Whenever I wrote a blog, I wanted it to be good, interesting, grammatically correct.
However, I think I avoided programming a little bit too much here, knowing that even simple bold and italic format will start with that sharp bracket.
Maybe I was too lazy that time, I really want to learn how to create an interesting layout for my blog. I even wanted to create another blog now.
I always post blog without seeing how it will turn out, just type with several "enter" button hit. And this new blog surface proofed me that if I want to create a nice blog, that's not the way it should be.
I've been typing in HTML format since I swapped into the new interface, unconsciously. And what's bad is that I never checked how it looked from reader's point of view. And I just checked it this morning and went OMG.
I have many things to learn about web, I want to know more than just browsing. I want to write a nice blog, well, this blog is all about my thoughts where I just want to write. I want to write another blog where I want more people to read it, and I'm still in the stage of thinking what kind of blog will be interesting for me to write and for others to read.
I'll be learning bit by bit to make my blog much more interesting, in term of format!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Back to That Pedestal
You know, I've been comparing every segments of my life to each other.
There's primary school, junior high school, senior high school, college, uni....
And they are all broken to small parts which I compared with my life now.
There are times on a Sunday when I thought, "I didn't have the luxury to enjoy Sundays last semester."
Sometimes I thought, "Did I cook this much last year?"
"I tried harder last semester."
"I was such a lazy boy two years ago."
"How could I perform that well in College?"
"I was such a brat before coming to Melbourne."
There are plus and minus in every time of my life. And what I need to do now, knowing I am already 21 and closing to 22, is to gather all those information, experiences, and spirit to be a better person.
"I need to be hardworking like last semester."
"I want the confidence from last year."
"I am to be a critical thinker when I was in College."
"I have to be patient like the me in high school."
I realise that life's all about balance. I've been trying to find out that balance, but I know 21 years not a long time to gain it, but it's not a short time either, it will all be about my effort to do so.
There are so many "to-do's" and "not-to-do's" in my list. They are piling up, sometimes I lose track to some of them. Everyone wants to be perfect, but facing reality, all we can do is only "close to perfection", and that's what I'm aiming for right now.
I compared my life now with in the past. "I want to be as hardworking like last semester, but do I want the life where I could hardly meet my friends?" "I think I need to be like last year when I was confidence and surrounded by many friends, but was lazy and kept on over spending my parent's money?"
Questions, Reflections......... And find your solution.
Time's running, but time's the one to teach you, to give you experience.
I will question myself, "which one's good for me?"
I will reflect to myself, "which was bad that time?"
These are not regret, even though I had a slight regret, but it's all in the past, I am partly glad. If not because failing, I wouldn't have learnt, I wouldn't have meet those people, I wouldn't be introduced to French. In business term, we call it "Opportunity Costs".
I will take every small rocks of goods from the past and try my best to bring it to present. I will build a pedestal from these rocks for my future. Where I can stand with confidence, just like last year, but with a perfectly built pedestal this time to hold my life till my end of time.
There are times on a Sunday when I thought, "I didn't have the luxury to enjoy Sundays last semester."
Sometimes I thought, "Did I cook this much last year?"
"I tried harder last semester."
"I was such a lazy boy two years ago."
"How could I perform that well in College?"
"I was such a brat before coming to Melbourne."
There are plus and minus in every time of my life. And what I need to do now, knowing I am already 21 and closing to 22, is to gather all those information, experiences, and spirit to be a better person.
"I need to be hardworking like last semester."
"I want the confidence from last year."
"I am to be a critical thinker when I was in College."
"I have to be patient like the me in high school."
I realise that life's all about balance. I've been trying to find out that balance, but I know 21 years not a long time to gain it, but it's not a short time either, it will all be about my effort to do so.
There are so many "to-do's" and "not-to-do's" in my list. They are piling up, sometimes I lose track to some of them. Everyone wants to be perfect, but facing reality, all we can do is only "close to perfection", and that's what I'm aiming for right now.
I compared my life now with in the past. "I want to be as hardworking like last semester, but do I want the life where I could hardly meet my friends?" "I think I need to be like last year when I was confidence and surrounded by many friends, but was lazy and kept on over spending my parent's money?"
