Eliminating the Limits   change yourself: change the world

Reading time: < 1 minute

Hi – just a quick post, some people have been wondering on how to apply to study abroad. I am not the right person to ask because I am studying in Jakarta myself, but I found a very interesting (and useful) website that might be able to help you to conduct your research if you plan to study abroad. Please go to HotCourses, www.hotcourses.co.id, and help yourself! For more information, you can contact my friend Nooraini Indrana (nooraini.indrana@hotcourses.com), she works at HotCourses in London. Good luck for your studies!

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

Ketika saya dan teman-teman merancang konsep rangkaian kegiatan Road to Indonesian Youth Conference, sering banget terpikirkan oleh kami mengenai budaya “pembajakan” yang ada di Indonesia, dan mungkin di seluruh dunia. Berkat fasilitas download yang tersedia di berbagai situs hosting, kadang-kadang kita sebagai pengguna internet tidak sadar bahwa downloading secara ilegal, atau tanpa konsen dari orang yang karyanya kita unduh, sama saja dengan pembajakan. Saya seringkali berharap, ada fasilitas yang memungkinkan kita mengunduh banyak lagu, termasuk lagu Indonesia, secara legal. Di luar negeri, ada banyak vendor yang menyediakan fasilitas download secara legal. Sayangnya, tentu saja mereka tidak memiliki database lagu-lagu Indonesia untuk diunduh. Ingin sekali rasanya membuat kampanye “Stop Pembajakan”, terutama yang berhubungan dengan pengunduhan lagu secara ilegal melalui internet.

Minggu lalu, saya mendengar tentang Nokia X6 dan berkesempatan untuk mencobanya. Fitur yang langsung menarik perhatian saya adalah Nokia Comes With Music—yang langsung menjawab pertanyaan saya akan apa arti hashtag #comeswithmusic yang ada di Twitter. Ternyata, Nokia merayakan Hari Musik Nasional dengan memperkenalkan layanan ini.

Dengan ponsel Nokia yang dilengkapi oleh layanan Comes With Music (selain X6, nanti akan ada seri-seri lain yang dilengkapi dengan layanan ini), kita bisa mengunduh lagu—sebanyak… tidak terbatas!—melalui database lagu Nokia yang memiliki lebih dari 3 juta lagu selama 12 bulan. GRATIS! Download-nya nggak harus pakai ponsel, tapi bisa juga dengan PC yang terhubung dengan ponsel tersebut. Jadi, lagu yang diunduh nggak dibatasi dengan kapasitas memori ponsel kita. Nokia juga punya Ovi Player, software yang bisa digunakan untuk download lagu, mengatur lagu, transfer musik, dan lain-lain.
Di database Musik Ovi, ternyata ada koleksi lagu Indonesia yang relatif lengkap. Mulai dari lagu-lagunya Sherina, sampai lagu-lagu almarhum Chrisye. Selain itu, juga ada lagu-lagu internasional, bahkan yang tidak terlalu “terkenal” di Indonesia, seperti band OK Go dan The Script.

Semoga inovasi Nokia ini bisa membuat kita, pemuda Indonesia, bisa mulai menikmati ribuan lagu secara legal, bukannya main unduh di internet, copy dari hard disk teman, maupun rip dari CD milik teman. Sudah saatnya pemuda Indonesia lebih menghargai Hak Kekayaan Intelektual dan copyright—supaya musik Indonesia bisa lebih maju lagi. Amin!

Well, any youth can dream… and any youth can achieve it :)

Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes

Yes, it’s been a long time.

@VanyaViranda once asked me on Twitter about internships and how to become an intern in a magazine. I hope that I can share my experience with everyone.

Becoming an intern may means a lot of things, it depends on what you do, and how your company ask you to do it. I have tried a number of different kind of internships. From being a volunteer, flexible part-timer, and a full-time staff.

For your consideration, I’ve been a freelance writer for several magazines, including Gogirl!, Hai, and kaWanku. I also contributed for 21-Degrees for several months and sometimes write for JakartaConcerts.com. I contributed in one of Provoke!’s Student Editions and I have authored two books. All of them gave insightful, different experiences for me.

