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.
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.
This might already known: I love cilantro/coriander leaves.
Nothing annoys me more than asking for extra cilantro at the restaurant then they gave sprinkle of it — No. I don’t want a “touch” of cilantro. I want the nation’s stock of cilantro to be put on my plate ?
Anyhoo, I got myself cilantro seeds (and tomato!)
I planted them a couple of weeks ago and look who’s here!
I haven’t see any signs on the tomato. Hopefully they are doing well too.
Do you have a tradition within your culture/nuclear culture that’s interesting/unusual (“unusual” is a strong word. Maybe something that’s not widely known) for others?
I came from a Javanese family. We don’t really hold tight into the culture itself, but there are some aspects that my parents did — and I realized it was not super common even among Javanese folks in Indonesia (the older generations might familiar with it, but not so with the younger ones.)
In Javanese culture, we have our own system of horoscopes called “weton” (weh-ton). The concept itself coming from the combination of regular Gregorian days (Monday to Sunday) and Javanese term: pasaran — with “pasar” means market.
In the old days (and perhaps some still practice it now,) market merchants usually rotate their visits to the marketplaces in the area, and some marketplaces only open on specific days. When you visited towns in Java, especially in the Central Java, you might see traditional marketplace with names such as Pasar Legi or Pasar Pon. It signifies the markets used to open on the days of Legi and Pon (these markets now open on daily basis.)
Similar with how many cultures view astrology and horoscopes, Javanese takes weton seriously.
In my case, it was between me and my mom.
We share the same weton; and in Javanese culture, having the same weton between a mother and her child is seen as dangerous.
Not unlucky, but dangerous.
A parent and a child with a same weton are bound to clash and conflict. Instead of, “oh, you are a Gemini? Me too! Twinsiiieeessss!” Javanese weton sees it as, “we have two people with similar personalities, similar life path, and similar bad temper. It’s like putting two beasts in one cage.”
(If you are considering something who tend to take awfully long time playing Animal Crossing, being goddamn indecisive, eat and sleep a lot, and share 90% behavior similar as a potato as a beast, then yeh, I’m a beast.)
Just like many other cultures and traditions, there is always a workaround. A loophole, if you will.
In Javanese, when a parent shares the same weton with the child, they can “sell” the child to another family (yes. You read it right.)
“I have this kid, and we share the same weton — and I reaaaaaally don’t want to destroy my family. Can you take this kid?”
And that’s what happened to me.
My parents “sold” me to family’s friend — a family too — there was a picture, and I was valued 100 IDR. … … … uh, in USD, it’s 70 cents.
The practice, however, varies. Some folks do it seriously, as in, literally sending the child off to another family and the child never knew their real parents (and maybe they get informed later when they come to adulthood.)
Some, and this including my parents, do it just for cultural and tolak bala (avoiding the misfortunes) purpose. I still stayed with my parents.
So here you go. I once “sold” by my family (I even grinned in the picture while my dad and his friend shook their hand on top of my head) because I share the same horoscope with my mom.
We visited my “family” when we delivered my wedding invitation, back in 2011.
Update: Found the pic.
The person with the grey shirt is my dad, my mom wore the striped green shirt, and the person with the batik shirt is my “other dad” and his family.
My late grandparents were there too. My late grandma (I miss her) is on the second picture, holding my younger sister (still a baby.) Next to her, another gentleman with a batik shirt on the right side, is my late grandpa (miss him too. I wish I could hear him telling his wartime stories (he was in the Navy in Indonesian military forces during the war)).
The little girl with the teal pants is me.
How about you? Do you have some stories about your culture that you feel really cool and you want to share?
I know what I said on the last post, okay. Then I just realized that I haven’t touched anything about how to create a template and how to edit/manage the templates ?
So yeah! Bonus Level! 😆
Okay, how do we access the FSE?
I need to remind you all again that FSE is still on progress — there are moving parts and screenshots I shared on a post several weeks ago might look different with the one you see on your end. When in doubt, ask! I’m here.
First, we need to activate FSE. FSE will be available on all WordPress.com websites (and WordPress websites), including the Free plan websites, so you don’t have to worry about having to upgrade.
If you haven’t able to see FSE on your website, not too worry, it means that the website is not included on the testing/beta phase.
