My Lucky Sweater

While clearing old clothes for donation, I found this Popeye family sweater. It used to be my favorite sweater when I was in University. I considered it my lucky sweater and I always wore it during exams. I believed that wearing it would get me good marks. HAHAHA.

I also used to have a lucky bath towel that I used during exam week. I remember, one day my sister used that towel and then washed it during an exam week and I was so mad because of it. She tried to apologize by singing “Please forgive me for washing your kelincimu” (my towel has a picture of rabbit on it).

Although I knew that wearing the sweater and towel would not do me any good if I didn’t study for the exam, they helped me to create a favorable state of mind. Believing that I was lucky was more important than the sweater or the towel itself. It’s the belief that creates the reality.

What do you believe? How do your beliefs shape your reality right now?

"Whether you believe you can, or you can't, you are right" - Henry Ford

Learn and Grow!

To Go or Not To Go, To Do or Not To Do, To Be or Not to Be

When I was in Jakarta last week, I saw this traffic light. The red light and the green light are on at the same time. What would you do if something like that happens? My friend and I decided to see what other people were doing, and followed the crowd.

This small incident makes me think about decision making in life. How often do you follow the crowd instead of making your own decision? When you are faced with a choice, or even a dilemma, do you make your own choice or do you just follow what most people do?

Sometimes we are afraid to make mistake and to face the consequences of our mistake. We want to minimize the risk by following conventional wisdom or following the wisdom of the crowd. Although we know that the crowd is not always right, we often take the easy way instead of the right way. It seems that making a mistake on our own feels worse than making mistake together.

I remember an incident when I was still in primary school. When we forgot to bring our notes or textbook, the teachers often punished us together. I was nervous, afraid of being punished when I forgot my book, especially when I was the only one who didn’t bring it. When I knew there were other students, I felt relieved. Sometimes I even felt happy because we would be “punished” (ehem having fun outside the classroom) together. 

I believe this world needs more people who make decision by themselves and not just follow the crowd. The greatest invention, discovery and legend is made by people who are not afraid to stand alone, to blaze a new trail and to do the right thing in spite of all opposition. I want to be one…Do you?

To be or not to be? It is your decision.

To do or not to do? Weigh the alternatives and make your decision!

Learn and Grow!

Photo – Antique Dentist Chair & Equipment

My cousins and I went to my grandfather sister-in-law’s house to visit. Her late husband used to be a famous dentist in Solo. This is a photo of his dentist chair and equipment. It’s an antique.

Comparing this antique dentist equipment and the latest in its field, we can really see how far the technology has evolved. Amazing!

Learn and Grow!

Candi Sukuh (Sukuh Temple), Central Java, Indonesia

This is Candi Sukuh at dusk.

The main temple area of Candi Sukuh

The relief at Candi Sukuh

I visited Candi Sukuh or Sukuh Temple with my cousins who came to visit Indonesia. Candi Sukuh is located near Tawangmangu, a mountain resort in Central Java, Indonesia.

The first time I visited Candi Sukuh was when I was in primary school. My parents took me there when they used to bike a lot. I didn’t remember much about the temple because I was more interested in the surrounding scenery that was so beautiful.

This time while visiting with my cousins, we had a guide to help us understand more about the temple. It is very interesting because this temple has lots of sexual references but they are disguised by symbols. There is another temple in the area called Candi Cetho where the sexual references are displayed in full.

If you want to know more about it, please come and visit these two temples. Please get a guide to learn more about the site.

Learn and Grow!

What Is Your Spending Weakness?

 

What is your spending weakness? For me, it is books. I usually find it hard to go into a bookstore without buying a book. I have two rooms just to keep my book collection. The bookcases that you see above are already full although I have already arranged two rows of books per rack.

I realize that I splurge on books and sometimes I buy  because I am afraid that I will not be able to find it again when I need it. Now I do not worry so much because of Amazon.

In the last few months, I’ve cut back my spending on books and I only buy books that I really want to read straight away. I also start to read those books that I have bought but not read yet.

I think we all have our own spending weakness. As you can see in the photo below, my sister’s weakness is clothes.

 

Some other things that I can think of:

• DVDs, CDs
• Soft toys
• Shoes, bags, accessories
• Fridge magnets and other souvenirs

What about you?

Learn and Grow!

Be Optimistic and Be Prepared

During my junior high school’s reunion, Alfa  and I were in charge of making the audio visual of the SMP PL Bintang Laut 50-year history and had it up and running on the giant screen. We have prepared a power point presentation with animation and music. I even rendered the power point presentation into MPEG and AVI because I didn’t know whose computer would be used to play the video clip. 

It took me days to prepare the power point presentation. It was not as easy as I thought because I needed to choose the right soundtrack and made sure that the length and timing were perfect. Since I used power point instead of movie maker, I had to preview the slide presentation from the beginning not just from current slide to make sure that the soundtrack matched the slide transition. Rendering into MPEG also took around 10-15 minutes and sometimes I had to do it three or four times until I got it right.

