Google Developer Day

Today I went to Google Developer Day 2007 with my colleagues. (Photos here). This is a free event held by Google simultaneously around the world (Tokyo, Brazil, US, UK etc). It was held in Technology Park, Redfern. Since this is a free event, tickets were gone really fast! Fortunately I have reserved my ticket 2 months ago!

In this event, Google showcases their popular products such as Google Maps, Ajax, Google Web Toolkit, GData, and also announcing for the first time, their 2 newest products:

• Google Gear - an open source technology that allows you to take your web application offline and still able to run it! It install a small sized local SQL database to your local machine (while disconnected from the server) and enables you run Javascript asynchronously. Aaron Boodman was presenting this by unplugging his laptop from the network in the middle of the talk! And he's still able to run his url-based slideshow and change database content! Review here. This is way beyond cool! You gotta to check it out!


• Google Mapplets - mini-applications you can embed within the Google Maps site. Example is real estate search, restaurants search, etc. Using gadgets, it can manipulate map with Javascript calls that are derived from Google Maps API.

A few weeks back, Google chooses 5 finalists of websites that best use and implement their Google Map mashups. One of these finalists is www.propertyguru.com.au (check it out!) - they are our company website made by the Australian Property Monitors team. It features a really simple to use search function and great functional Google Maps to help users look for property. In today's event, all 5 finalists showcase their website and visitors will vote which one they think is the best Google Maps implementation. By the end of the day, it was announced that the winner was *drum rolling*..... Property Guru !!! Congrats to Lachlan, George, and the rest of APM team! :) Photos of the award ceremony is available in my Picasa album.

Chilli Challenge!

We had a Chilli Challenge competition at work today.

This is 9 out of 11 that we had to eat:



Clockwise from 10 o'clock:
Jalapeno + cream cheese + cracker
Fiery chilli paste + cracker
Below it: Cream cheese mixed with heaps of chilli powder and chilli flakes + cracker
Nandos extra hot peri peri sauce infused bread
Very very hot sambal + bread
Sambal with shrimp paste + cracker
Tabasco + cracker (changed to tabasco infused bread later on)
Seeded chilli + creamcheese + cracker
Centre: Whole bird's eye chilli

We started with 20 challengers. But when it's time to eat the whole bird's eye chilli, only 7 people were up for it. Crazy crazy people I must say =P

Since we have so many ppl left, Stuart decided that we need to give more challenging food to narrow down the list!

Next is dried chilli for level 10! Weird taste I must say. It turns out to be not as hot as the bird's eye chilli, but it tastes plastic-y!!!

5 people remaining....

Level 11 is Marie's uncle home grown chilli ! Oh myy it's super spicy! I would say that it's 5 times hotter than bird's eye chilli! Almost everyone finally shed a tear or two!!!!

Finally, there're 4 people who can completed level 11 !!!

There are talks that there gonna be further more challenging competition next week to decide the sole winner! Stay tune to my update if it is so! =P

Tumpengan

Last Saturday nite we went to my cousin's place for a traditional Indonesian dinner. There were 7 of us in total : Me, Yap, Mimy, Johnson, Lia, Russell, and Desmon.

The meal that we had is famously known as "Tumpeng". To be honest, I never even tried it when I was still living in Jakarta. It was a food only served during a celebratotary event, particularly served in presidential events. There are so many photos / scenes of our old President, Soeharto cutting the top of the yellow rice cone that I still remember from my childhood. The scenes always pop up in TV or newspaper as somehow, I'm not sure why, he always have something to celebrate!

The main attraction of Tumpeng is the cone shaped yellow rice on the middle of a round plate. It should be surrounded by alot of variety of foods around it. Because we Indonesians love our chillies, most of the time the food accompanying the rice will be spicy food.

However because not everyone in our dinner can eat spicy chilli, we opted for non-spicy meal. We had:
Perkedel (Fried mashed potato)
Ayam bakar (Grilled chicken)
Urap (Steamed vegetable topped with fried dessicated coconut)
Beef Rendang
Sate Babi (Pork Satay)

Minimum order for the tumpeng was for 15 people. We had only 7 people and we really thought that we would have a lot of left overs. But oh my did we eat a lot! Lol! We finished the whole thing, except for the rice! =P

Myers-Briggs personality test

Damana sent me an interesting personality test today. This is to measure how introvert / extrovert etc you are.

Here's the link: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

And here is some background if you are interested...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers_briggs

Apparently I am a ESFJ with these points:

Extraverted	Sensing	Feeling	Judging
Strength of the preferences %
11	1	50	33

I'm not too sure what it means =P But the description seems to be scarily accurate. Test it and let me know if yours is accurate too or not :)

Here's the description of ESFJ people:

Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging

Guardians of birthdays, holidays and celebrations, ESFJs are generous entertainers. They enjoy and joyfully observe traditions and are liberal in giving, especially where custom prescribes.

