Seven Things in Resume that Caught My Attention

One random weekend, I was bored and decided to drop my resume to Human Resources (HR) email of Market Research Firm in Indonesia. I did my research and found roughly about 15 firms, then I deposited my resume to those 15 firms. The following week, I received interview and/or test invitation from 3 different firms. By percentage, it is 20% successful rate of resume screening. Well, 20% is not really a great number, but 3 different invitations in a week could be a major problem for someone who already working like me.

I would say that my resume is not really that great, but it is sufficient enough to catch some people attentions to, at least, give me a chance for interview and/or test.

Before I continue, I would say that this post personally from my experiences and personal judgement,  because I do not have any training background in HR or resume coaching.

Yup, this time I would like to explore a topic that important to everyone who recently graduated: RESUME!

I have seen a lot of different kind of resumes, from the bad to the good one (in my personal opinion). Due to my track record and randomness in joining hiring process from different companies, I know that my resume is acceptable. Due to this as well, some of my friends asked me to check their resume or requested my resume instead. In my opinion, there are some mistakes that I've seen from resumes that I checked. Following are the list that really caught my attention whenever I checked a resume or perhaps let's pretend that I am an HR.

1. Longer than 2 pages resume
If you have 10-15 years working experiences, it is fine to have longer than 2 pages resume (in my opinion), but if you are just graduated from your bachelor degree, my first reaction will be: WHAT THE HELL DID YOU PUT IN YOUR RESUME?!

2. Nice layout attracts me ...
I define nice layout from the flow of the resume and how you make a full-use of those (2 pages) space.

I have seen too may resumes with so many spaces. This is one of the reasons why some people have a resume longer than 2 pages. On top of that, some people do not know which one to put first after education part: working experiences, co-curricular/leadership experiences,  achievements, or skills. From my personal opinion, put the one that you really want to talk most and more first. I have seen a few resumes that put achievements first after the education part, meanwhile in my resume I put achievements as my 4th part. Whichever you choose to put first, make sure it is really something that can catch attention of others when they screen it.

3. ... but relevant content makes me "stay" longer
There are some people who put every single thing from their life into their resume. That will be a total disaster (in my opinion)! Why would you put if you are a member of organization A, B, C, D, while at the same time you are the head division of organization E, F, G. These kind of listing-everything-resume is another reason why some resumes could hit more than 2 pages. In my personal opinion, it reflects that you can't really focus your energy on something that you really want to do. It is better if you focus on the latter, elaborate and highlight more of your experiences and achievements instead.

4. One-two liner for every points you put
Write concisely for the job and title descriptions or achievements is important. Such a long-winded text in resume rarely impress people, unless it is a paragraph/story.

5. Play with one or two other colours
By default, the font of your resume will be in black. It is no harm to add another colour for your font, to make your point, highlight, or hierarchy of header and sub-header clearer. As long your resume does not look like a rainbow. My favorite colour for this case will be Blue.

6. Availability period
You do not want to go for interview and/or test which the position need to filled immediately, while you need to give one-month notice to your current employer, do you? If you already put, and you get a call, it means they can wait for one-month notice period, don't they?

7. A (nice formal) picture of you
Most of the time when I went for job interview, the picture in my resume will be something that lightened the nervous situation. The interviewers normally will say "you look different from picture". Well, at least from my experiences, it indicates that they read your resume beforehand, which is good.

So, is there anything that caught your attention whenever screen a resume? or do you even agree with me on above points?

Job Interviewers, Please Do Not Ask Me These Questions!

Countless recruitment process, that's what I have experienced for the past year since I graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, is exhausting, sometimes. The majority part of the recruitment process is interview, everyone will admit it. Meanwhile there is a set of questions that interviewers need to ask the candidate, but in perspective of candidate, there are some most-hated questions when if they have a choice, they rather not to answer it. For me, following are the list, but I am not really sure whether I have done it right in answering these questions.



1. Why Should I Hire You?
Only the employers will know the best answer to this question, because they have seen other candidates, meanwhile the candidates only know about themselves. Whenever I encountered this kind of question, I was very tempted to actually to ask the interviewers, why did you actually call me for this interview? Did anything  on my resume catch your attention for this job?

2. Where do you see yourself in five years time?
Seriously, it is not business plan when I need to plan five years projection about the business. If business is quite unpredictable, don't you think life is more unpredictable? Alright, perhaps as a candidate I can have future plan, but I do not have any ideas what's coming in my life, do I? My favorite and a must answer to this question is "I have a plan to pursue higher degree in five to seven years time i.e. MBA, but prior to it I need to acquire as much experiences as I could". Yet, the interviewer will give that not-satisfied-face, most of the time.

3. What is your greatest achievement?
As a person who do not really like to brag about what I have done, instead let others do whatever they want when they learn about it, it is not an easy question for me. The answers that I gave to this question were varied. But from my observation so far, interviewers would love to hear something that really showing what you are really good at, but survival skill in life is not in the list. In my opinion, employers should concern more about the potential, instead of the past achievements. So instead asking, what do you think about our business? Anything that can be improved?

4. What is your expected salary?
It is the least-hated among the hated questions. Well, I know it is really a standard question for any job interviews around the globe (at least from my experiences who were interviewed from most all the continents so far). Well, bench-marking to the market price is the standard thing everyone will do. But normally I will add it up together with the transportation cost, cab fare on daily basis for going to office and going back home. Although at the end, it is still negotiable price. Although it is a common practice, there are some employers who surprised with the quoted price. For this kind of employers, I always wanted to tell them "why don't you give me number on how much you can afford to pay me, instead?"

So, this list is mine. Any more questions, people?

Gema Gita Mahardika: Showing Nowadays Kids Situation and What They Missed Out

It was the first time in my life that I could not tell whether the crying kid sound is from audience seat is part of performance or not

That's what came up in my mind during the show.

Gema Gita Mahardika is a musical drama that I watched last night. It was performed by students from Sekolah Otonom Sanggar Anak Akar, as part of their annual carnival and also "crowd-funding" for their new school location.

The conflict that was raised during the show is pretty simple and for sure everyone at this era can relate with it. It was as simple as whether (Mr.) Technology and (Mrs.) Online will give a positive or negative effects to everyone life, particularly to kids. But it could be elaborated further towards the issue if there are no kids at all who want to continue to be farmers, which in this show, the issue was told, but was not elaborated further.

