coriander in pho

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  • Strawberries

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    It’s your usual midnight blog post; when you got yourself stay awake in the middle of the night and social media is too weird (and too angry) for you to check.

    I suddenly remember the times when I went to Florida, USA, for Automattic’s Grand Meetup back in 2019.

    Specifically: Strawberries.

    For me personally, it was one of the highlights.

    We have strawberries here in Malaysia — we even have some locally grown.

    The local ones are nice, but to have the good quality ones — I called it Driscoll’s quality — is really hard and expensive. 250 grams (one medium pack) of Driscoll strawberries cost you 50 MYR (11 USD-ish). I rarely buy them, and when I did, I always hide it from my kids. The strawberries look like the ones you see on TV and magazines. Plump, round, and really sweet.

    During GM 2019, we stayed in Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista — and I found out they have a minimarket inside the hotel (shoutout to fellow Automatticians for showing me around when I arrived at the hotel.)

    I passed some shelves, looking for cup noodles, when my eyes saw the fridge area. There they were, stacked neatly, boxes and boxes of strawberries. Plump, round, and sweet strawberries.

    I checked the price.

    2 USD.

    In Malaysian Ringgit, it would be 8 MYR.

    It took every fibre on my being to not put out my arm up front and push all the boxes into my shopping basket.

    I got two boxes, and I think I skipped on my way to my room, feeling happy.

    Also, much to my delight, I noticed strawberries are part of daily breakfast menu during the GM. I always made sure I took some strawberries on my plate before I got myself pancakes or toasts with jam.

    TIL Strawberries are not berries

    … eggplants, tomatoes and avocados are botanically classified as berries. And the popular strawberry is not a berry at all.

    — The Strawberry: A Multiple Fruit

    Also, I have been eyeing this… Japanese strawberries. Super expensive. Mega expensive. I’m so tempted to buy it, but goshdangit, does it worth it to fork out RM 100 (24 USD) for one pack? ?

  • A café staff in Senayan, Jakarta

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    Before joining Automattic, I was a lecturer + staff in my university (my alumni) on our R&D department, specifically, on Case Studies Development.

    One time, my manager asked me to have out-of-office meeting/1:1 meeting. It was end of the academic year, and we ramped up our case studies process (contacting the writers, coordinating with the Research Assistants, editing and proof-reading, etc) and the tensions were all-time high. I mentioned “out-of-office” because my manager looked at the chaos on the room and she went “nope” in a heartbeat.

    “I need coffee, I need food, and I need to get the hell out of here. You in?”

    “Say no more; Imma pack my laptop.”

    So we went to this café in a mall next to our university building, and the service staff greeted us outside.

    You won’t believe what happened next

    The staff looked at us, looked at my manager, looked at me, and suddenly quipped, “mbak gede banget.”

    In English, it means, “you are big.”

    Okay. Okay. I know what some of you all going to think.

    I never seen someone shut their mouth that fast with life force drained out of him.

    Now. I wasn’t mad. At all. Even as I remembering it right now, it makes me laughing. It’s just so comical, you know? The quip and the instant regret following it.

    At that time, I replied with, “wah, mas seringnya liat yang kurus-kurus ya?” then I walked inside.

    In English, “whoa. It seems like you always see the skinny ones?”

    I legit had no other intentions when I replied that. I wasn’t mad at all. It was a reflex.

    I can’t blame the staff, though. I mean, maybe that’s what happened! The café is on an upscale shopping mall in a lifestyle and business district (it’s in Senayan, South Jakarta,) so the view of good-looking skinny folks are really common.

    Then, ta-da, an outlier popping in.

    I’m big-bodied, yep. And it got even more so after I got pregnant and birthed Wira. My shoulder is wide, thanks to swimming lessons when I was in the elementary years, and I always been the tallest one in school.

    Before you asked; no, I’m terrible at basketball and volleyball. I always opt for individual sport such as athletic (and even that, I’m not super good at it.)

    I’m wondering how he is doing today. I hope he’s doing alright.

  • Building book-reading habit

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    I like reading, but I personally feel something has been lacking lately on my reading habit.

    Recently, I have been reading self-help/motivational book, and my current two favorites are Ryder Carroll’s “The Bullet Journal Method” and James Clear’s “Atomic Habit”.

    You might notice those two books actually connected in some ways. “The Bullet Journal Method” gives me deeper understanding on the technical side of bullet journaling, and “Atomic Habit” puts me on track on building the habit of journaling (Ryder actually put habit-building on the bullet journal book, but “Atomic Habit” elevates the habit building level to a new heights.)

    Now. The problem.

    I keep forgetting some topics and discussions on the books. There are so many good notes throughout the books, but it’s really easy for me to forget about it — and I ended up re-reading the previous chapters and unable to proceed to the next ones because I keep re-reading it again and again ad infinitum.

    Just recently, I learned to highlight some words on the books and put sticky notes. You might protested that you have been doing that for ages and it’s really normal and “everyone is doing it” and so on, but not me, okay ? I grow up in an environment where books are considered sacred, considering how expensive they could be. Now that I have adult money, I can buy stupid stuffs and books — so yeah, the act of scribbling on books is really really new to me.

    Aaaaaand yet I still forget.

    It’s frustrating, really. There are some stuffs that I really want to remember and apply, but I only managed to remember it like… 80% of it? For example, to build a good habit, we should make it into three things. Make it close, make it attractive, and goddangit I forgot the third one.

    … OK, I just peeked at the book and apparently I got it all wrong. Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying. I can’t confirm or deny I typed this with the book opened in front of me.

    I’m asking you folks, especially the book lovers. How do you approach reading, and how do you collect the information and retain it? I would love any insights or tips.

Nindya’s 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.

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