A few days before, I made appointment with my former students, W, to meet. He worked in BSD so it was a good chance to meet. Since I had to travel again to Bogor later that week, I asked W to visit us for breakfast in the hotel.
Meetup with Warren
We had a nice chat, then walked a bit to DNArtworks office in Gading Serpong, just a few hundreds meter away. From there we supported the NSDC submissions that, like LDBI, happened during the day. D treated us with Thai food for lunch, and around 17.00 we prepared ourselves for a trip back to Bogor (Sentul to be exact).
This time, we took a cab to a nearby station, took a Railink (airport shuttle train) trip, followed by another commuter line trip to Bogor. From Bogor, we took another Go-Car ride to Harris Hotel. We arrived late at night and the buffet dinner was already cleaned up. We had no choice but to order an ala carte meal, a Rp100k per portion fried rice! We took a rest afterwards.
The next morning, we had our buffet breakfast, and I jokingly asked C whether the fried rice served at breakfast is as good as last night dinner. Fortunately the answer was “no”, so at least we had some extra value with the expensive fried rice dinner.
During that week, we also discussed potential improvements to the website that was used to collect submissions. We also made a trip to a local market Pasar Bersih Sentul City to buy oleh-oleh (gifts). The market turned out to be a hidden culinary gem as well, with many traditional meals available.
Since the FLS2N event was held a day after this NSDC event, I extended my stay a night in Harris. My wife mentioned that a promo was happening in Nanny’s Pavilon newly opened branch nearby, so I went there for dinner. It was about 1km long from the hotel, so I took a Go-Ride. It was buy 1 pancake free 1 waffle. I ordered extra salad to make me less guilty in eating too much carbohydrates.
SinfulNot sinfulSinful
It was way too much for dinner for one person. I then decided to walk back to release the tension in my stomach, but with not much result. I enjoyed my night time relaxing at the tropical-themed hotel alone, since C has already gone back to Bandung.
It all started on end of June. I and team were responsible for the submission system for national high school students debating championship, which required us to stay in a hotel with the other committees. We were responsible both for the LDBI (Lomba Debat Bahasa Indonesia) and NSDC (National School Debating Championship) competition. The submission period happened on Saturday, where I and C also had to perform a trip from Bandung to Jakarta. Since we had to be standby for technical solving problems that might arise, I decided to take a public transit trip instead of driving my own car. We took an intercity train, followed by commuter line service. Sometimes we had to stop for a while and open our laptops in odd places, including a crowded KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurant while eating our lunch.
C working with his laptop on a commuter line waiting area
We arrived at Hotel Grand Savero after lunchtime, using an overpriced Go-Car service. That was the time when startups starting to stop crazy promotions and try to make money. For the rest of the day, our job was mostly done. Then submission data was passed on to the judges, and we were there for the next 5 days mostly for opening ceremony and support in case of problems or questions.
The next day was Sunday, and I offered C to take a stroll around hotel. The hotel was located near Bogor botanical garden, but we didn’t know earlier that there was an entrance near our hotel. Therefore, we walked along the perimeter of the garden, all the way to Suryakencana street, which was famous for its culinary adventure. There was a funny occurrence on the street, where I found signage that separates lane for pedestrian, people with wheelchair, and cyclist. However, the last two lanes were obstructed by poles and trees.
Confusing design
At Suryakencana, there were plenty of options but we decided to take a (non-halal) mixed rice for breakfast, just across a church.
Mixed rice
Suryakencana itself is Bogor’s Chinatown, newly renovated, oriental style decorated, and filled with messages about inter-religious tolerance.
An alley in Suryakencana
For the next days, we simply did a WFH (Work From Hotel), but at one night I asked C to watch a movie in a nearby cinema. The movie was entitled Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap, and it told a story about parents in Sumatera who really wished their 3 sons to come home from abroad. They faked a fight so that their sons would come home, but eventually became a real fight leading to potential divorce. I intended to watch this movie because I knew one of the cast (Ibu Rita Matu Mona), and hoped for funny story because it was made by Ernest Prakasa, one of famous comedians in Indonesia. I found Ibu Rita in the movie, but a bit disappointed because the movie contained more drama than comedy. It turned out that the movie was made by a production house founded by Ernest, instead of himself directing the movie.
On the last day at Grand Savero, my parents picked us up from the hotel, and brought us to another hotel, Fame Hotel, in Gading Serpong. We moved to Serpong because there will be another competition, NSDC, that was planned to be held in a hotel in BSD (Bumi Serpong Damai). Therefore, staying in a nearby hotel seemed like a good idea. Also in that day I received news from another client that the committee for vocational students arts competition (FLS2N / Festival & Lomba Seni Siswa Nasional) will be holding a socialization event, also in BSD. Although a bit sad that I will stay longer without my family during the school holiday, I am relieved that it seemed that I would stay in the same area for the rest of my trip.
