Delaying The Posting During The Pandemic

Apart of the request from Wda to do delayed posting on the Kalimantan trip, there was another reason why I decided to do late post. During the pandemic, I noticedd that people tend to be more reactive when they see other people posting life updates in social media feeds and stories (the kind of socmed updates that disappear after 24 hour). 

I was quite active in the older version of social media (FB, Twitter and IG) and I was so used to share recommendation on foods, drinks, movies and travel destinations. Sometimes I posted in real-time, other times I posted a few hours after leaving the place. It has been nice to interact with friends who happened to be in the vicinity and decided to join me in the place. But since 2020 I decided to slow my pace and posted whenever I feel comfortable because I received a lot of critics for being out and about.

For example, in early pandemic era in 2020 I went to a cafe in Bekasi and posted a photo of a cup of coffee on a cafe table. Within minutes, a friend commented, "How come you do dine-in? Isn't there any lockdown?" I told her that at that time Bekasi had yet to have any policy on lockdown. We in Bekasi did get lockdown afterwards.

Another example was when I had to go to East Sumba for an assignment. A friend reprimanded me for taking the job, saying that I should stay at home and just live with my savings until the pandemic is over.

I understood that they were worried, but I also sensed their envy and anger on seeing other people not following the regulation or not being in isolation and misery. It seems the pandemic has stolen not only the freedom of travel, but also the sense of humor and the fun out of the people. 

I used to be like these friends. However, as the pandemic kept going I realized that not everyone could stay at home. There are bills to pay, mouths to feed and mental issue to deal with. Each of us has different economic situation. We don't know how long this pandemic will drag on, and we definitely can't rely on other people to help us all the time. I would hate myself if I ever become the helpless person.

As a freelancer, I could very well work and stay at home, even if there is no pandemic. I could also do online shopping from the comfort of my bedroom. But I still need to meet people, even if they are just staffs at the bank/convenience stores. So I decided to go out. Going out has worked wonders on my health, physically and psychologically.

Due to the rising netizen hostility (LOL) during the pandemic, I decide on two things: (1) For FB, Twitter and IG, I will do delayed posting (or probably no posting at all), and (2) I will go back to Blogger to post my daily activities, because this is the platform with the least number of followers who know me in real life. Also, my followers here have been kind and open-minded.

PS. When I do go out, I apply strict safety measures. I wear mask, and sometimes even wear double mask. I look for places that are not fully occupied by customers. I choose places that have open air circulation, or semi-outdoor, or if those are not applicable, I would just wear my mask on most of the time. I bring my own helmet for motorcycle-taxi ride. And when I come home, I go straight to toilet to clean up. I have to be responsible because there are two septuagenarians who rely on me.

PS 2. In February - March 2022, the number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose again, from hundreds to thousands, due to the Omicron variant. This was another reason to delay posting on travel stories.

The Social Media I'm Currently Using

I remembered having a Friendster and MySpace accounts, which are no longer available, too bad (OMG, I'm old!). Social media has developed into a far more interesting landscape since then.

However, many friends of mine have exited from the social media landscape, claiming that they have since lived a better lives. I have yet to reach that stage, because I still love sharing (to some extent). In my humble opinion, the key to a healthy life is having everything in moderation, which include social media consumption.

I like the fact that each social media serves a specific purpose, therefore I can show different side of myself in different platform. Also, with many socmed options out there, there is no pressure to make accounts, approve friend request or follow everyone you know on different platforms. You just have to be selective. Again, everything in moderation. For my peace of mind, I have placed all of my social media accounts on my iPod, except Instagram that is still on my mobilephone.

Here they are in no particular order...

