It's about Easter Celebration

"Living as Christian means living in fullness"

That was one sentence I heard during an easter celebration last Monday in Den Bosch. Living in fullness means that no matter what happened in life and whatever comes next in life, we have to face it with utmost believe that God; no matter what will guide us. It is a fact that life is never smooth. If you by any chance has never encountered problem, thank God who has given you a life with fullness.

I had pretty rough life in the past, and it is just so different compared to where I am today. Last Monday was one of the days where such fulness was present. I went to this easter celebration which was being held by Catholic community from the whole Netherlands. On that day, at least 1000 people are gathering to celebrate Easter. People are coming from every corner of The Netherlands, and most of them are Indonesian.

The celebration takes place in a sporthall somewhere in the outskirt of Den Bosch. The celebration is lead by few pastor, which two of them are my acquintances, Pastor Bart and Pastor Clement. Upon arrival, we were directly welcomed by Miss Yvonne, the chairperson of Catholic community in Tilburg. To say it correctly, she was looking for me because I am in charge of the offering :D We were a bit late that day because we missed one bus stop.

The celebration opened by a group of tradional dancers which lead the way for the pastors. In this place, you can really feel the atmosphere of Indonesian culture. The praise song were sang by Catholic communities from town such as Tilburg, Amsterdam, and Den Haag. The photo below shows the group from Den Haag, which happens to be sitting close to my seat. I think they are the most spirited group from all of the others.

The celebration takes about 3 hours. It is quite long indeed :D There were speeches held for abou half an hour, and that was the most boring part on that day. Well, as we say in Indonesia, There are no horn which is not broken.... which means that nothing is perfect :) What comes next is the moment that we have all been waiting for, the lunch time!!!!

For the lunch, everyone got a lunchbox for free ( Then I thought..... Yipeeee!!! ) The lunchbox contains a balado egg ( Egg with Chili mix from Sumatra island ), Rendang ( smoothed beef cooked with coconut milk and spices ), and Sayur Buncis ( Sauted long bean with garlic ). There were also kids meal which is not spicy :) All in all, We had a great day on that day, and accompanied by great food for closure. I really can't expect better than that. I hope that there are more celebration follows after this..... :)

It's about Guitar Hero Jamming Night

It's been a while since last post I wrote myself. Few weeks back, I hold a fun event at my house. I called it Guitar Hero Jamming Night!!! As I have mentioned in my three previous post, I bought a guitar hero world tour set. It consists of a drum kit, guitar, and microphone. So to gave it a try and unleashed the rock star within :D, I invited my friends to play along. The result was constant singing and screaming starting from 19:30 until 23:00. I do respect my neighbour, and I'm sure they don't want to hear us howling like lone wolf after 23:00 :D

Although some of us howl like wolves, some of us do can sing pretty good. There were two ladies in the club, and God I thank you for letting them came. Without those ladies, it would be a Guys night T_T The guys are not really good at singing, but we totally rock using the instruments. You will soon see how good we actually are :D I usually play the guitar, but since I'm taking the video.... I'm not visible. The bald guy licking his joint is very good with guitar :D




The jamming night goes on not only for guitar hero. We spends some of the time playing Wii Sport, and guess which sport..... Yep it's Tennis :D See, some of us never play Wii before. So we need to show them one of the neat stuff in Wii, and that is the Tennis game. It was so funny looking how they try to play the tennis game like in reality. Some did it cool without so many moves because they know how to play it. Some did it in extraordinary way that I never see before :D Some did it like he know the game, but keep losing.... :(

In the end, we close the night by enjoying Dutch snacks, complimentary ( but not free ) of T'Dreefke snack bar. It's a small snack bar behind my house run by egyptians. I'm so lucky to live near such a place like this :D

Well, see you guys on the next post about another game night. Probably it will be Mario Kart Drifting night, but who knows....

It's about Apple FLOP in India - Soon China follow...

iPhone came to India with a bang. That bang lasted only for the night of the launch. Since its launch it has been weighed, tested and found wanting.

Here are the 7 reason why iPhone did not work in India.

• Cost is too high for a phone which offers no new features except the touch screen. Priced at Rs31, 000 for 8GB and Rs36,100 for 16GB most of the phone buyers felt it’s not worth it.
  

• There is no 3G network yet in India. Though the 3G auction process is complete and the spectrum is allocated it takes a while for the service providers like Airtel and Vodafone to roll 3G enabled services out. It could be in early 2009, which is a good 6 months away. So why pay for a service which cannot be used?