The real work? I worked for the marketing division of Millions Pictures for 6 months. They are the ones who made Queen Bee movie. I also worked as an intern for (almost) one month in Business Relations Division, British Council Indonesia.

If you want to be a freelance writer, it is actually very easy. You only need to write your own piece about anything you like, the things you are passionate about – like music or films or fictional stories, and then send it to a magazine that you think would publish your work. Before we send our work, we have to learn the characteristic of our target magazine. For example, if you want to write about life lessons in a girl’s point of view, you can not send it directly to a magazine. You have to learn the characteristic of each magazine. In my opinion, Gogirl! is more into trends and fashion, CosmoGIRL! is more into self-esteem campaigns, and kaWanku is more ‘think globally, act locally’ campaigns. Now, see the difference? The next thing you ought to do, is only to look around the magazine, find the office’s address (or e-mail!), and send your work. That easy. Wait until you get a call about your work. If not, go write another piece, try to write things that are more appropriate to be placed in that magazine.

Being a contributor is another thing. I got the chance to write for 21-Degrees and JakartaConcerts.com because I tried to maintain my relationship with them. I first met 21-Degrees’ Chief Editor when he went to my school and wanted to featured my school’s achievements. I shook hands with him and tried to get the opportunity to write in his magazine, and I succeeded. You guys should do the same. If one day you meet Anita Moran or Widi Mulia, ask them, “How can I write in your magazine? Because I want to, and I know I can.” It might be successful. If not, they won’t remember your name anyway, don’t be embarrassed. About JakartaConcerts.com, I knew Ryan Novianto & Dimas Wisnuwardono from my friend, Suryo. We chatted for quite some time and I decided to help them by writing for JakartaConcerts.com. I don’t get paid, even till now. But I do it with my heart, to help my friends, not for money. It’s all worth it. God will pay you back, no worries.

In Million Pictures, I was offered the job because they knew that I blog! So, I think you guys should start blogging seriously. Some people says that it’s a waste of time but I don’t think so. In British Council, I applied for the internship slot there. I chose two fields: Business Relations and Creativity. But, the BR team ’stole’ me from Creativity. Anyone can apply for the internship position by logging into their website.

I don’t know what else to write but I am going to write a few things… I think you should do if you want to be an intern, especially in media our journalistic field:

1. Research! That’s the first thing I’d like to advise. Write everything you need to know, and ask the things that you haven’t known yet. I have met tons of journalist who ask ‘What do you do?’ and ‘What is your cause?’ and ‘Where do you go to school?’. Didn’t they do any kind of research before? Come on, this world has Google.
2. You have to be able to write things from different point of views. Not from your point of view, but from your company’s point of view. This is very important. You don’t want people to read your piece as if it’s your diary, right?
3. Make sure that you write the ‘right’ thing. Ask your resources if needed. It pisses me off when anyone writes incorrect details about me, especially when they have interviewed me.
4. Don’t think about money. Interns who are paid Rp100.000,-/day… are in heaven already. There are people who pay us Rp25.000,- or Rp50.000,- a day, it depends on what you do, and of course, how you do it. Some of them doesn’t even give anything to us, and be happy with it. The most valuable thing you get from becoming an intern is the experience.
5. Take the bus. Bring your own lunch. Don’t even think about taking a cab or buying your lunch in the canteen. Waste of money. Save it for something, like, maybe, BlackBerry or MacBook :D
6. Be friendly to anyone. One of the main aim of becoming an intern is to get the connections, expand your network. Talk to these people you are working with, with enough respect and enough friendliness. They are eager to help interns like you though they seem ’scary’ at first. Talk about what you do (and say it excitingly and interestingly), and give them a clue that you need their help. That’s what I did in British Council. I asked these people’s help for IYC!
7. Critical thinking is needed! Let them know what you think about what they do, give feedback, they really appreciate it. It’s time for our voice to be heard, right?
8. Never give up. I have sent more than 100 applications in my life, to different institutions: to apply for internships, competitions, ask for sponsorships, ask for support. Some of them got back to me, the rest didn’t, and no hurt feelings. They are busy, just like us.
9. Stop thinking that you can’t do something. YOU CAN. If you try. I hate listening to people say that “I cannot do this and that”. All you have to do is sit in front of your laptop and type something in Google. That’s how I got some things. That’s how I knew that British Council calls for interns. That’s how I found out that there’s is such thing like JakartaConcerts.com. If you only wait for people to tell you to do things, you won’t achieve something big.

