My first e-reader

For a few while back, I had troubles with my sleeping pattern. I could not fall asleep and even if I did, I was not really sleeping and woke up few hours later with terrible groggy feeling. This stressed me out as I can not be deprived of my sleep or else I'll turn into a nasty bitch. Also, how to focus at my work if I feel lethargic throughout the day? This sleeping problem also caused me these horrid dark circles. Meh. I slab so much eye cream they still don't change. This brings out the point : cure to dark circles = a sound sleep!

And this is where my Kindle comes to rescue mwahahaha!

Moi Kindle.

Ok this is a bit outdated since I got this few months ago. But I still love to bits!! Not a single time I regret purchasing this gadget, perhaps also one of my best-buys of the year hahaha. Don't talk to me about buying a tablet. I have zero interest in owning a tablet. I might as well choose my Kindle over my smartphone. Reading this for 30 mins at night before sleeping and I'm guaranteed heavy eyelids afterwards. But of course it doesn't happen with adrenaline-pumping novel like Dan Brown's or Lois Lowry's omnibus etc. 

Oh well.. I said I didn't regret buying this at all, but actually I do. I regret not buying the touchscreen version, Kindle Paperwhite. It's kinda troublesome to use the D-cursor to do highlight or to look up the dictionary. The Paperwhite is priced at about IDR 500K more expensive than Kindle 5, and I was tight with my budget at that time :(( Nevermind, next time got spare money can directly upgrade to Paperwhite and give this to le bf hahaha. I don't know if my boyfriend loves reading, but he has shown interest in this e-reader.

Reading on an e-reader is also much much less tiring than reading on the laptop screen. Hence less strain to the eyes. I can read for 4 hours straight, the reason I stop because my neck hurts already. But not my eyes. That's not something I can do with my laptop, where I can only read for 1-2 hours the most. Do note that I say 'read', not 'browse' ahahaha.

But do you know the most delighting point of having an e-reader?

I don't need to buy paperbacks anymore and that saves me a lot of money!!

That's because I download all my e-book illegally wtf *shame*. Amazon doesn't accept my CC then how la.. I of course do not encourage you to do so, if you got access then go buy the digital version, okay? Otherwise these writer will never write anymore. What's the point of working if it doesn't earn them money? But seriously. An English paperback here costs around IDR 200-300K. And that's only ONE book! I have read around 20 books in my Kindle, and that would sum to IDR 4-6 million!! Some books are worth reading for only once, but some are really impressive that I plan to collect their paperbacks. 

K that's all the story of my Kindle. Next time will share my other best-buys, I'm still in the period of trying and testing 'em out! 

When I first re-activate this blog, I planned to post regularly like once every two or three days, but of course easier spoken than done ehehe.

I have received two good news today, but can't disclose it here cos I don't wanna jinx it before finalised. Let's cross finger and pray for the very best :D

Bf's birthday is coming closer, and so is mine. Funny that our bdays are only two days apart. And I still haven't got presents for him. I don't really know what's he's needing now. Shoes, sandals, clothes, NOPE. Belt, wallet, pants, bag, NOPE. What I know for sure is that he needs a good partner to start up his business, but of course I can't offer that.. =.= 

In the other hand, I (as any other female human in the world) always want everything money can buy hahahahaha. It's not hard to get me a present because I'm well aware of what I want need. Ask me what I want for my bday and I can give you a list of goods sorted by my preference level *noshame.

I didn't really remember what I did on my birthday last year, but for this year, I want to bring my family for a dinner. Full team, that includes our bf/gf. Sadly my youngest brother will still be in Yogyakarta since it's not his full-term break. Maybe still can't afford the fancy type restaurant cos I have some bills I need to settle by the end of this month hahaha.. But it won't be another Chinese food la cos we always have it on CNY and mom's bday.

Talking about dinner, I wasn't actually a family girl at the beginning. Well, I love my family of course, but never get to spend 'private' time or share mushy-mushy feelings amongst us. I joke around with my mom and siblings, we curse at each other (siblings, not at my mom of course) ahaha.. but family dinner was very rare. It's only after I dated my current bf that I, or we, began to have regular dinner together. Because bf's family loves having dinner outside together and this kinda influences me. So I also started to bring this habit to my family as well.

eye cream & skin rambles

Tomorrow is a public holiday. In fact, we got two public holidays this week, on Tue and Thu. It's kinda an ineffective working week for most companies so many of them shut their office off this week, but mine is not a company so I am still working as usual though I also take leave on red marked days.

On random side,
I had been very indecisive towards eye-cream buying. I'm 28 this year, and I should have incorporated eye care into my routine. Taking a quick flashback, I used to be so vain and fussy with skincares, until four years ago when my skin broke out in rashes and pimples. I had been going to many doctors and they all diagnosed me with acne, but their medication never completely healed my face and instead, led to another problem which I'm dealing with right now, thin red sensitive skin. During these four (torturing) years, I have never been able to take proper skincare.

Cos every goddamn thing broke me out.

