Public Enemy?

Aku akan bercerita sedikit tentang pengalaman beberapa minggu yang lalu yang cukup menguras energi dan pikiranku...

Ups... jangan pikir aku ini public enemy...haha nope. absolutely not. but it is about someone... aku tidak akan ghibah disini...tapi aku hanya akan bercerita sedikit tentang apa itu public enemy dan bagaimana seseorang bisa menjadi public enemy..

Public itu artinya publik (of course haha)... dalam konteks public enemy, public disini berarti masyarakat umum. Sedangkan enemy jelas artinya adalah musuh. Kalau digabung...jelas berarti musuh masyarakat.

Okay i will give an example, how a person can be a public enemy...

Ada seorang kawan (entah bisa dibilang kawan atau tidak karena tidak pernah ngobrol secara langsung) yang ketika bertindak tidak memperhatikan orang lain. Istilahnya tabayun atau bertanya tentang kebenaran suatu hal ke orang lain sehingga membuat orang lain merasa... well... unappreciated.

Walaupun sebenernya sang kawan bermaksud baik.

So, eventually... banyak orang beranggapan bahwa apa yang dia lakukan cukup keterlaluan karena bertemu saja tidak mau dan tidak bisa dilakukan klarifikasi ke pihak yang bersangkutan...

Then, bomb comes up... dia menjadi public enemy... --"

Aku kasihan sebenernya... tapi aku tidak bisa apa-apa karena perasaan seseorang tidak bisa diatur bukan...

The main point in here is that... bukan untuk menjudge siapa yang lebih baik dan tidak.. tapi belajar dari apa yang terjadi.

Rasulullah selalu mengungkapkan dalam banyak hadist bahwa seorang muslim tidak baik jika bertengkar satu sama lain dan tidak baik jika menyimpan amarah hingga lebih dari 3 hari.

Dan juga... ketika kita akan melakukan sesuatu yang berpengaruh terhadap hidup orang banyak...alangkah lebih baik nya jika bertanya dulu sebelum melakukan...walaupun niatnya baik.

Dengan begitu... tidak akan terjadi yang namanya persengketaan akan sesuatu ataupun pertengkaran yang tidak perlu bukan? Lingkungan jadi indah dan damai... :)

May Allah forgive all of our mistakes..
Wallahualam bishawab

Jazakallahu Khairan Katsiran.

Primadita Rahma Ekida : The Finalist of World Muslimah Awards 2014

Bukan karena mbak canteekk ini adalah sodara sepupu ku tersayang tapi she's a great woman!! Pertama kali dia bilang sama aku, adeknya yang nakal ini, kalau dia mau ikut World Muslimah Awards 2014, I just like... "What??? Seriously???" and she's like "Yes, I'm serious..."

Okay then... speechless. Itu yang aku rasakan saat pertama kali dia mengutarakan itu lewat chat FB (i'm in taiwan she's in indonesia)

Sejak kami masih kecil, aku tau banget dia orangnya seperti apa, secara kami tumbuh bersama (not in the same house) but kami sering bermain bersama dan bahkan punya baju yang sama, bukan lungsuran, tapi identically the same. Sengaja dijahitin supaya kembar karena waktu itu emang kami dua cucu terbesar nenek ku. hahaha

Just like other kids, kami kadang bertengkar memperebutkan sesuatu, bukan kadang tapi sering. Bahkan rebutan jepitan jemuran... ohh meennn kalo inget berasa pengen ngakak. Please..jepitan jemuran... -___-"

Semakin kami tumbuh besar, semakin aku sadar bahwa dia seseorang yang bertalenta, bermimpi besar, pintar, dan bersahabat.

Terbukti dengan bagaimana nenek ku selalu membanggakan seorang Dita (panggilannya di rumah) atau Rahma (panggilannya dari teman2nya), di depanku. Pernah bahkan aku merasa "kenapa selalu dibandingin sih???" dan itu yang membuatku terpacu untuk menjadi lebih baik. hahaha Tujuan intinya biar ga dibandingin sama mbak satu ini. :p

Sejak masih di bangku SD, dia selalu menunjukkan kemampuannya dalam segala bidang...dan tidak hanya kemampuan...tapi benar-benar kemampuan. Menang di berbagai kejuaraan...itu jelas. Pramuka, Debat, dsb. Tapi bukan sekadar debat...english debate...waow untuk seumuran dia di tahun itu karena tidak banyak anak SMP/SMA yang bisa debat pake bahasa inggris.

