Another Test for Former Olympic Championship

Denmark Premier Super Series Series is one of the the prestigious series of the world Badminton. This year,  upgrading level from Super Series to Premier Super Series and to increase the point to get a spot or good draw in London 2012, motivate the shutlers to fight in this competition. One of them is an amazing Indonesian talent Taufik Hidayat. He confirmed to attend the US$ 200000 tournament.

Taufik, during 2011, is struggling to get the 1st trophy but he seems always lost his fortune. After gaining the crown in  French last year, Taufik got stuck. In All England this year, he went home at the 1st day of the tournament. He was beaten by unseeded Kazushi Yamada straight set 21-10, 21-14 in only 31 minutes. Continuing in India Super Series, Taufik, seeding 2 in the tournament, had to face seeding 6, Park Shun Hwan. Again, Taufik lost the game in straight set 21-17, 21-17 respectively. In home event this year, the 6 times champion of Indonesia open, took a bow to his best friend Peter Hoeg Gade in quarter final Super Series Indonesia Open 21-17,21-15. Another Indonesia based event is Bank Kaltim Indonesia Open GP Gold 2011. This time, with the absent of the top 10 shutlers, he reached semi final but lost it from his counterpart, Tommy Sugiarto 21-10, 21-15. In the most prestigious event this year BWF World Championship, Taufik seems to lost his confidence. He fell down in the second round when he was beaten by unseeded Singaporean Zi Liang Derek Wong 21-17,21-14.

Seating on the 5th seed of Denmark Premier Super Series 2011, Taufik seems to proof that he is not done yet of the world competition. He will try another luck to face the others top 10 shutlers. However, the draw is not easy for him. In the first round, he will face the Danish new young star Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. In quarter final, he will probably compete with the no 1 Denmark shutler as well as the 4th seed in the tournament, Peter Hoeg Gade. In semifinal, Lee Chong Wei, World No. 1, will wait Taufik, if he beats Peter. In short, this will be a tough one for him. But, if Taufik overcome his diffidence and has desire to win this competition, the tournament will be his.

A Resignation

Last Ramadhan had a interesting meaning for me. I called it the biggest decision I've ever made during this year. A resignation. I, finally, decided to not longer to work in my office. This thought actually came to my mind since I was at the earliest year of my working. The reasons like working in the weekend regularly and Lebaran Day, having not so good environment, developing career, etc triggered me to do not working for long period there. I did apply for another job and proceed some tests in bunches of company but it ended with the rejection, underexpected offering and, the worst, my duty. I just couldn't join the tests because I couldn't leave my duty. I even couldn't bear to send an sms to my boss because I knew, he would ask me tons of questions about my absence. That was Horrible. Frankly, I had a plan at the beginning of this year that I had to get a better job and officially resign immediately. Unfortunately, I didn't get it. So, I didn't have any reason to quit and kept holding on. Until July this year, finally, I realized that there was nothing to do with my career, knowledge and even salary here. Then, I had a reason now. However, it was not that easy. The hardest part of going through this process was telling it to my parents. It was tough. With some explanations and bribery, finally, they had to agree with me.
Alhamdulilah..I will officially be ousted from that office on 30th September 2011 but I will not be in office since 8th September..Cross my finger for the better future will be mine. Amin..

Basically, I do believe that someone have to through so many times, thoughts and energy to finally brave enough to say "I cant stand any longer in this office". It's a tough decision since you have to consider the income that wont come to your account monthly, jobless, and the most important is the status of being unemployment. Those risks will be faced during your "Off". The question like, "How do you do for living? or  "Where is your office?" will be the hardest question ever. That's why, I call A Brave Decision. But, again, what I have done, I just believe that this a way to get everything better. Surely, I will not let myself  being tortured and I know exactly what I have to do for myself. That's the only that I have and that's a huge one. One more thing, when confusion comes to finally decide something big in life, find second or third opinion from closest friend or relatives. I often do that to compare whether my decision is logically can be accepted or not. Sometimes, it is not a logic that tell directly to mind but it is an emotion. So, dont let emotion embrace yourself or you will regret with your final decision.

Bin..Bin... Where is the bin?

This writing was triggered by my latest story about how I had to keep my bread package from the store to my house..Actually it is not happen once or twice that I have to keep in my pocket the garbage. It is actually not bothering me but my concern is "is there any garbage bin in this metropolitan city?"