The whole package of dance, music, props, and cute acting by them will give enjoyable experiences to audience itself. From my own opinion who did not have any stage-art performance education background, I would say that their music arrangement, which was directed by Andrie Virgo Setiawan and Albertus Danang Wiratmoko, is exceptionally good, because it gives an additional "soul" to the songs. But there are still some areas that could be improved, such as stage blocking, sound system issue, and story development, which I felt kind of flat (no climax moment) during the show.

This show is also good for parents who want to introduce their kids to Indonesia's culture, because there were a little bit here and there of culture from Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Maluku, and Papua. Also, it could be a platform to learn a "real songs" for the kids, not like the songs that available now for kids to listen to.

It was such a nostalgia moment for me when I watched this show, because there were my childhood songs, childhood games, and the understandable feeling of being performers in the stage.

If you want to catch the show, there are other two more available slots for today, 2nd March 2013, at 2pm and 8pm. Oh forgot to mention that the show is held in Pusat Perfileman Haji Usmar Ismail, Kuningan, Jakarta.

Following are some videos that I took during the show.

My Four New Favorite Eating Places in Jakarta [FoodBlog]

Maybe not everyone knows that I have moved back to Indonesia since late November 2012 for good (I think), but I am just gonna update about my food-life for the past two months. Below are the list of food-chains or restaurants from the least expensive to the most expensive that I just tried once in my life, but I am gonna go back again anytime soon, because all of them were scored pretty good based on my taste bud.

1. D' Cost Quick

After they established a fairly good name in F&B industry in Indonesia past few years, D' Cost Group decided to open their new type of food-chain, namely D' Cost Quick. To be honest, I never tried D' Cost Seafood Restaurant before, but when I tried D' Cost Quick in Pasar Festival, Kuningan, I was surprised with the price that relatively less expensive, about 12-22k IDR (~1.4-2.4 USD) per portion even for neighborhood mall and nice taste. Like usual, I tried something with weird name: Mie Cumi Saos Bangbang. Another plus is that they provide dine-in customers with free-flow tea, so drink as much as you want, just be responsible.

2. Salero House
Trying to have "chick" decoration, this eating place caught my friend attention, because we seldom see any Padang Restaurant with this kind of interior design. Moreover, the menu list is all about Padang, even you could find pasta ala Padang style here. I was curious about how the taste of Martabak ala Salero and I was surprised how they changed the filling of it with beef rendang and for me it tastes great! In case you wanna give it a visit, it is in Kota Kasablanka.

3. Caprese Restaurant, Pizzeria & Bar

Also located in Kota Kasablanka, similar with Salero House, this place has a good food and nice staff with great ambiance (or maybe because me and my friends came after lunch hour passed). So far I have tried their pizza, lasagna, and pasta, which in my opinion those three are good.

4. Gyu-Kaku
For this, I should have said thank you to my friend, Dinda, who organized our new years eve gathering in this place, Gyu-Kaku (Pacific Place), otherwise I would not know how good this place is. Gyu-Kaku is Japanese BBQ Restaurant, but the one that I want to highlight is actually their desserts. I tried Coffee Pudding.

A (Night) Meetup Session with Nicko Widjaja and Rhein Mahatma of Systec Group

Next Tuesday, Nicko Widjaja and Rhein Mahatma of Systec Group will come to Singapore for few days. They would like to meet and have small discussions with students and professionals who have interest in entrepreneurship scenes in Indonesia. It is open to all nationalities.

Nicko Widjaja is currently CEO of Systec Group and Adjunct Professor in Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) - Business School. He has 11 years of experiences in marketing and entrepreneurship. His career includes founder of IncyteLab, an ethnographic and consumer insights firm that focuses in investigating the upcoming trends and consumer culture and also co-founder of Thinking*Room, a design agency.

Rhein Mahatma is currently Associate of Systec Group and co-founder of StartupBisnis. He has experiences in content and social media strategist.

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Event Details

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When: Tuesday, 23th October 2012
Time: 8pm 730pm
Venue: will be informed to those who RSVP!
Fee: Pay what you order!

There is limited space for this event, so if you are interested, please kindly drop an e-mail at egi.septiadi@gmail.com with e-mail subject "Systec Meetup" by Sunday, 21st October 2012. Please indicate your full name and contact number, because the confirmed venue will be informed to all attendees via SMS and/or e-mail.

Nuansa'12: Canting, Was Enjoyable But ...

I attended Nuansa'12: Canting with no expectation, due to their last year show. I have been watching Nuansa Musical Show Production since 2010 and this 2012 show satisfied my eyes and ears, although there are some scenes that required my minds to patch it all together, which makes me wonder whether there are synchronization for story flow between my two friends who wrote the script. For example, I was confused from scene when the lead actress pregnant and all of sudden at the next scene, she is no longer pregnant. They should have developed the story in between first in my opinion, or perhaps there is no need to show the "pregnant scene", instead just skipped it directly to the scene when the kid already grown up to avoid momentary confusion. That's just one out of few confusing moments in the point of audience's view.

Nuansa'12: Canting ticket and handbook

As I mentioned that my eyes and ears were satisfied with this production, and I can say satisfy is underrated word to describe how I feel towards this musical. Firstly, they really have great choreography, which I found it as really a splendid item and indeed it showed great talent of dancers and choreographers from Indonesians in NUS. But, great choreographers item in this production is also a weakness of this production. Believe it or not, dancers who are supposedly serve as supporting casts for some scenes become a center of stage, which I found it is not right at all. For example during the lead actress did monologue, meanwhile there is a couple dancers did their contemporary dance item at another side of stage. In my opinion, supposedly dance item serve as support item to represent the lead actress monologue. Instead of feeling that way, my brain told me to focus mainly on the dance item.

Beside the choreography, the light and stage manager did a splendid job when they played around with the light and other visual effects. There are only few concerns for room of improvements after I discussed it with few friends. Some people who I talked to, found the visual effects background during "Dukun" scene and "Flood" scene i.e. fire and thunder visual effects respectively were not necessary. Visually, it ruins the scene awesomeness.

