Another June’s List

Sunday!

I think it is time to make another list (since it makes me really happy). By the way, this Ramadhan runs so fast. I managed to only break my fasting outside once until now (just because Ramadhan means family time). See, my greatest glory comes in form of much more blessed things. You just can’t replace family time on Ramadhan.

Now, here comes the June’s list!

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

I truly love him! John Oliver got the HBO weekly night show gig, after graduating from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. After writing quite some times for the show, some Emmys, and replacing Jon Stewart in summer 2013 (while Stewart directed a movie), HBO realized the true potential of this British comedian. Last Week Tonight airs every Sunday night, reviewing some of the news that happens from the past week. The show has tackled some important issues concerning Wage Gap, Lottery (which claims lottery benefit the society), Tobacco Addiction, Miss American Pageant (which claims themselves as the biggest scholarship for young woman), Online Harassment for Woman, and maybe the most watched episode of them all, FIFA. Also his famous Bud Light Lime chug.

The show is hilariously spotted on and entertaining. I wonder if the same method of the show will ever be on our national TV. Despite its satirical tone, the show delivers the important issue in funny acceptable way. My hope on national TV ever came in the form of Indosiar, then Metro TV, then Trans TV, only to realize time changes them all. Rating raise and fall, political interest emerge, and creativity goes awry in the form of useless show. Other hope came in the form of .NET TV which amazingly offers (almost) no commercial in between their show. Fresh sitcom and daily talk show (with line of veteran and amazing hosts). But then comes Masalembo, a complete rip off of the TV series I love dearly, LOST. Now, only time will show if .NET will become another ‘something goes bad and I cannot hold any longer’ or come as glorious alternative TV that consistently delivers high quality show.

By the way, I’d love to write my fascination towards some of late night shows someday.

Online Courses

At my 2014 year review, I said that creative workshop skyrocketed to become one of the hippest event on your weekend agenda. Not only that it gives you some knowledge and some skills of making something from scratch, it also becomes an alternative for your weekend gateway (bye bye, fancy mall. Let’s move to… fancy cafés). The hard truth about all of that, it (sometimes) costs a lot. Especially in capital city like Jakarta. The cost for this creative workshop ranges from +/- 200.000 to 1.000.000 and above. TOBUCIL, located in Bandung (which I always set my eyes on the Bookbinding workshop) sets the range cheaper on +/- 100.000 to 250.000. For your references, here are my suggested Jakarta based event organizer and/or workshop place:

INDOESTRI // Living Loving // Hello Smithies // Mau Belajar Apa

For you who doesn’t have the luxury of spending that much money or the luxury of going out in weekend, please welcome the INTERNET (sunglasses emoji, please). Youtube obviously gives you everything you need. But for you who don’t mind spending some money on your credit card, here comes Skillshare. The website is no different than any online course like Coursera (which still awesomely FREE). Coursera offers much more academic subject, partnering with top universities and highly educated lecturer.  But if you are like me, who already fed up with calculation and anything technical in your work (and really don’t want to enroll to Introduction to Programming with MATLAB), maybe Skillshare is the perfect place for you.

Skillshare believes you don’t need to have a degree when you want to teach something. You just need to be experience in that field of subject and you can teach classes. The thing is, Skillshare requires some Premium Membership to access all of their classes. Their Free Membership still let you access their limited free classes. Their Premium Membership costs $10/month and $96/year. However, if you sign up for their Premium Membership you will get 14 days free trial so you won’t be billed at that time (at my first day signing up, I enrolled to almost 23 classes, ha-ha). So if you want to get access to all the classes, just be sure to enrolled to all the classes you like and cancel your membership after the trial ends :)) But if you are interested enough to sign up for Premium Membership account, they offer 20% off across this summer. A really good bargain I must say.

