My daily commute, whatsapp chat history, Evernote notes, random ideas, or countless saved pictures on my phone. Every bit of everyday, any RGBs and hex codes along the way.
It’s raining all day this Sunday. I always consider that rain is a bless. So, I spent today by…
Playing Chvrches’ version of What Do You Mean? on the loop.
Designing e-mail for Customer Abandon Cart for Kawung Living.
Swooning over and passionately waiting for A Color Story app to be released in Android.
Browsing around for DMZ Tour in South Korea.
Thinking about sending mail and postcard to friends and family.
So, I consider it a nice Sunday!
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]eberapa tahun ke belakang, saya akui saya berhenti membaca buku. Sulit sekali menemukan waktu yang pas untuk tekun membaca kecuali di WC (haha) dan waktu weekend. Waktu weekendpun kalau ada waktu luang selalu saya habiskan dengan melihat sesuatu yang visual, entah (ehem) menonton Youtube ataupun TV series dan film. Sedih sih ada beberapa buku yang cuma saya beli tapi tidak baca sedikitpun. Bahkan kalau ditanya seputar katalog penulis masa kini seperti Haruki Murakami, Rainbow Rowell atau John Green, saya nggak pernah sama sekali menyentuh hasil karya mereka :)) Dunia, tolong maafkan saya.
Tahun kemarin, saya malah banyak membeli buku craft, kumpulan cerita pendek, puisi, dan buku non-fiksi. Kebanyakan buku yang saya selesaikan ringan dibaca, banyak gambarnya (ini penting), dan bisa selesai dengan 2-3 kali baca. Dari semua buku tersebut, ini beberapa yang berkesan buat saya.
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]irst post for 2016, let’s fill it with random thoughts, especially the cynical ones :P
On Fancy Words
For me, words have become more intriguing these days. When talking and writing, I tend to use simple words that I commonly hear and can understood well. Writing academically has certain rules and structure which requires a lot of reading, knowledge and proofreading. I always envy people who loves to read Thesaurus and written in eloquent fashion, with intellectual words and obviously, correct grammar.
On Weird Words
Life also shifted vastly nowadays, there are new words added to the dictionary every now and then. Inspired by the pop culture, at 2001, Oxford Dictionary added the words D’oh (a famous catchphrase popularize by Homer Simpson). At 2013, the word twerk, derp, and phablet got into Oxford Dictionary. Word of the year for 2015 is an emoji.
Face with Tears of Joy emoji to be exact 😂. Yes, that’s just as weirdly as Pantone Color of The Year for 2016, which introduced a boring dual color Rose Quartz and Serenity.
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f 2014 is the year of postcard, 2015 is the year of learning.
When I got into the second year of work life, I thought I had lose hope of learning something new outside my job. I even lost the spirit of getting a Master degree. I’m pretty idealist in this kind of thing. When you choose a Master degree, you need to be really eager and curious about something. The most important thing is, you need to be able to apply it somewhere in the community. Because knowledge is a powerful thing that you need to be responsible with.
Then, I go on with my life. Travel somewhere, make something, buy a lot useless stuffs on the internet stuffs, etc. But this year is a little bit different. I realized that learning is something that every human naturally do. Be it a life lesson or in the classroom. As a human, we adapt, we learn, and we (hopefully) do better. I surprised myself that my curiousness towards things are actually my fuse of learning new things.
This year, I enrolled to some online courses, I took Screenprinting workshop, I bought a lot of craft books, I went to a Social Innovation Conference, I tried Calligraphy, and I enrolled to Coding Class. etc. Sometimes, I might waste time on YouTube too much, but turns out I did quite good with the rest of my time :))
This is also the year I got so broke (haha). I think I don’t have anything left in my saving account every month and I finally understand what it’s like to be in ‘tanggal tua’. I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck for couple of months. Sometimes, I don’t even know what I do with all those, given the fact that I don’t have any rent or mortgage to pay. What a dark time it was, but as Alanis Morrisette says:
I’m broke but I’m happy
I’m poor but I’m kind
I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah
I’m high but I’m grounded
I’m sane but I’m overwhelmed
I’m lost but I’m hopeful baby
What it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be fine fine fine
Seriously, Hands in My Pocket should be a national anthem. I’m broke and happy! That’s more than enough to move forward :))
There are also so many blessings this year. Although, the oil and gas industry is on the edge right now, some friends have been laid off and some haven’t got any job since then, but some other just doing well with their life. Some of my best friends got married, some got engaged, some got a scholarship, some had children, some just find a new venture/business, some are just happy with themselves (which, I think, is the most important). Having people experienced joy is always something amazing for me.