Moving on to musicality aspect. I found music arrangements of this production were really great. When I read the description of their Music Director, the experiences, awards, and formal education in Music justified the quality of Nuansa'12: Canting music arrangements. But, the production team should really check all the equipment, because there was microphone faulty (I think) during the show for first few scenes and it happened again somewhere towards the end of the show.

Overall, Nuansa'12 team really did a great job, with a score 4 out of 5 in my opinion, although I still prefer their 2010 show. Their strength points are their dance items and music arrangements, but the story flow and actress/actors skills should not be forgotten as the main focus in any kind of musical drama shows, not the other way around.

After the show, took picture with one of producers and lead actress!

A Week to My Birthday, But A Company Ruined It [Author's Corner]

It was Friday 14th evening, after finished giving my tuition at CCK, I headed down to Tiong Bahru area. As the clock kept running, I realized that I have an hour to kill, so I decided to sit in Coffee Bean and ordered my favorite drink, Iced Caramel Macchiato.

As the time approached to my interview schedule, I prepared myself before walking to the interview place. When I walked toward the direction that I thought was correct direction, I realized that it was not the right road and I decided to check it in Google Map.

"Fuck My Life!" That's my first reaction when I realized that I was not supposed to go to Tiong Bahru MRT, but Redhill MRT instead. So I decided to take Bus 33 and alighted at Redhill then walked to the interview place. Lucky me that the person in charge who sent me the e-mail asked me to come 30 minutes earlier, so instead of came at 18:00, I reached the interview place at 18:15.

Some people asked me about what company that I attended for this job interview, but I will give a logo clue instead of giving their full name. :)

By the time I reached interview place, one of the staffs handed over me 4-pages form and 2-pages structure questions that I need to fill and answer accordingly. So I tried my best to finish it as soon as possible and I handed the filled form and answered structure question papers about 19:00.

After handed over all of those, I checked my phone and the yellow color on my battery sign alerted me to turn off my phone, because my evening still long since I will have meeting at 8pm in Clarke Quay and also because I could not find any available power sockets around. During waiting time I just realized that there were quite numbers of candidate that waited with me at the same time. It was 7-9 people in the room, excluding myself.

Waited, waited, and waited, until there were only 2 other candidates and me left in waiting room when the previous candidate just finished his interview, but it was already 19:50 (I was bored and I decided to turn on my phone to check any messages and time). But after this, the interviewer was on the phone and walked around when he answered the phone for about 15 minutes, then he called the next person without any "sorry for make you waiting" or so whatever line to the next candidate.

So it was about 20:05, when it was only me and another candidate, called him Mr X, in waiting room. This another candidate handed over his filled form and answered questions papers to the staff after me, so I thought it will be my turn to be called after this, but apparently when the clock showed 20:30 and the interviewer finished with the candidate, the interviewer called Mr X instead of me. My reaction after that was "WTF! Forget it, I have better things to do and I am already fucking late for my meeting". So, I decided to walk out from waiting room and headed down to my meeting in Central @ Clarke Quay. Along the way, I sent an email to person who contacted me to withdraw my job application, since I can't find any staffs around to tell it on their face.

It is not like my first time attended job interview. I could say that I have been through quite some, but from this one I learnt few things:
1. Respect other people time, everyone has their own limit for waiting.
2. "Sorry" is an important word that some people might forgotten sometimes, unnecessary showing that you are inferior from others.
3. Treat your guest(s) with great hospitality as possible as you can provide.
4. Employees attitudes are part of company's image, especially their working culture.

Welcoming Second Half of 2012 with Bus-Car Accident, Hello Singapore! [Author Corner]

Seems like this year my life is getting further beyond the social life drama. Started with mistakenly caught by police towards ending of first half of 2012, while this time I just experienced bus-car accident for the first time in my life.

Call me lazy or what, but I took bus with longer travelling time because I was too tired standing all the way during the journey back home. Well, there was a bad sign when I just reached the bus stop nearby YMCA building in Dhoby Ghaut: bus 502 doesnt pass that bus stop, which surprised me at first. (un)lucky me that there was another bus, 174, which going to Jurong Point, so I took 174 instead of 502.

There was no other bad signs anymore, unless if I want to count high traffic along Bukit Timah area as bad sign of the journey, but I am already get used to with no-moving at all traffic in Jakarta, and I have times that I can spare, thus I didnt even bother to worry about it. I am not pretty sure whether bus 174 driver or the car driver that should be accused as a wrong party during accident, but bus 174 was about to turn right, so it was moving toward the right side of the road, while the car (I think) tried to took over it from the right side as well, and TADAAAAAAAA, I experienced the very first bus-car accident in my life.

At first when I heard the sound, I thought it was the wheel of bus 174 that exploded, but when people who sitting at the back made noises, then I took a look and saw a car that can not move at all, as the picture below.

Is it wrong focus? O.o

Obviously due to this, all of bus 174 passengers need to alight immediately and change to the next available bus. Lucky us, it was not at quiet area of Bukit Timah, but it was in Bukit Batok area that has quite number of buses to choose. As for me I took bus 157. While waiting for bus 157, I tried to take few pictures of accident from bus stop.

while waiting for a bus to change

help reached within 10 minutes, considerably fast?

"Titik Nol" Preview Session: Reminded Me of My Mother, but Showed Director *** [Performing Art]

Knowing director or/and scriptwriter of a performing arts show will give audiences different insight of the play itself. At least, that's what I felt when I watched the preview of "Titik Nol" (monologue version by "Siti") just now in Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre.

Titik Nol is a play which was originated from a short film by Nicolas Yudifar, who also involves in play production. Earlier, the play was showed in Substation, Singapore from 1st to 3rd March and from 9th to 10th March 2012 in Jakarta for first time within the region.

"Titik Nol" poster/flyer for last March 2012 show

Unfortunately, I was in Indonesia for short-break when it was showed in Singapore and I was in Singapore when it was showed in Jakarta, so the show and me were not fated together back then. But lucky enough for me that few days back, Agnes Christina told me that she will have a closed-preview session in Singapore for the upcoming Titik Nol show which will be held in Yogyakarta. The show in Yogyakarta itself will be held on 29th September 2012. Also, they will bring the show to Bandung and Semarang somewhere in December 2012, but with possibly another format/style.

