TV and Me

A Black and White 17" - Like-A-Table TV (Brand:??)

Back to my childhood in 80-an era, TV was still a rare thing to find in our neighborhood. If I was not mistaken, our TV is the first one in our kampung :) (I lived in 'Padang coret' area :P). My dad even said that there were such crowded people in our home on the day we bought it. They might want to know what TV looked like. I don't know exactly because I was still a cute baby at that time. ^_^

Our TV was looked like the picture, but it was bigger. It also had additional rolling screen that could be opened and closed manually. My mom considered it as a table, so she put some flowers and decoration on it, and sometimes food :).

My favorite TV shows were Unyil, Oshin, Laura (aka Little House on the Prairie), Panggung Hiburan Anak-Anak, Album Minggu Kita (the shortest jingle I ever heard, "Album Minggu...Album Minggu...Album Minggu Kitaa..."), Flora dan Fauna, Aneh Tapi Nyata, Pak Tino Sidin (he always said all the drawings were good!), Cerdas Cermat, and Dunia Dalam Berita. Whilst, I really hate Dari Gelanggang ke Gelanggang and Ria Jenaka.

Yes, TVRI was the one and the only one TV station at that time. So, we had no choice. Sometimes, I really got bored but could not do anything. Everyday (except Sunday), it was aired on around 4 pm until midnight. On Sunday, the shows began on around 7 am (CMIIW).

Other than TV, we also had a National radio tape. It was very useful in Ramadhan. I myself often used it to record my own voice, listen to it, and ask anybody to listen to it (what a narcissist...).

Panasonic 21" - Color TV

My dad bought it in 1993 because we kept asking him to buy it and telling him that we got bored with black and white TV. It might not be the first color TV in our neighborhood, but we were the first family who had TV with remote control :). And then, many of my friends came to our house just to see how the remote control worked.

A year later, we bought parabola antenna although many people said that it might affect children's academic record. My sister and I made a commitment to our parents that our academic record would not be worsened, and Alhamdulillah we could kept the promise.

Having a parabola antenna meant many alternative TV channels. While non-parabola TV could just watch TVRI at that time, we have had RCTI, SCTV, ANTV, and Indosiar. We also had some foreign channels, such as TV1 and TV3 from Malaysia, MTV from Singapore, channels from Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, France, CNN, CNBC, and StarTV. Attempted to watch it all days? Yes, but our parents were kinda strict.

My mom's favorite channel was channel from Brunei because she was fond of Brunei Sultanate life. My grandmother liked Indosiar because she liked to watch Marimar. My dad liked anything as long as it showed Boxing time. My sister, cousin and I liked anything as long as it was about anime and Japanese dorama.

My family also liked TV3 because we felt linked to Malaysian culture rather than Indonesian culture itself. Besides, it aired Indian movies more than Indonesian channels without dubbing (well, many of my family members liked Indian movies, hehe...).

Up to now, this TV is still in charge in my house in Padang.

LG LCD 19"

This is the first TV I bought with my own money. I got this TV in 2008 when there was a big sale in Plaza Semanggi. I used to think that there was no use for having a TV since the channels were full of sinetron which I don't like at all. Later on, I thought that I needed some news too; I need instruments to learn languages and entertainments.

Previously, my boarding house was equipped with Cable TV, but it was then disconnected. Because of Mafia Pertukangan, I had to take my antenna share from other house, not from my house, so that I could just get few channels : TransTV, TVOne, and MetroTV. That's fine, those three are my favorite.

At the beginning, I intended to use the TV set to improve my English and develop my Quran recital, but now I am often busy with sageuk Korea dramas. Hmmm...still try to use it wisely....

Pic credits:

jsf3.homestead.com

www.sulit.com

www.ebay.com

UNILEVER BUSINESS WEEK 2002

*Road to UBW 2002*
Unilever Business Week (UBW), I heard this term for the first time in 2001 when some of my seniors in Chemical Engineering ITB were selected to attend the training. They were such high level academic achievers, I would say. So, I thought that it had to be a prestigious event. At that time, I promised myself to fight for the same event in the following year (UBW was just for final year students, and I was on my third year at that time). I knew it would be very hard since I was not categorized as excellent academic achiever among all ITB students.