Skillshare offers range of more creative approach to their workshop, from DSLR for Blogger course, Branding Yourself on Instagram, Knitting 101, Hand Lettering, SEO and E-mail Marketing Strategy, etc. I signed up for the membership just because I want to enroll to Elizabeth Olwen’s Pattern Design Worskhop :)) But after that, blown away by their range of topic. There is also another workshop that I enjoy a lot called Strategic Design The Art and Science of Branding.  The people from Lippincott teach about branding strategy with The Hyatt Place rebranding as case study.

By the way, Linkedin just acquired Lynda, which is another good online course I want to try. It costs more that Skillshare (around $25/month), but covers more topics which I interested of. For Linkedin member, they also offer 21 days free trial before signing up for Premium Membership. Another great deal. After my Skillshare free trial ends, I do want to try this :))

Other online classes from my favorite DIY blogger/website like Brit+Co usually cost $19.9 and the girls from A Beautiful Mess sets the price from $35 to $75. Since I don’t have the luxury to spend $50 for a blog branding course, I would like to recommend Skillshare for overall :)) These online course websites also have mobile apps feature if you want to access your courses offline. It is an alternative for you who commutes and stuck in traffic a lot. Instead of spending countless scroll on your social media, 10 – 15 minutes of new subject won’t hurt you.

I Wrote This for You

It took years for me to actually get this book. The book published back in 2011 and I know the website for quite sometimes, always fascinated by the words (who doesn’t?). To actually having this on my book shelves is beyond believe. By the way, this is still one of my favorite piece.

The book itself (like the blog) features Iain S. Thomas’ poems and Jon Eliss’ photographs. I enjoy the first volume a lot just because it features a lot of photographs from Japan. It is somehow enchanting and beautiful. The guys just release another book titled I Wrote This For You and Only You on March 2015.

Jurassic World

I don’t really follow the mix review of the movie, but I do want to watch it because I LOVE DINOSAUR. It’s like my favorite animal after dragon :)) Back in college, I cried alone at night when I ran out of National Geographic’s Dinosaur coverage. And to be honest, Jurassic Park is one of the three VHS I have back in the day (the other two were Beauty and The Beast & Aladdin).

A friend told me that I need to put my 10 years old inside me to get the real experience of the movie, I don’t believe it. I came as 20 something and I felt happy when I left the theater. I think the movie just served as the perfect must-watched summer movie this year. I have to admit, that there are a lot of re-used plot and re-used scenes (which still okay by the way). The movie takes homage to original movie through many Easter Eggs (which I love). Any adults (maybe the 20s mostly) will scream seeing the night goggles appearance and of course the T-REX!!! I idolize the T-rex a lot, I could die clapping my hands when he appears :)) I know the end of the story completely in the middle of the movie, just because I really want it to happen (and it does happen!). As it should always be, the T-rex needs to remind all newcomers who the reigning king really is.

Bonus point: THE WEBSITE IS SUPER AWESOME.

Hand Lettering Artist

You know, it is really a career. The more I read and explore what these people are doing, the more I know there are various kind of hand lettering. Tough sometimes, I still cannot distinguish which one is more like calligraphy, graffiti, brush lettering, or the combination of all that; it’s still fun to see many of handmade beauty. My favorite local artist is Jamal M. Aziz from Lapantigatiga. He writes (and draws) like wizard.

(taken from Lapantigatiga’s Instagram)

There is also another hand lettering artist from Indonesia, but based in Virginia, named Feling Poh. Her works are more whimsical and modern, combining lettering and floral illustration. Her illustration works are also powerfully beautiful.

(taken from Feling’s instagram)

(taken from Feling’s website)

My favorite international artist might be Maiko Nagao and Jasmine Dowling. I love Nagao’s lettering because it is the right amount of messy that I like, and she sometimes mixes the writing and simple drawing like superheroes or animal graphic that fitted perfectly in a children’s room.

(taken from Nagao’s Instagram)

And Dowling is not only a famous letterer, she is also super fashionable. No wonder that her works include collaborations with IMG Model and Maybelline.

(taken from Dowling’s Instagram)

So, how’s life treating you lately? Hoping that you’ll always make the best of it.