Lebih Suka Permen Dari Pada Uang

(image dipinjam dari artikel Om Roy di http://royghofur.wordpress.com)

Beberapa saat yang lalu, saat gue sedang dalam perjalanan kembali ke kantor dari meeting yang jauhnya minta ampun, tepatnya di lampu merah Carrefour Lebak Bulus, Gue melihat seorang anak perempuan kecil seperti biasa minta-minta uang ke mobil-mobil yang sedang berhenti. Waktu sedang mengantri belok kanan ke arah Pondok Indah, perhatian gue yang saat itu memang sedang sedikit capek tertuju ke si anak itu, kasian... kecil-kecil sudah disuruh minta-minta, padahal anaknya terlihat sehat, gempal dan bajunya pun tidak kumal. Dengan wajah yang datar tanpa ekspresi, dia mengucapkan terima kasih setiap menerima pemberian uang dari mobil-mobil di depan gue.

Gue baru inget, gue punya permen dan jelly yang memang sengaja gue taruh dalam tas. Saat si anak perempuan itu sedang meminta ke mobil pas di depan gue, tangan gue langsung segera merogoh tas dan terambil-lah sebuah jelly inaco rasa strawberry. Saat si anak sudah berada di samping kaca mobil gue, gue buka jendela dan mencemplungkan jelly itu ke dalam gelas aqua bekas yang dia pakai untuk ngumpulin receh2an.

Tau gak? Pas melihat apa yang gue kasih, wajahnya langsung ceria, jelly itu langsung diambil dan dimasukkan ke kantong celananya, seraya dia berkata, "Terima kasih, Mba!" dengan senyum dibibirnya.

Dia sempat melanjutkan minta-minta ke beberapa mobil di belakang gue sebelum lampu merah berubah menjadi hijau. Sambil mengantri belok kanan, gue lihat dia sedang menikmati jelly pemberian gue sambil jalan merapat ke trotoar. Lalu gak disangka-sangka, dia kembali melayangkan pandangannya ke arah gue sambil senyum dan melambaikan tangannya. Sambil senyum dan melambai balik, gue langsung belok kanan melanjutkan perjalanan gue kembali ke kantor.

Sungguh, mendingan berikan makanan kepada anak2 kecil itu dari pada uang. Next time, gue mau siap-siap biskuit kecil di mobil!

Malas Dengan Yang Tidak Biasa

Apakah ada diantara teman-teman yang lebih prefer Microsoft Word 2003 dari Word 2007? I am one of them. Simple aja sih, semua commandnya beda tempat hahaha… cenderung membingungkan, jadi pekerjaan yang harusnya bisa diselesaikan dalam waktu 5 menit kadang bisa jadi 15 menit karena harus nyari-nyari dimana posisi formatting yang kita inginkan.

Inilah dia penyakit orang kebanyakan, yaitu malas nyoba yang tidak biasa. Untuk mereka-mereka yang memiliki sifat adventure yang tinggi, tentunya malah menjadi tantangan. Tapi salah gak sih kalau kadang kita suka merasa nggak punya waktu untuk mencoba hal baru selain membiasakan diri pake Word 2007 ? Hehehehe….. Efek samping lain dari Penyakit ini yang menimpa gue adalah, gue gak bisa pake telpon merk lain selain Nokia……. huuuuuuuuuuu

Kalau dilihat dari sisi Marketing, inilah yang menyebabkan brand-brand International sampai rela mengeluarkan budget berlimpah untuk kampanye marketing mereka. Karena berbagai Negara, ada saja orang-orang yang ogah mencoba, seperti kata pepatah: Tak Kenal Maka Tak Sayang. Coba lihat nasib dan perjuangan brand-brand lain yang berusaha meraih market share Coca-cola, Teh Botol dan Aqua. Hm… agak sulit tuh! Brand-brand yang sukses menjadi leader mengalahkan pioneer-pioneer yang sebelumnya sudah ada seperti Indomie yang mengalahkan Supermie, terus adalagi MacIntosh yang memilih untuk berada di positioning yang berbeda dan menciptakan “cult” sendiri yang terdiri dari para user Mac yang fanatic, adalah contoh sukses yang patut ditiru. Mereka berhasil merubah orang yang malas mencoba menjadi penggemar, kalau bisa kecanduan sekalian … ck ck ck ….

