Manado

I should have wrote this ages ago, but guess what, I didn’t do so. The result? I can’t remember the details of my Manadoan adventure. *sigh*

On March 24^th, 2008, two colleagues and myself went to the the capital of North Sulawesi province. We went there to gather audit evidences for an audit of The Company’s HR system. Our auditee was, of course, the HR Management Division back at the head office, but to further investigate whether or not there were system vulnerabilities, we must corroborate our findings against the source documents at the originating office. Hence, our travel to the city of Manado.

Our travel to the city was not exacly what I’d call convenient. We took the morning flight with a stopover at Makassar. The flight was somewhat bumpy as the weather wasn’t all clear. After the 1:30 hours flight, we took a stop at Makassar for about half an hour and continued the flight to Manado. After another hour of flight, the pilot said to us that Manado was being showered heavily. He planned to wait in circles above the city for a while to wait for the weather to clear. Alas, after making turns repeatedly for about 30 minutes, he decided to fly back to Makassar.

The clock showed 2:15pm when we arrived back at Makassar. We, at least I was, were starving. I only had a light breakfast that morning so I totally didn’t prepare for this kind of delayed lunch. My stomach growled along the flight back to Makassar. Lucky for me, Bangkit brought a chocolate bread and let me have a piece of it. Upon arrival at the terminal, we frantically search for food and got what we wanted at a corner cafeteria.

After about 45 minutes of waiting, we were allowed to re-board the aircraft and made another flight to Manado. The weather over the city was finally clear and we made a perfect landing at the Sam Ratulangi Airport. We got there at around 5:30pm, a huge difference from the scheduled 1:30pm. *sigh* The people from The Company’s regional office picked us up, dropped us at the hotel to let us freshen up and promised to pick us up back for dinner. The host was very friendly and the meal were the very delicious seafood dishes Manado is famous for.

Manado is such a small city. In my opinion, it resembles Semarang, the capital of Central Java, which has its share of both the seashore and mountainous region inside the city. Though small, it’s quite bustling with its shopping centers and malls. There were also many hotels being constructed, supposedly to prepare the city for its plan to hold next year’s World Ocean Conference. The relation is understandable, Manado is famous for its sprawling coral reef site, the Island of Bunaken.

The audit itself went smoothly. The local staff corroborated our findings and even provided us with more data to back them up. My audit program didn’t benefit much of the visit because mine was substantially related to the system and servers back at the head office. Instead, I helped the other guys with theirs. A task that includes one part of audit I detest: visual audit of documents. Aaargh!

On the last night, Ade, one of our IS auditor stationed in Manado took us out to dinner at Manado Town Square. We headed back to the hotel afterward to chit chat. After Ade excused himself, we turned to bed.

We had to rise early the next morning (03/28) to catch the earliest flight back to Jakarta. This time, the flight is direct. The flight was relatively calm and we arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport around 11:00am.

You can take a look at some of pictures here. We didn’t take much pictures there, though. Sorry.

A Newbie’s Take on the Married Life

Once, some of my friends predicted that I’ll be a successful person but stayed single because of the dire conditions of my love life. Thanks to my lovely wife, that prediction won’t ever be realized.

Two weeks after our wedding day, we moved to a small house near my parents’ home. A lot of people helped us move, my parents-in-law, my parents, and several others. My father-in-law borrowed us one of his office’ truck so we can move our things from Dhini’s home in Grogol and my parents’ home. Our new home has just two bedrooms, so it’s not exactly spacious, but it’s OK.

A week after that, we held a “syukuran” at our home. Our friends and relatives showed up. We said our prayers, thankful for our new home and had lunch together. You can see the photos of the event here and I think you’ll catch a glimpse of what our home look like.