It only seemed to work for 2 weeks the longest then it turned my skin crazy. The healing of the rash usually took longer than 2 weeks fml. This evilish cycle went on and on till I decided to stop putting on anything on June last year, because the last doctor I visited seemed hopeless and prescribed me with topical steroids to calm my angry skin. It's up to you to believe whether topical steroid addiction is real or not, but in my case, one I got used to the steroid, I couldn't NOT use it, not even a single day, or else my skin turned crazy again.

It's been almost year and my skin has not completely healed. Improvement is also baby steps.

Then I began seeing fine lines under my eyes. I know it's not merely from me having neglected the proper care of skin around my eyes, but also exaggerated by my work and habit. I often unconsciously squint my eyes while treating my patients and when I'm not treating my patients, I'm never off of my computer screen f-myeyes-l hahaha.

It kinda serves me right.

So so so, this brought me back to the eye cream topic (god how much have I been digressing). I was in between buying the cream from this one usual brand I used to use (before I got that problem), but was kinda reluctant to burn my money for only one tiny pot of 15ml product. Well, this hesitation also 'surprised' me because four years ago, I never thought twice when I wanted to buy their products. I don't know it's because I haven't skincare-shopped in so long time (hence I'm no longer used to spending such an amount on a cream) or I've finally got the sanity that that hefty amount of money are better spent on paying my assistant salary hahahaha. Did a quite good amount of research and it's concluded that even the most expensive eye cream won't be able to correct imperfections like wrinkles and dark-circles. A good quality sleep and, of course, some surgery procedures will.

So yeah, I decided to go with one of the most popular drugstore brand one, which cost me one-sixth of that branded one!

Viva thrifty lifestyle! Hahahah.

Well, maybe if I eventually have more spare, I'll just succumb into their marketing gimmicks. Who knows if the expensive ones do give more stellar result than their cheaper competitors? Anti-aging products are aimed to delay/ correct aging imperfections, and as any other skincare products, the results are not meant to be visible in weeks or months.What if thirty years from now, I will look much younger if I have been religiously using the expensive skincares than the cheap ones? I don't know if I am gonna use their products only to be on the 'safe' side, for a placebo effect. That means, if my skin does eventually sag, I already do my best with it and only cosmetic surgery can help then hehehe.

Ok then back to my problematic skin topic again (I'm such a terrible writer LOL).
I often wonder when it'll eventually stop reacting and why it should have happened at the first place, on me? I didn't remember I had done anything wrong with it, I took a good care, yet it suddenly flared like crazy, and only got worse since. However, there's always hope and I never put off my hope. As I said earlier, improvements are baby steps, but every step counts.

I only thank God for He's given me confidence beyond average ahahaha.. though it sometimes annoys me when people ask and then play smart by giving this and that advices. Just shut up la. Also when someone is so eager examining my face when we are crossing path. At the beginning years, I used to avoid them.. but nowadays, I stare back at their very eyes and send a threatening vibe till they glance away HAHAHA. So fun, so fun.



Walao, just now it occured to me, maybe my skin problem is a curse because I have spent too much money for vanity instead of charity? :O

Hello again!

Oharoo...

I must lick my own words heh? Saying that I closed this blog, after two years I just got back my sanity, why should I close this blog? :P

I can't leave blogging at all. Yes, I have my own diary at home, safely kept in secret. But, it's really not the same with blogging ya.. As thru blogging you get that 'tiny bit' of attention you secretly are craving for hahahaha.

Not that I'm seeking your attention, okay?

So two years from my last post fast-forward, life is kinda different. Two years ago I still didn't have a fixed workplace and didn't really know what direction I was going to pursue in my life. Now, I kinda get the image about what I want to achieve in my life. Seriously, having your own business takes so much of yourselves, but it's the also the biggest push you need to keep going.

Never a single day in my past one-and-half year to be precise I did not think about my business, my cases, my clients, and every tid-bits involved in that.

It has depleted my energy beyond expectation and maybe also sucked out the youth in me #gross.
BUT, I'm happier this way!

Remember I used to keep saying about studying overseas about 2-3 years ago?

Just few while then I asked myself again, whether I regret for not pursuing harder for the chance or not.

Given the chance I would still love to go for continuing my education abroad, but at that time, I was not sure I wanted to go overseas for the sole purpose of study or I just get bored with my life and my country. The reason why I didn't fight harder was partly because I did not really want that.

Partly because I was lazy la..

But running my own business really puts me back into the right track. I now know what I want to do, what I want to achieve. I can even break 'em down in particular time-intervals hehe.

Dun think I'm going to be like this when I was still in uni. Cos at that time, I really hated the idea of working, not the money of course, but the general idea of responsibility, commitment, etc.

Maybe because I'm a grown up now hahaha #vomitsblood.

Meanwhile, I am trying to restore some of the old entries. I used to lock 'em all in drafts because of the closure. Such a hardwork haih..

i'm closing

Hello everyone,

After being missing for more than half a year, I decided to leave this blog.

People change, and so do I. Many things have happened during that six-month hiatus, and now I feel I can no longer resonate to the person who started this blog and bored you with her lame posts haha.. This blog has been with me since 2008 and had my happy, sad, boring moments contained here. However, let the past events be in the past.

