Googlewave

Boston, 28 Nov 2009

It's my birthday! Woo Hoo!!!! A happy girl having a happy birthday :) So much things to be thankful of that I would run out of fingers to count.

But this post is not about my birthday, but about google wave that I just got from Yean Ching!!! So unnecessarily super happy about it. hahaha... I've been talking about this with a friend at school and we're like.. nobody invites us :( But he sent a request from the website to get one and then after several months he got it about a week ago. But somehow there's something wrong and he couldn't really do much in it and he can't send invitations.

But now I got it! And being technologically retarded, I don't really know how to use it, even though I'm excited! Hahaha... so first thing I did to advance myself: sent an invitation to my sister who is a LOT more tech savvy and have more patience coupled with interest to fiddle with this kind of stuff. And asked her to teach me all about it afterwards... ;) Ah see, there's a beauty in having siblings with different interests.

I found this cute video on youtube about googlewave, and liked it a lot! So cuteee!



Let's wave!!!

What I wanted to be...

when I was a kid was to be a librarian. For a long time that was my dream. I had others, too, but the librarian phase stayed the longest. My parents told me that I won't have much money, but when I was small I had not the slightest doubt that money is not everything. Then I grew up a little and got a bit corrupted. So, I wanted to have a book rental so I can have more income. In primary school, I did that for a while, renting my books that were mostly Doraemon and Lupus to my friends. One of my friend apparently brought my book with her to the bathroom and dropped it into the tub. I got my super wrinkled book back and didn't have the heart to ask her to replace it. So, then I learnt, got corrupted a little more, and wanted to open up a local book shop instead. You know, like the ones on Paris' narrow streets, those with flowers outside the shop, and striped awnings above the windows. The ones where people go in during rains and sit on the fluffed couch to read and sip latte. Yea, those ones where the owners know customers by name and know enough of their favorite genres to recommend. And I would put these things in my shop:And although it's unlikely that I would follow through this dream, I'm still keeping it as my plan B... or C.

Bahasa Indonesia: Easy yet Confusing

No doubt that Bahasa Indonesia is one of the easiest languages to master. I don't know much about linguistic and I've never done scientific comparison to other languages, and maybe I could be bias since it's my native language, but I'm pretty sure I'm right. I mean, how hard can it be? Without any reference to time in the grammar, such as present, past, future, and without reference to gender, it couldn't be that hard. We use Romans alphabet, we use a loooot of adapted English words, there is no specific tone, and to make it even simpler, there's only one rule for plurality: repeat the word twice. There is also no strict grammar rules with regards to what comes first.

Here is an example of three sentences saying the same thing:
Saya makan kemarin. (Word to word translation: I eat yesterday. Notice there's no past tense form in the verb "eat")
Kemarin saya makan. (Yesterday I eat)
Saya kemarin makan. (I yesterday eat)

An example used by my Bahasa Indonesia teacher when I was in middle school:
Kucing makan tikus mati kemarin di dapur. (Cat eat mouse dead yesterday in the kitchen)

Depending on how you say it, it can mean the following things below:
A cat ate a dead rat yesterday in the kitchen.
A cat is eating, a rat died yesterday in the kitchen.
A cat that ate a rat died yesterday in the kitchen.
A cat is eating a rat that died yesterday in the kitchen.

And there is this well-known TV commercial in Indonesia about "minyak kayu putih" which is an oil from leucadendron tree which you rub on your stomach, chest, or back to reduce nausea or to bring comfort during a cold or flu. And they wanted to promote using it for kids, so they came up with a slogan:

Buat anak kok coba-coba.

Which may mean two things:
Why would you experiment things on your kids. (Use their well-known brand) OR
Why would you experiment making babies.

So, as we can see learning and using Bahasa Indonesia can be "gampang-gampang susah" which literally means "easy easy hard." Hahaha... it's easy to learn I guess, but as it is with any other languages, it would take time to master.

And so this is the end of my very short lesson on Bahasa Indonesia. Now, go find a real language instructor to actually learn something useful ;)

The Complaints

Ithaca, 21 Nov 09



Trying to complain less each day ;) And actually do something instead.

Perahu Kertas

Setelah sekiaaan lama, akhirnya saya mengalami lagi yang namanya gairah baca buku: bener2 ga bisa ditinggalin, mesti baca sampe habis, dan bener akhirnya baca langsung dari awal sampe selesai karena mungkin saya takut mati penasaran. Dari dulu emang saya suka baca buku2nya Dewi Lestari dan jadinya udah ada "brand image", sama seperti saya harus rus rus beli Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia, saya harus baca bukunya Dewi. Yak, saya cukup loyal dalam hal beginian. Tapi beneran, rasanya terakhir kali baca buku sekali tancap begini itu waktu masih baca Lupus, itu pun karena Lupus ceritanya ringan dan pendek, hampir seperti disuapi tanpa usaha dan imaginasi. Makanya saya jadi seneng banget dan mulai sebar2in ke temen2 biar baca buku ini. Ceritanya cukup ketebak sebenernya dan unsur chicklit-nya lumayan besar, tapi gaya ceritanya bikin penasaran, humornya menghibur, dan ada sedikit2 unsur filosofi yang bikin ceritanya dalem.

Yang bikin menarik itu juga konsep dari perahu kertas yang dilayarkan ke Dewa Neptunus. Ini yang membuat saya berpikir sebenernya tiap orang punya dunia khayalannya sendiri2. Dunia lain di dalam pikiran dan hati yang kita masuki untuk istirahat dari dunia kita yang asli. Sebagai orang "dewasa" kita tau kalau dunia itu sangat palsu sepalsu-palsunya, tapi tetep aja dunia palsu itu penting buat kita untuk menggila sejenak dan jadi diri sendiri. Seperti saya, salah satu dunia palsu saya ya Raisin Cookie Land ini. Di awal2 semester dulu di Austin (waktu saya masih muda... ciaelaa), hampir tiap hari saya beli oatmeal raisin cookie di Seattle's Best Coffee soalnya itu "tempat makan" yang paling deket dari gedung Tekkim. Rasanya ada yang kurang kalo ga makan itu. Dan saya duduk makan cookie sambil liat2in orang lewat, berfikir2, dan masuk ke dunia saya sendiri. Udah lupa juga ya mikirin apa, tapi rasanya cookie itu jadi temen saya dan comfort zone saya. Mungkin kaya bayi yang tenang kalo ketemu empeng, saya juga lebih damai kalo ketemu cookie. Tapi lama2 saya kurangi frekwensi beli cookienya setelah dikasih tau kira2 kalorinya brapa. Saya kira oatmeal+raisin = sangat sehat, tapi saya lupa mereka juga taro bejibun gula.

Tapi intinya itu, lumayan menyenangkan punya dunia2 lain yang mengalihkan kita dari realitas yang memaku. Bukan artinya melarikan diri, tapi lebih ke melepaskan pikiran ke sesuatu yang luas di mana ga ada orang yang bilang "ga mungkin". Kadang2 berasa beda tipis ya sama gila. Tapi seperti quotation berikut ini yang saya dah lupa pertama liat di mana, "craziness is necessary to keep us sane".

Jadi, coba deh baca sendiri aja perahu kertasnya... hahaha dah mulai berasa ngelantur...