New Year...New Beginning

It's almost end of this year! Gosh, how time flies so fast, I could not even take a brief moment to "relax". This year has been really tough on me, but I managed (thanks God for that!). I mean, life is always ups and downs, sad and happy, it can't always be a stagnant thing in everything, just like a chart there will be curves along the lines. I thought that I tried my best this year to make a career, but people may not see it like I do. And I know we can't judge ourselves, people surrounding us that will notice and critique us. I know I am not always right, even I always stubbornly try to force my opinion on something, people don't always agree with us- that I understand. But I do feel that, no matter what people see different about us, we should never think low of ourselves. Because, if we feel down, we can't move forward. We need to move forward, it's what New Year is all about right, to move forward and not looking back for our failure. It's seems cliche to make a new resolution for the next year, I mean I sure do we all want to make a new resolution that is better than this year. But, for me it's not just about resolution, is about more thanking less whining. To be honest, I sometimes blame God for making my life this year gloomier than before, but heck what an ungrateful human I am. God does give me more and I should have thank more. It's me that I need to blame, because I need to remain positive on whatever and I mean, whatever things that happen to me, good or bad. Sometimes we forget to look into ourselves, and too busy to look into others. All we need to do is to have mirror in front of us and see how our lives have been all this time, hence we are the one to make better judgment to ourselves and introspect ourselves to better our lives. I do pray that Next year is the beginning of better and positive things coming into my life. AMEN to that!

pic is taken from: myniceprofile.com

To Appreciate

As teachers we have to make our students feel happy about what they are doing, no matter how small the result is. I guess it's the same with viewing people. I, myself is still struggling not to be prejudiced or judge mental towards people. Because, to assume that someone is doing something without good result, is not a positive thing for ones, since they definitely feel unappreciated, and you can turn someone else's world upside down and make them at the lowest point of their life. Each people deals a problem differently, and for someone who can't take "a-hard-push advice" from someone, they may feel low about themselves, and you never know when someone you give advice to is not having "other trouble" as well. Appreciate to even a small effort makes someone's life better. We may not see the same view as others and not always on the same page with average people, but what important is we appreciate ourselves. Because once you feel unappreciated, you will fall down, and the only person that can bring you up again, is ourselves. We may ignore those unappreciated thoughts, opinions, views, or bs they are having on us, but when you feel down, just remember that God appreciates our effort even in the smallest way.

The First SAC Hand-made Cards Bazaar

SAC stands for Saskia-Aini-Charma, and it is our brand to sell handmade cards with quilling arts. Charma and I learned from Saskia who started first this quilling arts. Anyway, thanks to Saskia's mom, we could sell our hand-made cards in "Suriname's embassy stall" (since Saskia's mom is the secretary of Suriname's embassy) in WIC (Women International Club) at JHCC from 1-2 Dec'2010. We sold 34 cards out of 59 cards, and we are so lucky to have achieved this far. We just started this like a month ago and consistently practiced the quilling arts like everyday...And damn proud of the result! Today in the Bazaar was such a great opportunity to SAC and me. I mean, it's like seeing new people, interacting with the foreigners, and yeah maybe I was kinda dumb when they asked about Suriname's geography of even the culture. But, yeah, we managed!I loved seeing the people who stopped by to our stall, because the Suriname's costumes were very attractive (they had Indian Suriname,African, and Chinese). There were many of them who took pictures of us, and if we could charge every picture they took, I bet we could have made more money..hahahaha. Even though we are all very tired, but we are relieve that our handmade cards could sell more than we have expected...Go SAC!

Indonesia in Mourn

Disaster after disaster strikes Indonesia recently, with the Mount Merapi eruption and tsunami in Mentawai. The refugees are definitely in need for our support, such as food, clothing, hygiene kit, medicine/ first aid, etc. The volunteers have helped as much as they could, and I know that some of them are genuinely encouraged with their "humanity aspects" regardless they use their own money for their accommodation. So, I take my hats off for them!!However, the situation did not just stop there, the number of refugees in Merapi area keeps on going, and they need all that we can give immediately. I really take my concern for the women, babies and children, they do need hygiene kit and also milk, diapers, clean water and mask. I can't imagine living in a refugee tent with a very limited access of clean water, food, clothing, etc. My heart really breaks watching the news. Stay strong okay guys...The volcano will still active for the next couple of weeks maybe, not knowing when it will release its lava. God, if that happens, for sure people who are still stubborn and insist living near the Merapi area, should be evacuated, so there will be no more dead victims. I hope God help us through these rough times...for those 17,000 refugees or more out there in Merapi and Mentawai, my pray goes to you all. God is helping us...and You, trust!