I went to one of the mall in the central of Jakarta after office hour. I planed to recharge my internet unit to reactivate it. When I passed through one of the corridor, I smelled the bread and decided to buy one. Since I was so starving, I scoffed it and finished it directly. There was one left, the package. I walked out from the mall with pocketed the garbage. I step to Semanggi area from busway shelter until the area around BRI building (near Benhil) to stop the bus accompanied by the garbage. Still with the bread package, I took a "metromini" to go to Thamrin area near Bank Indonesia to transit and take another bus. Waiting the bus around in that area, I put my hand into my pocket and the garbage was still. I thought that I preferred to be friended to Priok area. Then, I took a bus about 40 minutes and later on I went down from the bus. No garbage bin at all..Ok, then I decided to go home and put that it to house's bin..Crap, isnt it???

What I want to say here is, we have huge problem a garbage. We produce garbage everyday and garbage is a problem that we can see. I mean it is real and everybody can see it everyday. Can our respected government see it? Based on actual data in 2011, the total garbage is produced in Jakarta is about 6200 ton per a day.  And what our Jakarta governor said
"Sampah di DKI ini luar biasa besarnya dan kita memerlukan tenaga dan dana khusus untuk menyelesaikan masalah ini. Tapi, akan lebih mudah kalau masyarakat membantu meringankan beban ini, dengan tidak buang sampah sembarangan, kata Fauzi Bowo yang dikutip “VOA”.
Alright the government need us to support. Another question comes up, are they support us as well?
Are they provide simply the bin?

Teaching ==> (not so) Business (an Experience)

I would say, teaching is my first business. Actually, I did teach English for the first time when I was a college student at the 3rd semester (if i'm not mistaken).One day, I got the the offer from one of my senior in one of the organization in my campus. Claiming myself as a student of Intermediate level of LIA (wahahhaha) and  having my heads in the clouds, I accepted the challenge. I taught 3 or 4 kids from elementary school. Unluckily, the class didn't run so well :(. I didn't know what was the cause of dismissing class. I thought it was because of my method or material. I over-expected to the kids. I insisted the kids to acknowledge the grammar things for the their basic in English. Gosh, that was the biggest mistake. They even didn't know what 'papan tulis' is in English.

However, That experience provided me 'something'. I did teach for the second time. At that time, I didn't do English. I did French which I just had learnt for 3 years. hahhaha. What a brave, right? In fact, I didnt accept it directly. My French classmate didn't confidence with his French. Considering he lives nearby my area, he granted me the opportunity. Afraid of the same time would be happened again, I did prepare the material and method so well. I did teach every time, he finished his duty. It was once in two weeks. The class ran well. It ran for about 3 or 4 months. What a improvement..At least, better than before huh.. Basically, teaching is about to share the knowledge. It is not about the one who master something only deserves a to be a teacher. I believe, even the professor of certain department is still learning something from the book, person and even his environment. Based on 'My Belief' (and of course my friend thought), Inuk and I established E-mazee.

The inception of E-mazee was first caused by our unemployment. I was looking for the job and my friend just resigned from her previous company. We thought that we have to do something valuable without costing a lot of money while we were still looking for the good job, in other word to be employed by a good company. Therefore, we decided to establish teaching business. In the middle of conception process, we had been hired by companies. My friend first got the official job and was followed by me. In the middle of our busyness of our duty, we trapped and didn't do anything related with our business. Until, we finally did something for this business thanks to the spirit of my friend for igniting the idea. We got our first students. A group of eight college students needing to be a good presenter in their final presentation, asked us to teach them. We were so excited. It was the first experience for my friend and long waited experienced for me. For me, it was a great come back. Teaching 8 persons in one time, it was An Experience and at the same time fully exhausted. Again, the same thing was happened. The class survived for only a month. Huffft..It was difficult to teach something to the students if they didnt have any desire in it.

Right now, We handle one class. This one is kind of unique thing since we teach A 18-year-old teenage girl named Bea with her mom named Teteh. I said unique because we have to teach two students with different interest in English. Then again, surprisingly, her mom provides lots of energy than her daughter. Moreover, every time we teach in the class and Bea get difficulty delivering the words or sentences, she always look at to her mother instead of asking the questions to us. Hahahah....fantastic isnt it? But, I, personally, do grateful for it and have fun with it. We are now in the 3rd month and hopefully will keep our focus to teach them with our method and surely do hope the method will develop them to be a good speaker.

Teaching is, for me, amazing experience for sharing knowledge that I have, to be acknowledged to another person. The result, it is not solely material things. I believe there's something beyond the material that I will be granted from that experience. I call it satisfaction. Business as well as teaching is related with satisfaction. Though, they have different satisfaction but they can be mixed and become the business that will not just give the material things but also deep sense of satisfaction (alah!)..

