Movie Review: Still Alice

© 2015 David Alexander Elder, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio

Still Alice is based on the novel with the same name by Lisa Genova. The movie portrayed a 50-year old linguistics professor named Alice Howland who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. Now, now I am not going to go over the details of the story since I have no intention of spoiling. This movie is a clear message that younger people can develop Alzheimer's disease, that could strip away not just the memory, but life and career. One of the most emotional scene occurred when Alice delivers her speech at an Alzheimer's Association conference. I applaud Julianne's Moore's phenomenal performance. It is not a wonder she won Best Actress at the Oscar Academy Awards 2015.

The Beach

The hot sun rays burned my already-tanned skin.

The beige coloured sand felt warm as I wiggle my toes.

I could hear the cold waves splashing as the noisy seagulls squawk merely above, up at the forget-me-not blue sky.

I stepped into the chilly water, I feel soft grains of sand as I move through the dissolved lime-and-rhythmic-blue-coloured water.
(Onrust Island, Jakarta)

Penggunaan Media Sosial untuk Komunikasi B2B

Media sosial telah merubah cara individu berkomunikasi terhadap satu sama lain. Hal ini juga menyebabkan revolusi terhadap cara industri B2B berjalan. Terdapat anggapan bagi beberapa orang bahwa strategi media sosial mudah dikembangkan dan diimplementasikan. Kemudahan yang dimaksud adalah setiap orang yang memiliki alamat email dapat membuat akun di media sosial. Namun untuk mendapatkan perhatian dan loyalitas dari para konsumen di sosial, bukanlah suatu hal yang mudah. 

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Agar proses B2B berjalan secara efektif, terdapat 6 elemen untuk menciptakan strategi jangka panjang:

1. Fokus. Untuk dapat berkontribusi secara efektif di komunitas sosial media memerlukan fokus pada tujuan yang telah ditentukan.
2. Waktu. Sangat sulit menentukan waktu yang cukup untuk melakukan pemasaran di media sosial. Terdapat beberapa pengguna media sosial yang menghabiskan waktu berjam-jam di Twitter tapi bukan berarti itu efektif. Jika media sosial ditujukan untuk benar-benar menjadi bagian dari strategi B2B, maka mulailah untuk meluangkan waktu 30-45 menit setiap hari dengan interval 15 menit.
3. Persepsi. Perhatikan detil terhadap konten yang ingin disampaikan, perilaku penggunanya dan target audiens. Perhatikan juga tema dan intonasi. Ketika memulai networking atau koneksi dengan orang-orang baru, perhatikan topik dan pembicaraan yang mereka sering diskusikan. Observasi ini akan menghasilkan partisipasi yang sangat berarti ketika memberi kontribusi di sosial media.
4. Komunikasi. Dalam B2B, penting untuk memberi respon dan mengenali orang-orang yang mengikuti aktivitas media sosial.
5. Kreativitas. Kontribusi memerlukan kreativitas. Desain profil, kontribusi konten dan gaya berkomunikasi yang kreatif akan membangun jaringan dan menambah rekognisi di media sosial. Ciptakan kepribadian yang unik dan pahami apa yang dapat berjalan dengan baik untuk setiap situasi yang dihadapi di media sosial.
6. Komitmen. Dapat dikatakan mudah untuk berkomitmen terhadap strategi jika telah memperoleh hasil yang positif. Namun merupakan tantangan jika harus mendapatkan hasil dalam waktu yang sempit. Penggunaan media sosial tidak selalu sesuai atau bermanfaat secara langsung. Namun jika berkomitmen untuk secara konsisten meluangkan waktu dan tenaga, maka akan diperoleh hasil yang diinginkan.

Dalam beberapa kisah sukses nyata, kita hanya mendengar hasil dan bukan proses kerja yang mereka lakukan. Proses kerja yang konsisten dapat menciptakan hasil yang positif. Elemen-elemen yang disebut di atas dapat dijadikan strategi untuk komunikasi B2B. Pahami bahwa setiap upaya tersebut adalah cara membangun kesuksesan berjangka panjang dan bukan jangka pendek.

My Dealing with Grief and Loss

Experiencing the loss of someone you care about is very heartbreaking. Be it a death of a loved one, a relationship breakup or moving away to a new place. My mother's younger sister recently passed away this morning. For a long time she suffered from diabetes which lead to kidney failure where she experienced sequences of hemodialysis. In some ways, everyone grieves differently. I try not to grieve for too long. At first, I usually feel numb and have trouble believing what happened. Whenever I go through a hard time, I always try to convince myself that I feel fine. I do believe that it is important to be honest about your feelings but at the same time I think it's unnecessary to sugarcoat it. I try not to let negative emotion take over me, therefore I tend to push it away and convince myself that I'm not even feeling it at all. Sometimes I need to remind myself that it is okay be sad and cry. If I don't cry, it does not necessarily mean that I am not sorry about the loss. I think that people who don't cry may feel the pain just as deep as those who cry.