Questions, Reflections......... And find your solution.
Time's running, but time's the one to teach you, to give you experience.
I will question myself, "which one's good for me?"
I will reflect to myself, "which was bad that time?"
These are not regret, even though I had a slight regret, but it's all in the past, I am partly glad. If not because failing, I wouldn't have learnt, I wouldn't have meet those people, I wouldn't be introduced to French. In business term, we call it "Opportunity Costs".
I will take every small rocks of goods from the past and try my best to bring it to present. I will build a pedestal from these rocks for my future. Where I can stand with confidence, just like last year, but with a perfectly built pedestal this time to hold my life till my end of time.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
All in One Day
It's Tuesday.
I woke up quite late again, about 8pm and did my morning 'rolling and cuddling' in bed before getting up. I has been lazy these few days, or maybe it has been few weeks? I don't know.
We just did white water rafting on Sunday and it was absolutely fun, I really want to go again, perhaps on stronger current? Anyway, I'm going for skydiving this Saturday and kayaking this Sunday. Skydiving is thrilling and kayaking will be fun for sure. There will also be Festival Indonesia this weekend, which my housemate wants to go to if we finish kayaking early.
I have put my leave application for this Saturday since almost two months ago and it hasn't been approved. It's partly my fault and partly my manager's fault for that. It's my fault for not checking whether my leave has been approved or not. Last time I put my application, I just mention my leave to my manager and he just said yes and asked me to fill up a form, in which I left near the printing machine. It's partly my manager's fault because he didn't say anything about it to me, but he said no to my second in charge. I think he thought that the second in charge will tell me about it, which he didn't, of course. So it's just messing up with out own 'assumptions'.
When I found out that my leave was rejected, I was quite surprised and freaked out as it was 2 weeks before the skydive. I already planned to take sick leave the whole weekend, which occupied a lot of my time. Suddenly my manager called me this afternoon and said that he's trying his best to give me a day off on Saturday. Well, I have been helping him quite a lot, like coming for extra shifts when someone's taking sick leave and staying back for few hours many times. Maybe that's why I was quite pissed when he did not approve my leave. He'll let me know how it goes by tonight, I hope he'll get someone to replace me this Saturday so I don't have to lie about being sick.
That's one weight off me.
When we did rafting, I was the one who made the booking and arranging the car rental. It was quote hard since not everybody is using Facebook regularly and I didn't foresee that. That resulted in few miscommunications and some information did not reach some people. And I was thinking about the skydive and tests as well, so it was a no wonder if I was full of emotion last week. But I still felt really bad being all nasty like that, even I think I was so harsh when making jokes.
Anyway, I learnt a lot of things from that. I called up the car rental company to make sure no extra deductions were made to me. Luckily I paid for insurance and some new scratches that I was not aware of were covered by the insurance. Then I asked my friends who paid for petrol. I just did all calculations for all payments that should go to me, it was good that two of my friends were so quick in responding and they quickly letting me know about deductions from other costs and transferred me the rest of money they owed me. Yeah, I made it easy, all money owed goes to me, I worked out deductions and stuff so people just need to transfer to one person.
That's rafting thingy done, moving to skydive.
I reconfirmed about the booking, what time we need to arrive, and check if we're getting any photos taken by them or not. Then I quickly inform my friends. I haven't arrange how we will meet up yet, I need to do the research tonight I guess. I also need to forward the booking details.
That's not bad at all, eh?
Moving to good news, suddenly the head office called me up and said that I can transfer store to Chadstone, which is close by. I need to walk to station (8 minutes), take the train (10-15 minutes), then take bus (10 minutes). Let's just say that it will take about 30 minutes to get there compared to more than an hour to get to the store I'm working at the moment. I will go to see the assistant store manager tomorrow to discuss my shift, no need for complicated interview as I am fully qualified in bakery department. They want me to work on Sundays, I really hope they can give me a Saturday off since my friends are working and I can only go out with them on weekends most of the time.
There are still many things happened, maybe I'll just make another post as this one's already pretty long? Nah, I'll continue!