Hmmm… Again, I don’t know what else, but let me know if you want to ask anything, I’d be glad to help :) I hope what I’ve written will give insightful knowledge for you, especially about internships in journalism.

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

Yes, the new theme lasted for a very short amount of time. I’m not a fan of pink actually, but I thought it might bring a new ambiance to my blog. Apparently, there are a lot of people who doesn’t like it and I think a dark theme (with my favourite colour, blue!) is waaay better for now. Did you know that a dark colour can save the energy?

A search engine tool, Blackle, has saved 1,2 Megawatt hours! Blackle is a black version of Google. It was created by Heap Media and is powered by Google Custom Search. According to this, “A given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.“ That’s why I set my homepage to Blackle, and changed my theme back to black. Small steps do matter, don’t they?

Anyway, Year 12 students are having a couple of exams to go. Hope we all would do well. I don’t really care about exams right now. Days have been very difficult to me. Everything from different directions are moving towards me. Pushing me. Not that I can’t accept it, but I just need a break. People acts as if they understand me, but they just don’t. Because things like these don’t happen in everyone’s life.

Lucky me that God is testing my strength, and I hope that what He does will make me strong gradually. Now you know that my life is not perfect. God is just. Believe me, people whom you think is perfect or ‘only’ very lucky… they are not. So, don’t be envious. Just be happy with your life, enjoy it. Don’t ever wish you were someone else.

And to recharge my energy, if I could do anything I want to do, I would say I need:

1. A sleepover with my girlfriends.

2. A night of Thirteen* with neighbours

Last but not least,

3. A great dinner with cousins

What do you do to recharge your energy? :))

PS: A little note for you, who addresses yourself as a me.

“Anger is just a cowardly extension of sadness. It’s a lot easier to be angry at someone than it is to tell them you’re hurt.”- Tom Gates

*) Thirteen in Indonesian means CAPSA! :B

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Last month, on February 18, I attended Amnesty International Indonesian Influencer Webinar. It was the first time for me to attend such thing, so I was nervous and excited at the same time. I didn’t understand at first, but it was a wonderful experience. There were 5 bloggers from Indonesia: Enda Nasution, Marisa Duma, M. Ilman Akbar, Anita Carmencita, and me. There were also some people from Online Communities division of Amnesty International: James Skinner, Ryan Visser, Jai Kotecha, Jennifer Bilec-Sullivan, Abigail O’hanlon and Mirinda Boon-Kuo.

On 2001, President Bush issues a military order on the “Detention, Treatment and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens, in the War Against Terrorism”, purporting to authorize the Pentagon to hold non US-citizens in indefinite custody without charge. Next, the first detainees are transferred to Guantanamo from Afghanistan and are held in wire mesh cages in an area known as “Camp X-Ray”. Starting on 2005, Amnesty International called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, followed by other organizations and former presidents including Carter and Clinton. Amnesty International had also published the names of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret CIA custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown. So, on 2008, Amnesty International released the Counter Terror with Justice: A checklist for the next US President.

Most Indonesians supported Barack Obama. Some of them did because they believed “he can”, while the rest were just joining the euphoria because Obama lived in Indonesia when he was a kid. Amnesty International also thinks that Obama can do better things than what the former president did. Change is possible, including on certain fields like human rights.

You can read the checklist by clicking here. If you want me to shorten the .pdf file, the checklist from Amnesty includes: “Close Guantanamo and illegal detention, eradicate torture, end impunity.” Is it difficult to be achieved? Obama still has 56 days to do this. Amnesty (and I) hope you can also participate on this movement, well… if you support human rights and think that we should counter terror with justice instead of torture.  Please sign the petition, stating that, “You can counter terror with justice. We are counting on you.” Until today, 19716 people have signed the petition. I am signing it. Are you willing to do so? If it’s a nod, you can sign the petition here.

http://obama100days.amnesty.org/petition.html

Can you do it? Let me know what you think! If you sign, or even if you don’t, tell me… :-) Just like what Pure Saturday said, “Time for a change…”

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

is a song from L’Alphalpha, a four-piece band full of my buddies. You can listen to it here. But, I’m not going to talk about music, though.