• People are waiting for Nokia N96. Seriously, most of my colleagues have said that Nokia N96 is a better phone and they will wait for it rather than going for iPhone. Sure the iPhone’s touch screen is good and its iPod music playing capability is awesome but I would rather not spend my money for just that. I want more. Besides, the brand value of Nokia in India is pretty strong and Apple has to work really hard to break that. iPhone did not give a compelling reason (other than the touch screen) for people to leave their N series phones.
  

• Hygiene factors are missing. Many features which are a given in a phone that costs you Rs4, 000 are missing in iPhone. I am not sure why they were but, video recording, cut paste, sms forwarding (how can you miss this) options are lacking.

• Consumers are waiting for the price to drop. This has been the case for a while now. I bought a 4GB iPod Nano for Rs.18, 000 in March 2006. I have checked backed into apple store after 6 months and for the same price they were selling 30GB iPod video. It is an apples and apples comparison and they did not match. So, I think apple will cut its prices and people are waiting for that.

• Alternative routes to acquire the phone at a cheaper price. iPhone crazed are the people who mostly work with technology. They usually know what the going rate of iPhone overseas is. So, it is not hard to get an iPhone 2G for $200 and unlock it for Rs. 1000 here in India. I am not sure if this route will work for 3G. Since there is no difference between 3G and 2G right now in India this would be a steal. Even the rising dollar would not be a factor here.
  

• Apple’s monopoly did not go well with Indians. Apple has ingenuously designed products and equally ingenuous monopoly. Indian consumers do not want contracts. They would like to change phones, change numbers whenever they want. They do not want to be married to a number and a phone. Besides, when you buy a phone at such an exorbitant price, how can you justify the fact that you cannot change your phone for a different number or a different vendor? I am finding it hard to justify. Only Steve Jobs can answer that but until then Nokia might rule the roost.
  

iPhone in India has a long way to go. Unless the prices are slashed and apple ties up with other GSM service providers it might never take off. We just have to wait and see if rolling of 3G services might give it a second life. A price of Rs. 20,000 would find more takers at least for the 8GB version.

Taken from trak.in article.

This is why a company / a product / a service should cater to the local need of their mass

It's about 3rd World Country - Indonesia Learn 2009

Indonesia and any third world country should learn from the experience of one village in India called Tilonia. First appearances can be deceptive. Tilonia, a remote village in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, looks like its not changed in the last 100 years. But spend some time there and you will realize why this tiny village has made its mark on the world map. The village is home to the Social Work and Research Center and the Barefoot College founder Sanjit Roy also known as Bunker Roy.

Set up in 1972 the Barefoot College believes that solutions to rural problems lie within the community and trains people who often have had no or very little formal education and teach them skills through the process of learning by doing. The college does not give out any paper degree or qualification after the course.

It has a campus spread over 80,000 square feet that has residences, a guest house, a library, dining room, meeting halls, an open air theatre, an administrative block, a small hospital, pathological laboratory, teacher’s training unit, water testing laboratory, a Post Office, STD/ISD call booth, a Craft Shop and Development Centre, an Internet cafe, a puppet workshop, an audio visual unit, a screen printing press, a dormitory for residential trainees and a 700,000 litre rainwater harvesting tank.

The village and the college are electrified through solar panels designed and manufactured by the villagers. The college serves over 1,25,000 villagers in the district.
“When I went into a village in 1967, I dint know what I was going in for. But I said if I don’t do it now I’ll never do it. People didn’t think I would last. Even I didn’t think I would last,” says Bunker Roy.

Within two years the villages in the block were electrified. ”After coming here I feel it’s not necessary to be educated. Even an illiterate person can learn to test and assemble solar panels,” says Kailash who makes solar panels in Tilonia.

He is a class eight drop out, who initially came to Tilonia from a neighbouring village to learn how to make circuits and electrify his village. He now trains many African women on how to make intricate solar circuits for products and has helped electrify villages around Tilonia.

After being replicated elsewhere in Rajasthan, the Tilonia model has now spread to 10 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Engineers trained by the Barefoot College have solar electrified over 200 communities in India, bringing light to over 80,000 people. And that is not all. The village also trains women to make solar cookers and has 25 to 30 solar cookers made by women.