Update (February 8, 2022): Didn’t see any sign of FSE on your site’s Settings? Make sure your site has FSE-supported theme activated. You can use Blockbase, Quadrat, Zoologist, or Twenty Twenty Two. Still not seeing FSE even after having FSE-supported theme on the site? Ping us on help@wordpress.com or on live chat and your friendly Happiness Engineer can do a check on the site and activate FSE if needed.
First, ensure the FSE is active on the website. Go to Settings > Full Site Editing (beta) and make sure the checkbox “Enable Site Editor” is checked.
Once you done that, you should see “Editor (beta)” on “Appearance” section.
Then you should be all set. When the “Editor” is clicked, you should see the template editor.
Now, be really careful about editing templates. Please remember, the changes on template will affect all pages/posts using that template. When you edit the template single.php, it will affect, yep, ALL posts on the blog.
How do we differentiate between post/page editor and template editor?
This cog icon/Settings icon is your friend. If you don’t see the right sidebar, click the Settings icon.
Now, compare these three editor sidebars:
So now you know which one is which.
Also, template usually has the template name on the top. Remember this, as this will be important later on.
Gotcha. Now, how do we access a template/templates?
See the screenshot above? Notice the “Page without title” text and how it has dropdown arrow? Yeah, click it.
You should see a dropdown modal. Click “Browse all templates”.
You should now see this next.
Template name section is the name of the template. Remember, you can create your own template, so when you add a name on it, be as specific as possible. “Template 1,” “Template 2,” or “Template 1 lolz” definitely not super helpful. The “Added by” field is informing who (or what) created the template. You can see my username there (cilantroinpho — yes, that’s me) and Quadrat theme. It means the template “Create New Template” (my apologies for a possibly confusing title. I created that for a test) was created by me, and the other templates are default templates/created by the theme Quadrat.
Click on the template you wish to edit. If you want to delete a template, click three dots next to the template you want to edit — only possible on templates that you create. You won’t be able to delete default templates — then click “Delete template”.
Cool. Now, how do we create a template?
SO. ABOUT THAT.
Currently, there is a bug on switching and creating a new template from post/page editor. For posterity, I’m going to share it here. I will also share a temporary workaround you can try.
Again, please note, FSE is still in beta version and there is no such thing as a perfect software/app/feature/tool. Things evolve and potential bugs lurk everywhere. If you see anything behaving unexpectedly or maybe you noticed some errors, please inform Happiness Engineers immediately on email help@wordpress.com. We will be happy to assist you.
Create a new template from post/page editor
Yep, you read that right. You can create a template from a page/post. Hopefully, this will reduce the number of clicks folks have to do to access the editor.
Open a page/post, click the “Template” tab on the right sidebar, then click “New” link on the template dropdown.
Status: Currently, there is a mini bug popping on this flow. The team is aware of this and currently working on a fix. Again, I can’t provide you folks 100% exact time frame on when the issue will be resolved.
Create a new template from Templates section
On template editor, click “Browse all templates”, then click “Add New” button. However, currently the “Add New” button only provides “Front Page” option (and no option to create a completely customized template.)
You will notice, once you clicked ‘Front Page’ option, the “Add New” button will disappear.
Status: You can bet the team is aware about this too and currently the awesome developers are working on a fix. Again, I can’t provide you folks 100% exact time frame on when the issue will be resolved.
Templates section from WP Admin area
This is the workaround I’m using and currently works. The downside, you will need to memorize the link/bookmark the link.
You can access the WP Admin section of Templates area here:
Change the WEBSITEADDRESS with your website address.
For example, if your website address is myawesomewebsite.com, you can access the Templates on WP Admin section on https://myawesomewebsite.com/wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=wp_template
You should see this on the screen.
Click “Add New” button and you should be all set. Please note: Use “Block Editor” to create the template. “Classic Editor” won’t work.
Status: This is the workaround I’m currently using and has been working ever since. Hopefully the two flows above will get improvement and we can create and manage templates easier than ever!
Okay! Things should be all set (I… think…) If I forgot anything (and I believe I am!) do let me know!
At this point, I feel you folks realized how hyped I am about FSE — and I really am! I really like FSE and I can’t wait to see the potentials and awesomeness you all going to create. I really hope you folks are enjoying FSE as much as I do.
Have an awesome and hopeful New Year, folks! Stay safe and stay healthy!
