Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Save Me From My Bad Mood… :(

Surabaya is getting extremely hotter these days. Global warming? Whatever. It’s a bit unfair while the Philippines got too much water and we have much less.. :(

The heat has taken over me and my whole mood.

But the good thing is, I found this cute strip earlier.. :)

 

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Sunday, September 27, 2009

“SORRY” Shouldn’t Be The Hardest Word..

Living in the Eastern world doesn’t mean that you will live among the nicest people on earth. I sometimes wonder why do people say that we are amazingly friendly, when actually we don’t. We only have a huge attraction to any kinds of foreigners and anything that we don’t see everyday. This includes snakes with two heads.. ;)

 

It’s shameful though, being an Indonesian and have to hold the temper whenever got bumped in the malls, stepped on my feet in the most impossible location to get stepped, got pushed and taken over in the queue, got my car uselessly scratched by silly motorbike riders or stupid drivers, and lots others. I’ve stopped at the streets, got my nerves, looking for a “justice” but what I’ve got so far was never come by in a shape of “I’m sorry”. Of course that won’t probably work much in covering the repairing costs, but do you ever feel much worse after hearing an apology? Maybe no.

 

I read on The Economist’s View, an article posted by Mark Thoma on September 23rd titled “What’s An Apology Worth?”. Nice to finally see an empirical evidence about the advantage of saying sorry. I know it’s kinda late to write about it right now, but not getting an apology from those who “wrongly caught my interest” mostly cause me bad mood… :D

 

It is so true reading how saying sorry costs you nothing and even returns with benefits. Surprising though, how professional “apologists” are hired out there to say sorry and there are still people who don’t want to say it. Imagine a career being an Apologist… Don’t think of puppy eyes or even fake crocodile tears on your face, it’s the way you state the apology that counts.

 

For companies, saying sorry is a part of “taking care” of the goodwill. Goodwill itself is the most expensive abstract thing that the companies have. Do a slight flaw, don’t apology, be tough and don’t even care about it. Boom!  Their good reputation will get blown in a moment. I’m pretty sure that any kind of companies have known about the customers’ sensitivity. The more sensitive they are, the more careful you need to be. Based on the research done by Nottingham School of Economics' Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (and written on Mark Thoma’s post), it’s found that people are more likely to forgive those who say sorry rather than those who offer cash as compensation. But to be honest, as a greedy girl, I prefer both to relieve my nerves and relieve my purse. :D

 

So back to the non-apologist people around me, maybe this goodwill won’t appear to be their biggest asset. This is extremely contradicting as because most people will just tell us about the importance of inner beauty. So let’s make an example:

-- If you ever got bumped by a big bag owned by a somewhat good looking person and s/he turns and say “Sorry”, even just a slight pass before s/he flies away, you will feel okay. But if s/he does NOT turn to say it, the next thing comes to your head will be “Pretty and impolite.. What is that being pretty for? Oh! Fake branded bag!” --

The result, of course, will vary to one person to another. At least, that what will come to my own head soon after.

 

So if you don’t say sorry after making up even a slight mistake you unintentionally do, how will you keep your precious “goodwill”?

Saying sorry is economically proven to be very advantageous! Try it.. It’s not costly at all! ;)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

GET HIGH… GET HIGHER.. (Part 1)

Before I graduated last year, I’d been thinking about going abroad to take a higher education course. At the first thought, Europe came to mind. I was wondering about how it would feel to study economics in Groningen or Utrecht. I’m definitely not the brightest student alive, and I suck at econometrics as well as statistics, but I’ve started to feel bound to what I learned in the university.

 

It’s strange though, remembering how I started my first semester as an economics student in Airlangga University. I wasn’t so much interested. Got a very wrong reason to join the course, and also terrified by the mathematical courses. Microeconomics frustrated me, and mathematics nearly killed me. The only thing I could do well was English, and it had nothing to do with the whole degree. It was surprising to get 3 from 4 for my GPA, remembering that I didn’t do quite adequate effort to save my ass from failure. Luck? Perhaps.

 

I started to get interested in economics when I had to learn about development economics itself. Looking at what’s happening around, plus the theories and cases provided during the lectures, it finally caught my attention. Since then, I’ve developed different style of writing papers, different interest to share, and abnormal way to keep myself interested in what I’m in.

 

Enough about it.. It’s over anyway.. :D

 

What’s not over now is me being in the middle of admission process in Gadjah Mada University, taking part of the tests for Master of Management program. To be accepted, we will have to pass three tests:

1. The basic knowledge test

2. Academic potential test

3. Interview test

 

This is relatively new for me. Being a bit ignorant in the pervious studies is definitely not helping.  I was totally fucked up on those two days. The first day test was the basic knowledge test. I had to face 6 management subjects in a row, in a day! None of them I could get very familiar with. Take a look at these three sections:

 

First, Introduction to Business and Economics for Managers

-- They weren’t as scary as I thought. I thought that economics for managers would be similar as managerial economics, and what sucks was I didn’t get it in my previous degree

 

Second, Introduction to Financial Management and Basic Accounting

-- Both were about to be my weakest point. I was helpless in this sectiion. Pff.. Almost nothing I could remember, and the accounting wasn’t basic enough. If it had been really basic, it should’ve been about postings and journals.. :(

 

Third, Statistics for Business and Introduction to Business Information Systems

-- Was dead at statistics, but the IS was okay.. :D

 

Wanna see how did I look after those tests?

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I look totally desperate, huh? :D

 

The second day was even much worse. Got my head exploded.. But I shall write again soon. This post is already long enough.. :P

Weirdo strikes back

Well, it’s been a long time since I last wrote something that I can proudly publish. Not blaming anyone else but me and my laziness, because actually, I’m not that busy.

 

However, I remember the reason why I deleted my old blog and decided to stop blogging. I couldn’t stand the feel of being stalked from site to site, getting weird e-mails and even silly threats said in the name of love. To be honest, it was a pity that I had to erase what I wrote, the videos I uploaded, also the pictures I took and wanted to show off. But again, in the case of being stalked. Minimizing info about our personal life online is quite important.

 

I believe that some of you who already know me well would laugh at my last sentence. By being “too existed” in the internet, trying this and that, making accounts here and there then forgot the passwords, if you type my name on a search engine, I kinda sure that you’ll get pretty many results.. :D

 

Oh well, enough about it.

Shouldn’t we start something new about this?

Please keep checking back, or hit my head if I stop. ;)