Kenapa gue nulis kayak beginian? Karena gue lagi sebel sama kondisi perekonomian Indonesia yang kian melesu. Di saat-saat ekonomi genting seperti ini, ada saja oknum-oknum perusak harga yang menggunakan bahan-bahan dengan mutu yang di bawah standard, sehingga meskipun mutunya sangat buruk, orang tetap beli karena tergoda untuk mencoba karena harganya yang murah, terus buntut-buntutnya nyesel sendiri dengan efek-efek samping yang timbul. Dooohh…. Meski budget sedang terbatas tapi harusnya belanja dengan bijaksana, bukan?

Selain dengan cara banting harga supaya murah dengan mempermainkan kualitas, apakah ada cara lagi untuk merubah pola pikir “malas nyoba” menjadi “mari nyoba” yah? Mudah-mudahan ada cara deh, I’m open to suggestions karena dalam diri gue sendiri masih belum rela berpisah dari Word 2003 dan Nokia hehehehe…

Mengobati Kekesalan

Kalau sedang kesal, salah satu cara mengatasinya adalah untuk mencari ujung permasalahan dan mencari solusi. Tapi kalau kekesalan kita didasari oleh sesuatu yang di luar kendali kita, gue biasanya hanya ambil satu cara, yaitu berdoa.... hehehe... ampuh lho!

Maybe some of you want to try praying to heal your anger. Here is what I normally say:

God grant me the Serenity
to accept things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And Wisdom to know the difference.
Amen!

Edit, edit and edit !!!!

Setelah sekian lama kecemplung di dunia edit mengedit, gue jadi sadar dan gregetan karena banyak banget yang masih kurang dalam dunia tulis menulis Indonesia. Sebut saja salah satunya adalah penggunaan kata serapan. Gemes banget kalo nerima naskah masih ada hal-hal seperti Februari jadi Pebruari, November jadi Nopember, sekalian aja Perarri dan Forche hehehe... Belum lagi kesalahan penggunaan tanda baca yang bikin mata gue jadi pedes. Yah, tapi itulah gunanya profesi editor.



Boleh dibilang gue ini penulis yang nggak sempet nulis, kecuali seputar nulis blog buat latihan pribadi biar kemampuan nulis gue nggak tumpul. Tapi dengan begitu banyaknya naskah mentah yang masih belum ditulis dengan baik, gue sampai terpacu untuk nyiapin Buku Panduan Praktis Menulis hahahahaha... Sebenernya guenya aja yang gregetan karena kebanyakan ngedit berarti kesulitan mengejar deadline terbit, seperti salah satu buku gue yang harusnya di launch di bulan Oktober, mundur ni yeee....

Para penulis yang ditangani penerbitan kita bener-bener orang-orang yang mempunyai gagasan-gagasan briliant! Dengan sedikit bimbingan dan outline untuk panduan, serta menyempatkan diri untuk sekali2 menunding mereka dengan tusuk sate, tau2 naskah-naskah yang mereka berikan jadi sangat cemerlang. Kalau soal bahan tulisan, gue nggak ragu dengan ide-ide para sahabat penulis, karena rata-rata memang udah expert di bidangnya.

Bila ada dari temen-temen yang tertarik dengan buku panduan praktis menulis, kabar baiknya so far sudah 70% selesai, kabar buruknya: please jangan tanya dulu kapan terbitnya, karena gue masih ngorek-ngorek kesempatan untuk menyelesaikan buku itu, kalo dah beres PASTI gue umumkan ke seantero facebook dan friendster juga via blog ini.

