HANZKY

These last couple of weeks had been all about watching cnn (sniper, bali blast, the Russian hostage drama, bombs in Philippine, etc). Now it’s that time of the year again, time where I’ll be tuning on to espn whenever I’m home!!.. Watched the Lakers and Sacramento Queens (as Shaq so eloquently put it) last friday, it was their very first game, and the season had barely begun but their blood were boiling, tempers flaring up from the unsettled business in the west conference finals. Fox and Christie are in trouble now, Fox is suspended for 6 games, not sure about Christie though but probably fewer. The rest of the king’s players who left the bench will be suspended as well!!.. My man Kobe appeared with another 15 pounds of new muscles.. readier than ever to go crazy on everyone this year, and after seeing him in that game…man he was impressive..watchout lakers haters..teehee. The Lakers didn’t win the game in the end, i guess they just didn’t care cause it was only a preseason game after all, they just wanted to send the message to everyone that Lakers is not merely relying upon Shaq, they could come back from 20 points down and lead the game without him and of course they could win it if they wanted to, but they just didn't. Anyway, both teams are going to meet again this Christmas day..i’m so looking forward to it...

I'm at the computer lab right now..yea I don’t have class today (only Monday night and Tuesday night) but I was in the neighbourhood so I thought of stopping by to purchase my textbooks and go to the computer lab to print out some articles cause I couldn’t afford to print at Kinkos *they’re bloody expensive*, couldn’t afford to get Lexmark inkjet for my printer either, hehe..what’s wrong with me, I have two printers at home but none of them has inks, oh well. Barusan, abis dari airport…it’s a long story, Dina slept over my house last night, she was going to Phoenix and had a morning flight to catch, and there is no way she could make it on time through the morning traffic jam, so she decided to sleep over so she could take the metro since the station is just near my house. So I dropped her off there this morning…and 1.5 hours later, she called me, I thought she just wanted to tell me that she was about to board the plane, turned out she missed the plane, huehehe....!! Girl, next time, don’t ever take morning flights cause you’re doomed to miss it anyway, orang tadi di bangunin aja malah marah2. Untung ada flight lagi 3 jam kemudian dan karena gue nggak tega ngebayangin dia di airport sendirian kaya anak ilang, jadi gue samperin aja…and we were off to the mall across the airport. Liat tuh sempet sempetnya lagi…cuma mo ke bath and body works aja sih yang lagi ada sale that can be combined with my $10 off coupons, so I paid $18 for the items that would cost me $68 at regular prices, tee hee….I honestly can’t recall when was the last time I bought something at its regular price. Anyway, abis itu balik lagi ke airport nge drop dia and here I am now.


So I took the gmat last friday..how’s the result, you wondered. Well, it turned out that my score was slightly lower than what I thought was the safe ranges. Not a surprise heh, but still I wasn’t happy about it and I was worried about what’s the school gonna do since Katie, the mba director stated to me that there was no way I could continue with my classes if I still haven’t taken the test by last Monday. So I talked to her about it last Monday, and then she pulled out my files, checked my undergrad transcript, logged on to the computer, checked by business ethic grades and calculating my overall admission score which should equal to at least 1000 (undergrad GPA times 200 plus the GMAT). After that she looked up to me and said that I didn’t have to worry about it since my overall grade was above that…WOOHOOO…that made me the happiest girl in the world, I was practically smiling ear to ear..hihi. Man.. I’m so glad I got that damn thing out of the way and I can just move on with my life..so..yay to me..=)

I went to the store, ready for work and everything only to be sent home straight away by my manager, huh! Well I was happy actually, I sure could use a day off but it also pisses me off at the same time..why didn’t he call me earlier so I didn’t have to go from the first place. They always do that, I’ve been hearing a gazillion complaints about them messing up the schedule. I know it’s hard to schedule 65 people with various availabilities….but they have the so called intelligent labor scheduler software to handle individual schedule so this kind of thing shouldn’t happen.


