dari milis bemo-batavia@egroups.com, satu lagi dari anggota gang Bemo, Kukuh TW 🙂 well done :
ini link untuk cobain games race4win IndosatM2 di
http://race4win.indosatm2.com/demo.php
kalau mau ikutan racing full season juga bisa, ada hadiah mobil
beneran…!!!
betul MOBIL BENERAN…bukan mobil-mobilan,
syaratnya, koneksinya pake dial-up / hotspot IndosatM2Race4Win is made by MAX
Profile tentang MAX bisa dilihat disini
Barusan berhasil mengkontak Thomas via telpon. Listrik di daerahnya (Yogya tengah) baru pulih kemarin. Bencananya memang cukup parah, dia bersyukur karena selamat dan juga seluruh keluarganya, walaupun ada yang menderita kerugian materi cukup besar – ketika berkunjung ke kampungnya di selatan, rumah orang tuanya sudah luluh rata dengan tanah.
Yang mengagetkan, ternyata sampai saat Thomas tiba disana, bantuan belum ada yang tiba di daerah selatan tersebut. Padahal, sebagai daerah terdekat ke pusat gempa (di darat, bukan di laut selatan), mereka yang menderita paling berat.
Saya tanya, apa ada masalah dengan jalur transportasinya mungkin ? Menurut Thomas tidak, malah sebuah jembatan yang cukup strategis disitu justru utuh di luar dugaan. Yang kalau jembatan itu sampai runtuh, maka jalur alternatifnya sangat jauh dan memakan waktu.
Kalau menurut pengamatan mereka, sepertinya ini karena penyaluran bantuan terlalu terfokus di Yogya. Dan mungkin memang jumlahnya belum cukup, karena baru masuk ke Yogya saja sudah ludes. Sehingga belum ada yang bisa terus dibawa sampai ke selatan.
Syukurnya ternyata orang-orang di selatan ini tidak sedih dan tetap positif. Mereka sudah mulai bangkit kembali sendiri, dengan sisa daya yang masih ada, saling bantu-membantu bersama-sama. Tanpa pamrih, bersama-sama memikul beban yang berat ini.
Kontras sekali dengan orang luar, kata Thomas. Ada bencana begini, langsung bendera partai berkibar dimana-mana. Lha kok seperti sudah musim kampanye saja, pikir saya. Agak gemas juga Thomas melihatnya, mbok ya kalau mau menolong ya tolong saja. Ndak usah pamrih.
Saya ketawa jadinya, huhu… baru tahu ya kalau orang Jakarta seperti begitu. Kita tertawa bersama-sama.
Pada saat ini mereka dengan beberapa kawan-kawan berusaha mengorganisir pengiriman bantuan ke selatan, dengan prioritas ke yang paling membutuhkan.
Yang mereka akan coba bawa terlebih dahulu adalah makanan anak/bayi (karena sudah sangat langka dan sangat mahal kalau kebetulan ada), dan juga tenda.
Salah satu komentar terakhir Thomas adalah mengenai recovery setelah keriuhan ini selesai.
Setelah perhatian media berpaling dari Yogya, disini kembali akan terasa kesusahan bagi para korban. Pemulihan kembali dari bencana adalah program jangka panjang, bukan pekerjaan selama 1 – 2 bulan.
Mudah-mudahan ada lebih banyak lagi pihak yang menyadari hal ini.
Ini beberapa informasi dari Thomas yang bisa saya teruskan. Semoga bisa ada manfaatnya.
Thanks untuk Thomas atas sharingnya.
Just played around with a few extensions and themes, and here’s how my Firefox looks like now:
You can get that look by using Colorful Tabs extension and iFox Smooth theme.
Firefox keeps becoming better, especially with new extensions which just keeps on coming up. Very nice.
Referensi:
1. [ Rokok: cara mati pelan-pelan yang menyakitkan ]
2. [ Situs Hari Tanpa Tembakau Indonesia 2006 ]
Sehubungan dengan peringatan Hari Tanpa Tembakau Sedunia 2006 yang jatuh pada tanggal 31 Mei 2006, maka kami, penulis blog yang peduli dengan masalah ini, bermaksud untuk memperingatkan kita semua akan bahaya merokok:
1. Memperingatkan kita semua bahwa tembakau BERBAHAYA DALAM BENTUK APAPUN. Rokok, rokok pipa, bidi, kretek, rokok beraroma cengkeh, snus, snuff, rokok tanpa asap, cerutu… semuanya berbahaya.