Bali, Juli 2008. I went snorkeling!

A few days before I traveled to the UK, I arranged a meeting with Tante Rini Sucahyo, from Conservation International Indonesia. I first met her in a meeting in USAID’s office. Fitrian Ardiansyah, WWF Indonesia’s program director of climate change, invited me to come along with him to join the meeting. I wasn’t aware that she’s actually my friend’s mum because she seemed so young! She’s the mother of the loveliest experimental photographer I ever befriended with, Cassandra Niki (nicknamed Casseybunn :D).

We talked much about marine conservation, well that’s her main concern in environmental issues. That’s what I am going to share with you through this entry.

Images are courtesy of © Jez O’hare. Check his amazing works here.

I mean, did you know that coral reefs are animals instead of an underwater plant? And, did you know that Indonesia has the biggest marine biodiversity in the world? I didn’t.

There are three things that support the underwater life:

1. Mangrove (hutan bakau)
2. Seagrass bed (padang lamun)
3. Coral reef (terumbu karang)

Mangrove and seagrass bed are often called “the nursery”. This is where baby fishes and turtles grow up until they can swim to the deeper part of the ocean. Most of Indonesian people only knew about mangrove and coral reef without knowing about seagrass bed, which is also very important. Without seagrass bed, baby fishes and turtles often gotten caught by predators before they can reach their home :(

Besides, turtles are also the main problem in Indonesia. It is still used as a part in religious rituals (especially in Bali island) and being consumed as food. It’s very ironic, because turtles are labeled using the term “endangered species” and so vulnerable. They need 5 years to grow up… well, if they are not eaten by the humans yet.

Conservation International has been doing a lot of things to conserve marine life in Indonesia. That includes workshop and education, mangrove reforestation (around Bali, Muara Karang and Flores), games for kids and clean up the sea with college students (especially IPB, they have diving clubs).

These are some facts to trigger your awareness:

• 1356 species of reef fishes are found in Bird’s Head Seascape
• 1223 species of reef fishes are found in Raja Ampat
• There are 15 species of reef fishes that are only found in Bird’s Head Seascape
• 600 species of coral reefs are found in Bird’s Head Seascape
• 75% of all species of coral reefs in the world are found in Bird’s Head Seascape. It is 10 times of the coral reefs species found around The Caribbean Islands!
• On the 4.500 species of reef fishes existing in the oceans worldwide, around 3.500 of them have been identified in Indonesia!

So, have you planned to do something? A snorkeling day, maybe? Or Google about seagrass bed? Well, you choose. Let me know what you think!

Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes

Read J. D. Salinger – The Catcher in The Rye
Listen Radiohead – 15 Steps
Watch Into The Wild

For the ones who have been keeping an eye on the life of Alanda in the past two, three years, either through the live version or through the media (blog, magazine, newspaper, etc), maybe have been also aware with something called The Cure For Tomorrow. About TCFT, you can read it on http://thecurefortomorrow.wordpress.com. There were a lot of people who asked how to participate, what are the activities? You can read them all in our site.

One year ago, TCFT went through an internal problem, and finally, I took a big decision, yet difficult. TCFT has been temporarily “non-activated”. Although there were a lot of registered members with us, approximately 100 people, the ones who are really doing something in the community were too few, about 15-20 people. Active, referring to their presence in our meetings and events, their routine donation payment, and more. The other 80? Maybe they were more like, just registered. So they could write The Cure For Tomorrow in their profile page and be proud of it. I’ve never thought about it as a problem, because for me, the most important thing was participation, no matter how little it is. The essence of TCFT’s presence is to respect any kind of contribution, and I will stick to it forever.

From the active 20 people, most of them currently sits on last year of high school and will face the final exams, so most of us always had excuses: after school lessons, try out, exams. There were also some of us who had moved to Bandung for school or college. Aisha, my partner-in-crime, had departed to Charleston, West Virginia, as a participant of YES (Youth Exchange and Study Programs), AFS. Read Aisha’s story, here.

