I truly believe that inspiration most often comes when you are:

Bored + Thinking of someone out there + Insomnia

Sometimes it makes me wonder why girls love to deny so much. When I told she-who-shall-not-be-named how pretty she is, she reacted as if she’s allergic to it. When I told her she’s cute, she reacted as if I was the first person to say the word “cute”. Am I THAT untrustworthy? Ha!

You know, few girls don’t look so attractive when you first look at them. But by time, these girls look better when you get used to their faces; and it makes you really curious and have the “urge” to look longer…. or stare longer. Ms. She-who-shall-not-be-named is one of them.

Speaking of good looks, some people look good simply because they are beautiful. However, some other people like Ms. She-who-shall-not-be-named, look good because they have charisma. Some other time too, it’s not about how a person does make-up or something similar, but it can also be because of how the person express themselves, how they behave, or simply their attitude.

Aha, my iTunes know me best. It now plays Usher – OMG… and wait.. I hear something:

“Baby let me love you down… there’s so many ways to love you.”

Hmm.. some people are just so adorable. Sometimes, the things I don’t like about her makes me love her more. I guess, when love is multiplied by the feeling of long for THAT person, the effect is pretty… dangerous? We look at the world upside-down… maybe.

“…sexy from the head to the toes…”

Oh, and the word “sexy” does not necessarily mean sexually attractive, but it could mean “attractive” or “appealing”, too. Yes, her hair is a bit of a mess sometimes, but I love the smell of her hair, as well as the wavy nature of her hair. Her eyes may be the prettiest eyes I have ever seen in my life. I feel like fainting when she looked at me with her naughty look #ahem. Moreover, I love how the shape of her nose and her lips goes together; and she has that Megawatt-smile that would cheer me up anytime. Oh, some may think she’s a little too short, but F*ck that. Height doesn’t matter; proportion does.

As I am getting sleepy, I will quote Laura Pausini’s It’s not goodbye:

“I will just have to believe, somewhere out there you’re thinking of me..”

Oh well.. I miss her so much. What I can do is to cherish the moment I spent with her; not to mention the hugs, the love, and the kisses.

Am I in love? Hell yes!

However, attracting attention from others when you have achieved from your own effort is something that you can be proud about. There are times too, when it would have a better use/purpose when you publish it. A good example of it -from observation- is how a friend of mine, Muhammad Assad, promotes himself through his blog muhammadassad.wordpress.com, and followed by a book that’s pretty booming now: Notes From Qatar.

In Assad’s blog, he wrote many things that would be beneficial for others to know. For example, the story of him getting his scholarship, how he “ended up” in Qatar, etc. Thus, seeking positive attention from people he knows would be motivating and rewarding. This may result in the power of word of mouth spreading the news of his success, both with his book and his life -and maybe female friends around him . He’s somebody because he’s talked about –in a good way.

President. Summa Cum Laude. Those are the two-dream title for every tertiary students studying in an American degree, if not everyone. Sadly, however, we have to choose between the two most of the time. It is understood that becoming a president in a student club/organization takes up a lot of time, effort, determination, confidence, and a proper strategy. Too bad though, determination, confidence, studying strategy, and studying time are the things needed for us to earn the title of Summa Cum Laude upon graduation too.

Some says organization/student club is a priority, and not a choice. Being a president of an organization, especially, is obviously something that we are proud of, and definitely useful for our career in future. By contributing in an organization/student club we do not talk about one or two people, but all of the stakeholders of that particular organization/student club. However, the dilemma comes about when the purpose of us studying abroad, or at least during these age is to study, and to satisfy what our parents. Academic excellence does not only act as the “window dresser” for our transcript, but also act as our foundation and basis of our common sense. Then, which one should we prioritize?

I disagree to a certain extent for saying that organization/student club distracts our academic performance. Not sure about other education system, but I truly believe by being involved in organizations/student clubs actually support my academic performance (especially in terms of presentation skills, stress management, and time management), and vice versa. While Interpersonal Communication 101 taught me how to communicate effectively to others, my involvement in organizations gave me the opportunity to practice and to implement the skills I have learned in class –and that is only one of the examples.

I have proved it; during the times when I was involved in two organizations with 2 mega-projects, my Grade Point Average was perfect 4.00. However, once my term in the organization was over, my presentation grades started to decline bit by bit. Ultimately, I got my first B in Business Communication, with my worst presentation grades I have ever received in my life.