We had 95 employees when the first time the store open, but now..we’re down to 65 employees. Why? Because the management sucks!! And the thing that bothers me a lot is the scheduling. We get the print out of our schedule once a week, so we know a week ahead on what day and what time we have to go to work. But, even so..it’s not a surprise to get a call from the manager a few hours before saying that they are not gonna need us at work. Sometimes I can understand that…it’s retail, the sales fluctuates a lot, so when it’s not busy in the store, of course they don’t need much help. But that’s suck, cause that’s affect our life. I mean had we know we didn’t have to come ahead of time we could have planned something else to spend the day, right? Isn’t it pisses you off when all of your friends are having a weekend getaway but you can’t go because you have to go to work but guess what, when it’s time for you to clock in suddenly you’re told to take a day off, then you are left at home all alone when your friends are having fun when you could have actually joined them. Fortunately I haven’t yet experienced this but this happens to a lot of people I know at work.


Also, if they cut the schedule so much that means less money in the paycheck, which is a bummer for a lot of people. That’s why they are leaving the company gradually, I know people come and go in retail but not 30 people in 4-5 months period. We actually don’t need that many people if the management are willing to hire fulltimers, it’s easier to hire fulltimers since they have far more flexible hours, but they don’t wanna do that..why?? cause that means they have to spend more money for the benefits, the insurance, 401K and if extra works needed they have to pay overtime, surely they don’t wanna spend that much money, that’s why they prefer parttimers. And oh..you know what, to be considered full time and have the privilege to receive the benefits, you have to work at least 40 hours per week for 8 consecutive weeks, but you know what they do..they give 35 or 38 hours per week to those who can work full time, close to be considered fulltimers but still can’t receive all of the benefits. Smart tactics, heh?


So I practically have been a slave for these past few days since we’re so understaffed at a not so better time. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmast are approaching, we got a lot of shipment so I have to help the shipment crew unloading the boxes from the truck. Well, I actually don’t mind working on the shipment because I get things done and see progress, unlike being on the floor dealing with the customers to no end. Man, last time I had a customer who was looking for a short, he swears god that he bought it there 3 months ago and insisting me to check upstock incase we have one left squeezed somewhere and I was like..helloooooo sir this is October, we don’t sell no shorts in October!!..geez some customers are just so irritating. So, anyway, yea I like being with the shipment crew cause there are only us in the backroom and we could just talking non sense, time flies by. I was amazed with how fast they do they work, well I’m not moving like a snail but what do you expect from me at freaking 6 in the morning??


Anyway..I’m going to resign from old navy pretty soon. I can’t stand the working hours anymore, I want to have a normal 9 to 5 job just like everybody else, not 6 in the morning or 11 at night like it has always been for me..plus..I don’t see it going anywhere..so I might as well quit and I’ve only been there for a few months, I don’t think they are gonna give me the luxury to take a vacation especially when I’m going home for more than a month. I haven’t told my manager about this, I feel kinda bad though, leaving the store at its peakest month, but hey what am I to do. Things would be really hectic also for myself by then, there are a lot of projects that are due plus the test and the presentation and the fact that I’m going home one week early before the classes are over is only giving me more headaches.


I like retail actually, I even have this dream of having my own retail store, not know though and not in the near future, that’s why I work in retail now..just to give me some insight on how to manage and operate a store. I am planning to go for internship in the corporate office sometimes next year, I could start as an executive trainee and move on as a buyer; working with vendors, sales pitching, negotiating, analyzing buying patterns and every single critical elements to generating increased sales. Sounds like fun. I think retail industry is pretty promising, almost all industries are downsizing right now but guess what retail is still gloriously exist (well except Kmart and fruit of the loom). Dendre’s sista works at Deutsche Bank back home, she got a call from a headhunter 2 months ago, asking her to come for an interview for a sales manager position at Louis Vuitton Indonesia. The offer was 15 millions a month..hmm…not to mention the perks that come with it, she’d get to fly to paris frequently, an abundant supply of LV items, haha, a ticket to network with jakarta’s high society and extensive media exposures. Sounds like a dream job to me, haha..but too bad she decided to reject the offer. But at least it shows me that there’s a good future in retail cause fashion never dies.


Blah…this is a long ass entry..I’m blabbering too much..*bales dendam ya han?*..hihi...

