Too Late to Start Learning?

Life is a mystery. No one can predict what will happen in the future including their success. In order to reach the success, people perhaps experience various ways. At the start, some people may discover new skills and begin developing them at early ages, yet some at older ages. Then, during the learning process, some probably need lots of extra efforts and time to master the new skills, but some take it easily. Finally, on the heyday, some are bound to enjoy their success for a long time, on the other hand, some benefit it for a short one.

Based on an infographic made by Anna Vital, the success stories of some famous people also vary. For example, J.K. Rowling and Sylvester Stallone found wonderful talents in writing and acting at early ages; 23 years old and 24 years old respectively. Meanwhile, persons, such as Reid Hoffman and Alan Rickman, are the examples who started learning something new at around 30 years old. Reid Hoffman is currently known as a startup entrepreneur and he had never started a company until turning 30. Similarly, actors such as Alan Rickman had had no film roles until he was 28 years old. Furthermore, some people like Grandma Moses and Fauja Singh can be inspiring models for other people. Both of them show that age is not a problem to start learning a new skill and then develop it into the fullest. Grandma Moses never painted before her age turned into 78. Likewise, Fauja Singh, a marathon runner, started running for about 42 kilometers at 89 years old because he thought marathons were only 26 kilometers.

In terms of learning process, it is also diverse between one person to another. For instance, Fauja Singh and Grandma Moses merely took one and two years to master their new skills before gaining their success. On the contrary, Julia Child, a French chef, needed approximately 19 years to develop her skill in cooking French cuisine that she had not known before. Similarly, Joseph Conrad also spent no lesser than 19 years to be an English writer when previously had not spoken English at all until he was 20.

According to the infographic, some famous people enjoy their success for more than a decade. Julia Child, as an example, had the longest success period of around 42 years. Perhaps, only Sylvester Stallone will reach longer years of success than those of Julia Child. It is due to the fact that until now he has been enjoying his success for more than 38 years. Another interesting person was Vincent Van Gogh. He never enjoyed his success, but 80 years after his death, lots of people started appreciating his work on painting.

So, what about me? Recently, I just turned 34, but I feel I was just reborn to start learning and absorbing so many things. Hopefully, I can learn as fast as Fauja Singh and Grandma Moses and gain success as long as Julia Child.

   

  

Plastic Bag TAX Policy

Plastic is a material that has been used widely since a few years ago. Its lightness, durability, flexibility, economics and water resistance to water are some common reasons why many people prefer plastic-based products to others in their daily life. Also, many companies choose plastic as the main material to displace or reduce other materials in use, such as wood, leather, glass and metal. Nevertheless, the increasing amount of plastic usage has raised some problems, for example, towards the environment. The environmental issue comes up because plastic is not easy to decompose. In other words, plastic is durable and degrades very slowly.

Figuring out the issue, Indonesia has implemented one step to reduce plastic use particularly on the usage of plastic bags. Starting on Monday, 21 February 2016, the government through a circular letter stipulated by Ministry of Environment requires some cities and modern cities to charge an additional amount of money to customers who want plastic bags for their groceries instead of bringing their own shopping bags or reusable containers. What is known as plastic bag tax, approximately amounting of 200 IDR (around 1.5 cents) for each bag mainly aims to encourage awareness of customers or society to their environment.

In fact, the government standpoint leads to some arguments. First, it is only a type of a circular letter that means it is not strong enough for enforcement. Also, there will be confusion in some aspects, for example, there is no stern guidance for local governments to administer and use the plastic bag tax. Second, the tax is relatively cheap. It will result in no significant effect for people to reduce the use of plastic bags. Even though 200 IDR of plastic bag tax is for the minimum, some cities and modern retailers are likely to choose this minimum level. Third, the scope of the implementation of the plastic bag tax is too narrow. For instance, on the first day, there were just 7 out of 23 cities that were ready to issue the tax policy and only Bandung has prepared to release a regulation to support the policy.

Hence in my opinion, the idea of the plastic bag tax is good enough as a real action to combat the abundant plastic bags in use. However, it should be supported by lots of factors. Stipulating more powerful regulations such as Government Regulation with clear guidance is one example. Furthermore, the policy has to meet its consistency and sustainability in its implementation. There have to be ways for the new policy to be applicable for a long time including with its law enforcement. The policy, also, should not apply only for major cities and modern retailers, but also for traditional retailers to implement it in the near future.

A Cup of Tea: How to Make It?

