A Confession of A Narcists ....

Look at her ...


Isn't she beautiful ....

And then look at this .....


Then you will realize that the following parables are true ... "Like father ... like daughter" ....

Hahahaha

Damn Electronics !!!!

I bought an Ipod last month ... as shown here .... it was the 5G 30 GB model, as I said, it holds lots of music, the sound quality was fabulous. I paired it with a Koss Sparklug earphone. I also bought the dock and the remote and connect it to my stereo in our room.

Everyting was perfect ....

Until ...

And last week Charles update me with the HORROR ..... APPLE RELEASE THE ENHANCED 5th generation Ipod. Those bastards ! Why couldn't they wait for another month or six ? Why couldn't they let me feel good as I have one of the coolest, dandiest and hip music accessories around ... Why .. why .. why .. And to make it worse, the 80GB model was just about the same price of my 30 GB one ...

This is the problem with consumer electronics, a hip things will quickly become commodity. Apple Ipod itself revolutionalize the MP3 player world. And then now we're flooded with a flock of MP3 players. Price becomes cheaper and cheaper, but feature wise, a 249 USD ipod have lots more features than a 500 USD ipod 2 years ago. Commodity goods, every one was doing it, so in a while it will come to price wars. Features become irrelevant, because everyone was stuffing every feature imaginable to their products.

Soooo ... I need to turn my attention to .... ACCESSORIES, no use fretting about the commodity market huh... As I said in the previous blog, that Harman Kardon Drive and Play sure looks fabulous....

Commodity stuff ... HUH !!! Electronics ... HUH !!!


Well I haven't started to fret about Canon releasing a 10 MP beginner DSLR over my "semi pro" 8 MP 30D....

Again ... commodity ... HUH !!!

That EF 24-105 L IS USM sure looks good :D

Jump and Splash .... The continuation ....

Mmmmm

It's a continuation of my two recent blog ... the one titled splash and jump.. jump... Well let's go to jumping first.
The following pictures are proofs that Aiko likes to jump... The pictures are blurry (well wifey can't handle the canon 30D adeptly ... yet ), but it speaks bundles he he he ...

Then you can also guess that these pictures also speaks a lot about swimming !!!! Well last time I was afraid that Aiko was traumatized because she drowned at that time.... Welll worry no more .. Not only that she's likes swimming pool ..... SHE ALSO FLOATS !!!!
First Picture ... sleeping in water ...

Second Picture... notice how deep the pool was (1,4 meters) and how far was she from me ...

Daddy is soooo PROUD !!!

Jump Jump Jump ....

Aiko likes to jump ... She's able jump up and down for half an hour straight. We have an additional mattress beside our bed and she used to jump down.

Now besides that mattres we need to put another mattress paralel to the window, because once she jumped and get bounced to the window (end up with a bruised head)...

It's amazing to see that someone so small has so much energy.

White Suit and Powdered Face

The Venue :
Salom's Wedding

Couples sighting:
- Andrian & Venny & Aiko & Nanny
- Daru & Raney
- Regina and Hubby and Two Children (forgot the names .... SORRY)
- Nindya & Helen & Hovan
- Tungting dan Evatek (hmmmm ... of course tungting plays the role of the MAN !!! :p )
- Maya & Lovy ... (no guy like, but couples none the less)
- Mico & Eva

The report :

Only one sentence ... The groom wears whitesuit with powdered face .... nuff said ... let the picture do the talking

Higher resolution pictures (and more of them) are here

Good luck to Salom and Mira

Swimming ...

Got a confession ...

Once in one outing at the pool, Aiko fell down ... My fault, I was too far away and she was underwater for a second. Naturally she said... "udah ... udah ... Aiko udah ..." And I was heart broken. It was about 2 months ago.

The moment of truth is today, is Aiko traumatized because of that day ? Well I can report that it's ok now, she showed the same enthusiasm with water as before... But daddy come prepared now ... Look at the picture :) (sure she had a gulp of water .... well make that three, but nothing unexpected :p )

More picture here

How Did it Come to This ?

