Elysium - Matt Damon, Jodie Foster

foto diunduh dari http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/

Nggak nyangka di film yang baru diputar di XXI ini, Jodie Foster berperan sebagai tokoh antagonis yang bisa dibilang cukup sadis walaupun alasan sang tokoh karena ia adalah seorang Ibu yang tega menghilangkan nyawa orang lain demi melindungi anak-anaknya.  Padahal orang-orang yang tewas itu berasal dari golongan bawah, yang ingin memiliki kehidupan setara di Elysium.

Nah, film ini memang tergolong (D) atau Dewasa.. jadi jangan bawa anak-anak deh untuk menontonnya, pun nanti kalau sudah beli DVD, jangan biarkan anak-anak anda menonton di rumah... karena menurut saya, adegannya banyak terdapat kekerasan, dimana sang sutradara, Neill Blomkamp, menampilkan sangat jelas scene teman tokoh utama, Max (diperankan oleh Matt Damon), yang bernama Julio (Diego Luna) dibunuh saat mereka melakukan pencurian data oleh sang pembunuh yang bernama Kruger.  Kruger merupakan agen militer yang diperintahkan secara rahasia oleh menteri Pertahanan Elysium, Mrs. Delacourt (Jodie Foster), dimana sempat disinggung memang Kruger ini tokoh yang suka membangkang dan pemerkosa.. Diperankan oleh Sharlto Copley dengan sangat baik karena saya sampai terbawa emosi dan kesal sekali apalagi dengan aksen Australia yang ernyata pernah bermain di film "The A-Team" 2010 sebagai Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock.

Elysium tengah diputar di XXI juga ada dalam teater IMAX 2D, berdurasi 120 menit.  Trailernya bisa dicek di http://www.itsbetterupthere.com/site/#

Selamat menonton!

Ramone

Ingat tokoh "Ramone" di film "The Proposal" yang dibintangi si cantik Sandra Bullock dan si super ganteng Ryan Renolds?  Dalam film tersebut, tokoh Ramone ini digambarkan sebagai orang yang serba bisa di kota kecil tsb, awalnya dia bekerja sebagai pelayan catering dalam suatu acara yang diadakan di rumah keluarga Andrew Paxton, kemudian ketika Margaret Tate diajak ke sebuah acara di klub malam, Ramone muncul sebagai penari eksotis, keesokannya ketika Margaret hendak mengambil telepon di toko kelontong, ternyata Ramone juga bekerja di tempat itu.   

(foto dari http://archivo.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=1984999)

Terakhir ketika Margaret & Andrew hendak melangsungkan pernikahan, Ramone menjadi petugas resmi yang bisa menikahkan mereka.  Hebat ya, 1 orang bisa memiliki 4 pekerjaan sekaligus dan perhatikan sifat dari Ramone yang selalu ceria. 

Dalam kehidupan nyata, di lingkungan tempat tinggal saya, ternyata juga ada orang seperti itu.   Sebut saja namanya sebagai si Bang.   Sebelum keluarga saya pindah ke tempat ini (kurang lebih 27 tahun yang lalu), si Bang sudah ada dan tinggal tidak jauh dari rumah kami.   Ayah si Bang bekerja sebagai pengumpul limbah rumah tangga alias tukang gerobak sampah dulunya.  Karena umur, sekarang beliau sudah pensiun.  Sementara si Bang, saya tidak tahu dulu dia bekerja sebagai apa, tapi sekarang di umurnya yang sekitar 50-an, beliau saya dapati bekerja sebagai tukang ojek (1), handyman (2) - tukang yang bisa membenarkan apa saja baik itu gagang pintung yang rusak, memasang selang air, dll, dan ketika sebelum bulan Ramadhan mulai dan menjelang selesai, si Bang menjadi penjual bunga tabur (3) bagi peziarah yang hendak mengunjungi makam keluarganya.

