Paradiso Perduto

Truth spoken in whispers will tell you apart No matter how hard you resist it It never rains when you want it to You humble me, Lord You humble me, Lord I am on my knees, empty You humble me (Humble Me –Norah Jones) source : here   Tahun 2015 yang diawali dengan ekspektasi tinggi berlalu setengah juga akhirnya. Kalau tahun 2014 buat saya adalah tahunnya pencapaian dan pengalaman baru, saya menentukan tema tahun ini adalah tahun mimpi besar. Sesuai dengan namanya, ini tahun di mana saya akhirnya berani mengambil langkah menuju mimpi-mimpi besar saya, termasuk ambil master program. Terutama ambil master program. Preferably abroad, learning things I really love, like something related to neuropsychology. More preferably in Germany, thank you very much. Setelah setengah tahun berlalu, saya rasa Tuhan memilihkan tema yang lebih cocok buat saya : penerimaan dan mencari hikmah. Banyak banget humbling experience yang saya dapat dalam setengah tahun terakhir ini. Mulai da...

Source Let us have inscription of our name on our rings, written in Tengwar, in elvish language of Sindarin Let us call them "the rings who ruled them all" And whisper to each other "my preciousss" in Gollum's voice Laugh at me, but let us have it anyway Greet me in foreign languages of your choice because that sounds nice, and I will compose for you a haiku over breakfast Watching sun rise   illuminates the backyard--   toast or cereal? Let smiles and warmth and light flood our living space and happiness and laughter and all those warm embrace Bear with me and my two left feet, and my inability to cross the street I will learn to swim too, and bike, and drive, and to accept defeat Know that every day for me is one step further out of fear and it would be so helpful if you are being near Lay beside me through all the book chapters I'm not willing to close through all the football matches I'm not willing to miss Gently...

Yep. (In case you are wondering, I am back on fictionpress too) By now, most of you will have realized that I am prone to long and unannounced hiatus. Sorry, my blog reader, if you are still there (or if you do exist at all). Between work and preparing for master courses and random projects and pure laziness I did not have that much time to write. When I did have, insecurities attacked and everything was kept in a state of rewriting ad infinitum. While I was on hiatus, I had a little chat with my boss on a return work trip from Jakarta. He just recently found out that I aspired to be an author, and he asked, "Why do you write?" I forgot what exactly my answer was, but I remembered that I was a little flabbergasted at the time. Perhaps I mentioned something about how nice it felt to be acknowledged as "the writer" on my circle of friends and to have a few people referring to themselves as "Vera's fans" after posting several stories on intern...

Meet little mage Veruchka and her pink cotton candy wolf! Veruchka is my character on habitrpg :)  Hi, people, I haven’t died yet (surprise, surprise!). I know I’ve been on hiatus for a rather long period. These last few months I’ve been quite busy, and Indonesian internet was being…well, the usual Indonesian internet, so I was not able to post a lot, aside from my short comments/rant on twitter and goodreads. I admit laziness also played some part, but no worries, now I already found a way to banish the laziness and I ‘m going to share it with you! See how nice I can be? ;) I admit that I am not naturally organized. I forgot things. I procrastinate. I don’t do things in the most effective and efficient way. I wrote things on notes so I would not forget, only to find myself completely forget about the notes later. Being organized and productive has been always an obsession for me. Some kind of elusive dream, something I always strive to be, but I was never quite there. ...

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 ...