As a matter of fact, Unilever was my dream employer when I studied in ITB. Actually, I liked to work in consumer goods companies, such as Unilever, P&G, Wings, and so forth. Many of my friends really dreamed to work in oil & gas companies since they could make much money there, but the fact didn’t bother me. I became happier when I was sent to Unilever Surabaya to have on-the-job training. I felt like I have already had strong affinity to Unilever :P.

Then the year 2002 came. I saw the announcement of UBW 2002 in CDC and got the form from CDC. Felt confident for my organizational experiences from Himatek and UKM plus my academic record, I filled out the form right away, then sent it to the posting address. Alhamdulillah, a couple of weeks later, somebody from Unilever called me to attend psychology test and interview in Jakarta. As I saw my competitors, my self confidence became lower a bit. They were such wonderful persons with many activities but still maintained excellent academic records. They came from ITS, IPB, UGM, UI, and UnPad. Besides, I also met some high flyer students from ITB. From Chemical Engineering itself, there were 4 of us. Then I knew that UBW invitation at that time was just sent to prominent universities in Indonesia and they would select 30 students among all applicants.

A couple of days later, I got a call from Unilever that I was selected to attend the training, together with Peka and Adit, my two other friends from Chemical Engineering ITB. Alhamdulillah….

The training itself took places in Unilever HO in Jakarta, Kartika Chandra Hotel, Unilever Cikarang, and Unilever Megamendung Learning Centre, Bogor. All the 30 selected participants came from various discipline from ITB, UI, IPB, UNPAD, ITS, and UGM.

*D-days (October 11-16, 2002)*
On the first day, we were asked to gather at Unilever Ho (Gatsu) for introduction session. After that, we moved to KC to sleep. The Jakarta people were not served rooms at KC since they had their own rooms in Jakarta :P. The next day, we were brought to Unilever Plant in Cikarang for sightseeing. We visited washing powder plant, sariwangi plant, and some others. I hoped we could visit Walls, but at that time, the plant was closed to public because of maintenance issue. Then, we continued our journey to Bogor, heading to Megamendung Learning Centre (MMLC) for the main course.

MMLC was a great place. The rooms looked like hotel’s. The was a ballroom for training area, some small rooms for meeting, a big refrigerator which was full of Unilever’s ice cream (and you could take it for free anytime…!). There were also a swimming pool, BBQ, and basketball area.

Then, we were grouped into 5, six persons in each plus a big task to do. We were instructed to manage a chocolate plant. So, somebody had to be the director, somebody else had to be engineering manager, somebody else had to be HR manager, the others had to be finance manager, and other types of manager as necessary. But there was a funny rule here. One could not hold a position which was fit to his/her educational background. For instance, as an engineering-background person, I could not be an engineering manager in our ‘company’. At that time, I was in charge for HR manager, which was far from my core knowledge, and I was really blank about human resources. I had no idea about recruitment, people, salary, law, lay off, and so on. Since we were just allowed to consult with our fellows, in the middle of my work, I had to talk to other partners who understood HR. That was very good because we could understand how other people from different background worked.

Some problems would be simulated by the committee to ‘destroy’ our company, such as riots, natural disaster, economic recession, and others. All manager had to work together to overcome the problems. Production must not stop and the employees had to be kept too. But in the other hand, the company had to save the asset. For the problems, we had to calculate and made the decision in the very-limited time. Then I knew, it was very hard to run a company and a good employer would not just think about themselves, but also the employees. In other words, they had to issue win-win solutions. Sometimes, they also faced some dilemmas and had to choose the best one among the worst.

Beside the simulation above, we also got some lectures about business from Unilever top persons. Among them, Tante Ellen Samil was the best person in my eyes. She was really a great educator. She knew how to explore one’s strength and suggested what we really needed to improve. And, she was fun too. I guess everybody must like her.

That’s what I can say. Great training, great friends, excellent food, I will always remember it…

*30ordinary*
This is the name of our mailing list, the UBW 2002 participants. We are 30 ordinary persons who fight for extraordinary achievements in life. It’s not about being proud, just a spark of hope. We are still keeping in touch and sharing experience together. Nuy, is the only one I met once in a week. Now, she is one of the best and the most trusted friends of mine. Best friends could surely be found anywhere…

MUNGKIN CUKUP

Ini hasil pembicaraan dengan seorang kawan, dan sesudahnya aku jadi bertekad memperbaiki pemilihan kata karena kekeliruan ini sering terjadi tanpa kita sadari….