Facebook 

Showcasing my outer shell, this is basically where public found the generic version of me and reach out to me. Facebook is like a socmed that almost everyone has, so it's the perfect media to stalk your exes, gather information on new flings, and showcase the best sides of yourself (ha!). I simply use Facebook to read news (because I don't subscribe to print newspapers), share web links on miscellaneous information (TED-X, Natgeo and online shops), check out fan pages (Idris Elba, ahem), and follow accounts that post regular cooking video (Tasty and Tastemade, you have ruined me for good).
Unfortunately, things have gone quite rough on Facebook since the presidential election. I had to hide or unfollow several friend accounts for the sake of my sanity. There are just too much noise and negativity on Facebook. However, I'd like to see this platform as a friend filter. You'd know that you can befriend someone, or at least tolerate someone up to certain extent, by reading their status updates.
  

Path

No other country but Indonesia has a large number of Path users. This is a simpler version of Facebook, aimed for community groups. When it was first launched, it only allowed 150 friends. Now the number has been increased to..I'm not sure, perhaps 250? I only have around 20-25 friends  (divers, journos and colleagues) on this platform, though, so the friend limit doesn't matter much.

What I share on Path is mostly self-deprecating rants on being single, photos that should not see the light of day (just kidding!) and movie/music reviews.    

LinkedIn

While Facebook is more about putting the best face forward, LinkedIn is about the works I've done, which are not much. I like that it's a focused platform on jobs. It has information on the latest job vacancies, who works where and tips on getting the job. I have yet to land any job through LinkedIn, but it has helped me reconnected with long lost friends. This is one serious socmed and if anyone ever made a fake account on this, they must have had a lot of free time.

Twitter

This platform is more about beautiful quotes, complaints on Commuter Line delays, and random thoughts on life. In the past, I posted photos through this platform, but now most photos are on Instagram. 

With many international publications, such as NY Times, Washington Post and Huffington Post, have Twitter accounts, many journo friends made Twitter account just to follow their accounts to get the latest info. The 140-character limit was a perfect rule to get a correct, compact and concise info on any socmed. Therefore, I was one of the confused people when Twitter decided to expand its limit to 280 characters. What would I write? A novel?

Instagram

The Architecture graduate in me still loves visual composition, colors, and. therefore, I made this account.  This platform mostly shows the food/drink I had, the landscape I saw during holiday/work trips, and other mundane life updates. Sometimes the caption is irrelevant to the photo. After I made the account, a revelation came upon me: I like being photographed, but I don't like posting that much photos of myself.

Blogspot

This is one platform that does not define me by my friends and my works, because I don't make this space for other people to see, but rather a personal online journal on life. It's more about my thoughts, feelings and other randomness. It's like my home in online world. Although there are many other social media, I just keep coming back here because I like writing and this platform gives me a lot of space to do so. I don't share or link this socmed with the other socmeds. Only a handful of my real life friends know the web address of this socmed. If you, by happenstance, find your way to this space, feel free to comment/ask me a question in a gentle attitude, I hope, and please don't be anonymous, I'd like to get to know you.

I heard some friends having more than one account or use pseudonym either for safety reason, stalking purpose or doing business. I only have one for each at the moment.

How many social media account do you have? And how do you use it?

On Baring Things In Blogs And A New Job

I met with an old friend recently and she told me that most people thought she had a happy easy life/marriage as she often posted photos of her family in a mainstream social media. She finally decided to use a smaller social media to post personal photos.

"Things are not always easy. I've struggled for my marriage, for my job, for my kids. But I don't have to put on a sad face and tell the whole world about it," she said.

It's exactly what I think. I've always been writing the good and fun side of life, keeping any bad news from the light of day. I know most of my blog readers in real life and I think that if they know my daily life troubles, they would think over and shoulder the troubles too.

Other friends remarked how I seemed to be having no problems, for example I could switch profession and find new job. I didn't understand how they got the idea. Any job transition was definitely not an easy feat.

Perhaps it's time to shed some layers. To tell you the truth, I've been jobless since Jan. 1, 2015. My contract ended by the end of the year. It should be extended for another year, but the office was switching to state budget system and therefore, my colleagues and I should undergo the obnoxious e-procurement held by the state.

I was jobless and salaryless between January and March. Despite being unemployed, the boss demanded me to come and did some work. I got a kind of payment to cover transportation, but it was not enough, of course.