A new home proved out not to be an easier life. Every morning we got up at 4:45am. I tidy up the bed, get the thrash out, turn off the outside lights, all the while my wife make our breakfast. We then prepare ourself and leave our home at exactly 5:30am. From there we drive to my parents’ home to pick my pop and we go to work together. The afternoon ritual is as meticulous. I leave my office at 4:30pm and go to my wife’s office just in time to catch the 5:15pm bus home. We normally arrive at our home around 6:00pm. By then, my wife will prepare our dinner while I sweep & mop the house. We finish all the house chores around 8.00pm, too tired to do anything else.

This whole ritual finally took its toll when my wife fell ill a week ago. Luckily, my mother finally got us a domestic help. A housemaid, if you will. After about a week staying at my mother’s home for a crash-course in domestic chores, she finally moved in with us three days ago.

Anyway, I learned a lot during our first month of marriage. I learned that my wife is a thougher person than I thought before. Alhamdulillah, God gave me a great woman for a wife.

Shutdown Day: May 3rd, 2008

Can you survive a day without turning on your PC? That’s the question presented by the people of Shutdown Day. They’re trying to find out the impact of people not using their PC for a whole day. I’m guessing not much. To date (04/26) there are only 8,944 people who had joined the cause. Well, I could try, though. How about you?

Welcome, Failure, Old Friend

It’s nearly official. I flunked The Company’s master degree scholarship program. I passed the TOEFL-test, academic potential test, psychological test, but failed at the first one of two interviews with the board of directors.

I will factor this in my future plan. I’m keeping my options open. Thanks for all who supported me during the quest. I’m sorry I can’t live up to your expectations.

Langkah-langkah Membayar Pajak Tahunan Mobil Pribadi di Samsat Jakarta Barat

Pagi ini (05/04) gw nemenin nyokap gw ngebayar pajak tahunan mobil bokap di Samsat Jakarta Barat (Sistem Administrasi Manunggal di bawah Satu Atap). Ternyata ngurusnya nggak ribet dan lumayan nggak lama kok. Cuma emang bisa agak plonga-plongo kalo nggak tau adatnya. Hehe. Tapi para pekerja di sana nggak keberatan membantu kok. Nggak ada yang mempersulit atau menyembunyikan informasi demi kepentingan sendiri.

Biar nggak plonga-plongo, ini langkah-langkahnya untuk membayar pajak tahunan kendaraan bermotor pribadi – bukan yang lima tahunan, yang perlu ganti STNK lho – mobil pribadi di Samsat Jakarta Barat:

1. Datang ke Samsat, jangan lupa bawa KTP asli pemilik kendaraan (dan satu fotokopinya), STNK asli (dan satu fotokopinya), bukti asli pembayaran PKB terakhir (dan satu fotokopinya), dan satu fotokopi lembar utama BPKB (yang mencantumkan informasi pemilik & kendaraan).
2. Ambil formulir di loket khusus. Namanya emang seperti itu, “loket khusus”. Adanya agak serong kanan sedikit dari pintu masuk, tepatnya di sekat kedua dari kiri.
3. Ambil juga formulir untuk data yang berbeda antara STNK dengan KTP di loket sebelah kiri loket khusus (sekat pertama). Perbedaan maksimal cuma RT aja lho. Kalo data lo nggak beda antara STNK sama KTP ya nggak usah minta yang ini. *duh*
4. Isi formulir. Nggak perlu lengkap-lengkap kok. Yang diisi cuma nomor pelat kendaraan, nama pemilik, alamat pemilik, tujuan pengurusan, sama data kendaraan yang ada di bagian bawah halaman pertamanya aja.
5. Serahkan formulir, fotokopi dokumen di atas, KTP asli pemilik kendaraan, STNK asli pemilik kendaraan, dan bukti asli pembayaran PKB terakhir ke loket 3. Loket ini adanya di sebelah kanan loket khusus (sekat ketiga). Sesudah menyerahkan dokumen, nanti lo dikasih semacamkartu  nomor antrian warna merah.
6. Tunggu dipanggil oleh petugas di sebelah kanan loket 3 (masih di sekat ketiga). Duduk manis aja. Kursi tunggunya cukup nyaman kok, sayang cuma sedikit. Kalo dipanggil, jangan lupa serahkan kartu nomor antrian yang tadi.
7. Sesudah dipanggil, periksa bukti pembayaran sementara dari petugas dan jangan lupa terima juga KTP asli. Takutnya ada yang salah, nama, alamat, dll. Kalo ada yang salah mesti lapor lagi ke loket khusus, soalnya.
8. Bayar PKB di kasir I atau II (di sekat keempat). Siapin uangnya, dan tungguin di situ. Sesudah bayar, harusnya bukti pembayaran sementara tadi dicap dan ditandatangani oleh kasir.
9. Lepas lembar terakhir – warna merah dan ada tulisan “untuk Jasa Raharja” – dari bukti pembayaran sementara dan letakkan di loket pengambilan (adanya di sekat keempat, paling pojok).
10. Tunggu panggilan lagi dari petugas di loket pengambilan.
11. Sesudah dipanggil, periksa kembali STNK asli dan bukti asli pembayaran PKB yang baru.