I accompanied my friend to see a lecturer who deals with French study abroad. She wants to take summer in French so she can graduate early next year. Fortunately she can! And guess what, even though I will have finished my degree, I can go as well! That's a big 'WOW' from just a question coming out of curiosity. I think I'll ask my parents tonight on what they think of it. Perhaps I can spend another Birthday and New Year in France again?
Would be such a delight! Many good things happened and many tasks completed, All in One Day.
I woke up quite late again, about 8pm and did my morning 'rolling and cuddling' in bed before getting up. I has been lazy these few days, or maybe it has been few weeks? I don't know.
We just did white water rafting on Sunday and it was absolutely fun, I really want to go again, perhaps on stronger current? Anyway, I'm going for skydiving this Saturday and kayaking this Sunday. Skydiving is thrilling and kayaking will be fun for sure. There will also be Festival Indonesia this weekend, which my housemate wants to go to if we finish kayaking early.
I have put my leave application for this Saturday since almost two months ago and it hasn't been approved. It's partly my fault and partly my manager's fault for that. It's my fault for not checking whether my leave has been approved or not. Last time I put my application, I just mention my leave to my manager and he just said yes and asked me to fill up a form, in which I left near the printing machine. It's partly my manager's fault because he didn't say anything about it to me, but he said no to my second in charge. I think he thought that the second in charge will tell me about it, which he didn't, of course. So it's just messing up with out own 'assumptions'.
When I found out that my leave was rejected, I was quite surprised and freaked out as it was 2 weeks before the skydive. I already planned to take sick leave the whole weekend, which occupied a lot of my time. Suddenly my manager called me this afternoon and said that he's trying his best to give me a day off on Saturday. Well, I have been helping him quite a lot, like coming for extra shifts when someone's taking sick leave and staying back for few hours many times. Maybe that's why I was quite pissed when he did not approve my leave. He'll let me know how it goes by tonight, I hope he'll get someone to replace me this Saturday so I don't have to lie about being sick.
That's one weight off me.
When we did rafting, I was the one who made the booking and arranging the car rental. It was quote hard since not everybody is using Facebook regularly and I didn't foresee that. That resulted in few miscommunications and some information did not reach some people. And I was thinking about the skydive and tests as well, so it was a no wonder if I was full of emotion last week. But I still felt really bad being all nasty like that, even I think I was so harsh when making jokes.
Anyway, I learnt a lot of things from that. I called up the car rental company to make sure no extra deductions were made to me. Luckily I paid for insurance and some new scratches that I was not aware of were covered by the insurance. Then I asked my friends who paid for petrol. I just did all calculations for all payments that should go to me, it was good that two of my friends were so quick in responding and they quickly letting me know about deductions from other costs and transferred me the rest of money they owed me. Yeah, I made it easy, all money owed goes to me, I worked out deductions and stuff so people just need to transfer to one person.
That's rafting thingy done, moving to skydive.
I reconfirmed about the booking, what time we need to arrive, and check if we're getting any photos taken by them or not. Then I quickly inform my friends. I haven't arrange how we will meet up yet, I need to do the research tonight I guess. I also need to forward the booking details.
That's not bad at all, eh?
Moving to good news, suddenly the head office called me up and said that I can transfer store to Chadstone, which is close by. I need to walk to station (8 minutes), take the train (10-15 minutes), then take bus (10 minutes). Let's just say that it will take about 30 minutes to get there compared to more than an hour to get to the store I'm working at the moment. I will go to see the assistant store manager tomorrow to discuss my shift, no need for complicated interview as I am fully qualified in bakery department. They want me to work on Sundays, I really hope they can give me a Saturday off since my friends are working and I can only go out with them on weekends most of the time.
There are still many things happened, maybe I'll just make another post as this one's already pretty long? Nah, I'll continue!
I accompanied my friend to see a lecturer who deals with French study abroad. She wants to take summer in French so she can graduate early next year. Fortunately she can! And guess what, even though I will have finished my degree, I can go as well! That's a big 'WOW' from just a question coming out of curiosity. I think I'll ask my parents tonight on what they think of it. Perhaps I can spend another Birthday and New Year in France again?
Would be such a delight! Many good things happened and many tasks completed, All in One Day.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Ready, Set, Spring!