Can you make a cup of tea? If you cannot do, let me tell you how to make it. Generally, making a cup of tea is very simple. What you need to do first is only to prepare for a kettle, adequate water, a mug, a teabag, some sugar, a teaspoon and a dustbin. For something more flavorful, you may add some ingredients into the tea, such as milk, ginger and lemongrass according to your preference.

First step is to boil some water. Pour some water into a kettle, turn the kettle on and wait until the water boils. At the same time, you can prepare a mug by putting a teabag and some sugar into it. The sweetness of the tea depends on the amount of sugar you put into the mug. After the water boils, pour the hot water into the prepared mug and stir it for a few seconds using a teaspoon. After allowing the teabag to steep for a minute or two, remove the teabag from the mug and put it into the dustbin.

For more perfect tea, you can add an ingredient, such as milk, into the tea and this probably can be a combination of more than two additional ingredients, for instance some milk with ginger and honey.

Now, the tea is ready to serve.

  

Games

Playing game is such an activity that mostly can be used for enjoyment. It generally consists of rules, goals, challenges, strategic, interaction and or other equipments. Some games requires mental and or physical stimulation, and some also have been adapted to the circumstances such as age and medical condition of the players.

When I was a child, I did not really like playing games. I commonly spent my childhood at home instead of playing outside with neighbors. Besides, I preferred playing games stimulating thinking and logical analysis to playing sport games involving a ball as the main element, for instance football and tennis. Hence, as an example for that time, I felt that assembling a Tamiya race-care mini kit was enjoyable and challenging though I had no attention to play it on the race such for a competition like what my friends did.

Todays, the preference still keeps on in my life. Every time I try to play games using a ball, it seems that I cannot master it well. It is different with when I must do some games that particularly stimulate my brain to work and the same time those can relax tension. The examples of the games are Scrabble and Jenga. I feel that both are challenging and fun in different ways. Playing Scrabble really makes me memorize as well as enrich my vocabulary. Furthermore it will be satisfied enough if I successfully arrange interconnected words with lots of complexity or create a word that leads to a high score. Likewise, playing Jenga will be so much amusing if I can beat the highest tower or place a just-removed block into an intended layer that will result in more unstable tower.

All in all, I experience that playing game will be so much fun and can boost some skills to develop. Moreover, this activity may decrease tension during working time at office such what I do. When I am stressful at work or during leisure time (e.g. lunch break), playing Scrabble or Jenga for a while may be the best choice. Sometimes, it does not end at that time (since I must get back to work), interestingly there will be a colleague who suddenly stops by at my desk continue the game until it is over or at least participate for one step forward.

   

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Jenga

Contents: 54 woodblocks.

How to play:

1. Set up the tower. Place three blocks per layer, alternating direction by layer. Use the stacking sleeve if necessary;
2. With only one hand, remove a block from anywhere below the highest completed layer. You can touch the blocks to find a loose one;
3. Place the block on top of the tower. Wait for about ten seconds. If the tower falls, you are out. If the tower stands, the next player is up;
4. If you are playing solo, try to beat your own highest tower.

How to win: Be the last player to stack a block without causing the tower to crash!

Source: http://www.hasbro.co.uk

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Scrabble

Contents: 1 playing board, 100 letter tiles, 4 tile racks, 1 tile bag, 22 trick bags (optional), 1 2-letter word card. 100 letter tiles: There are 98 tiles with letters of the alphabet and two blank tiles. Each of the letter tiles has score values indicated by the number to the bottom right of the letter. Note that the two blank tiles have no score values, but can be used as any letter desired. When it is played, the player must state what letter it represents, after which it cannot be changed for the reminder of the game.

How to play:

1. Get a pen and paper to keep score;
2. Set up the board in the middle of the playing area;
3. Each player takes a rack for arranging their tiles and places it in front of them;
4. All the tiles are placed in the tile bag. Each player takes a tile out to find out who plays first. The player who has the tile nearest the beginning of the alphabet, with the blank preceding ‘A’, plays first. The exposed tiles are put back into the bag and the bag is shaken to shuffle them;
5. Each player, in turn, then draws seven new tiles and places them on their racks. Everyone is now ready to play. Play proceeds clockwise.

Source: Scrabble Trickster

Blood Donation

Browsing on the internet currently tends to be on the top priority of me. Wherever, whenever and whatever I am, I am relatively dependent on gadgets and its internet connection, such as when I would give blood on Friday, 19 February 2016, for a charity program hosted by Central Java Regional Tax Office Two and the blood service held by Palang Merah Indonesia or PMI (Indonesian Red Cross Blood Service) branch Surakarta.

