17 is the number (a.k.a. my last post)

There were always something special about the number 17. Indonesia's Independence Day was on August 17th. My old house number was 17. Sweet 17th birthday usually celebrated specially. I started my relationship with my girlfriend Lita on March 17th. My first post on this blog happened to be on May 17th. And so what better date than today, July 17th, to bring my last post on this blog. Yes, you read it correctly, this will be the last post here, but don't worry I will still blog on my new blog. Why did I have to move my blog there?

First of all, I have always wanted a more better weblog. My choice has come to Wordpress which happen to be the engine on my new blog at Blogsome. Secondly, I just started to realize the urge to make my blog HTML and CSS valid. I just found it hard to achieve on Blogger since there were many things that keep me not-valid over and over again. I already made the maximum effort to keep the smallest number of errors here as much as I could. Last time I check this blog has (only) 10 errors. There are nothing wrong with the template though. On my new blog I still use the Minima template by Douglas Bowman. After trying some other template and consulting with my friend, Budi, I find Mr.Bowman's template is the most suitable for me (Budi also use the same template). Third, my new blog doesn't cost me at all. Blogsome like Blogger is also free. I even use a domain, ericsetiawan.tk to redirect to my new blog, which again is free. So I got to use WordPress with free hosting and free domain. What more could I ask for? Fourth and last reason is.. why not? Since this is not the end of my blogging time, I still exist on the blogosphere only on different "home". So for those of you who usually read my blog here (Thank You very much!) you can now change my link to http://justrelax.blogsome.com or to http://www.ericsetiawan.tk

I guess this is it. Thank you so much for all the attention I got it's an honor to met you all. This is Eric, logging out.

how valid is your blog?

For those of you who make a weblog only for fun, or only concern about the result, may not make this validation a great deal. Or they don't even have a clue of what this is. I could end up the same as all those people, but luckily I have the right "friends" on the blogosphere. You might have notice that some blogs have a small badge/icon stating xthml valid or css valid. That is the sign of a blog that has been built upon a correct or standard tags of (x)html and css. If you want to see some valid blogs, you can visit Budi's, Avianto's and Priyadi's blog. Well, some of you might ask about the differences between valid and non-valid blog? On the visual appearence, there may have no difference. From my experience, there are some reasons that made a blog not html-valid. Building a WYSIWYG-base blog is one of them (don't trust your eyes, just follow the standard html coding and eventually you'll get there anyway). Blogger's blog like mine has lots of errors when validated. (Last time I check, this blog have 82 errors) Copy-pasting from other website/blog can also bring errors (mostly about Ampersands). For more spesific things, you might have to ask the pros. But you may want to ask why should we make a valid blog? Then I must answer, why not? If you have the chance and the knowledge to make it right, then why do you still making a not-valid one? Or for the perfectionist-type of person like myself, just think of it as a challenge or a test of your skill. After you satisfied with the visual, why don't you learn a little bit more and make your blog a valid one.

So, how valid is your website/blog? You can check it here.

welcome to SOS-Kinderdorf, Lembang, Bandung

Last Sunday, I have the opportunity to visit SOS-Kinderdorf in Lembang. Thanks to all my friends at Lil' Finger. Quick review and facts about SOS-Kinderdorf, Lembang. This is the first village (as they call it) in Indonesia. Since its beginnings in 1949, SOS Children's Villages has been committed to offering orphaned and abandoned children a home in a family-based environment. For further information about SOS-Kinderdorf International you can click here.

I never wanted to be a teacher, never learned to be one, never thought that I could become one. I came to Kinderdorf expecting only to be an observer, but then I was appointed to be a teacher of a group along with my girlfriend, Lita. Well, I was not actually teaching. I was talking with the children, playing, laughing a lot, joking around. I kind of having plenty of little brothers and sistes instantly. It was fun. Very tiring but fun. Afterward, we walk through some of their facilities. We also visited the home for the retired SOS mother. From this place, I learned some lessons. Family bond doesn't always have to be with birth-parents. We find families through our journey of life. And being old doesn't always have to be waiting for death, but to live each day the fulliest, praying for the best of their children and grandchildren. Thanks a lot for the lovely moment, kids. And thanks for the advice, the lessons and the blessing, grandma.

Thx to all Lil Finger staffs: Erwin, Handi, Khimkhim, Lily, Fong2, Lina, Ade, Fika, Ade, Eunike, Linda, Ani, Lita. Thx to STV crew: Cardo. Thx to the children in my group: Eno, Dewi, Maria, Aan, Leni, Mei, Ria, Suluh, Okto, Ignas, Flori, Siti. And all the cats in SOS-Kinderdorf.

mass rapid transport please

Last Saturday, I went to Setrasari Mall Bandung. I use public transport, that is a small minibus car that carried approximately 16 people (7 seats on the right, 5 seats on the left, 1 backward, 2 seats on the front, and 1 driver - amazing how such a small car can carry that many people). Normal ETA 30 minutes. Last Saturday, it took almost 1 hour for me to get there. Unfortunately, the new fly-over bridge didn't help much. Instead it caused more problems, traffic jams problems. As far as I remember, that bridge were built to reduce traffic jams in the city. Ironic. Now, I have time to daydreaming a bit. Why don't we (read: our government) build a mass rapid transport system, instead of building more roadway. By using public transport, a mass rapid one, it will decrease car quantity on the road, reducing time and cost, reducing pollution, saving fuel (which is critical and crucial for this time). Eventually we will have a better city, a healthy one. No traffic jam problems anymore. No parking problems. No more headache on the street.

is this me?