Taken from www.livemint.com
Part of plan for future initiative "Indonesia Learn 2009"

It's about Spiderman

BANGKOK - A Thai firefighter dressed as Spider-Man to rescue an autistic boy who climbed onto a third-floor balcony and dangled his legs over the side because he was nervous on his first day of school.

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai was called in after the 11-year-old boy's teachers and mother failed to coax him off the ledge on Monday, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"He was nervous about the first day at school, and he was asking for his mother," Somchai said. "He cried and refused to let any of us get close to him."

Overhearing a conversation between the boy's mother and his teachers about his love for comics and superheroes, Somchai rushed back to the fire station to change into a Spider-Man costume before swinging into action.

"I told him Spider-Man is here to save you. No monster will hurt you now," Somchai said. "Then I told him to walk slowly toward me. I was very nervous that he might have slipped if he got too excited and ran."

Somchai, who keeps costume of Spider-Man and a Japanese superhero Ultraman to liven up fire drills at schools, said the teary-eyed boy broke into a smile and started walking into his arms.

Taken from AP, Associated Press news...

It's about Having Fun part 2

It's been a while since I post an update to my blog. This is because I have been busy with many things lately. One is caused by my work. For few previous weeks, we have to perform major reorganization in our client, so it took most of my attention and time. In the end, it works fine in general. There is still room for improvement though. Well, at least we know now how to do it well and expecting the reorganization for other department.

Other things that taking my attention is the way I'm having fun lately. I notice that I play game a lot these days. My weekend is mostly comprised of going out to to town in the afternoon, and playing game in the evening. That way I still keep the balance of socialized life :)

I just bought a Nintendo Wii with 2 cool games ( I consider cool!!! ). One is the House Of the Dead Overkill, an arcade shooting game made by SEGA. It's a famous shooting game where it's first came out on 1997 or 1998. The current release of House Of the Dead series has entirely different format. The game has a character of Quentin Tarantino game, with a lot of blood, rude language, and cut scene-like movie. It's resemble close to a movie called Planet Terror. I bought the hand cannon package with the Game DVD. Take a look the packaging.

Beside this game, I also bought a set of Guitar Hero World Tour band package. God, it cost me a lot of money, but it's worth to buy. I enjoy playing music games. It's relaxing as if you are playing real instrument.

The band package comes with a drum set, a wireless guitar, a microphone, and the Gutar Hero DVD. I was not feeling really well on the day when the band package arrived. So I have to put it in my living room, waiting to play with it if I'm feeling well.

Having feeling well, I want to try the new toy that I just buy. I try to play with the drum set, and I must admit it feel really good. It has the feeling like you are playing with an electric drum. So kudos for the producer of Guitar Hero. The game contains almost 80 songs from famous band in the world, like for example:

• Metallica
• R.E.M
• System of a Down
• Van Halen
• Black Sabbath
• The Rasmus
• Beastie Boys
  

And some famous singer that we know such as Michael Jackson and Ozzy Osborne. Below you can see the picture of my latest collection :D

I let my friend to record the video where I play the guitar while she sings. She was embarassed when I asked her to upload the video to youtube :) So instead of embarassing myself, I will show you the trailer of Gutar Hero World Tour ;)

It's about Singapura

Singapura oh Singapura...

Pretty island sets in the sea

Singapura oh Singapura...

Pretty flower blooms for you and for me

This is a piece of song about Singapura. I visited Singapura few months a go, and it has changed quite a lot since my last visit 4 years a go. For people who wants to travel to Asia, but doesn't have a lot of time, you can visit Singapura. For me, Singapura is a place where cultures from Asian's continent merge with each other. There you can experience a lot of cultural diversity and commodity. Basically, you can found these following cultures: Chineese, India, Malay, Peranakan. Peranakan is a mix culture between chineese and malay. This culture comes from the Chineese people that are born and grown in a malay environment, known also as "Straits Chineese".

During my stay for 5 days, I have taste almost all cultures in Singapura, thanks to my friend Tety Intan Sari for her companionship. At morning we already began scouring the town for continental breakfast. Afternoon is the time to visit different places in town, and tourism sightseeing. In the evening, we prepare our stomach for Singapore's gastronomical delight. I have here a video which shows you a little bit about Singapura:

And a visit to a country like Singapura will not be complete without knowing about its political situation. Its famously known as "fine city" where even bubble gum is forbidden :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore

I happen to found a funny video made by Singaporean that shows a bit about Singapura's political situation