I know I'll never be able to quit writing. I might blog again in the future as well, but certainly not today, not tomorrow, or even next month. And certainly not in this blog anymore.

I do not close my Picasa, though I also doubt there'll be regular updates.



I'll see you when I see you! :)



P.S.
if you my (non-existent) readers miss me, i'm only an email away at margaretha dot yessi @ yahoo dot com
or you can reach me on twitter @yeciyeci 

a bag of my dream

A bag of my dream is a bag that can carry all of my junks, doesn't wear out too soon, not to feminine, without excessive and useless ornaments, shoulder friendly and not too pricey.. It would be better if it's versatile enough either for casual or semi formal occasions..


I don't mind buying clothes so often. I don't mind buying shoes every 6 months. But for a bag, I really want it to last like FOREVER cos finding a bag that suits my demand is such a pain in the ass LOL.
That's why I was literally frantic when I found out my previous bag had worn out too much faster than I had expected, only 6 months!! It was not a cheapskate, I paid quite amount of price and got it from a decent store.. The bag was made of synthetic leather and the leather was peeled off in so many places..  Such a shame.. =.=


But after a venture into several stores, I finally found a replacement.


I got it from Hellolulu :)

It's actually a laptop bag for 13.3" laptop, with padded compartment inside (not shown in pictures below). My laptop is 14.1" but it fits just fine. However, this bag is for daily use, not for carrying around my laptop..

a tote bag, medium-sized

And it has PLENTY compartments to for my things!!

Even though my things are usually scattered all over the place, I'm actually a compartment junkie.. XD

I love bags with many compartments but still doesn't look bulky.

A velcro pocket, 2 pen holders, a zippered pocket.. The counterside of the bag is the padded compartment for your laptop. 

See??! I can place everything neatly in there and still gets fast access to each of them. Fast access is essential because I hate wasting time looking for something in my bag, esp. if it's small-sized haha...

I don't own a portable music player, but I think this is a very thoughtful feature. It has dedicated mp3 pocket with a dedicated headphone port! Niceee... but I'm gonna use this for my hand phone.

Back compartment with velcro closure (for magazines/ newspapers) with an extra pocket attached inside (can be used to keep parking ticket etc)

Once again, thoughtful! :)

An extra pouch to satisfy my OCD hahaha.. I can carry hand-sanitizer, alcohol spray, facial tissue, wet tissue in a pouch and they won't get cluttered in the bag.. *happy face*

This is also a feature I like the most as I don't usually attach key chains.. Finding such keys inside a big bag is also a pain in the ass.. :)

Since it was made of nylon and polyester, it's waterproof and comes with a one-year guarantee. Speaking of durability, it's a laptop bag afterall.. It must be strong, right? Hahaha..

I was thinking about getting the black one, but it looks meh with pink lining.. This one is in espresso color and the inner lining is verrrryy pretty! I never expect that brown goes well with blue and fuschia.. :P

The only down part is, I think, it looks more like a school bag (except that I had never worn one like this during my schooldays, it's even too feminine for the 'old' me hahahha..)  and is not versatile enough for semi formal occasions.

But of course, I don't really mind that..  For daily use, I much prefer a strong bag :P

一個神祕的男人

他是每星期日下午在教堂我遇到的男人. 我不知道他到底是誰, 但由於他獨特的樣子就很喜歡看看他.. 




光頭的. 


每次見到他穿著的T恤都是黑色的. 


身上充滿了紋身, 頸部, 胳臂, 通通有紋身.. 




他的臉讓我想起曾經喜歡過的一個人, 我怎麼不一直盯著他呢.. 
因此, 我記住他了! 但他從來卻不可能身上有紋身..


神秘的男人.. 要是我認識你, 我很好奇的想問你.. 那個在頸部的紋身, 被黥的時不癢癢嗎?

Murphy's laws of dentistry

The easier a tooth looks on radiograph for extraction, the more likely you to fracture a root tip.

The shorter a denture patient, the more adjustments he or she will require.

The closer it is to 5:00 PM on Friday, the more likely someone will call with a dental emergency.

The cuter the child, the more difficult the dental patient.

Parents who typed their child's medical histories are trouble.

The more you need a specialist, the less likely they are to be in their office.

When a patient localizes pain on one of two teeth, you will open the wrong one.

The less a patient needs a procedure for dental health, the more the patient will want it >> 

e.g. anterior veneer vs posterior crown.

Hello, Jakarta!

So yeah, I went to the capital city on Dec 13-15, not on holiday but to fulfill a 'secret mission' heheh..

I boarded Mandala Air, booked online, one month ahead, paid for IDR 960K for a SUB-JKT round ticket. It could have been cheaper if you didn't opt 'fly carbon free' and choose your seat. I chose window seat cos I love the view of floating clouds, which I didn't see much of cos the weather was sunny and the sky was clear.

Is it just me or anyone else think that the view is better on the right hand side window than on the left hand side window? Cos I always get to see better view when I sit by the right hand side window.. :)


Surprisingly, I met a familiar face onboard next to my seat. She was my classmate in IALF last year and we had a good chit-chat.. :) She was worried knowing that I was travelling alone and told me to use ONLY Blue Bird taxi..

