Alright, confession time : not all females are born neat-freak. I’m definitely not -.-, I’m a clutterer by nature. And yes, it can be quite embarassing. The main problem is that after I took out things, I never put them back in their original place, until the urge to clean up the house arrives and I ended up having to tidy up everything, and soon … I will start cluttering again. When I was younger, I prohibited everyone including my mum, who tried to tidy up my room. The reason was simple, I thought that I preferred to have all my books around the floor so I can study easily. So whenever someone tried to put my books in proper stacks, I threw a tantrum and threatened them that my academic performance would dwindle if they insisted on doing so ( in my family, academic performance is extremely important). Afterwards, naturally nobody dared to stop me from cluttering

Anyway, I wondered if I could change this bad habit. I came across and interesting blog article : “Develop clean house habits one at a time“. I know I will not be Martha Stewart overnight - nor would I want to be a neat freak anyway , since I’m proud that I have more important stuffs to do than this - but, I could try some of the tips there.

I’ll try each of these new ‘habits’ over a two-weeks period, hopefully I can permanently acquire some of them ^^.

• hang your clothes up or put them in hamper immediately
• put all papers (including school papers, post-in notes, bills, etc) in one in basket, and process at the end of each day
• keep you sink clean and shiny (wash dishes immediately, clean sink after)
• pick up before you go to bed and before you leave the house
• empty your trash daily
• 15 minutes decluttering sessions each day
• clean your shower, toilet and bathroom sink after each use (only takes a couple minutes!)
• have a place for everything, and put everything in its place immediately
• make your bed each morning
• keep flat surfaces (counters, tables, desks) clear of clutter
• put away your stuff as soon as you get home

Well , the good news is : I have always maintain a clean sink, and I empty my trash daily (ok, almost daily). Go me !

Last Saturday, we took 51 children age 9 to 14 on a trekking trip in Cipayung. Past years, not much problems were encountered, but this year, things went slightly different -_-. As my friends believed that the level of difficulty should be increased, they picked a route that was proven to be a little too difficult for young trekkers (and for adult with height phobia like me).

A brief picture on the route:

1. Paddy fields ! The kids had to walk along the small border of the paddy fields (pematang sawah).
2. Paddy fields on your left and a GORGE ( jurang) on your right ! The space in between is only about the width of your shoe.
3. River with about an adult’s waist depth, but with seriously strong current -_-.
4. Steep hills and more gorges.
5. The night before was rainy, so everything was slippery and muddy.
6. The person-in-charge , who supposed to be our navigator declared that we were officially lost.

When everyone managed to return to our inn, we breathed a sigh of relief on the fact that everyone were safe (although bruised and dirty). Their mobile phones were not necessarily safe. Apparently, because my friends didn’t have enough time to survey, all they did was just looking from the top of the hill and figured out the route.

We all swore that this incident must never ever happen again in the future, and I guess we should follow certain guidelines when taking young trekkers -_-. These are some that I could think of:

1. Always check the routes beforehand.
2. Have a contingency plan - if there is an injured person, where can we take him/her? With that route, if there were serious injuries our last hope would be Tim SAR.
3. Tell the children to wear comfortable shoes, strong enough to stand the route, but not pretty enough that they will not feel bad if the shoes went to the mud. Cute pink sneakers really should not be there.
4. Warn the children about bringing mobile phones and cameras. Some who realised that things were getting a bit tougher handed their phones and cameras to me, and yeppp that gave me the added pressure to save them from drowning in the river or in the paddy fields.
5. Overall, I think the route should not be this difficult. Many first time trekkers were put-off by this trip. Thankfully there were other activities during the camp that cheered them up -_-.
6. Beware of rivers -.- , some lost their sandals here too, so they had to continue their journey barefoot, and the stones in the river were pretty painful.
7. First aid kit ! We only brought a bit of Betadine.
8. Do not let the children know that we’re lost -_-, it caused unnecessary panic.

So wokay, it was completely our faults. Instead of getting them to appreciate nature, we were taking them on a mini Survivor trip. The older kids enjoyed it though. I could have enjoyed the trip more if I wasn’t thinking about the kids’ safety.

The debate of whether the university should have two-semesters over three-semesters in a year, had once again steal the limelight in today’s meeting. I personally do not mind with our current arrangement (3-semesters in a year) although this means lecturers will have only 1 week of rest before the new semester started, but hey, we can always rest during Christmas break or Idul Fitri break (or do we ? had we? would we?).