FAN FICTION ADDICT

When you hear the word fan, what is the first thing that come up about that word? Obviously "a fan", or "a high appreciation" or maybe an "addict" of something or someone. There are always two sides of effect of this word "fan", the negative is you might be too intense on being a fan, and you do not clearly see yourself as a supportive fan, for example: a fan or should I say fanatic of Robert Pattinson (the guy who play Edward Cullen), maybe become a stalker of every film schedule/movie premiere he attends, or could threat him if he has a "girlfriend" because hoping that Robert would go out with her..it does happen you know, I read it in magazine!So that's clearly a negative "fan"..but there is one fan that I'm also into it, which I consider it is a positive thing...a fan fiction. I have read this fan fiction stories since I like Twilight movies, yeah my fan fiction story only pair Edward-Bella. And recently I love reading Smallville fan fiction, which paired Clark-Lois. Now, I've read in a few sites of this "fandom" thing, and they say that they create or write fan fiction because they want to know more about the characters or they are not satisfied with the story presented in the series. Well, no matter what the reason they have, I feel really grateful for these fan fiction writers because the writings are mostly quite well, I mean they could be script writers for the series they like. The fan fiction stories are really good, and I am not talking just about the writings, the plot, the characters, the dialogue are really amazing. I take my hat off for those fan fiction writers, and really they are talented writers, if some say that fan fiction writers or the readers are people who have no jobs, I mean get real people...you are wrong! These writers come from different level of background from all over the world, from Junior High writer to an English Teacher and to a Law student. They are taking writings and imagination to a different level. For me, there are no bad writings, people learn, make mistakes and try again. Because that's where I see myself, I like writing and I sure hope that people would appreciate my writings :).

PS: If you are interested in reading fan fiction, you can go to www.fanfiction.net, afterward you can choose the category of "fandom" that you like, whether it's a book (like Twilight), a TV series (like Smallville) or a movie (like Transformers and etc. If you're a fan of the characters and you wanna read more about the "other stories", please check out the website I mention above, I'm sure you'll gonna like it.

Wannabe Writer

Everyone who knows me, would probably wondering why I suddenly take interest in writing. It's not a sudden ambition or interest, and I wouldn't dare saying that it's a natural talent. I'd say it's just something that I enjoy since I was in elementary level, sixth grade to be exact. It started with a diary from 6th grade until my college years and I think I owned 23 Diaries in total, in which I tore them apart when I got married. At that time I thought who needed a diary when you can talk personally to your loved one. I did write Diaries to empty my unspoken emotions, words about my daily life, family, friends, crushes, almost crushes, ex-boyfriend, and almost boyfriend. I also wrote poetry in high school,but mostly it's about love and heartbreaks ...lots of heart break. I have no idea why I wrote so much heart breaking poetry, maybe because years before I met my husband, I did get a lot of heart breaks. Then i also made short stories(cheesy teen flick) that were mostly about me and my dream crushes..hey, when you can't get a guy, you are legal enough to write about them...says, me :). Because I enjoy writing things that make me comfortable, I did not know that writing can be used as "money making". Nope, never explore that..Dang, if I knew that I like to write stories, at least I could have been a journalist or a writer now. But, there is never too late to do things. I'm gonna keep on writing, for stories I won't publish them in my blog, I would only keep them in my personal file, and when the time is right I would love to publish them or someone should hire me as children writer or script writer. Some writings in my blog are mostly about pop culture, or certain events that I need togive my opinion on. I do only write in English, because I major in English teaching and I do want my writing to be read not just by Indonesian. It is okay, that some people may seem hard to see me as a struggling writer, but as hard to believe it's also something that I just figure out, that it's not easy to be a writer, and I have lots of practice and study and to care what other people think about my writing, which is taking suggestions and critique. Well, you are fully welcome!

Sorcerer's Apprentice

A Geeky Kinda Hero

My movie pick this time is the Sorcerer's Apprentice. When we usually see a movie with a hero in it, somehow they will portray a handsome guy, who happens to be the future hero, but the Sorcerer's Apprentice took a different approach. The character Dave (played by Jay Baruchel) is somehow not the typical of "ladies man" for a leading role. Because Dave is a real geek, nerd, awkward, unsociable and low self esteem guy, and to be truthful physically when you look at him for the first time, he is an average looking guy. I mean the female audience obviously won't go gaga for his "look", however there is something about his character that drawn the audience. As I pointed before, he is an average guy, a simple trait that I assume relate with most of the guys. He is quite funny in dorky kinda way, and yes like every other heroic movies...he did get the girl!...ehmm how classic right! I was kinda hopping that the female character that Dave fell for, was an average girl too, instead he did get himself his "dream girl". Overall, I did enjoy the movie and the comedy, and love this dorky kinda hero in Dave :)