Btw, why was everyone worried about me going alone to Jakarta?

I mean, it's only Jakarta. I've travelled to five other countries in my early twenties and no one was as worried as now. Though I didn't travel alone, but most of the times I wandered in cities by myself. Okay la, not really by myself, usually accompanied by one or two friends.. But this time I'm 24 y.o. already, oh please... I was going to surf someone's couch, but Mom was extremely against it and paid me a two-nights stay in a nice hotel instead. "Perhaps somewhere else, but not in Indonesia," said her.

Yes, mom... I don't mind. At all.
Hahaha..

I arrived at Terminal 3 Soekarno-Hatta Int'l Airport, the newly-built terminal, I guess? Cos everything still looked so new and clean and well-maintained heheh... I was afraid of 'black taxis' but here I can order my taxi from an authorized booth. I picked Blue Bird and was given a receipt. This receipt was to be passed to a Blue Bird's staff on the taxi station, where I waited for it. The booth was near the exit door after the baggage claim hall btw.


This is the first trip to Jakarta after 15 years, and my impression about this city remains the same.

Crowded.
Crowded.
Crowded.
Crowded.
Crowded.

It's not 'crowded' in a nice way. Because Hong Kong is crowded, too, but I love it. I love waking up early to see people rushing in the morning, to see some of them has just finished their walk in the garden, some of them are grabbing their breakfast and rushing to their work, people queuing on bus stops and subways are full as well.
But Jakarta was not like that. It's crowded in the way that can make you go mad. Upon arrival, I was trapped with my taxi in a massive traffic jam......... on a HIGHWAY!! Yes baby, you read it right.. =.=  I checked Google Maps and found out the airport to my hotel was supposed to be only 30-mins-driving away. In fact, I spent about 1.5 hour!! I was lucky I wasn't the one driving at that time.. xD


I stayed at Lumire Hotel (ex Aston Atrium Hotel). It's nice and I had the whole king-sized bed shared with a hunk only for myself woot woot~~ The check-in process took like forever.. Since I arrived at 11am, I left my luggage and went straight to the dental school to meet a friend there.

Arrived back at the hotel @3pm or so.



Ady picked me up in the hotel about 1.5 hours later and since I wanted to visit Kota Tua, he suggested us to go there. But as natural as in Jakarta, we got trapped in a traffic jam!! A massive one. It's almost 5pm already. Feeling hopeless of not being able to reach the place before sunset and afraid of being trapped even further, we made a detour to Mangga Dua Square and spent few hours there until the traffic jam subsided hahaha.. After the rush hour ended, I tried to contact my friends, asking for suggestions about sightseeing places we could check out in the late afternoon, but they had no idea besides malls or eating places hahaha.. So he drove to another mall to meet his friends there. Practically, on day one we didn't go nowhere and I learned how to get used to the traffic jam lol~




Guess what place we visited on day two?
.
.
.
.
Deng deng deng........
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It's the TAMAN MINI INDONESIA INDAH!!!!!!
Omg... suddenly I felt sooooo 'Orde Baru' and the image of Soeharto (our former president) flashed in my mind hahahahaa....xDD


It's actually Ady's idea!!

Previously we had these options: Kota Tua, Ragunan Zoo, and Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII). I've only ever visited TMII and that's when I was about 9 y.o. On the other hand, he was very curious cos he had never been there. In the end, we agreed to visit TMII instead of the first two options. When he first mentioned TMII though, I was a little skeptical. As long as I remembered, it didn't impress a 9-years-old me at all, how could it impress me now? But I did a mini research and read some positive reviews. Moreover they had renewed their logo, and usually a company's logo renewal was associated with major changes, right? Why not give it a shot? Who knows it's actually better than 15 years before? I got curious, too.


The journey took longer than we had expected, got deceived by a tricky sign board so we took the wrong way too.. But after one hour, we made it to that place.



Wow.. IT'S BIG!

That's our impression before we actually reached the entrance gate.
The entrance gate was quite pretty with intricate design (if I didn't mis-notice heheh) so I got a little more optimistic. It could have been better than I had imagined, I thought.

The ticket was IDR 10K per person CMIIW. Cheap!



It's a big complex exhibiting various traditional houses of Indonesia tribes, surrounding a pond of miniature of Indonesia's islands. If you can't get what I mean, check this link for yourselves la cos I can not explain it better hahaha.. Have you ever visited The Window of The World (世界之窗) in Shenzhen, China? TMII's concept is similar to that, not as grand of course.. and minus the pond perhaps.. hahah.


Since we're here to take pictures, it's best to explore the garden of eden on foot, isn't it?
We asked for a map from the information center (it looked like a dead-office) so we knew where to start from. It was cloudy, drizzling, and the weather was very humid.


We made a walk and reached the first traditional house I didn't know its name.

Hi, house!

I thought we're only going to see the house's facade, imagine how boring could it be? So I was excited when I found out we could actually get inside the house! Wow, curiosity level raised even higher..

.
.
.
But the door was locked and no one was around.