When Dimes Mean A Thing

Last month, I did outrageous thing in my life. Perhaps, it was insignificant for those who are adventurers. But I think, the adventurers dont adventure in the city ^ ^. In March 03, 2011, when I went out from my office about 17.30, I took usual route to get home. Actually, I didnt have any plan to go home right after the office hours. Yet, I didnt have any idea where to go. I just turned on my MP3 player and e-buddy account to get some inspiration (maybe). Then, I started to walk. Starting point was the sidewalk of Le Meridien Hotel, Sudirman, Jakarta and would be over at Kebon Sirih where my bus stop by. So, Instead of taking 'Metromini' and donating the dimes to 'Abang Metromini' to Kebon Sirih, I chose walk.

During "The afternoon footwork" I saw many things that I never saw when I took or drive the vehicle. I watched beautiful scenery ever in the city. Again, probably, you called it a exaggeration. But, I viewed the twilight. I saw the sky turns to be red/orange and sunset in this polluted city. Cant believe huh!..^ ^. More, I saw there are bunches of people living or taking rest on the side of Banjir Kanal Barat. I also saw many workers or voluntarily worker who are still on duty and offer their products to the people around. Smiling and waiving hands are their tools to attract people attention .

I took proximately an hour for stepping from Sudirman to Thamrin. I did rest in one of the Mosque behind Java Department Store and had some drink around Sabang. Luckily, when I got to Kebon Sirih, I saw my bus and directly took it to get home immediately. "Was I tired?" No doubt, I was extremely exhausted.  However, There is always a good thing behind everything. When I woke up in the next morning, I felt fresh. I just burned hundreds of calories from my body and I felt light and I could see the light..hahahha. That's what I mean, when dimes mean a thing or many things for me.

Stay Late Wake Up Late..

Lately, I frequently sleep late. It’s about above 12 or the earliest one is about 11.30. I know, perhaps it considers as a normal time for people who have bunch of activities but the impact is I wake up late.  Normally I have to wake up at least 5.30 in the morning but since I go to bed late, I awake at 6 in the morning or even more.  It’s honestly bothering me. I always slept in the bus or the worst thing is sleepy when I am on duty. Trying not to sleep late, setting the timer earlier and my mom’s yelled didn’t disturb me from my bed. Tough job huh!  Then I browsed any website who talked about this bad habit. I did find it. What I found was didn’t solve anything of it but ensured me there is nothing wrong about it. Check it out..

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If you find that you have to shout your teenager out of sleep in the morning, don’t be so rude! There is a biological reason why your teen might want that extra hour in bed.

If your teenage son or daughter is late for the school bus again, don’t yell at them from the kitchen or complain all day long. Us teenagers’ bodies are built completely differently to that of adults so we have a biological reason as to why we sleep late and wake up late.

There is a certain ‘darkness hormone’ called melatonin that induce sleep in all human beings. As a person beings to grow older, this melatonin’s levels are reduced which is why you might find that old age people may wake up a lot earlier than you’d imagine. This melatonin is like a sleep inducing hormone that releases itself normally at night times. This helps us go to sleep. For any adult, this hormone releases itself at about 10 pm. Unfortunately, for your poor teen, it isn’t so.

Teenagers only release this hormone at about 1 pm at night. This means that even if they try to go to bed, they don’t feel like sleeping until quite late. This then has a knock on effect when they have to wake up in the morning. Think of it as an internal clock. Teenagers’ clocks are set to release melatonin much late but what happens is in the morning, when it’s time to get ready for school, the teenagers’ internal clocks still feel it is night time which is why they struggle to wake up.

Sleep is good, you know, so make sure you don’t lose any sleep over your teenager losing a lot of sleep.

http://healthmad.com/children/why-do-teens-sleep-and-wake-up-late/#ixzz1DwDeVUsN

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Well ok, I’m not a teen or kid anymore. But I think my melatonin is still high.. ^ ^

A Note from BC

"Find something you care about that is inherently serving others; that's most important and give it all you've got. And if you go into a profession you find interesting that has no connection to the other people except indirectly, where you can acquire some financial success, then take some part of your life to do something for other people because the world is interdependent, and it's too unequal and too unstable."
-taken from Reader Digest Asia "The New Bill Clinton"-

Reading aforementioned quotation realizes me for what I've done for this world. I know, perhaps that's too big. But I do want to do petite thing for it.