Hardian Nazief dot Com

Pic by soozika

a few days ago i had a fever and took the day off from the office, even thought i’m not in a good conditions, my mind still wander around what task should i do next…

This week what i have accomplished is, I completed an educational book script for children about web messenger for educational children’s book script with IT theme competition, my position in making the book is not as a full writer but rather as an editor, a manager and a conceptor.

The draft of the writing is finished about two weeks ago, a week before deadline. Then i edit the draft in a couple of days for error correction (the book is in Indonesian language), repaired the flow of the story, make the illustration concept for the story and being an intermediate between the writer and the illustrator.

Pic by Berta…

The challenges that i get from this book competition event is, First The procrastination in starting the book. I want to start the writing from December last year! but alas, i haven’t have the time to manage the writer and the illustrator, i have a lot of tasks in hand and have to go out of town twice for assignment from the office. But i’ve manage to speed up the process about a month before deadline.

The second challenge and yet i’m still learning to improve is the communication between the writer and the illustrator. When i’m alone with one of them, they speak clearly about the intention of the story and what they want to the illustration. But when they meet up, suddenly the topic never came up, there’s chit-chat about it but never got to the point of it, so in the end i make the decision. They seems to be unsatisfied with my decision but i’ll work on that later on my next project.

The third challenge is making the content of the book readable for kids, at first i was the writer position in the project but after 20 pages, i felt my writing is not readable for children :D. Well i know it after spreading the writing to one kid and one grown-up. They say my writing is easy to read but it’s too hard for young lings. So i studied from a couple of children’s books and see that the knowledge is more acceptable for the kids if the flow of the story is narrative, rather than detailed and long explanation. Seeing my wife has more experience in handling kids (she had four niece), so i delegate the writing position to my wife. and i found it to be a great decision, she had the story flow more fluently and understandably.

Pic by Tapio Hurme

The process of writing took us a month to finish and took a week to fill it with illustration, i even took a leave from the office for two days just to finish it. The book after completion have 42 page (the maximum pages in the rule of the competition is 65) with 25 illustration.

After finished with the book. the next day in the office I updated my other website intensively and while updating it, i notice something strange on my file server (Snap server) in my office… oms! the data of 6 division in this building is gone, a 5 years of data vanished to thin air. This is like the worst scenario i’ve ever met, i never thought it would occurred, because the server itself considered new (15month), so i never think to back it up. but that’s office stuff, my boss and I manage to handle it in the end (even though i get a high fever after it).

What i regret is i always seems to forget in updating my website this last two weeks, i even forgot that i promote in sharing for WP Designer Themes Club Giveaways Account. I hope SP still sharing it this times, cause i forgot to ask for the free accounts.

Thats my place in joining logo competition. Last November my friends and I join a logo design competition for my company magazine. There are two most difficult task that i have to manage, the first one is managing the designer who create the logo and defining the philosophy of the logo.
As a newbie in managing human, i must admit, it is really hard. Even though we’ve been friends for almost 10 years its like he doesn’t get the urgency to create it as soon as possible so we can polish it more or redefine it. What i regret is that we didn’t create enough material to polish in grasping all the winning position.

The worst things is that we had the material ready a day before the deadline and i don’t enough time to criticize or to give suggestion. To make it even worst there’s one more material that was sent to me 1 hour before the deadline.
I’m not saying that his work isn’t great enough or he doesn’t give enough material. His work is great, he has great talent and a savvy taste in designing, it’s just he doesn’t respect the intention of teaming up and doesn’t understand that the prize we are going to get is going to be the fund of our next target. I’m not whining here, its the past and i learned my lesson. The crucial thing that i learn is to be more patient and i can’t rely on others too much. I must learn much more if i want to go freelancing in a couple month.