Catatan: maaf kalo penulisan blog ini menyinggung perasaan satu atau dua atau tiga orang, tapi emang blog ini gue peruntukkan bagi kalian-kalian, biar elo pada nggak bikin gue tambah repot, gitu loh! huauhahuhuahua
Jadi, jangan baca blog gue terus, ayo mana naskah lanjutannya!!!!

This is Your Friend Writing

What if one day you wake up and find yourself troubled with your own thoughts?

Although you knew exactly what you had to do, perhaps you are reaching that point in your life where you just felt jaded. You felt jaded despite of knowing that a road to success is an intricate journey. I also understand that sometimes, another difficult part of the journey is preventing those downbeat thoughts from clouding your clarity of mind from conquering any challenges ahead.

I don't want to be the person who kept shouting bad advice. I don't want to push you too hard to speak that at the end only make you say "Mind my life!" I will just be here, hoping that you know that this friend is ready to lend you her hand from the bottom of her heart.

Friends, please realize that you are strong! Step by step, you will pass the road full of falling stones. When you are weak, just retreat. When you are strong, pass it fast. Where there is a will, there is a way. Hope this can give you some consolation. I am also still trying to pass that road, one step at a time.

Friends, I know you have the ability to overcome any extreme hardships within you with ease and wisdom. If you are determine to accomplish it on your own, at least please don't forget to ask for His guidance.

I miss those smiles.

Would You Stop on the 5th Floor?

I got a story that I'd like to share with everyone, based on an email that I received from my friend Vebie. This story really makes me laugh when I first read it, as if it is the continuance of what I wrote the last time in this blog called "The Good Ones Are Taken" .

So Gals... enjoy the story below and make it as something to ponder and consider. Enjoy!

A brand new shop that sells husbands just opened in New York city where all women can choose their husbands. Following are one of the instructions stated on the entrance door:

"Dear visitors, please be noted that you can only enter this shop ONE TIME"

This shop has 6 floors where every floor will show you a group of future husbands. The higher the floor, the higher the price of the men are. Another one of the shopping rule is once you went up to the next floor, you cannot go back down to choose the ones that you've seen before, you can only go back down to exit the shop. Then a lady came inside to look for a husband.

This announcement stated on the 1st floor entrance:

Floor 1: Men in this floor got jobs and believe in God. That women smiled and then she went up to the next floor.

Floor 2: Men in this floor got jobs, believe in God and adore children. The women went up to the next floor.

Floor 3: Men in this floor got jobs, believe in God, adore children and very good looking. "Wow", but she was still curious and kept going to the next floor.

Floor 4: Men in this floor got jobs, believe in God, adores children, very good looking and very helpful with house work. "Oh dear!" she said, "I almost can't believe it!" even when she said that, she was still curious and kept going to the 5th floor and there was this writing on the entrance:

Floor 5: Men in this floor got jobs, believe in God, adore children, very good looking, very helpful with house work, and very romantic. She was very tempted to stop and choose among the men in the 5th floor, but again, she went to the 6th level anyway, which is the last floor of the shop.

This is what stated on the entrance door:

Floor 6: You are visitor number 4.363.012. There is no men in this floor. This floor exists only to proof that many women can never feel satisfied.
Thank you for shopping in the "Husband Shop".
Please exit with caution and have a nice day.

That's the end of the story. So gals, what do you think? hehehehhe......

From Girls to Women, Just Wanna Have Fun!

I am so lucky to be blessed with wonderful friends. Some of them are all over the cities outside Jakarta and all over the world. Even though sometimes we don't get to talk to each other as often as we wanted, but every time we get together, every problems in the world seems to subside.



One afternoon, my friends and I was having a late lunch in a secluded restaurant inside one of Jakarta's latest entertainment center... (i can't say the name because we silently vowed to make that place our secret meeting point).

We started with light and unnecessary conversation around blackberry and internet and yahoo messenger. Until after first few bites to eat.. each of us gained a bit of energy back from a very tiring and hectic morning. Then more interesting stories started to roll...

