My Phone!

I am a reader of Vanity Fair online and one of the feature that I always read is My Phone. It shows a trivia Q&A from some technology and culture figure about their phone and how they use it, accompanied by a snapshot of their phone's home page. It's quite interesting to read and quite shocking to know what apps they're using.

Well, in You've Got Mail, Frank Navasky said about '20th century most profound truth': You are what you read!

Maybe, the 21st century version of that quote is: You are what your phone do. :P

So, here's my version of My Phone

Your phone?

Samsung Galaxy SII. Subsidized phone from office, buy it with half price and with flat installment :D

Ringtone?

Minion's version of Beach Boy's Barbara Ann: Banana Song!

Case?

No case, getting tired of case.

Background image?

A cup of my favourite black coffee (Toraja Kalosi) and paper napkin with sketch from Djournal Coffee Bar.

Last text?

To my landlady, telling her I forgot to put her catalog in my laundry bag.

Most used apps?

1. Twitter -- twit is the best!

2. Mail -- since I've transferred to my current division, checking email via phone is absolutely necessary.

3. Chrome -- because default android browser is sucks, and it has inter device access.

Most useful apps?

Evernote! From meeting minutes to list-to-do, from blogpost draft to song's lyrics. I'm taking notes everywhere with any device I own, eventhough I don't need to.

Total apps?

81 apps, but maybe just using 1/3 of it :P

Currently obsessed with?

Path, join it recently, and Nike+ apps because I'm in training for Bali Marathon 2013.

Last downloaded apps?

Nike+ running.

Text or call?

Call, I'm not the one paying my phone bill anyway :P

Twitter, facebook or path?

Twitter, the simplest the best!

Remaining battery at the time you finish answer it?

On charging, 18%. Charging it twice a day. 

Film Habibie & Ainun dan Kenapa Kelas Inspirasi penting

Kemarin sebuah twit dari @atiekpuspa membawa saya ke sebuah blogpost darinya yang berjudul "kenapa kelas inspirasi gak penting?"

Sebagai pengantar, beberapa waktu ini saya memang sedang semangat-semangatnya jadi provokator untuk program Kelas Inspirasi. Satu program nirlaba yang di inisiasi oleh Indonesia Mengajar dan beberapa profesional, yang memfasilitasi para profesional untuk berbagi mengenai profesinya dengan anak-anak SD. Tahun lalu, saya sudah semangat-semangat ingin turut serta di acara ini tapi ternyata karena beberapa hal jadinya hanya bisa jadi penonton dari jauh (yang sebal hati karena cuman bisa nonton). Tahun ini, lewat satu obrolan kecil dengan Alia, saya dikenalkan ke Atiek dan bisa ikut serta di acara ini. 

Dalam post tersebut, ada satu pertanyaan Atiek yang saya tanyakan ke diri sendiri juga, 'mengapa saya ingin ikut mengurus kelas inspirasi?'. Kalau jawaban Atiek itu keren: "karena hal itu penting untuk semua pihak", jawaban saya egois banget: "karena saya merasa hidup saya akhir-akhir ini terasa garing!". Karena alasan keikutsertaan yang cukup egois itu, saya sebelumnya belum pernah memikirkan lebih jauh tentang konsep Kelas Inspirasi ini. Saya hanya merasa kegiatan ini cukup keren untuk diperjuangkan. Tapi kemudian, sebuah pencerahan muncul ke diri saya pada saat saya nonton film Habibie & Ainun.

New Year, New Optimism

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"  [Semisonic - Closing Time]

Another year pass, a new year start. What it means to have a new year started? new hope, new activities, new projects... for me, its new optimism.

Somehow, 2012 is a tough year for me. It started with so much disappointment, so many unfulfilled expectation and somehow, large portion of rage. I started 2012 as a bitter girl. There are so many challenges in my personal and professional life that left myself hanging by thin thread. Feeling lonely and isolated. Asked around 'what is my fault?' over and over again, and feeling that my confidence and self-esteem deteriorated slowly. And close to third quarter's end, I begin to think that maybe I'm not as good as I think I am. Lost hope, lost girl.