As a person who just watched it for the first time, I was quite impressed by the actress, Emanorwatty Saleh. It was a monologue version and she needs to tell us the story which was previously played by not only her, but also another Indonesian actor, Agus Nur Amal. During the preview session, I can imagine and feel the situation that they tried to deliver to us as audiences regardless of limitation of props, lighting, and sound system. At personal level, first part of the scenes (older version of Siti) reminds me of my mother, somehow. Nevertheless, there are some areas that still can be improved which were discussed after the preview session among few people who had opportunity to watch, i.e. character development, timeline clarity, etc. The post-preview discussion was partly serving its purpose to give feedback to team prior to their real show.

I would say that it was new and interesting experiences for me attending such session and would like to thanks to Agnes for inviting me to the preview session.

I Need "Words of Affirmation", What About You? [Author Corner]

Some of my friends knew that every Saturday I joined this "secret gathering" from period of February to April 2012. During one of sessions, the discussion about Love and Relationship, and just happened there is this little quiz about knowing of a person Love Language. I never knew that actually there is someone who quantify it in such way and when I tried to google about it, I found that it is already been around since 1992, means it is already for over 20 years.

During the session, I found that my primary love language is "Words of Affirmation" and according to a website, it means

Actions don’t always speak louder than words. If this is your love language, unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, “I love you,” are important—hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten.

Well, it is possible that a person has same score for more than one language, just take it as you are a bilingual or maybe even multi-language person. It is kinda good in my opinion understanding what your love language, as you might realize whats the most important for you in relationship and for your partner to know about it, so yourself will be felt more loved by her/him.

If you are curious about the quiz, I tried to consolidate the quiz and the result brief explanation. Simply download following file  (password: egi). Sorry, but the file I protected, so it is Rad-Only file mode.

The Five Language Quiz

There will be 30 pairs of statements. Read the statements and imagine yourself having to choose ONE out of the two statements. Choose one that fits you best, and put "1" under your choice column. I tried to make it easier, so by the time you finish all of the questions, simply go to the Result sheet to find which one is the most dominant.

Indonesian Cuisines are NOT Only from Ayam Penyet Ria, M Nasir, and Tambuah Mas [Food]

Whenever people in Singapore mentioned about Indonesian cuisines, residents or tourists, somehow their association to it will be somewhere quite well-known places i.e. Ayam Penyet Ria, Tambuah Mas, or Warung M. Nasir. Well, in my opinion those places are fine, but if you want to find somewhere that not really mainstream, perhaps you might want to try these following five other places that I tried before.

1. Warung Lele

With their wide various choices of menu, actually you can try something new that you never heard before (even for some native Indonesian). Located just outside the exit of Tanjong Pagar MRT, Warung Lele is quite convenient for commuters, and not really that crowded whenever I came there during dinner time. So if you thinking to book a place with big group for a dinner, actually this place is one of best choices due to the availability. Price-wise, usually I will spend about 8-15/each person. It really depends on how many menu that you ordered, since the style is more to a-la-carte, or in Indonesia we usually call it "menu tengah" (center menu). Their menu varied from Ayam Kalio to Es Teler.

2. Ayam Bakar President

The name of the shop itself literally means Chicken Grill President. Located in Lucky Plaza, I think they want to perceived that they have a top notch quality in their grill stuffs, which I am kinda agree. This place has the same style with Ayam Penyet Ria. I usually spend about 8-10/person in this place. My favourite menu will be Empal Bakar, Nasi Goreng, and Avocado Juice.

3. Sinar Pagi Nasi Padang

In Singapore, usage of "nasi padang" phrase is overused island-wide. Some of the stalls in hakwer centre use the phrase without any kind of understanding the different between Malay cuisine and Padang cuisine. Well, it is true that Padang people indeed are Malay people, but it does not mean that all Malay people are Padang people, and it applies to food as well. First time found this place was during my internship, and it all thanks to SGEntrepeneurs co-founder, Ms Gwen who brought me here. Located in Circular Road, with nearest MRT will be Raffles Place or Clarke Quay, this place passes my standard as a true blood of Padang people (both of my parents are from West Sumatra, practically Padang foods are my daily food back then in Indonesia), or even I can say one of few places in Singapore that serves good-quality of Padang cuisines. If you come here alone, you always can order "nasi campur" (mix rice) like what I ordered, but if you come here with a group of friends, I will recommend you order "menu tengah"-style. Normally I will spend about 5-11 SGD/person, it all depends again on how much you want to order. Just take note for sensitive stomach person, some of their foods are spicy, although they already tried to adjust it to local standard taste.

4. Resto Surabaya

I tried the branch in Far East Plaza before, but according to hungrygowhere, there is another branch in Lucky Plaza as well. This place has an interesting menu called  Ayam BumbuSate (Chicken Satay Sauce). Well, the satay sauce is not really that Indonesian taste I can say, as they try to adjust it with local taste as well. Perhaps, they could make it become 2 different type of sauces, because in my opinion there will be some people who prefer Indonesian-style of sauce (talking about myself indeed). Price-wise will be similar like Ayam Penyet Ria or Ayam Bakar President.

5. Pondok Jawa Timur

Well, if you know about Indonesia map well, at least Java Island, you might wonder why so many people from this island use city/province names as part of their restaurant names. Well, for Indonesia restaurant, most likely the owner itself is from that location, not because the foods they sell are the cuisine from that region only. Pondok Jawa Timur used to be located beside Plaza Singapura, but the last time I ate here it was relocated to Wilkie Edge, a mall after Pomo, behind School Of The Arts (SOTA). After tried some places around Singapore, the satay here is the one that really close to Indonesian satay taste. The portion of each skewer is quite big, which justify the higher price, on top of the taste of it as well. Beside the chicken satay, you might want to give a try Bakwan Jagung as well. But if you are ordering a set meal, Nasi Kuning Komplit will satisfy your tongue and empty stomach.

Well, the numbering in this post doesn't mean anything, and all of the write-up above are only based on my experiences and my own judgement, so it might be different to others. Hopefully, it will give you more places to go for dinner/lunch next time you are in town! :)

NTU is not Singapore, walking around might get caught in SG! [Author Corner]

Sorry, my house in Indonesia is secured enough and we are not really that kaypoh about what other people doing around us, but we indeed know each others around neighbourhood. 

That's what I felt like to tell that policeman last night when he asked me "what will you do if someone walking around your house area in wee hours?". Pardon me for being anal about kaypoh-ness of neighbourhood here and sorry also for my grammar mistakes.

