I am coming to ... to fall in love

watched Sex and the City the movie on my way return home from hong kong to jakarta. Louise character in that movie stole my attention.

her bold statement 'I am coming to New York to fall in love', when Carrie asked her the reason for coming to NY, somehow blink me for a moment.

I should evoke that statement for myself. give myself a try and take a risk for something called love. where decision point to come to somewhere no longer driven by money.

Just (love) do it (again someday) ..

love competition

love risking your pride

love winning it back

love giving it everything you've got

love the glory.

love the pain

love sport even when it breaks your heart

19 Aug 2008 Nike released the ads dedicated for Liu Xiang just the day after he broke hopes of China people. His foot injury stopped him to compete on 110-meter hurdles, to repeat his victory 4 years ago in Athens Olympic.

Nike knew exactly how to transform this dramatic incident into its strategic marketing communication. it's about binding emotion and building connected feeling with 1.3 billions people.
the ads itself resumed the games life (.. and human life as well.. ?) before its end.

pride, glory, fallen, love and pain.

for Liu Xiang himself it means holding a dream for another period of time ..

anything I can disassemble?

i was having my relaxing saturday nature-call while catching this funny article in HK magazine:

A teacher at an all-girl Japanese elementary school decided her class would put on a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But when she selected a certain student to play Snow White, the parents of the other 24 kids went ballistic.

Through a campaign of harassment, they bullied the teacher into changing the script so that there would be 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs, and no wicked witch'.

is it in joke column? no, it is not. it is from the astrology by Rob Brezsny (http://www.freewillastrology.com/)

let me continue for Cancerian:

In my opinion, that's the wrong way to apply democratic principles. I'm more anti-hierarchical than anyone I know, and yet even I would draw the line at, say, no more than five Snow Whites. Please be vigilant for the possibility that a similar misapplication of egalitarianism will take place in your personal sphere. Make sure there's at least one dwarf.

And for myself Taurusian:

By the time Cal was seven years old, he was lit up with a desire to know how things work. Sometimes that caused problems. When he dismantled the toaster to examine its innards, for instance, his parents reprimanded him. In a working-class family of 12 kids, losing a valued appliance caused a financial crunch. But Cal kept taking things apart to understand them better. In time his research led him to develop a skill for putting things back together again, often in better shape than they were before he got a hold of them. As an adult, Cal creates interactive robots that perform in shows all over the world; he's a master builder. I hope you'll try a telescoped version of his story in the coming week, Taurus: disassembling stuff in order to ultimately make it work even better.

cheers

True Love Behind British Classic Check

Merriam Webster just simply defines true love as 'one truly beloved or loving'. But human does not experience true love as simply as its definition, and not every human has luck to experience it. In my view, the statement says that ‘life is not fair’ is also applicable for true love.

For myself ‘true love’ is still remaining a wish. Will I be one of the lucky human in this earth to have that super luxury stuff? Haha… From Dale Carnegie, Paulo Coelho, Anthony Robins, to Rhonda Byrne will have sounded choir: ‘You must believe’. Okay I will.

Meanwhile I am waiting for that, I would like to share a little story of Christopher Bailey, the Burberry designer. The name never came across to me until last year when I had my work there. I saw him once in the project briefing. He looks so down-to-earth guy, far away from the image of fashion designer for high value British brand. Simple, low profile and lot of smiles.

Once I read in the interview article sent into my inbox. From that story I found about his true love in his life. He puts love not only in his personal life, but at his work as well. Touching and inspiring story.

Below are the links to few articles on him:

Tea and Sympathy - New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/style/tmagazine/t_m_p140_143_168_well_bailey_.html
Interview by Bazaar
http://www.harpersbazaar.com.au/harpers/site/articleIDs/10990E01CD086859CA2571A1001AF7D3?open&template=domHarpers

And from this video we can see how humble he is:
Interview by GQ Magazinehttp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lu1H85OwUY

My Grass is Greener

I can’t imagine myself doing the same routine in the same organization for many years. 10 years. 20 years. Or even more. I told this to Mrs Marlina when she asked me whether I feel boring or not working as SAP Consultant which always repeats the same cycle again and again in every project. My grass is greener, I thought.