Mungkin
Pernahkah kita mendengar kalimat seperti ini?

”Penjelasan lebih lanjut mungkin bisa kita lihat pada slide presentasi ini”
Kondisi: pada waktu mengeluarkan pernyataan ini, si pembicara sudah menampilkan slide presentasi yang bersangkutan.
Kritik: Jelas-jelas slide presentasi-nya sudah terpampang di depan audiens, kenapa harus mengucapkan kata ’mungkin’?

Atau

”Mungkin Pak Amin bisa maju ke depan untuk menyampaikan sambutan?”
Kondisi: Pak Amin memang orang yang sudah dikonfirmasi untuk menyampaikan sambutan.
Kritik: Kenapa menggunakan ’mungkin’? Mmmm...apakah kalimat tersebut merupakan permohonan, kenapa tidak pakai kata ’mohon’ saja?

Atau
”Baiklah, acara kita lanjutkan dengan penyampaian materi inti yang mungkin akan disampaikan oleh Ustadzah Aminah”
Kondisi: Ustadzah Aminah memang menjadi pembicara (pada pertemuan itu)
Kritik: Kata ’mungkin’ lebih bagus diganti dengan ’Insya Allah’. Lebih keren...! Dan lebih jelas tentunya.

Yah, begitulah. Sebenarnya masih banyak contoh-contoh lain yang berkembang di masyarakat kita. Aku juga kurang tahu apa penyebabnya. Sebagai pembicara, aku juga mungkin melakukan kesalahan yang sama tanpa disadari, tapi begitu berada pada posisi pendengar, kalimat-kalimat itu terdengar sangat lucu. Jadi, marilah kita menggunakanlah kata ’mungkin’, ’barangkali’ atau kata sejenis untuk mendesripsikan hal-hal yang memang tidak/ belum jelas kepastiannya.


Cukup
“Tausiyah itu cukup bagus dan cukup menyentuh perasaan saya. Terima kasih pada Mbak Ana yang sudah berusaha keras menulisnya. Di masa mendatang, saya berharap membaca tulisan Mbak Ana lagi.”
Kondisi: Pembicara sangat menyukai tulisan Mbak Ana. Namun apa yang diucapkannya bermakna lain!

Jika di-ekivalen-kan dengan standar nilai A, B, C, D, dan E, kira-kira berapa nilai tulisan Mbak Ana menurut kata-kata yang diucapkan pembicara? Aku sebagai pengamat pembicaraan itu akan menganggap bahwa Mbak Ana hanya diberi nilai C, cukup. Si Pembicara mungkin saja tidak bermaksud memberi nilai ‘cukup’ dan bisa saja maksudnya ‘sangat bagus’, tapi kebiasaan menggunakan kata ‘cukup’ sudah merusak pesan yang ingin disampaikannya.

Pada waktu aku menghadiri tausiyah Aa Gym, salah seorang audiens berkata,” Saya senang mendengar tausiyah dari Aa karena cukup bagus….”

Lalu Aa Gym memotong dengan nada bercanda,”Itu tadi maksudnya ‘cukup bagus’ atau ‘sangat bagus’ atau ‘lumayan bagus’? Jangan pelit-pelit dong…”

Aku ikut tersentil mendengar perkataan Aa Gym. Tapi ini bukan masalah kesalahan dalam penggunaan kata ’cukup’, ’lumayan’ atau ’sangat’, tapi masalah aku yang tidak suka berbasa-basi dalam hal puji-memuji alias pelit pujian. Dengan kata lain, aku hanya memuji hal-hal yang menurutku memang pantas untuk dipuji. Tambahan lain, aku tidak akan memuji orang-orang yang memancing pujian. In my opinion, hal itu sangat kekanak-kanakan karena hanya anak-anak yang haus pujian. Jadi, beruntunglah orang-orang yang pernah aku puji karena insya Allah itu datang dari lubuk hatiku yang paling dalam, ^_^

Tapi setelah mengetahui efek-efek positif pujian, ternyata pujian itu sangat penting untuk memotivasi orang lain. Aku bertekad tidak akan berlebihan dan tetap proporsional. Penggunaan kata ’cukup’ dan ’lumayan’ sebaiknya dihindari dan hanya dipakai untuk lingkungan yang benar-benar memerlukan objektivitas yang tinggi, seperti lingkungan profesional dan akademis, karena kata ’cukup’ dan ’lumayan’ itu sama sekali tidak membesarkan hati.

