Paradiso Perduto

You don't want to enter that gate accompanied by a wrong tune I’ve been saving love songs and lullabies… and there’s so much more no one ever had before Something’s telling me it might be you Yes it’s telling me it might be you All of my life (It Might Be You – Stephen Bishop) This post is developed to avoid musical faux pas I often witnessed in wedding parties. Singing “Someone Like You” at the top of your lung at someone’s wedding? Some wedding singer just got no sense of decency. It’s even more suspicious if the one who sang it was not wedding singer, but friends or relatives of the bride or the groom. Hmmm…was there a hidden feeling or love affair we weren’t supposed to know? I wonder. Some  -okay, most- of the listed song can be qualified as “oldies”, since this list is compiled by yours truly over here. Some are so mainstream, and some you might never heard before (especially if you have been living under a rock for the last fifteen years or so). By

Greetings from Bali! Hallo zusammen! This should be posted since around two weeks ago, but…what can I do, I was a lazy blogger so busy with work so I just have time to write this now! Hahaha. This trip was already carefully planned since December last year. Nevertheless, because of reasons I’d rather not disclose, Syifa Rini, and Tiwi could not join us. So, yeah, of course the main purpose of this post is to make them REGRET THEIR FAILURE TO CONTINUE WITH THE TRIP PLAN. *very evil smirk* YOU ARE JEALOUS RIGHT? MUHAHAHA. No, really, girls, I love you and miss you etc.etc.etc. (for some part of the trip anyway, when I was not too busy enjoying all Bali had to offer, haha). Wish you were there with us. There were less room-cleaning, motherly scolding, bule-ogling, and shopping spree than what I expected if all of us go together. Maybe for the next trip? Lombok, anyone? Or, I don’t know, Jeju-do? OR PERHAPS EUROPE? Ok, back to the story. So, three of the girls

Hola, Paradiso! Surprise... Hahaha. Yes, I am still alive. If you follow me on twitter or befriend me on Goodreads, you might realize that I am even more chatty than usual, although I have been on a long hiatus on fictionpress and (well...) this blog. Actually, the last three months were going quite well for me. I graduated (like, finally), got a nice job, met nice new friends. Germany won the 2014 World Cup, and I think it's going to be a mood booster for me at least until the end of this year, hahahaha. My friend Scott said this a lot to me and it works like a charm every time: V : I'm so [insert complain here] S: At least Germany won. V : Owwwww yeah! (happiness recharged) *hug* Source : Guardian *kiss* Source :  The National AE *very fangirl-ish screech* Source : Reuters   Yup. What a beautiful first half of 2014 for me, personally. I hope I can say the same about the last half :p So, don't worry, I was not on hiatus because I contracted

I am looking at you, future. And you, future husband. LOL. Hahahaha (Percakapan Vera dan Ditta melalui LINE) Ditta (D) : Eh, sekarang teh kerja dmn? Vera (V): Health Research Unit FK D: udah tetap itu teh? V: Kontrak setaun sambil mikir mau ngambil master apa D: Woorgh D: Ke sini [Jerman] ver  V: Aamiin dit D: Sikasik V : terlalu banyak yg dipengenin euy dit lieur D : pengen naon wae emang? V : [menyebutkan daftar panjang studi bidang studi S2 yang diinginkan] D: Neuro yuk V: Pengen sih dit...haha D: Urang jg semester depan kayanya mau mulai cari penelitian disertasi D: Bhs indonya promosi jg bkn sih? D: Kayaknya neuro ok, ngan lila euy V: Biar lebih murah jadi nebeng kamu yak D: Hahaha sama si aa atuh kesininya D: Tar urg yg numpang di tempat maneh (jadi bibi) D: Hahahaha V: Iya pengennya gitu sih tapi...haha D: Haha sabar V: Kumaha abdi kudu kumaha haha D: Santai heula [Vera dan Ditta ngegosipin kisah percintaan teman-teman semasa SMA. Demi privasi yan

FINALLY. I KNOW, RIGHT? TOOK ME SUCH A LONG TIME.  YEAH, I ALSO WANT TO PUNCH MYSELF FOR BEING SUCH A BIG PROCRASTINATING LUMP. Tanggal 21 April 2014. Tepat 1 tahun 15 hari sejak memulai skripsi. Setelah melalui berbagai kejadian yang kalau diceritakan semua bisa jadi satu buku memoar sendiri, saya maju sidang juga. You know, some people said, "yang penting itu bukan lulus tepat waktu, tapi lulus di waktu yang tepat." Berhubung "tepat waktu" sudah lewat sekitar satu tahun yang lalu, saya berharap banget ini adalah waktu yang tepat, hahaha. D-1. My  ( often overreacting but lovely and magnificent) parents booked me a room in Hotel Puri Khatulistiwa Jatinangor. Katanya daripada saya stress, harus sidang pagi tapi lalu lintas Senin bikin darah tinggi. Hasilnya, jam 7 saya kucluk-kucluk datang ke kampus. Belum ada siapa-siapa. Gila, waktu kuliah saya tukang mepet waktu masuk, mana pernah merasakan udara kampus jam 7 pagi di hari-hari biasa (bukan k