Amidst the job uncertainty, I also heard rumors about the boss trying to sabotage my e-procurement result. That was weird, considering that it was the same boss who asked me to come to office. I did have some issues with the boss back then, but I had finished everything she asked and all was well, or at least it was well on my side, she always has grudges on everybody. However, I decided not to confront the issue to her and looked for another job opening elsewhere.

Long story short, I decided to leave, because I found the e-procurement process too exhausting. I took part in the e-procurement process three times, twice failed and the last one I made it, but I decided to leave anyway. And guess what, a job offer came at the right moment! Alhamdulillah.

My new job is still in the line of communications and non profit organization. This time, it's a project on improving the quality of basic education in Indonesia. I'll be handling data and support communications for seven provinces (Aceh, North Sumatera, Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java and South Sulawesi). It's all new and exciting.

So perhaps I did get lucky. But it doesn't mean I never had bad times in my life. Things are not always great. Life is not always all about the cherries on top of the cake.There are good days and bad days, ups and downs, below the all-smile photos we uploaded to social media.

Here it is, one layer behind the happy posts I posted. Perhaps, I'll be shedding some more layers when I feel  the time is right, one baby step at a time.

P.S. When blogging, do you share both the good and the bad news?

It's Been Five Years Down The Blogging Lane

 Created from this website 

I can't believe I made it to the fifth year celebration with this blog. I've had blogs in the past, I started one during the era of Friendster, then made another one in blogspot and one in Tumblr. But then I got lazy in updating them. I think it all comes back to what you want to do with this space.

To tell you the truth, when I started this blog on the last days of my 20s,  I wasn't feeling hopeful at that moment, being single and overworked on what I deemed as a demanding-but-less rewarding job (more than 12 hours on the road, tight deadlines and it seemed like there was no opportunity to grow). And so I created this space as a haven for days when I don't feel like working, moments when I am least motivated and times when, for example, a certain boss showed he did not have faith in my capacity and integrity.

Now that I'm in my 30s, I notice that this blog is different than the ones I made in my 20s. Unlike those previous blogs that contained swearing words (I used to swear a lot), nowadays I post motivational words, funny conversations with parents and friends and photos that attract my attentions. Then during the dark days, I would turn back the archives to find inspiration and motivation. In a way, I put the best of me here to entertain the worst of me.

Sometimes (ok, so perhaps most of the time?) I worry about the future. But a scroll through this space, I would remember that although I only make small steps on a certain year, it was those steps that have brought me to where I am today. I would never have it any other way.

As a reminder for my future self, here are some highlight of this year:
-- I became the budget owner for Communication division in my office with budget amounting more than Rp 2 billion (!). After having a distrust issue from the previous workplace, this new responsibility has really boosted my confidence and I just couldn't thank my current office enough for their trust.
-- Some colleagues and I went to Pangalengan and White Crater during a long weekend. Since it was a personal trip, my trip buddy Aneen could join. We walked on the lush tea plantation, tried some whitewater rafting along Palalayang river and marveled at the beauty that is White Crater.
-- I went holidaying to Takabonerate atoll in South Sulawesi. It is majestic, amazing, beautiful, a really must-visit place :).

-- I organized two journalist visits to the projects that my office oversees. This year, the projects were located in Madura island and Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.
-- My best friend and trip buddy Aneen got married! I'm so happy for her. 

-- I went to COP 20 in Lima, Peru as part of the Indonesian delegation! My current boss was very kind to take me to COP to give me a chance to learn more about the climate change and the negotiation. What's even better, now I can learn about the COP from the government side :).

Thank you so much for visiting. I know I haven't been a good blogger this year due to the workload at the office, but my resolution for next year would be to write more :).

Have a great year ahead!