2. Memperingatkan kita semua bahwa tembakau dalam jenis, nama dan rasa apapun sama bahayanya. Tembakau BERBAHAYA DALAM SAMARAN APAPUN. Mild, light, low tar, full flavor, fruit flavored, chocolate flavored, natural, additive-free, organic cigarette, PREPS (Potentially Reduced-Exposure Products), harm-reduced… semuanya berbahaya. Label-label tersebut TIDAK menunjukkan bahwa produk-produk yang dimaksud lebih aman dibandingkan produk lain tanpa
label-label tersebut.
3. Menuntut Pemerintah Republik Indonesia untuk sesegera mungkin meratifikasi WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) demi kesehatan penerus bangsa. Indonesia adalah satu-satunya negara di Asia yang belum menandatangani perjanjian Internasional ini.
Internet, 31 Mei 2006
Tertanda,
Harry Sufehmi
Today I’m very busy trying to solve a database-related problem and failed to check my emails and/or watch the news.
When I finally checked my emails later, I was very surprised to read Eko Juniarto’s email – there was a big earthquake this morning in Yogya (Java island, Indonesia), and two of his relatives died in the event.
Tried to check Angkringan, Yogyakarta’s blogger-community website. So far only 1 post made its way there. I did read though that communication infrastructure was heavily damaged in the earthquake, so this is expected. I tried calling Thomas Arie, but kept on getting busy signals. I hope he came through that alright.
I then checked on my relatives in Solo, and they said they’re ok, the earthquake was barely felt over there.
My condolences to the victims and their relatives. Hopefully, people will be able to work together on this disaster, and it will bring the best to all of us.
I was looking for a WP2 plugin which will enable a header / sticky page for each categories. I found Adhesive plugin which seems to be quite popular. Will try this later. Interestingly, I stumbled on this article, a SEO tips which involves this plugin, interesting.
Also I found this article, it reviews a few good plugins for WP2. Looks pretty good.
Di tengah kontroversi Playboy kemarin, kalau ada yang bertanya kenapa Playboy dilarang padahal ‘kan tidak ada gambar wanita telanjang, saya biasanya jawab bahwa Playboy itu adalah simbol. Simbol awal dari kerusakan moral yang lebih parah lagi.
Kalau simbol ini dibiarkan, maka akan jadi bisa terjadi demoralisasi besar-besaran dalam skala yang belum pernah terjadi sebelumnya di Indonesia. Karena Playboy adalah simbol besar, dan “terang”/jelas – tidak sembunyi-sembunyi seperti berbagai media pornografi lainnya.
Kalau tidak percaya, kita bisa coba lihat bagaimana Amerika di zaman dahulu sebelum dan sesudah Playboy. Lha baju renang saja masih hampir menutupi seluruh badan 🙂
Setelah Playboy muncul, maka barulah revolusi seks, dalam skala yang besar, terjadi di Amerika. Berbagai hal-hal yang sebelumnya tabu di Amerika, kemudian menjadi boleh dan wajar saja.
Analogi lainnya; seperti maling kelas kakap, biasanya tidak langsung jadi sebesar itu. Tentu biasanya telah menjadi maling kelas teri dulu sebelumnya.
Ternyata kemudian saya menemukan sebuah artikel yang membahas mengenai sudut pandang ini dengan lebih elegan lagi, yang berjudul Playboy dan Teori Jendela Pecah
Selamat membaca.
Hari ini saya menerima sebuah email berjudul “Waspadalah !” dari sebuah milis komunitas. Disitu dibahas mengenai kelakuan beberapa preman berjubah, yang menteror wanita-wanita di bus.
Seperti halnya dengan berbagai email berantai lainnya, ada beberapa masalah dengan posting tersebut :
[ 1 ] Tidak ketahuan sanad-nya; urutan periwayatannya tidak tercantum. Sehingga, salah satunya, tidak bisa dirunut sumber berita tersebut
[ 2 ] Karena masalah di poin 1, maka kebenaran berita tersebut juga menjadi sulit untuk dikonfirmasikan
[ 3 ] Kalaupun, misalnya, ternyata kemudian berhasil diverifikasi bahwa berita tersebut benar terjadi; masih tetap perlu diperiksa, siapa para pelaku tersebut.
