Flash

Just thought I'd take a sneak photograph of the little guy at 4.30am when his old man woke up and couldn't go back to bed.

Exiled from your last defense post

Your own blood made you travel far just to to tell you that you're not a part of her life. I don't know how to handle that situation.
When you lose your family, you turn on your job, or what's left of it. When there's nothing left there, it really is a small world. You'd grasp any friendly gesture left. Whatever goes.
Two lost souls meet together, nature still have some compassion left. Boy leads girls confidently, not knowing what's in front. Don't worry, he says, everything will be fine. Girl believes anything as long as they're together. That's what love should be.

Sudah 3 tahun ya, Nak?

Fotonya waktu masih kecil

Sudah lama rasanya tidak menulis tentang Little Indira, rasanya aku terlalu banyak memborbardir akun Facebookku dengan foto-fotonya, aku sudah tidak ingat kapan aku memasang fotoku sendiri sebagai profil. Pasti foto dia.

1 month old

Kupikir-pikir, kasihan juga Mamanya, jangan-jangan merasa dicuekin karena aku sibuk.
Mungkin kalau ditanya aku akan banyak mengeluh karena dia nakal, lambat bicara, belum juga hafal alfabet, masih minta digendong. Tapi sebenarnya aku bangga padanya, bangga sekali. Bangga karena apa yang dapat dilakukannya, bangga pada inisiatifnya, bangga hanya karena ia masih berdiri dan berlari-lari sesukanya. Rasanya apapun yang dilakukannya, kentut sekalipun, reaksi pertamaku adalah bangga. Sudah lepas masanya aku selalu takut, takut dia kekurangan darah, kekurangan makan, kurang beratnya, tidak cukup tinggi, belum pandai berdiri. Sekarang aku sudah sering membiarkannya pergi semaunya, berinteraksi dengan sebanyak mungkin orang, tabrakan dengan orang asing di mal. Sudah masanya untuknya menapak kaki dan mulai menorehkan namanya di dunia ini.
Sekarang adalah waktunya aku mulai khawatir. Khawatir, bukan takut. Mungkin beda istilah, tapi sebenarnya tidak jauh berbeda. Kalau takut itu waktu dia masih kecil, kebanyakannya berhubungan dengan fungsi fisiknya sebagai manusia, yang kalau tidak dipenuhinya, aku merasa takut ia akan cacat. Sekarang khawatir, usianya sedikit lebih besar, tapi tetap saja sebenarnya belum bisa ditinggal sendiri. Belum bisa tidur sendiri, belum bisa mandi sendiri, belum bisa buang air sendiri.

1,5 yo

2,5 yo

Mungkin dia bisa memberi pengumuman kalau ia ingin buang air, tapi proses pembuangan itu tetap membutuhkan asistensi, dan benda kecil lucu yang mengganjal pantatnya di toilet.

Potty seat, Thou are so useful.
Bisa nyungsep pantat anakku kalau tidak ada dikau.

Rasanya, sebagai orang tua, khawatir itu adalah resiko pekerjaan sekaligus hak yang bisa kunikmati karena menjadi orang tua. Kadang khawatir itu adalah beban, tapi kadang itu terasa sebagai reward.

How to kill time

Occasionally you will find yourself waiting for something or someone. I find that that shouldn't stop e rest of your activities. Some of my best works are done in between meetings or when I'm enjoying quiet evenings. I can also superseed my duedates and work in a less stressing environment (I'm don't like working at the last minutes).

1. Reevaluate your daily plan. You can check if any was left out.
2. Observe your sorrounding. One form of learning is vicarious learning. That's when you get to learn from other people's experience.
3. Breathing. You may not notice it, but diffent forms of breathing affect you phisically and emotionally.

Train and Sand Kit Sets

I was getting something when I saw Ravi lining these up. One piece of the train set lost it's magnetic piece so he can't put them together. I tried consoling him by giving an alternative, why not make it a set of two trains? He didn't buy it. Then I saw this. He took out a sand playing kit, a set of 4, and took each piece of the train of the train set to each sand's.
Problem was, the weren't enough space for the set.
So he cried. Hey, he's just a kid.
Dad came to the rescue. Why not this formation, Son? I noticed one of the train piece was missing. I couldn't find Ravi, too.
I couldn't find him. He was busy getting something for the missing train piece. The fourth piece of the train set was getting its load :)

There you are

So, there. Everything is set. I went back to my business.
Then, I saw the pieces moved to his playing table.

Unsatisfied, he moved the sets

Turned out he still want them aligned. It's not straight, but I think that's his consolation.

Sort of straight

Well, whatever, kid. It's your toys. 