The Power of Choice

So it has been a while since my last post. Now that I'm back, it is a pleasure for me to start blogging again. This afternoon I had a quick chitchat with a friend on the phone and she insisted that I should Youtube Tony Robbins. So I did and clicked on the first video that showed up on the list. I played the video and it struck me that the guy on the video was the same guy that appeared in the movie Shallow Hal. I told my friend about it but she has never seen the movie. The duration of the video was 46 minutes long and basically Tony described how to deal with challenges or crisis and choosing the right choice. The key to deal with these challenges is our ability to find our inner strength and see if it suits and works for us.

1. See it as it is, not worse than it is.
2. Get to the truth and deal with it.
3. Get a vision and get strong.
4. Get a role model and learn their strategies.
5. Give more than you expect to receive.

To determine whether we're experiencing a certain crisis or challenges we then have to question ourselves:

1. What has been one of the toughest time of our lives that we made through?
2. What pulled us through the situation? Person? Place? Belief?
3. What was life like before the crisis?
4. What did we do to turn around?
5. How is our lives better today because we went through this crisis?

Looking back on all the situations that occurred in the past, all of the above made sense. I concluded that no matter what situation we are in, we should be able to make the right choices and deal with them even if they don't always turn out as we expected them to be. Our lives can be altered just by making the right decision that we assign to our life experiences.

Dream Interpretation

October 22, 2012

I was at a beach house at some beach that looked both like Aceh and Anyer. I was surrounded by people whom I recognized in real life as I was growing up. My mom, brother and housekeeper were there and so were some people from elementary school and middle school. The tsunami occurred five times and in just seconds, the town was flooded with mud-like water and we all had to hold on to each other thread water in order to survive. After each tsunami occurred  I always felt the need to go to the bathroom and pee. It wasn't that hard to find the bathroom in the beach house but it would have been easier if I just peed in the tsunami water. Before the fifth tsunami, the small town was suddenly filled with US military wearing mucky green jumpsuit which instructed us to hold on to each other side by side, and the person at the end of the row must grip on to a banister or whatever object that is attached to the house and possible to be gripped on. As we passed that fifth tsunami, a big object suddenly was falling directly towards the front row. The object looked as if it was made from iron or aluminum. Then I woke up from the dream and went for a pee. It took me that long to realize I was still dreaming before actually waking up and go for that real piss.

Beach 
To see the beach in your dream symbolizes the meeting between your two states of mind. The sand is symbolic of the rational and mental processes while the water signifies the irrational, unsteady, and emotional aspects of yourself. It is a place of transition between the physical/material and the spiritual. To dream that you are on the beach and looking out toward the ocean indicates unknown and major changes that are occurring in your life. Consider the state of the ocean, whether it is calm, pleasant, forbidding, etc.
Beach House 
To see or live in a beach house in your dream implies that you need to take time off and relax. Alternatively, the dream means that you need to confront some emotional issue.
Tsunami
To see a tsunami in your dream means that you are being overwhelmed by some repressed feeling or subconscious material that is rising up to the surface. You are experiencing some unhappiness and emotional instability in a waking situation.
Mud 
To see mud in your dream suggests that you are involved in a messy and sticky situation. It also suggests that some spiritual cleansing is needed. To dream that you are walking in mud suggests that you are feeling weighed down by a situation, problem, or relationship. You are feeling frustrated.
Military 
To see the military in your dream signifies rigid authority and emotional repression. Perhaps you need to be more disciplined.
Aluminum 
To see aluminum in your dream signifies your ability to retain what is valuable to you. You are happy with what you have. What may seem insignificant to others is important to you.
Iron 
To see iron metal in your dream symbolizes harshness, anger, aggression, ruthlessness, and conflict. On a positive note, it may signify strength, endurance, and willpower.
Urination
To see urine in your dream represents the feelings you have rejected. Alternatively, the dream may be a pun on your "pissy" attitude. To dream that you are urinating symbolizes a cleansing and a release of negative or repressed emotions. Depending on your dream context, urination is symbolic of having or lacking basic control of your life. You are literally "pissed off" and not expressing yourself in a positive or constructive manner.

Dream Interpretation Source: dreammoods.com

Dream Interpretation

October 21, 2012
I was in some kind of school yard. There were people dress in jerseys, some others were shirtless. I spotted some people I know from elementary school. Then they had a contest of tug of war while I just stood there and watch them pull the rope.

Ropes 

To see a rope in your dream represents your connection and attachment to others. It is symbolic of what is holding your relationship together. Alternatively, a rope signifies bondage, restriction and captivity.

Tug Of War 

To dream that you are playing tug of war suggests that you need to balance various aspects of your personality. You need to learn to compromise. (I wasn't sure whether I can relate to this one or not since I wasn't the one doing the tug of war)

Dream Interpretation Source: dreammoods.com