Apakah memang dari komunitas mesjid kebun jeruk tersebut, atau oknum yang ingin merusak nama Islam / komunitas ybs.
Kemudian saya mendapatkan informasi dari kenalan yang kebetulan tahu betul daerah tersebut. Dari informasinya, sepertinya memang berita tersebut adalah usaha untuk memfitnah komunitas mesjid kebun jeruk dan/atau memfitnah umat islam; terutama yang pro RUU APP.
Berikut adalah kutipan email ybs:
From: global sistem
Subject: Re: [xxx] Waspadalah!Heheehe
Memangnya pada ga tahu ya ,yang ikut jamaah di Mesjid Kebun jeruk itu memang biasa jadi sasaran untuk di Salahkan….
Karena kenapa ?…. lho itu Mesjid kan kanan kirinya Tempat Maksiat !!!!!belakang dan Depannya juga tempat Maksiat…..
Itu perempuan 2 Perek dan Prostitusi Memang berada di sekitar mereka mulai dari jam 4. 00 sore samapai malam….dan Pagi lagi….
Nah biasanya kalau malam Jum at merka selalu mengadakan Pengajian Bersama dan yang Datang banyak Sekali….
Itu menyebabkan Macet biasanya sampai jam 10 malam , begitu banyaknya yang datang menyebabkan perek 2 yg disana pada RISI dan Sedikit malu ( kebanyakan sudah Kebal ga ada rasa Malu lagi )…. Heheheheh
Nah itu kan membuat perek perek jadi kaga laku…. karena Hidung belang pada Malu mau samperin mereka……dan buat OmSEt Turun Boo…..
Paling yang nulis berita itu…..hehehehehe………
Yang jelas yang BENCI mereka ya GERMONYA, PEREKNYA , HIDUNG BELANGNYA…..DAN PREMAN 2 SITU DEH………iTU mesjid syukur sudah masuk Cagar Budaya jadi sampai kapanpun tidak bisa di gusur….. dan di teror sama mereka……
pissss
Bagi yang mempunyai informasi lebih lanjut, silahkan bisa memposting komentarnya.
Berikut ini adalah posting asli mengenai preman berjubah tersebut:
Pengen sharing pengalaman saya aja kemaren di atas bus
Kemaren, 27 Maret 2006, seperti biasa saya pulang dari
kerja di RSCM naik bus patas pulang ke kota.
Kebetulan duduk agak depan kanan.
Kira2 di dekat Kwitang, saya yang lagi ngantuk2 kaget
mendengar kegaduhan di baris belakang. Semua penumpang
menengok ke belakang.Ternyata ada 2 orang bapak2 yang sedang marah2 dan
ngamuk terhadap 3 orang wanita yang duduk bersama di
belakang.
Ketiga wanita ini masih muda, sekitar 25 tahun, duduk
bertiga dengan dandanan mahasiswi, berkaus lengan
pendek dengan celana jeans. Kedua orang yang ngamuk
ini berusia sekitar 40 dan 50 tahun, berbaju jubah
putih panjang bercelana kain longgar, berkumis dan
berjenggot lebat dan menggunakan pici dan surban.
Mereka marah besar dan menuduh ketiga wanita yang
duduk ini melakukan pornoaksi dan membuka aurat mereka,
menyebabkan banyak pria melakukan dosa, dll. Sambil
memarahi mereka dengan campuran bahasa Indonesia, Arab
dll dengan amat kasar dan tak pantas. Terus menerus
mengatakan murtad muted dan pujian pada Yang Di Atas.Mereka akhirnya mengusir ketiga wanita ini di sekitar
tugu tani ke luar bus. Sampai mereka turun di gang
Petasan ke arah Mesjid Kebun Jeruk , mereka terus
marah2 berdua, saling berdiskusi dengan suara garang
dan keras sehingga terdengar ke seluruh bis, betapa
sudah murtad dan tak bermoralnya Indonesia, betapa
bangssa ini harus dicuci bersih, betapa semua orang
sudah tak bermoral dan harus dikembalikan pada
hakikatnya, dll.Saya dan penumpang lain terus terang ketakutan juga
melihat kegarangan dua pendekar moral ini. Sesudah
mereka turun, ramai kita bicara, rupanya kata
penumpang ibu2 di sekitarnya, 3 wanita tadi tak
melakukan apa2, hanya masuk di Salemba dari depan ,
melewati kedua bapak itu dan duduk ngobrol bersama,
seperti biasa yang dilakukan orang2 di bus bersama
rekan2nya. Tiba2 kedua bapak ini dari duduk di depan
bergegas ke belakang marah2. Ibu2 di bis hampir semua
merasa aneh, mereka semua rata2 berdandan sama, kaos
lengan pendek, rok atau celana jeans namun mungkin
karena sudah tua dan tak menggugah lagi, shingga
dilepaskan oleh kedua bapak ini.Ini hanya kesaksian saya yang kebetulan menyaksikan
saja Bayangkan seperti biasa di Patas ke kota ini,
yang naik bisa ber 5-15 orang yang akan ke mesjid kebun
jeruk itu, bagaimana bila mereka terus melakukan hal
ini terhadap setiap perempuan yang menggugah mereka
dan dianggap mereka membuka aurat dan tak bermoral.