Bahkan saat itu bahasa inggris aja aku ga bisa... menang juara ga pernah... no single winning cup is in my parents' house. hahaha

Mimpi-mimpinya mulai terlihat ketika dia menginjak bangku kuliah. Waktu itu aku masih SMA. Aku sadar betul apa yang dia inginkan dan dia lakukan dari waktu ke waktu didasari oleh mimpi. Dia selalu ingin suatu hal yang baru dan tidak ingin sama dengan orang lain. Oh yeah she always talk to me all the time, walaupun kadang ada cekcok nya juga sih (sorry for this, sist) haha

And now... I really can't believe she is elected as one of the finalists in World Muslimah Awards 2014. O.o

Saat dia bilang sama aku...cuma gini "dek... i'm in..."
hahaha

Really...unbelievable... even our family didn't believe it...until they actually started to believe it. hahaha

Aku percaya dia pantas jadi salah satunya. Bagaimana tidak? Aku tau bagaimana dia sejak kecil dan aku tau dia pantas mendapatkannya. :)

Smart girl... all of woman in our family are smart. Aku percaya ini gen...#pengenDibilangPinterJuga #tabokPakeBantal hahaha

Living in her dream... punya banyak mimpi dan dia konsisten untuk melakukannya... dan dalam waktu yang cukup singkat. ga kayak aku yang masih berleha-leha santai. haha Contohnya adalah ketika dia bilang pengen jadi blogger... wuih yang namanya ngerecokin (dikit) aku buat design n buatin blog buat dia itu luar biasa. hahaha sampe akhirnya dia bisa nulis blog sendiri dan lebih konsisten nulis daripada aku yang lebih lama punya blog..haha

Muslimah beneran... bukan bohongan... sekarang kan banyak nih ngakunya muslimah tapi ga pake jilbab, atau pake jilbab tapi jadinya jilboobs. Mbak Dita mah ga kayak gitu. Real act like a muslimah.

Social activities... oh yes it is... look at her bio and you know why.




And of course... apa yang sudah dia lakukan sebagai muslimah?
Aku bangga padanya karena dia berhasil melakukan berbagai hal via blog nya. Inspire orang lain untuk menjadi lebih baik dengan media blog. Misal dengan adanya event #MenulisMuharram, #1Hari1Ayat atau #1Hari1Masjid yang pernah dia lakukan untuk para follower blog nya.
So, apa yang sudah aku lakukan? hmmm organizing life planner maybe? haha
I will try to make a similar event next time... if I have holiday in school maybe.. (see... si penunda pekerjaan is me) haha

So, please please please... VOTE her untuk jadi pemenang di World Muslimah Awards 2014 yang insyaAllah akan ada finalnya di Yogyakarta, 22 November 2014

VOTE bisa ke link ini http://www.worldmuslimah.org/award2014/primadita-rahma-ekida-indonesia/

Atau mau tau lebih banyak ? Bisa cek ke blog mbak Dita / Rahma tersayang di http://theprimadita.blogspot.tw/ and you will find a lot of interesting things she wrote about being Muslim or Muslimah...

Thank you for your help for my beautiful smart sister.

Jazakallahu Khairan Katsiran. :)

Organizing your Place : DIY Desk Dividers

These past few weeks, I was overwhelmed with my desk. We have a loootttt of stuff in our room, especially in desk. Because we rent a room, we can't have many spaces. However, we have things to put in somewhere reachable because we like to use them often. Cosmetics, papers, pens, clips, hair band, pins, electricity equipment, gadgets, etc. Just think about those things in one desk make me overwhelmed and stressed by myself.

So, I decided to look for ideas in YouTube about how to organize desk. Most of the videos suggest to make the desk look nice, yes of course because they are still teenager. haha But what I wanna look for is something that not only look nice, but also neat and organized. 