Udah deh, abis itu lo bisa pulang. Cepet kok. Rasanya cuma butuh nyaris satu jam. Alhamdulillah banget kalo orang mau bayar pajak nggak dipersulit. Salut untuk Satlantas Polda Metro Jaya, Dipenda DKI Jakarta, dan Jasa Raharja!!

Anyway, ada beberapa tips nih untuk memperlancar urusan pembayaran Pajak Kendaraan Bermotor di Samsat:

• Jangan lupa bawa bolpen. Buat ngisi formulir nih. Ketimbang malu pinjem ama orang dan beli nggak bisa – nggak ada warung, peluang usaha nih sebenernya – mending bawa dari rumah.
• Bawa fotokopian dokumen dari rumah. Di Samsat-nya ada sih kios fotokopi, tapi mahal. Selembar Rp 1.000. Kalo mau ngirit duit dan ngirit sakit hati, bawa aja dari rumah. Ada satu nilai plus sih kalo fotokopi di situ: dokumen lo diaturin posisinya sama penjaga fotokopiannya, mungkin biar lebih mudah dan lebih cepat buat petugas di dalem.
• Jangan segen nanya. Semua petugasnya helpful dan nggak minta yang aneh-aneh kok. Daripada nyasar.
• Dateng pagi-pagi, biar cepet. Kalo udah siang rame soalnya. Kalo yang di Jakarta Barat, Samsat-nya buka Senin-Kamis dari 08.30 - 15.00 (ada istirahat siang satu jam), Jumat 08.30 - 15.00 (ada istirahat siang plus sholat Jumat kalo gak salah dua jam), dan Sabtu 08.30 - 12.00.
• Kalo males ke Samsat, ada layanan Pembayaran PKB, Perpanjangan SIM (A & C) & STNK keliling sekarang (Samsat Mobile). Untuk info lokasi, bisa kirim SMS ke 1717 atau lihat jadwalnya di sini.
• Samsat juga udah buka counter di beberapa pusat perbelanjaan. Untuk wilayah Jakarta Barat, adanya di Pintu Timur Carrefour Taman Palem, Cengkareng, Jakarta Barat. Layanannya sama seperti Samsat Mobile.

Bubbling Ideas

Every now and then, few things come across my mind. At times, they are just thoughts in passing, but some of them are actually – well, at least I think so – workable ideas. I’ll display some of them below under CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.

