Jayakarta (satu stasiun sebelum Jakarta Kota) Hanna memberi tahu saya bahwa kereta sudah berangkat. Saya langsung...............lemes. Saya mulai merasakan ada liquid menggenang di ujung mata, namun saya berusaha untuk menahannya karena tidak mungkin saya tiba tiba nangis di depan para penumpang lain.

Kebetulan sahabat sahabat saya yang lain sedang meet up di Stasiun Jakarta Kota. Saya langsung menemui mereka, baru deh saya bisa menangis •.• Beruntung sekali saat itu ada mereka, Iis, Nurul, Aziz, dan Ari. Terima kasih Ya Allah untuk mengirim malaikat malaikat penghibur ini. Entah kenapa saat bertemu mereka kesedihan & kekecewaan saya (karena ketinggalan kereta) langsung berkurang. "Saya ikhlas Ya Allah, mungkin ini memang yang terbaik untuk hamba."

Kami berlima menuju KFC di stasiun tersebut. Kebetulan saya memang kelaparan setelah melakukan perjalanan dari kantor yang sangat luar biasa melelahkan. Seperti biasa kami mengobrol dan untungnya ada Aziz yang suka ngebanyol membuat kami tertawa haha. Suatu keajaiban malam itu obrolan kami cukup serius. Padahal pas jaman kuliah mah obrolannya teh suka nggak penting hehe. Kami membahas tentang politik, ya maklum Aziz dan Ari adalah duo KPU. Karena sepertinya sudah larut dan KFCnya mau tutup akhirnya kami langsung menuju peron, menunggu kereta pulang ke arah Bogor. 

Kami melanjutkan obrolan dan makin lama makin asyik. Saya memang tidak mengerti tentang apapun yang berkaitan dengan politik sehingga banyak hal yang baru saya ketahui dari obrolan tersebut. Di dalam kereta pun kami masih mengobrol, diselingi dengan candaan kecil dari Aziz dan Ari yang sepertinya membuat penumpang lain melihat dengan tatapan aneh ke arah kami haha.

Over all, saya bersyukur karena walaupun saya ketinggalan kereta tapi saya dipertemukan dengan sahabat sahabat saya. Sahabat yang selalu mengerti, sahabat yang akan selalu simpan di tempat paling spesial di memori saya. Banyak hal yang saya pelajari dari mereka. Saya yakin Allah mengirim mereka untuk suatu alasan. Selain itu, sudah satu minggu saya batuk tidak sembuh sembuh, mungkin Allah memberikan kesempatan kepada saya untuk beristirahat total agar saya segera sembuh, amin...

I believe everything happened for a reason, a good reason, or even some good reasons because He knows what is best for us, He knows how everything should be. 

To Him we shall be brought back.

stop—trying

People said "Don't stop trying, don't ever give up."

I totally agree with it. But in some cases, it's different. Sometimes we need to stop trying for the right reason. Like when you really fight for someone but that person doesn't seem like you to do that, I think you need to stop. In my opinion, no matter how hard you like someone you can't force him/her to like you back. We don't always get what we want. That person might has some acceptable reasons and you have to understand.

I've been there and I already did it. It doesn't mean that my feeling will change, it won't. I'm just afraid that I'll make everything worse. You know, I feel suck when I make a person feels uncomfortable with me. All I can do is just stay away.

I believe God has another great plans for me, because He is The Almighty One.

There is something bothering me lately. Friendship stuff. I know there’s always problem in friendship but this time it’s getting serious. Try to imagine, you had been in friendship with someone but now it’s not the same anymore. You have no idea how to settle things between you and this person. You have even said sorry but this person didn’t say anything. You have no idea what to do. You ended up being ignored.

That is not me actually. They are both my friends. I am sad to know that kind of situation. It hurts me to see that to be honest. I miss the moment when we were all together. I want to see us together again, like the old times. I can’t do anything because I do not want to interfere. All I can do is praying that sooner or later we can hangout together, forgetting all the past, become good friends.

