Twitter Drama

You might want to read my previous post first, when I explained about Pecha Kucha Night in “The Confession of A Toy Addict”

This month (in the 5th Bandung PK Night) was my turn to talk about another addiction, my addiction to twitter.

At first I was thinking about selling twitter from a tech point of view, how its simplicity can be addictive. But then one of my friend in twitter wrote this, “Twitter as a tool is not that cool, but people like you or @jowyang who makes it cooler”.

(awww… he really made me blush indeed)

Come to think of it, he’s right. It’s the people, not the tool per se (sorry for quoting you). It whom I followed and the everyday stories from our daily engagements. So then I decided to highlight more on the people and the ‘dramas’.

Marriage proposal via twitter

Despite of my trembling voice (and hands) and a few lack of timing management here and there, I think it went okay. After my talk, I got some new (tweeple) friends who came to me and thanked me for showing them there are many ways to enjoy twitter. Some even think it was funny…

trembling voice (and hands)

Anyway, here’s the complete version of my presentation. You can watch the youtube video (of how I humiliated myself embedded) after the 20th slide.

If you like it, I am happy. If you’re inspired, I am thrilled.

If you’re laughing at me, oh well… at least I amused you.

And thank you, my dear twitter friends for all your real time digital supports 😉

Related posts:

• More photos on flickr set “Twitter Drama”
• A Confession of a Toys Addict

A Long overdue “thank you”

Not for clicking the “follow” button where everything started …
Not for every digital hugs, smile, salute, laugh, cry we did to each other countless time in public timeline (or DM) …
Not for the real hugs you gave me during hard times …
Not for standing up like a big sister when situation called …
Also, Not for showing me how to face life with smile … (no matter how bitchin life acted)

I did thank you for all those things.

This time,

let me thank your mother,
for delivering you to this world,
so you can be my best friend.

Happy Birthday, Leonnie!
May all your wishes come true,
no matter how perfect your life already now.

Hugs,
Alfa & Aldo

27 facts: How twitter changes my life

1. I have lost my capability in writing blog with standard format. So this post is the compilation of my #sixwords tweets on how I explained about how twitter changes my life.
2. Blogged about twitter. Now tweet blogs.
3. Finding that @guykawasaki is rather hot. #bigfan
4. Hear something funny. Laugh then tweet.
5. Getting use to read lines backwards.
6. Hardly use del.icio.us. Tweet then faved.
7. Tweet me if important. Otherwise sms. #elitist
8. When my phone low bat, husband happy. #relationship
9. I am sorry, CNN. You’re history! link #elitist
10. I found out what XD means. #emoticon
11. I don’t watch tv drama anymore.  link #jtug
12. Had the best birthday blast ever.  link #jtug
13. Met the craziest bunch of tweeps. #jtug
14. Sleep? What is that? New word?
15. Bisa maen triominos sama Nicholas Saputra. @somemandy @venustweets
16. Craving for fame, seek more followers.
17. Husband never ask where I am. #relationship
18. Flirting with less than 140 characters.
19. I am so addicted to #sixwords
20. I can not blog anymore, shit.
21. Honey, must you tweet during movies? #relationship
22. Chat? Oh, you mean Direct Messages? #elitist
23. Fire! Run! wait, must tweet that.
24. Go to your room. No twitter! #punishment
25. Hang out? I’d rather tweet up.
26. I’m twitter MLM with obvious reason. #jtug
27. There you go, @aulia 🙂

Pre Pesta Blogger 2008 and all the buzz

I am so excited. Really.

Usually I only have 2 excited moments of the year, 3 if you count Idul Fitri, 4 if you include birthday, 5 with new year eve…

Euh, but I am talking about annual events. Usually what matters for me are only local advertising award shows; Pariwara and Adoi Advertising Award. I always look for those events because, well… the awards, the booze, the meet up with other creatives from advertising agency and production houses, the wild after party…

But this year, another one has been included in my agenda, Pesta Blogger 2008.

