I’d like to share my experience in using Movie Maker Beta some time ago to make a TC commercial in one of my Magister Manajemen class, Integrated Marketing Communication.

Working in a group of 5 people, I’ve been given a task to make an ad that can show to the audience that the subject brand (Kacang Garuda rasa Bawang) is different, and I have to put an emphasis in the product function of this brand. We’ve decided to make a scenario and shoot ourselves as talents for this ad. The scenario implies that there were 2 people discussing the product and one of them later on shows (with his comical expression) that the product taste good and different from the other product. Check out the ad below (guess who’s in the video).

Movie Maker Beta is very easy to use. Although it’s only equipped with a very simple and basic editing application and effects, such as transition, cutting, inserting text box, and inserting audio, I find it adequate to make a full-length video. As you can see from the TVC ad, I can cut and insert text into the video, combine video and audio, and combine as many clip as possible into the video.

You can download this application together with the other cool Windows Live product here.

As Theodore Roosevelt once said,

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are"

Windows Live Movie Maker Beta enables people to create things with what they could possibly have, whenever and wherever they are. It’s life without walls. It’s Windows.

I just got struck by a blogging phobia! It’s so fun. I can do whatever I want with my page, and I can write whenever I want to. I can write while I’m having a cup of coffee, or while watching back to back CSIs at AXN. And I’m still on one of my first publications! It all started when a friend of mine, Haswar Hafid, showed me his blog. His blog is amazing (I’ve never seen any blog besides his, though), it’s full of reviews, photos, poetry and many of ‘em delivered in English that I don’t understand. He encouraged me to start my own blog as well. And so I did.
Just when I was about to give my blog a title, I suddenly face my first obstacle of being a writer. That is to come up with a name. Name is not just a name. It’s a symbol. It’s a brand. I have a feeling that this small problem happened to a lot of people out there. It’s not easy to create a name, especially name that has no legal/political implications and name that brings a lot of wealth to its creator. Well, since the making of this blog has nothing to do with any political nor financial objective, I then decided to go with something that I encounter everyday and still sounds a bit sophisticated and meaningful. I chose Breadcrumbs and Chevrons. What the hell is it?
In web design, breadcrumbs refer to a visual path that allows the user to see where they are in the interface and to retrace their steps if needed. I first heard about this terminology on an SAP HR training I had a couple of weeks back. Since then, Breadcrumbs has always been a big part of my day as I’m using the SAP HR application every time during the course of my daily work. In the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel attempt to mark their trail by leaving breadcrumbs on their path as they walk through a foreboding forest. I just hope that in the future, when I’m getting older, I can always trace back my life path by reading this blog. Every posting I make in this blog would become the Breadcrumbs of my life.
Apart from the fact that in the same web application, Chevrons is being used by turns with Breadcrumbs in the interface, I also think that Chevron is cool because it’s a symbol of a V shape or character. Now, V could mean anything, ranging from Vendetta to Viagra, but right here, let me just say that the V that I meant when I was making the blog title is Victory.
So, having it said and done, I just hope this blog can capture all the "breadcrumbs" and can also be a proof of my "chevron"…

Once upon a time, I was an automotive enthusiast. I find the whole automotive culture impossible to resist. I once swore that at least I have to do one or two modification to my car before I die, and I did. I changed my Suzuki Aerio’s wheel into AR Evolution type Navigator and I also changed the muffler into a racing one.  But, as time passes by, I began to leave the whole “automotive fever” behind. Right after I sold the Aerio in 2007, I was officially turning into a non-modification guy a.k.a. the guy with “mobil standar”. I still do modification but it’s limited only to the audio part now. That’s it. I have buried the dream of dressing-up my car into a racing style now, due to financial re-prioritization. The photo above is the highlight of my automotive “journey” as I have the chance to take a photograph together with Mas Rifat Sungkar, one of my all-time favorite racer.

However, I have one strong believe that boys will be boys. I’m a boy and I got to be honest with you, I still can’t get over the whole automotive thing until now. Deep down inside I know, once I have the chance (and money, of course) I will surely jump into the auto-culture once again. I knew that if I were to play cars again, it will be BIG time. Meanwhile, I’ll stick to my standard Avanza.

Gosh, I miss the sound of a racing car. Vroom… vroom…

I wanna talk about my Lenovo S10.

I bought this awesome little thing just 2 months ago, and I’ve never let myself alone without it ever since. I’m using it for work, campus and life. 24/7. I’m loving it! People may be wondering what’s so special about this nicely build Lenovo product. It simply satisfies all of my expectation and here are some of the reasons. First of all, it’s a netbook, so it’s unbelievably light weighted and it has long-life battery. It can last up to 4 hours, so no worries when I have to go out for a client visit and decided to only bring the netbook without its battery. I usually bring only one little netbook bag to carry it, instead of big bulky laptop bag. It makes my presentation look more stylish, without leaving behind the professional-look. Based on the whole appearance, I tell you, it helps me amaze some of my clients, and land some vacancies too. Boom!

Lenovo S10 has everything that a tech-savvy recruiter/business developer would ever wanted from a machine. I use Windows 7 Build 7057 and Office 2007 to get maximum working, learning, playing and connecting experiences. Its memory is adequate enough to run lots, and I mean lots, of programs. I am talking about running three browsers (Firefox, Chrome and IE) at the same time. You must be wondering why would a person run 3 browsers all together. Well for me, I use different browsers for different tasks. Chrome is for “play sites” like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. IE is for a more serious browsing (by that, I mean working!) and Firefox is simply for playing Travian. Besides browser, I usually open Windows Live Mail, MSN & Yahoo Messenger, Windows Explorer, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe Reader and Windows Media Player at one given time during the day. Guess what? It runs faster than any Acer laptop would run on Vista with 4 Gigs in it. Its built-in speaker is comparable to higher class laptop. It supports all things that a professional could ever possibly imagine of doing. For me, it’s all about email, research/browsing, social media, web 2.0, presentation, blogging, information processing and entertainment. My S10 brings the virtual workplace into reality.

And don’t forget, it’s Lenovo, so you’ll be getting a different feeling and experience than what’s offered by other brands. You won’t be getting questions like “what kind of laptop is that?” or “is it a Taiwanese brand?” if you’re using Lenovo (YES, I’m talking about Acer here!). Lenovo means business, it means professional. With Lenovo S10 it also means playing.

I’m a Windows 7 Lenovo. Do you want to see my Lenovo S10?