Then, I came up with this idea. My husband just laugh when I first start to do this, but then he realized that this is helpful for us. :)

I decided to make dividers for my desk drawer for my stuffs. We are lucky to have two big desk drawers so we can put many stuff there. But, if we didn't put them nicely and organize, it will be a big mess and hard to look for something. The desk drawer itself, made by cardboard. 

Why cardboard? Because I'm trying to find something cheap (or free) and just a little bit effort to make it because it is easy to cut. 

Okay let me show you how I made it.

First, Find cardboard that not used in your home.

You can use any kind of cardboard. I used a cardboard that I recently used for moving from school dorm to my husband's house after I married. So, it's kinda thick and perfect for dividers. Because it will not going to bent if some stuffs push the dividers.

Second, Design your own dividers.

Design doesn't mean hard to do. Just make a scratch drawing on a piece of paper. Don't forget to measure your drawer and the size of your design. :)

Three, Cut the cardboard in the specific size you have. 

Yes it needs a little bit of effort to cut a thick cardboard. However, you can use paper razor blade to cut. I used it and it's sharp enough to cut. 

Four, Place the cutted board into your drawers.

It's not only placing but also gluing your cardboard. Because if you have a design that perpendicular, you have to glue each side of the cutted cardboard. If you want,you can decorate it as well. Like maybe put some stickers or decorated tapes. You also can paint the cardboard before put them in your drawers if you like.

Five, Place your stuff inside

You have your own stuffs and put them in designated areas of your dividers. Let me show you mine.

In here you can see that I put a lot of stuffs in our desk drawers and make different design of each drawer. The first desk drawer have bigger divider and the other is smaller. It's because I want to put a bigger stuffs inside the first desk drawer.

I have small pouches, gadgets, keys, watches, name cards, and also a container that I found in Daiso for small little piece of things. The container I used for my rings, coins, pins, brooch, paper clips, and hair band. 

Sometimes, we put everything in the desk and make the desk a mess with all of our gadgets. That's why I also have space for our gadgets like phone charger, external drive, disk, USB flash drive, etc.

So you see, it's very useful for us when prepare in the morning. Just open this desk drawer and know all of the stuff in place.

Another desk, I put all of my school and decorating supplies. I found it easier to put all of my pens, markers, and pencils inside the drawers rather than in the desk using pencil case. Because I wanna put my desk neat. If I wanna do something, just take them out and put them inside again after finish.

I also have my glue, tapes, decorated tapes, ruler, etc.

Maybe some of you read my previous post about behind my organizing planner which I explain about a container that I use for keeping my decorating stuffs. I'm still using it but I move my decorated tapes to this drawers. Because it's too thick and i have a lot of stickers inside. So, i just put them into this drawers and just take out some if I want to bring them to school.

Okay that's all.

Thank's for reading all of my talks today. haha

Hope it's helpful for you.

Jazakallahu Khairan Katsiran.

Organizing Household : All about Money

One of the most important lesson after I married is how to manage household money. Maybe all newlyweds will think the same with me. Once you married, your life is not only about you but also about your wife/husband.

In the case of money, Husband will give some money to Wife for household, like for groceries, eating out, beverages, etc. The challenge is for wife to manage the money until the specified date or usually in the end of the month.

I'm still learning this kind of thing. Managing not only household money but also another kind of money. But, now I found something interesting that I can share with you guys. Single also can use this as reference, even students. :)

Bills to Pay

There are many kind of bills. Mortgage, rent, electricity, water, phone, internet, school, etc. Many people sometimes forgot to pay in the specified date or if they pay they forgot how much money they spent and lost the receipt. Saving the receipt is important. Why? Because if there's something happened, maybe the company said you didn't pay yet but actually you are, you can show the receipt to them. Don't throw away all of your receipt bill!

So, I came up with this idea. Write down all of bills payment in a year, in a piece of paper.

Even for the transportation cost, you can write in down each month. Therefore, you will understand how much money you already spent for it and you can manage to think about how much budget you want for next month.

School also important because if you are still in school, therefore you have to pay school fees like registration, books, uniforms, etc. 

