Paradiso Perduto

There are times when I felt so worthless. I could not get anything right. Life was one wrong decision after another. There are times when I wished I could just shrink shrink shrink and then vanish, as if I was never here before. People might hate me. I didn't blame them; I hated myself too. People didn't want to be approached by me, and that's fine, I couldn't stand being me, too.  Then my supervisor drove me home because apparently I look like someone who would break down with an ugly, inconsolable cry in the middle of traffic jam. Then I realized that I haven't eaten anything but my grandma prepared my favorite food for dinner. Then I texted random message to my best friend way past after her sleeping time, and she unexpectedly replied. Then I was told that people miss me -me!- and they might sent me messages but I was unable to read it because my silly phone was broken. Then I read nice things people posted on internet and I thought it would be nice if...

Bagi saya yang sudah cukup lama inaktif di fictionpress ini, mendapatkan notifikasi review baru untuk salah satu cerita saya merupakan momen-momen tersanjung level dewa. Bagaimana tidak, update terakhir saya adalah sekitar enam bulan yang lalu, tapi masih ada aja pembaca yang tersesat  mengunjungi cerita saya. Lebih dari sekadar membaca, mereka juga menyempatkan waktu untuk meninggalkan review . Dear FP readers and reviewers, thanks for keeping a dream alive! Keep the reviews coming (for me and for your other favorite fictionpress author)! Dari semua fitur interaksi penulis-pembaca di Fictionpress, buat saya story review adalah level tertinggi. Dengan story favorite atau story follow  kita sudah bisa menunjukkan pada penulis bahwa kita suka dan/atau tertarik dengan cerita mereka, tapi story review memungkinkan interaksi yang lebih bebas. Pembaca bisa mendeskripsikan rasa suka/nggak sukanya terhadap suatu cerita. Pembaca juga bisa menunjukkan dengan spesifik mana ya...

Kau membuatku berpuisi lagi! Karena hanya lewat ini kita bicara patahan kata sepenggalan cerita teka teki setengah terisi tapi aku sudah lupa bagaimana merangkai rima aku tidak tahu lagi cara membuat makna sembunyi Mungkin, aku puas jadi makhluk bumi Mungkin aku tak ingin ke langit! Tapi Kau mengetuk Dan aku... Ah! Apakah ini! Bandung, 26 November 2015 Vera F. Maharani

I used to be that girl who does not care much about skin care. I consider myself quite blessed with (most of the time) acne-free face and no major skin complain. Of course my skin is not of the brightest kind, and it can get slightly oily at times, but hey...I don't really care. I committed all kind of skin sins in the past. I slept late. I drank less than 8 glass of water every day... heck, it's a miracle if I even reached 4 glass (should have known better since I had kidney problems as a child). I gobbled all kind of sweets and cakes, and left my veggies untouched. I used my daily face wash in the morning and that's about it. I only used moisturizer when I remember to...which means very very seldom. And sunscreen…what sunscreen? When I had sleepovers with my friends, I watched in awe as they diligently dabbed and rubbed their skincare products before sleep (and more in annoyance when their prepping up took sooo much time in the morning). I thought, I could never do t...

LOL I know I have never been serious serious in blogging (as in trying to gather audience to read my random rambling...aside from occasional shameless self promotion in the few social media I have). However, I like writing, obviously, and I like the idea that people read my writing. (I know some of you might care more about my fiction... you can read my stories in fictionpress  for free...for now). After I lurked for a while in the blog-overse, I noticed that a lot of blogs I frequent have this cute little button telling me to follow them on Bloglovin. I clicked on it out of curiosity, and... BAM. I'M ALSO ON BLOGLOVIN NOW.  It's a very simple platform that allows you to collect all blogs you love, whether they are originally from Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, or you-name-it. It helps you to stay update with the blogs you love. They can also help you discovering blogs you might love, based on your preference. For bloggers, it's a nice way to find audiences too. ...

Akhirnya, setelah tahun kemarin gagal ikutan Jermanfest 2014 gara-gara bentrok sama liburan di Bali, Rabu kemarin (9 September 2015) bisa ikutan juga. Opening movie kali ini adalah “Metropolis”, film bisu karya Fritz Lang yang dirilis tahun 1927. Pemutaran film ini diiringi secara live oleh Babelsberg Orchestra. Setelah main di Jakarta dan Surabaya, orkestra ini mampir juga di Bandung. Suasana Aula Barat ITB sebelum pemutaran Metropolis ( sorry for the low quality picture. I promise I will change my phone into something that has a better quality camera in the...er...far future ) Tadinya sempat mikir saya bakal nonton film ini sendirian ( which is fine by me). Maksudnya, sepintas kan film ini hanya menarik untuk kalangan terbatas. Film bisu, intertitle -nya bahasa Jerman, ada orkestra segala. Hal-hal yang bikin banyak orang kabur tapi malah bikin saya merapat, hahaha. Apa lagi ketika saya tahu bahwa event ini gratis, for me the decision to watch this was a no-brainer.  Tapi...

Saya tergoda untuk memulai post ini dengan deklarasi “ I am back! ”, seperti yang juga saya gunakan untuk membuka sekitar lima post sebelumnya…yang rupanya saya tulis dalam jangka waktu lebih dari satu tahun. Iya, saya memang balik ke blog ini beberapa kali, tapi adaaaa aja terus hal-hal yang mencegah saya untuk benar-benar stick around setelah kembali. Kemarin saya dikontak teman saya, Meutia. Senang banget dan nggak nyangka juga karena nggak ada special occassion tertentu yang bikin kita kontak-kontakan. Kami ngobrol banyak, dan akhirnya nyinggung-nyinggung soal blog. Soalnya saya blogging pake platform blogger , Muti juga, dan biasanya kami kontak via kolom komentar di blog masing-masing. Blog memang media yang menyenangkan buat catch up sama kehidupan masing-masing, cuma ya akhir-akhir ini saya nggak ada waktu buat blogwalking. Meutia juga udah lama nggak komen, tapi karena saya juga udah lama nggak berkunjung ke blog saya sendiri, saya nggak sadar, hahaha. Ternyata Muti uda...