In terms of travelling, I finally stepped on Sumatra for the first time! And Cambodia is just a perfect self awakening for me.
2015 has taught me a lot of things and I’m thankful because of that. There are a lot of things that I didn’t planned out, there are a lot of impulsive decision, sudden trips, but they all turned out to be a blast.
As for myself, I cannot wait for 2016. My older sister will be returning home at January and my little sister will (hopefully) graduate on June. I already plan a trip with my mom on February and another trip with the rest of the family later next year. There are a lot of things to look forward to and I will always believe, it only gets better.
I hope all of you will get a really good year ahead :)
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he last part of December went by quickly like the flashing green light on the street. End of the year is never been my choice to go on a vacation. It is high season, rainy season, and certainly would be too crowded for me. But like any other impulsive decision I made this year, life always surprises you. I got 3 days business trip to Singapore last week. Staying on star hotel in the heart of the city is never been on my bucket list. At night, I roamed the city alone, as I used to be. Eating in cheap hawker food and buying cheap souvenirs. The city still feels familiar, the warmth of solitary in the middle of hustling crowds. It was raining and as I stand waiting the train that would take me back to the airport, I told myself.
I can get used to these surprises.
I booked a one way train ticket the day after. My first trip at New Year’s Eve. As a member of stay-home-family-at-every-new-year, I used to spend time rolling around the house, burning something, watching superheroes movie for the million times on TV, and fall asleep before the New Year’s countdown. So, I don’t expect anything less than overpriced hotel rent and crowded street. But I could use the comforting strangeness every trip could bring. Few days before the trip and I don’t even plan any place to visit. I visited the city quite often and I think I wanted to be surprised. Maybe it would be rain all day, maybe there’s traffic, maybe it was a bad idea afterall, but then I could care less.
Bring it on.
Like the year before, I spent this Christmas holiday at home. Wrapped up under blanket, with too many mineral water and tortilla chips beside my bed. Writing crap about how another year has went by and I might missed another train. The thoughts about how other people achieve many things this year has passed me again. Weirdly enough, it didn’t stay too long. Maybe, just maybe, I could care less about them again.
I spent a lot of amount of time watching Quentin Tarantino’s movies in bed. The Hateful Eight opens on Christmas and I thought it’d be great to re-watch all 7 movies before this (too bad I skipped Django Unchained).
Growing up, all I want to be is being a filmmaker like John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. After watching The Virgin Suicide, I want to kick ass like Sofia Coppola. Then, after the Kill Bill era, all I want to be is Quentin Tarantino. There’s something about his movies that I find so alluring.
No, it’s not the blood and the gore theme. It’s not the setting or the scattered timeline. It’s not about the intense scene, the colors of the movie, the soundtracks, or any magnificent shots.
Tarantino writes and directs everything he loves, he doesn’t care if there’s nobody loves it, or nobody gets it. He will still shot it. But his passion reached me, like a ray of sunshine that peeks between the curtains. In the end, all I want to do is wide open the curtains, asking for more. There’s nothing more I want than being someone like that. Being a pirate king, sailing forward. Believing in something, great enough that everybody started to believe it too.
Tarantino always writes long lines, repeated sentences, and he’s not afraid to insert insulting or forbidden words. He believes that words should be a sharp critics in its true from.
His latest movie, The Hateful Eight, has been shot in a glorious 70mm films, allowing him to shoot a wide panoramic shot. Funny thing is, instead of exploits this advantages, Tarantino shot most of the movie in a single claustrophobic room. Relying on dialogue and mind tricks, like his earlier limited budget flicks. Tarantino does make a point, when making a movie, all you need are a well written script and a good storytelling to move the story forward.
I might forget the dreams of being a filmmaker long way ago. And I don’t know which one is sadder, the fact that I’m afraid that the career won’t make a steady job or the fact that I threw away my-almost-15-years-worth-of-dream without looking back. Then again, despite of what I do for a living now, I still want to be like Quentin Tarantino.
Hell with everybody else.
Three tomatoes are walking down the street – a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato.
Baby tomato starts lagging behind.
Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and squishes him… and says,
‘Ketchup.’
Pulp Fiction (1994)