Am I a blogger? yes. A professional one? (you mean like being paid just by blogging, nope). Why do I blog? mentioned it here.

I had the courtesy having Enda as my co-worker (only for a few months) last year. From him I got to know a lot about Indonesian bloggers, and how blog itself has been acknowledge as a new media. But I never got a chance to meet any other Indonesian bloggers, the senior ones, or probably the so-so ones like myself. Some of my co-workers blog too, but we tend to keep it secret from each other. I don’t know why, maybe because i still hear some words about blogging = narcist.

Am I a narcist? hell yeah 😛

So why all of the sudden I get so excited to attend the annual event of Pesta Blogger this year?

It’s because of the media they (and I) use. As far as I know, they weren’t any conventional media like TV commercials or print ads. The blog of Pesta Blogger itself is pretty solid, announcement was made by invitation through facebook that spreads faster than my own internet connection. And I also have to give facebook status updates AND twitter credits for this. By reading only Enda’s status updates and twitter, it gave me buzz of what’s going on. I’ve been involving myself with twitter quiet deeply lately. As a micro blogging media, the news were fast, informative, and effective. Thanks to @aulia and @budip, I have always been updated with the latest news toward the big event itself. Thanks to the podcasts done by @thomasarie, also Pasar Malam podcasts by @aulia and @mahadewa, I get the sense of buzz news which got me really excited, although I still don’t have any idea what I will experience tomorrow….

nearly,

well, I know there will be 5 foreign bloggers, whom have been invited to do a travel from bali, jogjakarta, and end up in jakarta for the big event tomorrow. I am following 2 of them in twitter and their tweets about how they feel being here for the first time amuse me.

I also know there will be several discussions related to blogging, one of them about creative blogging by Raditya Dika, and I am excited to meet that crazy guy in person.

And of course, I can’t wait to see my twitter friends, too 🙂

Please note that none of those people I mentioned above who helped Pesta Blogger spreading the buzz were being paid.

The idea of making the bird costume came several weeks ago. I don’t know why I bother to so much to wear a costume to this event. I always wear black and only black whenever I came to award show (advertising people = black?). I guess I missed wearing costume, weather it’s gothic, awfully hit and run, 60s, or being a silly blue bird bringing a pan…

So if you come to Pesta Blogger tomorrow, and you spot a weird creature in a shape of blue bird… yep, that’s me.

 

blue bird and pingu

 

 

Aldo helped me a lot in designing the costume. It was made by our friend, Gina, who know own her business in clothing, based in Bandung. The costume cost Rp 200.000,- And if you’re interested to own one, yes you can order it. Let me know, and I will put you to Gina 🙂

I made name cards too… Three layouts, a series of ‘being nice to animals’.

 

name card "twittering" version

 

 

Flickr set of Pesta Blogger 2008 is here.

See you in Pesta Blogger 2008!

I am better at dancing and making puppets

On the contrary on what I said about why I blog, I think I forgot how to blog again.

I’ve been spending too much time on twitter. Waay too much. And I’ve been saving some tweets/ threads which told stories in my tumblr. Saving them was as fascinating as arranging them into a more readable stories. It sort of change the way I write, I guess. I tend to write shorter. Like this. Yes.

I am back on making video blog again. I tried it once here, here, and here. Then I just lost the appetite on it. I never care why until my friend in twitter, @asil interviewed me for her writing about video blogging. She interviewed me with @kapkap. Then she encouraged me to start making one again.

So I made one. I sort of made it for one of my twitter friend who got married. I never met her in person until her wedding day, so it was kinda special… in a way. She was so nice inviting us whom she never met beside the twitter world.