Hebat, hebat dan hebat.   Kenapa saya bilang sampai hebat?  Karena di masa sekarang ini, sungguh banyak orang-orang yang malas bekerja, walaupun beberapa dari mereka sudah punya keluarga yang harus diberikan nafkah.  Ada juga orang yang mengambil jalur pintas, mencari nafkah yang tidak halal.  Tapi si Bang, dengan kegesitannya dan keceriannya, melakukan beberapa pekerjaan sekaligus untuk mencari nafkah yang halal bagi keluarganya.  Mungkin tidak semudah yang kita bayangkan dalam menjalaninya, saya yakin, seperti kita semua, pasti kita memiliki masalah-masalah, tapi hal tersebut janganlah menjadikan sebagi penghalang.

Seperti salah satu kutipan yang sangat saya sukai "what doesn't kill you will make you stronger" - apa yang tidak bisa mematikan anda akan membuat anda lebih kuat, kira-kira begitulah terjemahannya.  Jadi apakah anda sudah menemukan "ramone" di sekitar anda?  Jika ya, hargailah dia dengan membantunya memberikan nafkah bagi keluarganya - jika pun belum ada pekerjaan yang anda perlukan, sapalah dan berikan senyuman anda untuk menyemangatinya menjalani hari-hari di kehidupannya.

day 1 - working from home

Finally, after almost 11 years of working for a multinational company, I decided to leave the paint refinish world behind. I'm taking my next steps forward to another world, a world that I have already known, as a full-time mother. 

For the first couple of weeks, I felt liberated, scared, excited, a little bit sad (leaving all my colleagues and especially those lunch time moments) and then it felt like a lot of ideas started popping into my head.  One of them is continuing to write in my blog in which I haven't wrote any posts since 2008.. (wow that was like 5 years ago..).

Many of my colleagues have been asking me what I would be doing after I resigned. When I told them I wanted to be a housewife and full time mother, most of them looked at me with a face of disbelief.  Are you sure? Can you handle being at home not doing routine office work?  Are you ready to have less income or become fully-dependent on your husband for financial purposes?  

Well, my answer was that I had thoroughly thought about this for sometime and had already prepared for this at least a year ago, including setting up a plan with my husband how he would be the breadwinner and primary source of income to cover our monthly expenses.  

And luckily for me, I already had other activities and businesses at home: My 'kos2'an business (a monthly room/flat rentals for employees) - has been running for 2 years now as this business does not need full-time attention, I can work on another business from home.  Another business is a baby products business that has been running for 5 years (wow! amazing isn't it?), thanks to my best friend who is already very capable in starting-up a business from scratch and expanding it until now, while I have been a silent partner for the last 3 years.

Below are some tips that might be useful for you if you want to resign from your current job/corporate career and be a stay-at-home parent:

1. Run through your financial needs and calculate them yearly and monthly.

2. Check for unnecessary expenses and cut those expenses off, such as buying a branded bag, or those expensive shoes... If you’re looking for decent quality stuff, just go to Mangga Dua, ITC, or wait for a SALE; I do realize Jakarta always has a big sale by the end of year, mid big SALE on June (Jakarta's birthday) and during Lebaran/Idul Fitri... so don't worry... just be patient and you'll get what you want in a discounted price (although you might not need it).. 

3. If only one source of income is not enough, then discuss this situation with your spouse to look for new means of finding more income. This can be looking for another job with higher pay, find ways to increase more pay in current job or find side resources of income outside of your spouse’s main job.

4. I considered my plan as being blessed, because about a year and half ago, my company announced that my business unit will be sold to another company, as this owner transition allowed me to choose not to continue to the new entity and according to the Indonesian law (no.23 2013), I will be entitled to have my severance payment which I can use to start a business from home.

5. Have other activities besides taking care of your children... You have to keep your identity as yourself, not as your husband's wife, or your children's mother, or your parent's daughter. 