Anyway, even that two major holidays are being chopped off now for the sake of squeezing lectures. Well, the academics are questioning about the effectiveness of this method. Some stated that there is a significant decline in students’ interest in extracurricular activities ever since the 3-semesters system took place. Some noted the increase in students’ depression level. Some said the lecturers seemed to be more depressed too. Some worried about the fact that although the government never said anything about universities practising 3-semesters in a year, they never did say that it is permitted.

Hmm, whaddya think?

Okay, this one is dead-serious. A project requires two super talented web programmers that are willing to work potentially very long-hours on a challenging project. I will supply you with more details on the project ^^.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. PU Student or Alumni
2. Currently not employed, not taking too many classes, or need a place to do internship
3. Must be a proficient in php, ajax, and various web technologies.
4. Mentally and physically prepared to live, breath, eat, talk about nothing else but the project.
5. Creative, intelligent, super geek

The time span is 4 months, and the clock is ticking. Of course there will be bonus at the end of the day.

Got the nerves to apply ? Contact me ASAP ! ^^

[This entry was written on Saturday, 14th of June 2008]

The title said it all. More theses defences, more theses to read. Add that with bunch of deadlines, meetings, and classes. I was literally on 12-hours shift for several days. Thankfully, there were other people who shared the same boat, so it wasn’t ‘that’ bad. After wrapping up my evening class and preparing for home at 9 pm last Thursday, I was surprised that the full load of Marketing team was still busy, including the boyfriend.

They found errors in the letters that were due to be sent the next morning. So they had to fix each and every error in some 247 letters and get them printed that night. I thought since I still have plenty to do anyway, I’ll just delay rest and kept working along with them.
Fast forward to 11.30 pm, the boyfriend mentioned that he hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch! Sympathising, my “girlfrienal instinct ” (this instinct is not as scary as maternal instinct) told me to go back to my dormitory and get him something to eat!
On my way home though, I realised that there weren’t any food, except for some lame instant noodles. Devastated, I walked quickly and as I passed by restoplaza area - all eateries were already closed- I saw something in the darkness!
There was something unusual in one of the eatery there! I saw colourful flashing lights coming out of it. It was their TV, and two of their employees were merrily sleeping in front of the TV. The eatery seemed closed, but I pushed the door anyway. And gasp! It was not locked !!

I stepped in and headed right to the fridge and helped myself to Teh Botol Sosro (Bottled tea) and continued to pick up more packs of teas. The sleeping employees, still trying to regain their consciousness, looked quite puzzled.
I asked them, ‘Do you have any food left ?’

One of them replied, ‘Uhmm actually the cook had gone home and we’re closed.’ I told them that I just need some teas and it’d be great if they can cook something.

They looked at each other and told me that they could try to make some fried rice for me. I said, ‘Ok, make some fried rice then !’, I waited there, gulping my teh botol and enjoying their TV.

7 minutes later, they appeared with fried rice and I paid for the food and drinks. I returned to the office feeling really happy. Anyway, just in case you’re curious on which eatery it was. It was Nai nai , the place that sells Chinese Pontianak food.
I wondered what the employees thought had happened, did they think I was a robber? A lost and thirsty traveller? A crazy woman? But I really appreciate their hospitality, and I think I should frequent the eatery more. Now, that’s customer service!
It was 00.30 am when the offices eventually ended the day. The next morning, I had to be up by 8 am again. Anyway, I’m so thankful for weekend, and I’m thankful that the boyfriend didn’t mind accompanying me to watch Care Bears. I needed them, badly.

There cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full.

Henry Kissinger

1. We went hiking and watch breathtaking scenery
2. Had plenty of fun playing crazy games.
3. Had extremely icy cold shower.
4. Battled with the cold climate during sleep time.
5. and for the boys - they had to battle with their pals’ snoring choir.
6. Had fun interviewing kittens.
7. etc. etc. etc

The beautiful sceneries:

Post-hiking look

The famous duo : Momo & Ronald (aka ijep), they are smarter than they look.

Momo glued on a tree

And on the dance floor ..

And Deddy said, “Yes ! I can wake up in the morning”

Thank you for the pics, guys ! ^^

The perfect name for the month is ‘Theses Month”. I have been made ten times busier with piles of drafts to check, students chasing me to get their drafts and programs checked, theses defences, and of course, on top of all that, I still have classes to teach. I realised that I need to hide in order to get some work done! Luckily, I know just where to hide ^^! Anyway, this week is definitely a tiring and stressful one, TGIF*!