I completely agree with the saying of “practice makes perfect”. In addition, people often talk about time-management and work-life balance, but it means nothing when we haven’t actually implement it ourselves. Therefore, from my own perspective, involvement in organizations has positive impacts on my academic performance. What if it does have a negative impact? Then it is the time for me to reflect and find a solution on how to improve in my time-management skills.

Some argued that people are born barbaric. They are no different from animals, with logic to think logically, and heart to feel and be sensitive towards others. The other few who are naturally born with master morality, or the ubermensch as explained by Nietzsche, were the ones who set the rules and systems to control the behavior of the others.

As time goes by, these rules have set orders to human’s life – an evolution to civilized human beings. Humans have subconsciously implement the unwritten rules that their ancestors have established. More crimes have been done, resulting in more detailed and rigorous laws and regulations enacted to control people’s behavior.

This, however, has drawbacks. One of the biggest gift from God to human being is the ability to think creatively, critically, and the ability to change and improve. These established laws set by our ancestors -because it’s now overdone- somehow have negative effects on our creativity and the willingness to think outside-the-box.

A real-life example would be the creation of written textbooks, guidebooks, and law enforcements. One can find answers to any question in documents -somebody must have answered the same question before; especially with the rapid development of internet and online database. Those presence of “answering guidebooks” and “answering machines”, in a way, discouraged us to think on the solution to our problems/questions.

Thus, how are we going to overcome this? as we live in an increasingly complex world full of laws and regulations, we have to keep the spirit of creativity and continuous improvement. Creativity doesn’t mean that we have to be back to the pre-civilization period. Creativity can be sharpened through many applications available with the presence of internet nowadays, while still following the norms around us. As a saying goes, “There are 1000 ways to Rome.”

The so-called "Modern Steak"

Looking at the picture above, anyone who lives in Jakarta would find it worth-the-money if such food are priced around Rp 40.000,- (roughly 4USD). It comes with a chicken steak, beef “modern” steak, vegetables, baked corn, rice, and a glass of lemonade. Since this blog is not a food review blog -and I am not a foodie- I am going to see it from business point of view. The picture above is a perfect explanation of Michael Porter’s theory of how companies stay competitive using either of the three strategies: Make it cheap, make it different, or aim to the niche market.

According to my observation, there were quite a long queue in front of the food stall (Senayan City food court, Jakarta, Indonesia). Thus, I think it is safe to assume that they are pretty successful with their strategy -which I pointed out that their strategy is to make it different, and hence making full use of the value-added to the food.

First of all, the food they’re selling is not something special, nor something that is super-high quality, nor something that’s unique, nor something that is very expensive. By breaking it down: the chicken is not exactly a “steak” because I am sure it doesn’t fit the standard of chicken steak I’ve found in proper restaurants. Chicken steak is usually made of breast-part of the chicken and not thigh-fillet like the one they use for this “chicken steak”. It is cheaper, less healthy, but who cares? It tastes better. The so-called “modern beef” too, is just a big minced-meatball. Once again, minced meat is the cheapest kind of meat you can find in the supermarket. But who cares? It tastes better.

Secondly, it’s the pricing strategy that is very interesting. Compared to the food stall beside it -specializing in steak- they are actually selling the so-called “modern steak” more expensive than the proper steak. Why? They want to convince their potential buyer that “Our product is more superior/better than our competitor”, and shown by a slightly more premium price charged by them. But they are actually selling something that’s supposedly cheaper!

By writing this blog post, it doesn’t mean that I try to discourage people from buying this “modern steak” once you see similar picture in the menu book. Honestly, it’s somewhat worth-the-money; from a customer point of view. I just find it so amazing how they engineered the food and the whole marketing strategy to make it successful and earn more profit in a very competitive food industry.

-Delayed Post-

Most people in my country consider studying abroad as something negative. When I tell them that I am studying abroad, their first reactions would be “waste of money”, “sons of devils”, etc. It is true that mass media (such as TV, magazine, etc.) have changed the western culture’s perception in my surroundings as examples of moral degradation; but I find them narrow-minded. Not only their opinion is failed to be supported with a properly-researched premises, but they gave the opinion without even experiencing the so-called “Studying abroad”.

They say, “No parental guidance during early mental development is equivalent to assassination of morality.” My reply would be, “Parents are there to support us, but they are not the ones determining who we really are.” Yes, you may find students who are away from their parents and ended up wasting their time; forgetting the main purpose of them studying. Yes, these people might be better off with the presence of their parents -their lives would be more controlled. However, it doesn’t mean everyone needs to be under parents’ supervision in order to fully develop their own potentials and to be “successful”.

