So cold………………………………………………….

Luckily, I haven’t been sick since I came here (alhamdulillah).

While in Indonesia, the probability of my asthma relapse now is probably 100% (and my Ventolin is likely to be unuseful here… If I’d known this I won’t buy it!)

Hmmm… although Tokyo is a very dense city, perhaps the air is cleaner

Or perhaps I don’t have any trouble with cold. Hahahaha…

Will Bandung ever be the same again like in 80’s?

I was convinced by this youTube video

And… it offers the OraBrush product for free. So I went to the website…

Step 1 : Give OraBrush to a friend

but it’s actually just to publish the video advertisement to your friend. I mean, to all of your friend.

Step 2 : Be a Fan of OraBrush

Yes, I’ve already be a fan of OraBrush and somehow I get the feeling that “Now I’m in the bad breath group”

Step 3 : Get it for free

But you have to pay for the shipment fee from Utah, USA. It will cost me around $5, 500 yen, or Rp. 50.000 just to ship one OraBrush to Japan.

Expensive, you know, for just a fluffy tongue scraper.

So I googled  ”Ora Brush Japan” to find out if they’re already sold in Japan. Returns no answer for my question, but the first line of the google search showed a boy/girl who really wanted OraBrush but his/her parents said that it’s not valueable enough.

Surprisingly, one of the reader answered that

its probably expensive and alot of other things can clean your tongue, there are many types of tongue scrapers. some are somtimes on the back of the toothbush head. a tongue scraper where you hold both ends works really well!. and they are cheap or you can get them from you dental office if they have any

Well, I could say it’s true. There’s also a lot of testimonials whether OraBrush really worked or not, on average they said it worked.

But to spend 500 yen just for new innovation of tongue scraper? It’s better to wait for another company produce the same thing locally and I’d get better price.

The thing is, the way that OraBrush promoting its product is good, I think. Well it just need to make a simple video which won’t cost you lot, upload it on YouTube, create a website of the product, and set a strategy to increase brand awareness. Advertisement on Facebook, put the video on YouTube, and the ultimate thing which is to make you post the video to your friend (I have more than 1000 friend and I’ve helped them to promote it to 1000 people just in a single click, effortlessly).

I’m just one person. How if OraBrush could get 1000 people like me who want OraBrush for free so badly so they won’t hesitate to publish it on their news feed? That could be 1 million people got the information, at almost no cost. And don’t forget that these first 1 million people who got the information could publish it again to their another friend, and so on, and son on, so basically the graph of the information reach rise exponentially. Moreover, it across national border while OraBrush is located in USA. It offered to ship OraBrush to many countries including Indonesia, as long as you want to pay the shipment fee. *But the fact is, I won’t know which country that OraBrush could ship the product if I didn’t pass step 1*

Smart. And here you can see how powerful a SNS (social networking system) and how a company could benefit from it.

But what I mentioned here haven’t included another SNS side, that could allow you to discuss about this product and multiply the information effect. I’ve just read “Wisdom of Crowd” book and it said that people tend to herd. If the early adopters of these product found it useful, and share this information via SNS, their friend basically would believe that it is useful. So lot of people will herd to one circle that all of them agreed about the product usefulness. This circle will get bigger and bigger as the outer people of the circle affect his/her another friend. This effect would be done effortlessly by SNS such as Facebook, where you can give the information in just a single click.

The trouble is, how if the early adopters find it is useful but actually it is not? Will the herding take place too? The answer is yes. The follower will judge the product based on early adopter’s judgement (it is useful), not by looking by their own eyes. Well, generally people are like that. But some people, which has overconfident, dare to breaks out from the circle by simply judging it by their own judgement. If they said, “this product is not useful” and they don’t care what generally other people are saying, they could get out from the herding effect and then they could build another circle of “this product is not useful” — if they have influence and another follower to do that.

I think i was saved by some people who could break out from the circle of “OraBrush is essential”. Or else, maybe I had spent another 500 yen just to get a tongue scraper…

I found this unpublished post in my draft. It was written on April 25th, 2008 and I don’t know why I didn’t publish it.

Maybe, it’s too personal.

No, it’s too gross! hahaha…

This talks about someone I like and I love (my-ex) from the past.

I would never forget you because I will loose all nice moments we have..

That night when you sang to me the song

That afternoon when you hold my hand and talk heart to heart

That evening when you gave me the rose

Those nights when you drove me all the way to home

The times when you saved me from falling down…

Do you still remember that?