Friendship is one of the most important parts of my life that makes it beautiful. 

What I learn about SHARING. What I learn about KIDS. What I learn about LIFE.

Actually it has nothing to do with the title haha.


I’ve been attending a non profit organization for more than two years, it is called LPK Tepi Sawah. This organization is suppossed to provide a good place, good facilities, and good environment for children in a small village called Cikonjen, Bogor, Indonesia. It’s such a good opportunity for me to be a part of LPK Tepi Sawah. 

At first, this organization was made to improve the computer skill of those children. But as time goes by, we’re not only teach them computer but also  basic reading, english, math, and even drawing. I am one of the teachers. We are here as volunteers.

Sunday is our day. Every Sunday children come to LPK Tepi Sawah. These children live near LPK Tepi Sawah. They always brings their own stationery. They were always enthusiastic in attending the class. We have a computer lab for computer lesson. Other activities/lessons were held outdoor.

The kids love drawing the most. Yep, like kids normally do. But they never forget to study the main lesson first, like reading excercise, math, and english. They are vaious from pre school until junior high students. Even the little ones who can’t even hold a pen :”)

They are all cute. You know, although they live far from the ‘modern-stuff’, far from the city, they never complain. What they know is just having fun, study hard, and make friends. They have pure hearts. That’s why I love kids. Sometimes I feel like they’re my own children. Seeing their smiles is pretty refreshing. It’s like I don’t want to spend my Sunday in other places.

Since I’ve been here, I don’t know, it seems that I changed into a better person. It changed my way of thinking. Like I found something I had never seen before. Those children’s smiles brought me such a special feeling, took me into a peaceful space of my soul.

They have pure hearts, innocent faces, cute smiles, unstoppable curiosity, just like the way we are (when we were kids). But the difference is (probably) their childhood is not as same as ours. For example, some kids don’t have any chance to get any good facility like ours at home. That’s why we should have been so grateful of what we had in the past, as kids. But that doesn’t make them down, I can always see their bright smiles and I can see hopes in their eyes 

First thing in my mind for my first post in this new place

I know it's late to make a first-post-in-2014 or stuff or yeah I don't care. It's January 26th in 2014 and I'm screwed up here, in my new bedroom (yeah we just moved into a new house), have nothing to do. Thank God I am still alive. 

I always have resolutions like mostly people do (and those are mostly like wishes, not resolutions). But how to make them real? Back in 2013, I had sucessfully made some of my resolutions become real, REAL! Like I finished my first thesis and I graduated for bachelor degree and got a job. But those are not enough, yeah people have a lot of dreams, a big bunch of dreams, we are all free to dream, right? The first thing came to my mind in 2014 was I have to be a better person. Well, that's classic but powerful, I guess. 

If we think logically, everyone wants to be better. Today must be better than yesterday. Tomorrow must be better than today. Wait, then what day will you exactly be better? 

Life is not always smooth as a tiramisu ice cream (what?). But seriously, it would be boring if your life is that smooth, trust me. Life has many tastes, taste of challenges, chances, joy, tears, desperation, and love (what is it again?). You will regret if you never tried all of those tastes. Hey make your life alive man!

It's not that I've made my own life alive, man. Yeah it's hard, indeed. I mean I'm starting to feel bored with my own life. I'm just working in the weekday and being a lazy ass in the weekend. I'm screwed, totally screwed. Honestly I have many things I'm thinking about inside my mind but none of them turns into something in my real life. It's like "I know, but how?"

I hope this year will be something to me, I can do something, and I don't need to say "What on earth I have to do with my life?" 

And one thing.........

(if you don't get this I'd suggest you to watch How I Met Your Mother? He's truly awesome, he guess)

The Ingredients of Friendship

Friends. It's not just friend, but friends. It's not just a six-letter word, it's a seven-letter word. Do you remember when you got your first friend? You must be very happy at that time, right? So did I.

