Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

December 31st, 2009
Posted in Personal, Short story

I’m so happy with this month December because of the snow, but it’s not okay for those people who got stuck at Utrecht central station and Groningen because the trains didn’t arrive!


My neighbour’s snowman.

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App Review: Hootsuite for iPhone

December 17th, 2009
Posted in Applications, Personal

I just got Hootsuite for iphone yesterday. At first I thought it was a nice app which seems to be a mix of Tweetie 2 and tweetdeck. I said Tweetdeck because I can make groups and if I want to go to replies, groups, etc I have to swipe the timeline. I said Tweetie 2 because Hootsuite has “pull down to refresh” feature, just like what Tweetie 2 has. I like owl and the colours of Hootsuite. But after tweeting for a while, I noticed that Hootsuite crashes whenever someone added a geotag on his/her tweet. Then I tried to compare it with other twitter apps and ended up thinking that Hootsuite app is an unfinished app, or you can say: a very beta one! Here’s why:

- Hootsuite crashes if someone added a geotag on his/her tweet.
- I can’t view thread conversation.
- I can’t browse my followings and followers lists.
- I can’t see the RT if someone uses a new RT style to RT.
- I can’t browse tweeple list if I want to mention someone on my tweet.
- Hootsuite has no inline image viewing.
- On profile, you don’t know whether or not I’ve followed/unfollowed someone
- No “mark twitter as spam” option
- No instapaper integration
- I have to go to someone’s profile if I want to DM him/her (I could do d @twitterusername message, but it’s not handy if someone doesn’t know how to do it, his/her tweet can easily go to the twitter timeline, while in Tweetie if I want to DM someone, I can go to DM tab, click on the compose button and it will let me choose whether I want to send a DM or a tweet).
- It doesn’t recognise the hashtags I have used like what Tweetie and Twittelator Pro do.

Afterall, I like the organised tabs which I can edit the way I want to, I’m also able to add lists, view my stats although it only gives me a statistic about the links I’ve created with the built in ow.ly shortener.

Maybe you have found another disadvantages of using Hootsuite app for the iPhone, just let me know. But my advice for this app is that you better wait til the developers released a better update, unless you’re a big fan of Hootsuite. For now, Hootsuite isn’t my favourite twitter app for the iPhone, even though I like the looks. I still prefer Tweetie, Twitterrific and Twittelator Pro because these apps have better features and Twitterrific has a really nice design! I’ve noticed that IconFactory team has made their apps with a big love! ;-)

Being Decisive

December 8th, 2009
Posted in Feeling, Learning, Personal

Getting information is important, no matter if you get it from the internet, or offline world. But sometime it just isn’t enough. For the example, you have a hard time to decide what you want to study; For days, weeks, even months you try to decide. Doubting between 2 studies sucks, we all know that! And that’s why you’re obviously searching for all the informations you need to know about both things.

Normally, what I’ve decided is really what I want. But this time I realised that getting information is not yet enough to know that this study is really what I want without experiencing it. By experiencing I meant I have to be in the class and see what kind of things I’ll get in the class.

Last year I’ve studied print design. At first I’d doubted between it and web-design. I can make website layout but I’ve never studied it, I’ve learnt it from the internet. I’d decided to take the print design course and I’m graduated in the same year. I’d told my mom once that I’ve planned to take web-design course after it, but during the time I’ve seen that lots of companies didn’t only ask for someone whose knowledge is only in print design, but also in graphic design, so after searching for all the informations I needed to know about it I thought it’s really what I needed and that’s why I took graphic design course which I’m still doing at this moment.

Few days ago, my mom asked me,”is graphic design really something for you? Are there lots of companies that look for a graphic designers?” I answered,”yes, of course! Why?” “It’s okay, I was just curious.” After this conversation I made a flashback about what I’ve been getting at my college, whether I really like it, and I also remembered what I had told her earlier about my plan. Yesterday evening I talked to the director of my college about the course I want to take and I told a few of my classmates that I’m going to take another course and stop with graphic design. During photography class I realised more that it’s really not my thing, no matter how hard I’ve tried, it didn’t seem enough to convince myself that I really can do it. By the way I was (still I am) a fool who hadn’t expected that I’d have to print a lot! I’ve been working digitally for years! Even if I’ve taken a pictures, I have them on my computer, and flickr photo stream. On my way back to my house I felt a total failure, I discussed with my parents about it and hopefully I don’t have to pay for a complete course, now that I’ve been studying graphic design for 3 months (I still have a few months to go).

