The Broadcast People (imho)

In 2012, I joined a broadcast industry. Haha, no, no, not as a celebrity. I joined Sony as Product Marketing for broadcasting product. I didn’t set any expectation before I joined. I didn’t know that it was a life changing experiences. Thank you for the people in it.

When I joined, I only had 1 year experience as a consumer electronic product marketing. It was a whole different world. Especially the product. I was feeling like a stupid alien, couldn’t understand anything my colleagues or customers talked about. My first 3 months was stressful. Again, thank you for the broadcast people, I survived. Not only survived, but successfully nailed it for the next 6.5 years.

If it’s not because of their understanding for all of my first errors and mistakes.

If it’s not because of their patience to teach me the basic knowledge of Broadcasting (and advanced one, of course. It’s exactly the place when your customers are more knowledgeable than you)

If it’s not because of their warm heart to welcome me like their little sister.

All of those “let’s meet up at coffee bean/LG floor/kopitiam/canteen at GF/8th floor/engineer room/studio x”, that led to gossips, laughs, confiding to each other, or hints to the next project, that bonded our relationships.

All of those complaints, critics and lost projects, that taught me how to maintain an account relationship, not only in good time, but also in bad time.

All of those laughs and funny stories in every tiring and jetlagged business trips for NAB, IBC and BCAsia.

They are people who is always fun to be with. Even the big big boss. They could told you a brutal honesty, but they’re indeed kind people. And, tbh, I miss them.

Somewhere in the parallel universe….

In the parallel universe, when I have to live by myself, I’m thinking to live in a country or city that full of museums, beautiful cafes and beaches. Some countries such as Portugal, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica or Bulgaria sound promising. They’re rated as the cheapest and safest country to live in as a foreigner though.

Enjoying the view from the steps leading to the coastal village of Azenhas do Mar in Portugal.
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I’ll live above a small antique stores. In a 1 bed room flat. With a view of bustling small market below and a port or beaches far beyond. The store owner and the people surrounding are so nice that they’re welcoming me, a settled foreigner.

My daily activity will start with a cup of coffee or tea or milk and anything I could find in the fridge. I’ll have a job as a local tour guide. Or as museum guide would be fun as well. In my free time, I’m a regular contributor for my own blog and local travel magazines. So that morning, when my shift will start late for the day, I’ll sit on a café writing or somewhere in the town sketching.

I’m thinking to take a volunteer job too, if it’s not too affected my daily job. Or take some courses such as coffee making or baking. I probably thinking to have a part time job in small coffee shop nearby my flat. Again, if it’s not burdening too much on my main job and activity.

It’ll be a slow pace life I have there. I can use my time for meeting friends or community. But mostly reading. On the balcony of my flat. With the view of bustling small market below and a port or beaches far beyond.

My style be lyke~

I always be a tomboy since I was a kid. I rarely wear skirt and dress. My mom said when she made me wear dress or skirt, I kept feeling uncomfortable. When she changed my skirt into a short, I ran, jumped and played around happily. My only skirt I had was my high school uniform. Even when I was in middle school, I wore culottes instead.

It went on until college time. I always cut my hair short. A Pixie or boyish. I never wore skirt to class. I played futsal. I chose an electronic factory (LG Factory) as my internship place and milling industry (Bogasari) as my final assignment place. Reasons behind? Simply because I can still wearing my pants and sneakers while working there. People always mistaken me as a boy. Once, I picked up my friend from her language course. Her friends teased her as they thought her boyfriend (me) picking her up. And my friend didn’t even correcting them and giggly left them.

Actually, sorry to sound it too cliché, I changed my look since I got into relationship with Abang. He likes me when I put a bit of make up. And he likes my hair long. So I learned. Not to have a full make up every day, but just a little touch of face powder and an eyebrow. I rarely wear lipstick. I usually wear it in the morning, but then never re-applied it through the day. I still wear pants often. Sneakers is my life, couldn’t and wouldn’t have a day without it. I wear flats or heels only when I have an event to attend. I try to elongate my hair. But I keep whining when my hair get too long and cut it anyway at least up until my neck.

But, being a tomboy doesn’t mean I don’t play with colors. I looovee colors! I don’t care if the colors are too bright or sometimes looks mismatched. I just love to express my mood with colors. I choose bright colors when I feel excited, happy and on fire. I choose dark colors when I want to look a bit reserved or my mood is quite bad. I never doubt to put green and orange together or to mix blue and yellow. Or just a hint of bright red among the black. I think it’s just one of things that makes me feel alive and whole somewhat.