As the second daughter in my family, my very first friend is surely my lovely elder sister. Thank God I have a sister. I can't imagine if I don't have her, what my life would be, what my self would be. You know, having an elder sister is like having a role model. Although we used to fight each other, as children, I honestly always observed her before I do anything. The way she talked to people, the way she wore her clothes, OMG my sister shouldn't read this post. Beside that, we used to share our clothes, I always got the secondhand stuff, pity me, pity younger sister -___-

There's a relation between friends called friendship. Friendship is like a circle that consists of smaller circles inside it. It is us who can manage those circles to be balanced.
How to manage them in a good way?
What is the recipe?
I'll tell you some best ingredients.

TRUST. It's clear that before you make friend with someone, you have to make sure you can trust him/her. Why? One of the reasons why I want to have friend is I want to have someone that I can tell him/her anything, anything that I can't tell others.

CARE. I'm happy when some people care about me. When someone asks: "Why do you care so much about that person?" The answers might be: "Because he's my dad", "She's my sister", or "She is my friend". Yes, because we care about him/her, that's why we're friends.

UNDERSTAND. Understand each other. It's like when your friends fully understand your feeling without you tell 'em. Got it?

SHARE. You can share anything with your friends, like new stuff or food. Not only that. You can also share your feeling to them. When you're down, just call your friend and you'll feel better, right?

What I want to tell ya is never tired of looking for friends, you can never live alone, we can never live alone. 

I found a nice quote:

Best friends are people you know you don't need to talk to every single day. You don't even need to talk to each other for weeks, but when you do, it's like you never stopped talking.

Underrated

Underrate: to fail to understand how skilful, important, etc. someone or something is 
(Cambridge advance learner's dictionary)

Are you a talented/skilful person but nobody knows that? Nobody realized that? Then you are underrated. Haha. Yeah, there are so many underrated people/things in this world. If you can find them then it means that you are a type of person who care about everything around you, until the detail level of it.

When I find something underrated I feel like I'm the coolest person in the world, I don't know why lmao. It just feels like WOW I realized something that other people can not see. It's great, isn't it? Like one in a million. Otherwise, when people finally realized what I had realized before, I would feel bad. It's like I'm not cool anymore haha.

But what if you becomes an underrated person? That's the question.

Unsaid Things.. Our Story

Last month I ordered an auto-biography book of McFly. It's called Unsaid Things.. Our Story. Of course the authors are Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter, and Harry Judd. Last week the package finally arrived.

The book tells us about Mcfly's music career from the day they were auditioned by their management, the same management where Busted was, until they became one of the most popular bands in UK even around the world. It's an awesome book. I can follow the plot easily and it's not difficult to understand word by word because Tom, Danny, Dougie, and Harry wrote it as relax as the way they talk in daily basis. Nothing's kind of serious.

I bought this book not only because I'm their fan or I want more collection. Absolutely No. For me, this book is really inspiring. I mean their hard work on writing music, their effort on confronting some haters, distressed of being separated with their family for the sake of their career, and how they maintain everything to stand this band as four for 9 years until now. I rate this book 8 out of 10.

So this is mine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"When we look everything from the positive point of view, everything will be positive as we think, even for something that people think it's negative."

Priyatin

Teringat kata-kata Bapak saya dari jaman SD sampe sekarang: "Dadi menungsa iku kudu priyatin..." 

Kalimat tersebut sudah saya hafal di luar kepala, bahkan dulu saya dan kakak saya kadang suka agak kesel kalo Bapake udah mulai nyrempet-nyrempet kalimat itu hehe. Tapi saya baru sadar kalimat itu memang benar. Ada rasa penyesalan karena menganggap sepele kalimat tersebut. Aduh Bapake, maafkan aku..nyuwun pangapunten..