Making a decision can be this hard! I’d almost always been decisive before, also when I had to choose which thing I wanted to buy; After a few minutes of thinking and comparing, I could choose without doubting after I’ve bought it.

Now let’s just imagine if you’ve made a wrong decision, what would you feel? Maybe you don’t really feel bad, but maybe you do. It all depends on what kind of decision you’ve made. Maybe you’ve spent more than a year studying something which is not really your thing at all. I would feel a total failure, especially if I have spent a long time because time goes so quick and I would feel that I’ve wasted my time and energy. But on the other side, I would never know what good is for me if I haven’t experienced it. At my college, my only favourite subject is drawing, and the rest?!? Hmmm….ewww! But now that I knew I’ve spent 3 months for a course that’s not my thing, I’m not going to regret and complain about it but to realise that I now can make a decision. Because if I didn’t experience with studying what I’ve been studying, maybe I would still doubt between graphic and web-design. Sometime, you not only need to imagine, but also to feel, eh? If you know what I meant.

trilingual and weblog’s problem

November 20th, 2009
Posted in Personal, random opinion

Mungkin banyak orang yang mengira kalau bisa bicara lebih dari 1 bahasa itu canggih! Ya, mungkin begitu, tapi aku yang mengalaminya, disamping punya keuntungan tetapi juga punya kesulitan tertentu. Misalnya aja ngeblog, tiap kali mau posting mikir dulu:”gua pakai bahasa apa yah postingnya? Inggris? Indonesia? Belanda?

Hallah!

Dan juga kesulitan karena ada kata-kata yang hanya saya ngerti dalam bahasa Belanda, atau hanya dalam bahasa Indonesia, atau hanya dalam bahasa Inggris, jadi kalo saya butuh waktu yang lama buat ngeblog, itu udah biasa. Dan lagi banyak drafts yang masih harus di publish!

Buat orang yang tinggal di luar negeri, apalagi yang bahasa sehari-harinya bukanlah bahasa Inggris, saya yakin punya masalah yang serupa. Alhasil bahasa yang digunakan dalam weblog saya lebih dari 1 bahasa. Masalah ini bukan hanya di bidang weblog aja, di kehidupan sehari-haripun ada. Saya yang masih belajar desain grafis ini dapat kelas fotografi. Denger dan menulis yang penting-penting apa yang dibilang sama dosen. Oke, tentang sluitertijd, diafragma, ISO. Kalo ISO oke deh, itu internasional. Tapi sluitertijd? Saya hanya bisa ngangguk-ngangguk, ya saya kira saya mengerti; Tapi setelah pulang ke rumah dan cari info tentang sluitertijd dan diafragma, ternyata yang dimaksud sluitertijd atau belichtingstijd itu tuh Exposure! Dan diafragma itu ya maksudnya Shutter! Hallah! Bahasa Inggris kok diterjemah ke bahasa Belanda? Menyebalkan :) Bahasa Indonesianya Shutter dan Exposure?!? Hell, I don’t know! ;) Jadilah saya orang yang paling bego di kelas! :)

