.:dharma's blog:.

Lonely? Need a friend pet?

2008-02-07T12:06:00.000+08:00

Gee, so looong no see. Hahha, I just am too lazy to post something (no need to tell tho'). Well anyway, I wanna tell you something. Several days ago when I browsed amazon web site looking for data mining and case-based reasoning books for my lectures,I stumbled upon an ads by ugobe. The ads was about dino robot that has ability to learn the surroundings and develop unique personality (at least that was what the ads said).

Pretty cool huh? This robot can be your companion :p Anyone kind enough to get me one of these?

The only downside of this robot is battery life is too short, for 4 hour full time charging you only get chance to play with it for an hour. What the hell is that? Surely this may be well accepted as the robot utilises many IR sensor to detect the surroundings, but come on, I think it's a BIG no no! So let's just wait for some improvement in this department before grabbing this fancy stuff :)

Solid Investment, Real or Scam?

2006-05-23T14:06:00.000+08:00

Recently a friend of mine, Gomgom, told me how to make money easily on the internet. He recommended Solid Investment, an investment company which can give investors up to 4% daily interest. Can you imagine super saving with 4% interest EACH DAY?

Well, let me tell you this. I am kind of person who takes opportunity when it represents itself in front of me. So, I think why don't I grab this one and gamble a bit- I actually made $100 investment, with 3% daily interest- if it is true then it will be amazing, otherwise I just will have to deal with misfortune - a common thing in my life. After all, if it were scam, I risked only a few bucks, so the benefit would theoritically surpass the risk.

The company alleges the investment would be spent over research to current social problems, e.g. how to find treatment for bird flu. It requires that investors open account at eGold first, and of course put some money on the account :D. The saving and withdrawal will utilise the account.

Personally, I think it is a bit flimsy, don't you think? No banks would give you huge interest!
But let's hope for the best and wait...

Elladan Tinúviel

2006-02-22T15:52:00.000+08:00

What is that? I bet you are wondering what the hell that means, huh? Well, I told you that is my elvish name, you can find your own elvish name from here.

Ever since I read Eragon and Eldest have I wanted to become an elf. With outstanding reflex, magnificent magery, spectacular intelligence, the elf is out of human's league.

a WeEk in BaNduNg

2006-02-22T14:47:00.000+08:00

I had just arrived at Bali's airport yesterday. I spent last week in Bandung, where all sweet and bitter memories intertwined, where all hopes and anxiety once overwhelmed me.

There were not many things I did there, besides shopping:D. Partly because my friends were busy with theirselves, partly because they expected big reward in return to their small favors, and partly because the shopping itself was god-damn-exhausting. I am not used to walking right now as I was when I was still a college student.

I actually managed to buy three types of things: clothes, snacks, and DVDs. Favoring snacks and DVDs are common when you live in Bali where every little thing costs you a fortune. Take a piece of pirated DVD for example. You will have to spend 10 thousand rupiahs, although at mass purchase you are allowed to have a piece for 8 thousand. But still, the price is not worth it, compared to that of Bandung. You can have a DVD for just 5 thousand each, so "laris manis and murah meriah" in Indonesian term.

The most enjoyable thing during the holiday was outfit hunting. I stumbled upon the fact that eventhough Bali is renowned tourist destination around the globe (maybe - but hey Hugh Grant did mention Bali in Notting Hill!), it doesn't accomodate people with unusual body size, like me :(. In fact, I have found it difficult to find an outfit for me since several years ago. People just can't agree with size standard (S, M, L, XL, and so on). So XXL or maybe 4L clothes may not fit people who claim theirselves of a particular size.

Well, the necessity to find outfit was finally satisfied. When I dragged my bottom along Riau road in Bandung, it was as if I found my Orchard road. There were more than enough factory outlets, fashion stores to attract my attention. Actually I was kinda visiting all stores there :D. One of them was the brand new store: Cascade. Situated on Jalan Riau Bandung, next to Heritage, was a four storey, shining, eye-catching, elegant, fashion store named Cascade. This store must be new, my last year visit did not reveal its existence.

On the 1st floor, the new store dedicates itself to women's clothing. So I did not find much of interests here. The 3rd floor is for children: toys, child clothes, and some fancy stationaries. That didn't drag my appetite either. Ooops I almost forgot, besides having child section, a restaurant also occupies the third floor. But I didn't have a chance to peek inside, partly because I don't want to spend money on mundane things like food, and partly because I didn't bring my laptop. It gives free WI-FI internet access for everyone!! Fuck! If I had known this I would have brought my laptop. The fourth floor is just as boring as the rest, maybe mothers or girls will find something fancy here.