Or not. That night, I received the formal invitation for the NSDC event, and stated in the invitation that the NSDC will be held in Hotel Harris Sentul, which is close to Bogor but far from Serpong!
Saturday morning, I with my family drove to Jakarta. I was about to attend an on-site wedding of a cousin that day. The wedding involves the Tea Pai, a ceremony where the newly wed present cup of tea for their elders. Since my dad decided not to attend the ceremony due to COVID-19 precautions, I represented him to accept the tea; as well as attending the party. However, this trip turned out to be more of a family leisure trip for me.
We arrived in Jakarta around 10AM. First stop was the Maison Weiner cake shop. Dubbed as the oldest cake shop in Jakarta, it serves mostly Dutch-style cake and bread at affordable prices. We bought some bread for breakfast, and continued driving to our hotel.
Our hotel was located very close to Bundaran HI, a landmark of Jakarta and not far from a busway (Jakarta’s bus system) stop. Since we could not check in yet, we just parked our car and took an MRT ride to Blok M BCA station. Kids were very happy as it was their first MRT trip after some time. There were some strict rules due to COVID-19, though: mask on, not to sit in X-marked seats, and… no speaking. If you wonder how the officer could remind us about the last rule if he was not allowed to speak, well, he had a small cardboard with the rule written on it.
The younger oneThe older one (from 2 years before)
After about half an hour, we arrived at the Blok M BCA Station. We walked through Jl. Melawai to visit a small restaurant called Claypot Popo. When we arrived around 11.30, the restaurant was just about to open and several people were already standing there waiting. When it opened, we were instructed to write our orders downstairs, climbed the stairs to second floor, pay the bill, and wait for the food to come.
Open kitchen in Claypot Popo
It is not an exaggeration if one says that Claypot Popo is a hidden gem in the city. From outside it looked like an old unmaintained building, but inside it was very lively with thick Chinese ambiance. Most meals in the menu were served in a claypot bowl. The concept of open kitchen allowed the visitor to see how the meals were made.
After lunch, we walked to the front side of Blok M Square, where a street food festival was held. We ordered kerak telor, a Jakarta special. Y said that the one we had in Jakarta Fair event was much nicer than this one. We then walked again to Filosofi Kopi Melawai, a coffee shop inspired by a movie with similar name. The movie was a success, followed by a sequel, and actually quite good. However, the coffee shop turned out to be not that special. It was just an ordinary millenials’ coffee shop. It was the price for kopi tiwus (the coffee variant mentioned in the movie) that was special. Special-ly overpriced.
Street Food Festival
It was almost 1.30 and we took another MRT ride back to the hotel to check in. I did quick preparation for the tea pai at 3.
With complete suit, I crossed the street to the venue. It was fun to meet my relatives again. We were actually a big family, and the tea pai room was not that big. Therefore, after finishing my duty of receiving the tea (and giving the red envelope), I and some other relatives left the room to give more space to the other elders doing their turn.
The wedding “party” started around 6 PM, somewhere after sunset. Strict protocols were enforced and the guests were asked not to share photos onto social media, including WhatsApp group. I can only guess that the reason is to prevent one or two disobedient guests damaging the hotel reputation by not following COVID-19 protocols. Takeaway food were provided to guests instead of dining in.
Astonishingly most guests obeyed, and there were absolutely no mention of the wedding in the social media.
By generation-z standard, this wedding didn't happen 🙂
After the party, I joined Y and the others for dinner in Grand Indonesia. Y had decided to eat at the food court and it was a good choice for me, who brought in these two takeaway meal boxes. If we were eating at a restaurant, I would most likely be not allowed to consume the takeaway meal. It was raining when we finished our dinner so we took a cab back to the hotel.
The next morning, we had our breakfast at the Pantjoran Tea House. We went there using busway. The kids were so happy for taking the bus. It is a restaurant famous for their premium tea servings with, again, classic Chinese decoration. We were not really tea persons, so we just enjoyed dim sum meals that morning.
The Pantjoran Tea House
The dim sum was just a warming up for our next culinary trip: The infamous Kopi Tak Kie. This is another gidden gem in the city, just a few meters from the tea house. Famous people including President Jokowi had tasted this uncle’s ice coffee. Aside from coffee, they also serve non-halal meals like nasi campur and bakmie (noodle).