I see this on Nana's blog (lately I've been blogwalking to many different blogs and take some funny tests that normally I wouldn't take). When I tried this test (they say this is a sample test) I got several tie results. They say my highest score is a tie between type 2, type 3, type 4, type 5 and type 9. Maybe I'm the complicated-guy-type. Maybe I'm the average-guy who doesn't have anything extreme. Or maybe I just don't know myself. Anyway, if I want to know more, I should get the full test. Hmm, no thank you. This is for fun and I think this is enough.

free enneagram test

how jedi are you?

Read this from Andre's and Hanindyo's blog and try this myself.

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

But after I got my result, I've been thinking what other Jedi-type are there on the quiz. Well I try some combination and found out some other fun type. The Chosen One. Padawan. Jedi Master. Sith Apprentice. Sith Lord. And the last is one of my favorite.

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

I wonder if there are other type such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, etc. This is fun though.

4th of july

I believe today, all citizens of The United States of America are celebrating their independence day. So I want to congratulate all of you Americans. Or at least all American bloggers. Or maybe those who read this blog. Or there might be no Americans reading my blog but I am going to say this anyway. Have a Happy Birthday, America! ...

.. though I never has the chance to come to America myself and America might not be one of my favorite country. But don't worry Mr. Bush, I still love American movies, American singers/bands and NBA. It just that I love my own country more :)

Deep Impact on Tempel 1 Comet

UPDATE: On the 4th of July, NASA launch a Discovery Mission called "Deep Impact". No, this is not another Hollywood movie or sequel to a movie with a same title. But its mission is similar. To "impact" a comet, Tempel 1 Comet, with a spacecraft. For further details on its mission you can see here, here, and here. But although all the websites I've encountered all wrote about the mission as a successful one, there are also other opinion that most people missed. Some people thought that this mission actually an anti-asteroid weapon test as in the movie Deep Impact. Some thought that this mission is intervening nature's way. As for me, I think The Americans sure know how to make a big-celestial-firework for a celebration.

don't worry be happy

My friend show me a picture. The picture itself, a funny cartoon character, is not important (I like cartoons though). It is the texts that interest me. It says:

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred
2. Free your mind from worries
3. Live simply
4. Give more
5. Expect less

This is a good reminder, indeed. Be happy, everyone. Give me a big smile :)

message from the president

After lunch, I met with some people to do field work. Suddenly the cellphone of one of the worker beeping. There was an incoming short message. Guess what? It was a (unsolicited) message which the sender stated as "Presiden RI", the President of the Republic of Indonesia. The message says

Stop penyalahgunaan dan kejahatan Narkoba sekarang. Mari kita selamatkan dan bangun bangsa kita, menjadi bangsa yang sehat, cerdas, dan maju.

Stop drug's misuse and crime now. Let's save and build our country to become a healthty(?), smart(?), and advance(?) nation (thanks to Nana for forwarding that message to me; sorry for the rough translation; and for a screenshot of the message, you can see on Jay's posting). It is true that a couple of days earlier, the President has announced the presidential number for short messaging so that people can send one directly to the President, or at least someone close enough to him. Questions: Are these messages that people receiving real? Are there no other more important messages than drug problem? And I wonder how much profit PT.Telkom made just by the President sending short messages. And can it be considered SMS spamming? No offense Mr. President, but sending short messages to other people randomly and unsolicitedly is not quite polite (except in case of emergency or national security?). So people, what will you do if you are the one receiving it? I, myself, maybe saving it to my memory since this may be a rare moment when the President sending me message. Thank you, Mr. President, but not too often please.

UPDATE: Well, it seems that it is really the presidential short message (should we call it, SMS One?) as you can read it in Kompas Cyber Media. And I've just chat with my friend. I get a new perspective from this case. That this (or maybe other things too) can be considered special case. Although by definition what the President doing may be categorized as spamming, but we must considered what most people feel upon receiving such message. Don't you think most of the people will be happy receiving message from "Presiden RI"? What the President and his team need is a "little" thing that fair for ALL the receivers. Option. Whether we want it or not, should be the receivers choice, not the sender. That "little" thing would have made so much difference. But spam or no spam, I will stand by my word above. IF I receive such message, I will keep it. Happily, Mr. President, but not too often please :)

a fresh new sidebar

Okay, it's not actually "new". I've just re-organized it's layout and content. For a better look and easy to use, I hope. The biggest difference would be the Google AdSense. Maybe this is the only kind of advertisement that I can tolerate having it on my blog. I have been using several AdSense layout, big, small, back to big, and now I am using two rather big layout. I somehow you feel disturbed by the advertisement, feel free to give me some advice (I could use a good one). Next would be the banner below the profile box. I find it as a good place to put a banner. Maybe not a commercial one, but something like Technorati Live 8. Last, I have change the appearance of my blog links. I've made it more.. compact. To save more space and to reduce the scrolling down activity. So, this sidebar now is different. I don't know anything about freshness. But I certainly hope it will not stop all of you from coming to this blog from time to time, reading from post to post. Thank you.