The page turner escapes

Books are my bestfriends. I go “meeting” them every time I have an issue in my life. When I’m tired, stressed, or sad. When I need to relax and take some breaks. In short way, it’s my escape routes. My short getaway. Books help me to move my mind entirely to another life. To put myself in some characters’ shoes or to imagine merging into some historical events. Books are like a rest area in my daily life. Places where we can finally pull the hand break, take a deep breath and have a short walks enjoying the views.

I like a lot of books though I don’t read every kind of books. I mostly read novel, historical fiction, historical events, travel/journey stories and sometimes some autobiographies or books written by famous public figure.

Talking about novels, I read some of the pop culture novels such as Harry Potter, Hunger Games, LOTR & The Hobbit, GOT (haven’t finished the entire series) and Robert Langdon’s series. I also have a thing with dystopian novels. Some of my fav authors, the one whose books I ran into when I just need a short get away, are Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Andrea Hirata, J.K Rowling (also her being Robert Galbraith), Dan Brown, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Haruki Murakami and John Green. Their books rarely disappoint me because I just surrender myself and emerge to their fantasy. Most of their books are the real “rest area” that I mentioned above.

I also read some historical stuff. Fiction or non-fiction. The latest historical fiction I love is The Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I got emotionally attached with the main character. My standard of a gentleman is changing way much after knowing Count Rostov. You can read my review of the book in this blog here. Meanwhile, historical events book that I recently love is The Choice by Edith Eger. This book is full of emotions and feelings that lets you swept away in it. It combines 2 of my fav things, history and psychology. Not only Edith told us about what happened during her being a prisoner war, but also how she struggle to thrive and heal from the her trauma. It gave me chills and inspired me at the same time.

I rarely read non-fiction books. Non-fiction books I read mostly is the one written by some public figures or their autobiography. I fell in love with Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, after reading his book Ride of a Lifetime. It taught me well that being success means being persistent and have faith. You don’t need to be that genius such as Mark, Steve, Elon, Bill or Jack. You may start your career from below. From an employee of a company. As long as you have faith on yourself, there’s always a way for success.

That’s what I like about books. Not only it feeds my imagination, but it’s also strengthened me. It opens my mind and gives me a different perspective. The more different perspectives and an open mind I have, the more calm, wise and humble I become. Some books like Buddha by Karen Armstrong and Filosofi Teras by Henry Manampiring really taught me how to sweep away my negative feelings, so I can think more clearly to face this busy and fast pace world. Exactly the strength I need.

Binge-watch and chill

In Indonesia, we have a phrase called “Ibu-ibu Sinetron” for stay at home moms who’s always watching local TV series. “Sinetron” is the way we call “soap opera” or “TV series” here. I’m not a stay at home moms, but I’m definitely one of them.

Same like movies, I watch a lot of TV series. I think it came (again) from my father. My very first TV series were Dawson’s Creek, Charmed, Popular, Saving Private Ryan, Friends and Dark Angel. Growing up, there’s always TV series I follow every year. I watched How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, Prison Break, Flash Forward, Community, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, The Americans, and I think there’s still a lot of it but I just forget. Even nowadays, especially after Netflix becomes hit. From that OTT only, I watched Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Marco Polo, Crown, Sense 8, Peaky Blinder, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Defenders, The Punishers, Locke & Key, You, Umbrella Academy, Money Heist, Narcos, I’m not okay with this, Sex Education, Snowpiercer, Orange is The New Black and, believe me, many more. Currently I’m watching CB Strike (BBC), Perry Mason (HBO), Mandalorian (Disney+), Dark & Suits (Netflix). Of course I watched that globally acclaimed series, such as Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad as well. The watch list is still long, trust me.

But why? Why TV series? Aren’t you got bored waiting or have to binge-watch for hours to find out the ending of a story? And how can you wait for a year to know the next season, especially after you finished the previous season only in 10 hours? I always binge-watch Stranger Things and Umbrella Academy. I waited for a year, to finish it in a day. Why?

The answer is…characters. I’m a people person. To get to know about many characters is one of my favorite activity, if not so called learning. Every person is unique for me. One of short get away to meet a lot of characters in the world is by watching TV series. Sometimes, believe it or not, we can meet a real person who has the same characters from the series we watched. I can get too attached with some characters in TV series. When my fav character died in a series, my mood will drop. For me, the cinematography technic is not important. As long as it has an interesting characters in it, I’m in (well, of course when the plot is getting weaker, I sometimes gave up finishing it until season finale).

So, If I’m asked what my fav TV series is, I don’t have one. But may be you can asked me which TV series characters that I’m most emotionally involved with. It’ll be another long story indeed.