I do, and I miss you so

I would never know how it feels to fall in love if it wasn’t because of you

I never regret to have fall in love with you

It is just… just the time that made me never had you

And I can’t do anything to have you back

The love is still exists… and it hurts much more than I’ve expected

I want to see your face all day

I want you to smile all time

Just for me

You are, someone to me… but not someone just for me

*Tunjuk satu bintang, sayang..Kau kan kubawa kesana.*

See the first sections? It’s so… huahahahahahahahhaa *like the title of this post, how melancholy I am*

Now I always thinking, HOW COULD I LIKE SOMEONE LIKE HIM??? hahaha… really, it’s irrational. Aaaaaand embarassing that I had written something for him like that!!!

***

Kupandangi umbul-umbul Ganesha Futsal League di bantaran parker GSG. Aku teringat dia, apa dia datang ikut pertandingan? Tapi tidak mungkin karena dia bilang dia tidak lolos seleksi. Tapi seandainya ia datang bermain dan seandainya tim ITB salah satunya adalah dia (yang tidak mungkin), apa mereka akan bertemu? Apa reaksi mereka?

Aku tersenyum, aku mencintai dunia yang berbeda. Satunya menggilai futsal, satunya lagi anak band. Mengapa bisa?

“De…”

Kontras. Dan aku mulai mengingatnya, merindukannya kembali… Perih…

“De!”

Suara sayup-sayup memanggil itu lagi. Apa yang dia panggil?

“De!”

Itu seperti suaranya… mungkinkah?

“De!”

Aku berbalik. Dan di sana ia, berjalan ke arahku… tak ada dia yang kurindukan, tetapi setidaknya dia ada…

***

Ah, this one was about my playboy-4-girls-at-once-ex-boyfriend. I supposed to be still with him when I wrote about this (oh yeah I was! Now I remembered…), but why I wrote this was maybe because I had a feeling about being cheated (and proved to be true later when I had broke up with him).

No further comment except I really want to put him in my grudging book like Narumi has in Untouchable dorama

*Dia…

Seperti apa yang slalu kunantikan

Aku inginkan…

Dia…

Temani aku apa adanya

Seakan ku sempurna*

***

Ah, I really totally forget about why I wrote this one. Maybe it’s for someone I hoped in the future

Yesterday, after visiting Top Career 2011 at Tokyo International Forum (for 留学生), I got myself stuck at 7-story BIC CAMERA Yurakuchoo, right in front of the building.

I can’t tell you much about what I saw from 1st to 5th floor since I have no story about that! Haha… But when I came to B2 at last, which is a floor full of camera, I can’t help myself to take a look. I really want to buy a camera, but I was still thinking not to buy it since I didn’t like photography at all.

My iPhone 3GS camera is not adequate for me who wants to zoom anything. But I’m quite satisfied with its auto-focus feature and self adjusting light (although it’s still not so good for me). And I have to be satisfied because i have to pay 70,ooo yen (7 million rupiahs) for this gadget which couldn’t do multitasking (but I loved its human design).  Since that was too much for me, then I decided not to buy a camera at all here in Japan.

But lately, I’d like to take a photo with Dita’s DSLR Camera, which she bought from Bahar, whom provoked her to buy his SLR. I have no sense of photography at all! I can’t tell whether this photo is good or not. But I like the photo which has rich detail etc etc which I couldn’t found on any other camera but DSLR.

So… when I went to the digital camera booth, I really have no idea which digital camera I want. As long as it’s touch screen, I’d probably buy it (now I’m a touch screen maniac!). I think the new Sony Cybershot which could optimize photos taken at low light is quite good.

しかし、at Sony SLR camera booth, it has pictures of cats taken by Sony DSLR displayed! I saw it all and I think it’s a good idea if I could take a picture of whoever-gonna-be-my-cat or just ordinary alley cats with DSLR. Suddenly I want an SLR!

Huhu… but to think that I am esthetically dumb, and have no idea about photography (I do not even know about lenses!), I have to think maybe quite hundred times before buying that reallly expensive camera.

And there’s another disadvantage, I was used to be in the photo because I seldom take pictures. If I had that DSLR, I’d probably ended in nobody’s photos. But maybe I could trade it off by having my Flickr or Picasa… hehehe

Aaargh.. all that I need is to take a good photo of cats!

Mas Goyo *whom I called Mas Dwi before I came to his blog, so for these months I’ve called him wrong!* commented on my post and give me a link to one of the lecturer in ITB’s blog, named Budi Rahardjo.

He’s not my lecturer, he’s from different department — Electrical Engineering. But perhaps some of my friends have been lectured by him in Elektronika Industri (Industrial Electronics) class last semester, which appears to be the best class ever! He’s so phenomenal… First time I met him on Megatron Competition where he gave a small lecture about entrepreneurship (yes, he is indeed an electrical engineering lecturer but it seemed that he has sense of business, music, and lifestyle). What could I just say is, HE’S AWESOME!