After half a plate, the utensils' duty got delayed in delivering food into our mouth because we just couldn't stop talking and laughing. Our conversation were too electrifying, as if it was a treatment to ease our weariness.

In total, it took us about more than one hour to finish eating our meals. That moment felt like 14 years ago when we were college students. We couldn't care less of what we were saying.. we understood each other the same way just like 14 years ago.

I started to wonder why we didn't try harder to see each other more often for all these busy and hectic years. But perhaps this is faith that brought us back together, because sometimes, people just need time for themselves to grow up, to be more mature and to concentrate in learning about various things in life.

Hopefully everyone felt much better just like I did after that lunch time. It was very fun.. and I just thought we can do that more often. I wonder what we should do together next... :)

The Fire That Burnt Down My Neighbor's House

This is my testimonial about the Miracle of God's work.


The roof is gone


Last Saturday just after 6pm, my sister called and told me that my neighbor's house is on fire. Since I live closer to my mom's house, I can get there first to help evacuate my mom and my grandma. In the middle of that panic, my mom just dialed the first number she remembered, which happen to be my sister's. As I ran to the car and get people from my in law's house to help out, I tried to called her and I was very worried because there was already no one picking up the house phone and my mom did not pick up her cellphone, too.

I was already half way there when my mom finally called me and told me that she is evacuating my disable grandmother to the nearby hospital, and that I should park there too because it is just walking distance from my house, separated by a small river. So it was definitely save.

I got there just when the fire is burning so viciously that by the time the fire brigade starts to hose the fire out, it was too late. The roof is gone, the 2nd floor is definitely gone, everything in the bottom floor is also gone, the only thing left is shown on the following picture. We thought that the fire has gotten our roof too.... I've never seen fire so big, so close in my life!


What's left of the neighbor's house.. front part and few thicker walls only. You can click to enlarge the picture and see that half of my neighbor's tree is burnt.

I hugged my mother as we watch the flame burnt down the house... there is nothing we can do except to wait until the firemen ready to hose down the fire. All those people from the neighborhood that came out to watch did nothing but watch and they were on the firemen's way and slows them down. But when the fire was put out, we followed the firemen to check inside our house. They checked my mother's house from top to bottom... miraculously, there was nothing wrong with my mother's house besides the water from the water hose messed up our roof tile.

We have a tall tree in our yard, it was too tall that the branch bended over to our neighbor's yard as seen on this picture. Not a single leaf was burnt from that tree... given the size of the fire that burnt down a whole house.... it was sooooo fortunate that the fire did not touch anything but just to leave a black mark on our wall that was practically attached with our neighbor's.



Click to enlarge! The burnt house was on the left, my mom's house is on the right.
The van is right in the middle of my mom's house and my neighbor's house.
Check out the tall tree that bended over to my neighbor's yard. It was FINE.

So when something like this happens to you, remember not to panic and please do follow these instructions:

1. Seriously, .... DO NOT PANIC and always mention the Lord's name!
2. Save the children and the elderly first
3. Drive out the car so the firemen can easily access inside your house.
4. Placed all important documents in ONE EASY ACCESS PLACE such as inside a suitcase or something.
5. If there is still time, shut down the main electricity in your house before you leave.
6. Get out ASAP!

Eid Mubarak!

Libur lagi nih Gank....

Wishing you all a happy holiday and have a pleasant time with your family and friends.




God Bless You all!

The Good Ones Are Taken

Are you familiar with the term: "the good ones are taken" ?
I am a living witness of some incidents that occurred during my twenties, where few friends of mine (guys and girls) claimed their freedom to choose whatever type of girl/boyfriend they want. True, they were more than capable to do that! Most of them are smart, rich and good looking. They didn't want to be locked up like a property in a relationship or a marriage just yet. So back then, some even had this list of specific characteristics, looks and personality that they are seeking in a person.

I am now in my thirties and I see some of them are still single. Most people within our age are married by now and so am I. Some of my single friends that used to have high expectation have started to downgrade because the selections of eligible singles are getting narrower every day.

