23
I want to wake up earlier
I always want to have an 48 hours day and yet I know such dream is impossible. Thus, I strive to wake up early every day – just to utilize that precious minutes.
This is my typical plan.
Wake up: 0600
(shower, breakfast, traveling to school and avoiding sardine hours)
Arrive at school: 0700
What a wonderful plan except for a little detail. I cannot wake up at 0600. Every time I set my alarm at 0550, 0600, 0610, 0620, 0630, 0640, 0700, 0710, 0720.
Too bad, I can only manage to wake up at 0700.
Ok, one hour difference. What a big deal?
A lot. Wake up at 0700 means that I will most probably get no breakfast, trapped in sardine hours and arrive at school nicely at around 0820 with no time for preparation. Arghh…
22
On being positive
My friend once mentioned that according to some research: “five out of ten richest people in the world are drop out”. While such result is indeed unfavorable to world of academia, the realm where scholarly lust to knowledge is highly encouraged, I see no need to deny the result.
Being an optimist, I will rephrase the statement into: “five out of ten richest people in the world are NOT drop out”. See? Not so bad after all.
To further support my ignorance towards such statement, allow me to conjure several plausible research results which I have never conducted or obtained from any other source.
“nine out of ten poor people in the world are either drop our or group who never receive any education”
“eight out of ten malnourished people in the world are uneducated”
“nine out of ten poor countries do not invest enough in education sector”
Education may not guarantee wealth and prosperity. However, it will lower your chance of not getting any of those earthly concepts of success.
19
Gajah Mada must be very proud today
The above title is currently my MSN subtitle.
Gajah Mada, prime minister of the now-collapsed Majapahit Empire had once vow to himself.
“Lamun huwus kalah nusantara ingsun amukti palapa, lamun kalah ring Gurun, ring Seram, Tanjungpura, ring Haru, ring Pahang, Dompo, ring Bali, Sunda, Palembang, Tumasik, samana ingsun amukti palapa “
Okay… okay… English translation of what is known as Sumpah Palapa
“As long as I not unify Nusantara, I will not taste any spice. Before I conquer Gurun, Seram, Tanjungpura, Haru, Pahang, Dompo, Bali, Sunda, Palembang, Tumasik, I will never taste any spice.”
Although the literal meaning of the oath seems to be rather childish, some busybody often interprets Sumpah Palapa to mean that Gajah Mada would refrain from all earthly happiness until he conquered the entire known archipelago of Nusantara for Majapahit.
Q. Why does he need to be proud today?
Hmm… I always thought that the answer will be quite obvious. However, some people could simply unable to find the thin thread that connects my statement and above information.
*sigh
In any case, I just realized that my school email is now in spammer’s list. Dugh
15
How to become a happier designer
I could not claim that I am a good graphic designer (GD). Nevertheless, after doing several ‘amateur’ design projects over the past few years, I think I could shed some light to many younger designer wannabe who still looks GD through a rose tinted glass.
Please note that the tips mentioned below may be applied to many other technically specialized professions in which the big boss up there is not really intelligent and pretty much gullible. Please apply my following advice moderately depending on your situation. After all, personal development and satisfaction of doing your job properly are definitely l good, let it be for your resume or your next month paycheck or end of year bonus or another ‘frills’. Remember, attitudes counts. Use these following tips if and only if you see no way you could survive (physically and mentally) under your current situation.
1. Bargain for a much less requirement
There is nothing wrong to tone down your client’s requirements before they are asking for billboard that is equipped with anti-gravity machines. Rule of the thumb: clients’ expectation is always ridiculous thanks to marketing people.
1.1 Give a much more sophisticated result as compared to their smoothed requirements (optional)
After all, if you could suddenly give a design that exceed their expectation, that will be good for your wallet and reputation.
2. Never reveal all of your ‘good’ ideas at one time
Instead, put your mediocre design in between an ugly and an extremely ugly design. Save that ‘good’ design for a higher paying client. Combine this Tips #2 with tips #3 for a more powerful effects.
3. Make mistakes
Every client, let it be the manager, boss or customer, need some sense of importance no matter how ludicrous it is. On the other hand, you, as a GD, do not want your design to be screwed up by any incompetent bipeds no matter how many millions of years they have evolved. Your product is your resume!
The solution: make a very obvious mistake that even kindergarten students could spot with half eye opened; Set the fonts intentionally too big or too small. Make the picture slightly slanted. Choose a moderately ‘off’ color. Add some irrelevant grainy dots here and there.
It is a gracefully tailored solution that will prompt your client to ask you to fix your mistake first and prevent their brain cell from churning out nonsense suggestion which you could not oppose. Not only it will give a sense of purpose to the client but also an extra time for you to work on something else (since you know the fixed solution anyway). A win-win situation for everyone.
There is very few occasion which you could delightfully say “Are you satisfied now!?” with a grumpy look.
And just like any other magician, I still got some other tactics at my disposal. Hehehe