The exitement mesmerized me when I sat my feet on the second floor. I found many fine clothes sold with relatively low price (well I compared this to Bali's price tags and items' availability!), which was good. The only bad thing was I could not control myself from touching, fitting, and buying the items. Alas, I might have spent around 1 million for clothing T_T. My credit card bill is surely exploding next month.

"Jer basuki mawa beya", a slogan from East Java might get a point. Roughly it has the same meaning as "No pain no gain". It was late at night when I finished my shopping at Cascade (means I got my shopping bag so full and so weight - that carrying it almost cut my arm). There are no vacant buses at that time (it was Satuday when I visited the store). So I had to walk down the Riau street to Gurame street all alone, which was around 8 kilometres. It felt so nice actually, left behind the pain in ass and feet, because I could realize how lucky I was to be able to visit Bandung and got what I wanted.

There is one more thing to say here, if you are going to Bandung and haven't got a place to stay, try Gurame hotel on Jalan Gurame, near the Langlang Buana University. The rate for standard rooms (as current) is 110 thousand per day, except on Saturday which is 135 thousand. The standard rooms are quite comfy, there is 24-hour access to hot water, which, believe me you are going to need it badly, a dearest to have in Bandung :D. But ironically although the rooms are comfy, the staffs are not. They might want a big tip from you, so be careful. I never tipped them though, no wonder they are so cold to me, but they were not worth the tip anyway, so I got rid of them from my mind right away.

aNother bLOg

2005-12-01T10:03:00.000+08:00

Yup, this is another time to post a blog. Recently I was not able to write blogs, partly because I was too lazy to express thoughts, and another part was because there were no evidents qualify for posts.

But today I manage to "steal" time amidst my boring work to write one. I didn't say I hate my work, in fact I love it, especially my salary:D, I tell you that it is high above minimum regional wage in Bali. So why should I not like it huh?

Today's blog is around the latest Harry Potter movie: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" which I watched twice. My first coming was 20 minutes late, so I felt frustated being unable to see all scenes, so I decided to rewatch the movie. And the last time, it was as good as it ever got:D

Several improvements in film quality are worth mentioning. Compared to previous movies, this one is obviously the best. The characters are more fanciable (they are fully grown up by now!:p), but that is not the first one. The best of all is script mastery was at its best, there are much fewer awkward scenes, and some humour sense which cheers up a bit. I only regret that the movie didn't fully mirrored the novel it was based on, but none other movies I saw were, so this was fair.

I remembered my first Harry Potter book readings, which are book 1 and 2. I bought them from a cheap market in Bandung, where all books are discounted 20% off their store's price. At the beginning I was cynical, because they were child books and none child books are good enough for a college student, are there? But after going through several chapters, I found myself deeply amused by the plot, and could do nothing else but kept reading :). And I went to the market again to buy yet other copies of next series and I must daresay acknowledge all Harry Potter books are the best! All Credits go to J.K. Rowling and the english-to-indonesian translator (sorry I forgot her name).

There was funny thing took place when I was about to have my 2nd watch of the movie. I didn't encounter this in my 1st seeing, as I was 20 minutes late. The movie was started at 7.45 PM and I went there with a friend of mine at 6 PM and we saw there had a queue been set up along the hallway, eventhough the locket hadn't been opened. So we lined up with the rest. Later in time, when ticket buying was serviced, I saw lots of foreigners cheated by bribing (and maybe seducing - I would never know!) people in front of us. There was a boy too asking my help to buy ticket for his friend - yap only one friend. Since one person is eligible to buy up to four tickets, I said "I dont mind at all" since it was just for one person, what hurt would it cause? And later, the boy's friend came to me and thanked me, and offered me money to buy her ticket, which I didn't take and instead I told her to just stay along when I got my turn, which she agreed. But no more than five minutes, she asked me another help to get tickets for her friends. I had nothing to say... until a man who stood behind me told that it would be unacceptable to people at back of line. So I told her I could not do that for her friends and she got angry and the lots left altogether.

Well, I felt very bad about that (giving promise to help but unable to actually realising it), but later I thought it was very unkind to use people. Asking for help is fine, but making benefits out of people is wrong, so I got rid of those lots from my mind and got absorbed in the fantasy world of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...

Hello World

2005-11-05T12:59:00.000+08:00

Pheeeeew, it's been a month since I posted my last blog. I've been to busy these days, tight project deadlines, more demanding boss, more demanding clients T_T...

And nothing happpened recently, not what I concerned, just casual things around like criminals, theft, sort of that. Besides, I've been preparing for MCP exam, since I am going to sit it this month, I hope.