I recalled a day in the week, Wednesday to be exact, a crazy day when theses defences stretched until 7 pm. Well, there was another event that day, a teaching demonstration.

Teaching demonstration is a ritual that is held prior to hiring a new teacher(read: teacher-wannabe ^^). Usually, the candidate(aka teacher-wannabe) is told to prepare a topic and present it in front of the dean and fellow academia. I attended the demonstration with my colleagues, Mr Dean and Mr N.

Soon after, the teacher-wannabe began his presentation. He chose a topic from the Data Structures & Algo discipline: the DFS, BFS, and the other BFS (depth-first search, breadth-first search, best-first search). Jusssttt the right topic to listen to when you are mentally exhausted and physically tired…not! During the process, I successfully dozed off, ZzzzzZzzzz.

I woke up when Mr Dean announced that it was question and answer time. Mr Dean threw several technical questions, Mr N did the same, and then… Mr Dean asked him another question.

Mr Dean            : ‘How do you handle students that sleep in the class?’

Me                    : (yawn)

Mr Teacher-wannabe:     ‘Well, I think there is always some lazy students in the class that chose to sleep during lecture.’

Me                    :  $^%%$#$@### ???

Mr Teacher-wannabe:     ‘For these lazy students, I will throw lots of questions to them and make them do more exercises’

Me                    : ‘I think the term lazy is not very appropriate’

Mr Teacher-wannabe : (laughs) ‘I’m sorry if that was offensive’

Me                    : ‘it’s ok’ (smiles and ^&*^%$$^&*%% !!!)

I personally think napping is completely natural, especially if you are seriously tired! Ketiduran adalah hak asasi manusia ! Stop discrimination against sleepy people.

Of course, I sincerely hope Mr Teacher-wannabe can be a part of our team. Hopefully by having more people to share the work with, the probability of me dozing off during teaching-demo can be reduced.

(*) TGIF : Thank God it’s Friday !

The last weekend was spent running around from one place to another for various social events.

Saturday :

Met bunch of my Tanjung Duren friends for lunch, afterwards, I went to get some congratulatory gift for Martje and her newborn ^.^, then off to the hospital to see Martje, next destination: Gelora Bung Karno for National Waisak celebration ! Yippeee !! National Waisak celebration was a seriously uplifting and fun event and to my surprise, Mrs Titiek Puspa sang two songs there. When the event finally ended at 9.00 pm, I went for dinner and headed to Yanti’s house. At Yanti’s house, Icha - Yanti- and myself chitchatted the night away.

Sunday :

5.00 am - Yanti headed to the airport for China ! She’s gone for business trip for a week ! >.< how I envy her !

7.00 am - Icha rushed her way to the airport- going back to her boutique in Manado.

7.45 am - I ran to the temple for prayer and then rushed to pasar Kopro to shop before going to Ratu Plaza. Lots of annoyance in Ratu Plaza and finally I hopped into an AC 121 bus to return to Cikarang.

Weekend highlights:

• My cousin - who is also my insurance agent - called and told me that my request for health insurance has been declined until I agree to see a psychiatrist and my previous surgeon (???) Psychiatrist ??? These Prudential people must have been reading my blog entry on Gila-o-meter! Otherwise, how would they know ??
• A lesson learnt this weekend : avoid certain outlets selling pricey kitchenware with initial A (hint: it sounds like Aiwa) at any costs ! The boyfriend and I was stucked there for hours thanks to their annoying and pushy salespeople who refused to let us go. GGGRRRR !!! Besides, their items are so overpriced and no matter what sorts of gimmicks they throw, I so will not buy anything from them ! Microwave oven for 8 million rupiah ???? You’ve got to be kidding me ! They could have saved their energy by promoting their products to richer audience instead of pestering us.

Pics from Waisak Nasional:

Mr President !! Too bad I could not take better pictures of him >_< !

Faces of President University in the event ^^

Security in every angle of Gelora Bung Karno - where the event was held:

That’s all for my weekend adventure, it’s monday again -_-, time to get back to real life.

I’m going to Puncak ! ya hear me !? Puncak !!
I’ll be going first thing in the morning with PU’s Buddhists Community students and we will have our Waisak puja there too. Happy Waisak to all Buddhists out there ! May all beings be well and happy ! Sadhu ! Sadhu ! Sadhu !

Lotus photo from http://schubart.net