I finally have the time to get this blog up again and even create a new layout..hmm how bout that??!!..tapi setelah di liat2..it looks more like a news portal rather than a personal blog to me, tapi nggak pa pa lah, at least this one looks more festive than the old layout. I'm not done with this yet, i still haven't changed the archives and other pages layout. Anyway, a quick shout out for my baby sista who just turned 14 two days ago *lagi abg2 nyah*, i was being a bad older sister for not giving her a call on her birthday. But I got a legitimate reason for that cause I haven't been in the house for these last few days, my manager has been torturing me and giving me more hours at work. I had to work from 6 in the morning on monday and tuesday all the way to later in the afternoon then i went straight to my classes and got home around 10.30..and just practically passed out to bed as soon as i stepped in the house. Besides, my mom just called last night and told me that my sista cell phone is under her teacher custody anyway, huehe..so there was no way i could contact her then since she goes to a boarding school outside of Jakarta. So..Happy B'day sista, i'll see you in a lil while. Arggh i got a lot of stories to tell but time prohibits me to do all that, gotta go to work..so..MORE STORIES COMING UP!!!..

what happened to Bali?? I just got home a few minutes ago and clicked on cnn.com and the headline was BALI BLAST, and i was like "huh?..what?"..and it all sank in when I read through the articles...oh noo..not that Bali..nooo...

Now the series of sniper attacks that’s been terrorizing DC area have killed 7 people and wounded 2 people. This is so scary..it’s so fuckin random that could strike anywhere at anytime, you don’t know whose gonna be the next victim.I hope there is one thing that American can learn from this…their country is in complete chaos right now so let’s forget about attacking other country for a minute here.


Worked till the store closed last night. Man, our business hours is from 10 AM to 9.30 PM and right at 9.30 we closed the front doors, no more customers allowed to come in to the store after that, but we let those who are inside to take their time. We can’t hush them nor let them know that we’re ready to kick their asses out, so we just turn the music off to give them the hint. And if your common sense is working, of course you get the hint and proceed to check out right away..right?. But some people are just soooooo ignorant, it was 9.50 PM and there were two ladies who still browse around the store, destroying the pile of clothes that have been nicely folded and just trying everything out like they own the world!!! If we were allowed to say something to them I would have attacked them in no delay.. or better yet, smacked them with the wooden clothes hanger.


Anyway, I was supposed to call my manager this morning to find out whether I had to go to work or not, but I was more than sure that he was going to ask me to come and join the FUN cause we are scheduled to have shipment coming in today. I don’t feel like working, not because I am a total slacker, but because I am so darn tired and I’ve been sneezing the whole time *blame it on the weather* so the last thing I want to do is to deal with those psychotic customers. So I didn’t call…tee hee, I actually could’ve just called and let them know that I wasn't gonna make it, but I didn’t want to deal with my manager either, so they’re gonna put me on the no call no show list..ohh what do I care..! Besides, I really need to stay home and study right now, I mean there were times where I had to abandon my study because of work but with the gmat next week I guess I can’t do that no more cause my time is running out and the reason why I’m here in the first place is to get my education so..first thing first!!

My presentation was OK last night, we didn't recheck the overall power point before class so there were a few mistakes here and there. My executive summary was totally wrong, I thought my professor wanted me to summarize the points of what we're gonna talk about, just like what I usually did in my undergraduate classes whenever I had to create Business plan. Ternyata she wanted me to summarize each articles that I cited as sources, so I had to re-do the whole thing. Oh well..I'm just glad it's over and I'm done with this Business Ethics class. Next term starts in 2 weeks, and i'll be taking MGMT 647 (Organizational Behavior) and ISYS 652 which is Information Technology and Operations......it's gonna be a lot of hard work. Oh I have to go to work in a little while..bye bye..

Okay, just want to drop a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY note to my lovely friend Cherie…=)..you’re 23 now..(oppss, did I just mention your age???…my bad…hehehehe. I think we’ve gotten to the point where age is best to be left unmentioned)..oh well, everybody is getting old anyway. Get ready for a lot of wonderful things coming your way girl…..=)


So what else is new really??..*yawn*, I’ve been spending my time with nothing else but studying for the GMAT lately, plus doing my presentation that I mentioned earlier. I was about to study at the St Louis Bread Company that just opened a new branch near my apt this afternoon, but the rain was pouring hard, so staying home was the only option and believe me…it’s never been a good option cause not much work can be done when there’s an internet around. So much for having this technology.