I got cold feet when I think about the exam, like my previous Sun Programmer I sat on April. I hope I can pass the test with satisfying result (I better pass or ...). Wish me luck, OK?! ;p

These last days have been coloured with Lebaran day celebration. This is a great day for Moslems as they claim victory on hunger and thirst they had endured during fasting month. Most people in Indonesia are moslems, so most of them went to their home towns to enjoy the day with their relatives, and friends of mine are not exception. So there are not many guys at the office, and they don't pop in the messenger either, I miss my fans T_T

The great side of their going home is there will be a lot of snacks and sweets when they come back here, and thinking of that has already cheered up my mood:D I hope they bring delicious ones or I am gonna sue them (j/k)..

Hi All, We Meet aGAiN

2005-10-01T12:27:00.000+08:00

Woow, it is Saturday 12.30PM and I spend my time at office blogging. Well, I am not workaholic which you might guess, but I was to check my mail for a client of mine said he would drop me an email shortly over weekend. But when I checked my inbox, nothing interesting popped up. It really made me freak out :(

My office is going to hold a staff party tonight. We are supposed to wear hawaiian theme, which I think funny, since I can't imagine myself wearing hawaiian-like outfits and dancing hula-hula:p. I bet only a small fraction of attendants will be true "hawaii". Each software stream in my office is going to perform a song, or attraction, or whatsoever. And this very moment I write this blog, there is training session held by guys in my stream, which is loud and from the sounds it makes, that is going to be good performance. Haha, can't wait to see that guys on action...

I never attended a party before, and I am not sure what to do. I do not socialise well with people, and I am afraid that this party will turn me alleniated in crowd. But who cares with them? I have endured that many times before, and I survived until now, so one more pain is bearable, as always.

Blogging Time

2005-09-17T08:13:00.000+08:00

Wooow it's been very long time since my last blog. It didn't mean I don't like my blogs, or I am getting bored with it, it was simply because I didn't have time to do this blogging stuffs. Recently my office outsources me to some company called 'Amat' in Australia. FYI, 'amat' is kinda Indonesian word which means 'very' and it is bizarre to named company 'amat' in Indonesian term:)

So I spent the last two months to finish off their projects. So far, I've been involved in three projects: Webshade, CHEP, and Reference Data. Each of them uses different set of technologies, so I felt unease when switching from one to the other:p

The works are quite moderate, which means I was not forced to work overtime, which is good:) The only thing I don't like is they never told me whether my work met their standard or not, which left uneasy feeling that they might be disappointed:( I would prefer their telling me if something went wrong, so I could learn to not repeat mistakes I made in next assignments.

But nevertheless, it had relieved me from having nothing to do, and better from having unpaid, since I was scheduled with the Amat company 'till April 2006 and it doesn't matter they have work item for me or not, I will have my rostered day allowance as scheduled:D

Rest In Peace Dumbledore

2005-07-19T17:15:00.000+08:00

When I read the prophet today, I was appalled by this shocking news. Really sad news indeed. The greatest wizard ever had fallen. The worst thing was his death was given by his colleague, a person he trusted very much, even ignoring that the person is very good at occlumency that the person may betrayed him without even knew it. When I heard this, I never thought the person is Snape, or should I call him "Professor Snape"? He, who used the death curse on Dumbledore, is now back to be The Dark Lord most loyal servant.

Now our life is once more in peril since the Death Eaters and Warewolves are in uproar. It is now the time The Chosen One to fill his destiny as the prophecy has foreseen.

Dear Dumbledore, even your body decayed, your spirit lives ever among us and your contributions to wizarding world will be known through ages.

Harry Potter book is about to come to town

2005-07-08T08:30:00.000+08:00

This is going to be the best Harry Potter book ever. Since this book contains lots of mistery cleverly attached in previous books. I can't wait to have it!!

It is 8 July now, so I have to wait for another 8 days. I preordered the book since April, and my local bookstore claimed the book will be onshelf on 16 July. But deeply inside, I doubt about it. What if the book got delayed at customs? You don't know how complicated it is when dealing with customs in Indonesia. There should be no point I ordered the book since April when the book is not available on schedule, right?

My office is going to hold trip around Bali for new hires on the very same day as the book released. And I chose not to join them since I don't want to miss my sixth Harry Potter book. It is like a thirst quencher for me, since I have waited it for almost two years.

I really hope my local bookstore has this book on its due date as it had claimed.

Happy Independence Day

2005-07-04T08:48:00.000+08:00

Ok, maybe you are gonna think I am freak. Well, I am:D. Am not American, but I wish I were T_T. Anyway, that was no the reason I am writing blog right now. I just do not have anything to do, again! Do not want you to take it literally, whilst I mean I do not have work item which is changeable into money.T_T

Actually my manager has assigned me work item, but there is something we need to reconcile with the client, and he had sent e-mail to them, but no reply till now. Besides, the assignment was so trivial that I reckoned the client has sorted it out. Maybe my manager is gonna cancel the assignment - and that means I am gonna sit here do nothing and die in boredom...

