Jakarta Post also mention about me being a fashion designer. Yes, it’s been a long time dream, a childhood dream that finally find its way. I am so excited to announce that I’ll have my own fashion line called: Salsabeela ;)

I can’t give much details about Salsabeela yet, just follow us on twitter @salsabeelashop  and sign your email at our website http://salsabeelashop.com to get information when we’re ready to launch.

And like Selena Gomez says: who says you can’t be the best?

I’ve been recommending Belitung as one of the best places to visit in Indonesia, a heaven for photographers. It has some of the best beach, scenery, pretty sunsets and it’s the home of Laskar Pelangi. Most Indonesian know Laskar Pelangi. It’s a mega best selling book by Andrea Hirata, telling stories about his childhood in Belitung. It was so inspiring because a little kid from small island in Indonesia could ended up studying in France, with the power of love from teacher and power of dreams.

Laskar Pelangi then brought into movie theater and create a huge success too. Since the movie, the local government paid more attention and brand the city as “Negeri Laskar Pelangi” or “Laskar Pelangi city”. They also mark places of Laskar Pelangi movie sites.

I am amazed, now Belitung has more tourists, more new hotels  like Bahamas, Grand Hatika & Billiton to complement the existing Lor In Tanjung Tinggi. A local book indeed can stimulate the economy. Now why don’t you start using your own city in your writing? Local government, please support your local writers too!

How to Get There

Ever since I post beautiful pics of Belitung, many friends asking how to get there. Here’s how:

• Best time to visit Belitung is in June or July; due to the wind, the wave will be friendlier and the water will have more beautiful colors
• From Jakarta find flight to Tanjung Pandan using Sriwijaya Air (cost around $100 return, Jakarta – Tanjung Pandan)
• Transportation you can get a car + driver. I don’t have any recommendation for this though. It will cost you around $60 per day.
• Hotel you can choose to stay near the Tanjung Tinggi beach, around 1 hour from Tanjung Pandan (Lor In from $100 per night) or in Tanjung Pandan (there’s various options like Bahamas Belitung, Grand Hatika, Billiton, etc from $70)
• The boat for islands hopping, a regular boat will cost around $40 – the main destination is Lengkuas island, famous with its lighthouse. Make sure you climb all the way to the 22 floor. It’s beautiful up there! From there you can request to go islands hopping to small islands nearby. If you’re lucky you can go to a sand islands where there’s only little space of white sand in the ocean. I don’t dive nor snorkel but you can also ask the best spots for that too.
  
  
  
• Unique features of the Belitung Beaches are the granite rocks. Make sure you took pics of them while on islands hopping
• Belitung is not only about beach but also has beautiful mountain side in Manggar, 2 hours from Tanjung Pandan. On your way there, you can stop and have a look at SD Muhammadiyah Gantong, the school of Laskar Pelangi.
• For food, you can ask to have Belitung’s Noodle (Mie Rebus Belitung), they have the best seafood too, and try their local coffee ($0.3 per glass)
• Belitung has their own traditional house that you can visit. You can wear the traditional costume of Belitung people too and take picture for your FB profile, like tante Kanti (our host in Belitung, she’s a ‘Harbor Master’ :D)

Thank you tante Kanti for your hospitality and VIP treatment we get while we’re there

As we walk to the plane that will fly us back to reality, I look back to the mountains near the airport and I feel the sun instantly greet me on the tip of my sun glasses. I’ll be back.

2011 is a wild year. One of the best years in my 28 years of life. Although I’m not fully achieving my 2011 goals, but I’m not disappointed, as I have achieved something else that could be equally or more useful.

I don’t do very well with writing. I only managed to finished 1 full book this year, it’s a motivational business book called Easy Biz published by Gagas Media. And I’m happy to hear the reviews and how the book impact readers life.

I did wrote several anthology with friends, either self published in NulisBuku.com or in major publishing like Gramedia Pustaka Utama (GPU). Cerita Sahabat is my first book in Gramedia, the first time partnering with a great writer Alberthiene Endah and other writers, so I’m very happy. But overall, I’m not too happy with the lack of productivity in writing a whole book this year. I wish I can pay it off in 2012.

