People think I'm sweet. People think I'm mean. People think I'm quiet. People think I'm loud. People think I'm lovely. People think I'm bitchy. Go on and think. I'll think nothing but myself.
So I finished my commitment on the book project in the end of October. December marks the month as my new baby business was born - Carla Ardian Photography.
Some mock me to be turning into a housewife since I work mostly at home now. But really there are so many things to do. Redesigning a namecard (see below), branding a new website (now still the same old design of BukuCarla but I am planning to redesign everything there), optimizing my photoblog, taking care of my facebook fanpage, in the mean time still collecting ideas for the next possible photoshoots. I am having difficulty in getting the best marketing strategy, but I hope to get to it soon. It's a lot of things to do on my own though. Now I understand why people hire employees!
Anyway, it's good to be busy. I still need to synchronize the new logo above to all of the websites I use (blog, etc). And I just got an idea to design a small booklet summarizing the services I can do so that I can take it in my bag just in case one day I need to show my stuff to a prospective client.
I'm so full of ideas my head can burst open anytime now. It's crazy but exciting. I'm open to new ideas though. So my friends, if you have anything to advise me, please comment here or leave me a message in my email. :)
Well, I thought I had taken that label off of me long time ago since I have become fully efficient, organized and careful.
Not tonight, though.
It was raining when I was about to leave the office for my French course. Being rather late to the class, I rushed to my Honda motorcycle, opened up the seating to get my raincoat inside the compartment, absentmindedly dropped my bike key in it and in seconds clicked the seating closed.
Then an obvious question popped up:
"How am I going to start the engine with the key inside the locked compartment?"
Sluggishly, I walked back inside the office, told my boss the story and asked if I could borrow his motorbike instead. Then I went straight home and skipped my class once again.
This post is to give you an advance notice that I will be submitting posts in Bahasa Indonesia in the next couple of weeks in relation with my wish to enter the Festival Jajanan Bango blog contest. I mean, combine food and photography and writing, how can I possibly get away from this Rp 100 million in total prize contest?
Okay, after so many denials and much reluctance on joining different social networking sites (except facebook which I find very useful in finding long lost old friends), I was down to Twitter, too, eventually.
That is after I asked a few people who invited me what Twitter is good for. No one gave me a satisfying answer. Vitria, one of those who invite me there, says: "I'm confused as well. So I'm getting more people to be as confused as I am."
The best answer was from Baby Waskito, saying that it only functioned as a status update.
I have no idea why people would want to bother making an account that functions as a status update of what they're doing right now. But one advantage that I notice is that it is open for public view, where in facebook - depending what your setting is like - most of the time your page is only for the eyes of your approved friends.
So I signed up on Twitter to the advantage of letting my fans (and future clients) know what I'm doing mostly in regards to my photography activities.
Here's the link to my twitter account if you wish to follow me.
I'm not sure whether it is wise to be friends with your boss.
There are indeed a lot of positivity that can be gained to cheer up the working environment. Boss happy, employees happy; it means a maximum result. You can stretch yourself dedicating more for your job even when you don't need to.
But being friends means you have the liberty to say more of what is in your mind. And I always thought I knew the line. And I still stand to the belief that I didn't do anything wrong. I may have been a little bit outspoken (which I always have) but no bad intention was to follow my statements.
Too bad these statements have brought situations where it was unpleasant for him, and now me. And the talk comes back to boss-employee relationship again. Who pays and who is paid.
Sorry for the long delay. Life has been mysteriously hectic (that includes the fascination over TV series Lost and Prison Break so I couldn't get myself away from the telli).
Anyway, I've made a big decision to focus only on photography. In a month or two I'll be resigning from my present journalist job and will be a freelance photographer. [It feels weird to address myself so... professionally... but feels good anyway] So that's why I've been busy updating my portfolio and preparing pricelist and learning about copyrights etc.
I'm almost there and I'm dead anxious to see how it will come out. But I have a faith on myself and am pretty sure it will work fine if not great.
In the mean time check my website and see my photoblog I just made (powered by wordpress). And let me know what you think of it. Let me know also if you want me to be your photographer. ;)
It took me 3 days to finally see the view from my hotel room at Hermes Palace. Wasn't bad, but wasn't exactly spectacular, either.
Work
It was hectic today. Fabio and I were at breakfast at 8 something when he got a call that 2 luxurious hotels in Jakarta were bombed. They were the Ritz Carlton Hotel and J.W. Marriott Hotel.
Speculations emerged soon after the bombing which killed 9 people, 2 of them being completely destroyed. Some security analysts said that although it was too early to decide who was behind this, there was a possibility that Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) was behind this. Politicians linked the bombing to the election since it was just a little while ago the Presidential election of Indonesia was conducted.
In the mean time, Indonesian football enthusiasts were deeply disappointed and angered by the occurence that soon after the news went worldwide, famous English club Manchester United had to cancel their trip to Indonesia given the fact that they were supposedly to be staying in Ritz Carlton hotel.
So we spent the day going for rounds of live interviews with the government of Aceh while in the mean time making calls to some analysts so that Fabio could write it in the 30 minutes to one hour window time he had within one interview and another.
Change of ticket
We survived the day, nevertheless. And I've decided to stay longer to see more of Aceh. Vincent did not like the idea, but I hardly saw anything during my three-day stay. I just had to change my Garuda ticket so that I could go home on Sunday.
World Bank Aceh staff
I like them. They're sweet, friendly, very accommodating, and helpful. Some of them like photography and so I shared some of photography tips with them and they almost immediately thought that I was a pro photographer.
"I am not," I said, "But I will be."
That's a positive thing to say about your future career. Hehe...
This is Dhea. She works at the front office and she definitely has an interesting face. I also found out that Dhea and the other WB girls seemed to collect cute stuff and display them on their desks. Look at this one over here.
Food
One of the most important things in my travel is the specialty food of the region I'm visiting. I made some research in advance and decided that I wanted to eat Ayam Tangkap, just because of its name. Ayam means chicken and Tangkap (verb) means to catch. Wasted name like that caught my interest. I mean of course you have to catch the chicken first before you kill it and cook it, right? Anyway, below is Ayam Tangkap.
Review: I have to go rough this time, I'm sorry. But ayam tangkap is not that much of a special food. It consists of small pieces of chicken that are deepfried along with some herbs of I don't remember what kind (I don't think I've ever heard it before). I liked the fried greens but the chicken was just.... ordinary.
Anyway, it's good to be busy. I still need to synchronize the new logo above to all of the websites I use (blog, etc). And I just got an idea to design a small booklet summarizing the services I can do so that I can take it in my bag just in case one day I need to show my stuff to a prospective client.
