Monday, November 2, 2009

From SAHM to WAHM, yeay!!!!

Things have changed a bit lately in my life. I've just changed my 'social status' from SAHM to WAHM = from Stay-at-home-mum to Work-at-home-mom.

Yeah... so now life becomes more complicated yet more effective... because I still spend most of my times in front of the PC, but this time I got paid. He he.

And you think "Work at home huh?"

Most of the people would associate a 'work from home job' as something less serious.

Something like.... "oh, work from home? So you're a telemarketer?"

"you open an online shop now?"

"oh, did you just buy those 'internet financial tool'?"

Et ce t era

The truth is, even I have difficulties to explain this kind of job to my mother. It's a kind of job that probably can exist after the broadband internet era like now.

Let's just say that I 'collaborate-bring together ' projects from A to Z... and I'm still learning how to do it wisely and effectively.

So forgive me if from now on the posting will be less often than before. But I will try to post at least once a week.

See you!


 


 

Friday, October 23, 2009

What a stupid article....

Check out this link, and read what’s inside.
(http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/20/live-porn-aboard-economy-train.html)

I’ll give you 3 minutes.
One, two, three...
Done?
I took me just 10 seconds to read this article before my blood temperature suddenly hit the high note.
The article was named: Live porn aboard an economy train?
It was about how in Indonesia, in the commuter trains in greater Jakarta, people breastfed their children in public, which the article said would make “.....the group of men ... enjoyed free porn that hot day.”
I think it’s sick to say that opening your blouse to breastfeed your baby would be considered as porn. For God sake, it’s an act of Love! Not porn!
The writer wrote,“How can a baby exploit their own mother’s privacy just to satisfy their hunger or thirst?” Again, she hasn’t done her homework. Don’t you know that that’s the only emotion that a baby knows? Babies are not born with database of emotions you know and of course she can’t TALK or find food on her own! She only knows that if she feels hungry, thirsty, wet, or uncomfortable, then she’ll have to grab her mother attention by... of course ,crying!
She mentioned that ‘guys’ kept watching the event curiously. Well, male commuters will always be watching this kind of incident, since commuter train in Jakarta is usually used by people from ‘that’ education level. We can ask the mothers to try covering up the breast, for example with some cloth, or bring some extra formula/breast milk on bottles. But, if these people could afford the luxury of having a breast-cover or a milk bottle, they obviously will take another mode of better but more expensive, transportation, not some low-key economy train.
Looking from the way she wrote this article, this person, whoever wrote it, has never felt the joy of breastfeeding your child, or maybe even worst, never felt the warmth of being breastfed by her mother.
I also believe that she probably never watched “real porn,” before she used this term in her so -called writing.
Please Mrs./ Ms. writer (yes, the name implied that she’s a woman), don’t be a mother , you’ll be ruining a generation or two by telling your daughter to breastfeed is to perform an act of porn. (Or maybe in fact, God had read this article and noticed that you are probably not capable of being a woman or a mother?). And do yourself your homework by watching Asia Carrera or Miyabi before using the word porn unwisely!
Shame on you, for thinking the way you think right now, and shame on Jakarta Post for publishing this article. Congratulation for creating such a low-quality, stirring up article!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

The low Miss Low??

I just got back in Singapore and voila! The first thing on the paper I read - other than stories about Padang - is the blunder in Singapore Beauty Pageant results. Well, not the results, but more on the behaviour of the winner(s), especially the chosen miss Singapore, Ris Low.

She made headlines weeks ago after media found out that she has (on-going?) charges on credit card fraud. Then, when her colleague- the second place winner-made a remark about her support to Low, Low, instead of appraising her, made accusation that her colleague was the one who leaked the her cases to media.

Before that, Low also made stirred up comments during her interview, both during and after the pageant, you can see her interview here.

Not only that, recent news also mention that from now on, a judge on her fraud charges had ordered her not to shop alone anymore, because she had spent 8000 SGD on accessories, bags, shoes, right after her winning. Talk about being a material girl :p

What bothers me is not the quality of Low as a pageant winner, but more on the quality of the juries. I mean... contestants, of course, join the contest to be a winner and believe me, being a pageant contestant myself some 10 years ago; they would do ANYTHING to win. Including faking yourself in front of Juries for example, and I'm sure, this person is really good at that. A contestant certainly would try to conceal her weaknesses and not introducing herself like this: "Hello, I'm Ris and I love credit cards so much, I used up mine and other people's to splurge. I'm sure I can represent Singapore. No? "

Supposed a contestant shared an answer like this: "My quality? Oh, umm. Let's see... I'm easy going, I'm a quick learner and I always pursue my dreams and goals." Well, inexperienced jury might just eat the raw answer, but experienced judges would translate the answer to: "My quality? Oh, umm I'm a wild party goer, I cheat on my exams and I would do anything to win this contest as it has always been my dream." Only experienced and senior judges can differentiate this type of candidate from the real ones.