TCFT was started on June 2006. It popped up in my head, and followed with a phone call  to Aishanatasha. Then, it spreaded to our friends. It all started with an idea, a dream, a hope. Two years later, we are these. :-)

After TCFT was non-activated, we got thrilling-exciting offers. We were about to be interviewed by Majalah Saos (Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa), Planet Remaja (anTV), were about to have a meeting with Ms Titie Sadarini from The Coca-Cola Foundation, … I had to say no to all of those, because we didn’t have enough human resources. I could have attended all of those alone, but I don’t think it’s fair. The Cure For Tomorrow is not mine, it belongs to everyone who has given their contributions, and they have the right to experience the same things like I and Aisha did.

Establishing TCFT has opened a lot of opportunities for me, Aisha, and the others to move. TCFT wants to break the paradigm and stereotype that kids and teens cannot do anything, cannot bring a change. Without TCFT, we would have never been like this. I would never become Indonesia’s delegate for Global Changemakers Guildford Forum 2009, Aisha would never become Indonesia’s delegate in YES and AFS. Being a volunteer might will never make you reach. But, it opens a lot of doors, opportunities. We have met a lot of people, do a lot of new things, learn to socialize, and even try to see the world from a different point of view.

On December 5 2008, I have accomplished an “assignment” from British Council as Indonesian Global Changemaker to attend International Volunteer Day 2008 Celebration at Menteng Park, Central Jakarta. There were booths from Palang Merah Indonesia, Volunteering for International Development from Australia (VIDA), Global Xchange British Council, United Nations Volunteers, and more.

This post will not have any meaning without sharing. Just like what Everybody Loves Irene said, love is sharing. :-)

1. UN Volunteers offered an alternative to do online volunteering for everybody from all around the world who cannot depart to other countries but want to  do something to help the world. By the time I posted this entry, there were 3000 online volunteers already. Anyone can be an online volunteer. You can do: project development and management, design, coordination and facilitation, IT development, research, writing, editing, translating, training, coaching and consulting. The organization you work for will give you a certificate by the end of your colunteering activities. Click www.onlinevolunteering.org for more.

2. British Council has the Global Xchange program, where 9 Indonesian teenagers by the age of 18 – 25 years old team up with 9 British teenagers with the same age. These 18 kids will be located in a town in the UK for 3 months and a town Indonesia for 3 months. Read Global Xchange 2008’s story on British Council’s site. The latest deadline for the application form will be on early September 2009, for the next in take term, March 2010. Click here to download form. For further information, please contact Ilsa Meidina, (021) 5155561 or try to meet her at British Council Indonesia, Bursa Efek Indonesia Tower 2,  16th Floor.

Interested?

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

Written by Ryan Novianto, founder of JakartaConcerts.com.

1. No Flash Rule
   Peraturan mendasar dari stage photography untuk international concerts adalah NO FLASH. Sebab, si artis akan merasa terganggu dengan flash yang berasal dari 20 kamera (atau bahkan lebih) yang langsung menyorot wajah mereka dari depan panggung. Dengan kondisi ini, awalnya saya sempat panik. Tapi, alhamdulillah, sekarang sudah menemukan ramuan “pas”-nya.
2. Limited Time
   Stage photographers tidak pernah punya banyak waktu untuk bereksperimen. Saya dan teman-teman dari JakartaConcerts.com paling banyak mendapat jatah memotret selama 3 lagu (kalikan @ 3-4 menit). Beberapa promotor bahkan hanya memberi jatah 5 menit untuk memotret. Dengan kondisi awal nggak tahu lighting bakal seperti apa, begitu juga blocking sang artis, belum lagi berdesakan dengan fotografer lain di pit. Terlebih lagi kalau konser tersebut menarik banyak media, rebutan spot bagus pastinya.
3. Lenses
   Harus selalu siap ganti lensa! Banyak momen di dalam konser yang jarang terjadi, misalnya freezing moments-nya Switchfoot (dan stage act lain yang gila). Kita harus bisa “meramalkan” apa yang akan terjadi selanjutnya, jadi bisa mempersiapkan mau pakai lensa apa. Saran saya, sediakan lensa tele, wide danfixed 50 mm. Tele untuk close up artis, wide untuk menangkap semua personil, dan fixed 50 mm sebagai surga, dengan bukaan 1.8, lighting redup sih santai!
4. (Another) Lighting Issue
   Jangan kaget kalau lighting jelek. Karena, di 3 lagu pertama, biasanya lightingnya super jelek. Entah sengaja atau kebetulan, tapi ini sering terjadi. Untuk menyiasatinya, siapkan ISO 800 sampai 1600.
5. Mental!
   Yang paling penting, siapkan mental, jaga emosi. Kita akan rebutan spot di pit, bisa ketutupan fotografer lain. Dan kita, nggak bisa marah dalam kondisi ini. Karena ini sama-sama pekerjaan kita, harus kompromi. Setelah jatah foto selesai, kita pun akan “diusir” sama security, terutama security dari artis itu sendiri.