Tak lama pasti akan terjadi tindakan main hakim sendiri
Kemarin itu ke 3 wanita itu diusir dari bis, kalau para
penegak moral itu, katakanlah ber 5-10, yang
dimarahi itu sendiri atau berdua, dianggap sengaja
merangsang , siapa yang dapat menjamin tak terjadi
tindakan kekerasan atau malah pelecehan seksual
misalnya Toh logika saya, para wanita itu sudah
dianggap/dipersepsikan sebagai perempuan bukan baik2,
pasti tak ada salahnya dong di”apa apa kan”Ini Cuma menghimbau aja hati2 pada teman2 wanita yang
naik kendaraan umum. Walau RUU ini masi begitu
kontroversial namun saya menyaksikan tindakan
sewenang2 ini sendiri.
Terima kasih
Saya baru sadar bahwa ternyata nomor handphone saya ada ringback tone-nya, dan lagunya enggak jelas pula apa. Argh…
Ternyata ada SMS promosi ringback tone yang masuk ke HP saya, yang kemudian di reply oleh seseorang *lirik seseorang*, maka jadilah ringback tone tidak jelas itu menyambut setiap orang yang mencoba menghubungi saya.
Mohon maaf yang sebesar-besarnya atas segala ketidaknyamanan tersebut. 🙂
Maklumlah, karena tidak pernah menelpon nomor handphone sendiri, walhasil selama ini tidak menyadarinya.
Anyway, saya kemudian mencoba menghentikan ringback tone tersebut. Coba kirim “help” ke 1818, tetapi salah perintah katanya. Akhirnya menelpon customer service XL, hanya menunggu sebentar (office hours, well done), dan akhirnya bisa menghentikan ringback tone tersebut dengan mengirimkan “unsub” (duh) ke 1818.
Mengapa ringback tone sucks (IMHO, YMMV, of course) :
1. Handphone & bandwidth transmisi hanya bisa menyajikan kualitas lagu / musik yang jauh di bawah kualitas yang biasa kita nikmati.
2. Yang paling parah – Volumenya seringkali terlalu keras ! Bikin sakit telinga euy.
Sekarang tinggal membereskan logo di HP nih, sejak beberapa waktu yang lalu logo di HP saya berubah menjadi cardcaptor sakura… yay
An excellent wake up call – this article reminds us that the current state of information security is really bad :[ The Complete, Unquestionable, And Total Failure of Information Security ]
Internet is a great place, a source of vast knowledge and information. At the same time, it’s the wildest computer jungle ever existed. Even the paranoid still got eaten alive here. The path of a security professional is yet to become easier.
There’s never before a greater opportunity for security professionals.
…You can be forced to go through software license audit process, which will be done by the Microsoft’s Sales department.
Note the emphasized word above – the result of the audit may very well cause you to buy more software licenses, which you may not need. This is because Microsoft thinks that using its own auditing software, instead of a neutral third-party’s, is the unbiased way to do it.
“Wait a minute, how can Microsoft audit me at anytime whenever they feel like it, using their own tool ?”.
It’s because you’ve agreed to allow them do so.
And not only that, in the EULA, it’s also stated “Microsoft reserves all rights not expressly granted to you in this EULA“.
Good thing Auto Warehousing Co. can afford good (and I assume, expensive) lawyers, so they managed to avoid the audit. Others are not so lucky.
