Imported New Movies...? Ehmm...No More!

The first time I actually got the news about no imported new movies will be released, was through blackberry messenger. I thought, nah it was probably just a joke, a really bad joke, I mean come on...and the next morning, like it was officially on TV that starting Feb 17th there is no new imported movie release. They even cancel "Black Swan", "True Grit", and "127 hours". Well, damn it!!Is this some kind of distraction issue as well as the "Ahmadiyah" case, and look where we are heading..ehmm..I guess the "corruption" cases are put back in the shelf. Great!

Anyway, I'm not gonna go rambling with different issue, so now Indonesia has raised the new regulation taxation for imported movies. The rumor said that this new regulation is "ridiculous" and it's just making the Indonesia's cinema falling. There is an interesting comment from Noorca. M. Massardi as the chairman of Indonesian Cinema's and Association, that went like this, “It is an outrageous import tax on distribution rights that has never before existed in any film business practice in the world,” he stated. He further explained that before the new tax was imposed, each film brought into Indonesia was already slapped with three kinds of tax that total 23.75 percent of the value of the item. A further 15 percent revenue tax goes to the country’s tax coffers, and, in addition, district governments impose entertainment taxes ranging from 10 to 15 percent of ticket sales. (quoted from thejakartaglobe.com on Feb 21st)


What the heck they were thinking when they raise the taxation for imported movies, in which Indonesian's tax is the highest among other countries? Movies can't be replaced with political tactics to distract "urgent issues". I read somewhere that they say, they raise the tax for imported films to increase the viewers for Indonesian Movies, seriously guys...threatened much??? It's the most ridiculous statement ever! Don't do that, you guys are killing the Indonesian cinemas itself. And by the way, it could actually effect the lower number of people that go to the cinema, which will lower the income for restaurant in Malls, which will cause the reduction of Cinemas' employee. There, is the government satisfied? No Harry Potter part 2, Transformer, I am number 4, Breaking Dawn..yada yada yada...yup, all gone. Oh God please don't let that happen too long. I hope we'll see our fav new movies soon in cinemas. Just remember movies are one of the media/tool of communication and information. You can't disconnect information!

pic above taken from riekonaicha.co.cc

Not Really a Sales Person

(pic courtesy of inetgiant.com)

Today, I got an interviewed by one of the English Publishing company in Jakarta. I was quite excited because, yeah...I had landed an interview in media, which is quite challenging because they offered me as an Account Executive (AE). I did not want to have high hopes, because to be an AE is not what I had in mind when working with the media. If I could not get myself out there as a writer, then being a reporter as a starter won't be a problem for me. But, i did have a bit of reluctance when I went for the interview. I know several things about AE position since my sister and my husband are working as AE too. So, at least from their stories I know what AE's desk jobs are, which is one of them involving with meeting clients (probably outside working hours). So, I thought I got it all figure out...but then...the person who interviewed me, seemed to be able to read people's mid/gesture. I did send my CV with my sample writing story, and he just said that..it seemed you have talent for writing, because people have different talents, and yours is writing, and then he went on saying what i could do to convince him that he should hire me. Yeah, so I said to him that I love to try new things, and I am someone who believe in learning by doing and with the right supervision, I could do tasks well. And so I thought, I made quite good impression on him, but what shocked me was, he said that he wanted someone who is self committed. He said that I didn't convince him enough as a sales person. I didn't get offended with him saying that, because he was quite right, I may not be the "right" person for the position, I have talents...just maybe not in sales...I convince people through my writing, I may not selling myself well enough during the interview, because I didn't feel fit with the position offered. I do want to try for the editorial, but they have no vacant position available at this moment...well, that's okay..I'm just gonna keep on writing with my children stories (co-written with my friend Saskia) and other fiction stories ideas..keep my finger-crossed and hopefully my children stories get approval and are published soon. Amin

It's Hard Selling Food @ School Bazaar

(pic taken from: flickr.com)


Today was day two of school bazaar at Don Bosco school that Charma and I joined. I sold moussaka, chicken tetrazzini (which my sister in law's mom made them), my own fruit salad, home made coco jelly drinks, while Charma sold chocolate pudding, baked maccaroni, fruit punch, lasagna, chocolate rumball, and rice package. Looks yummy and delicious, right...they were! But, darn...it's so hard to sell those food and drinks! I mean, seriuosly, our competitors were expert in school bazaar, they were selling rice bento package, ice tea in many flavoured, chocolate crepes, and flavoured french fries...Yup, no wonder we were the underdogs :). But, our items were quite affordable for school kids' pocket money, you know!hey, we're doing this bazaar just for fun and testing the market, so no harm...well..sort of..that's alright, I mean...we're not chef,nor having business in food..so it's fine. Instead of trying to sell our stuff, I mean, my eyes just went to the other food counter and bought some of them hahaha or Charma and I bought our own stuff (like exchanging our own food)...how hilarious was that! It's damn hard to sell our food, what I'm trying to say was, these kids prefer the "unhealthy flavoured french fries" with almost the same price compare to buying our "healty" choice of food as I mentioned above. I guess, being these kids only care about the taste and if it's got many "preservatives" ...the better. So, it's so hard to earn money from these two days. Yeah..I just complained because our stall was lack of kids customers :p. Well, better luck next time :)

Riots for Purchasing Football tickets...What a Shame!