So this is the result. It’s nothing fancy. Recorded with my ghetto digicam (courtesy of @javajive to call it ‘ghetto’ hehehe), 4 megapixel and very grainy when it deals with low light. I edited in iMovie, after converting some scenes in http://www.zamzar.com (free, easy, recommended!). This is the result. My twitter friends loved it. One of them told me she even cried, because she hoped the friendship we had was somewhat special. And I don’t think she was being corny, I agree, friendship is a gem, no matter how weird the way you find your friends 🙂

I was happy to be able to make something that pleased people. Although it was only a small silly vlog. I remember the satisfaction is similar with the day I was inspired by John Merrifield. I think once in a while I need to get out of advertising to do something different. And even if at the end it’s only a silly video of happy friendship, I still think it’s priceless because it makes people happy.

So one time you’re happy with the friends you found in the internet, but then another time you also sad by looking at something like this. A guy felt offended so he said goodbye to twitter and deleted his tweet. I don’t want to make any further comment on that. I just want to say that it makes me feel sad. Twitter people I met online and offline are all nice people. They’re unique individuals but basically they’re nice. 

Some blogs were made to response to the situation (and maybe even more beyond my recent knowledge), but one of them is here. The last blog post I mentioned actually got me a bit er.. sad too. 

The internet is a free media where everyone can speak and stand on what they believe. It became so free it rather scary. The blog post made me remember how I hurt somebody else’s feeling without intention. It was pure joke. And made realize how many other people I have harmed. The blog post also made me feel shallow in a way. What have I done? I mean, really? what have I done? Ads? Proud to got them displayed? Shitty way of showing off my knowledge to the world like here? Or proudly presenting myself and my achievement like here, there, and everywhere? 

Gosh, I am almost 30 years old in a few days and I feel shallow.

So what should I write? Or post? without offending other people’s feeling? My dying dog? Is that safe enough?

Or maybe stop blogging and just keep tweeting?

Or learn to grow up and behave properly. And stop whining like some 5 years old.

Forgive this rant. I am better at dancing and making puppets for Sam than blogging. I should just stick to puppets. They were cute and didn’t cause any harm.

Why do you blog?

I wished upon him much joy

 

Good question.

And to celebrate Blogger Day (27th October), this blog post was made to answer that question.

If you’re a girl, like me, you must remember the good old days in high school when you and your close girl friends sharing a diary together. Not the kind of diary with lock and “OPEN THIS AND YOU’LL DIE” written all over the front page, but the kind that big enough to fit lots of colorful drawings, interesting clipping from magazines or cute photo box of you and your mates, or long written expression of how you shitty feel on a particular day.

If you’re a grown up, like myself at this moment, you’d probably sigh and deny the fact that you were one the girls who share that diary together. 

No matter how hard you’ll deny it, I know one thing for sure. Whenever I finished ‘posting’ something in that diary, I always felt better and had half of the burden lifted up. And whenever I got a ‘reply’ from my mates, or simply a hug, the world became colorful again.

That would explain why I am still blogging until now.

When I just moved to Jakarta seven years ago, I use to write long emails to my mom to overcome my homesickness. It did help, a lot. I wrote useless stuff which only matter for me and her, like how delightful it was to be able to go to the top roof of my office building, or how hungry I am and how the thought of her cooking made me miss home terribly.

After starting my first blog here five years ago, I used it as an ‘open letter’ to her and my closed relatives, including my long distance husband (was my long distance boyfriend). Then I began to make friends online from that blog. I even did a collaboration work with a person I have never met.

 

my diary about wedding preparation, 2006

I blog about everything. My thoughts, experience, photos, sometimes purely links. I used to reveal a bit of what I was working on, but after reading a written announcement about the law of blogging vs company I was working for, I was becoming very cautious and changed all my work related blog posts into private. Wouldn’t take any chances. Although, I have to add that lots of my blog readers envied my job and admire the company I worked for. So, in a way, I actually helped them with good publicity.

Having been a blogger for several years, I become more careful of my posts. I know it’s an open public space expression, nevertheless it is open to public. Writing a blog post is becoming more difficult for me, like crafting an ad. Who am I talking to, what am I going to write, will it offend some people, will it be a crappy writing and waste my readers’ time? 