First, he’s not a typical brick and mortar old fashioned lecturer like most of ITB lecturers are. In Indonesian, we called it “Dosen gaul”… *what, trendy lecturer?*

Second, he’s multitalented. Haven’t I said that he is a guitar player in a Jazz band? Or he have a digital music store at a shopping center in Bandung? Or, he has a lot of blogs that was listed in http://budi.insan.co.id/articles/blog/index.html *he even compared it one by one! That’s why Mas Goyo gave me that link as an answer for my Grunting for WordPress*.

Third… he’s religous

Fourth, he’s an active blogger and always promote students in his class to write blog *that’s why apparently almost all student in EL 06 ITB got blog*

Fifth, he’s even on the social networking web sites such as friendster and Facebook *over 4000 friends*! I wonder if he had an account at mySpace *haven’t I told you that he’s a musician also?*

So I browsed to his blog again, and found one interesting topic *I called it interesting because he wrote about a general lecture under Industrial Electronic Course we had last semester. I couldn’t attend it though, but he wrote everything happened on the lecture, including when my friends asks some question and when Sebrina got a prize * http://rahard.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/kuliah-pak-buntoro-entrepreneurship/#comment-60475

Ah, old times… When I saw my friends in the picture, I wonder in what circumstances will we meet again in the future…

Bolak-balik Cilacap – Bandung – Jakarta.

Aku jarang liat Papa, even waktu Skype an sama Ibu, Papa juga jarang ada.

Jadi waktu aku liat foto ini, aku nangis Pa.

Kangen…

Demi keluarga ya Pa, ya demi keluarga. Sampai bahkan satu-satunya foto Papa yang bisa aku liat cuma ini. Yang di pojok. Capek.

Aku denger dari Ibu katanya malam lamarannya pun Papa masih di Cilacap.

I know you won’t read this Pa, that’s why I’m writing it here. No way I’d tell you directly.

But I really hoped someday you’ll find this, to let you know that I love you Pa.

Since I went here, my only fear is when I came back, I couldn’t see you anymore…

Ya Allah tolong beri kesehatan buat Papa

Tolong lindungi Papa, dari semua yang buruk dan dari apa yang Engkau tak suka

Kuatkanlah Papa untuk menghadapi cobaannya saat ini

Maaf Pa, belum bisa berbakti apa-apa…

All that I need is just freedom to blog!

After few days investigating, I’ve just found out that WordPress can’t give me “Freedom” like I want!

1. Very limited templates

    

2. I cannot use customized templates, except for the very few customized templates that WordPress has (just 1!)

    

    

3. Limited gallery… and everytime I post an item with pictures in it, it would be automatically uploaded to my gallery and reducing my limited space

    

4. NO MULTIMEDIA WIDGET!

Well, of course that was for the free wordpress blog. If I upgrade the space, I’d get the media player widget. But still, I can’t customize the layout of my blog using my own template… I have to use wordpress engine, which is hosted by another 3^rd party and it won’t be free.

Ah come on, I’m just a personal blogger. I’m not a corporate blogger. All that I need is just easiness to use and freedom just like that…

And do you know what is most irritating? I could get rid from all that 4 things I mentioned above on Blogger.

I really regret to put my main blog on WordPress. I thought WordPress was good because lots of people are using it, and it seemed like professional. Oh well, okay, it is professional indeed, that’s why you have to pay to be professional. For those reason, I left my Blogger blog (actually my previous active blog was on Friendster and Boleh.com).

I’m thinking to move my blog to Blogger…. What do you think?

*kali-kali nulis pake bahasa indonesia lagi aah*

Yak aku mau cerita soal siklus tidurku akhir-akhir ini di Jepang. Kalau di Indonesia, jam tidur itu sungguh tak menentu. Kadang jam 10. Kadang jam 12. Kadang jam 4 saking baru pulang ngerjain tugas dari rumah Atis. Kadang pula tak tidur.

Makanya, jam tidurku yang pasti itu ya pas jam kuliah. Memang ga ada lagu lullaby yang lebih efektif daripada kuliahnya dosen… dan aku tak mengenal sikon si dosen… sepanjang aku di depan selama ini belum pernah ada yang negur aku gara-gara tidur di kelas. hahahahahaha *nyombong*

Di sini… berhubung beda sama Indonesia 2 jam, aku tidur paling cepet tuh jam 1.  Yah itung-itung di Indonesia baru jam 11 kan…. tapi sebenernya itu gara-gara skypean dulu sama Yozzi atau Ibu. Tapi sekarang mau skype mau chatting tetep aja tidur jam 1. Sudah jadi jam biologis nampaknya. Nah si teman sekamarku, Fafa, biasanya tidur lebih cepet.