Note that other (proprietary) software vendors also tend to have similar EULA.
If you think this will not happen to you, think again.
Auto Warehousing Co. is just a victim which happen to be brave enough to speak out. In Indonesia, there were even raids done to big companies – we’re talking about insurance companies, banks, etc here. But they’d rather settle quietly than to acknowledge that they have licensing compliance issues.
Conclusion; if you’re a big company and able to hire good lawyers, you’ll be safer from this. And chance are, you can afford the settlement cost if it turned out that you have licensing issues.
But if you’re not, try to avoid purchasing software with crazy EULA like this. You might just regret it later.
Got a few links from Enda regarding Intro/Extrovert, so I did the tests. All four of them ( 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 ).
So it’s official I guess, I’m an introvert. ISTJ, to be exact (Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging).
|
ISTJ – “Trustee”. Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.
|
Free Jung Word Choice Test (similar to MBTI)
personality tests by similarminds.com
What is ISTJ
| responsible, planner, private, loner tendencies, perfectionist, organized, detail oriented, organized, would rather be friendless than jobless, realistic, observer, clean, focused, does not talk about feelings, finisher, punctual, private, does not appreciate strangeness, not adventurous, not spontaneous, follows the rules, dutiful, avoids mistakes, conventional, likes solitude, insensitive to the hardships of others, prepared, anti-tattoos, things rules are important, cautious, security seeking, prepares for worst case scenarios, logical, analytical, does not accept apologies easily, hard working |
favored careers:
| data analyst, scientist, researcher, engineer, financial planner, statistician, office worker, government employee, lab technician, nuclear engineer, office manager, biomedical engineer, account manager, ceo, investment banker, analyst, academic, systems analyst, pharmacy technician, network admin, genetics researcher, research assistant, strategist |
The results was not very accurate though, but this should be expected from any online tests.
What is an introvert anyway ?
This article is a good start to find out more – Caring for Your Introvert
An introvert … doesn’t talk much, but doesn’t mean he can’t talk or give presentations. I’ve been a speaker on public events for several times. But it does tire me excessively. This is because before we speak, we have to think about what we’re going to say. Unlike extroverts, where speaking seems like a reflex – it’s almost automatic, just like a heartbeat.
We value solitude; example: people are confused why I took so long to shower. This is because that’s among my moment of solitude, and I took that opportunity to think about a lot of things. We’re able to get a lot of brilliant ideas when we’re thinking with no disturbance.
We can focus on something so intensely, we lost awareness of our surroundings. Just this morning my handphone’s alarm was ringing loudly on a cupboard next to me on the family room.
My wife, who was sleeping inside our room, was awaken by it, and wondered why I didn’t turn off the alarm. It was because I didn’t even hear it.
When there are several people, I let others to speak, and I preferred to just listen to them. People usually concluded that I’m shy. Then they’re surprised that when there’s just you & me, I do speak a lot.
I don’t like to talk unnecessarily, but I don’t like letting others in uncomfortable silence even more. Also when there’s only me and the other, I’m usually able to drive the conversation to something useful, not just purely pleasantries.
Most importantly; being introvert is not about a choice. It’s what we are.
I do suspect this can be changed with a lot of effort, but this will take time.
Well, enough about this introvert. How about you ?
Pepatah ini sering saya kutip untuk menjelaskan kepada orang lain, bahwa kita harus ekstra hati-hati di Internet. Karena, amat sangat mudah bagi orang lain untuk menyamar.
Ternyata, “pepatah” ini berasal dari sebuah kartun, yang dibuat di tahun 1993.
Enjoy.
Sore ini kebetulan membaca posting Priyadi mengenai Rich Dad Poor Dad, bagaimana pada akhirnya terbukti bahwa Kiyosaki banyak memalsukan fakta-fakta di bukunya. Saya jadi ingat lagi kenapa saya tidak terlalu menyukai buku-buku motivasi seperti ini.
Salah satunya adalah karena buku-buku ini bisa membuat kita terlena. Kita jadi terbuai di awang-awang utopia, bagaimana segala sesuatunya ideal, dan kita BISA menjadikan itu semua kenyataan.
Namun, kebanyakan orang terbuai terus di khayalan tersebut.
Hanya sedikit yang bisa ACTION. Dan lebih sedikit lagi yang bisa terus menjalani semua prosesnya yang penuh kesakitan dan penderitaan, sampai akhirnya menjadikan KENYATAAN.