Terjemahan dari kalimat tersebut kurang lebih adalah jadi manusia itu harus priyatin. Priyatin itu apa ya artinya?Hmmm intinya kita nggak usah neko-neko...apa adanya aja... Sebagai contoh, Bapake a.k.a Bapak saya bukan dari keluarga yang serba berkecukupan. Beliau sangat menjunjung tinggi prinsip ke-priyatin-an. Beliau pernah bercerita bahwa suatu saat beliau hanya makan nasi dengan bawang merah diiris-iris dicampur dengan kecap karena Mbah kakung dan putri tidak mampu beli lauk. Dan beliau tidak merasa sedih atau pun mengeluh, karena beliau tau Mbah kakung&putri memang sedang tidak ada uang. Jadi intinya, Bapake tidak pernah menuntut sesuatu yang di luar kemampuan Mbah kakung&putri.

Namun, yang namanya anak, hobinya ngeles, selalu ada aja excuse. Pernah saya ngomong, "Loh Pak, jaman  sekarang sama jaman dulu kan beda...berarti gausah priyatin gitu juga gapapa dong." Dan sekarang saya sangat menyesal karena pernah ngomong kayak gitu ke Bapake huhu. Kenyataannya, jaman sekarang sama dulu nggak ada beda. We should be priyatin everytime and everywhere *halah bahasanya* Contoh priyatin jaman sekarang, ya kurangi lah jalan-jalan yang nggak jelas, buang-buang uang buat hal nggak penting, pokoknya kurangi melakukan hal-hal yang banyak mudharatnya. Dan yang terpenting, jangan pernah menuntut hal-hal yang sekiranya bakal ngerepotin orang tua kita, jangan sampai orang tua kita pusing tujuh keliling gara-gara kita minta yang aneh-aneh. Kita masih dibiayain sekolah/kuliah aja udah Alhamdulillah pake banget :]

Kalo kata D'Massive, Syukuri apa yang ada..
Kalo kata Al Qur'an:

فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلا تَكْفُرُونِ

“Dan bersyukurlah kepada-Ku, dan janganlah kamu mengingkari (nikmat)-Ku.” 
(Al-Baqarah: 152)

Welcome Ramadhan, happy fasting everyone :)

(183)يا أيها الذين آمنوا كتب عليكم الصيام كما كتب على الذين من قبلكم لعلكم تتقون

أياما معدودات فمن كان منكم مريضا أو على سفر فعدة من أيام أخر وعلى الذين 

يطيقونه فدية طعام مسكين فمن تطوع خيرا فهو خير له 

(184)وأن تصوموا خير لكم إن كنتم تعلمون

Ayat di atas merupakan Surat Al Baqarah ayat 183-184 yang menjadi landasan berkaitan dengan kewajiban puasa yang umat muslim lakukan pada bulan suci Ramadhan. Alhamdulillah kita masih diberi kesempatan untuk menyambut bulan Ramadhan tahun ini :) Bulan penuh kebaikan, rahmat, ampunan, bulan yang paling istimewa dibandingkan bulan-bulan yang lain, Subhanallah..

Tadi siang di kantor tempat saya PKL diadakan acara kecil-kecilan untuk menyambut bulan Ramadhan. Dalam acara ini diundang seorang ustadz, tapi saya lupa namanya hehe. Beliau memberi tausiyah singkat tentang Surat Al Baqarah ayat 183-184. Jujur saya sangat suka dengan cara beliau menyampaikan tausiyah. Bahasa yang digunakan santai tapi mengena.

Beliau menjelaskan bagaimana asal mula umat muslim diwajibkan untuk melakukan ibadah puasa dari dua ayat tersebut. Berikut kira-kira penjelasannya.

Dalam Surat Al Baqarah ayat 183 AllahSwt berfirman:

~ Hai orang-orang  yang beriman

Di sini Allah Swt memanggil kita, manusia, dengan salam / sapaan yang sangat bagus. Orang-orang yang beriman, seolah-olah kalimat tersebut menjadi jabatan kita, kedudukan kita, yaitu orang yang beriman. Nah masalahnya adalah apakah kita merasa terpanggil dengan sapaan tersebut? Hmmm

~ diwajibkan atas kamu berpuasa

Allah Swt memerintahkan manusia untuk melaksanakan puasa. Harus bin wajib. Muncul pertanyaan : kenapa kita diwajibkan berpuasa? 

