Darla!

Category: internet

  • The Struggle of a Modern Human Being

    Modern human basic needs
    My friend jokingly said that basic human needs had shifted from “food, shelter, and clothing” to “food, clothing, and internet”. “Even homeless people have smartphones,” she said. While I will never ever say that having a smartphone is more important than having a place to stay, I agree with her to some extent. I’ve been having some trouble with my house’s internet connection lately and it’s not good at all. I need internet 🙁

    I sponsored Sara’s blog last month and it has given me tons of traffic (blessed you, Sara!) so it’s not really a good time to be MIA, no? Right now I’m writing this post at my parents’ house. They installed a wifi connection just a month ago and it’s been a connection heaven for me. If only I lived closer. Haha!

    So… yeah. I’m just stopping by to tell my new readers that 1) yes, I’m still alive!; 2) I’m fixing this internet problem, so hopefully soon I’ll get back to regular blogging; and 3) I really miss catching up with my favourite bloggers. Okay, maybe I’ll just stop whining here right now.

    See you soon!

    Pic from.

    Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

  • How I Combine My Love of English and Internet to Earn Money Online

    I miss regular blogging. I’ve had a lot of things in mind: wedding planning, house hunting, seserahan shopping, et cetera, et cetera; but I still can’t write them all as I don’t have the right pictures or photographs to be put on those posts. I’m one of those bloggers who really hold onto the belief that a blog post should have at least one picture on it. I’m holding onto that belief religiously.

    One of the many things that I’ve been wanting to share is about my financial struggle this past month. There have been some issues regarding my new job as a teacher, and as a result, I didn’t get paid last month. I’ve been struggling to keep going with only a paycheck from tutoring, which ended last month, meaning I won’t get any more paycheck from tutoring this month. My paycheck from teaching in high school won’t really pay my bills, actually. It is way lower than the minimum wage and won’t make ends meet. I know I wouldn’t be able to survive if I only depend on teaching.

    A few months ago, my fiance introduced me to an online outsourcing website called oDesk. It is a marketplace where employers and freelancers can meet. I signed up, but hadn’t really looked into it until last month. I found a joblisting looking for freelance English to Bahasa translators for a popular website. I have been an amateur English to Bahasa and Bahasa to English translator for a few years now, so I applied for the job. They gave two sample texts for me to translate as a (paid) test. Two days later, they sent me an email saying that I was accepted. Since then, I’ve translated eleven articles and got paid more than my paycheck as a teacher. Isn’t that great?


    For as long as I’ve known the internet, getting money online has always been a dream for every user. I’ve seen all around the WWW a lot of ads and promotions saying that we can earn money with just a few clicks, but not all of them is true and safe. Here are some tips for getting money online.
    1. If it is too good to be true, it probably isn’t. Ever seen those links saying “Get $$$ for just signing up!” passed around on Facebook? It’s really suspicious, isn’t it?
    2. There is no such thing as easy money. You need to work to earn money. Signing up and sharing the links asking people to sign up are not counted as working.
    3. Always check the credibility of the websites. I personally consider outsourcing websites that have legit Wikipedia pages (like oDesk, Freelancer.com, and Guru.com) as trustworthy.
    4. Pay attention at how you will receive your payments. For example, oDesk has a range of payment methods, like via Paypal, local bank transfer, Payoneer, etc.
    5. Choose the joblistings very carefully. When applying for a job, ask for an upfront payment if necessary. Don’t apply for suspicious or illegal jobs.

    Many people have successfully earned money through this kind of outsourcing websites. There are hundreds of job listed everyday. It works for me so far, hope it’ll work for you too.

  • idGeekGirls Share #2 Food and Social Media


    Taking pictures of your food and then posting them up on Instagram has become such a common thing nowadays. It started out simply as a fun way to share what you were having for lunch, but then it got big and bigger, and now we what we call as foodstagrammers (I know this guy and this girl in real life). This phenomenon was what drove the idGeekGirls community to hold a small talk show called “idGeekGirls Share #2 Food and Social Media” on Saturday. This event took place in 90 Gourmet restaurant. There were four speakers and around 20 participants.


    For about one hour, we talked about the effects of foodstagram (and food blogs in general) from restaurant owners’ point of view, how to write a good food review, how some restaurant owners handle complains delivered through social media, food styling, and many other things. I also met some people among the participants, like fellow bloggers, an owner of a newly opened restaurant, a reporter from a local newspaper, etc. We were given lunch of our choice (I chose Chicken Maryland which was super yummy), and then after we had our lunch, the event was closed with quizzes and giveaways.

    For a free event, it was pretty awesome. The talk show was very informative and it gave me new knowledge in foodstagram and food blogging. Besides getting a big lunch, I also went home bringing a goodie bag plus a (huge) jar of cookies. I’m definitely looking forward to joining another event by idGeekGirls.