Saban membaca buku motivasi, biasanya saya bukan lagi speed reading, tapi light-speed reading ! Sekedar menangkap wawasan-wawasan baru saja. Itupun kalau memang ada.
Saya tidak mengatakan bahwa buku-buku motivasi ini pasti sampah. Hanya, berhati-hatilah. Jangan sampai Anda jadi terbuai karenanya, dan justru lupa melakukan yang terpenting – ACTION.
OK so it’s confirmed : captcha is no longer a foolproof method to avoid spammers.
Although not all captchas can be circumvented with software, many does.
Thanks to Sam who has informed us that this is the case.
btw; regarding complaints that captcha is alienating disabled visitors, there’s a workaround – provide a link which will play an audio, which tells the alphabets in the captcha. However, this is not very easy to implement indeed at the moment.
I’ve got a wifi PCMCIA card (brand: Netvision) that I bought more than a year ago, but have never been used (since Nokia 9500 already got wifi capability). However, last weekend I needed a fast Internet connection on my laptop when I was on Menara Peninsula hotel. Noticing that I was in a hotspot zone, finally I got to use this. The card’s FCC ID is PQP-WP288P.
I realized that I forgot to brought the driver with me, and the laptop has been reinstalled without that driver. Then I found out that the driver for this bloody card is almost impossible to find 🙂
Finally I managed to find it, so here it is:
[ the discussion thread on the driver ]
[ download the driver from here ]
There are also several drivers available from DriverGuide.com, however none worked for me – the one from SMC just plain doesn’t work (seems like it detected that this Am1772-based wifi card is not an SMC brand), and the generic driver also doesn’t work at all.
But of course, your mileage may vary.
So after the driver was downloaded & installed, then I was able to access the Internet with speed of 1 Mbps. Kudos to Menara Peninsula hotel.
I just upgraded this blog to the latest version of WordPress, and I noticed that I wasn’t able to post. Got 403 Forbidden error message.
Checking mod_security’s log file, I saw these messages:
POST /wp-admin/post.php HTTP/1.1
mod_security-message: Access denied with code 403. Invalid cookie format: Cookie value is missing #1
mod_security-action: 403
After googling around, turned out it’s because of a setting in a mod_security.
Basically, you’ll need to replace SecFilterCheckCookieFormat to SecFilterNormalizeCookies in your mod_security config.
After doing this and restarting Apache, I can post again to WordPress.
Hope this helps somebody else with similar problem.
My routine job is usually IT related, but among my daily activities is to assist in many aspects of my family business. On December 2005, I was asked to handle a shop which is in trouble. All others have given up on this one. So I set aside a few days every week for this, and started working on it.
Problems:
I concluded that the main problem is communication. The others are details.
I started my work there by telling everyone, that I’m not there to blame anyone. Instead, I’m there to work together, and try to help them to make the store to become better.
I make sure that everyone gets it – I’m their colleague, not a watcher.
I talked to everyone, and listened to what they have to say. They don’t get all that they wished for, but I made sure that they know why.
I also made short term and medium term programmes.
Short term ones are important to increase morale – especially if the gains are clear and visible. Medium term programmes are important to remind us of the big goals, the things that matters. Example: stock optimization, gradually we got rid of the old stuff by discounting them significantly, or returning them to the suppliers. It takes time, so it’s important to make sure that a bit of it gets done every day. We also started buying things direct, cutting the middlemen, hence increasing our profit margin; while keeping our prices low.
We also increased our control of the cashiers.
Process optimization – a few tasks are taking longer than it should be. Example, there’s no PO module on the POS system, so PO must be made manually. Each PO could take up to 30 minutes to make.
Once these inefficiencies has been identified, we’re then able to create software modules to automate them. The time saving is significant, but more importantly, it also increased staff morale, since they can now concentrate on things that really matters.
There were also numerous other tweaks and optimizations.
After about 4 months, we noticed the following results:
Not too bad, if I may say so.
Now I’ve been assigned to another shop near Pondok Indah. This one is much worse. It has similar problems to the one above, but with sales of only about 25% of it. Diagnosis: saturated market, there are about 6 similar shops in the nearby area, all of them of well-known brand. Among the action plan is to increase the scope of the shop, and to diversify the products; while applying the lessons learned from the first shop.