Taking The Focus On The People

Humans of New York: Before I return to New York portraits, I want to share some portraits and stories that I gathered on an unscheduled side trip that I took to Jerusalem. Because of the hastily arranged nature of the trip, I worked with some unorthodox interpreters, including an extremely bright sixteen year old Palestinian boy. He approached everyone quite confidently, until we got to this group, and suddenly he got fidgety and clammed up. “Um, I don’t know,” he said. “They, um, will probably say no, um, maybe we should ask someone else.” (Jerusalem)

Have you ever heard Humans of New York? It's a photography blog by New York-based photographer Brandon about New Yorkers. What makes it stands out from other photo blogs is not only that it captures the people's style, but also the people's stories as well as their fears, hopes and dreams. Brandon has been going on a world tour, photographing people worldwide as seen from the photo above. 

Similar blogs are taking the example too in Jakarta. At least there are three blogs and one Facebook page on Jakartans. Here they are:

See Jkt : Jakarta is a city bursting with stories, in which parts of them are told in this blogs curated by Aditya Suharmoko and Felix Dass. In Bahasa.

We Are Jakarta : Jane Spence, Kamal Merai and Daisy Santoso manage this blogs that asks Jakartans on specific themes during special moments, such as presidential election or Independence Day.

Humans in Jakarta : Founded by a local cosmetics company, Wardah, this blogs is run by American photographer Langston Hues and Lisa Namuri, a physical fitness instructor. Some posts are bilingual, Bahasa-English.

Humans of Jakarta (Facebook page) : Australian film teacher Talisa Salmon who is behind this Facebook page says she never has any problems getting Jakartans to open up.

Let's Start The Free Writing

Wow, it's already August! A year ago on this month I started working for this climate change trust fund, how fast does time fly. Now that I've been working for almost a year in this office (the one year celebration will be on 19 August), I can say that I'm feeling comfortable enough with the tasks and responsibilities at hand.

I love the regular work hour, the regular days off every Saturday-Sunday-other national holidays and the working atmosphere in this organization.  It's a whole new world for me, compared to journalism. But I must confess, while I don't miss the news room, I do miss writing.

Now that I don't have to write news in English every day, I kinda worry that I would forget how to write and express ideas in English. After all, English is not my mother language, not a national language of Indonesia and obviously, not a language that I use in the office.

Then I remember a trick. When I got accepted in TJaP, I got three months in house training to boost the English writing ability. One of the sessions was Free Writing, during which we were told to write every thing that passed our mind in one hour.

Pak Harry, our English mentor, says that the writing does not have to be structured like news, but it should really follow the train of thoughts. He says that the writing may seem odd at first, with one sentence and the next having no connection, jumping from one idea to another and that is normal, because that is how the mind works for most people. But, he added, once we got the hang of it, our brain would know how to organize the sentences coherently.

This will be of great help during the news writing, of course. I'm thinking to apply it to retain my English writing. I'd try this Free Writing twice a week this month, every Tuesday and Thursday. If I still like it after one month, then perhaps I'll extend the time period. Besides, this will force me to write posts for this blogs, something that is different from the 30 days of blogging challenge. 

Wish me luck!

Crediting Your Photo And Post

Found via Frolic

Image credit Pia Jane Bijkerk, Yvette Van Boven and Erin Loechner

Last week, I happened to stumble upon two posts (here and here) about plagiarism on internet. The former took down the said post, as explained in this post, the latter belongs to my friend. It's not the first time I heard about such thing. 

As a wordsmith and a photography fan I feel concerned about the issue of crediting the photo and post. To tell you the truth, sometimes I still forget the source of the photos I use. But I do try to credit all images and writings in this blogs. As you can see on the picture above, it is an easy-to-follow guide on how to credit the photo that I found at Frolic. You can also apply it for posts and other written words.

Stay true to yourself, stay original. Hm, it can be the new Youth Pledge.

Have a terrific Tuesday, mes chers amis!

As Time Goes By...

 Found at The New York Times

...Time never fails to amaze me. Time may slip quickly and quietly behind your back. Time may feel like it stays still until you can't bear it any longer.