    ***

    I’m currently participating in a blog competition held by Hijabers Community Jakarta. Please vote for me by clicking here. Your vote brightens my day. Thanks! XOXO

  • Don’t Feed The Troll


    I admit that I am a troll.

    Yes. You read that right. I am a troll and I enjoy reading GOMI, though I have only written like 3 posts in the forum. I enjoy hate reading a particular famous blog that’s got a 500+ page thread on it and silently nod whenever somebody points out that the blogger(s) pull out too many pigeon toes. I also enjoy creeping on my Facebook’s news feed to read people’s statuses and laughing at their whinings. And if I find that someone I hate posts statuses about how shitty her job is and how they haven’t paid her for two months or how ‘unmanly’ her boyfriend is, I feel like a winner. Yes, I admit that I am that kind of person.

    Since I am such a horrible person and such a troll, I can tell you this:

    Don’t feed the troll.
    Don’t whine on social networking sites.
    Be smart when posting something that the public can read.

    In the age of digitalised social life, we often forget that there are literally million people out there who can get access to our private life. We often forget that when we post about (let’s say) family issues, not only our families or close friends can read that; the entire population on our friends list can also read it. Now, check your friends list. Out of those 2,000’s faces, how many of them are actually the people you know in person? They can read your posts, your private posts, unless if you limit what you share.

    So, here are some things that you may consider. (Remember, these come from a big, fat troll that I am, so you can say they are legit tips).
    – Stop whining.
    – If you just can’t stop it, use the privacy settings on Facebook very wisely. Put all those people in your friends list into several lists, so you can choose which lists can read your personal statuses and which lists can only read general posts (like those cute cat videos you share from YouTube).
    – Carefully accept friend requests. A big fat troll that used to keep bugging you and whom you unfriended a long, long time ago may create a fake account and try to friend you with their new account (yes, that shit really happens), so it can be useful to carefully choose the requests you accept.
    – If you blog, please bear in mind that you have chosen to give strangers the access to your private life. Therefore, you should be ready to be judged and criticised. Don’t be such a cry baby and/or drama queen; it makes us trolls even happier and gives us even more stuffs to snark about.

    Life is never simple, you guys. It gets even more complicated in this era. The trolls are horrible, but at some points, they can also be right. Now, if you could handle listening to what they’re snarking about, you could actually get some tips on how to make you a better person/blogger, and thus give them less things to gossip about. Just don’t feed the troll, alright?

    Image via

  • How to Make a Meme with Your Own Picture Using Your Android Phone

    As odd as it sounds, I really like making memes from my own pictures. (You can see examples in my Instagram account.) I usually use desktop programs like Photoscape or GIMP to create them, but it’s quite troublesome since the idea for a meme usually pops up when I’m in the middle of something where I can’t just grab my laptop and edit pictures. For that reason, I need a handy app for it. This early morning, when I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, I found a way to create memes using an app in my Xperia Miro. It’s a simple photo editor app with the option to add text using user installed fonts. I don’t know if there’s actually a simple app to generate memes from your own picture, but for me this app is quite easy to use. Read along to find out how to use it 🙂

    Dexterous Dame Dara

    1. Install the Photo Editor app from Play Store.

    2. Internet memes usually use the Impact font. It can be easily found in any Windows computer. Copy the .ttf file to “mnt/sdcard/PhotoEditor/fonts”. (The location may be different in your device. Just locate where the app created its folder and then copy the .ttf file to the “fonts” subfolder.)

    3. Open the app and then open the image that you want to use for your meme. You can use the one available in your gallery, or take a new one.

    4. Internet memes usually have 4:3 ratio, so you might want to crop your picture in the same ratio. Tap on the “Crop” menu and choose “4:3”. You can zoom in by pinching the picture. If you have finished cropping, tap on the check icon on the top right corner.

    5. To add text to your picture, tap on the “Text/Image” menu.

    6. Tap on the “+” menu and choose “Add text”.

    7. When a window (?) pop up, make sure the “Top color” and the “Bottom color” are white (or #FFFFFFFF) and the “Outline top color” and “Outline bottom color” are black (or #FF000000). You can change them by tapping on the boxes.

    8. Write the caption for your meme in ALL CAPS.

    9. Go to the “Properties” tab. Change the “Outline width” to 25% or more and the “Align” to Center. Don’t forget to also change the font to Impact.

    10. Go to the “Etc” tab and then change the “Initial Potition” to Center – Top (or Center – Bottom for the bottom caption). Thick on the “Keep Aspect Ratio” and then tap on “Apply”.

    11. You’ve just created the top caption. Now you can repeat steps 6 through 10 to create the bottom caption. You can rearrange the position of the captions by dragging them around. If you’ve finished, tap on the green check symbol on the top right corner.

    12. Tap on the save button and then select “Gallery” to save it on your gallery.

    13. Wait for a second and it’s done 🙂

    Second World Hijabis Problem

    Have fun making your face (or your friends’) a meme! 😉