Another group meeting early in the morning tomorrow…oh that reminds me that I have to go to office depot to buy some stuff. We’re gonna be doing family feud (Family 100 kalo di Jakarta) for the activity part, just trying to throw some creative elements to get all of the students involved. But of course it’s not gonna be that fun cause we can only ask question that applied to the case. I handed out the survey last Tuesday and now I need to rank all of the answers. Anyway, my teammates and I were thinking about something that we’re gonna give as a prize for whoever wins the game. You know, just something small and of course CHEAP, something that I could get from one-dollar store, tee hee. So I just blurted out “Chocolate” without even thinking cause that’s what most people give right? it’s cheap and it’s not something useless that you’re gonna throw away. I mean I’d be happy if I get a bar of chocolate and I’m sure most people will do too. But oh my gawd was I so wrong to mention that cause one of my teammates was kinda intimated by my idea. She was like..”No..you don’t wanna give chocolate to everybody, not everybody eats chocolate bla bla bla bla yadda yadda yadda..” ..ooppss.. I forgot the fact that she is kinda way overweight….*sigh* ..


Hmm, I’m thinking of going back to bath and body works either tonite or tomorrow. They are discontinuing their make up lines until god knows when, enggak jelas what’s the reason behind it, maybe they are trying to come up with some rockin new cosmetics to compete with the body shop who just launched their new cosmetic lines. Yang jelas, almost all of its cosmetics are on sale for 50%..hmmm that's yuM!!…so I stocked up a few items, hey I called it an investment cause who knows if they’re not planning to launch the same product later on right? So I stepped out with a sparkling melon lip balm, two eye shadows, a creamy coconut fragrance candle *smell so darn good* and a set of 5 different colors lip palette..tee hee..I'll stock up some more this weekend.....

Pheww, it’s almost done. I’ve been tied up with my assignment for these last couple of hours. I really want to get rid of it as soon as possible cause right after I finish with this on Tuesday, I’m done for this class baby, there’s one more session the week after that, but it’s gonna be used for the other teams who haven’t presented their case. Good thing my team is volunteering to present on the first day.


The case that we’re gonna be talking about is the silkwood case. You guys prolly haven’t heard of it, I didn’t know it also until one of my team members suggested us to check it out since it’s related with business ethics a lot. So I said sure, why not. I’m sure other teams are gonna be talking about the case that happened nowadays, such as the Martha Stewart or the Enron case, we're taking a few steps back instead. Anyway, this saga happened in the 1970s. Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician at Kerr McGee nuclear company in Oklahoma who discovered numerous violations of health regulations in Kerr McGee’s worksite. The workers had experienced a number of unexplained exposures to plutonium and she wasn’t an exception. Not only that, the company had also falsified some inspection records and manufactured faulty fuel rods. So alarmed of the health risk that she and other workers faced, she decided to become an anti-nuclear activist. She realized that the dangerous situation was actually could be resolved if only the management wanted to heighten the company’s health and safety standards. But they just didn’t care about it.


So Karen decided to report it to the media, she then collected all of the evidences and gathered all the information to support her claim. Poor thing she didn’t know that her phone was bugged and her movement was monitored. One night, she had an appointment with a New York Times journalist to hand in the evidences so the journalist could print the story. But you know what happened??…she never arrived at the appointment’s place, because she died in a car accident on the way there. She was only 28 years old. Her accident arises many speculations since she was an experienced rally driver, and the accident was a one-car crash. And in addition to that, the document that she wanted to give to the journalist was found missing. I believe she was murdered.


Such a tragic story heh?..oh btw, there’s also a movie based on this story starred by Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, Kurt Russel and Cher. I watched it a few weeks ago. I'm glad Lolita mentioned about this story to me, cause it relates a lot with the class concept. It really is another proof of how cruel, greedy and corrupt America’s corporate world can be.

Wohooo…ade ape nih ber cheesy ria pagi pagi begini?..heheh..tenang aja..i’m not turning myself into a helpless poet kok, I found this poem in the first page of Supernova, the book I am currently reading. I haven’t read much of it though, I’m in page 60 out of 200 something pages, so far I really like the story, I like it’s urbanize setting and the yuppies characters. I know the first couple pages suck, I mean there are just too many jargons that I don’t even know they exist, the kind of words that’s only understood by the Newtonians. But hopefully no more of those jargons in the following pages.