Few days before the donation, I absolutely made a quick search on the internet for any information ranging from what the benefits of blood donation are, what requirements have to be met and what a donor should prepare for. As a result, I was well-informed enough about the blood donation and at the same time some information paid my attention; taking an example was why a donor ought to wait approximately 59 days between whole blood donations. Then, according some online articles such as presented on http://www.wikipedia.com, I discovered that red blood cells are replaced by bone marrow into the circulatory system at a slower rate, on average 36 days in healthy adult males. In one study also revealed that the range was 20 to 59 days for recovery. Likewise, another opinion coming from my friend also surprised me. He told that he will give blood merely once a year because more frequent to donate may decrease calcium in bones and this lack of calcium is likely to cause osteoporosis.

While for myself, I prefer donating my blood once a year even though I have yet to find out medical studies on the reasons for waiting at least 59 days between blood donations and the correlation between blood donation and osteoporosis. My blood donation schedule lists fortunately also shows that I did the donation approximately only once a year; 6 April 2011, 26 October 2011, 23 October 2012, 23 October 2013, and 19 February 2016. There were no particular reasons, but mostly when I intended to give blood, I had influenza in which it was not allowed.

     

Miscellaneous Information:

• Commonly blood donation is done voluntarily for blood transfusions and or biopharmaceutical medication;
• Blood donation is relatively save though some donors have bruising where the needle is inserted or may feel faint;
• Some steps before giving blood: 1) Registration; 2) Answer questions about medical history; 3) Take a short examination by a doctor such as measuring blood pressure and testing blood type;
• Blood donation can prevent the accumulation of toxic quantities. Research published in 2012 demonstrated that repeated blood donation is effective in reducing blood pressure, blood glucose, HbA1c, low-density lipoprotein ratio, and heart rate in patients with metabolic syndrome;
• Some data and or information above is taken from http://www.wikipedia.com and http://wartamedika.com/efek-samping-donor-darah/.

Travel Blogger

Traveling with scheme of backpacking, flash-packing or luxury one particularly to unprecedented and enchanting places is now more common. From higher students, new employed staffs to older people get used to traveling, whether it is for overseas or not. They tend to do so for some reasons; first and the most is to release stress from study or work, then it is to explore and experience with new environment including meeting new people with its interaction towards local cultures and customs, and also to ‘conquer’ the world.

In spite of the traveling reasons above, a traveler may also gain additional benefits, namely new income, if he become a travel blogger. It means that not only does he keep the traveling documentation for himself, but also he must write and post the documentations on a blog and or social media sites. Some successful travel bloggers will write something interestingly and persuasively. They also put wonderful photos, useful tips and recommendations, such as how to choose affordable transportation and accommodation, and welcome interactive questions from the blog visitors. Furthermore, if the blogger and his blog are relatively influential and well-known to society, there will be some companies and or institutions come to the blogger and offer free trips as a sponsorship offer. In return, of course, the sponsors will require their products and or programs to be included on the blog and or any social media, for example being included into few photos or articles. Another offering, it can be an amount of money. Some articles on the internet reported that the additional money of a certain blogger can reach around 50 million IDR or on the range from 2 million IDR to 10 million IDR per article.

One of successful travel bloggers is Muhammad Arief Rahman known Ariev Rahman. He is currently working for the same institution with me. Yet during his free time, who has a blog http://www.backpackstory.me still has abundant opportunity to explore many places for almost across the world and maybe with low cost budgets. Then after or during his trips, he always has another time to write down his story especially using easy-to-understand sentences on his blog. As a result, todays, he and his blog are recognizable enough among travelers and that is also no wonder that he gained a reward as the best travel blogger in 2015 presented by Blogie Award and his blog got Indonesia’s Best Travel Blog of the year 2014 presented by Skyscanner.

While in myself, I am really fond of traveling even though it is only for local ones surrounding my hometown; one day exploration to natural sites in Mangunan and Kalibiru Hill in Kulon Progo is an example. After a trip, I always try to make a travel report and then publish it on my blog. However, what I have been doing still needs lots of improvement commonly in the matter of the frequency to travel and to make a persuasive and attractive travel report. So far, I am following ten tips taken on http://www.wikihow.com: 1) Read other travel blogs; 2) Choose a travel topic; 3) Choose a blogging platform that is easy to work with at home or abroad; 4) Write weekly posts; 5) Write in a journal daily as you travel in order to remember the specific details like food, weather and culture when you sit down to write your blog; 6) Post pictures; 7) Stay positive; 8) Avoid hyperbole; 9) Encourage people to comment on your posts; 10) Network through your preferred social media site like Facebook, My Space, Twitter or StumbleUpon. Hopefully, the tips will be workable to improve the quality of my blog.