But then, the last part of 2012 God gave me what I called 'a little pat in the head'. It just a simple moment, watching your precious persons still there around you while you are being a sulky bitter witch. I feel like Allah grin at me and said, "I just gave you a bitter coffee and you start curse around like I gave you poison, seriously girl, grow up!' - well maybe not literally like that :D But that's how it all unraveled. The bitterness, rage and self pity. I feel liberated.

So, this is it. I close 2012 with a smile, a warm smile and a little look back and said 'thank you for the coffee, it was great'. I look ahead, grin, and said 'bring it on! I like coffee anyway'. There are so many things I still want to pursue. I'm still young, and I'm still not set the world on fire yet. And like that line in the beginning... last year's beginning was a bitter one, but it has come to an end, and that end comes with a smile and optimism. Let's start the year in optimism and hope that it will close with a greater state.

Kembali Ke Pojok: Journey

Mengapa garis pemisah jalur di jalan raya harus dibuat terputus-putus? Kenapa tak dibuat satu garis tegas memanjang? penanda pasti bahwa tak ada yang bisa pindah jalur. Tpi apakah memang harus dibuat setegas itu? Haruskan semua hal dibuat setegas itu? sepasti itu?

Aku menyukai hal yang pasti. Hampir semua pertanyaan dapat kujawab tanpa kata 'mungkin'. Jika aku tak punya jawaban, aku akan bilang 'tidak tahu'. Tak pernah kubayangkan bahwa ada saatnya aku akan membisu akan sebuah pertanyaan... tak pernah...

"aku ingin kamu jadi istriku" 

Tidak, itu bukan pertanyaan. Itu pernyataan sikap.

"tapi aku ingin kamu berhenti kerja, bisa?"

Ya, itu dia pertanyaannya. Pertanyaan yang membuatku membatu entah untuk berapa lama. Cukup lama untukku membayangkan ada mata Medusa atau Basilisk yang sedang memandangiku... apalagi yang bisa membuatku membatu selama ini.

Harmless conversation

There's nothing special on a dull Thursday night... Just a little harmless conversation between three friends over social media service. To be exact, three single girls in separate location with the same sudden interest toward a thing called 'endorfin' :)

Sometimes I think... Who needs boyfriend when you have ton of friends you can mess around with. At least it is better than another extreme proclamation like 'who needs boyfriend when there's work'...

Music : Feeling Good and iTunes Music Indonesia

I'm currently in the middle of an obsession toward one particular song, and unlike any other songs that I usually listen to, this song actually a jazz... The title is Feelin' Good, popularized by Nina Simone. I've been fascinated by the song for quite sometimes, and it has been covered by many singers, Muse for once, has covered it in one of the most popular cover song by an artist ever.

I don't know what attract me toward the song. But the moment I heard its opening phrase...

"bird's flying high, you know how I feel..."

I know I'm a goner. It's like having someone whisper on my neck and his breath tingle my spine. I don't really understand the meaning of the song. It feels more like the song that you will sing whenever you want to feel happy and good without paying attention to anything in particular. So, my playlist for the morning is just this one song but sung by many singers, from Nina Simone, Michael Buble, Muse, Rebecca Ferguson, to the current contestant of X-Factor USA, Carly Rose Sonenclaire. I love them all.

Another music related news. Apple finally open the iTunes music and movie store for Indonesia today.

I don't know whether to feel happy or down. I think as a user, I feel extremely happy. Finally, I can purchase the song I want to listen legally. iTunes library covers variety of genre from a wide timeline. It's not that difficult to find an old song there. 

On my professional side, I feel a little bit sad. Years ago, when I start my job at current office, my first project was an online music store. I feel quite a strong emotional bonding toward the service, eventhough I'm no longer in charge for it. So, after learned about the launch, for a moment I feel like there's somekind of evil aura haunted me from behind and threatening to throw me out of my place. It's like having a long time rival in the other school and abruptly he's moving to your school and snatched away your 1st place in class. Annoying to the level of infuriating.

I know that maybe I have to look at it on the brighter side. That maybe with the push of global player like Apple, finally Indonesia's music scene can move to a better condition. That maybe, starting from the higher economic level society, people will realize the importance of purchasing legal content. And with the fact that there is a widely known music store available, there's no longer excuses to buy or download the pirated one. In business side, well, there will always be enough business for us all.