Time heals all wounds, either physical wounds or those unseen scars. You may be crying your heart out now, but give yourself some time and you'll be back in shape soon.

Humans have tried to calculate time, from making a calendar to inventing watch and clocks. The truth is no one ever know how time pass us by. The Gregorian calendar (solar-based) has a leap year every four years while the Hijriyah calendar (lunar-based) creates disputes about when is the first day of Ramadan, the Idul Fitri or Idul Adha.

In a place where deadlines rule, you'll be shocked when you realize that time has passed you by. At the end of the day, you'll realize that time is the only thing we have in this world. So make good use of it.

Happy New Year!

31 On 31

Today is the first year anniversary of this blog and also the day I'm officially turned 31 years old. Yep, you read me correctly. Thirty one. And sane (although some have questioned the sanity level). And single.

Before you start congratulating me on my birthday, I want you to know that I'm not going to hold birthday party, or treat party traktiran. But I do love the birthday wishes. I feel the love:). If there is one thing I like about my birthday, it is the fact that I can reply the birthday wishes with another wish, "Thank you, my darlings, and Happy New Year!"

To tell you the truth, I was a bit scared to start this year as a single thirty-year-old in a country where marital status and the number of children you bore matter. But then my worry was baseless. This year has been an amazing year for me. Being thirty rocks! Being single...er, well, there is nothing I can do to change it at the moment. So it's best to enjoy the here and now:). Since I'm celebrating my turning 31, here are thirty one of my favorite moments in 2010.

- I started this blog:)
- On Feb. 12, I was free from the three-year contract. Now, I can resign without paying the penalty fee. Oh joy!
- I managed to take D to his favorite chicken porridge stalls for several Sundays. Now he always asks if I have Sunday as my day-off:)
- My cousin Dina bought a house in Bogor. I went with her to take a look of the house, before we hit factory outlet stores, hahaha.
- I went to French spring festival Printemps Francaise with my friends K and Lenora. We watched hip hop dance performance Wanted Posse. But then one of the dancers asked K to have a cup of coffee, so Lenora and I were also invited!
- After all these years, I finally take the long-awaited holiday to Bali and Lombok with my university friend Aneen.
- During the holiday to Lombok, I did my first snorkeling at the Gilis, I loved it!
- My office held a day-out in amusement park Dufan. I didn't have the guts to try the roller coaster Halilintar  but it was still a fun day!   
- Finally made it to go to Bango Streetfood Festival.
- I got a chance to hike the less-traveled path of Mount Beuticanar
- I attended a Peranakan wedding, which gave me insights to a part of cultures that shaped Indonesia
- An assignment to Bandung, West Java, got me seeing an abandoned train garage.
- A day with Aneen in Solo's Big Market taught me how to peel the prawns. My hands got blistered, but it was worth the experience.
- This year, I got a chance to test-drive some of Mercedes-Benz's new line-up in Sentul International Circuit. It was the first time I use automatic car as I use the manual. I accidentally got into the gravel area, but I managed to hit the brake and got back to track, all done calmly. A guy reporter who was sitting next to me said,"You know what? It's the first time I got into the gravel area, but I didn't panic. I don't know why, but you make your passengers calm too." It was the best compliment, ever! Anyway, some of my favorite cars are the S-500 class (the interior is amazing, the engine roars beautifully and I feel really safe driving it) and the G300 jeep (I always have soft spot for jeeps).
- I visited Kei Islands, Maluku province where I strolled on the soft-as-talcum powder sandy beach, saw the underwater cave and learned local traditions in the island's remote villages.
- One of my yoga friends was married. She held a small ceremony, which I was planning to copy:). Recently, she delivered a healthy baby boy. Congratulation, my dear R! 
- A colleague who was departing for Australia held a garage sale and I managed to buy his bike. I've been using the bike to do errands. Don't you just love the wind in your face when you pedal your bike? 
- I bought my first laptop
- While looking for the right DSLR camera, I accidentally stumbled upon a red camera and found it  irresistible:)
- Sometime in the middle of this year, I moved to my new home with M&D. Although I didn't really like the layout, the new home is nearer to the main road.
- Thanks to an assignment, now I know how to make the breakfasting menus in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan.
- A colleague gave me a ticket to see a badminton match in Senayan. Wow, it's the first time I saw live match events. It's too bad that Taufik Hidayat lost the match.
- Thanks to SNU and LG, I went to South Korea for a three-week fellowship
- During the three-week sojourn, I went to several shooting location of South Korean dramas, such as Coffee Prince and My Name is Kim Sam Soon
- I spent my first Idul Fitri abroad, which was very quiet and unlike the usual Idul Fitri.
- I tried backpacking to Ujung Genteng with (again) my friend Aneen
- I discovered my newfound interest on composing pick-up lines. And I infected several friends to join the band:)
- Despite the workloads, I still had time to see film festivals such as Jiffest and Korean Film Festival
- I went to Ende, Flores Island. I really love the place for one obvious reason: my cellphone lost signals every time we went to the hills.
- People may find it weird, but I am actually happy when the bosses moved me to National desk.  While the fashion shows I covered for Sunday Post broadened my fashion sense, the people I met (either prostitutes, children with HIV/AIDS or villagers in Indonesia's eastern region) during the reporting for National desk have humbled me.
- I met and made new friends across the country and the globe. I love you, guys, you rock!