All else being equal, ESFJs enjoy being in charge. They see problems clearly and delegate easily, work hard and play with zest. ESFJs, as do most SJs, bear strong allegiance to rights of seniority. They willingly provide service (which embodies life's meaning) and expect the same from others.

ESFJs are easily wounded. And when wounded, their emotions will not be contained. They by nature "wear their hearts on their sleeves," often exuding warmth and bonhomie, but not infrequently boiling over with the vexation of their souls. Some ESFJs channel these vibrant emotions into moving dramatic performances on stage and screen.

Strong, contradictory forces consume the ESFJ. Their sense of right and wrong wrestles with an overwhelming rescuing, 'mothering' drive. This sometimes results in swift, immediate action taken upon a transgressor, followed by stern reprimand; ultimately, however, the prodigal is wrested from the gallows of their folly, just as the noose tightens and all hope is lost, by the very executioner!

An ESFJ at odds with self is a remarkable sight. When a decision must be made, especially one involving the risk of conflict (abhorrent to ESFJs), there ensues an in-house wrestling match between the aforementioned black-and-white Values and the Nemesis of Discord. The contender pits self against self, once firmly deciding with the Right, then switching to Prudence to forestall hostilities, countered by unswerving Values, ad exhaustium, winner take all.

As caretakers, ESFJs sense danger all around--germs within, the elements without, unscrupulous malefactors, insidious character flaws. The world is a dangerous place, not to be trusted. Not that the ESFJ is paranoid; 'hyper-vigilant' would be more precise. And thus they serve excellently as protectors, outstanding in fields such as medical care and elementary education.

In case you are also interested in futher description of ESFJ people, check this out:
http://keirsey.com/personality/sjef.html

And this is the suggested careers for me: http://www.humanmetrics.com/vocation/JCI.asp?EI=11&SN=0.6&TF=-50&JP=33

Namely: Management, Public Administration, Hotel & Restaurant Management, Nursing, Radiologic Technician, Physician (okay, it is getting scarier!), Education, Social Work.

The day I turned 25....

A few weeks back, I celebrated my come of age of turning 1/4 century.

It's not bad... not as bad as I think it would =P

I thought I'll feel sooooo much older and suddenly the next day, puffy eye bag and forehead lines (famously known as Wrinkle) will come to visit. However, not much thing is different....

I did an online survey thing a few days after my birthday, and the only thing change is that I now checked a different answer in the 'Age Group' section. I used to check "18-24". It felt so good to be in the same group with the 18 year olds! Now I check "25-34" -_-" -_-"

Anyway..... I had quite a good birthday this year =) On my birthday night, Yap took me to Prime Restaurant in No.1 Martin Place (GPO). We had the wagyu beef grade 6, it was delicious!!! It definitely does taste MUCH different than normal meat! You do pay what you are getting! I can't imagine what grade 12 taste like! Apparently grade 12 is the highest grade for Wagyu beef. And it is only available in Japan! Prime Restaurant serves grade 6 and grade 9.

At night we cut my cake, the lovely hazelnut chocolate cake from Lindt! It is so yummy. The top chocolate layer is amazing and the nuts making it an easy to eat cake. Here is the photo of it. Yap put a smiley face with candle on it :)

Mimy and Johnson came by too. And they gave me this beautiful hugeee jewellery box! This should be enough to fit all my home made jewelleries right? Do you think so? =O

Then last Saturday, I had Yum Cha with my friends. It was quite a late one since the weekend of my birthday week was Ineke's wedding, so we can only have it last Saturday which is actually 1 1/2 week later hehehehe. Anyway, we had it in Fook Yuen in Chatswood. It's just located across my house and it's quite a nice place, I've only been there twice before but has been liking it :). My friends gave me a massage chair! NICEEEEEE! I can use it while watching my dvd (HEROES!!!) Thinking about it, I think I'll use it now......

Beatiful Saturday

I am writing this to my blog so that I can remember the 2 beautiful events that happened last Saturday, 5th May 2007.

My best friend, Ineke, got married to the love of her life.
It was such a beautiful day to get married!














This is the outdoor photo shot in La Perouse. From left : Yansen, Widi, Herri, Ineke, Lia, Me.

The day started with waking up at 6.30 am for a make up and hair do by Robert De Rooze , a very experienced make-up artist who did Melissa George for Napoleon Perdis shot!

Then at 11.15 am we started our way to the La Perouse church in Little Bay. It was such a cute small church with rooftop that goes all the way down! One side of the church is only made of clear glass which has the beautiful ocean view.