Guess what? I think my life remains balanced even without the presence of my parents here, beside me, right now. My parents are the ones laying my foundation, forging my principles to be as strong and as tough as possible. Their foundations have allowed me to go against the perceived “satanic” lifestyle that I encounter abroad. But even without them, I think I can manage myself pretty well. In fact, I have never been in this level of satisfaction with myself, more than ever before, more than the period of me spending my life with my parents in Indonesia.

Furthermore, studying abroad is a real-life application (and experimentation) of “survival of the fittest”, which is necessary in strengthening and speeding up our mental development. Living with nobody, knowing nobody (in the beginning), and facing problem without anybody helping me, is believed to have made me a better, stronger, and less vulnerable person to the dynamics of the society nowadays.

All in all, those negative perception on studying abroad simply don’t hold up. It has been proven too, by me and many others who have tasted the fruits of our suffering of living by ourselves. Thus, tell your parents that studying abroad aren’t as bad as they perceived, and start planning!

Moreover, it’s much easier said than done.

I’m sure I can get through this. All these weird coincidences happen for a reason.

Why does “life experience” have to translate into wild parties and random hookups?

and from me:

Why does “youth” have to translate into violence, alcohol, girlfriend(s), and disobedience to parents?

However, I think we shouldn’t go in too deep into our so-called “planning”. My experience taught me when I plan the details, we started to have expectation, and expectation kills.

Here’s a metaphor. The C-level officers (CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, etc.) are the ones who decide the fate of the company, and where the company is heading. Thus, their job, the decision makers, is to predict the future.

There are 3 rules when they set the targets:
1. Measurable
2. Realistic
3. Time-Specific

Example: “25% increase in sales by 2012.”

But do you notice something; they don’t go into details? Because the job of thinking what to do, how to do, etc. is the job of lower-management-level people whose job is to think about how the company is doing in short-term.

So me myself as a decision maker of my life, I will just have a plan for the future: “Be a millionaire in 10 years.” How to achieve it? the short-term plans? Well, I have something in my mind, but it’s flexible

I did my Ied prayer @ Indonesian Embassy with thousands of other Indonesians. Yet, I met only 5 friends there. It’s dominated by Indonesian professionals (for men) and workers (for women). I thought the prayer started early like what happened in Jakarta, but it started at 8am and finished around 10.15am.

Afterwards, the ambassador announced that there was an open house @ his “Wisma” (his house, basically)… and it was uber-crowded!

Nonetheless, it’s free-and-buffet Indonesian food, and the food was actually awesome! They had fried chicken, rendang, prawn in chilli paste, egg curry, and crackers. Outside they had meatball+noodle and desserts. I literally ate for 2 hours non-stop. I think all the fats I lost during Ramadhan will be recovered in days. *sigh*

During Friday Prayer, I had one of the most awesome-est Khutbah ever! I’m sorry I forgot the name of the Khatib, but he was talking absolute sense about how a Da’i (preacher) have to update themselves, adjusting their style to be more modern and more logical.

He said, “You see why people started to disbelieve in religion, because the da’is nowadays are still conservative, but the audience nowadays are far more educated to believe in Sin without any good reasoning behind it.”

“The first thing Allah told Muhammad was ‘Iqra!’ which literally means ‘Read!’. That means we have to study to gain knowledge to reveal some secrets of Allah.”

“People often mistaken the whole concept of fate. Some people think that they are poor because ‘God has given them the fate to be poor.’ Don’t blame God! Blame yourself why you didn’t study hard enough, or why you weren’t determined enough to educate yourself.”

He also explained something about khusyuk, which many people find it difficult to understand. He said, according to a research -and the researched got a Nobel Prize for this- (again, I forgot the name.. my bad) khusyuk is a state when our brain reached its ‘supra-rational’. That happens when we forget at least 80% of our surroundings and fully prepared to interact with God. I find this fascinating. He could actually define that feeling when you’re “totally into your mind” and actually published a paper explaining how it happened.

Afterwards, I walked around the area to the nearest subway station with a friend. Laughed a lot, had “quality” conversations, lots of funny pictures taken.. life can’t get any better than that.

In the evening I had a “family visit” to my friend’s house. I almost cried wishing I could have the same thing. They were very warm, treated me as if I was part of the family member, and even gave me ang pao! hahaha..

But yeah, that the story of another year celebrating Ied without family. How about yours?