Well, basically last night I was unlucky, because usually when I walk around waiting for my friend, nothing happened to me. But, perhaps I need to learn it in hard way that waiting for your friend in void deck at wee hours might get you being suspected for something illegal to do in Singapore.

It was started when I couldn't sleep last night, so I asked my friend who stay in Jurong for supper, simply want to talk about some stuffs. Aggreed to meet in McDonald, but after I finished all of foods that I ordered, he was not there yet. So my decision was walked to his block and waited for him at void deck. Oh to make it more details, it was 230 in the early morning. 

So while waiting, I walked around, while I still constantly contacted him through sms and phone call, yet no responses. That's the time when police "caught" me. Oh well, there were three policemen, and from my observations, each of them has their own job-desc when holding someone momentarily. One will check all of your belongings, including the contents of your phone, another one will call the station to confirm what should they do to the person, while the last one will start small talks to the person to ease his/her feeling. I thank to myself, because I don't have data plan at that moment, and lucky me for not having any indecent contents in my phone (maybe only a video that my friend sent thru whatsapp). But seriously, they need to make it right when reporting to their station in the first place, while another policemen still questioning the person on hold at the same time. 

"Dude, you don't have the full story, yet you reported to your police station like you know everything". 

Lucky there were only few groups of police who patrolled around, I can't imagine if they have a lot, and at the same time with same SOP that they have and they treat all the same as what they did to me, cant imagine all the crowds that they might have in police station. 

Well, I was suspected because I have similar descriptions with the report that they received earlier. When I asked, what are the descriptions, they told me can't reveal everything, but what they told me it was related with nudity in public.(Yeah right, I will run naked in public like nobody business). At the time they told me that, I was like "oh God, why you gave me this physical body appearances thus I need to get thru this kind of things". To my friends, congrats to all of you who said I have perverted face, you guys might be right all this time. *proven by Singapore policemen* =.=

Moral of story: NTU and home country are not Singapore! Do not walk around during wee hours. You might be questioned by policemen if you do.

Shadow Puppet: 45 minutes show under the moon [Performing Art]

Supposedly, this post was published last month, right after I attended the show, but somehow I postponed it and only after Self Awareness Day I have a chance to publish it, guess why? :P

It was my first time experience watching Wayang, shadow puppet play from Central Java and Bali, and I was totally impressed and enjoyed it much. The dialogue of Wayang was re-written by a person I know: Agnes Christina. According to her, the story itself is based on the original book that she has and she simply made the dialogues with casual jokes which in my opinion any other people who understand the language will understand it despite of their education backgrounds or so whatever.

Information from the booklet given before the show

Within more or less 45 minutes, audiences were entertained by the dialogue, the sound (or can I say music?), and a good Dhalang, master puppeteer and storyteller. As I mentioned, the dialogues were meant for public consumption as long the audiences understand the language, mix of Malay, Indonesia and English. Well, you notice that I separate between Malay and Indonesia because indeed those 2 languages are different, to those who think they are the same, please upgrade your dictionary. :)

All of the sound effects were executed digitally and I love it how it creates the atmosphere of show become contemporary style, yet it still portrays what it supposedly to be shown. I was kinda surprised with the fact that it was the first time experience for sounds effect guy to do this kind of sounds. When it comes to Dhalang, my comments only what a great show by her. First, she can make quite range of different human voices for few number of characters within the show. Yup, it was only her who dubbed the voice of characters. On top of it, there are skills needed to play shadow puppet in my opinion and again she is a first timer as well.

An attempt taking picture

With all of first timers in this show production: script writer, sounds effect person, and Dahlang, I would say it was well executed, as I did not really have any expectations since it is a free admission event as well. But in case, you a bit curious about the write-up for this event, here we go:

This Wayang Kulit performance tells the story of Bima's journey to find the holy water of life in a contemporary manner and features elementx found within the three faiths of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.

And this is the video by Suria.

My Haircut is 5 Cents More Expensive Than My Mouth Ulcers Dissolvable Film! [Author Corner]

Recently, I've been out of my comfort zone twice. First is related to my mouth ulcers and second is about my hairdo. So here we go.

This past week, I've been suffering from gastric problem which lead to mouth ulcers. The logic is like:

gastric problem --> could not eat something sour --> less intake of vit C --> mouth ulcers.

Lucky for me, by the time the ulcers appeared, my gastric problem is getting better, so I can consume those vit C without upsetting my stomach and make it worse. But knowing the fact I couldnt really force myself to consume sour stuff, so my friend suggest me to use Dissolvable Film for Mouth Ulcers (picture as shown below).

Payment that contributes to additional 5 cents coin to my wallet

It is so weird (till now I still feel weird), because there is something stick in your mouth wall, but I've been treating it like a candy. Well, from my experiences, when you use this you could not eat or drink. So for now it only works for me when I am going to sleep. So I can sleep well without worrying about my mouth ulcers. *to be noted as well, I have insomnia, which mouth ulcers make it worse*

As I mentioned about my hair, I've been contemplating about trying new hair style since 2 weeks ago and only yesterday I dared to try it. I wanted my hair style as nice as this, but of course my attempted to let hair stylist know was failed. First because I think she has her own imagination about what I mentioned verbally and second I was in a rush to meet a friend who came late for an hour at the end. If only I knew my friend will come late, I might ask the hair stylist to redo my hair. :-(

Well, luckily I used voucher my friend gave to me, so instead of paying 28sgd, I only paid 8sgd! Even cheaper than that QB House haircut fee. So I guess, I could not really complain about the result eh?

Tried to play around with my hair this afternoon, and below is another fail attempts by me.

F'FRIENDS by this collective is NOT For Parents [Performing Art]

A very first post for 2012 will go to this event that I just attended last night with my ex-roomie from my second year in NTU.

Reading a text from your friend to let you know he/she has free ticket to a show already made you happy, but when you watch the show and you like, you are even more thankful for what you have at the moment. Well, at least thats what happened to me yesterday.