Arrgh... I can't wait to finish the book, to uncover what they are trying to say..I know there are different pairs of characters that they portray so far, the characters that are not related at all.. ada Ruben & Dimas the gay couples who went to college in DC, ada Ferre the all around superb guy and Rana the magazine editor yang di karang Ruben and Dimas for their story, ada Diva sang peragawati and Dahlan juga…hmm..this is interesting. I wish I could finish this book in one go…but I can't..I have other things to do... In fact I’m going to starbucks to study right now…*sigh*

I was barely at home on Saturday and Sunday. So the weekend flew just like that, in a blink of an eye. Let’s start from Friday..hmm, what did I do on Friday? I knew I went to sylvan learning center to schedule my GMAT but turned out they didn’t offer that test in this branch near my house, the nearest is in Ballwin which is jauh ajeeee, so I have to go find that place this Wednesday. Went to the gym and almost passed out, my knee hurts like crazy but I have no choice..need to keep hitting the treadmill. I wanted to watch Meteor Garden after that, I have so many VCDs that I haven’t watched (ca bau kan, jalangkung, pasir berbisik and all the 19 episodes of Meteor Garden). But the VCD player is broken by the lighting that happened a while ago, so I went to buy another one so I could just switch it with my old one and return the old one to the store. But when it was hooked, the damn thing wouldn’t read the disc, it said NO DISC even jelas2 ada disc nya di dalem, but it played dvd just fine. The manual says it’s compatible. Oh well..not my lucky day.


Saturday: Woke up early cause I had to call my manager to find out whether he’d need me at work or not, but he said he’ll be okay. Then I was thinking of calling my group member to have the meeting this morning. But one of them lives like 1 and half hours from school, so it would be in the afternoon by the time she gets there, so i just canceled it. Went to Lemon Grass and had some Pho Dac Biet and went to Jay to buy grocery but they don’t have that many Indonesians stuff. After that. went back to the store to exchange the VCD player, thinking it was the defect one that I got yesterday that’s why it couldn’t read the cd. So I got another one but when I tried it out..it still wouldn’t read the cd, that’s weird, the broken one was the same model and brand and it played the VCD so how come this one couldn’t??… Went to Owen’s (dendre’s co worker) house for house warming party at night, it was a very nice house..it’s small but it’s very neat and clean and it smells good. Candles were everywhere,..his wife is really the queen of candles, I felt like I was in a white barn candle store or something, I mean when I looked around the house, it’s nothing but burning candles, smells so good though. There were a lot of people there; some people from the office including the manager and some were owen's friends from college, some frat boys and sorority girls. Had a few rounds of good food..hmm, I need to ask for that yummy spinach schotel recipes.


Sunday: Woke up at 8 and off to school for the group meeting until 1.30, and then dendre and I went to Galleria to meet Dina and Ading and guess who called me when we were sitting around in starbucks??..AAN, huehe..i was soooo happy to hear her voice again, she just arrived in NY with her friend (Festi). It feels like she’s so close but yet so far. I miss you sweetie. She’ll be leaving for DC tonight, she asked me whether I could play host for Festi who wants to go around Midwest area, hmm..that’d be fun, but I gotta check the schedule first. I wish she could come along..tapi harus balik lagi ke Jakarta in 10 days. Oh well..i’ll see her in December anyway and we still could talk on the phone for the rest of her 10 days trips…! Dari Galleria went to Yahya’s house for the so called Permias meeting, hiahia..lumayan lah makan gratis, there were a variety of foods but I just ate the grilled chickens, hmm..that’s yuM!. Man..I didn’t know there are so many Indonesians here, I mean A LOT, I even had a hard time remembering the names and the faces, hehe..i still have no idea who’s who. Dari anak bayi sampe nenek2 juga ada kemaren, banyak yang masih undergrad, ada yang lagi master, some PHD students, ada yang udah kerja and even high schoolers. Kemaren tuh udah banyak banget yang dateng and ternyata yang nggak dateng juga masih banyak lagi…ealaah…! Abis itu went to Global food to get my supply of Teh botoL dan terusnya ke The Grind nyusul dince, ading and eppi yang pada belajar disana..huaah basi..pada berkutat dengan buku2 gitu soo dendre and I just decided to call it a day and went home. Read Ca Bau kan for the rest of the night, belom selesai juga nih..*sigh*, but I’m getting there, sekarang yang lagi bagian Tan Peng Lian balik ke Bangkok ketemu sama si jeng tut untuk minta supply senjata.


So that’s iittttt……now we’re back to a whole new week. And oh, I just got back from mailbox center to send some documents to my mom and it costs me $38…whatta ripped off!!! You better get them in my mom's hands safely brown boy!