I get 2nd and 3rd place btw, If u think getting the second and third winner isn’t bad, let just say that we have only 30 competitor and none of them have designing background. We could make it better that what really hit me.
The second hurdle is defining the philosophy of the logo, with only couple days to make and with only scratch concept of the logo, its killing me that we had only little time to discuss it. Luckily i’ve been an avid reader of david airey so i’ve get a lot of help from his writing. Needless to say It teach me that i shouldn’t underestimate every process in designing, i should understand more by reading more and practicing more.

I couldn’t show the logo btw, it’s an internal company magazine :) in the next competition maybe.

With millions of resources in the web, my friend asked me to make him/her a personal website/blog, sometimes asked me directly, sometimes by adding comment saying “please make me a website” :D .
For God sake men! there is plenty of free blog service out there! But first thing first, there’s couple of things that you should remember before you create a personal website.
Purpose
What is the purpose of your website? Is it for personal development? For fun? Or to tell all the rambling things in your very interesting life? To make money? or to tell how to make money online? as an example, i’ll always tell my friends that the purpose of my website is for personal development, not in it for the money, the money is just for side quest. The main purpose is i’d like to develop my writing skills to the next level. If u define the purpose clearly, the intention manifestations will be more easier.
Commitment
U’re not making your website to be read only by yourself right? but for others to read too, if u do make it for yourself to read then why make one? buy a diary. U have to have commitment to your website, u’ll be disappointing readers if u don’t commit. I admit I dont blog regularly, but i never let a month go without any post. for me it’s not for the reader, but for myself development.

Readable
I think this point is self explanatory, BUT to remembered there are other point u should be connected with Readable.. it’s Enjoyable. The first time i blog i super checked everything, the topic, the grammar, the tone, everything, but i felt procrastinate every time i want to write. Editing while writing is a painful task. but that the old days, right now i just let the urge to write to flow first then edit. To help u get the big picture, u could read this marvelous post from The Barley Hut, The Only General Writing Advice You Will Ever Need, this change my perspective in writing forever! the point that hit me is Write what you want to read, not what you think someone else will. nice post man!
There’s a lot of website explaining more tips in developing blog, but to me this is the fundamental aspect to be notice. Many blog suggest that u should focus on your topic in posting, to me that is not the issue, to me is about Enjoying The Ride!!. For technical, i still bookmark “19 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website” from Josiah Cole. It’s the combined tips for me in blogging and don’t forget use Wordpress too :D

After a lot of delay, at last i get to watch The Simpsons Movie on theater, yeah it’s quite too late to watch it, but its really really worth it to watch it on theater.

There’ll be no spoiler here, all i can say this movie is really really funny. The first time i watch it, its hilarious then came where the moment hey its not funny anymore, but not for long its all laugh until the end.

From all the movie i watch this year, The Simpsons movie its memorable, i love every minutes of it, 85 minutes that is. And yes u’ll going to see Little Bart Pe**s.

Go watch now, dont forget to get simpsonize too.

I felt awful when we loose to korea, but it’s just a game anyway.

before i continue on i took pictures at the game, hope it will be usefull for u guys!

My ticket

The Stadium transition into the night

Perfect night!

Dark Sky

All I can say that the crowd is just perfect, with almost 85 thousands ticket sold, it trembled the arena (Gelora Bung Karno), U could hear the tremble of Senayan shouting “Indonesia!” here in my video

I record this using my cheap camera Canon A530, there is another video while the crowd singing our national Anthem, but you could search it on youtube anyway :D

I’m currently redesigning my web, with K2 styles, what i hate about doing this, i have less taste in color and can’t photoshop well :( that’s why i have a difficult time redesigning and most of it i have to depend on other people to help me, which have a different pace with me. hope it will be finish this week or next week

My dear beloved friend who give me a comb (weird gift?) have a website of its own. I’m encouraging her to write about her experience in Aceh. I thought it would be wonderful to share her experience.
Her website is Popie Stranded in Aceh. Even though its still under my roof, she write good stuf (if u can read indonesian). The theme for her website is custom K2, with my choice of background Pattern.

its priceless to have a picture of this in its native culture. priceless :D

by marsattacke

See the Different?