Even though the cycle is same, but there are other factors which make the project different from one to another. People, culture, organization, industry, location and the challenge are kept changing. Those things make me not feeling boring.

‘Working in end user is not boring as well’, said Mrs Marlina in return. End User is a term referring to the client which consulting company works for. We can get promotion and the challenge is different from one level to another.

Aha.., challenge! She is right. That is the key that make our work not boring. No matter in which organization or industry we are working on. No matter for how long. As long as the challenge exists and we enjoy handling it, then we do not have time to feel boring.

In the world that change is the only constant every organization has its own challenges. And it is not only vertical but horizontal as well. From promotion, employee turn over, new regulation, new competitor, technology, until the latest issues on oil price raising and climate changing.

I am wrong! My grass is not (always) greener

Make Her Dream Coming True

I was in Pudong Airport Shanghai waiting for my mom and nervous when only few people left were walking out from the custom exit. I still could not see my mom. It was her first overseas trip alone.

So I was really glad when finally saw her was walking behind the airline officer.

'Seperti mimpi', my mom said. 'It was like a dream'. Coming to Shanghai was never cross into her mind. Me neither. The chance came in Nov 2005 after completing Global Wave 3 project for SC Johnson in Jakarta. I got the offer for next Global Wave 4 in Shanghai.

It was a common practice in consulting company to trade-in the flight back. In case I did not use my flight back I could use it for my family or friend.

In May 2006 two weeks before the project ended I asked my mom & father to come, but only my mom finally made it.

One thing that I like, and almost every consultant I guess, to work on overseas project is a chance to bring over loved ones to visit. Who does not like to have moment sharing the joy with someones we love?

During her two weeks stay, I took her around Shanghai and two cities nearby, Hang Zhou (famous for the west lake) and Zhou Zhuang the water city.

I was just happy to see her smiles.

At Ling Yin temple Hang Zhou:

The lover bridge in Hang Zhou. I was not dare to walk over there. Save it for someday with someone :)

We were in one of the old houses in Zhou Zhuang. My mom said it looks like in Mandarin drama.

My mom in action.. lol. I asked her to act like a shopper. The mannequin in Shanghai museum looks so real. The museum is located in the ground of Pearl Tower

Footprints

Footprints, a poem that I love to read over and over again:

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it.

"Lord, You said that once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My son, My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I Carried You."

***
I can not recall when exactly I knew this poem for first time. Probably when I was in primary school. It was printed in the bookmark which still can be found nowadays.

This poem suddenly came across into my mind while I was watching Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King. And it was reiterated again in Theatre Royal London for its theatre version.

There was one scene while Sam was struggling to lift up Fredo, his best friend, on their way up to Mount Doom.

Unconscious Fredo represents the weak, fragile and powerless character. He represents us as human beings.

Sam, whose faith was doubted by Fredo, became the real character of The Lord.

Everytime I read the last part of the poem I always feel touching. I wish to experience it when were falling. Who does not?

***
Link:
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footprints_(poem)
2) http://www.lordoftherings.net/legend/gallery/ >Sam> View: A determined Sam carries his best friend Frodo up Mt. Doom.

My Turning Point

When I decided to take postgraduate study in Communication Management in 1998, I was feeling stuck. After few years working as a programmer, I really wanted to change direction from logical to creative world. To the world where I can create something visually that people can see and enjoy it.

I had fun using photoshop during my days in university. I created 'The King of Fractal' for one digital design magazine 'Idn' competition.

I took Communication Management with expectation that later I could work in advertising or media industry. Mid of 1999 I left my job to focus on my thesis as final assignment. But destiny led me back to the place where I belonged to.

After leaving my job I spent more time in equity gallery instead of studying. Equity gallery is the place provided by security house for their clients to monitor the stock trading and doing transaction as well. I just started my investment in stock market few months before.

By that time the market was so hot. The market became very attractive especially with internet booming and political situation in Indonesia. I did make money. But it was not for so long....