Allah Swt melanjutkan,

~ sebagaimana diwajibkan atas orang-orang sebelum kamu

Kita diwajibkan berpuasa karena umat-umat terdahulu juga diwajibkan melakukannya. Umat-umat terdahulu yang dimaksud adalah umat nabi sebelum Nabi Muhammad SAW.

Untuk apa kita berpuasa?

~ agar kamu bertakwa

Ya, tujuan manusia diwajibkan berpuasa adalah untuk meningkatkan ketakwaan kepada Allah Swt karena ketika berpuasa kita diharapkan dapatmenahan segala jenis nafsu.

~ sebagaimana diwajibkan atas orang-orang sebelum kamu

Kita diwajibkan berpuasa karena umat-umat terdahulu juga diwajibkan melakukannya. Umat-umat terdahulu yang dimaksud adalah umat nabi sebelum Nabi Muhammad SAW.

Kemudian berapa lama kita harus berpuasa?

Allah Swt menjawabnya pada ayat berikutnya, ayat 184

~ (yaitu) dalam beberapa hari tertentu

Kita tidak diminta untuk berpuasa dalam waktu lama atau bahkan setiap hari, sebentar kok hanya beberapa hari saja. Allah Swt tidak akan meminta kita untuk melakukan hal yang di luar kemampuan kita. Sungguh Allah Maha Pengasih lagi Maha Penyayang.. :)

Loh, kalo kita sakit gimana?

~ maka barang siapa di antara kamu ada yang sakit atau dalam perjalanan (lalu ia berbuka)

Allah Swt memperbolehkan umatnya yang sakit atau dalam perjalanan untuk tidak berpuasa jika mereka memang benar-benar tidak mampu untuk berpuasa.

Apakah kita harus mengganti hutang puasa itu?

~ maka (wajiblah baginya berpuasa) sebanyak hari yang ditinggalkan itu pada hari-hari lain

Sungguh.. Allah Swt memberikan kemudahan kepada umatnya yang tidak dapat melaksanakan puasa saat bulan Ramadhan dengan menggantinya di hari yang lain sebanyak hari yang ditinggalkan.

Apakah ada cara lain untuk mengganti hutang puasa? misalnya untuk orang yang sakit berkepanjangan

~ dan wajib bagi orang-orang yang berat menjalankannya (jika mereka tidak berpuasa) membayar fidyah (yaitu) : memberi makan orang miskin

Jika memang seseorang benar-benar tidak mampu untuk mengganti puasa maka orang tersebut wajib membayar fidyah. Fidyah adalah memberi makanan kepada fakir miskin setara dengan makanan yang dia makan sehari-hari sebanyak hari puasa yang ditinggalkan. Jika dia masih ada kemungkinan untuk bisa mengganti dengan puasa maka diutamakan mengganti dengan puasa.

~ barang siapa yang dengan kerelaan hati mengerjakan kebajikan, maka itulah yang lebih baik baginya, dan berpuasa lebih baik bagimu jika kamu mengetahui

Seperti yang telah diutarakan sebelumnya, saat berpuasa kita diharapkan mampu menahan segala nafsu sehingga tidak ada satupun mudharat dari berpuasa. Justru dengan berpuasa kita dapat menjadi pribadi yang lebih baik dari sebelumnya :)

Segala sesuatu yang dikerjakan bersama akan terasa lebih mudah. Begitu pula puasa di bulan Ramadhan, seluruh umat muslim se-antero dunia melaksanakan ibadah puasa secara serentak, kita tidak sendiri, seharusnya puasa pun terasa lebih ringan. So jangan menjadikan puasa sebagai beban, jadikan bulan suci Ramadhan ini sebagai jembatan kita menuju ke tingkat ketakwaan berikutnya (:

Kira-kira seperti itu sedikit ulasan dari tausiyah yang saya dapat tadi siang. Mohon maaf apabila ada kesalahan, mohon koreksinya. Semoga kita semua dapat memanfaatkan bulan Ramadhan ini dengan baik dan menjalankan puasa dengan lancar. Amiiiin.

