HANZKY

No, not the actual rain. That, I don't mind. But it's the pouring rain of sad news that have been happening in my family.

Three weeks ago, my aunt (my dad sister) passed away. She's already old and had been sick on and off for the past year. Two weeks ago, my long-distance cousin, also from my dad's side, passed away. He had an accident at Pondok Indah toll road and didn't make it to the hospital. It was a really heart-breaking story. Yesterday, another of my dad's aunt, the youngest one, passed away. Just like her sister, she had been sick on and off. She also had a down syndrome since she was born so her organs are not functioning properly to begin with.

Three family members gone in a span of 3 weeks. That's kinda hard to digest, you know :(. I pray with all my might to not hear anymore sad news for a long long time.

In addition to that, I've also been receiving unfortunate news from the people around me. Affi was hospitalized for more than a week last month, Ipong's (Travelers Daily Managing Editor) mother has gone through surgery and diagnosed with cancer last week. Andy's parents, he is our developer, had an accident last month and had to stay in the hospital and went through some surgeries. Ningsih (our administrative assistant) lost her new motorcycle. Griss (Fashionese Daily Editor) had chicken pox. My mom's sister fell down and broke her arms. What else? Oh my friend's son, Astrid is also at the hospital right now.

And this reminds me that I really should go see my grandma this weekend. She hasn't been feeling really well either.

Let's hope for a healthier & safer tomorrow for everyone. And hold your loved ones tight, people. I know I wanna go home and hug my kids right now.

Remember this post? I've finally made it to Palo Alto and back to the US with the family :). We visited San Francisco, Palo Alto, Chicago, Carbondale, St. Louis, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It was a two weeks trip, we left on October 4 and came back on October 20. Mixing business and pleasure judulnya. As a working mom, something to always be thankful for is the ability to integrate family life into your professional life. It was a memorable trip. I would say the business part, the Endeavor experience, was quite life-changing. I've met ultra inspiring individuals and other entrepreneurs from around the world. I received priceless feedback and encouraging supports that I badly need. I was given a light to guide me reach another level in my entrepreneurial journey. I believe I came out of the program a better person, as an individual as well as an entrepreneur.

It's a long story that should be saved for another day. Now the kids are bugging me to make them a batch of chicken wings :).

'Till later.

Last week, I met a good friend of mine whom I've been friends with since high school, Mina and Aan. With Aan, I still communicate regularly although we only meet about twice a year. But Mina is a different story. I've pretty much lost contact with her for the past few years. She now lives in Weh Island, Aceh with her husband and three kids. She is here because her husband has a 7 month long training in Jakarta. It's nearing toward month 7 and the 'let's meet' talk still had not been realized until last week. I admit, part of it was because I kept rescheduling the meet up.

Turned out, Toples, our photographer worked hard last night to have it hung until 3am! A few months ago, I told him about the idea of having the wall of fame in our community center. We made it a secret project. Took picture of everyone and told them it was for the press card. Little did they know we turned it into something like this. And Toples still managed to surprise me because I didn't know he was planning to do it last night.

Recently, Jehan discovered a new technology called WhatsApp....and Blackberry Messenger. Aand she is messaging everyone she knows, from her grandma to her cousin and her mbak. Aaand she always asked me every few minutes if so and so has replied her message. Tsk tsk.  



Well, maybe it's how you hone in your writing skill in this modern days, no? By the way, she can navigate the touch screen effortlessly, but it takes her some adjustment with Blackberry Qwerty. I wonder if everything will be touchscreen in the future.

Here's some of her WhatsApp messages.

I think we're all agree that a big part of managing a business is actually managing people. Go Girl started way earlier than Female Daily Network so Nina has gone through a lot, from happy times to tough times to even tougher times. Just like Female Daily, Go Girl started small. It's still a growing company where they have to learn through trial and error on what's work and what's not. Go Girl back then of course is a lot different than Go Girl today considering it's been more than 10 years since they have been around. And of course, that's a good thing. If they stay the same that means they're not growing, right?

Business-wise, this week has been a really interesting week. Last Wednesday I (along with Affi and Nopai) was engaged in an intense business discussion for 4 hours until close to midnight at Pacific Place, with people I've just met for the first time :D. It was entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Surely put things in perspective. It's always nice to know other people's point of view, especially if they are people who understand the digital landscape here in Indonesia.

Thursday was no less interesting with the email offer we received from someone we've been meeting back and forth with, shared documents and even signed NDA for the last 2 months. Note to self: reply the email.

Just when I thought today would be an uneventful day I heard these words proposed to me in the meeting room; Palo Alto in October. I was stunned for a short second before I cracked a wide grin and said oh yess of course!

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Coca Cola office in GKBI. Not only I got to see the nice office, I also had an hour with Martin Gil, the CEO to share Female Daily story :). The kind of opportunity that doesn't come very often.

By the way, stepping in to the office and seeing all the bottles nicely lined up as the room divider takes me back to 1999 where I visited Coca Cola museum in Atlanta.


One of the interesting things that came out of the one hour meeting was how surprised he was knowing we only have 25 people in the office doing 3 online medias, 1 social network and 1 forum with 70,000 members!

Jib had been craving for popcorns since last night. And he was bummed to know that since he is fasting, he couldn't munch on popcorns while watching Despicable Me. But turned out we got the 5 o'clock session, meaning we would break the fast inside the theater. So Oki went out to buy some popcorns and other snacks right before Maghrib. Jibran was so excited and gobbled the popcorn for the first few minutes, but he didn't finish it.

Before we watched the movie, Jib said he wanted to eat Yoshinoya, so that's what we did. Upon finishing his food, he realized that I buy some for takeaway too for sahur. And he was like blahhh.

Then he asked me that why is it every time he wants some food, that food looks sooo appealing, but when he eats it and especially after he finishes it, the food just doesn't taste as good anymore. :D

I told him some times I feel the same way too. It's called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. The more you consume/buy, the less satisfied you will be. The last bite won't taste as good as the first bite. It took me an economic class in college to learn about that :D. Now if only I know how to apply the concept in other parts of life.