Kopi Tak Kie is located inside a wet market area, and this area has a special meaning to me. Many years ago when I was in Bandung, my mother had her lunch with her friends here, suffered a stroke, and collapsed. Friends helped her and brought her to hospital, but she passed away about a week later. I still imagine that one of these people in the area knew about the incident and able to tell me a story about it.
Me and those famous people
After double breakfast, we rushed back to the hotel because we had to ensure enough time to prepare for checkout. Lucky we managed to check out on time, and we headed back to Bandung.
List of locations:
Weiner Cake Shop: Jl. Kramat II No.2, Jakarta Pusat 10420
Claypot Popo: Jl. Melawai 9 No.38, Jakarta Selatan 12160
Filosofi Kopi Melawai: Jl. Melawai 6 No.1, Jakarta Selatan 12160
Pantjoran Tea House: Jl. Pancoran No.4-6, Jakarta Barat 11120
Kopi Tak Kie: Gang Gloria, Glodok, Jl. Pintu Besar Selatan III No.4-6, Jakarta Barat 11120
The Indonesian education ministry has this department called Pusat Prestasi Nasional (Puspresnas, National Achievement Center) that holds various competitions for students in Indonesia. One of their program is the FLS2N SMK (Festival dan Lomba Seni Siswa Nasional untuk Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan). It roughly translates to Art Competition and Festival for Vocational High Schools, though during the pandemic “competition” part is thicker than the festival counterpart.
A play from Rizakustik, one of the judges for solo guitar.
It all started many years ago when our team was asked to build the online competition system for FLS2N SMA (similar, but for regular high school students). I admit that it was a huge failure, mainly because (1) we did not understand fully the competition system and (2) huge resistance from provincial governments to not use the online system. In the end, the system was practically useless and works of many students submitted to the system were never, viewed let alone judged by the judges.
Composition from Dhanang Guritno, one of the judges for song composition.
Fast forward to 2020, when COVID-19 pandemic hit. The Pusat Prestasi Nasional department was, I assume, in total distress. Everything had to be online, and I was lucky that my team is in their contact list. We had a few weeks to bring the old system back to cater the competition online. My team was awarded the project for vocational school, while the regular school was handled by another team.
There are of course some challenges working on this project. But just as Morgan Freeman, I mean Nelson Mandela, once said, “It seems impossible until it’s done”.
It seems impossible until it’s done
Nelson Mandela
With only a few weeks before the system was actually being used, I was lucky to have a half-baked system. However, it also turned to be a disadvantage as well. Since the architecture was well set, adapting to new requirements become slower and need extra care to not introduce regression (errors due to change in the code).
Solid metal song from Ponco Satrio, one of the judges for solo singing
Actually working with art judges is also another challenge. Unlike science where it’s easier to differentiate right answers from the wrong ones, giving score to art product is in some part subjective. At the same time, Pusat Prestasi Nasional needs rationale for each score given.
In 2020, most challenges actually came from half-preparedness of the system. There were some bugs that caused extra work. For example, the automatic detection of students’ school identity resulted in many students registered to come from Kepulauan Seribu, a regency in Jakarta.
In 2021, we were glad to being awarded the same project again, and we have fixed those major mistakes we did in 2020. However, there came another challenge: more provinces (about half of all provinces in Indonesia) were ready for and chose their own selection mechanism, hence untracked within our system. Therefore most of the participants from those provinces must be inputted manually to the system. We are lucky to have a dedicated staff from Puspresnas who has the knowledge and capability to ensure those participants are well recorded.
At the time of this blog writing, the national judging has just finished. From past experience, the national judging is much easier, since there are only at most 35 participants being graded for each division. As you may see when reading this post, I inserted some music that was actually made by some of the judges. Below are more videos from the judges.
As you may have seen above, I inserted some products of the judges. Below are more example of their products.
As you may have known from this blog, I spent a fairly amount of time in Singapore, and its culture has a special place in my heart. One of the many things I miss is the Singapore kopi (coffee) and kopitiam (coffee shop).
In Singapore (and Malaysia), kopi is actually not a plain coffee. It is coffee with condensed milk. When I moved back to Indonesia, I tried to satisfy the need for nostalgia with Nescafe instant coffee and local condensed milk. As time goes by, I realized that it was not the same. Then I used real ground coffee, making the taste richer and more original.
However, things changed again when I bought Singapore-brand Cafe 21 instant coffee. I tasted something different that I could not find in a local ground coffee. After posting that finding on Facebook, my Singaporean friend Don opened my mind that such taste actually comes from the margarine that was used to roast the coffee. So I began searching for more, the “nanyang” coffee.