Happy Ramadhan !

Happy  fasting  !

Are You A Fangirl/Fanboy?

Does somebody here know who fangirl/fanboy is? They're extremely obsessed with someone like actor, artist, or even fictional character such as anime. Okay let's see what I find on internet.

Fangirl
- A teenage girl who is kind of obsessed with a band, footballer, singer, actor etc. They are perfectly normal girls, don't look fat or ugly and most of them are cool people. There are few who are completely crazy and scarily obsessed but most of us are just normal people who enjoy talking about hot guys and reading fanfics about them. Yes, we use words such as glomp and squee alot and maybe we slightly overuse punctuation sometimes but its fun! And we can't help it -   if you fangirl over something it's actually an emotion. You just literally can't help it.
- A (female) fan of a character from a movie, anime, video game, etc. or real life actor or singer. Usually they have an obsession with their "idol" and do various activities to show their love for the said idol. Such activities include ranting about them, making shrines or fanlistings, creating graphics (wallpapers, layouts, etc) that feature the "idol", writing fanfics and making fanart. Some also make plushies or collect posters and other merchandise of their beloved idol.

(Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com)

The difference between fangirl and fanboy is just about gender. Maybe you'll find more fangirls than fanboys around you because girls are more easily interested in something or someone, right?  

Many people (who is not fangirl/fanboy) seem to look down on fangirl/fanboy. It's like "Hey what the hell are you doin? stalking those people you don't know, are you out of your mind?" If you're a fangirl/fanboy you must have felt that way. You know it hurts but people don't care. Pathetic.

And then there's a word called fangirling (and fanboying for fanboys)

 -  A gathering of two or more fangirls in which they proceed to waste endless amounts of time ogling, discussing/arguing, stalking, etc. the object of their "affection"

 (Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com)

- Acitivity of fangirls like check the newest update of her idol, watching the video, save the pics, or even stalking her idol's life (such an extreme fangirl). 

 (Source: ME :D )

Just for you to know, fangirls won't be tired of fangirling. Fangirling is more like a hobby. It's kinda addictive. Once you become a fangirl, you can't avoid it, trust me haha. 

Anyway I'm a fangirl and I don't care what people say. Yes I'm crazy, I'm insane, I'm out of my mind. For me it's right as long as I know what is real and what is fantasy and also I have responsibility of what I've done.

Tiga Hal yang Menyebabkan Twitter Account Suspended

Pernah nggak akun twitter suspended? Saya pernah mengalaminya, bukan cuma sekali tapi berkali-kali. Waktu itu saya masih polos bin dodol banget. Ya ceritanya saya ingin membuat akun twitter untuk bisnis kecil-kecilan saya dan teman saya. Kebetulan saat itu sedang ada Open Pre Order untuk suatu produk *ceilah produk* sehingga saya mencoba untuk ngetwit ke akun-akun yang sekiranya tertarik dengan produk tersebut. Nah bodohnya saya nggak kepikiran sama yang namanya spamming. Secara tidak sadar *halah* saya sudah spamming ke banyak akun padahal saya memakai akun baru yang jumlah tweet-nya belum banyak. Kemudian saat itu juga akun tersebut langsung suspended. Nasib nasib, akhirnya saya pasrah aja deh...huhu

Saya menemukan satu postingan bagus yang membahas tentang fenomena Twitter Account Suspended ini. Mungkin saya hanya akan menerjemahkan dengan bahasa saya sendiri.
Jadi, ada tiga hal yang dapat menyebabkan akun twitter suspended. 