Till I spotted a cleaning service staff and he told me that the staff was taking a lunch break and would be back after 1pm. That meant one hour later.

Crap..  =.=


We snapped some pictures of the house from outside, then moved around the neighborhood.. snapped some again, then walked to the next few houses-I-also-can-not-recall-their-names... =.=

On our way we saw a golf-car like vehicle which offered a ride for IDR 3K per person. We thought if we had reached half of the whole route and got too tired to continue walking, we could ride this vehicle.

To the second house.
To the third house.

O hai house, what's your name again?

Lucky! The door was opened and finally we got to see how the inside of the house looked like!
Well.... the excitement stayed only for few first minutes. Remember that I said the weather was very humid? It felt worse inside the house!!! I was wearing a loose short-sleeved t-shirt and still sweating like crazy...  Why didn't they install some ACs??! I was busier wiping off sweat than enjoying the house interior. The air inside was musty and the room was poor lit.... Inside, they also exhibited traditional costumes, house appliances, some pictures of local heroes, weaponries, texts explaining history etc.



I was sure my pupils were dilating to its MAXIMUM aperture, NOT because I felt excited looking at each of them, but ultimately because of the poor lighting!! Geeezzzz......




OMG I kinda feel that what I write here is ruining our tourism promotion effort lololol.. XD



To the fourth house.

Met the Seulawah, the first Indonesia's carrier airplane. I don't know it's the authentic one or just a replica, but above all, I had no idea why they placed it here amongst the traditional houses.. Should be in an aviation museum, shouldn't it?




On the way to the fifth house.....

Sweat.

Sweat.

Sweat.

Ohhh couldn't stand this anymore.... WE FINALLY GAVE UP!!!
I was sssooooooooo relieved when Ady suggested to go back to the car and just finish the route by driving mwahahahahhhh~~


Proven that it had not changed at all since 15 years ago yeah!!! xDDD

When we first arrived I wondered why it's so quite and desolate there, Ady replied that it was weekday so it's normal if only few people came. We did see some groups of school student at the museums, but within the traditional houses exhibition area we only noticed no more than 10 people. It was very very lonely and sad there, and now I know why!

It's just not interesting!


Visiting the first house was interesting.. but after few ones, it's just dead-boring!! No attractions at all, plain boredom!

And the song they played through the speakers, can you guess??




It's a song by BROERY MARANTIKA!!!!! *faints*


I do not dislike him though I'm not a fan as well, but out of all songs in the country, why Broery's??

Very. Nostalgic. TYVM.



I think it'd be better if they played either national or traditional songs since the whole complex is supposed to show off the various cultures this country has. And I could be happily singing along cos I still remember about  15-16 songs from various parts of Indonesia mwahahahah.....


Oh yeah, almost forget to tell you that TMII has museums, too. You can go to the website for more infos cos we didn't check 'em out... The museums had a lot more visitors (like I said earlier, school students) than the houses, so perhaps they're much more worth going..

Perhaps.

Eh, we did check the Istana Anak (or The Castle of Indonesia Children)..... but from outside only! The buiding's exterior looked kinda interesting. If you want to get inside the castle you need to buy a ticket for IDR 5K per person.

Cheap, not???


It's too fucking cheap that I keep wondering where they earn their money from to keep the whole complex running. You know.. Houses, museums, buildings, all need maintenance.. The staffs also need salary.. And who pays for electricity, water, and phone bills?



No wonder they don't install air conditioner there.. *nods head*




Well... I don't intend my post to discourage anyone from paying a visit to it hahahahaa.... Seriously I've read some positive reviews of it. Perhaps it's just me, perhaps it's just the weather. Different variables lead to different results, right? I saw children were mostly happy and having fun ;)

Spent the rest of the day in Pondok Indah Mall (I like this mall very much) and fX, and that concluded my trip!!


Phewww.... writing a long post is tiring....


So, do I like this city, you ask?

Well... It's only three days, how could I answer that? But like it or not, if I have to move there then all I can do is coping with the situations. U know, now back in this town, I somehow drive more patiently and even not get provoked in a traffic jam as easily as before. Cos I know it is really nothing... hahaha.
Imil also posted on her blog about her mad experience while visiting this city hahaha.. I was lucky I didn't encounter her situation, thanks to Ady, the great company and driver, too!! Hahahaha... Hey buddy, I hope you've recovered from flu already!! Come to Surabaya and let's go to the mountain! :D

revived

I've changed my mind again!!!! For the ump-teenth times already hahahaha...

I know.. I know.... This time for sure la.

Within these eight months, I didn't know what I had been doing... what I had been thinking.... those were so NOT me! Will blame myself for getting distracted mad easily...

But thanks God, you've sent a person to open my eyes again, to remind me of what I used to dream of..

This time it's confusing, but this is EXACTLY what I want! This is EXACTLY what I'm passionate about!!




God please guide me...
Mother Mary please walk with me..