Some data and information taken from:

http://www.mediaindonesia.com/news/read/8772/pekerjaan-saya-travel-blogger-profesional/2015-11-08

The Review: What Recruiters Want

Every year, Bloomberg surveys some job recruiters to know what the most wanted and the hardest to find attributes they are looking for from top MBA. Then, according to The Bloomberg Job Skills Report 2016: What Recruiters Want on http://www.bloomberg.com, the required attributes are still similar for the survey in 2014 and 2015; communication skills, strategic thinking, leadership skills, creative problem-solving, adaptability, work experience, analytical thinking, work collaboratively, motivation/drive, quantitative skills, decision making, risk-taking, global mindset and entrepreneurship.

From the cartesian diagram, communication skills, analytical thinking and work collaboratively were among on the top 3 most desired attributes in hunting the top MBA in 2014 and 2015. While, entrepreneurship and global mindset seemed to be the least important attributes required by the recruiters.

On the vertical axis, the hardest attribute to find in 2014 and a year later was about strategic thinking, and its difficulty level was almost alike with leadership skills and creative problem-solving. On the other hand, seeking out top MBA whose quantitive skills tended to be much easier and therefore this attribute became the most common finding on the requirement lists of the recruiters.

More specifically, the majority of the attributes also showed changes, whether it was significant or not. For example, strategic thinking became much more common to find in 2015 among top MBA instead of in 2015, whereas, adaptability was in contrast in that it became much less common. In spite of the changes from some attributes, motivation/drive seemed exactly the same between two years.

All in all, referring to the visualization clearly depicted on the diagram, the 14 attributes could be classified into 4 groups. First group was for analytical thinking and work collaboratively in which both were more common and more desired by the recruiters. Second group went to attributes in which the recruiters thought those were more common yet less desired. Those attributes consisted of motivation/drive, quantitative skills, decision making, risk-taking, global mindset and entrepreneurship. Next, adaptability and work experience came into third group in which the recruiters tended to ignore these as main attributes in what they were looking for. Then, last but not least, four group belonged to four attributes (communication skills, strategic thinking, leadership skills and creative problem-solving) in which those were less common but more desired by the recruiters.
 
 

Dear Mom …

Today, it is 22 December in which nationally is celebrated as a mother day, a call to commemorate how big our mother’s love and affection are given to their children with no end and break. Thus, as a son, I just want to say …

Mom … Thank you for …

• Giving birth to me …
• Changing my diapers ^_^ …
• Your supernatural skills in finding the things I have lost …
• The nights you stayed up putting me to sleep …
• Nurturing to the word with so many lessons to learn ..
• Shaping my character … and last but not least
• Unstopable pray, hope and support going through these years …

May Allah always make you beautiful inside out with His Wonderful Guidance and Bless … Amien ya Rabb.

Dead is a mystery, but it reminds us that we were born as I and die as I. Being alone in facing a mystery is nothing to be afraid of, or to dedicate too much thought to.

By Toeti Heraty Noerhady

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/12/14/toeti-heraty-for-love-writing-and-indonesian-people.html

Not to Judge by The Appearance

          In my life, friends and their friendships are every thing. Besides my family, those can be a part of a supportive system in which most of my life will be spent with them including altogether undergoing so many laughters, cries, sadnesses, and happinesses. Importantly, I am trying to be fair and welcome to whom I go with without easily judging them merely in regard to their physical appearance and life background.

          Giving personal perception only in response of physical appearance and socio-economic condition absolutely will thwart me to make friends coming. This is on account of my opinion that every one is created with his/her own strengths and weaknesses to go through lots of ordeals forward. Hence, knowing and understanding friends and their friendships can force me to learn many lessons for both the bad and the good. When I see something bad, I try to do better and avoid this not to occur anymore. When I know something good, I am inspired to be better in the following time.

          Moreover, in current days, looking at physical appearance sometimes cannot guarantee that the attitude of the person is as good as what he/she looks like. For example, there have been a plenty of crimes involving white collar employees with prestigious and convincing performances, working in big companies, but then they betray and destroy step by step of where they work for. Commonly, they have made well-prepared and well-managed plans before doing such actions.

          Hence, in personal views, I am really a person who prefer pondering on the behavior and the brain to the physical appearance. For me those first two things are a foundation to make friends and maintain the friendships.