coriander in pho

not a food blog

‘Heart Sutra’

May 22, 2020 9:11 pm

For many Indonesian 90s kids, most of us are familiar with a Hong Kong TV drama series ‘Journey to the West‘ (in Indonesia, we know it as “Kera Sakti”.) Journey to the West is one of the most well-known saga in Buddhism — a story about a monk, Tang Sangzang, with his three disciples in retrieving sutra, Buddhist sacred texts, in Central Asia and India. Monk Tang’s journey is filled with perils, humor, and adventures — facing demons and gods alike. This work of literature has been adapted to many shows and series, spawning many variations in music, literature, and films; even manga (Dragon Ball included ?)

In the TV series, monk Tang always saying, “isi adalah kosong, kosong adalah isi” — form is emptiness, emptiness is form. At that time, I didn’t think much about that saying as I see the series as entertainment source. I thought that it’s a neat way of thinking in Buddhism, but that’s it. I didn’t probe further on what it’s all about.

This morning, I watched my friend’s Instagram Stories. Recently, all Instagram Stories and posts are the same. Folks facing self-quarantines, lockdowns, words of prayers, hopes, despairs, and trying to make sense of all this madness.

In one of her stories, she posted a clip from a music video. The singer, however, is not a singer that commonly expected. The singer in the video is a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk. From the way he sings, I presumed he’s chanting a sutra.

“May I know the song title? Is this a sutra?”

“Yes. It’s really soothing ya. It makes me feel calm.”

Later, I found out that the song is from the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya). Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

I have a very limited knowledge about Buddhism, let alone a wisdom to understand the Heart Sutra. But to say that the sutra didn’t move the being, it would be an insult. What we able to see, to touch, the ones that hold a form, are actually empty. However, things that we unable to see, seemingly empty, are filled with form.

And I guess, I need this more than I thought.
Green Onions

May 3, 2020 10:54 pm

So recently I have been seeing many online articles and social media updates and tips about urban farming. The idea itself has been around since… 10 years ago? Or maybe even longer. However, since half of the world is now stuck at home, the idea revived and for some reason, it’s like bringing this… Concept of self-sufficient.

Years ago I tried taking care herbs which failed spectacularly. Since then, I decided to “train” myself with succulents and diehard plants such as golden pothos and snake plants.

Then I saw this Facebook post about grow your own green onions, so after several clicks on Shopee for purchasing soil, I decided to plant the green onion which I put on a jar of water. I‘m pretty pessimistic, though, but I saw some fresh roots popped out, so…

Fingers crossed.
After all these things and through all these things

April 29, 2020 11:29 pm

What’s the first thing you guys will do once the MCO is lifted?
A question in a watercooler Slack channel

I would create appointment with the air conditioner technicians to fix and do the thorough check on the air conditioners in our unit. Ari had done a good job in fixing some annoying leaking issue, but we wanted a professional to take a look and check if things need to be fixed or not.

Then, going to mamak restaurant to eat roti canai and a cup of warm sweet teh tarik, followed by a walk in the park.

I think one of the most frustrating things on this lockdown business is the obligation to stay at home. Me myself is a homebody/self-certified couch potato/I prefer to roll from one place to another with maximum distance of 5 meters rather than actually using my feet to walk — but dammit, when you are being told that you couldn’t and shouldn’t go out, that’s frustrating. When the choice is being taken away, that’s when your brain decided to riot.

Harvard Business Review commented that the discomfort we have been feeling is grief — and it rings true. We are grieving for the lives lost, succumbing to the virus. We are grieving for the connections being taken away from us; a casual hello or a hug between loved ones suddenly seen as high-risk and potentially life-threatening. We are grieving for the choices lost as we feel uncertain for the future.

And I feel these words: “Cry, Heart, But Never Break” are perfect to summarize how we feel and how we face this.

For you, friends: It’s okay to cry.

Did I cry? Hell yeah. I thought things will be easier as the lockdown progresses, but no, I’m still as angry and as sad as Day One. I’m still as pissed off as before.

It’s okay to cry.

Then we give our collective middle finger to the virus because we know we can get through this. That scene where Keanu Reeves as Constantine being pulled to the Heaven and giving Lucifer a flipping bird? Yeah, that.

Stay safe, stay strong, and stay healthy.
Happiness Engineer position is now open!

April 27, 2020 4:26 pm
What is a Happiness Engineer?