Bloody hell...

The Long Awaited Competency Review

2005-06-29T16:37:00.000+08:00

Yep, I'd had my competency review yesterday at 4 p.m. Nothing special happened though, I still have B(asic) for most of skills listed on the form. I didn't mean I can't take it, I CAN take it but the way they conveyed it, the contemptuous tone in their voices, that mattered a lot for me.

Well, all in all, I managed to claim working at few skills, and I had to argued with them. Gee, that was HARD! Most of skills I managed to claim at working level were contained in local competency category, and one friend of mine told me that the category only counts a little toward software engineer assessment, means that I didn't obtain much points from the category. My friend also said that categories which have the most influence to final evaluation are SWEBOK and PMBOK (don't ask me what they stand for!), and this is bad since I got the perfect 'B' at most of skills in those groups. T_T

My friend adviced me not to hope too much and never let them put me down too. I guess she is correct, I shall pay no attention on whatever comments they give on my skills, because they are just like a drop of water in ocean.

Another "Basic"?

2005-06-28T14:23:00.000+08:00

Whoaa, it's June 28 now and I still haven't had my competency review. When I had it last term, it went poorly since I had been working only for 3 months, and it wasn't enough to claim for competency levels beyond those poor "basic"s. My manager told me that it is company's policy to not count in whatever experience acquired in college nor in prior employers. T_T

I've been assigned in project utilising .net technology for only one month, but one friend of mine told me that "working" level would be only granted to those who have at least 9 months experience in the technology, so I reckoned I would have another "basic" this time. As a matter of fact, I've been using .net since I was in college so I feel deserve to claim higher one. But with this evaluation scheme, I should never expect much.

Anyway, I don't care whether they permit me claiming for "working" level or not, since ... you know what? The evaluation scheme is not the only scheme exists.

Welcome to Jakarta

2005-06-27T07:51:00.000+08:00

Two days ago, on 24 June 2005 I went to Jakarta. I lived there for several months when I worked for Jatis Solutions. No great changes I noticed, eventhough one full year had passed by. My visit to Jakarta was for psycho test session, one of several pre-requisites I must have before I join my new employer (I hope).

If you guys want to know, it is Telkomsel, one of the largest telecommunication company in Indonesia. I signed contract with my current employer for one year, and I am pretty doubt that it is going to extend my contract or going to make me permanent employee. So, I take any precautions I can do, and going to Jakarta to have the test was one of them.

Mmm, now about the test. I felt as if I had NEWT exam- read Harry Potter books to find out what it is ^_^ - except that it is not wizarding test, but only psycho analysis. Nonetheless, it exposes the same level of exhausting the test takers. It took almost 4 hours to complete, and being starved since morning, I could hardly focus on questions. I believe there are two types of question presented, one that assesses your ability to utilise left brain hemisphere, and one that assesses your right brain functionalities. I could do reasonably good at left brain question, like verbal questions (I luv them, since they are easy), and maths, but I was poor at right brain questions, such as spatial analysis (gosh! I hate them, made me sick) and sorting series of pictures to yield right course of actions. Why on earth people design test such those? They are quite incomprehensible T_T.

And the worst part is the Paoli's test, which I was given A3 paper full of numbers which I have to sum each number with number exactly beneath it. I felt as if my head were going to explode. Gee, what a nightmare.

Another boring day

2005-06-20T13:48:00.000+08:00

Yup, this is another boring day when my manager didn't assign me anything. Hey- it doesn't mean I have no motivation, instead I've been perusing books on Microsoft ASP.NET certification (Exam 70-315) since this morning and I feel a little bit sick of it. I remember those sad months when I had nothing to do at office besides sitting and reading novels all day. I just am not sure how my career will end up here, come'on this is not entirely my fault if I came up with empty timesheets, I had asked my manager if he had something I could do, but too bad, he said, "Nope, there are no work items for you, my lad". So there I was, nearly bored to stiff all day.

My first blog - ever!

2005-06-17T04:22:00.000+08:00

Whoaaa, finally i got a blog. I never know how I ended with this blog stuffs, but maybe because I had nothing to do (my boss is a bit tacky about this. Ssssst.. don't tell him). Anyway, I am happy with my new blog - ever! since I now have a means to convey ideas, thought, even those which do not draw anyone's interest. And guess what? I know already from this moment what things I will post here - but I won't spoil the moments. Just wait and see lah!