When everyone has gathered inside, the priest asked everyone to stand up ..... I then walked down the aisle first followed by Lia holding the beautiful flower bouquet with violin being played. After we stood on our position, Ineke walked down the aisle with her mom towards Herri who was already waiting on the front.... It felt so magical I almost cried! I just felt so happy! Marriage is a really beautiful thing =)

After the church ceremony, we went on to our outdoor photo shoots. We went to La Perouse, Observatory Hill (The Rocks), followed by Bondi Beach. Then we went to Nick's seafood where the dinner reception going to be held. The bride & groom had the tea ceremony first before the reception started, and then when it was all done and the guests have arrived, the reception began.

Everyone had such a great time that night! Yap was the MC , his first time, mind you, but he did suchhh a greattt job that even someone in the wedding asked him to be his MC for his wedding! LOL! But I'm not too sure that my speech went that well! Hehehhe We then had a very delicious dinner too, it was seafood platter for two! So there wasn't any worry that we won't have enough food! ;-)

We took heapss and heappsss of photos! Maybe I'll upload more one day when I can find a good shot of me! hahehehhe *self-aware*

Btw,....... the second beautiful thing that happen last Saturday was.......... the news that my lovely cousin, Mimy is having a BABY BOY!!!!!! Yes, it's going to be a Johnson Junior after all! She went to the ultrasound on Saturday, and right after the doctor put the ultrasound device on her tummy, the baby opens his leg and shows his true self! HUHUAHAUAHUA



Me & Mimy on Sunday night in Seoul-Ria, Korean resto in Chatswood. She's 20 weeks pregnant!! =D

I can't wait for the little Johnson to come out and poo everywhere!

It will be really exciting to finally have a nephew living near me. It will be a very exciting experience that I kinda anticipate :)

City vs Suburbia

There’s a discussion happening in Domain blog (http://blogs.domain.com.au/ ) about living in city vs suburbia…

I just read them and found some interesting things from the readers...

Which one do you prefer? :)

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i lived in clovelly 6km or 20mins to the city. beach 200m away. i loved it. then my partner got sick and lost his so called "job for life". we were going under on a monthly basis. i had a great career, great friends, ate well, ocean views the lot. six months ago we moved 1hr south of sydney on the coast just to try it. we live near the windy bridge north of wollongong. we pay $290 per week for a 2 brm fibro house a backyard overlooking the ocean, trees and the occasional wallabies grazing around dusk. we have a garage, a storeroom and a studio, a vegie patch, a laundry as big as my last bedroom with ocean views, 2 dining rooms, a sunroom and an old kitchen. its so cheap to live here I'm only working 3 days a week. its a 1 hr drive to work door to door. the other days i swim in the ocean, do some pilates or go to the gym, shop, read or sew. my partner looks healthier than when I first met him. our friends come down and visit and think we live in paradise. our friends stay with us and we stay at their place if there's a party in sydney we don't want to miss. the locals are friendly, and everything is cheaper. there are nice restaurants and we eat out once a week still. the loaf of sour dough bread I bought in clovelly for $5.50 is $3.50 here, same label. bananas were $3 a kilo when in sydney they stayed up over $10 a kilo. our first bacon and egg roll plus a coffee for 2 people cost only $12 not $40 at clovelly sea salt. i reckon i've had the best of both worlds and my experience is that city life just doesn't compare to being here.

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I live 20km out from Brisbane and hate it, yes I've got heaps of space on my 1600sqm block, but it takes forever to get anywhere, no public transport, no shops nearby.
I blame the council for not insisting on some retail land in the estate. Also the estate is all twisty cul de sacs, it takes me 5 minutes just to get out of the estate. Developers have got obsessed with creating quite dead-end cul de sacs with no through roads, and the whole estate exits at the one point.
The new stage actually backs on to a main road, but there is not access to it, not even a footpath! you have to drive right around for 15 minutes!

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I have lived in a shoebox in the centre of London, New York and Sydney. Now I live in a house in Canberra suburbia and love having the garden and the dog which I could not have in the city. I think much depends on your stage of life - once I would not have swapped the city for this either but now I would not go back.

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Late last year I moved to Lake Macquarie -south of Newcastle NSW after 10 years in Sydney & 5 years in Brisbane. In both cities, I lived in great inner city fringe suburbs - had a great life, easy public transport in Sydney and a short walk to shops, bars etc in both places - all very nice but to buy where I rented in Sydney was simply unaffordable on one income if I still wanted to have any sort of social life. I met the love of my life and within 12 months had moved up the F3 to be with him in a cute 3 bedroom house we bought and am loving it - and I'm still walking distance to everything - including our sail boat on a mooring at the end of our street....I've got the best of all the worlds-at about a 1/3 of the price - and that's for everything - from paying a mortgage to going out for dinner or breakfast - not to mention that everything is just easier - going to the beach doesn't involve paying for parking or sitting in traffic for hours on the way home..
Home is about who you're with & what you do in that home and in your community - it's not about keeping up with the Jones & driving the latest model SUV. Lifestyle is about how you choose to live - and it can be short sighted to think that is defined by the address you live at.