It’s a much greater challenge, and to be honest, not much chance of succeeding. But I’ll give it my best try.
Gotta go now, until the next article.
keywords: harun, ceger
This would be a good, comprehensive, start:
[ http://www.flagrancy.net/timeline.html
Note that we hate the US government, not the people. Compared to other terrorists, US gov’t still tops so many of them.
American hegemony is something real, and it’s really scary. So many lives at stake, and wasted. So many didn’t get justice they deserved.
Hope it’ll become better sooner than later.
I’m not much into posting sentimental writings nowadays due to lack of time, however I can’t help it today.
I just managed to stumble upon a blog, that turned out to belong to an old friend of mine in high school. What’s written there is breaking my heart. It’s a story of someone lost (although, thankfully, it seems to be better now). Nothing to believe in. Lack of purpose. The feeling of void in your heart, a blackhole sucking up your life force. Lost of faith in humanity. Loneliness all the way.
It reminded me of a time in my life, just a few decades ago.
I was acutely aware that I’m alone. A small boy. I woke up often at the night, and staring at the wall around me. It seems like it’s going to suck me up, and make me part of it. A wall. Bland, boring, white wall.
My mantra was “I’m nothing”, whispered many times every day. It helps a bit because when you’re nothing, well, there’s nothing less than that isn’t it. I have better than average intelligence according to the psychologist, with IQ of 146. However, that doesn’t help at all.
I didn’t know why I existed. I didn’t know my purpose. I hated it when I woke up in the morning. I can laugh with a small number of people that I could call friends, but when they’re gone, the void returned. My soul is being sucked from inside by the void within.
To be alive was painful. Another mantra was “Enjoy the pain”. It helps a bit. Not much though. Every minute seems like an eternity. Every second it feels like the earth will suddenly open up and swallow you to the darkness below. I didn’t speak much. Books were my escape. It brought me to another world, saved me, albeit temporarily, from my daily torture.
I was humiliated quite often. Or I’d feel ashamed myself, even though others didn’t even realize that I was there. Nobody noticed me usually. This was the life of a nothing.
Now, my mantra is still the same. I still try to avoid attention. But the mantra is now said with an understanding, with humility. I am indeed nothing, compared to so many other great people. What I can do is to strive to follow their path.
My life is now of a struggle. A struggle to become better, to not become other people’s burden whenever possible, to be useful to others.
Clearly, this is a struggle to death. But I welcome that. Even though my bones crackled everytime I put them on the bed, tired and weak. The struggle is different everyday. Sometimes I managed to get over the challenge. Sometimes I lost it. In that case, I try not to mourn, but to learn. Not always successful. But I do try. Although I’m weak. But by God, I’ll try.
I found peace in my prayers, my meditation. When I’m successful, I’m reminded that I’m nothing. Pride is probably the biggest sin there is. And believe me it’s hard even for a nothing not to be proud when in success. When I’m in trouble, I’m comforted by the kind words and the encouragement, and it gives me the strength to get back on my feet. It gives me strength to go on for the rest of the day. It reminds me of my obligations, my responsibilities.
Most importantly, it taught me to be thankful to what I have.
I have eyes. Others are engulfed in darkness. I have arms. Others have to eat with their foot. I have family who love me as I love them. Others are alone, devoid of other human beings, in this world. I can eat clean food. Others have eat from dumpsters. I can hear. Others are drowned in silence. I can see my children grow. Others see their children killed cruelly. I can feel pain. Others destroyed their body parts because they don’t realize that they’re tearing it apart. I live under a roof. Others live under the sky. I can buy medicine when my child is sick. Others have to watch theirs die slowly.
I’m sick a lot of time. But others are sick all the time. Others sucks, are a bunch of egoistical beasts, thinking about themselves all the time. I try not to. I have index finger. Do you know how hard it is to hold things without it ? I have nails. Others have theirs pulled forcefully in tortures. I’m weak. Others can only lay in bed for the rest of their life.
Sometimes I realize how much I have. Many others doesn’t have this luxury.
These are things I tend to forget. I tend to remember things that I don’t have. But when I realize the opposite, suddenly life is not so bad. It’s a hard one, filled with extreme struggles. But it’s okay. That’s life.
I hope my friend will fare well. And others as well. Just don’t give up. Life is a struggle.