Yellow Tea Cup :: B4nch4’s Daily Stuff

Belum lagi kesampain beli iPhone, Apple sudah duluan meluncurkan produk tablet terbarunya yang bisa bikin para geek & gadget freak ileran. Say hello to iPad !

Jadi apa sebenarnya iPad ini bisa buat ngapain aja? Well, iPad pada dasarnya adalah penggabungan / upgrade dari fitur-fitur yang sudah ada di iPhone dan Ipod Touch tapi dengan media yang lebih besar, seukuran laptop kecil alias netbook dan menggunakan teknologi touch screen. Dengan iPad, kamu bisa:

• Browsing Internet, Email & Peta (ada Wi-Fi)
• Nonton Movie in HD
• Main Game - menggunakan aplikasi game iphone
• Bisnis - menggunakan aplikasi iwork yang bisa touch screen
• Baca & Beli E-Book lewat iBook

Dari semua fitur-fitur iPad, tidak diragukan lagi yang paling appealing bagiku yang kutubuku ini adalah baca & beli buku lewat iBook (toko buku digital milik apple).

Here’s how Apple describes iBooks:

“The iBooks app is a great, new way to read and buy books. Just download the app for free from the App Store, and you’ll be able to buy everything from classics to bestsellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. To read it, all you have to do is tap on it and it opens up. The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich, color, so it’s very easy to read, even in low light.”

Haduh…*mupeng*

Stuck in the city blocks of Jakarta with all it’s traffic & pollution can be so…depressing sometimes. I live in a small apartment, work in a small office space in a commercial building, and hangout in malls. I do feel like have to ‘get out’ every now and then to escape the walls, the outlets, the same old thing.

But Where? Of course i can simply go to some spa destination, or to other city or even overseas, but it will cost too much and not doable in weekly basis. So this is where i went last weekend

Kebun Raya Bogor! Yap it’s located in Bogor (around 1 - 1,5 hour drive from Jakarta) and i love every minute of my time there! the weather was perfect, it’s so peacefull, serene & pretty well maintained. I’m surprised there aren’t many people around enjoying the glorious garden!

Located in 85-hectare area with more than 15.ooo collection of trees & plants, it can be a very long walk as you can imagine. Every plant & tree we walked by has a name tag, but without further explanation.

Too bad i didn’t get to finished the track because it’s started to rain a little (don’t forget umbrella next time, it rains a lot around here). Walking around the garden with a red umbrella while it’s rain is a pretty romantic thought^^

After tired walking around, we went to cafe deDaun (inside the complex), to have some drinks & snack while enjoying the sunset from the cafe’s porch. Overall, it’s a perfect way to spend sunday afternoon away from home.

can we have one of these garden in jakarta please?

30 Desember 2009, Indonesia kehilangan Gus Dur, Presiden RI ke-4. Terus terang, saya tidak pernah melihat sosok Gus Dur sebagai politisi karena sebagai pemimpin, ia selalu tampak tanpa embel-embel, tanpa agenda, tanpa muslihat tersembunyi, bicara, mengkritik & bertindak apa adanya, sesuai yang ia yakini benar. So politically wrong?

Pada masa jabatannya sebagai Presiden RI, Gus Dur yang dikenal sebagai “pejuang kaum minoritas”, meninggalkan kesan yang mendalam kepada IBC (Indonesian Born Chinese) dengan menjadikan Imlek sebagai hari libur nasional. Sebelum disahkan sebagai hari libur, kami para anak-anak IBC selalu bolos sekolah untuk merayakan Imlek, yang sebenarnya bukan masalah bagi saya (saya bersedia bolos kapan saja ^^”). Setelah dewasa, saya bisa menyadari bahwa apa yang dilakukan Gus Dur itu bukan hanya sekedar memberi tambahan hari libur di kalender, namun lebih merupakan suatu gesture ACCEPTANCE, an open hand bagi para IBC, sesuatu yang tidak terasa dalam pemerintahan sebelumnya.