I'm giving you the raw file of this Bills to Pay because every person have different needs about their bills. The raw file is in doc file, not like previous posts' files that I made using Photoshop. 

You can download the Bills to Pay in this link.

Monthly Budget

In the first day of each month, me and my husband will spend some time to write all of the expenditure in the previous month to make decision for that month's budget. Maybe some people may think that this is very detailed and not really like the detailed things. Don't worry, it's normal. My husband also thought the same, until I explain why he should do this with me.

Household is not about wife, but also husband. He gave the money and She will manage it. But, not always like that. They have to work together because they have the same goal and need some money to achieve that goal.

For example, we want to travel around South East Asia in the beginning of next year. Therefore, we have to save some money. If we want to save more, means we have to spend less, right? To achieve that, we have to carefully calculate our expenditure and stay on budget. That's why the monthly budget is important. We will notice how much money we spent in each month and will not going to spend more than budget. :)

So, the idea is write all of the budget in the beginning of each month. And in the end of each month or in the specific date, write the expenditures or incomes. :)

Between the monthly and yearly bills, it must be consistent. So, if you write "bus" in the transportation cost in Bills to Pay, in the monthly budget should have "bus" also. It will help you when you summarize in the end of the month.

I also will give you the raw file and you can manage it by yourself. You can download in think link.

Weekly Outcomes

Actually the Weekly Outcomes can help to be bridge between day and month. The expenditure budgeted items are same with Monthly Budget. The difference is that you only have to fill it in the end of each week. Therefore, in the end of each month, you can calculate it in the Total column and move the value to the Monthly Budget's Actual column. Easy right? ^^

Again...I remind you to be consistent with the budgeted items. They are should be the same within weekly, monthly, and Bills to Pay yearly.

Hard work to do it each week? it is. But, you will feel it hard only in the first several weeks, after that you will do it every week without realize you already do it. 

The first step always difficult, but without the first step, you will never achieve your goal.

You can find the raw file in this link.

Daily Outcomes

The most important one is daily outcomes. The challenge is how you manage yourself to write down all of your expenditure without forgetting how much money you spend at that time. hahaha

Until now...I'm still trying to manage myself to always write it down in my journal every time I buy something and whenever I'm home, I will move that to this Daily Outcomes.

You can write down your expenditure with the source (place you buy it), with the amount in the outcomes column. Don't forget to write the balance after you spend the money.

So, you will notice how much money left on your pocket.

You can download the raw file of the Daily Outcomes in this link. 

The next question is... why I make this in A4 size paper? Not A5?

Because... I decided to make different journal for household things. I will all of the papers in to one folder that I keep at home. So, my husband can see it every time he wants. And I don't have to bring these papers with me where ever I go. :)

Also... if I have bills or receipts I can manage to keep them in that paper folders also. All in one place. Keep simple and organized, of course. ^^

Other question... why this files are sooo not colorful? i mean not many decorations there...

It is because I like to print them in designed paper. You can find many designed ready paper in school supply store and they have many different kinds of paper. When you print them in those paer, it will look nicer and you can have your own ideas of decorating your organizer.

Hope this post helpful for you.

If you have any questions, please write down on the comment below and InsyaAllah I will reply yours.

If you want another downloadable planner for Muslim, you can download them from this link.

Jazakallahu Khairan Katsiran. ^__^

Sometimes, Being Organized is Not Enough

These days I'm very busy with everything... Households, Classes, Research, Blog, Sickness, etc. Some days I always thought that 24 hours is not enough for me to do everything, even I already organized what I supposed to do on that day.

For example in one day I have to do :
- Prepare everything before go to Taipei from Hsinchu in the morning... means that I have to wake up at 5 / 6 a.m. (can't sleep after pray shubuh)
- Go to Taipei needs 2 hours.
- Class needs 3 hours
- Do research
- Prepare dinner (sometimes I will buy something if I go to Taipei that day)
- Contact several people (continues)
- Blog one / two topic
- Design the planner
- Do the organization's task (many things, not only one)
- Meet with professor
- Appointments with some people
- Back to Hsinchu needs 2 hours
- Do household things (need 1-2 hours)
- If I'm sick, then my day will be harder
- Sleep

Okay... from the start I'm awake until sleep again... some of those task will not accomplished. Really it needs a lot of effort to do many things in one day.

