My other two cents

It is still a very busy month, I need to concentrate on the schooling program for the twins. Yet, I managed to write some more articles for wikimu.com.

Pondok Seafood, Wisata Kuliner Santai Bersama Keluarga
I am not really a culinary visitor. My favorite answer for eating out is usually "terserah..." means "up to you..." I wrote this culinary visit mostly because of the interior aspect of the restaurant. The sunken table surprised me, I knew the design "sunken bar" for swimming pool...but this is the first time I saw a "sunken table" approach. The overall of the design approach does help improve the quality of services.

Louis Braille, Membukakan Dunia Melalui Tulisan
Sometimes an older news unwritten can just popped out when I read another article. Louis Braille's day should be celebrated on January 4th, but Eric Shackle's article "Feb 12: A Date to Remember" made me wrote this article. I mixed it with the news of "celengan untuk sahabat" (piggybank for a friend).

Arjuna Ireng yang Dinanti-nanti
Arjuna is the name from the Mahabharata epic which also means bright, shining, or white. Yet, "Ireng" in Javanese dialect means black, or dark skinned. As a handsome hero, Arjuna is also very popular between girls. Indonesian girls would say that they are looking for their Arjuna when they are searching for the right Mr. X as their soul mates. This "Arjuna Ireng" is also very popular between woman and girls in my neighbourhood for his needlework services. I was a bit astonish that this simple man, without a high education can made up such a memorable "brand name". Supported by his humble and good service, he is surely offering his "brand name" as a quality service. As we, in Indonesia, are facing the general election...I think it nice to note down how he managed to link his "brand name" with his services. Hopefully those candidates, either for legislative or for the presidential run, will also remember that they are bearing their own name (or political party's branding) in exchange with their services after being elected.

Kontroversi Puyer dan Suara Hati Ibu
The controversy about compounding as a medical treatment made me write this article. This is a personal sharing after reading all the comment for an article that ask the media to stop stirring the controversy of compounding in wikimu.com. Treatment and medication are something that we, parents, seek for the best of our children. And of course we do need a good and trustworthy source of information. Yet, that is the real problem for us...to know which source of information is trustworthy. Doctor as one part of medical services are sometimes being commercial, not to mention the hospital. It is understandable as they are to think about marketing and income...but on the other side they should also remember the ethical code of their profession.

Searching an expert that we can really trust, and whose really going to help us seeking the best treatment is a real trial and error. It is so helpful to have the internet around. I've got a lot more of information about dyslexic problem from a mailing list, the moderator has her own blog; Julia van Tiel in multiply, and Gifted-disinkroni.

There are a lot of ideas popping up in my mind, yet I do need to make priority right now. My father is going to be operated this Thursday, my twins need a lot of support to pass their first grade, my eldest son needs a lot of supervising especially in his study and his online activity.

If I'm only thinking about myself, then blog is really worth writing. Yet, if I am thinking about sharing I think Citizen journalism is a better form. I hope that citizen journalism website and the mainstream media can enhance each other stance. It is worth noting that for some printed media they are becoming more interesting to read after their inquiry into blogs and citizen journalism websites. Citizen doesn't always have time to dig deeper into what they want to know, then it is the media who will provide it. How would they guess their audience's need? For a far bigger community...search the cyber world, attract them...and be engaged to your readers.

Jakarta Biennale 2009

Time is still my main obstacle to be able to go to places of my interests. A lot of events passed by without my ability to visit it...The event of Chinese Indonesian Heritage is one of my regrets.

I was lucky my appointment with my obgyn finished earlier than I thought so I can visit the Jakarta Biennale 2009 on its first public day. I would love to meet the artist the next day, but it was still too precious to wish...I still have a lot of duty to do...

Surprisingly another friend from wikimu already visited the exhibition, and he has some pictures about the exhibits that I mentioned in my article. So we collaborate our pictures...I'm not a very good photographer.

Yet, I'll share more pictures and my comment on the exhibition in this blog later.

Reporting the Kuark Science Competition 2009

It's easier to report as a citizen...
I don't try to contact the contact person from Kuark Magazine, but instead I just write all the interesting thing that I saw there. Perhaps as news it is not as complete as the journalistic news in the media, but it would worth sharing for parents, students, event organizer, and the Kuark magazine itself.

additional note (July 2009):
It is interesting to see that from all those students who win medals, from the first level to the third level (see the report here), only one student from Jakarta. There are some from Bekasi and Tangerang, but others are spread from Java to Bali. Outside Java and Bali, there is one from Medan, and several from Pontianak. Yet, the absolute medal only goes to one student in the first level from Pontianak, and one student in the second level from Surabaya. It should be an interesting fact for the National Examination (Ujian Negara).

Children can write poem too

Children can write poem too, and it would be nice to develop the talent through the event presented by the French Cultural Center (CCF). The winning poem will be performed together with Le Mime Bizot from France...an interesting offer!

Promoting Intisari

I've known Intisari for a very long time. My mother is still collecting her old Intisari from the 70s. Last month a reporter from this magazine e-mailed me asking an interview about my being a citizen reporter. He said he would focus on Ohmynews.com, so I was surprised to see that he is also writing about wikimu.com in his article.

Actually on the front page there is another article that took my interest...an article on Pusat Informasi Majapahit. I was collecting some news on Majapahit Information Center, so it gave me another view of the problem there...that's why I bought that magazine.

I asked readers of wikimu to read the article about citizen journalism in Intisari. It's not due to my being interviewed as an example of a citizen reporter (I prefer the word reporter than journalist...), but because I'm happy that citizen journalism in Indonesia would be interactive with conventional media and in the long run will give benefit to all the citizen, our country, and perhaps to the world.

An experiment with title

This is an experiment using a provocative title...using the Javanese dialect together with the English language "Over Sek..." sounded like "over sex", while actually the title is talking about the age of a woman over seket, or over fifty...

It received a lot of readers, while actually there is no important thing I shared inside...