coriander in pho

not a food blog

On reporting and supporting

July 17, 2020 10:17 pm

When I just started working in Automattic, I always terrified of bug reporting. Mostly because I feel like I’m not in a good position to report anything, and even if I did, I’m scared of the prospect of other folks in the company — the more experienced ones — looking at me while asking, “what do you know?”

And I can’t be more wrong than that. On the last year’s Grand Meetup, I sat with folks from different divisions and teams during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Whenever I mentioned that I’m a Happiness Engineer (Support), they always exclaimed, “you are from Happiness! Can you share with me what are the things that we can improve? Do you happen to see some stuck issues that you want to be fixed immediately?”

Soon, I learned on how to report bugs on GitHub. I have so many help and encouragements from developers and friends from different divisions. They shared some tips and insights on how to report bug properly so the developers or folks in charge would know what to do next.

4W1H

I omitted the “Who” because that’s not the focus on bug reporting. The “who” would be pretty obvious: The one who reported the bug.

The What. What is it? What’s happening? Something is not working, something is broken. Something needs to be fixed.

The Where. Where did it happen? Is there any specific area where you found the bug? Is it on the editor, is it on your live site?

The When. Is it intermittent? Is it constant? When did it started? Has it been long?

The Why. As silly as this sounds, you can share more on why you report the issue. Maybe you feel this is actually enhancement that can improve the process, maybe you feel some flows can be reduced for effieciency. And most of times, this is a bug that needs to be addressed ASAP because it’s destructive.

The How. The most important question: How to replicate the issue? You can share the steps as detailed as possible. For example, first step, click this link. Second step, click that button. Third step, add this element. Fourth step, see everything burn in flames.

Set the goal

Once you can determine the 4W1H, set the goal. What you expected and the reality/what actually happened.

”So! I clicked this button and that button. I expected a pop-up will appear. However, in reality, nothing appearing, and I even see an error message!”

It gives clear goal and expectation of what should happened so we can narrow down on what went wrong/the cause.

We trust you, we are trying to replicate the issue

I noticed a behavior where some folks discussing an issue with Support team and they usually mentioned, “I might sound super silly right now, but I swear before I saw this error message,” “I really hope you don’t take me as a rambling mess, but I definitely had a trouble before,” or, “I’m so sorry for wasting your time, but I did saw an error on my page earlier today.”

No, you are not wasting Support’s time. Even after so many questions from us and the error suddenly disappeared, please rest assured, we appreciate you reaching out to Support. That great relief when you see the problem disappear? Yeah, we feel it too. Even when we literally go, “… ??” in front of our laptop because, ”I swear to everything holy in this world, I haven’t done anything! So, uh… Yay?“

Sometimes folks might feel bit overwhelmed when Support asks questions and some might forgot the details or they might afraid to overshare (“is this relevant? Should I mention about this weird blinking text on my site? I’m curious about this weird letters on my site, should I mention about it too?”) That’s completely okay! Any details are appreciated. Even when you feel like you are missing something, that’s okay. Support is there to check for the gaps and fill in the details. Once Support has the general picture, we can narrow down the issue and assist you faster.
9 years and counting…

July 10, 2020 12:23 pm

Earlier today, as I messing around with this blog’s theme for the gazillionth times, I checked my Facebook Memories and I found a picture from 9 years ago — my high school teacher with me, standing side by side, and with a caption of my teacher with me as her student.

Something on my mind started to fizzle. It felt like there’s something important that supposed to happen today but I couldn’t figure out what. I looked at the picture again.

Then something clicked. Damn. Damndamndamn.

My husband was in a hospital for his kidney check-up (he got a minor case of kidney stone and he visited the doctor after 2-weeks in-home treatment). I rang him up.

“Hi, where are you?”

“Uh, still at the hospital. Why?“

“Yeah. So, I just remembered something—“

“YEAH, ME TOO.”

“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LOL.”

”I already set a reminder on my phone yesterday but I guess I missed it lol.”

Happy marriage anniversary, dear. 9 years and counting. And look! We made two mini-us!
Plants Updates

June 29, 2020 3:38 pm

I’m that kind of person with the ability of killing a plastic cactus. Once, a golden pothos perished on my hand. PERISHED. A gardener once went agape when I mentioned to them that I once killed a mint plant. Mint is a very invasive, strong plant — it even considered as garden weed. And I killed it.