Culture shock

It has been a while since I've contemplated this. Now everything is staring me in the face. Could this be it? I'm not even going to bother thinking about it. It is, as they say, in the journey.
Let's start the *ss kicking. ;)

Numbers

What is it about numbers that is so attention grabbing? I was starting a car when it reads 17:17, I just stopped and had to write something.

Are you celebrating Idul Fitri now?

When is Lebaran anyway?
Whenever you want to celebrate it, have a Happy Idul Fitri. Hope your Ramadhan was insightful.

Present yourself

You're bound to be in a spot to present ideas to others someday.
I read this book on Steve Jobs' presentation skills. It highlights 9 elements of great presentation:

1. Headline
2. Passion Statement
3. Three Key Messages
4. Metaphors And Analogies
5. Demonstrations
6. Partners
7. Customer Evidence And Third-Party Endorsements
8. Video Clips
9. Flip Charts, Props, And Show-And-Tell

Sure, you can't use it universally and literally, tweak it to your needs. Some of the points concerning stories, analogies and passion remind me of Seth Godin. I guess it's all about making your audience as passionate as you are. 

Just throw it (hiccup) away!

Little Indira had a hiccup just now. Not unusual. It's just that now that he's more assertive and articulative, he had a new reaction to it.
Everytime he had the hiccup, he would gesture throwing something out of his mouth and yell "Buang aja," or "Just throw it away". He was angry, and his shortened tolerance just gave way to more hiccup and more yelling. G and I were too busy laughing, but I remembered something and quickly caught him on tape (well, not tape per se, nobody uses tape these days; I recorded it) and sent the video to some witness to ensure a mighty humiliation in the future :D (poor kid).
After it went away, I quickly looked it up. Do you know there are 250 cures for hiccup? I will never look at hiccup the same way again.

Spending time commuting

I don't have the necessary ability to be able to commute anymore, that's why I always have the profound respect to commuters. It's the waiting that I can't understand, but that's just me.

Here are some of the things that you can do while waiting:

1. Wall yourself with a pair of headphones. When your sorrounding is barely acceptable and you just can't wait to get there. Watch your bag, though.
2. A good read. If you like to read, you can easily be flown elsewhere. It doesn't have to be a book, it can be your favorite RSS reader or ebook reader. I don't really understand fiction, but RSS can waste hours for me. You can be reading just about anything very seriously, so it's easy to spend many time. If you're using a screen instead of a paper, be mindful or the contrast ratio.
3. Hum. No, you don't have to start a tune, dance with a suddenly sorrounding mob and run around in the rain. You can still have that in your head though, but keep your feet and those around you dry.
4. Games. You can even be entertaining to those around you.
5. Photo crazy. There's Picplz, MyTubo or Instagram. It's easier to take pictures and there are many filters to choose. Go crazy.

 

Which?

The next time you hear/read someone says something like "Sometimes.." or "Somewhere..", make sure to ask, "When?" or "Where?" and push them to be specific. It's easy to appear wise when you're vague. Probe them to be concise, "What exactly do you mean?"

Tulisan yang Menarik

Tulisan yang menarik tidak hanya bergantung pada informasi yang kita berikan, tapi juga cara kita menyampaikan informasi tersebut.

Dalam keseharian, mungkin kita kerap punya waktu yang sempit untuk menulis mengenai hal tertentu. Saya belum menemukan tips yang dapat digunakan untuk semua jenis tulisan, tapi tips di bawah ini dapat digunakan untuk berbagai macam tulisan.

1. Judul yang menarik perhatian
2. Pilihlah kata-kata yang tidak terlalu rumit dan teknikal, dengan demikian akan lebih banyak lagi orang yang dapat memahami tulisan tersebut
3. Gunakan kalimat yang pendek dan sederhana. Informasi yang menarik adalah informasi yang dapat dimengerti dengan mudah

Happy 3rd

My baby, my little indira is 3 years old yesterday. It has been a roller coaster ride, one that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
Here's the little man in some of his glories 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Decided that I would relaunched the site again.

how to install subtitles into an avi movie - Penelusuran Google

how to install subtitles into an avi movie - Penelusuran Google

Khalid, a dear nephew, was tinkering something with his dad just now. They were busy unzipping something. I asked what were they doing, but got a hint from Benny, my dear brother in law, that he was letting Khalid take a swing at it. So I let them be, for about two minutes :p

I hovered around again and found that they were trying to insert a subtitle file into an avi movie. That's cute (to me). I thought, how hard can it be.

5 minutes in Khalid's netbook got me frustrated, so I went back to my place (a scooch away, we live nearby) and did a simple search. It turned out that the process was more complex than I thought. Called Khalid back and explained that he needed to download two software.

A space, then the growing teenager grunted back at me, "Maybe we'll do it later." I sensed a disappointment in him. A little fire died. A curiosity died. I was sad.