1st Sept 2011.
Today's the mark of beginning of Spring 2011!
While I'm browsing twitter and Facebook quite late in the morning, I realised that this September many people have many things going on. Good on us! Looks like spring really bring positive energy after all!
Like other festive feeling of welcoming something new, I start this spring by cleaning up my room (again). But it's a little bit different, since I'm welcoming one tiny piece of furniture to my room. ^^
It's a bed-side table! Yep, I just got a nice one for $15 not including delivery. It's a wooden wide one, not a bad price in my opinion. I've been using a storage box from IKEA as bed-side table for slightly more than half a year. Luckily it's a good looking storage box, so it's not that bad.
Now my room is becoming more spacious, cleaner, and I'm going to make it tidier. I hope with the existence of this bedside table, it won't be as messy as before when I do my reading before sleep.
I think I'll do a little bit washing as well, and a bit of cooking, and..... ironing! Tomorrow's I'll be working for 8 hours 2 days straight, gonna be tiring.
And this weekend is White Water Rafting!
Here comes my adventurous spring!
Today's the mark of beginning of Spring 2011!
While I'm browsing twitter and Facebook quite late in the morning, I realised that this September many people have many things going on. Good on us! Looks like spring really bring positive energy after all!
Like other festive feeling of welcoming something new, I start this spring by cleaning up my room (again). But it's a little bit different, since I'm welcoming one tiny piece of furniture to my room. ^^
It's a bed-side table! Yep, I just got a nice one for $15 not including delivery. It's a wooden wide one, not a bad price in my opinion. I've been using a storage box from IKEA as bed-side table for slightly more than half a year. Luckily it's a good looking storage box, so it's not that bad.
Now my room is becoming more spacious, cleaner, and I'm going to make it tidier. I hope with the existence of this bedside table, it won't be as messy as before when I do my reading before sleep.
I think I'll do a little bit washing as well, and a bit of cooking, and..... ironing! Tomorrow's I'll be working for 8 hours 2 days straight, gonna be tiring.
And this weekend is White Water Rafting!
Here comes my adventurous spring!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Embracing Spring
After embracing winter from few months ago, we're embracing spring now, well in two days to be exact.
I just realised that my last post was on the independence day of indonesia, and now my post is on idul fitri, talk about Indonesian big days!
Anyway, last week was as warm as middle of spring but this week it's becoming cooler, but it still feels like spring!
Starting last Sunday, I've started my Spring adventures.
Yup, there are so many things I'm doing this spring, rock climbing, white water rafting, sky diving, kayaking....
Gonna be exciting for sure!
And I haven't mention other stuffs as well!
I wish that this spring will be a great season for me!
I just realised that my last post was on the independence day of indonesia, and now my post is on idul fitri, talk about Indonesian big days!
Anyway, last week was as warm as middle of spring but this week it's becoming cooler, but it still feels like spring!
Starting last Sunday, I've started my Spring adventures.
Yup, there are so many things I'm doing this spring, rock climbing, white water rafting, sky diving, kayaking....
Gonna be exciting for sure!
And I haven't mention other stuffs as well!
I wish that this spring will be a great season for me!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Job-hunting, Aug 2011
This week was full on job hunting, resume checking, and creating cover letters.
I know it sounds too soon for me, who'll complete in November, to look for a job in August.
But we need to keep in mind that I'm actually already LATE at job-hunting, I should have gone for interviews for graduate position if I've applied for graduate positions which most of them closed last month.
I just realised that we've got different culture here compared to in Indonesia.
Most of people in Indonesia will wait for graduation before trying to look for job.
I can be done here, I'm not saying it's wrong, but apparently these Aussies are much smarter and ahead than us.
Most students here, especially for those high-achievers, has already secured a job in a 2-year contract in graduate program in leading companies.
This is the time for me to regret why I didn't study harder and score high marks across my subjects in uni.
But let me see the bright side, I got the chance to learn French, which will be impossible if I graduate sooner as I would choose to learn Germany. I met many new friends, good ones. And I'm still in Australia, enjoying every second here.
Things has not been very friendly to me though, but somehow this semester I managed to see things positively and acted positively too.
Back to topic.