 

I still use my note book

Of course, I still blog. But not as often I used to. And as much as I would like to say how blogging set my inner expression free, it’s not. Blogging is a serious stuff. It’s still fun, but it’s not just just write and post and voila. A blog post came from considerable amount of researching, thinking, and creating. What you blog defines who you are in a blogsphere, like a clothes you choose to wear in your real world.

That’s why I twitter more than blog. Sometimes I got this idea in my mind, just a thought, but not a blog post, so I tweet it. Sometimes I just want to write how I feel about something, but it’s enough in less than 140 characters, won’t be much for a blog post, enough for a tweet. Sometimes my mind is so full of scattered things that wouldn’t make any sense in a blog post, so I just tweet them, will blog them later (or maybe not at all).

In my humble opinion, blogging will never expire, it simply evolves.

As a human, my need to express myself, share my thoughts, and tell stories will never die. It will remain the same. That’s why I will keep on blogging.

Happy Blogger Day!

How to spot twitter users in a food court

Twitteratis living in twitterville is a different species than blogger;

• As talkative little birds, they chipper (tweeet….tweeet…) instead of talk.
• They are very effective in saying things, usually less than 140 characters.
• They use http://tinyurl.com when the story gets deeper and longer.
• They have short attention span, in a nice positive way.
• Refer to point above, they love helping each other. Ask them a question and the answer will come less than a minute.
• “We’re DM-ing” means “it’s our secret”
• When talking to you, they usually say “at” (@) before “your name”.
• They love hugging to cheer you up when your down, say “YAY!” when happy and look like this XD when being excited
• They seldom update their blogs, but tweets within minutes in their daily life
• They kind, fun, lovable, and don’t use rude language
• Unless they really have to

It was my third time going to a Tweet Up (Twitter Meet Up). Lots of new faces. Real faces, not merely tiny user pics with less than 140 characters tweets. Honestly I was nervous, but it was unnecessary. I was ecstatic to finally shake hand with my Kemoceng War partner, @kapkap, who then gave me the pin which was made by @rampok and @puspa, based on the logo @kapkap designed.

Glad to finally see @aulia and @savitri again after our last tweet up like forever ago.

I am terrible in remembering people’s name, so I made this on spot, the sitting arrangement to make sure I got their name correctly.

@anima @rampok @patvandiest

@aulia @savitri @dalih @asil @nanashambles

@chibialfa @kapkap @puspa

@kapkap also showed me the original art work of twitteratis member she did long time ago. It’s still in beta, but hopefully it will never finish by the fast growing of the member.

*Update [@kapkap’s writing about her 1st impressions vs reality towards all twitteratis member]

Beside recording the Henshin slow-mo, riding the ferris wheel was the highlight of the night.

I went in total analogue and left my digital camera home. It was amusing to see how easily most of them amused to see the 35 mm rollei. @aulia didn’t, tho…

@aulia : “Don’t they have this thing called digital camera these days?”

@chibialfa : didn’t know how to explain why film is not dead yet in less than 140 characters 😛

Update: Yay! The results from my rollei finally came up. Added in the tweet up set and rollei set. I accidentally pulled the film too hard that the film was ripped inside. But Aldo fixed it, and nothing wrong with the result (phew). Uh wait, everything was wrong with the result; under exposed, over grain, weird colors. But isn’t it the spirit of lomography? (or so they say) 😀 😀

this one is my favorite

Of course it bothered me a little since I can’t upload anything while @patvandiest already make an album in facebook and @anima uploaded the hilarious henshin video. I can’t wait to see more photos from @asil’s camera tomorrow. (Update: add new photos from @aulia and @asil facebook)

Nevertheless… it was a fun and romantic night. Looking forward for the next one.

• Photo Set in flickr
• JTUG (Jakarta Twitter User Group)
• Follow JTUG in twitter

+++

Aldo : “Was it fun?”

@chibialfa : “Yup! Like meeting others that are like me…”

Aldo : “In the 80s, you would have been crazy about nge-break thing, and tweet up would be like…”

@chibialfa : “KOPI DARAT :P”