Then, as I mentioned earlier, how stupid can these Miss Singapore World juries can be? I'm sure she can fool one jury, but to fool a whole panel? It turns even crazier after I found out from the latest news that Low actually is suffering from bipolar disorder. How come the juries didn't get that from their interviews with her? Shouldn't contestant be exposed to at least a basic personality test? And her English.... man... even I can do better. And I started to speak English only when I was 10 or something (on my first trip to Singapore :p). There was also a blunder concerning the English ability of winner of a beauty pageant in Indonesia a couple of years ago. Miss Indonesia 2006 (or 2007), Nadine Chandrawinata came to Los Angeles for the Miss Universe Finale... and she didn't even know how to perform a decent interview. She called Indonesia as a nice "city", and her English was comparable to those of a high school's freshman. BUT, fortunately, physically Nadine is extremely, extremely beautiful. A 6 foot tall statuesque, brown eyes, big boobs, clear skin. And Ris Low? I can tell you she's extremely PHOTOGENIC- meaning she looks pretty after makeup and through the lenses only. But she's no beauty, both inside and outside.

So I presume, from next year on, not only the quality of the contestants should be improved but also the quality of the juries. In the mean time... I have 20 years to nurture supposedly, the future Miss Singapore/Indonesian and her name is Rania :p

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

TURIKE IS BAAAAACCCKKK!!!

Finally, I'm back!!!
In case I forgot to mention, I just got back from Surabaya and Jakarta. I stayed in Surabaya for a week to visit my Mother in law, and then to Jakarta, the place where I grew up.
Surabaya is located near East Java Sea, which made the city humid and the temperature hot, VERY HOT. Just 5 minutes in an open space made me sweat like I had just finished a 5km run in midday. Another 5 mins and my skin would melt and dripped.
Life went slowly in Surabaya, perhaps it was just me? I dont know. But life here started at 5 am, because at 5.30 we would have sunrise already. So at 5pm, the sky was already dark and we would have sunset around 5.30 pm. By 6 we would have dinner, and by 7.... we have nothing to do. At 8, we were alrady in our pajamas. Sometimes I felt that I was in a time machine and it took us back to the 80's where we don't have internet and TV cable. How I miss those times and how I love Surabaya. Can't wait to be back next year!

And Jakarta? Still as crowded and busy as ever! We had only 3 or 4 'days of silence', the days where Jakarta's residents went home to their 'original' hometowns during the "eid Mubarak" holiday. After those days are over, roads were filled again, malls were crowded and people seemed to flood to all the places that I went to.
Rania even experienced something 'interesting' : a black out for 6 hours, because elecicity main generator had blown out.. Cool. Jakarta, how I miss you already.

Still, it's so nice to be back... no, it's not that I love singapore and its ambience that much, but it just feels good to be back on your OWN home. So good to be back to certainties, MRT, starhub, fast internet connection and... my VAIO PC :P

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Culprit

Have I told you that I used to have such a tidy-spotless-lovely living room? Well, the term 'used' to is the watchword. It was still possible to keep it clean before Rania started walking, but now? It’s practically not viable. IF I let her alone in the living room, when I came back I would find:
a) A scattered and ripped newspapers
b) Ripped pages from the yellow pages
c) Sofa pillows on the floor
d) A smiling baby tried turning off the TV
e) Or 90% chance, all of the above

So you can imagine, me, running like a frenzied Frankenstein to scoop up my baby, who was trying to put up one of her legs to climb the coffee table in the living room.
I guess those articles on ‘baby-proofing your home’ are true, that once you have a walking baby, men, you will have no time to baby-proof your home.
Just yesterday, I was talking on the phone with my mother on my computer table when I realized some smudges on my white drawers. The smudges were black handprints of 5 little fingers, guess who the culprits was... It took me 30 second to realized the culprit was the smiling baby who sit under the computer table, observing the computer switch box , making decision on which switch to push, he he...

From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike...


Anyway, now her hair is long enough to have a ponytail. Cute, isn’t it?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Able to upload pictures, finally.

I'm finally able to upload pictures. It was rather difficult to do it this time with a new computer. Wait, have i wrote that I have a new computer? Yeah, we have a NEW ONE, it's a SONY VAIO JS, the sleek, lean desktop, yeah!!! 4 Gigs, plus we decided to invest on a new, extra disk storage of 1... TERRA bytes!!! Yeah, my baby rules!


From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike...


( Ijust put the "undercover economist" book just to make the picture looks more intelligent :p normally the keyboard is smudged with chocolate-covered little hand prints, and right now i'm reading the X Men comic instead of the "undercover economist" :p)

Anyway, back to the problem. Before, it was easy for me to upload pictures from my phone camera. Just turn the bluetooth on, simply send the pics to the laptop (before was a laptop) then upload it via blogger tool.
But now... *sigh* first I have to allign the handphone and the PC, and I have to do it via a PC Sync program. Which was like, difficult, because every time I try to syncronise the phone, it upload 200 pictures in the picture folder instead of a single picture that I wanted to upload in the first place. Then afterwards, like I mentioned earlier, my freaking browser didn't allow me to upload pictures from my PC folder OR even from the web.
So, now I need to use a picture uploader on the net and embed the pictures instead of uploading it.