Yes, I was rushing a job application that I really want, but I only managed to get my documents to be checked once.
I was late on Monday and it was already full on Wednesday (today).
I think my documents are good, but I'm sure there are rooms for improvements.
I just hope that those bunch of people who wanted to get their documents checked do not apply for the same job that I do, lol.
But overall, I think I'm qualified for the job, just wishing that no one has better resume than me.
Nevertheless, it will be a good practice for me to make resume and cover letter.
If this fails, I'll still stay positive and try looking again, my deadline's November so I need to rush things a bit.
I know it sounds too soon for me, who'll complete in November, to look for a job in August.
But we need to keep in mind that I'm actually already LATE at job-hunting, I should have gone for interviews for graduate position if I've applied for graduate positions which most of them closed last month.
I just realised that we've got different culture here compared to in Indonesia.
Most of people in Indonesia will wait for graduation before trying to look for job.
I can be done here, I'm not saying it's wrong, but apparently these Aussies are much smarter and ahead than us.
Most students here, especially for those high-achievers, has already secured a job in a 2-year contract in graduate program in leading companies.
This is the time for me to regret why I didn't study harder and score high marks across my subjects in uni.
But let me see the bright side, I got the chance to learn French, which will be impossible if I graduate sooner as I would choose to learn Germany. I met many new friends, good ones. And I'm still in Australia, enjoying every second here.
Things has not been very friendly to me though, but somehow this semester I managed to see things positively and acted positively too.
Back to topic.
Yes, I was rushing a job application that I really want, but I only managed to get my documents to be checked once.
I was late on Monday and it was already full on Wednesday (today).
I think my documents are good, but I'm sure there are rooms for improvements.
I just hope that those bunch of people who wanted to get their documents checked do not apply for the same job that I do, lol.
But overall, I think I'm qualified for the job, just wishing that no one has better resume than me.
Nevertheless, it will be a good practice for me to make resume and cover letter.
If this fails, I'll still stay positive and try looking again, my deadline's November so I need to rush things a bit.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Monash Association of Debaters (MAD)
How long has it been since my last post?
I know I'm lazy, I'm trying to post regularly but procrastination is still my biggest issue, lol.
This is week 3, not like I have anymore class this week since my classes are on Mondays to Wednesdays.
Not many assignments coming up yet. Well, not like I have many assignments anyway since I'm doing only 1 subject, duh.
So I kept on wondering these few weeks, what should I do to fill up my free time?
At first I thought of working, but not really possible since they only need me on weekends at the moment.
I don't really like weekends shift as it's the time I hang around with my friends who are working.
So I thought to myself, let's enjoy uni life, clubs!
I joined French Society since last semester, but they haven't done anything these few weeks.
I emailed Japanese club, but they didn't reply me yet.
I emailed MAD (see title) and they replied in few hours! The reply was very encouraging and I know that MAD is an active club and has been winning many competitions.
That's how I joined them on Monday, their weekly meeting was at 5pm.
I was quite surprised to see one small lecture hall used for this club at first.
There are so many students involved in this club, soon I found out that most of them are Law students which explained why they got the whole law building for them.
I was clueless when I entered the hall, there are some people in front and one lady was shouting about "sign-up", so off I go to see her and expressed my interest. Sure thing she immediately type in her laptop my full name.
"Hmm, funny." I thought, "Shouldn't they give me a form, ask my student ID, and check if I'm a MSA member?"
*MSA member: Monash Student Association, you need to pay about $60 per year and you'll get several benefit on stores and clubs in Monash Clayton Campus.
After she jotted down my name, I realised that she is taking the names for who want to join the DEBATE that night!
"S**T!!!!" came through my mind without spoken, "What have I done?!?! Should I take my name off ASAP????"
But then I taught myself, "Why did I join this club for? I want confidence and public-speaking skill."
That's why even though I'm clueless about debate I still left my name written in the role.
At first I sat by myself until they called my team mate, who is having his second debate but first BP style debate.
Well, at least he can teach me how this debate will go.
But the preparation time was only 15 minutes, and it wasn't even enough for us to brain storm, nonetheless to teach me how it goes.