I felt messed up and need more time to finish my to do lists in one day.

Then...today I just realized that it's not only being organized and doing many task in the continuous time....but also how to manage your time.

yeah... Time Management... that's the answer.

I have to make sure that all of my to do lists are in the right time and continuous.

For the example,
If I want to meet several people, I will adjust the meeting in one time if possible. Except, with my prof of course. hahaha
When I'm waiting for the bus to go to Taipei or back to Hsinchu, I will read my research paper or do several other things to accomplished like contact people, read and reply emails, or something like that.
Therefore, in the class... I can focus on the course and will not going to feel overwhelmed in one day.

I know maybe I will feel terrible and confuse in some time, but if I felt it I will stop doing everything and pray... Basmalah and Istighfar are the most effective way to feel at ease.

My mom always said to me...
"If you feel overwhelmed, stop everything, then say Basmalah and Istighfar. If you still feel it, recite Al-Ikhlas and Al-Fatihah. Then you will feel at ease again and can do everything smoothly..."

Always remember Allah in every situations can make us feel at ease. :)

Organizing Life Planner for Weekly

I'm back with the organizing life planner for Muslim that I designed. But, this time is quite different than the daily planner. Before, I used color in the daily planner. Now, i'm using only black in the weekly planner.

I did some research about how people use their planner., and i found out that most of the people (i won't use percentage here) are color coded their planner. That's why I make my design all black from now on. I wanna try to encourage all of you to color coded your planner by yourself. Not only it's fun, but also it can stimulate your creativity and your discipline to do your work. :)

So, this is the weekly planner.

Well... weekly is all about week. So, what you put in the weekly planner are your weekly schedule. Not detailed one because for detailed one you can put them in the daily planner. And of course, better you do the color coded system in your planner, it will make you easier to spot on something.

I put the date in here...quite different with the daily. Because in here, the purpose is for weekly. That's why I put "week" there. So, you will know what week is that and what month including the Masehi and Hijriyah calendar.

Also in the box for days, I make columns for day's number, not only for Masehi but also Hijriyah. Why?

Because maybe you have plan to do in Hijriyah calendar. for example, in 10 Dzulhidjah there will be Eid Adha or before that we have sunnah fasting for Arafah Fasting in 9 Dzulhidjah.

I want to encourage you to make not only daily goals, but also weekly goals. Therefore, you will do your schedule more on-time and discipline.

Maybe you will not going to get the result directly but you will notice it in the end of the month about what did you do on that month. I believe, it will make you happy. :)

Hope this weekly planner helpful for you.
If you want to know about the color coding, I will make another post about color coded. :)

You can download this Muslim Weekly Planner through think link.

If you want to download another planner, check out this link or
--- Daily ToDos
--- Daily ToDos 2
--- Daily ToDos 2 Color
--- Daily Budget
--- Daily Budget 2
--- Daily Budget 2 Color
--- Weekly Planner

Rasanya Menjadi Istri Plus Mahasiswa

Sebelumnya aku bercerita tentang bagaimana rasanya menjadi ratu sehari alias pengantin. Sekarang aku akan bercerita bagaimana rasanya menjadi seorang istri merangkap mahasiswa. :)

Sudah banyak mungkin yang bercerita bagaimana rasanya menjadi seorang istri. Tapi tidak banyak istri yang merangkap mahasiswa, sepertiku. Apalagi tinggal di luar negeri. Mungkin sedikit dari sedemikian banyak istri yang ikut suami tinggal di luar negeri.

Aku tinggal di sebuah kota yang disebut Silicon Valley nya Taiwan, alias di Hsinchu City. Di dalamnya ada sebuah komplek perkantoran (ada pabrik juga) yang dinamakan Hsinchu Science Park. Suami ku bekerja di salah satu perusahaan yang bermarkas di sana. Lokasi tempat tinggal pun tidak begitu jauh dari kantor. Mungkin hanya 15 menit naik motor.