Some of you might have already known that I and some of my friends created a joint blog project for our loneliness-themed fiction. Sounds bleak, huh? Well, I can't promise you anything, but despite its gloomy premise, the authors are pretty excited about it. Sometimes, I think we're too hyper for a bunch of young adults who write about loneliness, haha. Within You Without You by Chickaferdy, taken from  here "Within You, Without You" is the title of my story (you can read the first chapter here ) in Illufiction. It's a combination of several projects I haven't finished or even put into realization. A manuscript of novel I wrote in junior high school that was stopped abruptly in the middle of chapter two. Sporadic scenes from another novel-to-be (also from junior high era) that I abandoned because I "can never got the plot right". And recently, a plan for a project called "The Beatles Babbles" in which -true to its name- I will babble

Wanita Tangguh, Wulan Purnama Sari Wulan is KBR's  Wanita Tangguh . Yep, ketangguhan merupakan sesuatu yang sangat diperlukan apabila kamu tinggal di Cimahi dan sebagian besar tempat yang membutuhkankehadiranmu berada di beda kotamadya  tempat yang jauh. Selama riwayat kerja bareng dalam kepanitiaan sama Wulan pilihan divisinya pasti logistik. Divisi yang cenderung saya hindari karena menghindari encok pas ngangkatin barang  saya nggak berminat. Tapi Wulan kelihatan enjoy banget di sana. Emang dasar tangguhnya sudah mendarah daging! Wulan Purnama Sari on her graduation day THAT IS MY NAME ON HER BALLOON. SQUEEEE! For a wanita tangguh,   Wulan is so surprisingly soft-hearted. Sangat memperhatikan gimana perasaan orang lain, kadang-kadang terlalu nggak enakan. Typical A bloodtype person that we know and love.    Mungkin tangguh dan sabar adalah kombinasi yang aneh, tapi kombinasi sifat itu ada pada Wulan . Kalau ada orang yang meracau di depan dia, dia sabar aja me

This is March 19, and this is Ditta's birthday! Ditta adalah salah seorang sahabat saya sejak SMP. Iya, sejak zaman hobi anak-anak di kelas adalah ejek-ejekan nama orang tua. Dari zaman rambut di- rebonding  ngehip banget...dan dia yang cenderung tomboy bikin kaget karena pada suatu pagi muncul dengan rambut selurus papan. Dari zaman dia jadi drummer Theu Voogoeh (terus sakit DBD pas penampilan perdana, terpaksa digantikan Nadia yang harusnya jadi gitaris) dan saya jadi manajer/tukang foto/tukang jaga tas. Kemudian ke zaman menyatroni Pitimoss sehabis pulang sekolah dan menggila selama SMA...sampai sekarang, zaman dia belajar kedokteran di Jerman dan saya masih ngarep mau sekolah di Jerman, hahaha. Kalau saya ditanya soal tiga bakat Ditta yang paling mencolok, jawaban saya adalah ini: 1. Sarkasme 2. Segala macam hal berkaitan dengan akademik 3. Seni lukis, ilustrasi, dan semacamnya. Khusus bakat nomor 3, ada sedikit cerita nih. Saya ingat suatu saat di pelajaran Seni Rup

Aida (@aidayuni), Rangga (@rankrank), Riri (@ririe_risa) and I just launched a joint blog project! It is called Illufiction a.k.a Illusional Fiction. I (who recently listen too much to The Beatles than what is healthy) suggest an alternative name for our blog, "The Lonely Hearts Club Blog" (from "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band"), but ultimately "Illufiction" (Aida's idea) win the voting. Well, a part of my idea was used as the blog theme, hahaha. And about the name "Illufiction"...I have to admit this name grew on me. Hopefully you will like it too : the name and, of course, the blog. True to its name, we'll be taking turn posting a chapter of stories every week. Each one of us will write different stories but we have one uniting theme : loneliness. Don't worry, we'll try not to be too mushy :) Our stories are more like existential loneliness than "galau" loneliness. We also have discussed about our characters an

THANK YOU, GOOGLE You know that feeling, when you wake up on the morning of your birthday and you feel, "Nothing can go wrong today because IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, BABY"? I feel like that a lot today, hahaha. IT FEELS GOOD. HAHAHAHAHA. First of all, thank you for Bayern Muenchen for the 2-0 win against Arsenal earlier this morning. I'M SORRY ARSENAL, I STILL LOVE YOU BUT I LOVE BAYERN MORE. Okay. Next... Thank you for those who remember my birthday. I'm saving your messages under a file titled "MY PRECIOUSSSSS". I know that's kind of freaky but hey, WHATEVER, hahaha. Thank you for those who gave me birthday presents. Much appreciated though no one give me vacuum cleaner again this year . Also to my brother who gave me premium tea bag (no doubt he snatched it from the economic conference he attended, but it's the thought that counts :)), I don't know why he constantly give me tea bag nowadays... Maybe my face just screams for more c