Gus Dur juga dikenal sebagai seoarang Visionary pluralist, senantiasa memperjuangkan Agama & Perdamaian, baca salah satu artikelnya disini . Sayang, jadinya ia malah sering mendapat TUDUHAN MIRING, coba aja cek link2 popular di google tentang Gus Dur: gus dur masuk kristen - 44.300 hasil, gus dur yahudi - 102.000 hasil, gus dur selingkuh - 63.000 hasil, gus dur murtad - 24.500 hasil, gus dur dibaptis - 13.100 hasil.

Hmm? Apakah memang sebegitu sulitnya untuk mempercayai seorang pemimpin / pemuka agama yang menunjukkan secara publik bahwa ia menghormati agama lain dan senantiasa memperjuangkan kedamaian antar umat beragama?

Anyway, yang jelas saya prihatin dengan siapapun yang menjadi panitia public relation nya Gus Dur. I can totally imagine this conversation between them. PR guy: “Pak, saya menyarankan bapak untuk tidak terlalu kontroversial soal agama-agama ini pak. Entar popularitas bapak menurun, ga ada yang vote!” Gus Dur: “I’ll say what i want, gitu aja kok repot”. PR guy: “omaigat” *tarik-tarik rambut*

Ya, Gus Dur mungkin memang bukan sosok politisi ideal, tapi ia jelas adalah sosok manusia idealis yang memperjuangan apa yang ia percayai. So, farewell Gus Dur, i believe you are going to the place reserved for the good souls.

Ah! The end of an old year and the birth of a new year. It almost seems like life comes a full circle every year, with each circle, we grow fuller, wiser, smarter, and happier (hopefully).

With my fuller, wiser, smarter, and happier 2010 self, I’m GOING to:

1. Work smarter, manage my time better, more discipline;  and ultimately double my income last year (Hah!)

2. Buy an iphone 3G as an reward if financial target achieved

3. Write A book (preferably a novel)

4. Doing more charity, paying more attention to people in general & put an effort to be a little more sociable.

5. Learn to balance life. Yoga perhaps?

6. Live Greener. Be more aware of environment issues & doing my part to help.

Well, one can try.

As Oprah Winfrey put it - “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”

Happy New Year 2010 All ^^

I always enjoy going for spa treatment every now and then, but just the other day i realized that i only go for the same old treatments every-time i went, namely: facial, body scrub and occasionally, body mask.

So yesterday when i decided to try this new spa place near my apartment, i decided to try out some new treatments too! Since i don’t really like being massaged, i go for the arm & leg waxing instead.
This is really my first waxing, so I’m not sure what to expect, when will the hair grow back? when it grows back will the hair becoming thicker?  longer? coarser? is it HURTS?

well..it hurts alright, but it’s an “ouch!” hurt, not an ARGHHHHHHH@!%&^ hurt. The spa attendant told me that normally the hair will grow back in 1-2 months, and waxing will not cause the body hair to become thicker, longer or coarser. God, i hope so.

They have hot waxing & tube waxing so I’m trying both. This is the tube wax…

And this is the hot wax, applied with some kind of spatula, one small sections each time, in the direction of hair growth.

Before wax cools, firmly press strip to wax in the direction of hair growth. Smooth the strip with your hand.

To remove strip, peel it in the opposite direction of hair growth, in quick move. This is where the Ouch!!! come. Whatever you do, DO NOT pull straight up!!! If the area stings it can help to apply pressure on immediately after the strip removal.

To remove excess wax, they spray some sort of unscented oil.

DONE!

Despite the many Ouch!!! moment, I think i do enjoy my smoother arm & leg ^^

“Would you like to try our Brazilian wax next, miss?” Er… maybe in my next life ^^’

Beauty World
Mangga Dua Square Lt 2 Blok C No.39
Jl. Gunung Sahari Raya No. 1 - Jakarta Utara
+62-21 6231043