Picture this,

My graduation day and birthday ... October 31st 1998... Oh my God is it really been 8 years since I graduated ? And .. and .. and ... it's been 13 years since I first entered college ???? Arrrgghhh... so .. Im ... Im ... Im ... 32 this year ....?????? ARRGGGHHHH....

Calm yourself Andrian ... this passage is not about your age ... it's about something far more sinister, far more diabolical, far more .... Yes it's far more important than my age ... it's magnitude surpassed Israel invading lebanon !...

Picture this ... a nice meal, a gathering of friends, about 10 of them. I graduated that day and coincidentally it's also my birthday. Then naturally we go for a meal ... the restaurant : Glosis, the food ... steaks ... some of them pork (hey Glosis serve those ...). The setting ... very much warm and lighthearted... friends were laughing, stories were shared, jokes were told .... Until the end of the meal ... the horror ...

Behold ... in the restaurant's yard ... a photographer along with a couple ... the bride were beautiful, but the guy .. o mi gosh, the guy ... He ... he ... he... He wore his hair high, I bet he used a full bottle of hairspray to achieve that hair. Hmmm ... picture Alec Baldwin, a thinner Alec Baldwin with slanted eyes (he was chinese), a weird cocky smile ... ah you got the picture. Then the prop ... they are the most horrible thing I saw that day ... they brought an old bike, a complete picnic apparel, with baskets and the accompanying picnic sheets (with box pattern), and the guy was holding ... A GUITAR !!!!! Sinister ... diabolical ... unprecedented ... and naturally faced with that kind of horror, we LAUGHED LIKE CRAZY ....

Fast forward 8 years (goodness it's been that long ya ...) I was speechless, stunned, surprised, shocked ... when I received ... this ....

How did it come to this, ... how come ... how dare him ... how dare you ... how come you let yourself be a laughing stock ... HA HA HA HA HA HA

Degradation of humanity, far greater magnitude than Israel's attack ... ha ha ha ha

Still I wished them best of luck. To Mira and Salom ... welcome to the unknown ... Im sure you will find it worth the trip...

Our prayers are with u guys...


CHEERS

Odong-odong

What on earth is an odong-odong...
Hmmm it's like a miniature arcade machine for children. But it's powered by man, the guy will pedal and the odong-odong will move back - forth - up - down ... Just like arcade machines.

It's cheap, only Rp 500 per song ... Aiko usually spends Rp 2000 to 3000 in one go
Still confused ??? Let pictures do the talking:

Warrior of Light

Found from the blog of my friend : from Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist:

"Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle

Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone

Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his

Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons

Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light

Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties

Every Warrior of the Light has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no'

Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved

That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is"

Music, lots of them

A week ago I took the plunge and bought one of these....

Man it really nice to have most of your CD collection in one place. And it's soo good so I bought one more .... wait one more ? You see, Venny is pregnant now and she's nauseous all the time. That day she listened to music during our trip and it really help her. So I bought one (i know ... i know ... what about sharing ... :p )
by the look of it... Aiko enjoys it too... It's really a good buy, but now I have to refrain myself from all that accessories.... Hmmm that HK drive and play sure looks good :D

Out with the Old and In with The New

We just replaced these ....

With these ....
Why you asked ? Well let's just say, the new ones have no joint, so less likely to break.... :(((

- Two little friends -

They don't really understand each other ... (or do they)
Come from different race ...
Still look cute and played together ...
Even tried to cook together ...
Kids are fun ... kids are hillarious ...
It proves that the language of friendship spans further than our spoken language
I feel blessed just watching

Love is In The Air

Today is a landmark day,

For the first time, I will accompany Aiko in a school trip. So it means about full 4 hours together, outside, far away from the comfort of our home, only me and her together. HOLD THAT THOUGHT ... of course I have taken Aiko alone before. But our endeavor together usually close at home, using my car. Buying something for Venny at the supermarket, buying food, buying fishes ... hmmm alot of buying is involved.