Nah, dulu nih pertama banget datang.. aku bangun jam 7, sesuai jam bangunku di Indonesia yaitu jam 5. Sekarang, bangun jam 8 kalau ada kuliah. Mandi sejam *hehe*, sarapan kalau sempat, jam 9.30 udah harus cabut ke kampus. Nah kalau ga ada kuliah, seperti hari ini, aku bisa bangun jam 10 atau jam 12. Yang pasti sih jam 10, soalnya jam 10 Fafa pergi dan pamit di depan kamarku, jadi pasti bangun tapi tidur lagi… hehe…

Oiya, aku ga tidur di kelas lo selama ini di TIT, HORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Padahal di TI ITB, aku lebih terkenal gara-gara tidurnya daripada prestasinya. Hehehehe…

Tapi kalau merem melek gara-gara ngantuk sih tetep, hehehe.. kemaren ampe diketawain ama cowok-cowok sekelas pas ada kuliah tamu di kuliah Strategic Innovation *kata Tang Tang*.

Hoh, sekarang aku punya kebiasaan baru sebelum tidur. Yaitu, MEMBACA!

Aku punya banyak tugas baca dan entah kenapa semua tugasku pasti involve melibatkan membaca.

Nah aku ga bisa baca di kereta, soalnya suka ada pemandangan menarik. Entah itu cewek yang lagi pake penjepit bulu mata di kereta, boots-boots lucu, cowok dengan kupluk-kaus kaki-t-shirt-stocking-motif loreng-loreng, bangunan-bangunan, atau biasanya sih tidur lagi. Jadi aku mesti memanfaatkan waktu yang biasanya aku pakai buat bengong, yaitu sebelum tidur. Daripada aku ngitung kambing kucing ampe udah ga bisa dibedain lagi mana ekor mana kaki, mending baca kan

Sialnya, ternyata membaca itu sungguh efektif sebagai pengantar tidur. Biasanya baru baca 1 paragraf, bukunya udah terjatuh dari tangan, nafas mulai melambat, lalu denyut jantung menghilang, panggil ambulance! Eh salah… maksudnya udah keburu tidur.

So what’s the point of this post, anyway? Jadi titiknya ada di jalan apa aja pos ini?

Nah sesuai judulnyam “Nyampah”, this post has nothing to do with dots, points, circles, cubicles, abstractism, or even Pablo Picasso!

Cheerznyaw

Since the preparation for staying in Japan, I’ve been attracted to Softbank, mobile operator company. Different from Indonesia, handsets was sold by operators, not to be sold freely. Every operator has different handsets to each other and the operator’s are quite often to launch new model.

Mobile operator business in Japan is really like a bloody war since almost all Japanese people, even the kids, has cellphone. The companies have to grow, yet the market is already saturated. So they’ll do anything to get customers, and I like Softbank’s movement.

Before I came to Japan, Docomo was the first rank mobile operator company, followed by  AU, and then Softbank. Almost one month I came here, my lecturer on Strategics and Innovation class told us a news that Softbank had overcame Docomo to the first place, followed by AU, Emobile, and Docomo the fourth in terms of number of new subscribers.

Although I didn’t followed the war, I know some of Softbank movement;

1. Mobile Portability Number

Allowing to change operator (to Softbank or to other operator) and maintain the same number

2. Zero yen phones, usually for old models.

3. White plan

Free call to softbank numbers until 9, you can extended it until 24 hours with double white plan and also half priced to other operators. This attracts family and foreigners like us to communicate with each others.

4. iPhone for everybody campaign.

Hold license to sell iPhone — bundled with a very attractive data packet plan and quite low monthly price (but I strongly recommend to read the terms and agreements first before you decide to buy iPhone in Japan by Softbank. I bought it and surprised that I were bounded to a double white contract for 2 months when I don’t need to phone much).

When I asked my lab friend about “How can softbank be like that?”, he gave me another answer, “It’s because they use interesting and funny TV advertisements, using dog.” Then he showed me a video in Youtube, alas it was in Japanese so I didn’t understand where’s the funny thing. I just knew that the dog is very cute.

Not until today that I browsed heavily to Youtube, I finally found a story behind this dog and Softbank’s tv advertisement. I found some of it which had been subtitled to English.

So the dog is “otousan” which means Dad in Japanese. He’s a rare local Japanese dog, and his name is Shiroi. He has a human wife, a beautiful daughter which worked at Softbank shop, and a black-man-speaking-Japanese-son. I have a funny feeling that this black man guy is used to attract gaijin (foreigners) to use Softbank, since Softbank realized that it is popular among gaijins.

The advertisement’s story is about “otousan” life. And sometimes they make it a joke like, “Why is my father a dog?” asked the daughter, or “I’m surprised that Shiroi turns into dog,” said otousan’s friend at a reunion. Well, i think it’ll be a long story if I tell you all about Shiroi life, so here is some of the videos..

*oniisan is talking about Softbank’s plan, which is “Family White Plan” (24 hours free of charge for voice call to family members registered in the same plan) and “Friends White Plan” (free of charge to several number of your friends).