• Smart traffic lights. The idea is simple: adjust the red light waiting time of each direction of an intersection according to how long the queue at each respective directions. A sensor – computer-vision enabled, perhaps – attached to a central computer should periodically calculate the appropriate waiting time.
• Crowdsourced-traffic reports. Hate being stuck in traffic? With GPS or GPS-enabled devices proliferating and digital maps of our beloved J-town abound, what’s missing here is a live traffic report. How about a subscription-based traffic report service for our GPS device that relies on user-submitted traffic report service? Set-up an SMS gateway, web-portal, and call-center as a receiving end for all the reports. Seed the service with official traffic reports from the Dishub – Indonesian DMV – and Polantas – traffic police – traffic centers and come up with a trust points scheme (based on how many corroborated reports you give to the service), I think this will work.
• Automated railroad crossing gates. Far too many accidents happen here in Indonesia at the railroad crossings. In most cases, it’s the driver’s fault – how hard can stopping be? But sometimes they happen because of negligence of the guard on duty and the fact that the crossing has no gates to begin with. I think the later reasons can be overcame with the use of automated gates. Sensors are put on the rails at a certain distance from the crossing. Based on their reading of the train’s speed and total length, the gates will automatically close accordingly.

SGD 5.00-odd Worth of Phoenix Calling Card Value

When I left Singapore last Monday (03/17), I failed to spent all SGD 10.00 worth of my Phoenix calling card. I called here and there back home but still had SGD 5.00-odd on the card.

So, if you want to call overseas from Singapore, you can use mine until all of its value is spent. Here are the instructions:

1. Dial 6347 4488 or 1800 347 4488 from your mobile or landline phone. (Disclaimer: local call charges may apply)
2. Select 1 for English or follow the instructions for any other languages.
3. When asked for a PIN number, enter 8782 3087 8440 followed by #.
4. Enter your destination number in the format of country code + area code + telephone no. and followed by #.

Oh, one more thing. The card expires on June 30^th 2009. Hope this can help you!

UPDATE: A friend of mine told me that the value of the card has now been depleted. I’m sorry, guys!

Singapore Redux: Concised Edition

Very early on the morning after my wedding day (03/16), I have to leave my beloved spankin’ new wife to the city of Lions for an official visitation for The Company to Citibank Singapore, Ltd. for benchmarking purposes.

At 4:00 am, my father-in-law and my wife dropped me off at the Soekarno-Hatta airport. I have told them of my intention to go by taxi, but they both insisted on accompanying me to the airport. It was a little bit awkward for me, as the sun hasn’t yet rose and I’m sure they were tired from the previous day’s event, but I accepted their offer.

After a quick morning prayer, I met my colleagues at gate E3. There were three junior officers – including yours truly – and two senior officers on the team. The later being the head of IT division and vice head of the funds and services division, high-ranking indeed. We checked-in for the GA822 flight ETD 06:30 am and paid our international travel tax – fiskal in our lingo.

The on-time flight was all smooth all the way to Changi. The flight took an hour and a half or so. We tried to catch the shuttle bus to our hotel – Changi Village Hotel – but we were 15 minutes late so we used the minibus cab (SGD 50.00) instead. The hotel was very posh and modern, a huge departure from the hotel from my previous Singaporean adventure.

After leaving our luggage at the concierge – the hotel’s check-in time was 02:00 pm – we took the bus to the nearest point to Orchard Road. We decided to look around for a place to do lunch. We set our feet to the The Paragon on Orchard Road. We found an Indonesian restaurant, Tambuah Mas on the floor directory on went straightly there. The bosses ordered for us: two gado-gado, one tahu telor, three pieces of Indonesian fried chicken, and a bamboo container of rice – a typical Indonesian diet, heavy in carbohydrate. Heheh. Why they insisted on Indonesian food right there in Singapore, only heaven knows. The food was so-so but the conversation after that went for around an hour and a half.

Right after lunch we decided to part ways. The bosses went shopping for golf equipments or something; Bli Nyoman wanted to meet up with several of his friends; which left me and Muharto with nothing much to do. So, Mumu and me went to the beloved Mustafa Centre. I wanted to buy souvenirs for the guys at my office and he got nothing else to do. “I wanted to save money for the furniture for my new home,” he said. He got punished for his own words when, after my shopping, he broke his trouser’s zipper in the Farrer Park MRT station toilet. Poor Mumu. I called home to ma bell with my newly bought Phoenix calling card when he had a wardrobe malfunction in the toilet. Hahaha.

