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Farewell Eva

August 13th, 2004. Published under Daily Journal, Games. No Comments.

I could hardly open my eyes this morning. I definitely lacked sleeping lately. I couldn’t even sleep regularly. Gosh, I remembered that I would go to Jember this afternoon so I must get up and worked from the first shift.

Today is tha last working day for Eva Soeryono, a co-worker. Vebby delightedly switched her computer with Eva’s. Maybe she’s the happiest person related to Eva’s departure. We also set up a small farewell party at about 16.00. After her short speech, some of us were given the chance to say something to her. It could be an advice, a message, or anything. Freddy, Lisa H., Herlina, Yendy told us how they felt about her. So predictable, they mostly said the good part only.

To keep everything in balance, I used my chance to show the bad part. I said about how annoying her mak-lampir-style-laughter, about how I hated her pulling my shirts, about how she annoyingly forces others to do things for her. I didn’t know how she felt when she heard me saying those things. The truth was I didn’t wanna know. Some said that I was too cruel. The hell with that. For me, saying the truth although it hurts is way much better than saying the pleasant but fake things. I was asked to tell what I felt and I did so. I didn’t want to talk the bad things only behind her back but right at her face. Believe me or not, I didn’t mean to offense or hurt her. I didn’t say the bad things because I hated her, but I just wanted her to know her weaknesses and do something about them. It didn’t also mean that I’m the all-perfect man that has the right to judge her whatsoever. I know that my self as well as others have our own weaknesses. It’s okay for me though, to have weaknesses. But it’s not okay if they start to annoy or disturb others. In this case, you must realize it or somebody must make you realize.

Well, this is me. It’s easy for me to spot others’ faults but mine. And I know that it is pretty annoying to others tehehe. Meanwhile, Vebby had a present for her. An underwear, or a bikini, I didn’t see it clearly. But Eva felt so embarrassed when little Shierly forced her to put it on.

I had reserved a seat from Jaya Utama to travel to Jember this afternoon but my auntie sent me a message that Harlin Travel–my other auntie’s transport company–was going to send a car to Jember at about 20.00. Then she asked me if I would go with Harlin instead. It was a good news, it meant saving 40 thousands rupiahs. Soon I called Jaya Utama to cancel my reservation. The car picked me up when I was eating. I ate fast so the driver didn’t wait too long.

When I just got in, my phone rang. It’s Jonathan asking about an RO stuff. We stopped at the office to pick up the real driver. The one who picked me up is actually not a driver but an office boy. Only the driver and me, we went to Jember right away. I sat on the front chair to accompany the driver. We had a little chat until we arrived at the toll gate. He stopped the car and told me that he wanted to wait the other car. It’s okay for me. Suddenly my phone rang for the second time. It’s him again asking the same RO stuff again. Haha, he started to get addicted to RO, too. Damn it, it had been more than an hour and the car we were waiting still didn’t show up. I lost my patience but could do nothing. I didn’t pay the ticket. So I moved to the back seat and tried to sleep. Some times later the driver returned and told me that the other car had not shown up yet so he decided to leave. Finally…

Shoot!!! We stopped again at a mechanic. The driver told me that he needed to repair a broken tire. I didn’t give a damn and continued sleeping. We finally arrived at my house at about 2.00AM. Can you believe it, it took us 6 hours from Surabaya to Jember. Forget it, we arrived safely anyway. I gave the driver a tip and went inside my house. My mom opened the door. She’d been waiting for me all the night. My beloved mom.

Sing, sing, and sink

August 8th, 2004. Published under Daily Journal. 1 Comment.

Got up at around 11 AM this morning. Was it still morning? No big deal, it’s Sunday anyway. My friends and me were gonna have a karaoke session at NAV Kebon Bibit at 1PM. So I got ready and headed there. Some of them had been there when I arrived: Vebby—our event organizer, Lusida (Nyo), li’l Shierly, Yendy, and Bambang (correct me). The rest catched up later: Eva (vles), Herlina, Lisa (Bleh), Carla, Dinny, and Yunus. For that many people, we booked a suit for two hours. The good news was we got a free lunch for approximately 8 persons. I’d like Bakmi Goreng, but Vebby insisted on Nasi Goreng Ikan Asin. There’s no point arguing with her cause I was there to sing, not eat. I had lunch before at home anyway.

Enemy of the day: me

When we entered the singing room, I fired up Britney’s Toxic and sang along. Everybody was complaining but I kept singing. The next song was Dinny’s. I offered the others to pick their songs but nobody took the chance so I queued my own picks, about five songs. Just after Dinny finished her singing, I grabbed the mike once again and started to sing my next songs. Damn it, why couldn’t they stop complaining while I was singing. In fact, I sang because nobody wanted to start singing. I offered them earlier remember? I hated wasting time. The hell with them and the complaints. Well, I knew my voice was not even close to Sinatra’s but if they did hate my singing that bad, why did they bother inviting me at the first place. Gosh, people these days.