It was my first time to watch a theatrical drama show with Black Box theater as the stage. It was pretty amazing for me to realize in such small space with no so much space of backstage, the director can executed it with good flow without any black men at all. The black men are the cast itself. With 6 scenes that the director wants to show to audiences, I could enjoy it with no interuptions. The process in between one scene to another is just like when you fast forward your DVD to next part, where somehow yourself still can enjoy it. On top of it, music for scenes transition also build the atmosphere for next scenes. I would say, continuity of the show is there! :)

The story itself is revolved around group of "couple" that somehow related each other who live in HDB flats. As I mentioned earlier, there are 6 scenes, with title for each scene as following:
1. Natural Disasters
2. Just the Three of Us
3. What Friends Are For
4. Things Happen
5. Gingerbread Men
6. Toilet Talk

Basically, all of those scenes are really in urban (liberal) human life style point of view. When you watch the show, you will understand what I meant.

Among those 6 items, I can relate to everything in fact, but 2 out of 6 are really slapping my face when I watched it in fron of my eyes, namely Natural Disasters and Things Happen scenes. Since I do not want to keep this post too long, I will talk more about those 2 titles instead.

Natural Disasters scenes are about opposite-sex close friends who live together in same flat. I think it is called Natural Disasters scene with some reasons. First, it want to attract people attractions of course. Secondly, indeed it is Natural Disasters, where naturally as people growing older, they will presumes a lot without asking the other party about the matters, until problems come up which forces a person to ask about it. But well, thats how adult survives in world, ASSUMPTION PREJUDICE AND OTHER WORDS FOR IT!

In another hand, Things Happen scenes are about opposite-sex so called friends which apparently both of them had sexual experiences each other before, that nowadays we called it FLING/OneNightStand/SO WHATEVER. When it was supposedly that way, but one of party felt differently and want to bring the relationship further while another party still not so sure or even want to stay it that way. With such conflicts and quite a lot of technology things that being raised up during conflicts, you also can see how technology changes relationship among human in such fast pace i.e. unfriended a person in FB which sometimes we consider it nothing much is actually as same as cutting down every contacts with the person in real life.

Well, I tried to google or FB search for it, but apparently I could not find any link related to this show, but what I know from my friends, the show that available is only for this Saturday, 21st January at 8pm. The other 2 slots, Friday and Sunday are sold out. The show is in Art House. If you are curious about the director and script writer, she gives lecture in NTU and if you are taking Minor in Creative Writting, you most probably will meet her in near future. Her name is Jocelyn Chua. Hopefully none of those 6 scenes are part of her life, because some of them are sad, but some people said anything a person writes, should reflect of her/his life, although not everything. And back again to title, Yup PARENTS ARE NOT ADVISABLE TO WATCH THIS AND IT IS M18 Rating! :)

[Author Corner] Is Singapore Cab Fare Too Expensive or Is Jakarta Cab Driver Underpaid?

I wanted to write about this post for quite some times back then, but only now I am really motivated to do it because cab fare hikes news lately in Singapore. In this post, I will have a simple comparison overview about the cab fare in Singapore and Indonesia, particularly Jakarta.

I do comparison between Singapore and Jakarta because both are the city I familiar with for past decades, when my critical thinking was/is developed. I think some might think it is like comparing apple and orange because there are plenty of differences in both city demographically and geographically.

First let's see Jakarta Cab Fare. There are few prices of cab fare in Jakarta, but I will take the normal one at this case.

Flagdown Fare: 6k IDR or about 0.85 SGD for the first 1km
Meter Fare: 300 IDR or about 0.045 SGD for every 100 m or for every 30 seconds waiting time
No booking fee
No peak periods surcharge

And now let's see Singapore Cab Fare (before being revised). I will take average here for flagdown fare.

Flagdown fare: 3.00 SGD for the first 1 km
Meter Fare: 0.2 SGD for every 385 m (from 1 to 10 km) and 0.2 SGD for every 330 m or 0.2 for every 45 seconds.
Booking Fee: 3.5 SGD
Peak Period Surcharge: 35% and 50%

From both data, we can tell that meter fare in Jakarta is 5% of Flagdown fare (every 100 m), while in Singapore the meter fare is only 2% of Flagdown fare (every 100 m). For waiting time, the fare is about 0.16% (every second) of Flagdown fare in Jakarta, while in Singapore the waiting time fare is 0.045% (every second) of flagdown fare. Well, it is true from these numbers we can say actually Singapore has lower meter and waiting time to flagdown fare ratio than Jakarta, but the fact that both countries have different standard living cost should take into account as well.

In Jakarta, a price of FastFood chain set meal is about 20K IDR or about 3.5 SGD, meanwhile in Singapore it will cost you up to 7.00 SGD in average. So in fact, the standard living cost from meal perspective, Singapore has higher price as much of 2 times than Jakarta. Comparing this cost with cab fare in both cities, we might think that Singapore has higher cost in cab fare, don't we?

The ratio of Flagdown cab fare to FastFood meal cost in Singapore is about 42%, while in Jakarta it is only about 30%. Meanwhile the ratio for meter fare is about 0.87% (every 100 m) in Singapore, but 1.5% (every 100 m) in Jakarta. The ratio for waiting time fare is about 0.06% in Singapore, but about 0.05% in Jakarta for every second.

By taking assumption ratio of cost of living is more valid than the former and from all of the numbers above, one absolute point that can be pointed out is the flagdown cab fare in Singapore is relatively higher than Jakarta referring to their standard living in both cities. But the meter fare in Singapore is relatively lower than Jakarta, while waiting time fare in Jakarta is relatively lower than Singapore. The latter can be justified with the fact that Jakarta traffic is a messed and traffic jam is everywhere, so the waiting time fare supposedly (relatively) cheaper than Singapore which does not really have terrible traffic jam like Jakarta has. But the waiting fare to flagdown fare ratio in Jakarta is higher than Singapore as about 4 times, which it is quite big difference.

Analysing this (stupid) numbers, makes me realize that actually cab fare in Jakarta is underpaid only for the flagdown fare, which make people in Jakarta simply hail and book the cab even for short distance of travelling, due to relatively cheaper flagdown fare. Booking a cab is even cheaper because there is no booking fee. It is true that public transportation in Jakarta is suck (for some people), but by increasing the flagdown fare by at least 2 times of current fare will discourage some people to take cab and using public transport instead. But well, it might have drawback to cab industry, they might get higher revenue, or/and they need to cut down number of cabs that being operated on the street, which at the latter case it means less vehicles on the road in Jakarta, less traffic. As the matter of fact, Singapore has about 26,700 cabs on the street, means it only can cater about 2% of its population.

