Ollie's Scrapbook

By Derek Sivers

When we yell at our car or coffee machine, it’s fine because they’re just mechanical appliances.

So when we yell at a website or company, using our computer or phone appliance, we forget it’s not an appliance, but a person that’s affected.

It’s dehumanizing to have thousands of people passing through our computer screens, so we do things we’d never do if they were sitting next to us.

It’s too overwhelming to remember that at the end of every computer is a real person, a lot like you, whose birthday was last week, who has three best friends but nobody to spoon at night, and is personally affected by what you say.

Even if you remember it right now, will you remember it next time you’re overwhelmed, or perhaps never forget it again?

A journey back home with AE is always my favorite. She’s very wise, she can teach me a lot and let me know a lot of gossip in one journey hehe.

But everytime, she always make comment on how well I can get a long with Raditya Dika, a famous writer who happened to be one of our best friends. Me and Radith have that solitary companionship type of friendship. We can sit together doing our own thing, and it’s perfectly okay. Our path also crossed several times unexpectedly.

AE always said that I look good with Dika, and we should be together. I laughed at the possibility. I honestly can’t imagine him being my boyfriend and I’m sure he feels the same. But I also know that me and Radith are soulmates. Soulmate in different definition. Then AE said something that make me speechless: 

“Sometimes soulmates are not meant to be together because they need to support each other for a lifetime.”

My friend Nana is pretty sure that I’ll speak on one of TEDTalks and she’s right. I just invited to TedxITT (Bandung, Indonesia) to talk about Girls in Tech Indonesia. Unfortunately I already have other speaking commitment. But, even if I don’t have other schedule, I don’t think I’m ready for TED. Cool people are there. I don’t think I can match ‘em. 

I have a good conversation with a guy that girls have been crazy about. It’s good to get compliments from him about my activities. And I make comment about his eyes that can change colors from green to blue to grey. They’re beautiful and distracting. “I should use my eyes more often, to get what I want,” he said. Hehe but don’t do it now, please :)))

Hallo Mbak Ollie

Perkenalkan namaku adalah Nadia (@nadi_chi) dan aku adalah salah satu pembaca setia situsnya Mbak Ollie, follower twitter, juga beli buku Mbak yang judulnya “Go for It”. Aku salah satu orang yang terinspirasi oleh tulisan Mbak Ollie, terutama di blog salsabeela.com

Sebagai seorang Psikolog muda yang passionnya di bisnis dan IT (ga nyambung banget kan Mbak :p Btw aku pernah comment juga pas Mbak Ollie curhat di blog  ttg “should woman hold back for her man” biasanya aku lurker sejati, hihihi) Aku seringkali  galau sama “status”ku sebagai Psikolog. Pengennya ngikutin passion tapi apa daya udah kecemplung kuliah 6 taun jadi Psikolog. Secara natural orang-orang terdekatku pasti mendorong aku jd Psikolog dan kerja kantoran tapi itu bukan cita-citaku. Tapi ketika lihat blognya Mbak Ollie yang sangat passionate dengan hidupnya dan mengejar mimpi-mimpinya, aku jadi mikir.. “Why I don’t go for it too?”

Akhirnya aku mulai memberanikan diri mengejar mimpi-mimpiku. Aku seriusin bisnis online (buat blog yg dimonetisasi dgn adsense dan affiliate, pasarnya pasar US) yang udah dirintis semenjak kuliah dulu dan mulai merambah buat “startup” meski bukan startup tech karena pengetahuan masih belum mencukupi karena udah kelamaan bergumul sm Psikologi :D Kalau Mbak mau liat produk “startup”ku bisa cek macamacaroni.com atau twitter @macamacaroni  untuk sementara aku coba merintis usaha snack macaroni yang sdh dirintis dari kuliah juga. Pengennya sih memulai startup yg lebih besar dan bermakna, tapi ga papa kali ini anggep ajang latian dulu ☺

Oh ya kalau Mbak mau, bolehkah aku mengirim makaroni ke Mbak Ollie? Kalau dilihat dari twitternya tampaknya Mbak Ollie cukup senang kuliner, kalau Mbak mau coba makaroniku, aku kasih sampel gratis lho Mbak ☺, serius!

Lho malah panjang nulisnya, ok sgitu dl aja ya Mbak makasih lho udah mau baca tulisanku ☺

PS: Teruslah menulis ya Mbak, banyak orang-orang yg terinspirasi karena tulisan Mbak lho, salah satunya aku :D

In ladies room, a girl rushing in. She stops in front of the mirror and start crying. Just the two of us inside the room. It’s easily become awkward to me. Maybe she had a fight with his boyfriend. After all, only person who matter the most, can make you cry. In public.

I glance and we make 5 seconds eye contact. I send positive vibes, hope she’ll calming down. I walk away. Too much drama indeed in the ladies room.

I want people to value me for who I am, not how I look. But I also judge people (first) from how they look. Double standard. I’m confusing myself. 

“I feel like I’m going to die. Today.”

What would you do when you get a desperate email like this from a total stranger. A stranger you didn’t know about, but know everything about you, and adores you much and he thought you’re a part of him already?

I said to him: Don’t be sad, don’t worry about that. It’s all in God’s hand, we can never know the answer of when we’re gonna die. Let all the worry, the sad feeling go. Just trust God to guide us to have what’s best for us.

He email me the next day. Saying thanks for listening and responding to him. He feels really lonely but he’s ok now.

I am sad to read that. Speechless.

Woke up in the middle of the night and feeling stranded. I thought I already paid the necessary visit to have my routine needles and it still fails to stop the hormone attack called PMS

You know who’s the strongest man? It’s the husband/boyfriend/companion of a powerful woman. 

Kid you not, I found a lot of man being insecure over things that woman could do better. A very simple example is me and my height. I am tall and I love wearing high heels.

Last night, a guy asked me: “I wonder, how many complaints did you receive from men  over being taller than them?” 

The answer is, I never get a complaint. But I’m damn sure they’re complaining inside. He got a point. So, I tapped this young man’s shoulder. “Thanks for the compliment.” 

In my Facebook I got someone complained: “Why you put Single in your relationship status? You should put Divorced!” 

When I told the story to Ong, he said: “Don’t listen to her. You’re single! Single again!” 

Oh, right. Let’s propose ‘Single Again’ status to be included in Facebook, to Mark Zuckerberg.