@NulisBuku  has grow in a form that we didn’t expect before. The writers community bonding in Nulis Buku Club (NBC) all over Indonesia has been incredibly productive publishing their collaboration books in NulisBuku. We have created success stories about  dreamers who can successfully realizing their dream to become writer of major publishers. We’re excited with what NulisBuku has achieved!

#StartupLokal going to the next step with partnering for Project Eden, incubator that’d help startups to incubate their ideas and successfully launched their products. We’re gonna have office warming soon This year #StartupLokal also welcome our associates: @IlmanAkbar , Joshua Kevin @oleeoebi  & Kreshna Bayu @bayu99 to work together with initiators (me, @nataliardianto & @nuniek) to execute #StartupLokal vision & plans.

My concern in women & technology has it’s own home at Girls in Tech Indonesia @GirlsintechID  meetup that I organize with @anantya – #StartupLokal also create meetup special for Female Founder inviting Shaherose Charania from @women2  to speak via Skype and share her  view. Our partnership with @women2 lead me to become the contributor of http://women2.org and from there, one of my articles got posted at Forbes.com

I must mention that being a chairwoman of ON|OFF 2011, a blogger & social media festival that gathers 1000 participants, has push my limit. It’s really a challenge in each and every way. But it’s totally a rewarding experience, going to 10 cities to promote social media use for community, and promoting online and offline collaboration opportunity at the big event itself in Jakarta. I’m totally a better person after this experience :))

Media has been profiling me generously this year. Infokomputer even put me as one of 10 beautiful women in Indonesia IT world :p To be able to read my profile or things that I do in amazing media like Kompas, Detik, Kartini, FIMELA.com, CHIC, Marketing, Jakarta Post, Jakarta Globe and many more really make me happy & make my parents proud

Wordisme is a powerful writing workshop that I do partnering with mbak @AlberthieneE . From what I read, 300 new writers are inspired and it’s really a beginning of something bigger.

@TempaLabs  game Desa Farm on Blaast platform has brought us to win 1st prize of Blaast competition and we won Europe Geeky Trip Desa Farm on Mig33 has brought us to a new record, around 100,000 users registered in less than 24 hours. We’re excited to develop more games, hopefully iOS would be next after our feature phone kicks this year.

My decision to tweet and blog in English to bring a window for the world to Indonesia has got wonderful results. I’ve been in touch with several Muslims friends around the world from twitter and even get my profile put in one of US Muslimah blogs as an effort to be a better PR for Islam. So friends all over the world can see that we’re pretty much ‘normal’ people and you shouldn’t be afraid of Muslims.

Traveling’s been crazy this year. Going to new places & doing things I never imagine before. From visiting startup incubators in Dublin, going to the Great Wall in Beijing, touch my first snow in Seoul, my first visit to Makkah to perform Umrah to have lunch with the Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur.

For several things that failed to execute mostly because suddenly I have some new priorities and can’t find time for to do it. And because my supposed to be partners, also have other priorities in their life. So, yes, some of my plans failed in 2011.

2012

A journalist ask my plan for 2012 and I said: it’s gonna be all about writing. My friend Chandra thought that I’m going to relax in 2012. Well, I thought so too :))

But truth is, there are more plans in my head and hands right now.

My first priority is to finish writing 2 books, one non-fiction, other is a novel, that already have its deadline from my editors in February 2012 O_0

I will have to write 1 philosophical semi-autobiography novel & 1 biography book of a person that inspire me, next year. It’s been a pending resolution.

I’m gonna partner with the famous @AlberthieneE  doing something in writing industry. And it’s going to be exciting.

With Hanny @beradadisini  – we’ve been discussing about making some sort of regional size of readers and writers festival in Jakarta.

After featured several time in FIMELA.com in their fashion section, and of course months of cultivating my passion in Fashion, now I’m gonna realizing one of my dreams in fashion industry. Stay tuned!

From several meetings lately, I hope I can realize several business potential with friends from traveling to education related.

The urge to promote starting up energy to youth & women more. Surely @startuplokal  & @projecteden  will accommodate my plans.