I tried the supposedly real Nanyang ground coffee, which in most cases come in bags, like the tea bags. Ah Huat Kopi O is one example. However, it somehow does not taste and smell the same. It’s just plain bland. The reason is still a mystery for me until now.
In this last occasion, I bought the Toast Box ground coffee “powder”, which does not come in bags. There is a slight nanyang aroma when I made the coffee using V60 coffee filter, but it was still far from perfect. The surprise came when I left the residue for about an hour. Just when I was about to throw the leftover away, I smell that unique aroma of the kopitiam! Therefore, my conclusion so far is: the kopitiam aroma actually comes not from freshly brewed coffee, but from the leftover coffee.
So this “Screw the French Press, we’ve got the socks” poster at most Ya Kun Kaya Toast stalls now makes very sense for me. The socks keep the leftover from the first brew, to the next, and the next, and so on!
As a lecturer, one of my responsibilities is to record students’ attendance. At least for me, this data can be used later to determine whether I should give lenience to some of them in special circumstances.
COVID-19 changes that definition of “attending”. One can just show up at the beginning of a virtual class then leave, switch his/her screen to a computer game, or leave the presentation open while he/she is playing a mobile game. That is why for my classes, I don’t really care about the students attending. I even allow my students to record their attendance, a feature that fortunately provided by the university IT department.
Mid-term and final exam, however, are different. They are more “sacred”, hence I took extra steps on ensuring my students attend the class. Again, I cannot ensure that they are present during the whole exam. I also cannot fully ensure that they do not cheat by working cooperatively or being worked by someone else (a.k.a. joki).
However, it is possible to record some kind of authenticity. I can ensure that each student is present and, well, alive and doing well, at the time of exam. This may help prevent some weird situation in the future, like, giving a degree to a deceased or even a non-existent person. This may sound like a joke, but if we’re being honest, most likely nobody from the university side have ever met freshmen of 2020 in person!
To perform such attendance record, I called each student by name at the beginning of exam. When a student’s name is called, he/she has to turn on his/her camera and answer “hadir” (present), so his/her face is spotlighted in the Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or whatever platform used.
Below is an example of such recording.
This was the third attempt of recording this semester. It took about ten minutes to call and record about 47 students, and as you may see in the video, there were some interruptions and imperfections along the way. Earlier attempts took 15 minutes, because I didn’t use Microsoft Teams’ native app, hence video didn’t show up very quickly.
We, computer programmers, all have this mantra: “No, I will not fix your computer”. It made sense, because we study hard to solve complicated problems, that is solvable by having a machine works for us. Fixing computers and networks are the job for the IT people. It was engrained to me when I graduated and stayed there for some time.
Fast forward, I worked, took a master degree, tried to make a startip, taught in university, and build commercial websites, and things change. I don’t take that mantra so much anymore.
Let’s see some of the IT problems:
Internet does not work because cable is unplugged. What you had to do was to check the if there are blinking lights both on the PC side and the router. Looking from another point of view:
How can we avoid such problem and repetitive checks? One solution is wi-fi. Some computer scientists developed robust protocols for wireless connectivity. Businessmen popularize wi-fi, and today general consumers don’t have much cable problem anymore.
How can we automate troubleshooting? Some programmers at Microsoft developed Windows Troubleshooters. Though it is not very popular, but they did some problem solving exercise using computer programs.
Finding the proper drivers. It was common problem that a hardware does not work because the driver did not exist. It recently occurred to me that I couldn’t connect to internet because the Wi-Fi dongle needed a driver that should be downloaded from the internet.
Again, those programmers are developing some standard, to ensure that minimal driver is required to make OS work with hardware. Plug n Play, they said.
Data loss of computer reformat. Do you remember the days when your Windows is full of junk it had to be reformatted and reinstalled, and repeated again every year? One problem is to backup the files, and restore them afterwards.
You may know that they are plenty of storage solutions nowadays, and they are competing each other (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.) Who built them? developers
So my point is, even the silliest IT problem nowadays, can be seen as a potential problem to solve with a product / software / app.
However, I do understand that you should not waste your time doing so much of IT works (if you’re a programmer). That’s why you should also consider to charge some money (except if it’s your mum and dad). You will be surprised that some people are actually willing to pay some large amount, if you ask for it. It’s a win-win anyway: they get their problem fixed, and you get money and potential problem to solve.
I noticed two extremes in how my acquaintances respond to COVID-19 stay at home notice. At one end, those who stay at home as much as possible like there is zombie apocalypse. At the other end, those who think that social distancing is nonsense and COVID-19 is a conspiracy. This story is for those who goes toward the first end, to show you what is going on outside.