(source : Twitter/Arya P.

Though, TImnas was beaten 3-0 by the Malaysian Team just tonight, we should not surrender. Come on, I mean after all the victories the National Team has gained, we should be proud we made it to Final. Heck yeah the Malaysian supporters were not playing fair at first, because they shot laser lights towards the Indonesian goal keeper (Markus), just...better luck next time okay! I do kinda notice that our national team did not play with "much of enthusiasm" like they did when they beat Malaysian team a while ago. Was it because Timnas playing in our own country, so they had this positive vibe..well, I don't know, I am not exactly a football fan. Despite that Timnas lost in tonight's match, what bothers me the most was the management of ticket selling by PSSI. I mean they centralized the ticket selling for 80.000 supporters just in Senayan PSSI. Didn't they learn how to sell tickets from professional agents, like "music concert". What the heck were they thinking? Because of the centralization of ticket selling, the expensive price, poor management, lack of facility, they all have caused "riots" in GBK stadium this afternoon. Watching the news, as you can see in the picture above, is like watching resident evil, you know where all the zombies were gone crazies and eating people. Well, it looks like it. Many people were fainted, injured, I think one person was dead because getting stuck in the crowds. And not mention the vandalism. God, can't we become civilized just for watching a football match. To watch concert, the ticket selling is spread into different ticket agents, so there wont be any mass cummulation in one place. I'd say the ticket management should have been handled by "professional ticket agents!"..Please PSSI learn from mistakes. We, Indonesian do want to support our National Team, but you guys..should have managed the tickets better. No more riots!

New Year...New Beginning

It's almost end of this year! Gosh, how time flies so fast, I could not even take a brief moment to "relax". This year has been really tough on me, but I managed (thanks God for that!). I mean, life is always ups and downs, sad and happy, it can't always be a stagnant thing in everything, just like a chart there will be curves along the lines. I thought that I tried my best this year to make a career, but people may not see it like I do. And I know we can't judge ourselves, people surrounding us that will notice and critique us. I know I am not always right, even I always stubbornly try to force my opinion on something, people don't always agree with us- that I understand. But I do feel that, no matter what people see different about us, we should never think low of ourselves. Because, if we feel down, we can't move forward. We need to move forward, it's what New Year is all about right, to move forward and not looking back for our failure. It's seems cliche to make a new resolution for the next year, I mean I sure do we all want to make a new resolution that is better than this year. But, for me it's not just about resolution, is about more thanking less whining. To be honest, I sometimes blame God for making my life this year gloomier than before, but heck what an ungrateful human I am. God does give me more and I should have thank more. It's me that I need to blame, because I need to remain positive on whatever and I mean, whatever things that happen to me, good or bad. Sometimes we forget to look into ourselves, and too busy to look into others. All we need to do is to have mirror in front of us and see how our lives have been all this time, hence we are the one to make better judgment to ourselves and introspect ourselves to better our lives. I do pray that Next year is the beginning of better and positive things coming into my life. AMEN to that!

pic is taken from: myniceprofile.com

To Appreciate

As teachers we have to make our students feel happy about what they are doing, no matter how small the result is. I guess it's the same with viewing people. I, myself is still struggling not to be prejudiced or judge mental towards people. Because, to assume that someone is doing something without good result, is not a positive thing for ones, since they definitely feel unappreciated, and you can turn someone else's world upside down and make them at the lowest point of their life. Each people deals a problem differently, and for someone who can't take "a-hard-push advice" from someone, they may feel low about themselves, and you never know when someone you give advice to is not having "other trouble" as well. Appreciate to even a small effort makes someone's life better. We may not see the same view as others and not always on the same page with average people, but what important is we appreciate ourselves. Because once you feel unappreciated, you will fall down, and the only person that can bring you up again, is ourselves. We may ignore those unappreciated thoughts, opinions, views, or bs they are having on us, but when you feel down, just remember that God appreciates our effort even in the smallest way.

The First SAC Hand-made Cards Bazaar

SAC stands for Saskia-Aini-Charma, and it is our brand to sell handmade cards with quilling arts. Charma and I learned from Saskia who started first this quilling arts. Anyway, thanks to Saskia's mom, we could sell our hand-made cards in "Suriname's embassy stall" (since Saskia's mom is the secretary of Suriname's embassy) in WIC (Women International Club) at JHCC from 1-2 Dec'2010. We sold 34 cards out of 59 cards, and we are so lucky to have achieved this far. We just started this like a month ago and consistently practiced the quilling arts like everyday...And damn proud of the result! Today in the Bazaar was such a great opportunity to SAC and me. I mean, it's like seeing new people, interacting with the foreigners, and yeah maybe I was kinda dumb when they asked about Suriname's geography of even the culture. But, yeah, we managed!I loved seeing the people who stopped by to our stall, because the Suriname's costumes were very attractive (they had Indian Suriname,African, and Chinese). There were many of them who took pictures of us, and if we could charge every picture they took, I bet we could have made more money..hahahaha. Even though we are all very tired, but we are relieve that our handmade cards could sell more than we have expected...Go SAC!