Today it's different, we're visiting a juice factory in Sentul, so that means venturing together to the unknowns, going by bus (how will she behave), going so far away (how will she behave), going without her nanny (how will she behave)... In short I have to change her, feed her, accompany her, entertain her, protect her without supervision... Am I able to do this ? .

So the D day cometh... Armed with a bag full of biscuits, milk, spare diapers and clothes, candy, water bottle, lunch, candies, jelly and others (I lose track) we went to the unknown in our small car (it's a KIA Visto). Well a day before Aiko threw up in the other car so even at the beginning of our adventure I already feel that butterfly in my stomach ... Well too late to turn back wasn't it ? Luckily (and happily) I could report that no major incident happened.

We arrived there at 8:45, and Aiko had to perform her class mandatory greeting time. So I went about in the lobby, and my jaw dropped.... ALL LADIES !!!! Ah there's one guy there hmmm old ... definitely grandpa ... well there's another over there ... hmmm too young ... maybe an uncle... well Im about the only daddy there. Aiyoh ... what to do, well it's hard to mingle with moms ... I had no clue on the topics ... So I cowered in the corner, trying to read a newspaper.

After half an hour our time had come... we boarded the bus. Amazingly the bus ride to the factory went on uneventful. Of course Aiko was still cute and cuddly (especially to boys). She kept bugging Jova in front and Matthew in the back (hmmm note to self, need to teach her to be classy so she'll attract the right kind of boys :D). But all in all it was fine ..... Jova's mom and Matthews's were chatting about their kids (both have two sons), one toddler was running amok in the aisle. Squealing laughing sound from the back ... hmm Michael cried ... well as I said, it was fine ... (fine = it was chaos but not unexpected)

We arrive in the factory at about 10.. and the heat was scorching. Luckily, Aiko was armed with a hat... We were gathered in a hall and lookie there, CLOWNS. Aiko was especially drawn to the sponge bob clowns. She kept tugging me to have a handshake with spongebob (not sure about the hygiene of that clownsuit though). But she wouldn't take no as an answer, so as you can see in the pictures, Aiko was very much involved with spongebob.

The factory tour itself was poorly aranged, and Aiko started to get cranky. But afterwards it was games time, and Aiko always liked games. The ball race ... starring Aiko, Owen, Jesslyn, Michael, Matthew, Jova well I don't remember them all. But all is under 2 1/2 years, so predictably it was chaos. Anyway everyone had a blast, and we parents were having fun too. Another highlight of the day is balloons !!! Popping balloons to be exact, somebody need to shoot the guy who had the idea of balloons in a hot day. Popping balloons were so numerous that I thought I may get heart attack. But in time it becomes soooo numerous that I stopped being surprised.

Well the next test was lunch time. Hmmm what should I do, ok, open the bag, take out lunch box, close bag, open lunch box, look for spoon, open bag, get spoon, close bag, look for water bottle, open bag, get water bottle, close bag ... you get the picture lah. During lunch time Aiko's three teachers were sitting next to us, hmm maybe because they expect me to screw up ?, but I passed with flying colours ... well not really flying colours may be acceptably ... (or was that barely) ... as I clumsily tried to make Aiko eat rice with chicken nugget and sausage.

Time to go home, and the trip home was uneventful ... again ... But then Aiko fell asleep on my lap and as I watched her face and as I look around.... it was the same. Love is in the air ... although I was different with all of them (well I am a daddy, they are mommies !), still the feeling was the same. Most of the kids were asleep, almost all of the parents were watching them with a smile (except for one mommies accross the aisle, she fell asleep too)... at the back there were squealing sound as one mother tickled her son... and so on. Yup that was it, definitely love is in the air ...

Hmmm going somewhere alone with Aiko ... Lets do that soon

Aiko and F11

About 8 months ago I bought a small Fuji F11 as my daily use camera. I was hooked because of it's high ISO performance (ISO 1600 with the same resolution as ISO 400 in competing cameras).

It had serve me well, but today I found something in it that made me feel that it was worth every penny I spent.