But, what the heck, I using a Sony Vaio JS, can't complain, woohoo!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Can't somebody tell me!!

CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME WHY I CAN'T UPLOAD MY PICTURES, EVEN FROM PICASA! HUAAAAAA!!!!

Geylang Serai Night Market

We went to Geylang Serai Night Market Yesterday. The market, a temporary one, opens during the month of Ramadan, the fasting month for the Muslim Community. During the Ramadhan, the practising Muslim are supposed to fast, or refrain from eating, drinking, smoking or anything to do with passion, from sunrise till sunset. In Singapore, it's about from 5.45 am to 7.10 pm. For those of you who never heard of Ramadhan, muslim-fasting, etc, click here.
Just like a Christmas market that sells Christmas candy, sweets, traditional stuff, this market also sells stuff commonly famous during the Ramadan. This night market becomes THE hot spot during the month for the Malays.
From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike...


The market was actually a very big one, with area as big as 3 football fields stitched up together (OK, I over reacted). The wooden and unlevelled platform could make you trip here and there. You can find almost anything in the market, from toys, typical malay food, kebayas from Indonesia, carpets, aromatherapy candle from China, till, yep, "shot the can and throw the ball" game stalls. And I had a feeling most Malays in Singapore AND Johor Baru had the same intention as us that nite: searching for food.
From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike...

By the way, did you notice the lady in gold head-covered dress? Well, she was wearing a telekung, or praying dress for muslim. Indeed, she was praying at that time and at that place. Sweet, huh?

As muslims ourselves, last nite we decided to go there after fast-breaking, hoping to find some good dinner. And whatta good meal we had. After 30 mins of coming in and out of alleys filled with 2 millions Malays (!), we arrived at the Geylang Serai Market. This one was a permanent market, that sells chicken, meat, etc during the day and at nite became a famous hawker centre. I ordered a fried kway teow and unlucky me, this was what I got. It was RED...rice noodle with everything. But it was nice, well, take into account that I was totally HUNGRY at the time.
From DIVA: See the world from the eyes of Turike...

Remind me to go there after DINNER instead next year.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

On civility, tipping, hostile waitress and pesky molesters in Singapore

The Oprah Show last night talked about civility or being civilized. The show had given me yet another proof that even people from developed countries can be less cultured that those from 3rd world countries. Let's just say that cab-snatcher, pesky molester, I'm-a-customer-so-I'm the-queen and touch-me-bump-me people exist everywhere, even in Singapore and the States!

Talk about civility, I just had a very unpleasant experience last week when a Malay (or was it a Bangla?) guy followed me from Bugis MRT and tried hard to have a conversation with me. It was sickening, man! But what's more sickening was when no one seemed care enough to help me. One girl who eventually helped said she was sorry for not helping me earlier because she taught we knew each other. D'oh! Something has to be done in the future to get rid of these pesky molesters... and to brush up the society civility as well. I was lucky I was taller than the guy. But what if the victims were skinny foreign maids or small-build mainland Chinese shopkeeper, wouldn't it be fatal? I just wanna say to all the foreigners out there in Spore to be careful and vigilant when an ugly-looking bangla, malay or dark-skinned* man approach you for ANY kind of reason, RUN! And if you somehow *knock on wood* got molested don't be afraid to scream for help and to take pictures of your molesters. The least we can do is to send his pictures to newspapers, have it printed and circulated island wide under the headline: UGLY LOOKING AND SMELLY MOLESTER. The statement 'low crime doesn't mean no crime' is indeed correct.

Talk about civility and the Oprah show again, during the last part of the show they talked about 'hostility' towards waitresses and the importance of tipping. I realized in most countries that I've visited tipping are somehow a must, between 15-25% of total and in Singapore however, tipping is not an obligation. Some generous uncles or cab drivers a couple of times gave me a 10 or 20 cents markdown to round down the fares. Now, hostility towards waitresses... well, in Singapore, compare to other countries I've visited, there were times when I feel that I was the one being intimidated by the waitress, no kidding! I found that some waitresses who didn't speak English or even singlish, mostly from mainland china, were the most hostile. Some were even unfriendly towards baby Rania ; once a waitress took away a plastic spoon Rania was using for entertainment purposes – well, rania was checking the earth's gravity effect using the spoon. Another time a waitress took away her baby chair abruptly without consulting me, when Rania's feet was still strangled inside the chair. She said she's gonna keep away the baby chair back since it seemed for her I was not using it anymore. Blah!

I don't know whether it's because I look foreign and Indonesian, or that's the way they behave towards every customers regardless whether they are white or copper skinned (hum, interesting...).

(*) No offense towards Bangla, Malay or dark-skinned people in S'pore. And to hostile waitresses /waiters.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Elmo and Andrea Bocceli, Rania loves this!

Isn't it cute?