A Series of Unfortunate Events

Do you remember that movie based on Lemony Snicket’s books, “A Series of Unfortunate Events”? I had the opportunity to relate with the Baudelaire children, although my misfortunes were not as extreme or fantastical (thankfully).

During the couple of weeks, I have had two singular misfortunes which lead to other unlucky consequences:

1. My laptop’s keyboard is broken. It started being broken about two weeks ago. The person at the service center said that it might take while to fix because the parts weren’t available yet. I couldn’t go on without my laptop for too long because I had tasks and projects pending. I couldn’t write a post for this blog in a long time because of this. So, in the end, I bought a flexible external keyboard to use for the meantime.

2. I have had a blistering cold for more than a week and my voice is still funny. It’s the worst one ever with its combination of headaches, fevers, and a consistent runny nose. Not to mention the thunderous sneezes in between. I’m a mess. Because of this flu, I had to miss a couple of classes, meetings, and even a job interview (could you imagine answering interview questions with a croaky voice and disgusting sniffs every couple of seconds?).

Anyway, people say, one bad thing can lead to another. This is so true. I felt so unlucky for two weeks, missing all the important classes, meetings, opportunities, and projects. It took a while to catch up. But the storm has started to subside. I can feel my cold disappearing slowly. The last classes for the semester are approaching and I can organize my time better, finally. I knew I could catch up in the end. Most of us always do.

I have also had my share of really good luck. I breezed through a couple of tests. I got accepted as one of the adjudicators for NUEDC (National Universities English Debating Championship) in Yogyakarta (yay!). I got to have a great weekend eating and watching movies with my best friend. I get to share my knowledge and practice with the debaters at my school for the upcoming NUEDC. And I have so many exciting events to look forward to this week.

So, I will be pleased to report to you that I will be back to normal and catch up with the posts I owe some of you for the writing challenge. (Cheers! Haha…)

Keep spirited and cherish your luck, everyone!

Breaking Point 2#

Exasperation is when you try to talk to someone logically and reasonably but they won’t try to understand. Frustration is when they keep going back to a point that has been resolved and answered. Annoyance is when they harass you and bully you without a good reason. Anger is when they won’t listen at all.

Just when you’re sure there is something good in everyone and start to be extra positive, you meet this kind of person.

 

God will test you if you’re worthy.

 

 

24green on the Elevator Pitch!

The title above may be ambiguous or simply nonsensical to those who don’t really know (or have never heard of) such words or phrases. I’ll explain them one by one.

24green is the name of my team which consists of 3 people: Ria, Hining, and I. We were one of the teams competing in the very first elevator pitch competition in Indonesia which was held by UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada). The theme for the competition was “Elevating the Benefits of the Green Industry”. This competition was one of the many events held by the Faculty of Industrial Engineering to promote the green industry.

The name 24green was derived from two elements: 24 and green. We basically wanted people to implement the green ways of living in the 24 hours of their lives each day. So this became the name of our team as well as the name of our main project for our elevator pitch.

Now what exactly is an elevator pitch? It is quite a new thing in Indonesia. Meanwhile, students in the US have been participating in this type of competition for years. So I was rather curious as to what it was – that curiosity being the reason for me joining this competition in the first place.

Wikipedia says that an elevator pitch is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a product, service, or organization and its value proposition. The name "elevator pitch" reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes. So I understood it as a kind of speech plus presentation plus advertisement combined into one which consequently turns it into none of those things in the end (laughs). Anyway, after seeing further information and examples from my buddy YouTube and the internet, it became clear what an elevator pitch was supposed to be like. My teammates and I discussed it frequently to reach our conclusions about it. After all the basics were clear between us, we did our research, brainstormed for all the possible projects, and practiced giving our pitches in public.

I really enjoyed our meetings and practices. I think we understood each other and had a good sense of loyalty for the team. We had great chemistry so it was always fun for me, even when we were studying hard and burying our minds in the research material. Sometimes we reached a lull because we couldn’t think of any ideas for a certain topic, but we always had a laugh about it afterwards.

Anyway, we tried hard through and through. I was the leader of the team so I was in charge of the meetings and practices. Ria was the research manager, so she kept track of all our material, discussion notes, and reports (tough job, I’ll say). Hining was our administrator, so she had to manage our registration process and keep in touch with the committee for information about the competition.

We gave our best at the competition. Sadly, it wasn’t our time to win it. However, Allah always gives hikmah. Every cloud has a silver lining. We achieved a lot of things in the process. We acquired knowledge about the green industry. We gained deeper understanding about how important it was to save the environment. We thought of so many great ideas for future projects. We upgraded our cooperation skills. And best of all, we became closer as friends.

As a team leader, I have to say that I am so proud of my friends. They say that they have never followed such a competition that required them to speak in English in front of so many people. I realize that their courage isn’t something to be thought little of. I admire them for their perseverance and efforts (and also their willingness to work with such a leader as me, hehe…) all this time. I am sure they worked really hard to prepare for this competition and with that hard work they gained their own personal achievements.

I thank Allah so much for this chance and this experience. I hope we use every bit of knowledge we got from it to achieve our best in the future.

Keep reaching for the stars, 24green!

My First Concert: IL DIVO at Ritz Carlton, Jakarta

I have loved IL DIVO since I was in High School. My family and I used to watch their DVD every week, while enjoying a meal or a snack. Their music blazed through our house in high-quality stereo (we managed to get the original DVD). I wonder what the neighbors said.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to live to see them – in flesh. Thanks to my good friend Harvin, I got a chance to watch their live concert in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Jakarta on the 25th of February 2012. I was so excited. It was my first concert ever! So, this post is dedicated to the event. It is also a reply to Harvin’s writing challenge, which is to write about watching IL DIVO. Thanks again for the request, Vin!

Here is the picture of the concert tickets. I shall treasure this picture forever so that I can tell my children about my first concert (LOL).

Harvin got us great seats. We got quite a good view of the stage without having too many heads block the way. He said that he almost always got good seats in a concert. It was something he always made sure of when he booked tickets. This is an idea of the view you’d get from our seats.

We were very fortunate to meet a new friend. She was sitting beside me. Her family was crazy about IL DIVO. She attended the concert with her mom and dad. I wish I could’ve brought my parents along. Maybe next time…

Finally, the concert began. I was so excited I could barely sit still! They entered the stage so elegantly and, as usual, sang an opening number. I don’t remember what the song was (LOL) so don’t expect me to remember the song list. I’m not much of a fan, aren’t I? But I bet Harvin would remember so you can ask him for the details.

But I can tell you this: they were perfect. They sung marvelously and I don’t think there was any mistake. Their voices were flawless. It was like watching their DVD. In comparison to other concerts, you could always agree that the studio version was better because of all the editing and stuff. But IL DIVO really is the real deal.

I had goose bumps at almost every song. I almost cried when I listened to them singing my favorite songs, Regresa A Mi and Si Tu Me Amas. I wished my mom was present when they sang Mama. It was her birthday that day and it would’ve been such a great birthday present. They sang it for you, Mom…

Well, at least mom can see some pics I took (sorry for the bad quality!) and view some of the videos I had recorded. Here they are:

Greetings from IL DIVO!

IL DIVO singing my favorite song, Si Tu Me Amas:

I have many others but I’m afraid my site won’t be able to handle so many pictures and videos at the moment. So I’ll end this by giving many thanks for my parents and Harvin for giving me the chance to go to my first concert! You guys are the best.