Tetapi uniknya, aku  seorang mahasiswa S3 yang kuliah di kota lain, yaitu Taipei. Kampus yang sama seperti ketika aku masih kuliah S2 di Taiwan, yaitu National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, di lab yang sama dan advisorku sama juga. Seorang professor terkenal di Taiwan, yang saking terkenalnya sampai sibuk minta ampun dan susah untuk ditemui.hahaa *curcol

The problem is... Taipei dan Hsinchu itu jaraknya 1 jam perjalanan naik bus itupun kalau tidak macet di jalan. Kalau naik HSR (High Speed Rail) atau di Jepang namanya kereta Shinkansen, ditempuh dalam 30 menit. Belum termasuk jalan kali dari terminal / stasiun ke kampus. At least aku butuh maksimal 2 jam perjalan. Bolak balik 4 jam lahh...

Tidak hanya itu...jika aku harus bernangkat pagi, aku harus naik bus pagi yang memakan waktu minimal 1,5 jam perjalanan dan bus yang luar biasa tidak enak baunya karena banyak orang sarapan di dalam bus. Maklum, aku tipe pemabuk darat. hahaha

Perjalanan yang cukup melelahkan. Bukan hanya karena 2 jam perjalanan yang cukup menguras energi tapi juga aku harus melakukan berbagai hal di kampus, mulai dari kelas, lab, riset, dan organisasi. Atau mungkin bahkan bertemu teman atau professor di kampus.

Pada akhirnya kami mengambil keputusan untukku bahwa aku hanya mengambil dua mata kuliah per semester nya. Sehingga praktis aku hanya ke kampus dua kali seminggu. Sisanya aku akan berada di Hsinchu dan mengerjakan semua tugasku disana. 

Alhamdulillah...professor sangat mendukung dengan tidak mewajibkan aku untuk datang ke lab setiap hari dan jga lab meeting berubah dari seminggu sekali menjadi sebulan sekali. hahaha

Oke...mungkin bagi kebanyakan orang beranggapan bahwa enak aku di rumah saja dan tidak harus ke kampus. tapi nyatanya, yang seharusnya aku bisa mengerjakan tugas kuliah secara maksimal, aku terdistraksi dengan berbagai macam pekerjaan rumah.

Yah...namanya juga seorang istri. Tugas utamaku adalah suami dan rumah. Jadi, rumah bersih adalah tanggung jawabku. Household tidak ada habisnya. Mulai dari cucian numpuk, dishes, masak, beres-beres rumah, dsb. hahaha

Mungkin bisa dibilang aku produktif mengerjakan segala tugas kuliah ku hanya 4-5 jam sehari. Berkurang dari kebiasaanku sebelumnya yang bisa bertahan hingga 9 jam mengerjakan tugas kuliah, duduk di depan komputer. Tapi, tidak terus sih... bisa berhenti sebentar untuk shalat. Makan saja di depan layar komputer. Kebiasaan yang kurang sehat. Jangan ditiru. hehe

Produktifitas itu kulakukan mulai ba'da dhuhur karena setiap istirahat siang suamiku akan pulang dan makan di rumah. Sampai sore menjelang maghrib di saat aku akan menyiapkan makan malam.

Tugas tiada habis nya. Berat memang. 

Tetapi...aku sadar bahwa inilah yang justru membuatku bahagia. Aku diijinkan untuk sekolah oleh suamiku saja aku sangat bahagia. Karena tidak semua pria mengijinkan istrinya untuk sekolah lagi bahkan sampai S3.hehe lalu aku juga bisa melayani suamiku dengan maksimal, sesuai dengan amanah dari orang tuaku.

Sebelum aku menikah, orang tua ku pernah berkata "Nduk, jangan sampai kamu beda kota atau negara sama suamimu. Harus selalu bersama. Trus, kalau sudah sekolah lebih tinggi dari suamimu, jangan sekalipun menganggap rendah suamimu. Karena dia adalah kepala rumah tangga dan dia harus dihargai dan dicintai."

Kalimat itu selalu terngiang di otak dan hatiku.

Jadi... walaupun susah menjadi istri plus mahasiswa, bukan menjadi alasan utuk tidak bahagia. ^^