Yes it's not sharp and blurred, but you see these was taken by Aiko, our 2 year old daughter. She had always played around with my camera and now I can proudly say that she has improved .... Alot ...

Again it was taken without flash, only made possible by the ISO prowess of the F11. Again .... I'm glad I bought this camera...

Gathering of Friends

You can't argue that a gathering of friends can make you feel warm all over. And on last saturday, we did just that. Most of the ciaters in Indonesia convene together at our beloved Nindya's house.



The attendees were :

1. Nindya, Helen, Hovan (host)
2. Daru (our long lost friend in semarang, now had returned) & Raney
3. Bessie and Syntha (do I spell this right ?)
4. Hans and Gita ( special guest from Singapore )
5. Suryo and Kurnia and Vina (new addition to Ciat, cute daughter)
6. Andrian (alone, Venny wasn't well)
7. Mico & Eva
8. DRUMROLLLL Salom and Mira (amazing)
   

Here are several observations :

1. Hovan had a "nelongso" aura just like his father :)
2. Daru is as garing as ever
3. Luckily Bessie came well shaven (girlfriend had it's positive sides :D )
4. Vina amazingly has several similar trait with Aiko (note to self, need to get them together sometimes)
5. Hans and Gita seems very healthy (a very crispy observation :D)
6. All were sceptical about Salom showing up, but hey amazingly he did (we still think of you as Tuti lom)
7. Nindya and fam was a fabulous host, we do suspect Nindya will return to his usual function when we went home
8. Mico and Eva seems very happy (again Mico was well shaven, definitely a positive trait of having a spouse)
9. The blog writer, still can't write an essay ... can only communicate in points...

It was fabulous though, the food was very good (definitely better than agar-agar belut) with porks overflowing. Definitely need to do this more often.




more pictures here

Hope, chocolate, cashews

Kalo Tavitha pulang dari swiss

I'll go to her table, I put out my hand and she'll frown.
But as quickly as that she will whip out a chocolate bar from her bag, well if I'm lucky I'll get two. Two months ago I get a red one (milk).... last month I got a green one (nuts). And trust me they're fabulous.

With a chocolate bar you got a certain service level expectation (AKA hope)... toblerone should taste like toblerone, silverqueen should taste like silverqueen. When you got something like Zeppelin Praline (hey don't ask me what it is, i found it in the internet), you are filled with hope, with expectation that this damn swiss chocolate better taste fabulous.

Then you found that it's not THAT fabulous... or worse, it has some gooey stuff with strange taste. Vintage nonetheless, just not fit for "kampung" tongue.


Ah ... let me rephrase ...

With an IT and consulting company you have a certain service level expectation on how it should behave.... You have heard good things about accenture (toblerone) or how soltius (silverqueen ... indian one) do their business. So when you want to join a famous company such as IBM .. you filled with expectation that this damn company is ... is.... is... is... is... (well i'm not putting my hope here, to many disappointment :D )

Then you found... that it's sucks big time, too many non value added processes (in your point of view anyway), unrealisic KPI's (again your point of view), seems wrong business model.

Back to chocolate business

Somehow chocolate is chocolate, there's a certain properties and taste that still chocolaty... Chocolate is sweet... well as with that Zeppelin Praline you can either throw it away, eat it anyway or you can do what I do ... bring cashews so it taste like the chocolate I love.

IBM is IBM there's certain properties and models that is specific IBM.... But still GBS is still consulting, and still the job that I like to do... so I bring cashews to the job, such as making friends with these crazy blog posters, learning in knowledgeview, engaging in a heated discussion with people around the world ... thats my cashews...

So its done then ... hopefully everywhere you can bring your cashews ... because anything anywhere there's gonna be gooey things that you don't like in the vintage chocolates :)


As Forest Gump says "Life is like a box of chocolate, you never now what you will get"

Forest is referring to those vintage box of chocolate with lots of taste in it :D

But this fat guy here says "Life is like a chocolate bar, it's not always runs true with your expectation, but you can still bring your cashews"


Hopefully IBM decides to put some cashews in their chocolate :D