I'm back catching my old dream~~

Hello, hard work! :))

my heart goes with the sound of music

Do, a deer a female deer
Re, a drop of golden sun
Mi, a name I call myself
Fa, a long long way to run~~





Feel familiar to the song above?? Don't say you don't cos I might faint right now haha... It's the "Do-Re-Mi" song from the famous musical movie THE SOUND OF MUSIC, which celebrated its 45th anniversary this year!!!! OMG... FOURTY FIVE years since its release date, it has been embraced by its fanatic viewers and being bequeathed to generations!! Sure there are many great Oscar-winning movies out there, but how many movies do you know that were watched by our grandparents and their children in their younger years, and still become their grandchildren's forever favorite pieces in the next fifty years?? How many movies do you know as timeless as it is?

I can say, only Fraulein Maria and The Von Trapp Family who can do it!

And that's the classic picture of the movie, showing Maria singing "Sound of Music" on the Alps Mountain.

You know, dated back the technology used in making a movie wasn't as well-developed as we are having now. Thus they put more effort in filming a well-written story with good scenes, magnificent sceneries, and heart-moving songs. There's no single scene I didn't cherish to see in this movie. Almost all of them are my favorites, from the very beginning Maria runs across the flower fields, the abbey, the places she takes the children to for playing while their father is on trip, the moments they sings, dances, yodels in their puppet show, and of course, the beautiful house the Von Trapp family lives in!! There's no single song I don't like to sing along in this movie. All of them were very well written, heart-moving, and convey good messages, too.. :,) Well, these words come from a musical movie's addict who almost hardly sit still every time she watches Chicago and Glee hehee... but I don't think you can hate this movie, it's just too lovely.. ♥ Plus, I always have a 'connection' to the 40's to 60's, like in World War or Nazi era.. I'm always fond of the settings, the clothes, the hairstyles, but I'm not a fan of Holocaust.

When I was watching this movie for the first time, I was only sixteen. It was Christmas and I immediately fell in love. I remembered I ever wished I was a Von Trapp family member, born as Liesl, the first daughter of the family and lived in that house, too.

She's a beauty with bright blue eyes, wears pretty dresses, and her hair is always lovely and tied up in ribbons.. I wish at the same age with her, I could be as a lady as her.  She's the one I used to want to grow up like. Too bad, I was much like a boy than a girl.. but, see! I still had that little-girl heart inside, didn't I? XDD~~

That's one of my favorite scenes, when Liesl and father sing "Edelweiss" together. To me, "Edelweiss" is the most heart-moving song from this movie as it shows very well how the captain's feeling about his country. At the end when the captain whispers, "....bless my homeland forever...." he always gives me goosebumps. I once thought that it was an Austrian folk song, but later figured out that it was written by Rodgers & Hammerstein for this movie.

Rolf & Liesl singing "Sixteen Going On Seventeen"

But as much as I wanted to be like Liesl, unlike her, the one I had my crush on in this movie is not Rolf. Oh boy, my huge crush is the father aka Captain Georg von Trapp aka Christopher Plummer!!! Hahahaa.... *blush

He's handsome and a gentlemen, it's only normal for me to like him hehehe... and he sings and dances, too!!

Hence my favorite scene muwahahahaha~~~ Unlike Liesl looking fondly at him as a father, I imagine myself looking fondly at him as my boyfie KUAKUAKUA~~~ XDD

*slaps on face

I don't know how many times I have watched this movie for, or have sung along their songs.. The guy I watched in Oprah claimed he had watched this movie for 120++ times during his period as a soldier in Vietnam War!!!! He said that this movie was his only 3-hours-escape to happiness from the events he experienced outside the camp!! Well, it's just like how Maria sings it out....

The hills are alive with the sound of music

With songs they have sung for a thousand years

The hills fill my heart with the sound of music

My heart wants to sing every song it hears

My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds

That rise from the lake to the trees

My heart wants to sigh like a chime

That flies from a church on a breeze

To laugh like a brook when it trips

And falls over stones on its way

To sing through the night

Like a lark who is learning to pray

I go to the hills when my heart is lonely

I know I will hear what I heard before

My heart will be blessed with the sound of music

And I'll sing once more

And so will my heart~

Auf wiedersehen ♥

purplish

I love macro, but I don't have the lens yet, so I usually cheat by applying extreme crop hehe.. However yesterday I decided to try a trick by reversing the 50mm lens.

The results other showed in internet are good, but I undoubtedly failed,  blame my super shaky hands.. XD


I wanna buy more flowers~

raindrops keep falling on my head

Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me

jealous

This is not a recently taken picture, but I wanted to learn how to use curves in Lab Color so I used this one.. I like how it popped the color, but I guess a lil' too much for the flower.. Don't you think so? I should retry but me ish too lazy to do that hehe.. :P

My brother has just come back from his office trip to Bali, and he made me dead-envious as he scuba dived in Nusa Dua and spotted razor fishes and blowfishes, which he described as, 'fugly but mad cute'! T_________T

I also wanna see blowfishes.... :((((((((((

Last time I fun dived in Tanjung Benoa, the instructor only took me down to 5 meters.. I was excited though there wasn't much to see, the fishes and the corals were so-so. But he dived down to 9 meters thus he spotted them and many other fishes he couldn't name.