Me and my team helped the Ministry of Education developing a simple mobile app for their World School Debating Championship 2017 event, as well as the 2018 Festival & Lomba Seni Siswa Nasional (FLS2N, or the National Art Festival and Competition for Students) online competition portal. The 2018 project was a complex and challenging one, as some provinces decided to use the classic on-site competition while other provinces decided to go online. 2020, COVID-19 came and everybody must go online. Long story short, our team was invited to Sentul, Bogor, for meeting with the committee and judges, to prepare for the part of the FLS2N and debating (LDBI & NSDC, Lomba Debat Bahasa Indonesia & National School Debating Championship) 2020 full-online competition.
My team member refused to go due to fear of COVID-19, so I as the team leader, had to go alone (I kind of miss those day when I was not a leader and can throw responsibilities to my boss). My wife was also worried and upon returning I would not be allowed to go to office before 14 days, but well, the show must go on.
I started driving to Sentul around 8 AM, and the traffic was very clear, comparable to those at 2019 Lebaran time (where most of people are outside the capital city), so that was one benefit of the stay at home policy. I arrived Sentul at 10.30, 1.5 hours earlier than schedule of registration at hotel. I spent my time at Starbucks to reply to e-mails and video call with my team. I chose Starbucks since it has the lowest risk to contract the virus, compared to other places like Dominos, KFC, or a bakmi (noodle) restaurant.
Starbucks has a pretty good policy towards COVID-19 prevention. Markers on the floor helped people who queue to keep a distance one another, all customers were scanned for fever and required to wear mask. I brought my own tumbler, and asked to put my tumbler in a plastic bag that the staff held, in a way that the staff would never have to touch my tumbler at all during the process. This ensured germs or virus from one customer does not contract to the next customer.
At 1 PM, I arrived at the hotel and registered. As I traveled alone, the staff said that I will be assigned a roommate. At this point I realized that to achieve global survival from COVID-19, people must work together. If my roommate was the conspiracy theorist like I said earlier (unfortunately he was not), I would have a much higher risk of contracted with COVID-19 even though I follow all hygiene and social distancing recommendations).
From the hotel itself, they have implemented various measures to limit spread of the virus. Mask and plastic gloves are compulsory while you are inside the restaurant, and guests are not allowed to take their food by themselves (yes, including to prevent those guests who pick the food to their plate, then change their mind and return the food to the tray). Guests are also not recommended to use the swimming pool (which some of them did, anyway). When I entered my room, the blind was largely opened, allowing sunlight to pass through at maximum level. When I closed it that evening (I don’t want to see ghosts at night), they reopened the blind next day.
As for the meeting itself, COVID-19 briefing is held at the first night. My roommate complained that it was a waste of time, but the organizer told me that such briefing is compulsory for holding the on-site meeting. During the meeting, it is not possible to 100% perform social distancing. At one time people have to open their mask and speak close to the partner for a secondary discussion. Other time, you have to lend your smartphone to your partner to show an image stored in your phone. After all, the goal of having on-site meeting is to overcome the difficulties in discussions due to social distance.
There is not much story to tell other than those, since the meeting was held for two nights only. One thing for sure, when I returned home, I decided to isolate myself from my family, to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
My employer started asking their employees to perform online attendance recording during this work from home period. Basically I just need to login to a website and confirm my attendance.
As a developer, it is easy for me to create a computer script that runs every morning and simulate me clicking the buttons to perform the attendance confirmation. And to be honest, I was tempted to do that.
But then again, what good will it do? I may get the pride of being able tricking the system. I may share the source code so other employees, good and bad, can use the automation. The employer will notice that, and they may put a captcha to prevent it.
Then, for the honest people, they will have to go through the captcha every time they want to confirm attendance. That, may be, not what I and you want.
Yang kesatu: belajar. Yang kedua: makan. Yang ketiga: berenang. Udah.
Hari ini belajar ca ci cu ce co. Habis itu bermain. Bermain lego. Setelah itu menjahit. Habis itu main miniset bunga. Miniset bunga dibentuk-bentuk. Bikin semacam kendaraan yang ada roda. Udah cuma segitu aja.
Setelah itu makan bekal apel.
Setelah itu di sekolah bajunya dibuka, diganti dimasukkan ke kantong kresek. Setelah itu berbaris depan kelas. Setelah itu turun ke lantai satu. Habis itu duduk di tangga lepas sendal. Setelah itu berenang dari besi pakai ban di tengah lompat ke air. Habis itu pulang, dijemput mama, mamanya dipanggil sama Ibu Guru Dila. Udah.