On the first day of reunion, there was supposed to be a teleconference after the video clip. The person in charge of the teleconference said that he was ready and he has tried it in the morning. Since he said that he was ready for teleconference, I assumed the computer would be ready and I could use the computer to play the audio visual.

At noon while I was perfecting the audio visual, I decided to burn the movie into playable DVD. I just wanted to be prepared if anything unexpected happened.

When I arrived there in the afternoon, I found that the cable for the LCD projector was RCA cable and not VGA. If I wanted to use VGA cable, there was no sound cable near the projector. It was a dilemma, picture without sound or sound without picture. Fortunately the person in charge of the video brought a DVD player and the plug for RCA cable, I also had burned the video clip into playable DVD, so at the end the show was a success.

What did I learn from this experience?

1. Be positive and optimistic, but be prepared for any eventualities.
2. Always have a back up plan
3. Do not assume anything – especially if the person in charge is not reliable nor responsible
4. Coordination is very important to make an event successful

Learn and Grow!

SMP PL Bintang Laut 50th Anniversary Reunion

This is the multimedia presentation that Alfa and I made to be shown at my junior high school’s reunion. It is less than 10 minutes, but it took us more than three days to make this. I am proud of myself being able to whip up something like this because I’ve stretched myself both intellectually and emotionally doing it. I am also glad that the reunion was successful and I could contribute to it. 

My Personal Time

Yesterday afternoon I went to Excelso, Solo Square to read “Harmonic Wealth” by James Arthur Ray and to write in my journal. It was awesome. I totally enjoyed myself. I was sitting outside, sipping coffee, enjoying the sunset colored sky and watching people that came to the mall.

It is personal time at its best for me. Read a good book, write my thoughts and have a cup of mocha coffee…hmm perfect!

Do you have a personal time? What do you usually do?

Learn and Grow!

My First Experience as Member of an Examination Panel

This morning I had a very interesting experience as a member of examination panel in Sebelas Maret University, Solo.

Frankly, this is my first time and I have no experience whatsoever in this matter. I have never written a thesis before because I did not need to write one to graduate. I only needed to get good examination marks to graduate and I could get my Bachelor of Commerce degree from University of Western Australia.  

I have never had the experience of having my thesis scrutinized and asked so many questions about what I had written, yet today I was on the other end of the table, scrutinizing and asking questions about what my student had written. I did not ask too many questions because I did not know what kind of questions are usually asked in this situation. I also do not have the heart to ask questions that are too hard or difficult because I personally know how hard he has worked on his thesis. The other member of the panel however, they really dug deep and asked hard and challenging questions. I learned a lot about what I need to do and I am sure that I will do better next time.

What have I learned from this experience?

• Learn to ask better questions
• Stretch my comfort zone doing something for the first time

Learn and Grow!

Look…What is going on down there?

THE CURIOUS DOGS

This photo was taken in Jakarta on 13th July 2008.

Financial Advice and Insight From Suze Orman

Yesterday I watched in Oprah about a family in a brink of bankruptcy because the wife is a shopaholic. The husband didn’t know that they were in so much debt because she hid the transactions from her husband. All the credit cards were maxed out, the total debt was around USD 640,000.

Suze Orman advised the family to move from California to Seattle, Washington to start a new life. She told the wife to work at Starbucks because after three months, she’d get a health insurance for her whole family and she could drink latte too (she usually spends USD300-400 per month for latte). The husband could also get higher take-home pay because there was no income tax in Seattle, Washington.

Suze Orman said “We spend money that we don’t have, to impress people that we do not know or people that we do not like”

It is so true how nowadays we try so hard to look rich, to impress people with what we have. We define ourselves from what others see instead of how we truly see ourselves. By giving other people the power to define who we are, we have lost the power to be who we are destined to be.

Suze Orman also gave an advice about three questions that we have to ask before spending any money:

1. Is it kind?
2. Is it necessary?
3. Is it true?

We only spend money if the answers to these three questions are all YES. Otherwise we do not spend the money.

We really need to learn and increase our financial IQ so that we can make better decision when it comes to money.

Learn and Grow!

Airport Check-In Jam

Yesterday my flight to Solo was at 6.05AM. I arrived at the airport at 4.50AM. It was more than 1 hour before take off. I thought there would be enough time to relax and drink cappuccino in airport lounge. WRONG!

When I arrived at the airport and walked to the door leading to check in area, there was a very long queue. There was only one door open serving so many passengers. The queue was more than 10 meters long snaking on both side of the door. I was queuing for more than 15 minutes there before being able to get in into check in area.

When I got into the check in area, I immediately raced to Garuda Frequent Flyer counter for Platinum and Gold Card. There were about eight people queuing in front of me. The first person checked in swiftly, but the second one took ages. Apparently she had upgrades, overweight luggage and she didn’t have enough cash with her so she needed to get her husband to get cash.

There were still three people in front of me when they announced that my flight was boarding. I immediately cut in line and asked the person to let me check in first because my flight was boarding. Fortunately these guys were very understanding and they let me check in first.

Once I got my boarding pass, I ran all the way to the boarding gate. Whew…early morning exercise done!

Lessons: Arrive at least 2 hours before take off!

Learn and Grow!