Dear Allah, thank You for all the wonderful experiences You have given me this year. Those have enriched my horizon, and hopefully make me into a better person.

Dear friends and readers, thanks for stopping by and leaving the heartwarming comments. Hope this blogs help you in some way:)

Words Around The Cities

(Found here)

Dear readers, I have a confession to make. I like to overhear what people are talking in the buses, on the road or at a cafe. It sounds creepy, but hey, New Yorkers and Chicagoers are doing it too!

I also find happiness in reading the Metropolitan Diary, the New York Times' weekly column about the vibrant life of New York and its residents. It's just so interesting to learn about the city from the simple daily lives.

When I googled the word "overhead+blog" I found immense sources across the world, including London. Whoa! Either it's contagious, or overhearing is actually human's basic trait.

For Jakarta's snippets of conversation, I usually check Nguping Jakarta. It's in Bahasa, so I guess there is another reason for you to learn Bahasa:)

Tango. India. Fanta. Alpha.

Tifa. Yup, that's my name. Simple, easy and very Indonesian. It is a percussion instrument from Papua, the eastern province of Indonesia. It is small and long. To play it, you place it between your thighs and simply beat it. More or less, like this picture below.

Photo is taken from here

Although I bear the name of a Papuan musical instrument, I don't think I'm of Papuan descent. Well, at least my parents are not Papuans. M is a Javanese and D? I'm not sure of his ethnic group, but he doesn't look like a Papuan either. [I'll explain more about some of the ethnic groups here  in Indonesia in my other post]

When I was in elementary school, I asked my parents why they gave me that name. M said it was D who insisted on that name if the baby were a girl. D said that he has always liked the name.

So what if I were a boy? What kind of name they would give to me? He said that he was thinking about Russian names, like Sergei or Dimitri. Or a hero from the Javanese wayang stories, such as Bhisma.

Boy, am I glad to be a girl. Not that Sergei or Bhisma are bad names, but Tifa sounds more original to me. It can also be considered a short from Latifa, an Arab name meaning tender or gentle or pleasant.  Um, but most people who had known me for years would say I don't have all those traits. So I guess D made a right decision to name me Tifa, not Latifa. Ha! 

The strange thing is, although I'm currently living in Indonesia, people here always find a way to misspell it. Sometimes people change Fanta into Voltus, or Fanta into Soda, or Tango into Delta. Sometimes there are two Fantas. Oh dear.

Anyway, here I am. An Indonesian girl who will blog (or bitch) about life in the equator. Should you find this blog interesting, please tell a friend. If you don't, you always know where the exit is.

Oh, one more thing: Happy New Year!