I have purchased a song through it. I kinda feel foolishly dramatic when picking the first song I'll buy, I want to buy a song that I really like and appropriate to be a milestone of my digital lifestyle experience, buying a song through iTunes. So, after a long time browsing, I decided to buy Travis's Love Will Come Through. It is one of my all-time-favourite song, and accidentally, not part of my current songs library. I purchased it for IDR 5000 (approximately USD 0.5), a little cheaper than average song's price in US iTunes. The currency has already in IDR, for all store access from Indonesia has already changed its currency to IDR for a while. I browse through its library and found a genre of Malay and Indo Pop, featured singers and musicians from Malaysia and Indonesia. The library for this genre is still limited, but I think it just a matter of time until local artist put their musics in iTunes. Afterall, its the most reliable digital music store available right now.

Movie: Breaking Dawn part 2

First of all, I don’t even understand why I have the spirit to write about this movie while in fact, I had an incredible string of much better movies last month, to mention some of them, Skyfall, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt trifecta Premium Rush, Looper and 50/50. So, why Breaking Dawn pt.2? well, it simple, because finally this series is OVER!
Let’s see... I’m not the kind of hater or nay-sayers about the whole franchise. Actually, I’m among the earlier reader of Twilight saga and love it. But I have to make it clear that, the thing that I love about Twilight books is the conversation. I like the usage of somekind of what me and my friend called ‘middle-age demeanor’ that so trustingly embedded in Edward Cullen. And then, as infectious as swine flu, writers jump to ‘make-it-to-movie’ train and voila... 5 unbearable movies that make the series worse than it actually are.

Here the things, since the first twilight movie, I always thought that the cast is dead wrong. Not in term of looks, but in term of acting capability, well some sort in looks too, but not too much. I always get sick everytime I watched Kristen Stewart acts. She have that washboard face of her that actually look flat eventhough people try to rub an ugly thick carpet in her face. Seriously dude, where’s your expression???

And then come the teenage girl infatuation, Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen. Well, at least he has some expressions, eventhough I don’t know why he have to look mushy all the time. He's hot, but I never imagine Edward as somekind of boy with stupid smirk and mellow eyes. And the others, ah... I can’t say anything about the others, there will be too much disappointment from me about the cast, so, I think it’s kinda late to go all wishy-washy on the cast, they already there for the whole series.

Long Weekend in Bandung: Trans Studio Bandung & Braga

We have a very long-weekend holiday last week. In spirit of celebrating Islamic new year, the government decided to pronounce last Thursday and Friday as public holiday. As usual, I went back to Bandung, but at this time I spent it most with my friends.

We finally visited Trans Studio Bandung at Friday. By 'we' I mean me, Ayu and Sonia.  The place itself has been an upcoming destination in Bandung since its opening at 2011. We planned it for quite sometimes, but never really get the chance. We decided to visit it at Friday with the hope that it wouldn't be as crowded as in Saturday or Sunday.

On Saturday, I have a lunch-date with Poets. She told me that there is an exhibition at Gedung Gas Negara at Jalan Braga. It got my attention immediately, because the building has been vacant for a long time and the last time I checked, it is in a very bad shape. The exhibition itself is part of an event hold by Ikatan Mahasiswa Arsitektur Gunadharma ITB. And Poets as part of Bandung Heritage Society also prepare some material to be exhibited in the event. We agree to meet at Braga Huis at lunchtime and then head to Gedung Gas Negara to watch the exhibition.

The exhibition was awesome! The theme of the exhibition are architecture, heritage and art. There are materials showed the architectural analysis on Braga area and also other old colonial buildings in Bandung. From the exhibition, I knew that there were actually 2 colonial time architect by the name of Schoemaker, they are brothers, Richard Schoemaker and C.P Wolff Schoemaker. The name Schoemaker has been tied to most historical buildings in Bandung. Bandung Heritage society also exhibit some materials regarding historical building preservation and some studies on urban planning. I found Poets's name on some of the materials and feels oddly smug because I come with her, just WOW. 

I left the exhibition at 5 p.m. The committee said that the exhibition has surpassed their expectation of attendee, there were more than 1500 people came in 1 week. I feel deeply grateful for the committee from IMA-G ITB for holding the event in the building. It just feels nice to finally see people with so much passion for heritage preservation. And most of all, I love people that love Bandung :)