In short, we are the Support team for Automattic products; mostly on WordPress.com, WooCommerce.com, and Jetpack.com. The purpose of Happiness Engineer is to support and deliver happiness to folks who are using Automattic’s products. We represent Automattic to our customers, and we are the voice of customers to Automattic.

I’m interested. How do I apply?

Awesome! To apply, you can check our official Work With Us page 🙂 As for Happiness Engineer, the direct page is here.

I’m not super good in website programming/developing/coding. Can I still apply?

Believe it or not, it’s one of the top questions asked when I informed my family and friends about the job opening.

The answer is: If you know how to code (basic knowledge in HTML or CSS,) that’s good. If you don’t know how, I suggest you to learn a bit about it. Even the basic knowledge on HTML and CSS is helpful 🙂 I blogged a bit about HTML and CSS in Indonesian in case you want to take a peek.

HTML and CSS, and any other coding languages that you can master, are skills that you can learn and improve as you progress and learn more. The most important aspect that you need to have is patience, eager to learn, and ability to read, like, a lot. You can check Automattic Creed and see how the company operates.

I wrote my experience in applying to Automattic (in Indonesian):
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions on how it feels to work as a Happiness Engineer in Automattic (I’ve been working as an HE for 1 year.) I can’t provide any “inside information” or committed on your application, but I can share my perspective about Happiness Engineer role and what I think about it 🙂

I’m setting this post as sticky for searchable purpose in case you folks are interested
Restricted Movements

March 19, 2020 8:10 am
Hey! How are you friends doing? Things have been pretty weird and surreal due to the COVID-19 outbreak and all of us (I would say “most” since clearly some people don’t care about social distancing which could cause potential escalated cases, but heh, I’m too tired of getting angry) have been doing our best to take care of ourselves and others. More power to you and to us! We can do this!

There is this meme that I really like about how we do our social distancing:

And there’s even a passing analysis about that meme on NY Times related to how folks react to “fight the virus”-attitude.

Anyway! So yeah, back on March 16, Malaysian government announced order for restricted movement. Not an actual lockdown lockdown, but we do have restricted access to public places and it’s expected for us to stay at home from March 18 to March 30/31. So… Lockdown-ish…?

Schools and offices are closed during that time (except for some vital institutions or offices that need to open through this kind of times such as hospitals, security services, cleaning services, and some government offices) — for school closure, thankfully, this is during school break. However, some schools do open during the break for some extracurricular activities. Some schools also provide daycare functions for children with working parents/double incomes. Due to the Restricted Movements, those schools need to close.

On March 18, things feel quite surreal. The picture above is Jalan Tun Razak (Tun Razak street), one of the main roads in Kuala Lumpur and I took the pic on 7 AM; when it’s expected to have traffic jam on daily basis — yet it’s really empty at that time. Not many people around either (usually the pedestrian walkways are pretty crowded with office workers and people living in the apartment building nearby.) Food trucks that usually operate during breakfast and lunch times are nowhere to be seen. I really hope the pakciks and makciks who operate the food trucks are okay, heathy, and in a good condition. Selling food is one of their main source of income, and they couldn’t do it due to the outbreak.

Both my husband and I are working from home (a default condition on my side ?) along with the mini Godzillas whom we affectionately called as our children.

That picture is not taken yesterday, but yeah, that’s the… Tidiest situation of our home when the kids are around and stuck at home for more than 2 hours.

My super-not-parent-friendly suggestion when folks asked me how I cope with everything while kids at home are:

“I told my kids: Please don’t call me when I’m working except for these three conditions:

• Somebody is dying
• Somebody is bleeding
• Something, or somebody, caught on fire

Other than that, Netflix, Youtube Kids, and potato chips at your disposal.”

Anyway, if this is your first experience in working from home/remote working, hello and welcome! Me myself is not an expert on this (I just started remote working a shy 1 year ago) so, yeah, we are in this together. Feel free to share or chat about your experiences! Did you find it enjoyable? Lonely? Stressful? Calming?

If you want to read some tips or cool articles about remote working, you can check these links:
- https://alistapart.com/article/habit-fields/
- https://mkaz.blog/misc/async-is-the-key-to-distributed-work/
- (And if you suddenly found yourself eating more when you are working from home (I noticed this happens with my friends who have to work from home)) https://thespoon.tech/new-to-working-from-home-here-are-some-food-tech-tips-to-avoid-big-weight-gain/

Quick blurbs

Saw this site mentioned the other day on Slack: neocities.org.

Scroll down and you will see “Featured Sites”. Never knew it brings back early 2000s, and it makes me so, so happy.

April 23, 2026