One of my friend recently claimed that even getting a date is not as easy as it was. They now must have a higher level of tolerance when most people they met have lesser points from what they used to expect. Finally, in her defense, she said, “the good ones are taken!”

But in my single friends’ defense, I would say that there is no such thing as getting married too late and getting married too soon. Everything happens in the right place at the right time. Some people experienced hell because of their failed marriages. Children became the worst victim. Sometimes it is better to wait rather than to rush it. However, expecting too much from others just made us too shallow as a human being, because nobody is perfect but God! It is best for us not to get carried away with our expectation, because we won’t know what we had until we lost them.

What do you think?

My New NoteBook

Setelah laptop gue kesamber petir dan masuk "bengkel" 2 minggu yang lalu, belum ada kepastian kapan tuh laptop bakal bisa selesai. Katanya karena sparepartnya belum ada... hiks....
Alhasil tiap hari gue melangkahkan kaki dengan gontai masuk kerja karena gue tau di kantor gue harus naik turun tangga untuk numpang cek email, kirim email, download file, numpang ngetik dan lain-lain.
Hal ini sangat melelahkan karena ruangan gue ada di lantai 2, sedangkan ruangan komputer yang bisa gue pinjem itu di lantai 1 dan juga dipakai terus sehingga harus gantian.
Setelah berusaha meyakinkan my partner yang sebenernya pengen banget beli motor bebek untuk transportasinya ke tempat-tempat terdekat, beliau bersedia mengalah dan memberikan kesempatan kepada rekannya yang bentar lagi ultah ini early birthday present dari kantor, sebuah laptop mungil yang bisa gue bawa2 meeting kemana2 (laptop gue yang dulu beratnya hampir 5kg) hahahahaha... puas puas puaaasssssss.... small, good spec and good price!!!

Leader VS Boss

Anyone can be a leader. A boss however is a job description. I’ve been an employee and am currently a boss. The reality that I have summarized after all these years is that anyone can be a leader, as long as they can influence others to do something.

If you give a presentation or talk, and it influences someone to do something, you are a leader. If a boss is a leader, they can influence and inspire someone to do better. The problem lies with a boss telling you what to do, or a leader stating, "I believe in what you are doing". If you have a vision to make things constantly better, others should do it without asking. They should think of those solutions on their own. If they are truly free to make decisions, then they lead the way. You just follow the leader.

I will soon be entering my 2^nd year of the early thirties age category. To be eligible in receiving my title as a “mature adult”, one of the core lessons to be passed is "Leadership 300", hopefully soon!

Oprah & Cathy Black

Fasenomi

Fasenomi tidak ada hubungannya dengan Astronomi, dan tidak ada hubungannya dengan ilmu-ilmu mengenai apapun atau dengan istilah-istilah yang sudah ada. Tapi Fasenomi yang saya maksudkan disini adalah istilah yang saya buat-buat sendiri, berasal dari gabungan kata fase dan nomos. Fase yang artinya tahap, dan nomos yang artinya hukum.

Saya sendiri bukan seorang psikolog, tapi saya gemar mengamati tingkah laku baik tingkah laku saya sendiri maupun tingkah laku orang lain. Ini juga adalah dasar dari semua lagu yang pernah saya tulis. Dengan bantuan pengalaman saya sendiri, maka saya mendefinisikan sendiri arti istilah Fasenomi sebagai hukum dalam tahap kehidupan, yang saya sendiri sedang jalani, dan sulit untuk di hindari.

Fase awal dari segalanya adalah saat seorang bayi lahir dan harus belajar melakukan segalanya dari nol. Pada fase Balita dan Kanak-kanak, mereka harus mulai belajar mengaplikasian apa yang mereka pelajari sejak bayi untuk beradaptasi dengan lingkungannya mulai dari tindakan, pikiran hingga perkataan. Fase Remaja, orang harus belajar memilih, mengambil tindakan dan mempertanggung jawabkannya. Orang dewasa, di cap harus tahu segala-galanya, padahal masih ada beberapa fase lagi yang harus dijalani sebelum orang dewasa itu bisa di cap “Serba Bisa” (meskipun kayaknya sih nggak ada orang yang tahu segalanya ya?).