Entering year 2000, the stock market turned direction triggered by unsuccessful story of internet business and unstable political situation. The market was crash. The worst happened when I lost money in one stock share which was stated bankrupt. I was bankrupt too. Not only that. I had attracted my father and few close friends to put money in stock market. I was really feeling guilty and bad.

June 2000 I left my thesis on 'media habit of stock market investor' incomplete. Through my friend Utin I got new job. She is one of my friends who trust their money to me. I was back to IT world. I started collecting money again and first thing I did with that money was to buy back the share that my father and friends bought. It made me feeling much better. I put friendship on top rather than money.

Year 2000. Most people remarked it as millennium year, golden dragon year or internet boom. For me it was my turning point.

It was the time when I accepted the fact that my left brain worked better than his neighbor. I made a deal with my weakness.

At the same time I told myself to stay in the arena of stock market. My failure should not stop me to make investment in stock market. I believed that it was just a matter of strategy. Never jump to stock market for gambling and expect to make money instantly. To date the stock market is giving me much more than my lost. My failure was the price I had to pay...

Dusk in Pulai Spring

After 7 months staying in Pulai Spring Resort, just last 2 weekends I had moments to see the sunset here.

The balcony was just steps away from my room. From there I can view the mountain with orange sky in the background. It is truth that sometime or most of the times we do not realize that something lovely is so close to us.

ah..it would be perfect if not only myslef enjoy this lovely moment:

Lipposhop (Academy)

Talking about where I am today certainly will drag me back to Lippo Shop (LS). The place where I got to know SAP for the first time.

LS was ventured by Lippo group to extent their retail business into online. It was year 2000 when many people and entrepreneurs tried their luck in internet business. The new economy. The palm oil on that era!

It was not only the place where I learned SAP, but the fundamental of logistics processes as well. Putaway, picking, bin, replenishment, goods receive, goods issue, transfer posting, physical inventory were added into my vocabularies.

But too bad. The business did not run well. It was over investment and did not make money. The online shopping was not a popular idea yet. Around one a half year later LS closed its business, few months after I left it in Oct 2001. At the end LS decided to give the golden shakehands to the employees which was still a controversy when I resigned. Erghh..not my luck!

Nov 2001 my life in consulting began ...

After All It Must Be Something Lovely

Nowadays I am getting used to have 'compliment' about my gray hair.

It seems every SAP project has contributed to that wise-signature. Thank you to all my clients as the contributors and SAP itself as the biggest one.

Although each project has different characteristics in term of industry, location, complexity, culture and organization but almost all have one thing in common. It is very tiring! Mentally and physically. From project preparation until live it takes a lot of effort and tension. Long working hours, frustation over the program bugs or system limitation, stuck in issue logs and being trapped in conflict of interest.

*

We all the project members gathered into one room. The priest was there, invited by the business owner, he led the pray for the system recovery. In another room, few people were working hard to restore the data. Not so long after going live the system was collapse and the data backup was failed to be restored. The rumor said we could get the sue for this accident.

*

Suddenly RI, our project manager, bang his ballpoint in the middle of Finance blueprint validation session. It was the closing session after Logistics and Sales blueprint in the previous days. Something went wrong. The session was not run as his expectation. Enough to make all of us feeling so bad in front of business owners and managers.

*

'You were forbidden to enter Malaysia until settle the proper document', the custom officer in KLIA said. I was still trying to explain my position, showing him the letter from my company which stating that my Employment Pass was being processed. Actually the letter did not have legitimation at all. I was overstay and my employment pass had not been done. That was early of Feb 2005 on my way return home for Chinese New Year after 2 months in Petaling Jaya. Because of this my first overseas job was suspended.

*

Sleepless nights in the warehouse...

'Don't you feel boring?' one day my client asked. Always repeating the same cycle in every project. Again and again for almost eight years.

The number speaks. Eight years could not be passed by just long displeasure stuffs list. Remind me to one analogy. Flip over the messy look backside of cross-stich canvas, and we will see something lovely.