1. Spamming People. Yang pertama ini persis yang saya lakukan, mengirim tweet yang sama ke banyak orang/akun sehingga Twitter menganggap kita sebagai spammer. Spamming ini melanggar  Twitter Terms of Service. 
2. Massively Following and Unfollowing People. Fitur following dan unfollowing merupakan salah satu daya tarik tersendiri dari Twitter. Ada beberapa orang yang menganggap bahwa jika angka following kita banyak maka angka follower(s) juga akan bertambah. Padahal ada angka batasan maksimal berapa banyak akun yang boleh kita follow dalam satu hari. Dalam Following Rules and Best Practices terdapat ketentuan batas maksimal angka following baru untuk per harinya yaitu 1000 akun.
3. Multiple Accounts. Untuk yang ini saya kurang memahami kenapa membuat multiple accounts bisa menyebabkan akun suspended.

Nah bagaimana cara mengatasi Account Suspension  ini? Klik di sini kemudian isi form yang ada, utarakan penyebab atau keluhan Anda kemudian submit, insya Allah beberapa saat kemudian akun Anda akan kembali lagi *sejujurnya saya juga belum pernah nyoba hahahah*

Semoga bermanfaat, maaf kalau cuma repost translate doang wkwkwk...Annyeong!

Tag People on Google+

Well maybe it's kinda late tapi saya baru tahu kalau ada semacam auto face-dectection pada sistem photo tagging di Google+. Jadi setelah kita mengupload beberapa foto yang di dalamnya terdapat orang-orang yang sama maka Google+ akan otomatis meng-crop bagian wajah suatu foto dan dikelompokan dengan hasil crop dari foto-foto yang lain yang merupakan wajah orang yang sama. Dari hasil pengelompokan tersebut user dapat langsung melakukan tagging. Ya ini sangat memudahkan pengguna sehingga tidak perlu melakukan tagging secara manual pada setiap foto.

Kemarin saya mencoba mengupload beberapa foto:

 
 

Setelah semua foto terupload kita akan terhubung ke popup Tag People. Berikut tampilannya:

Bisa dilihat di sini ada pengelompokan potongan wajah dari 3 orang yang ada pada foto-foto yang tadi saya upload. Dengan begitu kita dapat menge-tag seseorang pada lebih dari satu foto dan tidak perlu repot-repot untuk mengklik bagian wajah seperti sistem photo tagging lainnya misalnya pada F*cbook atau MySp*ce. Bagi saya fitur ini sangatlah WOW *maklum saya masih copo* karena mungkin menggunakan Image Retrieval yang rumit.


Semoga bermanfaat dan happy weekend everyone ^^

When I have nothing to do

Haiiish, blog ini sangat-sangat tidak produktif ckck

Seperti biasa, waktu semakin cepat berlalu. Sekarang sudah akhir bulan Juni 2012. Bulan di mana saya harus mengikuti PKL (Praktek Kerja Lapang). Huh rasanya baru kemarin saya masuk IPB, mengantri tes kesehatan, mengukur ukuran jas almamater, registrasi asrama.... Subhanallah

Manusia memang mudah terlarut dengan aktivitasnya, tanpa sadar bahwa dia sudah menginjakkan kaki ke pintu gerbang kedewasaan *tsaaaah. Ya, faktanya memang begitu. Di sisi lain kedewasaan tidaklah diukur dari umur namun umur seakan-akan memaksa kita untuk menjadi dewasa. Kedewasaan bukanlah hal yang dapat diukur dengan angka, tidak bersifat kuantitatif. Hmmm sejujurnya saya sendiri juga belum tahu apa arti dewasa yang sebenarnya. Yang jelas sebagai insan manusia yang diberi anugerah akal yang sangat luar biasa oleh Allah Swt sudah sepantasnya kita senantiasa berusaha menyikapi berbagai masalah dengan cara dewasa, bukan dengan ego atau nafsu yang berlebihan.

Well sepertinya saya hari ini kesambet sampai bisa nulis satu paragraf di atas.

Semoga keluarga dan teman-teman serta pembaca(yakalii ada yang baca) senantiasa dalam lindungan Allah Swt, Amin Ya Rabb

A little question

Do you ever think how lucky you are?