Pada fase dewasa muda, seseorang akan belajar memilih pekerjaan, memilih pasangan hidup, harus jatuh bangun dengan kegagalan dan keberhasilan. Dewasa muda juga kerap dituntut untuk menjalani kehidupan sesuai dengan dinamika yang berlaku disaat itu sehingga harus bisa berpikir dengan cepat. Fase ini penuh dengan trial dan error, namun sangat menentukan!

Pada Fase Dewasa matang (usia 30 s/d 40 thn) akan meraup keberhasilan yang mereka peroleh karena pengambilan keputusan yang tepat saat masih berada dalam fase dewasa muda atau harus bekerja keras memperbaiki kesalahan yang mereka buat dalam fase dewasa muda. Dalam fase ini cara berpikir sudah mulai njelimet karena pengambilan keputusan harus diimbangi tidak hanya dengan sikon yang berlaku pada saat itu, tapi juga dampak-dampak kedepannya.

Untuk fase-fase berikutnya, saya belum bisa memberikan ringkasan karena saya belum mengalaminya. Mayoritas teman-teman saya juga belum ada yang berada di atas usia tersebut.

Saya hanya bisa menggeleng-gelengkan kepala, karena dalam dunia karir atau bisnis sendiri juga hukum fasenomi ini kerap berlaku. Saat sebuah usaha baru dijalankan, tentu banyak yang harus dipelajari dan dialami sendiri supaya bisa introspeksi dan evaluasi. Tapi kenapa beberapa hal susah banget untuk diterima ya? Gue males ngejabarin apa masalahnya karena gue males memutar otak untuk terlalu mikirin sesuatu yang sebab musababnya sudah sangat jelas :( besok2 gue tulis sesuatu yang riang yah... sesuai dengan mood.

*) tulisan diatas hanya rangkuman opini pribadi, berdasarkan kebingungan penulis belaka. Alias nggak penting ya? hehehehe

New Headache on Designing New Logo

Recently, I have been reading lots of articles about logo design. My intention is to improve my awareness about latest trends in logo design. Since I never formally study Graphic Design, I’ve only recently found out that originally logos were only used as Royal Symbols or Country Symbols (I noticed the truth in this statement right away because I watched too many historical movies). In today’s modern era, logos are being used everywhere as trademarks and it has evolved to be a very complex process.

We are living in Indonesia. Whether we like it or not a lot of people are very superstitious! Sometimes some went soooo overboard that it became soooo irrational. On the contrary, I still found another article claiming that there are only three important elements that need to be considered in designing a logo, which are: Name, Symbol and Color.

Gathering my clients’ different perspectives in a quick summary, elements that I really really really need to consider in designing a logo are: Date of Birth of the product/service owner, Auspicious Skewed Direction, Ratio of Logo & Typography, Lining, Minimalization, Future Applications, Negative Space, Avoiding “Inauspicious Arrows” and many more! Arrrrggghhh!!

While browsing the net, I found a very good-short-comprehensive article by a professional graphic designer called David Airey about logo design. Please do read it when you have time. Why can’t today's modern people be as simple as this guy? It will make all designers' life a whole lot easier.... :P

Hooray to the designers of Nike, McDonalds, Apple, Google, Yahoo and many other very successful logo designers!!!

Blog Linking Success!

Hi y’all! Hope you are doing fine today.

Today I have fulfilled my curiosity about how to link my Friendster blog to other RSS Feed Reader application. I was not just finding mere ways to copy and paste instructions, but I really want to learn how to maximize blog for other usage.

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. This really helps to reduce number of junk mail coming in to your Inbox everyday!

Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.