Okay, maybe that was not serious, but it was too far. Everytime I try to fly I fall. Oups! I mean everytime the mike went to my hand, people started yelling at me like I was the number one public enemy. They pushed me to eat the Nasi Goreng Ikan Asin instead of singing. Did I come there to eat? It ain’t warm anymore. It didn’t taste good either. And still there was a lot of it left. I didn’t like wasting what we paid so I tried to eat it. All of it. After eating, I sang no more. I was not really in the mood to hear any more grumbling. So I let Carla, Dinny, and the little Shirley took their chance and sang as they like. Yes, they sang as much as me, maybe much more but noone ever complained. That’s what they called fairness x(.

Here they come

My auntie, her husband, and her three children, my cousins, came from Denpasar to Surabaya. Tomorrow they’ll be heading to Jakarta. My cousins are still kids. The oldest is a junior high school schoolgirl. The others are boys and still at elementary schools. The two older ones, like playing games on my computer a lot. Guess what, from the moment they arrived, around 6 PM, my computer have been taken over :(. Both of them have been enjoying playing Ragnarok Online for a quite while. So they just couldn’t stop quarreling to take the first chance to play the game on my computer, the offline version of course. Well, they just stopped at 11 PM after their mother told them to go to bed. Finally I got my own computer back :D. Oh great, two boys are sleeping soundly on my bed. A single-size bed. Where the heck am I gonna sleep tonight? My God, what a day.

Does Sharing Hurt?

August 6th, 2004. Published under Daily Journal, Games, Sports. No Comments.

So dizzy so sleepy. I didn’t sleep enough last night. The Ninja game kept me awake all night. Worse, I was scheduled for the first shift on Friday. I got to get up early to get to the office on time. Well I made it. Luckily, Vebby offered me a breakfast, Nasi Kuning. It really helped.

After another lunch at Jula-Juli, there was a knowledge sharing about colors and their psychologies. Yenny, who happened to study visual communication design at UK Petra, shared her knowledge nicely. Unfortunately she couldn’t answer a question from Jonathan. He asked why did we use the CMYK coloring technique when printing instead of the RGB one. Well, as usual, when posed to this very kind of situation, I spontaneously joinned and tell them my opinion. As I predicted, I saw some people looked sarcastically at me. Maybe they thought that I was showing off but I did know the answer and I just wanted to make everything clear. It supposed to be a knowledge sharing anyway, right? This happened almost every time but I couldn’t help it. If something went wrong, I automatically tried to correct it. It’s natural.

Because of this, when I was in the high school, my friends called me Mr. Know-it-all, Walking-dictionary, Computer-brain, what-so-ever. Honestly, I don’t know things better or more than anybody else. Maybe the only difference is that I shared my knowledge more than them. I always enjoy sharing my knowledge because I also learned something when sharing mine. The more I share the more I get. Well, in Yenny’s case, fortunately she has a humble heart. I my self could never imagine if I was at her place. Having someone taken over my place like that is like he’s throwing the mud on my very face. That’s why I tried not to ask any question to her during her session. I didn’t want to humiliate someone with that humble heart.

Friend of the day: Vebby

Today my work was appraised by my boss. Productivity, quality, discipline, initiative, and teamwork got the very usual values. When it came to teaching and learning, I didn’t get that high value because I gave no tutorial or training last month. To boost the value, I mentioned that a few days ago I did share my knowledge about the Microsoft .NET with the division heads. My boss then told me I should share the knowledge with everyone, not just them, to get a point. Wow, I didn’t know there was such a rule. Well, because I had not read the rules thoroughly anyway, I didn’t argue. It wouldn’t go to the teamwork either because it had nothing to do with my job.

My boss then advised me to write and post articles to get more points for teaching and learning. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to write. The things I learned were mostly so technical that I didn’t see the chance anybody would understand. I believed that noone would be interested either. I didn’t mean that everyone in the office is idiot. But my job was so different with theirs. They had nothing to do with my job as well as any knowledge about it. Actually, there was only one person sharing the same job with me. But I believed it wasn’t efficient to post something in a public forum that would be read only by one person. Anyway, I’ll give it a try one day. Maybe they will need the knowledge later. You’ll never know.

After the appraisal, Vebby, who sat next to me, asked whether I had mentioned the .NET thing. When I explained the situation she looked a bit upset. She even inquired Jonathan, one of the heads, whether he had written my name on his teamwork list. He said yes but he didn’t know about the other heads. She didn’t feel quite satisfied with the answer and continued discussing this problem. I knew she’s such a caring person but I was affraid she would go too far so I stopped her and told her that I didn’t mind. Anyway, my average appraisal values was quite pleasing. Well, thank you Pei, what you did really meant a lot to me.

From badminton to Ragnarok Online

Today I should have a badminton practice with my friends. I was just arrived at the gym in Barata Jaya when I got an sms from Yosep telling that there’s no practice today because somebody just passed away and the gym was used to place the body. Okay, no badminton game, but I could just play another game, Ragnarok Online :D. My swordsman character finally reached the 30th level. Still much more to go. The maximum level is 99. Can’t wait until it reached the 50th level when I can change the job to “knight”. It really needs a lot of time. Surprisingly many people have reached the higher levels. Yeah they used bots to play the game for them automatically. Cheating, huh. When you’re cheating on a game, it ain’t fun anymore. You better not play it at the first place.