This is also the year of traveling. I’d like to visit Turkey, a lot of signs already told me to go there. Also Paris, Insha Allah, I’d make my dream come true, sit and drink coffee while looking at Eiffel Tower. One bonus, if I can make it then it’s amazing, back to Makkah to  perform Umrah or Hajj or going to Edinburgh International book festival. Ameen Insha Allah.

Personal goal next year would be making my parents happy. Of course, they know what’s that mean :))

Share your 2012 resolutions, let me read it! Have a great year ahead!

I really wanted to post a special blog post for today. Since the date number will create a great URL link hehe. And I decide to write about 11 things I am grateful for (apart from the obvious: complete body parts, oxygen and all), and here they are:

1. Health
   I’ve been very busy in the past year. Always come home late, around 11pm. Attend meetings. Going out of town a lot. And many other activities regarding my job. But I never get sick. That’s amazing. Alhamdulillah! I never really had vitamins because I can’t swallow tablets :p I never do sport, I hate it. I don’t eat vegetables, I don’t like it that much. So, my health completely come out of God’s mercy. Met a friend yesterday, he said in the most plain tone: “You’re always healthy because you have a kind heart.” -awww… thanks :p
2. My Family
   I am grateful to have them. I don’t understand people who take their family for granted. I know people said, “I’m working hard for my family.” – Yes, but your family also need you(r time)! In fact, when you’re sick and down, your job/career/money can’t be in your bed side and comfort you. Right?
3. My Best Friends
   I have a lot of friends that I am grateful for too, but my best friends are the one who understand me. With them, I can talk (or not talking) about everything. They will always there for me.
4. I’m Doing what I Love
   I love everything I do. From writing, business in books, etc, I don’t feel like working at all. Everyday is flexible playing time.
5. I can Share More
   God give me more love and it’s overflowing the people or children who needed it the most. God give me more power so I can do better for my community. God give me more money so I can give back & empower others. God give me more knowledge so I can share. Alhamdulillah!
6. A Comfortable Life
   I have all that I need. And I live my life comfortably. I don’t have debts. I can buy what I want, when I want it; all enough for me. Masha Allah, God is Great!
7. Amazing Partners
   Me & my partners, we found each other. And I am thankful that they’re just as passionate in doing what we’re doing, they’ve been aware to all my activities, cover me when I am not around, support me when I needed the most, understand me in the most difficult time of my life, and I couldn’t ask for more!
8. Being a Mechanical Right
   This is a new term that I introduced a while ago on TwitTalk Ebook that wrote about my profile. God has given us right and left brain. And I use them both in balance. That means, I wrote creative books (very right brain), but I finished it in mechanical (left brain) way: in strict deadlines. Not everybody agree with the concept, but it works for me and I can get things done.
9. Internet
   I can’t imagine not having one. Well, I know I was born in a non internet era *cough* but, I just can’t imagine not having… Google… Blogs… Twitter… Facebook… life going to be incomplete! *drama*
10. iPhone
    A life-changing gadget. If you don’t have it yet, you should. I work more effectively and also enjoying my hobby (taking pic of myself hehe) with this thing. It can do more things that you can’t imagine before. You should get one!
11. My Saviours
    God send them. They’re the one who out of nowhere come to help me cope with my life. They can be a complete stranger on the street, new best friends, romantic life companion, can be anyone that put there to specificly helps me thru the most difficult times. I thank God and thank you for being in my life.

That’s the 11 things I am grateful for. What’s yours? Leave me your link in the comment box, I’ll check ‘em!

Have a blessed & happy Friday!

At the dinner I also meet other Intel friends like Jamshed from Intel Singapore and Dottie (my good friend that recommend me to Becky, thanks much :x) & Hizam from Intel Indonesia.

After a while I just realized that they’re THE Intel people. They’re the people behind processors that make things happened! I want to kiss them one by one! (Okay maybe only Becky & Dottie hehe)

Intel Visual Life videos have been my favorite. Been watching all of their videos because they’re very inspiring documentary. It has everything you need in a video. Good content, great inspiring message, and amazing visual.

So we ended up talking about the making of Indonesian version of Intel Visual Life video, it’s about Batik Fractal. Interesting share from Hizam about behind the scene of the video!

Meanwhile, I want to share you one of the most inspiring videos of Intel Visual Life, it’s about Michael Wolff and his life philosophy.