Anyway, that doesn’t stop me from trying. Yesterday, I bought myself a Thai chili plant, bayleaf plant, and kaffir lime plant. Bought a couple of jade plants too, so I’m happy.

(Left to right) Thai chili, golden pothos, bayleaf (on the back), kaffir lime (on the front,) and three golden pothos plants

The succulents!

And I found out that I’m proud plantmom! ?

LOOK AT THAT TINY CUTIEPIE, OKAY. SOMETHING ACTUALLY ALIVE AND THRIVE UNDER MY CARE — or, uh, neglect. Because sansevieria thrives on neglect.

AND ANOTHER ONE. YES. ANOTHER ONE!

I was so confused when I water the smaller sansevieria because it supposed to stay on the center — while I noticed it seems like slightly moved to the side and the pot seems crowded.

I tilted the pot and I noticed a wee smaller plant next to its bigger sibling! Yay!

Please wish me luck! Hopefully the plants are staying healthy and happy!
‘Abdijiwo’ by Retno Widya

June 17, 2020 9:28 pm

My sister, Retno Widya, has been developing her OC (original character) and combined with her interest in Javanese culture, she created a comic titled ‘Abdijiwo’ (in Indonesian.)

Translated from abdi (servant/humble servant) and jiwo (soul), the story is about three cursed souls who serve their living human hosts. A combination of drama, Javanese culture, and lots of comedies, you can find the comic ‘Abdijiwo’ in LINE Webtoon Indonesia. The comic is still in Indonesian language.

LINE Webtoon Indonesia: ‘Abdijiwo’
Sambal Goreng Kentang

May 26, 2020 8:01 pm

Ooookay, I’m not super sure the English term for it, but it’s basically another Indonesian take at sambal (if we could put sambal on everything, we would—wait.) Kentang is potato, sambal is, well, sambal (chili paste — mixed with garlics, shallots, salt, sugar, pepper, and sometimes, shrimp paste,) and goreng means fried.

This dish is not exclusively for Eid, and many households cook it as side dish (yes, it has potatoes AND we eat it with rice) and one of folks’ favorites because you can keep it and re-heat it for the next meal.

Potato is the main ingredients, and folks add another protein on it: quail eggs, chicken livers and gizzards, and (sometimes, if you — and your nose — are strong enough,) stinky beans.

A bit of warning, this dish has lots of chilis and shrimp paste. This is not for the faint of heart.

Sambal Goreng Kentang

With chicken gizzards because that’s how I like it

For 4-5 people; and you can keep it for 2-3 days in a fridge

Cut and diced:
800 grams potatoes (you can round it up to 1 kg. This depends on how much you like this dish, though.)
300 grams chicken gizzards

Spices, blended:
10-15 pieces red chilis (I don’t know its exact English name, but in Indonesia, we call it “cabe keriting” (curly chilies.) In Malaysia, though, I’m using Johor chili)
5 pieces bird-eye chilis (if you like it really, really spicy)
6 garlics
10 shallots
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste (belacan/terasi) (heat the shrimp paste first to exude its aroma)
2 candlenuts
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder (optional)

Spices, mashed/tear:
3 kaffir lime leaves
3 bay leaves
2 cm ginger
2 cm galangal

To taste:
Salt
Sugar
Pepper

Cooking oil

Deep fried the potatoes and the gizzards separately. Set aside.

Put a bit of oil on the wok (you don’t have to use new oil; you can use the oil from previous fry (potatoes and gizzards) and heat the blended spices. Add the mashed spices/herbs. Heat it until it’s fragrant.

Put potatoes and gizzards into the wok and mix it thoroughly. In Malaysia, we had this term: Pecah minyak; in Indonesia, my aunt mentioned to me to cook it “until dry” — meaning that you need to mix it on the hot wok until the sambal sticks on the potatoes and gizzards and you could see the oil “separated” from the dish. You shouldn’t see some kind of “chili soup” on the wok. The sambal needs to look like marinated the potatoes and the gizzards. And yes, it needs upper arm workout to handle this dish.

Serve with warm jasmine rice or ketupat.

Quick blurbs

I’ve been noticing some blogs that I frequently visit that they have update logs on it. Something like “added page XYZ on (date)”, and so on.

My FOMO has been screaming for me to follow suit, hahah.

May 4, 2026