Razor Fish
(picture from internet)

And this one...

Blowfish
(picture from internet)

Don't you think it's FRIGGIN' CUTEEEE?????!!!!


Everytime I see blowfishes (image of course, not in real life) I always wanna LOL cos they always look so fucking hilarious mwahahahaha...... XDDD



Argghhh....... I want I want I want I want I want I want I want I want I want I want I want!!!!

cry baby

Few days ago I dug my sister's DVDs and found this movie...

Be With You (いま、会いにゆきます)

...which was sad-ending, and I ended up weeping non-stoply.. was afraid that I had to go to the clinic with swollen eyes but thanks God, I didn't.. =.= Okay la, you never saw me crying over clinic hardships, even when I failed Oral Med.. You never saw me crying from being wounded during childhood, even when I almost broke my lower incisors. But when it comes to movies, I'm turning into such a major weeper..

Especially sad love-themed ones... =.=""

Yeah, if you feel nauseous don't bother to read further and just press Alt+F4 quickly la...

That's why I almost never watch dramas in the cinema.. Very very occasionally, I think, unless my friends want to go together, cos I never know I might come across touching scenes. After my eyes become so watery, I hate making effort not to cry! 

Suckers, i know.

Also watched this one..

Halfway (ハルフウェイ)

But this doesn't make me cry la.. It's a kind of slow-paced movie, if it fits your taste.. I don't usually like this kind cos more often I become bored to death in the first 10 minutes hehe.. but this one is different and kinda cute.. :)

Anyway, mom's asking me if I want to accompany her going to Semarang and Yogyakarta next weekend. It's only a 3D2N trip, will spend Friday in Semarang, then head to Yogyakarta on Sat and leave to Surabaya on Sun. Too short la, I wonder if I would get tired more on the train than the sightseeing.. She said she could go by herself though, hahaha...

good friday

Went to the movie with Luci and Camel for Eat, Pray, Love! The story is standard, but me likey Javier Bardem hehee.. Have been liking him since he appeared in Grey's Anatomy despite his short appearance..
.
.
.
.
.
.

Waittt....

twins?? @.@

Ohh noo.... I've mistakenly recognized him as Jeffrey Dean Morgan!!! Zzzzz... how come these men look alike???! The one who played in Grey's Anatomy was actually the man on the right, Dean Morgan hahahaaaa.... XD

Whatever.

I like the Italy part, made me craving so bad for thin-crust pizza!!! OMG, I also want to have the whole pan only for myself!! Where can I find it here?? 

I don't like the India part.. no particular reason, only because it's telling me how Liz's trying to get her spiritual balance (read: too much meditation, no travelling scene = boring)

And at last.. I like the Indonesia part! Ubud is beautiful, yea... Ketut Liyer and his female assistant are funny, and both of Liz and Felipe's houses are pretty!! If someday I go back to Bali I also want to rent a place like that and spend a whole day's worth only lazying on my bed, reading books, or admiring the view. What a relaxing holiday it could be!

K, nuff of daydreaming!

The work in school today was fun, too. I had anticipated that the students would rebel during examination, but they didn't. They were a lil' too noisy, but it's okay and still manageable. Love them! :) Therefore the examination finished earlier than I thought so I had the chance to try the canteen's food hehe..

This one is very good! Beef and green peas sweet soup, topped with Chinese style fried chicken chunks and crispy shallot. And this stuffed my stomach very well!

Guess the price!

.

.

.

.
.

Only IDR 5K!!! *faint*

Damn, I looooveeeeee school's canteen XDD~~

P.S. Checked Lee Hom's newest album in the mall but it still isn't there yet... Tsk tsk tsk.. what makes Sony BMG take frigging long time to release it here?!! Oh, c'monnnn.... :S

junk I love

After my corned-beef addiction is over, now it's SPAM's turn!! Am marking four days now, in a row... XD
I usually like it thin-sliced with crispy-fried edge, but I also used to eat it right from the can hehe..

another engagement

Last Sunday I was asked by a friend to help her taking photos of her friend's engagement. What made me nervous was not because the groom was one of the national badminton player or that he won a gold medal in Beijing Olympic 2008 (pheww~), but more because I hadn't practiced with my camera at all for more than a month!

However, promise must be fulfilled.

That was my very first time taking photos of a stranger's event (I had only been introduced to the bride and the groom right on the location!). Lesson learnt:

1. Shooting only with prime lens (I used my 50/1.8, a lil too narrow on my cam body) in room full of people is not a good idea. A lot of times I felt I needed to step further or closer to the subject and I couldn't do that as I always bumped into somebody. It got worse as most of the guests were the elderly.
2. My kit lens wasn't as terrible as I thought. I used it for group photos at its max aperture and still got pretty decent pictures. However, when it's used at full zoom, the pictures turned crappy ;P
3. I should have had breakfast before.
4. I should have had more and more conversation with the couple and their family. The only reason why I couldn't get pictures I had imagined was because I felt too awkward to ask them posing for me.
5. RAW files only made me lazier to start photoediting.. XD

I have started editing some, but still have loads of photos waiting in the line hahaha... *hopeless*