The Atom Syndication Format is the next generation of XML-based file formats, designed to allow information--the contents of web pages, for example--to be syndicated between applications. Like RSS before it, Atom places the content and metadata of an internet resource into a machine-parsable format, perfect for displaying, filtering, remixing, and archiving. I notice that this is what Friendster is using to allow people to syndicate the content to other RSS Feed.

FOR EXAMPLE:

If you are also interested to use RSS Feed Reader application in Facebook, and would like to link your current blog or if you want to share your favorite blog to your friends in facebook, here’s how easy it is:

Look for this word at the end of an address every time you want to subscribe: .atom or .xml.

And then type it to the FEED URL.

(with ATOM): http://yourblog.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/atom.xml

And then type your blog name to the website URL:http://yourblog.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/

Or (with RSS format):http://rssblog.whatisrss.com/feed/

There are several different codes at the end of every URL address, but you can only subscribe if this sign is shown on the right side of your Address Bar:

Just click it and copy the URL shown on the address bar to your Feed URL column. Once you understand everything, you can add a lot of features to get your blog to be more attractive. You can use it to do your small business, to post information, to publish your thoughts or just to tell people about what’s going on in your life.

Have fun & good luck trying!

My New Favorite Song

My best friend asked me just last month... "Chasing Pavements artinya apa sih?" ... I knew that it is a song title from a new UK artist called Adele. But (again) because I sometimes lacking of attention in minor details, I never really notice because the song just plays out of my attention.

But to answer her question, I need to find out the sentence, so I listened to the song.
Adele, Chasing Pavements
(while trying to upload the video, i got so frustrated trying to find the link button for YouTube and I bothered a friend to help me hahahaha)

From that, I concluded my own understanding for the meaning of Chasing Pavements, for me, it is a metaphor to describe a never ending journey to something that is out of reach. In Adele's song, perhaps it is a feeling that can never be understood or a love that is too hard to attain. But then again, I'm Indonesian, so what do I know? hahahaha.. feel free to comment me on those definition/understanding, the more the merrier!

Unbelievably, Adele got such an amazingly unique voice. Not just Chasing Pavements, I also love the song Make You Feel My Love, gave me shivers down my spines hehehehe... also Crazy For You.

So from there on... Adele became my new favorite singer.

Learning about Blog

Recently my friend Ari told me to pay a little bit more attention to BLOG. Ironically, it is because I have already published a book about BLOG, a collection of funny short stories that came from my friend Aloy's blog in Friendster. Though I am already aware about BLOG, I only have the one in my Friendster and honestly, I didn't have any interest to make another one.

Ever since the start of this week, my attention was caught by the benefits that I can gain by having a proper blog, after noticing that a few of my family & friends have already gained exactly that. One benefit is for sure, which is that I can tell a story once and then being read by hundreds or thousands (which saves me time to tell one same story more than twice) hahahaha...

I tried to link my old Friendster blog to RSS Feed Reader application in Facebook. But I failed miserably even after asking not just one, but THREE EXPERTS, Ari, Pico & Tony!!! Apparently there are some incompatibilities or maybe some errors in the linking process or something. What ever it is, it is too much for me to understand! Huuuuuuuu.... lucky I don't have much in Friendster. My curiosity then got me going to read more about Blog and it has gotten to the part where I found these blog sites such as blogspot, twitter, etc.

After asking around about these alternatives, people are highly recommending me to use blogspot. When I first arrived at the home page of blogspot, which is www.blogger.com, it kept asking me to login with my gmail account and I freaked out thinking that it might be a scam that tried to trick me and get me to type in my email password.... *don't laugh guys... i'm trying to learn!"
But, apparently, Google is the owner of this site. So that is enough to get me going, this is where I found out: http://www.blogger.com/about
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/all-aboard.html

Anyways, for those of you who are worst then me, check out the definition of Blog according to Wikipedia:
A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

If you want to know more about Blog, just go read the comprehensive information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog. <-- beauty isn't it?? I don't have to explained it my self! hahahaha

So friends, have fun blogging, but blog with caution!