So back again to the title, which is a question, which one you think is more appropriate statement?

[Food] Where Should NTU Students Eat in Jurong Point?

After wrote a post about what I ate during my internship and the fact this post is considered popular among the post I wrote so far (top 10), with support of another fact that my friends sometimes inquiry to me about where should they eat in Jurong Point (JP), I decided to write this post. Basically, below are the eatery places that I consider nice place and food for you to try and my judgement is a bit subjective, so feel free to comment if you think it is not as nice as I state here. The order is in ranking mode, with number 1 as the highest rank, while number 5 as the lowest rank. And you will notice, I option out foodcourt, but I do eat there of course. :)

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1. Ayam Penyet Ria

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If you go to Ayam Penyet Ria at basement level nearby old FairPrice (old Jurong Point), you should try their Ayam Penyet, Empal Penyet, Soto Ayam, and Rawon. The fact that I am Indonesian might cloud my judgement about this ranking system, because I am still proud to be Indonesian and want to promote Indonesian culture, food and others at my best efforts. But if you like spicy food, you can really enjoyably take the chilli as much as you can, and the chilli is really the spicy. The beverages that I would recommend will be Indonesia Avocado Juice, because the way Indonesia serve it, we put in condensed chocolate milk on top of it or around the inside glass. Deliciously sweet! :)

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2. Ambush

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Located outside challenger, level 2 of old Jurong Point, Ambush will offers you quite wide variety of sumptuous western style dishes. If you happen go here, you should try their Meatball and Chip. The meatball is really nice, which I think it is their made-in-house meatballs, not really frozen meatball from supermarket. But if it is the latter case, then I should ask them where they buy it, because it is nice!

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3. Old Town White Coffee

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The location of Old Town White Coffee is a bit hidden, at Level 2 of New Jurong Point but located all the way behind nearby FairPrice (cant really describe the location well, but you can always ask me if you need help to find it). This resto is come from Malaysia, so you will expect of local and Malaysia food fusion together, which in fact I think both are quite similar. If I go here, usually I will order their nasi lemak, because it is quite filling and the complement dishes (small portion) are quite nice. One of the nasi lemak variation will be Nasi Lemak Special. For the beverages, can try their Spirulina Orange. But well, you can taste the orange since the taste is really strong, but not really for Spirulina. But the temptation to try something new (from the drink name) couldnt be resisted for me. Beside it, you can try their (something) hot chocolate, the taste I can say beat Starbucks hot chocolate, for real!

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4. Bakerzin

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Bakerzin and Old Town White Coffee are actually in the same position in my ranking preference, but since Bakerzin price is slightly higher, so I mark it down (budget-conscious customer). I know Bakerzin should be a place you enjoy your cakes and desserts, but I had meals here before and it was quite good during my visit. Their pizza is quite nice, since I prefer to have thin crust pizza and their pasta quite filling and tasty as well. I tried their Mushroom Carbonara Sauce Pasta where the sauce was just nice.

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5. Thai Express

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This resto can beat Bakerzin if only they can upgrade their service. Instead of Thai Express, they should call themselves Thai Snail I can say. Regardless of their slow service, which I will recommend if you are not urgently hungry and want to have longer chat over your meals, the food are nice and suit my taste, esp their dessert when I ordered their set menu.

So, do you think any other resto that better than those 5 I mentioned above in Jurong Point, if yes, let me know, and I will make some changes if I agree with your opinions. For a moment, enjoy to try all of the above! :)

[Author Corner] Slaugthering: Why Some Indonesian Care, Some Don't

Disclaimer: If you are vegan or some activist who objects about slaughtering, please refrain from reading or even comments on this post. Your concerns are appreciated but not in this post, because I wont talk anything about how violent or so-wateva about slaugthering. Thank you.

Read an article about the way of people do slaughtering of the animals and which one is good,  and some arguments I had lately triggers me to write-up this post.

Basically if what's the article said is true (I havent dig up the research paper, so if anyone who found the paper, please let me know), then I have no objections about Islamic-way of slaughtering is the best way so far that human race can have. But been lived in Singapore and Indonesia so far (luckily only 2 countries), makes me ponder why some people really care about slaughtering and why some don't.

As you know majority of people in Indonesia are Moslem, while Moslems in Singapore are in minority portion, but the standard in Singapore is so much higher compare to Indonesia, particularly about what we are going to talk about at this post: Slaughtering.

According to google (type: "define: slaughtering" in your google search bar):

slaughteringpresent participle of slaugh·ter (Verb)
Verb:
Kill (animals) for food.
Kill (people or animals) in a cruel or violent way, typically in large numbers.

The fact that there is halal certified in Singapore are the key part why Moslems in Singapore have such so-called double standard. During arguments about it, one of my friends insisted something about the non-halal way of slaughtering whenever I have meal in non-halal resto (no pork, no lard). But when I confronted saying: "then you can not eat at all if you pay a visit to Indonesia, coz you need to have your own animals for you to slaughter by yourself, then you know it is halal". Then the argument about it stopped.

Another friend of mine said to me: "well, since Indonesia has big percentage of Moslems, about 90%, so it is matter of trust among Indonesian". Well I do believe that Indonesian themselves have their own concerns about it, but then they do not really take a big issue and then when I brought such values to Singapore, some people will start to judge and so. Well, it is up to them to judge for what I consume (not only food, everything!).

So back again to Indonesia, with population of more than 260mil (no idea why this number came up), the population itself is more than 40 times of Singapore population. It is only population, if you talk about areas, then it will be even worse. Then it comes with the way people buy their raw meats in Indonesia and Singapore. In Singapore, majority of people will simply buy their raw meats from modern market, while in Indonesia, most of them will buy from traditional market. So from here you can see, why in Singapore they can easily-controlled whether the raw food is halal or not, while in Indonesia it is nearly to impossible. Can you imagine if every morning my mom should ask to the sellers whether the raw foods were slaughtered in Islamic way? It is only in the perspective of my mom, what about in the perspective of the sellers? How many people will ask them? 100 a day? or maybe even more!