I have three muscles, without which I couldn’t do my work. The first is curiosity. (You can call it inquisitiveness, you can call it questioning.) The second muscle [is] the muscle of appreciation. It’s not questioning so much as it is noticing… how joyful things can be, how colorful things can be, what already exists as an inspiration. The muscle of curiosity and the muscle of appreciation enable the muscle of imagination. -Michael Wolff

Check it out, you’ll love it!

Saya ngeblog sejak tahun 2003, maka pantas jika saya disebut ‘tante’ dalam dunia blog. Awalnya sederhana saja. Saya sangat suka membaca cerita orang biasa seperti saya sehari-hari dan akhirnya saya juga jadi ingin sharing jurnal kehidupan saya. Salah satu orang yang sering saya ‘stalk’ dulu adalah @nuniek  hehe jadi tak heran cerita-cerita hidupnya dari jaman dulu saya tau semua ceritanya Sekarang kami malah teman baik dan menjadi partner di #StartupLokal dan Project Eden. Maka saya bisa bilang, #berkatNgeblog saya bisa dapat partner berbisnis & berkarya

Saat saya mulai ngeblog itu saya jadi tau ada blog-nya Adhitya Mulya, dan menganggapnya ‘temen’ (meskipun dia pasti ga kenal saya, cuma karna sering baca blog-nya jadi berasa temen aja gitu hehehe). Karena beliau sukses jadi penulis dengan bukunya ‘Jomblo’, saat itu saya juga langsung terinspirasi untuk menjadi penulis. Kesempatan itu datang lewat berita beasiswa kepenulisan yang datang via milis PSTC yang dibuat sama Adhit juga. Beruntung karena sudah biasa menulis di blog, saya kemudian berhasil mendapat beasiswa penulisan tersebut dan Alhamdulillah dari program itu, tahun 2005, saya bisa menerbitkan buku pertama  saya, Look! I’m on Fire di Gagas Media hingga mengalir menjadi 20 buku seperti sekarang. #berkatNgeblog saya bisa jadi penulis!

Setelah jadi penulis bisa kenal sama penerbit, tau sedikit tentang seluk beluk perbukuan, and akhirnya memutuskan buka bisnis Kutukutubuku.com di tahun 2006 tapi masih part time dengan kerja kantoran. Karena bisnis-nya baru, maka perlu banyak trust dari pelanggan. Maka saya pun rajin ngeblog baik di blog pribadi maupun blog Kutukutubuku.com agar pelanggan merasa menjadi ‘teman’ sendiri. Karena diberi kepercayaan oleh pelanggan, bisnis menjadi maju dan tahun 2007 saya resign dari kantor dan fokus berbisnis. Sekarang selain Kutukutubuku saya juga membangun online self publishing NulisBuku.com & game studio TempaLabs.com serta satu konsultan di bidang E-commerce solution. #berkatNgeblog saya bisa jadi entrepreneur (dan masuk Top 10 Beautiful Woman in Indonesia IT world versi majalah InfoKomputer *cough*) :))

Saya sangat suka jalan-jalan dan foto-foto, akhirnya tiap kali selesai jalan, saya pasti selalu menceritakan jalan-jalan saya di blog dengan lengkap. Ternyata passion saya itu dilihat dan ditangkap oleh beberapa pihak. Majalah Prodo menawarkan saya untuk menulis tentang Belitung, majalah Femina meminta saya menulis tentang Dublin dan saya jadi travel writer beneran Setelah itu tawaran jalan (gratis) mulai berdatangan. Mulai dari ke Singapore bareng Trinity atas undangan Accor Hotels, Vietnam bareng AirAsia, ke Beijing bareng Indo Tamasya, ke Pulau Komodo bareng Dinas Pariwisata, dan masih banyak lagi. Asik kan #berkatNgeblog bisa jadi traveler ^_^

Saya juga adalah pecinta gadgets. Tiap kali punya barang baru, saya akan review di blog. Lengkap dengan foto-fotonya. Tentu saja gaya penceritaan saya a la perempuan yang lebih mengutamakan gimana rasanya saat dipake instead of membahas spec. Ternyata itu menghasilkan berkah juga buat saya. Acer membaca dan menghubungi saya dan sampai sekarang menjadikan saya teman baiknya. Dikirimi gadgets tentunya Dan Intel juga jadi temen baik dan pernah membuat saya mendapatkan dan mencoba prosesor terbaru mereka. Enak deh #berkatNgeblog saya jadi punya banyak gadgets :))

