Ari's life journey

Dear life,
These last two days have been very stressful for me. Yesterday my internet sharing server downed because of harddisk crash, and when I tried to replace the harddisk, the cdrom couldn't read smoothly the installation disk. I had to use my assistant's cdrom. The installation went allright, and the internet was up again. But, this morning, when he tried to turn on his computer, it failed. I found out that there was a short circuit in the motherboard. Well, I have to call my friend to fix it. I just hope the damage isn' too serious.

Yesterday, I tried to setup the router using Cisco's installation wizard. Seemed easy at first, because the wizard was really clear and step-by-step. The testing was passed, but when I tried to browse the internet, it failed. Also, it failed when I tried to ping the ISP. I was determined to successfully setup the router so that it would be ready this morning, but, at last I gave up. After making several calls to the ISP and leased line provider, I decided to ask for help from the ISP or LLP. But, I was told that the ISP would charge us for that, so, I called the LLP and they sent a technician. The technician seemed very skillful and he did! In doing his job, he tried to call the ISP for more details of the setting, but, the contact person weren't there. So, he called his head office and luckily, he had a friend that had 'inner' ally in the ISP. So, he start listening to his friend on the phone for direction and after a couple of hours they managed to setup the router successfully. Wow, I was grateful. I asked him to have dinner with me, but he politely reject the offer. He's really a professional.

A challenge has passed, another one emerges. We have just found out that our company will be audited by the JSX watch dog. It's nothing special really, it's done annually. But, they are requesting data from November, which I'm affraid isn't available anymore. You see, when the former IT still worked here, she always backed up the data weekly into the backup tapes and then deleted the files from the harddisk. And, I was told that if a tape run out of space, we could just erase it and put the new data on it. So I did! Actually, we also have mirror data from the manual process, but, just in case the auditor asks for the data from the computer........ All I can do now is hoping for God's mercy and I believe in Him.

An hour and a half! Imagine that..... we talked for an hour and a half. From 7:30 to 9:00 we exchanged news and thoughts. Hehehe... I talked about when we were in high school. She smiled when I told her a time when she was visiting her friend in my class, and whe she saw me entering the classroom, she rushed out of the room and bumped into a table. Hehehe.. "Bad memory", she said.

I made a promise to her tonight that I would take her to dinner in Singapore someday. That's a promise.

posted by Fajar @ 7:49 AM 0 Comments

Dear life,
I woke up still feeling quite sleepy this morning, maybe because I came home very late last night. I managed to read some pages of Onno W. Purbo's Apache Web Server book though. But, I slept in the server room on lunch time. Hahaha... it helped. It's very interesting, how the GNU license program makes Apache as the most used server in the world. With this license, people can use the program freely and even modify it, as long as they give other people the freedom to change the program, too. I believe, open system programs such as Linux, FreeBSD, dan Apache will eventually dominate the market if Microsoft keeps its way of doing business like it does now.

Anyway, I joined Master Web Indonesia community and made some good friends there. We often chat in MWI's official IRC channel, exchanging some web design knowledges, making fun of each others, giving support when someone has problem, etc. In short, we are like family. Some of my good friends are: botakgila, devil|ray, defftones, rahsy, gi4nt, bemby, dogfight, ramsy, labalaba, and ganja_man. Devil|ray is coming home next month, we promise to meet once he's in Jakarta to talk about something.

Have you seen Richie Ren and Cecilia Cheung's movie "Fly Me to Polaris"? On one of the scene, Richie Ren said, "Sometimes if we see the world with our eyes, we become hungry and want to possess what we see. So, in this moment, let us close our eyes for just a moment and try to see the world with our heart." Hmmm... maybe this is what I feel when I chat with my friends in IRC. We only know each other by nickname, but yet, the friendship is so strong. Maybe this is because we only see words after words typed on a plain white screen of our monitors. Shapeless and soundless. However, this abstract interaction makes the relationship pure and simple. Free of status differences, physical attraction, social masks, etc.

I met her again tonight in MSN Messenger. I tried to tell her the story of "Fly Me to Polaris". Hehehe.. it seemed the story was just too long and she didn't have the chance to hear it completely. Well, never mind. I hope someday I can see the movie together with her. It's a very romantic movie and I'm sure she'll like it, too.


Tonight I got this wonderful lyric from Sam :

And if I fall along the way
Pick me up and dust me off
And if i get too tired to make it
Be my breath so I can walk
And if I need some other love again
Give me more than I can stand
When my smile gets old and faded
Wait around I'll smile again

Shouldn't be so complicated
Just hold me and then just hold me again

posted by Fajar @ 6:51 AM 0 Comments

Dear life,
Today is a busy day for me. The RTI's subscription extension, JSX's confirmation of the extension, and finally the long-awaited Cisco 805 Router has arrived. With this new router we will have a stable internet connection. The one we are using now is suck, we have to reset the modem every 4-5 hours. I have called our leased line and internet service provider for new IP addresses.

My plan to study tonight isn't fulfiled. One of StockWatch's technician came to install their program. Alas, when I told him what OS we are using he said that the program won't run correctly because it wasn't supported by the OS yet. This means I have to install another OS on another harddisk. But, there was a problem with the cdrom, it couldn't read the cd smoothly. So, I have to open and close the cdrom repeatedly so that it could read the cd. It's 23:01 now, thank God the installation is over.

I met her again tonight in MSN Messenger. Oh, I love that moment when we chat. I felt like I was talking face to face with her and I could see her bright eyes and her magnificent smile. When I told her that I was having trouble with the cdrom, she promptly asked me to concentrate on it. What a woman! So supportive and understanding.

posted by Fajar @ 8:01 AM 0 Comments

Dear life,
I feel very happy today. Eventhough I started this day with a stressful situation, but it ended nicely.
Actually, I've just made a false impression of one of my bosses this morning. I thought he's a senseless and unsymphathetic person, but I was wrong.
I sent him a quite rude email expressing my discontentment of what he has done to my assistant (he cuts his salary without notice).
But, it turn out that there's a misunderstanding between him and I. What I thought to be a net salary is wrong, because when my assistant signed the contract, he had explained about the deduction, only the deduction happens starting this month. Well, my boss didn't angry. He explained the matter professionally. I said I was sorry for my misunderstanding to him.

Also, I met (actually still am meeting) someone I've known for so long. I like her very much. This morning she replied my email supporting me to pursue my IT skills and to have a great day ahead. And I replied, "I hope I can have a great day ahead with you." I do hope this.

posted by Fajar @ 5:49 AM 0 Comments