Written by someone who is not a language expert, she is just someone who always tries to put things in the proper place.

GANBATTE KUDASAI

Kemarin, seorang rekan kantor yang beberapa waktu yang lalu terkena layoff berkunjung ke kantor. Sebut saja namanya bapak A. Ia datang dalam rangka bersilaturrahim dengan mantan rekan-rekan sekantor di KBR.

Dan beliau kami daulat untuk bercerita tentang pengalamannya sewaktu terkena layoff dulu.

Kejadian seputar layoff dulu memang terkesan tiba-tiba. Bapak A dan rekan-rekan yang lain ditelpon pada hari Selasa dan sudah harus minggat hari Jumat-nya. Tak ada persiapan mental, finansial, dan lain-lain. No nothing. Tak heran, ini membuat shocked semua orang, termasuk orang-orang yang tek terkena sekalipun.

Begitu juga dengan Pak A. Ia berkata, ia memang senyum-senyum saja pada waktu itu, tapi sebenarnya ia sedang menangis di dalam. Ia satu-satunya tulang punggung keluarga sehingga keluarganya hanya akan bergerak dari penghasilannya. Dan beruntunglah ia mempunyai istri yang sabar dan selalu membesarkan hatinya untuk tidak putus asa. Pelan-pelan, mereka menyiapkan strategi untuk menyiapkan hidup ke depan.

Pertama-tama, Pak A melunasi rumahnya terlebih dahulu dengan uang pesangon dari kantor karena menurutnya lebih baik melunasi hutang terlebih dahulu daripada hidup dengan keadaan berutang. Alhamdulillah, uang pesangon mencukupi untuk itu. Selanjutnya, mereka mengencangkan ikat pinggang supaya pengeluaran tidak terlalu memberngkak. Di samping itu, Pak A juga meningkatkan ibadah. Menurut beliau, grafik pelaksanaan ibadah beliau meningkat tajam secara eksponensial. Semua jenis ibadah dilakoni supaya doanya dikabulkan. Ia hanya berharap keluarganya tetap berada dalam keadaan selamat, secara mental, fisik, dan tentu saja finansial. Tambah Pak A, itu adalah saat-saat di mana ia merasakan benar-benar berdialog dengan Allah SWT. Pak A menceritakan hal ini dengan penuh haru sehingga kami yang mendengar pun jadi sedikit berkaca-kaca.

Beberapa minggu kemudian, Pak A mendapat tawaran dari perusahaan lain dan alhamdulillah diterima. Kami ikut senang mendengarnya, happy ending juga akhirnya. Pak A menekankan kepada kami untuk tetap semangat dan tidak pernah berputus asa karena kita punya Allah yang senantiasa Menolong kita jika kita juga benar-benar beikhtiar untuk bangkit.

Pak A menambahkan, ini mungkin cara yang diatur Allah supaya rumahnya jadi lunas. Jika saja ia tidak di-layoff, dia takkan mendapat uang pesangon yang memang sangat lebih dari cukup untuk melunasinya, dan masih harus terbelit hutang untuk beberapa tahun ke depan. Dengan ’shock therapy’ ini, ia tak hanya mendapat jalan toll untuk melunasi kredit rumah, tapi juga mendapat pekerjaan baru yang juga tak kalah layak dari pekerjaan di KBR dulu, dan satu kado yang sangat berharga : keyakinannya akan pertolongan Allah makin tebal.

Subhanallah. Jika senantiasa sabar, kita akan tahu bahwa Allah benar-benar selalu mempersiapkan yang terbaik untuk hamba-Nya.

I was really touchy. Sometimes, I was really a crybaby and had a negative thinking about anything bad happened to me. I thought I deserve better and be ungrateful for what I had. Astaghfirullahal ‘adzhim…

Be tough, be tough, ganbatte kudasai…!

Yesterday, my boss asked us, what would we do if the company wanted to send us out? I answered softly in my heart, “I’ll take it” :P. Sooner or later, I need to find another comfort zone.