#berkatNgeblog jadi bisa diundang ke acara ASEAN Blogger Conference di Kuala Lumpur, ketemu private sama former PM Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohammad dan makan siang semeja sama PM Malaysia Najib Razak! Kalo nggak jadi blogger kayaknya susah dapet priviledge kayak gini

#berkatNgeblog bisa jadi ChairWoman ON | OFF (Pesta Blogger) 2011 dan bicara di banyak seminar di seluruh Indonesia untuk berbagi dan juga sedang mempersiapkan satu seminar menulis di bulan November bersama Mbak @alberthieneE dengan tajuk Word.is.me bareng penulis-penulis top Indonesia.

Sebenernya ada banyak banget #berkatNgeblog tapi saya tambahkan satu lagi saja ya karena menyadari ternyata post-nya sudah kepanjangan :)) Soal kesukaan baru saya di bidang Fashion. Awalnya iseng-iseng post foto fashion of the day, trus tau-tau ditawarin untuk promosiin Levi’s CurveID, trus jadi playing model and having photoshoot & video shoot for online magazine FIMELA.com #berkatNgeblog ternyata bisa jadi model juga hehehe. Happy happy!

Selamat Hari Blogger Nasional!

You can see that being a blogger has change my life. Semuanya saya mulai purely dari passion. Passion menulis, passion jalan-jalan, passion sama gadgets, passion sama fashion, etc. How about you? What’s your story?

Share your #berkatNgeblog ya, rencananya blog posts kamu juga akan dibukukan via NulisBuku.com dan di-launch pada acara ON | OFF 2011 tanggal 3 Desember 2011. Can’t wait to read your version of #berkatNgeblog !

I realized that the trouble is not about we don’t have clothes, but we don’t have any idea to mix-match what we had. So the first thing I do is organizing my closet. I just turn my other room into a walk-in closet and organized the items carefully. Mostly organize it by the type of items, I will group the edgy pants and separate them from the formal one.

To buy new clothes, I’ll be very specific so I don’t get overwhelmed with a lot of things in the store. I’ll check on magazines (online or offline) and also Google “Fashion Trend October 2011″ for example. I’d know that polkadots, neon colors pants and for people in the West is all about coat now that currently in. After knowing the fact, I’ll focus on only buying those items when shopping. Take risks! Don’t just buy what you always buy, e.g. that dark colors with ‘safe’ models. Of course, we should’ve had all the basics first like black pants, white shirt, etc.

One most important things that I do every morning is Google my mix-and-match outfits. First of all, choose one fashion statement that you want to declare. For example, today I choose to have my Orange Pants as my fashion statement. Then I will Google the image of “Orange Pants” and it will come up with several tops combination pictures that will give you the inspiration.

Et, voila!

Inspired to post after posting my style of the day in The Urban Muslimah forum

At midnight after closing her account, Mbak AE called me. She said that she can’t take it anymore. She’s referring to twitter and all the harsh messages she get. I feel personally conflicted that day. I know that it’s her decision that I need to respect. But in the other side, I should’ve tried to explain better about the twitvironment and its behavior before she’s closing her account.

“Maybe twitter is not for me,” she said. I know AE for some times and I know that she’s very kind and have a tender heart. She didn’t meant what she said the way it was on twitter. But the lack of emotion and unable to recognize tone of the voice in twitter text make the message she sent sound extremely cold and straightforward.

I follow everything that happened and I read harsh messages appointed to her that are already going out of context. And we’re not talking about just one person. People assumed there’s a person who make her quit twitter. Hint: only people that means a lot to your heart, can hurt you.

People argue whether it can be called a bully. For me, when someone feel bullied, then it’s a bully. We don’t need much definition of it.

Some said it’s too much drama. Well, did we really expect people’s personality to be exactly the same like us?