We went back to the hotel to meet up with the others right after that. We had our dinner at a Thai restaurant near the hotel. We had another long conversation there and went straight to bed after that.

The morning after, we had a late breakfast at the Saltwater Café downstairs and went to prep ourselves for the meeting – scheduled at 02:00 pm. We checked out, asked the concierge to keep our luggages, and took the bus to the Tampines bus interchange. We grabbed a quick lunch at the local McDonald’s about 20 minutes prior to the meeting. That’s the fastest lunch I ever had in my life!

The Citibank office was our next destination. We had a conversation with the one of the IT operational vice president of Citibank. For the records, it went along great. Our visit was very fruitful and informative.

After Citibank, we had a meeting with the guys from EMC for a discussion at a local café about The Company’s problems with one of their products. They promised a thorough review of the implementation and will come up with a solution within a month. We took the cab back to the hotel. It wasn’t too expensive, apparently, and much-much faster than the bus.

At around 07.00 pm we hopped aboard the hotel’s shuttle bus to the airport. We had dinner at a noodle stall at the terminal’s food court. For SGD 9.50 it didn’t taste that good. Quite a disappointment to be honest with you.

Anyway, we boarded our plane at 10.05 pm and arrived at Soekarno-Hatta airport at around 11.15 pm due to the one hour time difference between Singapore and Jakarta. My mom, pop, and sister picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at Ciputra Hotel for a good night sleep with my beautiful wife who was already waiting there. Woohoo!

Take a look at our photos here, if you like.

Pernahkah Kau Merasa Begitu Diberkahi?

Gw baru-baru ini merasa kayak gitu. Kalau boleh mundur sedikit ke belakang, gw ngelamar Mbhem tanggal 1 Desember 2007. Itu hari Sabtu. Hari Selasa-nya (04/12), calon Ibu mertua dateng ke Manggala untuk booking gedung. Alhamdulillah langsung dapet tuh, tanpa basa-basi: 15 Maret 2008. Tanggal yang tadinya cuma main-main aja antara gw ama Mbhem ternyata kejadian beneran.

Berikutnya, semuanya menggelinding seperti roda-roda arloji mahal itu. Pas, mudah, dan lancar. Alhamdulillah banget. Mulai dari undangan, paket seserahan, suvenir, jasa boga, pelaminan, sampai administrasi KUA. Pasti semua dibantuin oleh banyak orang sih. Dari Ibu mertua, Bapak mertua, Bapak, Ibu gw, adik gw, semuanya dibuat sibuk oleh perhelatan besar itu.

Akhirnya kemarin itu (15/03) terlaksana juga pernikahan gw sama Mbhem. Semuanya juga Alhamdulillah begitu lancar. Gw juga ijab qabul cuma sekali sebut langsung sah, Bapak & Ibu yang sampai H-3 masih sakit alhamdulillah kuat berdiri lama. Semua sanak saudara cukup lengkap hadir.

Pokoke, alhamdulillah hirobbil alamin deh. Puji syukur buat Allah SWT yang sudah begitu baiknya sama kami semua ini.

Anyway, buat sanak saudara, kerabat dan rekan, terima kasih banyak atas semua doa, partisipasi, dan – tentunya – amplop dan kadonya. Buat yang berhalangan hadir, yang penting doanya saja. Kami tau pasti kalau nggak ada halangan yang berarti, nggak mungkin kalian nggak hadir.

Terakhir, mohon doa restunya buat keluarga muda ini. Semoga jalan kami ke depan dimudahkan oleh Yang Maha Kuasa, sebagaimana Ia telah memudahkan jalan untuk keempat orangtua kami dan orangtua mereka sebelumnya. Amiiin!

Pssst! Kalo mo liat sebagian foto-fotonya – yang partikelir ya, yang serius masih dalam proses – bisa klik di sini.

Rowan Atkinson & John Cleese in a Hilarious Sketch

I laughed my self to tears watching this clip on Youtube.