Although in Indonesia the government can come up with halal certificate, so it will be more reliable, soon enough there will be a lot of fake-halal-certificate around. To be honest, Indonesia people are so creative in doing such things, because our government can not really keep-up to what their citizens can do illegally, unlike here in Singapore that has less people and less area. Then it will create another problem.

Another scenario is to refrain people from buying raw meats in traditional market then direct them to modern market thus government can control the halal raw meats, there will be a lot of objections around the country i.e. more people lost their day-jobs. It will create another problem.

Morale of the story

Let yourself knows about other people life background, before you start any kind of arguments

[Event] Dia Di Atas Sana: Different Believes between A Lady and Innocent Boy

Out of boredom, I checked Substation website and found out there will be a play showing from Thursday till Sunday. Furthermore when I read the details, it is directed by a person that I knew, Agnes Christina. In fact, I love to watch this kind of play once in awhile, because it is not main stream kind of things you have in your to-do-list for leisure, the topic usually kinda sensitive issue, and support minority group of people as well. Well, I watched it on Thursday night, the plot was amazingly scattered in a good way, where you need some of brains to connect between one scene with another one, not blindly watch.

Nice simple design, but no idea why there are 3 blank rectangles, trinity concept maybe?

The play has a title "Dia Di Atas Sana" By Panggung Arts and The Substation. The play was something that you shall put in your must-watch list if you are someone who want to know more about some angles about God and religions issues, but just a warning: you need to understand basic Malay language. The subtitle was provided only for the video (this play is a mix of video and acts on the stage). For me because my mother tongue is Indonesia language, I have less problem to understand Malay, but still I did not really catch everything. And here is the thing I found during that night: although there was subtitle, my brain has tendency for not reading it, because somehow my brain told me that sure I will understand it without reading and I want to see the video without any distraction of the subtitle, so ignoring the subtitle is the only way. There were only 2 casts for the whole play. I cant imagine that actually a play can be made only by 2 characters (I do not count the one in video). And the cast was a great choice, because she acted just nice for her "stage age" while the boy act really as an innocent 9-years old-boy, while he is in fact is 24 years old (I asked him after the play, coz I thought he might be younger than me, such a baby face if compare it to my face =.=). There are some stereotyping issues such as God supposedly have a man figure, not woman, how different group will think differently about a person actions towards religion, and etc. Overall I like the scenes when they talked on the same table where in the stage the table was being literally cut into half and was positioned oppositely each others, yet their acts was consistent with the direction that they should see accordingly. Another scene will be when the boy talks to his imaginary friend (I assumed it is, no chance to ask the director after the play) in playful-innocent manner yet meaningful. And the silent in between conversation builds the play to a deeper meaning and more real-life scenes.

Below is a short write-up I took from the website about the script of the play:

“Where is God?”

Man has been asking, and has been asked this particular question ever since he was introduced or some would strongly believe, re-introduced, to the concept of the higher being. The higher being, God, Elohim, Jesus, Gaia, Vishnu, or Allah has led Man to spend his existence approving or disapproving. In the name of a particular God, beliefs have been forced and reinforced, to be embed in the hearts of Man and then reiterated in blood. But, those dramatic episodes in Man’s history, most probably start with that one simple question. ‘Where is God?’. That same question gradually spawns an entire variation of itself; ‘Where is my God?’, ‘Where is your God?’, ‘Where are you God?’, or ‘Where the hell are you God, in times when I needed you the most?’.

“Where is God?”

Brought up in a pious family, Abdul has always been surrounded by the will of God. ‘insya Allah’ (if God wills it) his father says, when asked if he’d take the family on a holiday. ‘Bismillahi tawakkaltu ‘alallah’, (in the name of God, to whom we surrender) his mother would remind him every time he kissed her hand before leaving the house to go to school. Those words of wisdom, gives him that warm fuzzy feeling inside. That same feeling has given him strength to face the obstacles in his life, thus far. Until his parents decided to commit suicide, each after the other. They’d have taken Abdul along too, if it wasn’t for the botched execution of a meticulously crafted plan. Abdul is left behind. He survives. But ultimately, he has stopped asking that question, or its variations. He now seeks that one answer. From The One Up There.

If you have the time and want to watch something different, you should consider this play as one of your activities this weekend. Can contact the director via her twitter as well. :)

[Wardrobe] Which Hairstyle Gel that Me , Not Tintin, Like Most?

Playing with my hair whenever I have mood made me give-a-try to some products that available out there. Well, I know that I am not a best person who can talk about it, supposedly Tintin (because the way of his hair looks like and how it can be held over the time without fail), but from a consumer perspective I simply want to share it with people who want to read it. So here we go, I ranked it with smallest number as my most favorite, and the biggest number as my least favorite. Beside of how it holds my hair, the smell takes part into consideration of this ranking as well.

1. Redken Fiber Gum Disrupt
This is the last hairstyle gel tube that I bought and it works really well on me because it can last for really long time and the texture of your hair can you change whenever you like as this hairstyle gel does not "freeze" your hair. It only holds the hair with "firm-look" but actually it still smooth. When I checked their official website, sadly this product is in their discontinue item list and in fact there are a lot of people likes it and complained when this is discontinue in production. And the smell is not bad. Bought it from Chapter 2.

2. Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Shaping Cream
It has a lovely smell among all of the products that I've tried. It also hold the hair firmly, yet your hair still smooth. The only disadvantages using this, you should use it evenly over your hair, because the colour of shaping cream is white. So if the shaping cream is only concentrated in one part of your hairs area, then you can imagine there will be white stuffs on you hair and it does look weird. Bought it from Chapter 2.

3. BodyShop Wheatgrass Fixing Gel
According to their sales-assistant, it is the only hair-style product that they have in line. They also told me that it cant really hold the long hair, but if it is only really short hair, then it can. So I give it a try and bought it. Well, what the sales-assistant said is true, so now I only use it when I have my short hair. Whenever I smell it, I felt so organic, back to nature. The smells not bad, thats what I can say. Well obviously I bought it from BodyShop Store.

4. L'Oreal Studio Wet Look Styling Gel
It is my first hair-style gel after for the past 2 years when I started again using hair-style gel. It has not bad smell, but the way it holds my hair is not good at all. It makes my hair so stiff although it looks wet. End up I gave it away to my little brother, because at the moment I have too much hair-style in my wardrobe. Well, I bought it from FairPrice.