Some talking about how it took 3 hours for her to close her account. In great respect to her, she didn’t know much about technology but she’s willing to try to use it. She need other person (@amrazing) to do the deactivation and it took so long maybe because he was reluctant to do that. Why? Because AE tweets great stuff about life and love. And she helped a lot of people (emotionally) with her tweet.

This is the reason why I write this post. AE tweets are helping hands for every followers (especially young people) who emotionally needs it the most. Those who already been in dark moments in life would understand how positive words, especially created by a great writer like her, would really really help to hold on. Now that she’s not there, many of her followers feel a great loss. And I’m one of them.

“The Internet makes bullying more convenient and since the victim’s reaction remains unseen people who wouldn’t normally bully don’t take it as seriously.”

Let’s remember: there’s a real person on the other side of the line. Even though we can only see avatar and username, there’s a real man/woman and personality in that tiny piece of bio. Let’s agree to disagree. Be nice, as much as we can.

Update

Dear friends, I read all your comments and appreciate your point of view. To make it clear, I am not representing mbak AE or expressing her feelings. I am solely speaking my own mind and what I feel about this from my perspective, from what I saw. But words are limited and a lot of things I can felt  better than express in words. I am sorry if there’s something I said in the post that is not in-sync with you or maybe AE’s mind herself. Much love xo

By believing in that, I become a calmer individual. Bad things that happened won’t pissed me off that much. Just like yesterday…

I am dead busy. Need to take care of a lot of things. My schedule is full ’til the end of the month. And even though I love what I’m doing, at some point I am tired.

I was surprised that my assistant manage to give me time to go to my acupuncturist yesterday. I felt guilty to go there on my busy schedule. I was about to cancel when my assistant said she just rescheduled me to the afternoon session. I see it as a sign, so I’m on with the plan despite my piling up to-do list.

I had a condition that make me need to meet my acupuncturist regularly. But I haven’t had chance to go back for months. She’s a famous and busy acupuncturist, as usual, I have to wait in line, try killing time tweeting. But suddenly none of my gadget works for that purpose. 3G is on but it didn’t connected. I see it as a sign. I take out Aleph by Paulo Coelho and enjoy reading instead. The book has successfully pull me in and I lost count of time ’til I heard they call my name.

My acupunturist smirked when she recognized me. She’s doing the usual cold hard procedure of stabbing me with needles. And before I begin to scream, she’s already done. “Did you lost your progress book again?” She said without looking at me, writing down something on her note. Ups. I did. I walked out from her office feeling like I have accomplished something for myself.

I had few hours to kill before my next event and I jump to a small shopping mall in front of the dr office. I skip lunch, starving, and I need some
snacks. Well, I thought I need snack. I stop at the duck restaurant where they served a huge crispy duck. Too big for a snack. But I am meant to properly eat. So I eat, enjoying my food wholeheartedly, because I still can’t connect to twitter.

I’ve been carry-ing a huge heavy bag daily and it started to hurt me. I visit a small spa space where they offer relaxing massage package. I enjoyed my massage for an hour, even asking for additional head + ear massage too, felt totally relaxed and recharged!

When all my self-indulgence finished, it seems that the connection start to work again. Messages from my assistant started flowing in. And I can handle it with better energy.

The day was closed nicely; having a good laugh with friends. The only person had problem was my mom: “You’re not tweeting for 6 hours! Are you okay??” She said on the phone.

I chuckled. Now the sign of my existence is my tweet.

“I’m okay, mom. I am more than okay.”

So, I guess my sleep has nothing to do with the quantity of works that I’m doing. At night, I never had energy to do anything because I already tired. I can’t think much. That’s why I’m so amazed with my journalist friend @shirleydaily  that still can write amazing piece of article at 4 am in the morning after interviewing us at 2 am :))

I prefer to manage my energy. And I think that’s the key. When I’m tired at night, I prefer to read (books, tweets or feeds) and digest new knowledge. In the morning when I wake up, I go straight to writing, making concept, scratching visions, making presentation slides, etc that need full focus & concentration. Later on, I can continue working on my daily operational life such as read and answering 100 emails :))

When I need to go to meetings, between traffic, I always try to have power nap too so I can refresh and at my best condition to follow the meeting.

I find Wunderlist is a perfect to-do list app, so I can easily sync and prioritize on what should be done.

Have a productive day!