6. And my last tip is: Enjoy... enjoy and enjoy your valuable time with your family!!  

*ps : thank you my dearest husband for editing!

how to manage your money in this global crisis situation?

if you are looking for answers.. you can stop reading! hahaha.. or you can go to quantum magna website : http://qmfinancial.com/
just few weeks ago, my company's women network invite this young, brilliant & very good speaker, Ligwina Hananto (she's a frequent financial speaker for a famous radio station).. so many good tips from her especially about how to know if you are a 'true' wealthy person or a fake one.. but, to be honest, I haven't got time to really look at my family financial situation.. hmm.. actually.. i'm affraid to know the truth!!
so far, I've been told that our company is financially strong, although we need to tight up our spendings (isn't that what we have always been told by our boss even before this global crisis situations?).. well that is for my company's finance..
what about my family's finance?
I don't really know. But I know I still have debts in my credit cards also our car-loan (due in March 2011!).
Yesterday, I paid one of my credit card bills overdue, I do not know if they already charge me with interest, but by how the called me to reminded me, I guess not.
I paid them all. I was thinking to pay it partially (not the minimum, because it will need me to pay 10 times for minimum payment with interest 3.5%??), but I still have cash, so I decided to pay them all. I was a little bit furious to myself because I forgot that I still have payment due, I thought I already paid them all. And because I forgot, I already spent money I thought I still have!!! It is really dangerous!!
We've been paid from our job and one of our task is to care with the company financial situation. But why... why we give less care to our family financial which is more important... I can't give you the answer..
What I know is, I am still in my blackhole and I'm waiting for someone helping me to get out from here... hahaha.. that's the easy way right?! Hoping someone will help you out???
I wish....

now..about xirallic...

xirallic* , a registered pigment effect from Merck.. create exellecent glitter and sparkles in your car paint - http://www.merck-chemicals.com/merck4pigments
what is it?
well first..let me tell you a history of car colors...
once upon a time.. o..wait.. i'm not telling a story to my daughter... hehe..
it was begin in 1920's, when henry ford created the first line up mass production for cars.. (before, they use horse/cow/anything- carriage) .. you can have any colors you like, as long as it black...
yes... during that time, all cars were black! -so you see, not because the old movie was black and white, but actually the car was black!-
then.. they start to create white!! I heard that white first came from Japan! Yeah.. Japan.. in a world exhibition.. *go Asia!*
after that.. you will have colorful paint.. like red, blue, green, yellow.. but with no effect a.k.a. solid colors..
then.. carmakers begin to add some effects.. first, they add metallic particles.. it is an aluminium flake and you can mix them with other colors such as silver and blue.. there are some particle sizes, from fine to coarse..
in metallic particles, you can only see white/silver reflection from its particles (silver sparkle)...
after silver.. then pearls.. with pearl particles, you can see color reflection.. like red pearls, you'll see a sparkle red... blue pearls - some sparkle blue and a little bit yellow.. white pearls - like your mom's pearl necklace, you can see rainbows reflection from it.. green pearls, gold pearl, bronze pearls.. and lots of it!
but.. the sparkle wasn't enough.. they want to have bigger sparkle and brighter!! so.. this is where xirallic came up.. to fill in the blank... almost have the same effect like pearls, but when you see them under direct sunshine.. you can tell the difference! pearls has softer sparkle compare with xirallic..
to car users, the cost of new cars with pearl or xirallic paint might be the same.. (maybe because they were mass production!).. but for paint-repair.. xirallic has higher cost than pearl.. (new technology always come with higher price, right...) especially if you car does not have an insurance.. but this does not matter if you have car insurance.. you will only pay 'own risk' to bodyrepair, which is 100rb for car insurance before nov 2007 (if i am not mistaken) and 200rb for car insurance after nov 2007..

3 coat Pearls and Xirallic!!

as part of my job, i have to know the new trend of car-paint from manufacturers.. since our beautiful country is dominated by Japanesse carmaker, so our carpaint's trend look up to Japanesse' trends which is very very hi-tech compared with western carmakers..

Like the 3-coat effect pearls.. you'll find it often in all new white cars.. in the past, white is only solid colors, means you can not have any effect on white.. just plain white.. simple white.. why? because white pigment has very good hiding power and if you mixed them with particles that gives effect like metallics or pearls.. white pigment will cover them.. so you can not see the bling-bling..

so.. to make you can see the bling-bling or sparkle particles.. the carmakers do it in 3-coat ways : 1st coat : solid layer -> usually simple white solid

2nd coat : pearl layer, sometimes if the carmakers want a bigger sparkle, they will use xirallics!

3rd coat : clear layer (varnish)

Becareful, not all bodyrepair can re-paint this kind of car.. so you gotta choose the right bodyrepair.. better the authorized bodyrepair (or ATPM we called in here).. or you can go to an expertise in modification, because this 3-coat system already been used a lot in car-modification world..