Saya lahir didalam keluarga (pihak ibu) yang bisa berbahasa Belanda. Bahkan bahasa Belanda adalah bahasa pertama ibu saya. Ibu saya memang lahir di Indonesia, di Bogor tepatnya. Tapi, bahasa sehari-hari yang digunakan orang tuanya (terlebih nenek saya) adalah bahasa Belanda. Maklum lah kalau di hari pertama ibuku sekolah, beliau dipulangkan kembali ke rumah, karena nggak ngerti sama penjelasan bu guru. Akhirnya, ibuku harus belajar bahasa Indonesia selama setahun, lalu balik lagi masuk sekolah. Dan karena ibuku tinggal di Indonesia dan setelah itu lebih menggunakan bahasa Indonesia, ibukupun tidak fasih berbahasa Belanda lagi. Tapi, ibuku masih membawa beberapa kata-kata dalam bahasa Belanda sampai aku lahir, beliau menamai tirai = gordijn, penghapus = stift (setip), lemari es = koelkast, tempat cuci tangan = wastafel (sampai sekarangpun saya nggak tau arti wastafel dalam bahasa Indonesia, apa betul artinya tempat cuci tangan? Itu terjemahan saya sendiri). Dan masih banyak lagi.

Seringkali saya berpikir,”kenapa yah gua gak tinggal di Amerika aja? Atau di England? Udah cape gua dengerin orang ngomong bahasa Belanda! Bahasa yang nyebelin!” Bahasa Indonesia itu mudah, karena gak ada kata-kata lampau dan yang akan datang!

Yesterday, I’m going to …. [isi apa aja]
Today, I’m going to … [isi apa aja]

Tapi bahasa Indonesia punya arti banyak dalam satu kata! Yang dimaksud itu adalah panggilan. Seringkali saya berpikir,”gua mau pakai gua-elo, atau saya-kamu, atau aku-kamu yah sama orang ini?!? Yang mana yang cocok?” Atau,”sebaiknya gua panggil dia apa yah? Ibu? Tante? Bapak? Atau panggil namanya aja?” Perlu kalian tahu, kalo di Belanda sini banyak orang yang memanggil orang tua mereka dengan sebutan nama, jadi mereka panggil Paul, Marijke (or whatever their names are), mereka tidak memanggil dengan sebutan ibu, bapa, atau mamma, pappa. Jika saya berbicara dengan seorang yang tidak dikenal, saya menggunakan kata “U” yang artinya adalah anda (apalagi kalau lawan bicara saya lebih tua dari saya). Tapi, stelah mengenal orang itu, saya gunakan kata “jij” yang artinya adalah kamu. Juga saya panggil dosen saya dengan sebutan nama, bukan bapak, bukan ibu, juga tidak menggunakan kata “U” tapi “jij”. Begitupun kalau saya manggil boss saya, tidak pakai bapak, atau ibu. Panggil namanya aja :)

Yang paling membingungkan itu kalo orang-orang Indonesia ngumpul disini. Alhasil, saya harus menggunakan bahasa Indonesia dan Belanda, yang dalam waktu beberapa menit ganti-ganti, tergantung lawan bicaranya siapa. Karena banyak juga yang diantara mereka tidak bisa bahasa Indonesia karena lahir disini. Nah, disini bingung deh sama kata panggilan. Alhasil, sayapun jadi sering seperti orang gagap :)

Ada yang senasib dengan saya? Or am I just the only one?

That guy is really a jerk

October 7th, 2009
Posted in Personal, Short story

Here is a conversation between a girl and a guy, in a cruise ship. And no, that girl wasn’t me and the guy was a flirty waiter, but I like how the conversation ended up!

Waiter: Good morning, miss! How are you doing today? Wanna have some cocktail?
The girl: Good morning! I’m fine, thank you! Cocktail? That’s okay!

They walked together to the bar.

Waiter: I want you to try out our special cocktail
Girl: What’s the mix?
Waiter: Bailey
Girl: Oh no, I don’t like Bailey
Waiter: Why? It’s extremely delicious!
Girl: No, I prefer sex on the beach!
Waiter: But we are in a ship, you know!
Girl (laugh): I know! I meant the cocktail!
Waiter: OMG! Yea! But we can go by boat to the beach, too!
Girl: Haha! Nice try! I’m sorry, hard to get!!

Sex on the beach’s cocktail arrived. The barman added 2 straws for them in one glass. They started to drink it, but the guy looked at her with his eyes widely open. You know, the typical Middle East one who has big eyes.

Girl: Don’t look at me like that!!
Waiter: Why?!?
Girl: You made me think of a gold fish!

I’m sure he felt pissed! LOL