Saran saya, banyak-banyak latihan di Java Jazz Festival atau event lainnya yang memperbolehkan kita membawa kamera DSLR.

See you on the press pit!

Regards,
Ryan Novianto

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

So, JakartaConcerts.com is one of the websites I adore very much. It’s a pioneer of a digital media who helps the promoters to distribute the news about upcoming concerts in Jakarta. Although there is another site who plagiarized JakartaConcerts.com, for me–and many euphorians out there, JakartaConcerts.com is still the one.

I talked to one of its founders, Ryan Novianto, and did a short interview.

Hi, Ryan. How are you?
Hello, I’m great!

So, what is JakartaConcerts.com exactly?
JakartaConcerts.com is a website. We’re doing our part to kick the things out into the higher gear. Kalau sebelumnya, concerts infos only appear on magazines or other conventional medias, JakartaConcerts.com tries to facilitate it all through a website. Intinya, kami adalah website yang membahas konser di Jakarta dan Indonesia, we also build a community consists of concert addicts through the site.

How did you start it all?
It started from a light discussion between Dimas Wisnuwardono (co-founder of JakartaConcerts.com -red) and me. We talked about our euphoria after watching MUSE’s concert on February 2007, a never-ending one. After that, an idea came to our minds. We wanted to do a business, to make T-shirts for concert lovers. So, dengan kaos itu kita ke konser bisa seru-seruan bareng. Then, another idea came to my mind. “Why don’t we make an online community for concert lovers?” Finally, we discussed about the idea and the concept of JakartaConcerts.com was born.

What are your achievements until now?
Since we started JakartaConcerts.com, in about one year, we have already become partners with 9 international concert promoters. You can see our logo on concert posters and witness the placement of our banners inside the concert venues. One thing Dimas and I had never thought would happen when we started JakartaConcerts.com.

How does it feel?
Everytime I see the logo of JakartaConcerts.com anywhere, the only thing that came to my mind is like I am actually asleep and my mum can wake me up anytime soon. I might say I’m so proud. I live to make my parents proud. Maybe I can do that by doing this. My daddy once called me after I got an interview with a radio station, and he said, “Good job, Yan. Keep up the good work…” It’s simple, really. But, it means a lot to me and it gives strength for me to continue what I have started.

What do you want to say to the people who are reading this article?
If you have a dream, find a way to accomplish it. Don’t only think about today’s plan, think about what you are going to do in the future. If you have any problems today, just say “Hakuna matata!” out loud. Aaaand, if you’d like to share your euphoria, don’t forget to join JakartaConcerts.com’s forum, people! :)

I guess that’s it all I’ll do another interview with him (or perhaps Dimas) another time. Please do see JakartaConcerts.com by clicking the links below:

www.jakartaconcerts.com (main site)
www.jakartaconcerts.org (forum)

Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

These are some advertisements from The 2008 Hollywood Portfolio by Vanity Fair.

Rebecca, 1940
Keira Knightley and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Photograph by Julian Broad.

Strangers on a Train, 1951
Emile Hirsch and James McAvoy. Photograph by Art Streiber.

To Catch a Thief, 1955
Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. Photograph by Norman Jean Roy.

The Birds, 1963
Jodie Foster. Photograph by Norman Jean Roy.

Psycho, 1960
Marion Cotillard. Photograph by Mark Seliger.

Click here for the original article.