I didn't think I had done well, but I hope I won't make the same mistakes in the future time :)

P.S. I change my blog template again, you likey?

things to do before 30

Aaaahhh... akhirnya saya bisa bikin target jugaaaakk! Hihihi... jangka pendek sih, makanya isinya banyak senang2nya hehe.. Kalo yang agak serius saya masukin ke target jangka panjang. Tapi, itu rahasia!! :P



1)Master Chinese Language Yeah, sebenernya pengen nambahin Cantonese juga seh, secara logat Canton itu kedengeran lebih seksaayy XD *awww~ Tony Leunggg~ ♥* Tapi berhubung Mandarin aja udah susyah setengah mampus, yah ntar belajar Canton-nya sambil jalan dah. Gaaaaakk, gak pake les huayu kayak dulu lagi, ga ada waktu dan males.. kalo ambil kelas, adanya cuman 簡體字, padahal kan saya mo blajarnya yang 繁體字.. kalo les privat, kurang kompetitif.. Jadi, belajarnya lewat pilem atau streaming HitoFM aja hahaha...

2)Get specialized Sejauh ini masih pilih Perio sih.. Tauk deh kalo ntar2 berubah pikiran lagi. Yessi gitu lohh.. hahaha. Sebenernya kerjaan GP asik juga, cuman ya ingin memuaskan hasrat bersekolah :P

3)Get a diving license Ya ya you may yawn now.. perasaan wish macam ini dah ditulis dari setahun yang lalu tapi gak kesampian juga sampe sekarang haha.. Biarin deh.

4)Participate in The Amazing Race Asia Kalo yang ini, pengen ikut audisi nya taon depan, sebelum masuk program spesialis. Hayukk hayukk... sapa mau jadi partner saya?? *wink wink*


5)Watch a gig Lebih spesifiknya sih pengen liat Lee Hom, tapi ya sementara ini konser siapa aja boleh lah yang penting artisnya saya demen. Slash kemaren terpaksa dilewatin karena ga ada yang mau nemenin :(

6)Solo travelling Destination: overseas, and not in a large group. Soalnya selama ini kalo travelling langsung grudukan minimal 10 orang hahahaa...  Later pengen nyoba sendirian atau bareng 1-2 orang temen aja :)

Udah!!



Lho kok? Cuman 6 doang? Iya lah, daripada banyak2 malah gak kesampaian semua.. Umur saya sekarang kan 24 ya, anggaplah setaon fullfill satu wish gitu deh haha. Semogaaa... semogaaa!! Biasanya semangat di awal doang deh, trus buntut2nya gak fokus lagi haha..

Semoga saya semakin giat menabung... hiks hiks. Gak tergoda belanja-belanji atau sering2 makan enak (baca: mahal)...Siap2 hidup di bawah garis kemakmuran deh.

my money runs fast

And I don't know where they have gone, or worse, disappeared into.. It's not like that I've done many shoppings recently. Seriously!! Because I want to buy a new lens so I kept in mind not to buy unnecessary things. Although I slipped sometimes, but I really didn't buy much......


or did I???


*cry*



Perhaps I've been eating out too often? Well, that might be, as my patience is easily out of the window when I don't have something in my belly.. I can't stand those hypoglycemic symptoms (doh)...  pfft. =.=""

I feel shitty :(

Money, why don't you like staying still in my wallet?


Meanwhile, most of my friends will start their specialist program soon, on Oct 4 if I'm not mistaken. Congratulations, my dear! I also can't wait to start my specialist program, but the enrollment date is still on June next year!!! So bloody long, isn't it? I want to apply as a Periodontics residence in University of Indonesia. In my entire life, I had never been rejected by any school I applied, but getting into a residency program ain't as easy.. My friends who're starting their residency soon had taken the examination twice cos they failed the first one. Lucky, my ex-uni opens the enrollment twice a year so they didn't have to wait too long.. However, in my case, I do not want to fail at all, even on my first time cos waiting for the next examination is too time-wasting as I have to wait for next year till they open the enrollment again.. It's still on June though.. but I might be going there for a pre-enrollment visit hahaha... I want to make sure how the place I'll be studying in looks like... that works as a motivation booster, as well.. xDDD~
If you ever read my posts written when I was in BDS year, you might remember that I wanted so bad to be an oral & maxillofacial surgeon. That's true! I was in love with OMFS... I loved the clinic and the works, how they explained each case was the most make sense IMHO.. I didn't mind studying basic medical science, I didn't even mind studying all those tumors and neoplasias haha.. So why now not choose OMFS? Well, fyi the whole study process takes abt SEVEN YEARS and that includes night-shifts in hospital as well!!!!! When I was more idealistic, studying for seven years long was not a problem as long as I loved my job... even when my friends told me that it's bloody long, but I said I didn't care and I could bear it for the sake of being an OMF surgeon...

But.................................

myself now has become less idealistic hehe... I'm definitely not who I was two or three years ago ;) So I pick a specialty that still involves A LOT of surgery cos I'm soooooo a blood-thirst hahahahaha.... xD

Kidding!! I'm not Bella Cullen :P