How much did you spent today?

today, i went to "arisan" with my basketball friends from Trisakti University.. I spent like 100rb for the arisan, and payed another 100rb to back-up my sister's part.. then, I spent more than 200rb for the lunch (chicken noodle & strawberry juice for aisha, bbq chicken & water for me, fish & chips & greensands for my husband).. the arisan & lunch was took place at Urban Kitchen, 5th floor @ Pacific Place, a nice =somekind of= food court where they gave you a card (you can not loose it or you have to pay 300rb!), then the foodstand will swipe the card when you ordered your foods, then they have a bar where you can order your drinks.. you can go out from urban kitchen for a while to take some money from ATM (to pay for arisan, for example, 'coz I forgot to get some cash before the arisan), but there has to be someone stay inside the urban kitchen -to make sure that you will pay your bills-.. the place was great, pacific place has a nice restaurants section in 4th and 5th floor.. 4th floor is where the boat is (I heard someone said that to the lift-guy..), and 5th floor is where you still can see the small fountains below but becareful with your little one..
From arisan at pacific place, we moved to Plaza Senayan to met my brother in law with his gf.. we planned to play bowling there.. but when we got there, he has not arrive yet.. so I was craving with ice cream then we went to Hagendaz, we ordered chocolate brownies (8 pcs of small brownies) with chocolate fudge and chocolate ice cream & choc choc chip ice cream.. we waited the ice cream for about 15 minutes.. and we finished the ice cream for not more than 10 minutes.. (blamed my husband, he always took a big chunk of the ice cream!).. it wasn't enough for me, so I ordered one scoop of belgian chocolate to go... 95rb (62rb for the brownies ice cream, and 28rb for one scoop.. plus tax...)
Then we went to bowling place, and book a 50 minutes game that cost 198rb.. 5 of us played like 1 hour (aisha also played too..)
It was like 7-ish when we finished.. dinner time!! Aisha wanted noodles again.. so GM was my choice.. although when we walked to GM, I met my friend and told me that GM was very full and he told me to go to foodcourt.. but foodcourt also full and hot too..
So we want to take a look first at GM.. and hey... it was not that full.. we only waited for 5 minutes to get seated.. then we ordered noodles.. by the way, dont forget to bring cash to GM... they only accept cash, and if you have debit card, you have to order more than 200rb.. There I was.. calculated how much money I had in my wallet.. the waiter took our order and repeat it, then he told me.. 126rb.. hehe.. I had 50rb, my husband 50rb, and then my brother in law with his gf add 30rb..
Not finishing her food, Aisha got a little bit jumpy.. She never wants stay still when taking her meals.. I guess that's because I never make her use to it in the house.. So I took her to go to get some groceries in hero (just across the GM) and she also remind me to buy her milk.. "susunya aisha udah abis ya bu..."
I bought some apples for my breakfast juice (promo price), then some eggs to make some brownies, then chocolate cooking, and flour, and strainer like the one I saw in my cooking book, spatulas, egg beater, candies, ponds clean & shake, sand toys, birthday hats, coca cola zero, nyam-nyam, then... sustagen chocolate and vanilla.. (this is why shopping list is very important!!!!).. I spent more than 500rb for the groceries, payed by credit card which still has overdue credit from previous months.. hmm....
Really.. I know that we need to organize our spending, but.. I dont know... it was kind of hard to be rupiahwise..
The only answer to my problem is : Discipline..
My dilemmas :
1. not every weekend we went out like this..... me+my husband+my daughter.. so I want to get loose a little bit (get loose to spend 1 mil rupiah in a day??!)... yeah.. I admit not a little bit...
2. cashflows distraction -> hopefully I can manage to reduce some spending for the next 3 weeks...
One more thing.. do not get tempted by the discounts and sale during Jakarta's anniversary... It's in June & July!! Where you have to save your money for your child's education.. no bonuses given in June or July (in my company), not even THR yet...
Well... the bottom line is.. it doesn't matter how much money you made if you dont have smart spending fund.. they gone like the wind!! fast and almost no trace at all (except when you received your credit card bills....)