And there I went for my first debate ever, me being second opposition with the topic: "This house will ban offensive music." (Wordings changed, of course they use much more elegant sentences)
Everyone was really good, there are three people before me and I was the last speaker.
When I went to the front for my speech, my mind went blank, I was nervous and panicking!
The room ended up being in perfect silence thanks to me.
After I started my first sentence, eveything went quite well, I was pretty surprised at myself as well.
We didn't win the debate though, I took to many POI (Point Of Information) which I didn't know that we should only take 4 max and me taking all of those, haha....
After first debate, we had pizza for dinner, and of course the club's paying for it, which is really nice! I'll be having pizza every Monday!
Second debate didn't go really well for my team, but I was more fluent than the first one.
We finished at 10pm and luckily my team mate is kind enough to drive me back home, rather than me taking bus and walk 15 minutes since my usual last bus is at 9pm.
I was so happy and proud of myself when every one, especially seniors said that it didn't look like it was my first time doing it even if it's totally true!
This is MAD's website, we can browse many things related to debating:
http://www.monashdebaters.com/
I know I'm lazy, I'm trying to post regularly but procrastination is still my biggest issue, lol.
This is week 3, not like I have anymore class this week since my classes are on Mondays to Wednesdays.
Not many assignments coming up yet. Well, not like I have many assignments anyway since I'm doing only 1 subject, duh.
So I kept on wondering these few weeks, what should I do to fill up my free time?
At first I thought of working, but not really possible since they only need me on weekends at the moment.
I don't really like weekends shift as it's the time I hang around with my friends who are working.
So I thought to myself, let's enjoy uni life, clubs!
I joined French Society since last semester, but they haven't done anything these few weeks.
I emailed Japanese club, but they didn't reply me yet.
I emailed MAD (see title) and they replied in few hours! The reply was very encouraging and I know that MAD is an active club and has been winning many competitions.
That's how I joined them on Monday, their weekly meeting was at 5pm.
I was quite surprised to see one small lecture hall used for this club at first.
There are so many students involved in this club, soon I found out that most of them are Law students which explained why they got the whole law building for them.
I was clueless when I entered the hall, there are some people in front and one lady was shouting about "sign-up", so off I go to see her and expressed my interest. Sure thing she immediately type in her laptop my full name.
"Hmm, funny." I thought, "Shouldn't they give me a form, ask my student ID, and check if I'm a MSA member?"
*MSA member: Monash Student Association, you need to pay about $60 per year and you'll get several benefit on stores and clubs in Monash Clayton Campus.
After she jotted down my name, I realised that she is taking the names for who want to join the DEBATE that night!
"S**T!!!!" came through my mind without spoken, "What have I done?!?! Should I take my name off ASAP????"
But then I taught myself, "Why did I join this club for? I want confidence and public-speaking skill."
That's why even though I'm clueless about debate I still left my name written in the role.
At first I sat by myself until they called my team mate, who is having his second debate but first BP style debate.
Well, at least he can teach me how this debate will go.
But the preparation time was only 15 minutes, and it wasn't even enough for us to brain storm, nonetheless to teach me how it goes.
And there I went for my first debate ever, me being second opposition with the topic: "This house will ban offensive music." (Wordings changed, of course they use much more elegant sentences)
Everyone was really good, there are three people before me and I was the last speaker.
When I went to the front for my speech, my mind went blank, I was nervous and panicking!
The room ended up being in perfect silence thanks to me.
After I started my first sentence, eveything went quite well, I was pretty surprised at myself as well.
We didn't win the debate though, I took to many POI (Point Of Information) which I didn't know that we should only take 4 max and me taking all of those, haha....
After first debate, we had pizza for dinner, and of course the club's paying for it, which is really nice! I'll be having pizza every Monday!
Second debate didn't go really well for my team, but I was more fluent than the first one.
We finished at 10pm and luckily my team mate is kind enough to drive me back home, rather than me taking bus and walk 15 minutes since my usual last bus is at 9pm.
I was so happy and proud of myself when every one, especially seniors said that it didn't look like it was my first time doing it even if it's totally true!
This is MAD's website, we can browse many things related to debating:
http://www.monashdebaters.com/
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