What about a teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me? I could invent a teakettle that reads in Dad's voice, so I could fall asleep, or maybe a set of kettles that sings the chorus of "Yellow Submarine," which is a song by the Beatles, who I love, because entomology is one of my raisons d'être, which is a French expression that I know.
- Oskar

I reread that part of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tonight, because I feel extremely fat, or more likely, in every way I just feel like crap. I knew I could always trust good words, the way I knew I could seek for comfort in books.

They are not like those guys who say goodnights and 'I-love-you's and forget you in the morning.
They are not like those people who say they're at your side and leave you afterwards.
At times I think humans are such a disappointment. We talk too much, too loudly, over matters that are none of our business. Promises are easily made and easily broken. Advices are taken for granted. Words just don't mean anything to us these days.

Yahhh ga dapet bonus, wekeke. Ya sudah, belom rejeki.

Anyway, dengan duit yang tersisa sekarang, gw harus membuat prioritas.
Kamera, sepatu, buku, atau biarkan saja menjadi ongkos bersenang-senang?

Pundi-pundi euro kapan masuknya, hehe.

This is not the usual white-black-grey themes I would pick for my blog template. Everyone needs a break sometimes. And I need more pink and less grey, huhu.

Do you know those days when you just want to stay in bed all day and avoid the world? Well, this is one of them. For some reason I just don't have the mood to do anything today. Maybe because it's payday and I will have to spend all of my salary this month (plus some of my savings) to clear my debt on apartment deposit payment. And like it's not enough, transfer was doubly charged so 20 Euros was missing somewhere between Semanggi and Poala.

And it is Friday. I never see what's so great about it that people always say "Thank God it's Friday". You still have to work on Friday. They should say "Thank God it's Friday 5 PM" instead, or if they have to work late (like I think I will today), just adjust the time.

Ok, enough for the complains. At least this man from the apartment agreed to give me a proof of booking. And I already have my flight ticket booked too. It's on September 20th, 12.40 am. So when I receive the proof of accommodation I will be able to apply for my visa.

Time to get ready for work.

Have you heard that Listiana Srisanti, the translator of Harry Potter to Bahasa Indonesia, passed away yesterday? I read the translated edition of Harry Potter until the 5th book and right after I collected all the 7 imported edition, I gave the translated ones to my neighbor. But even though I don't have them anymore, I still remember some Indonesian phrase from the books very well.

Do you know what it feels when you love something so much that some parts about it leave trace in your heart? That's how I feel about Harry Potter. I cried reading Rowling's dedication on the 7th book, I have some dissatisfaction of how the story ends (like when Molly Weasley killed Bellatrix), but they're my friends when I grew up.

And somehow this part of my heart was touched when I heard that Listiana Srisanti passed away. I remember when I met Harry Potter for the first time, it was the third book, Harry Potter dan Tawanan Azkaban (yes, I read the third book first). And it's still one of my favorite books until now.

Listina Srisanti died from cancer. She translated Harry Potter #6 and #7 during her chemotherapy, which I think was very hard to do. So, farewell Listiana, thank you for your amazing translations.

Mari bicara makanan. Kalau sedang meeting atau ada training internal di kantor saya, biasanya disediakan konsumsi. Berikut ini akan saya jelaskan jenis makanan yang biasa disediakan utnuk meeting/training di kantor saya. Maaf tidak bisa menghadirkan skrinsut. Kan ga enak lagi meeting moto-moto makanan, ketauan banget saya ga nyimak, huhu.

1. Donat Country Style
Setiap kali makanan sampai pasti semua bersorak gembira, termasuk saya. Bahkan kalaupun yang disediakan adalah donat Country Style, saya latah ikut-ikutan semangat. Padahal sodara-sodara, menurut saya sangatlah sulit merasa antusias terhadap donat ini. Rotinya keras, tapi yang paling menyebalkan dan ga enak adalah toppingnya yang aneh-aneh banget. Jadi kalau konsumsinya donat ini dan kalau demi alasan kesopanan serta takut mubazir saya harus ikutan makan, biasanya saya pilih toping paling aman, yaitu meises coklat.

2. Roti bakar Country Style
Nah kalau donatnya tidak mengundang selera, rotinya pun saingan. Kalau disuguhkan roti bakar dengan isi campuran 2 rasa, saya paling males deh. Coba bayangkan, roti bakar isi selai kacang campur keju? Wth.

3. Bakwan goreng dan pisang goreng
Nah bakwan gorengnya lumayan enak, apalagi kalau masih panas (sejujurnya kalau ga panas jadi terasa alot banget). Pisang gorengnya... ya gitu deh. Berhubung saya ga doyan pisang jadi ga pernah saya ambil, hehe.

4. Roti Daily Bread
Yang ini termasuk santapan favorit saya. Enak-enak semua.

5. Buah-buahan
Biasanya berupa anggur yang bikin saya ga berhenti makan sepanjang meeting. Mantap lah.

6. Bakmi Juragan
Nah kalau ini biasanya untuk training internal pagi-pagi sebagai sarapan. Mi-nya lumayan enak, tapi saya jarang makan karena selalu sarapan di rumah.

7. Bubur ayam
Ini juga termasuk suguhan sarapan. Hmm, menurut saya sih topping buburnya terlalu polos, hehe. Tapi rasa buburnya lumayan lah.

Apa lagi yah? Kayanya itu aja. Kalau lembur biasnaya dikasih nasi padang/Gajah Mada/McD, tapi udh pada tau semua lah rasanya.

Ganti template, hehe. Udah agak bosen dengan yang lama. Tadinya saya ingin template yang agak berwarna-warni ceria-ceria gimana gitu, tapi ga betah sendiri ngeliatnya. Jadinya saya menggunakan template ini, dengan background post dan widget yang dituker warnanya. Saya ga pernah suka baca sesuatu dengan background yang agak gelap sih.

Di sisi kanan terlihat juga ada beberapa link tambahan. Ya, minggu ini saking ga ada kerjaannya (ini ironi, kalau-kalau ada yang ga sadar) saya menjajal situs-situs social networking. Haha, padahal biasanya paling males ikut yang begitu-begituan. Kalau dihitung-hitung, situs sejenis yang pernah saya coba adalah Friendster (sudah dihapus), Hi5, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter (haven't tweeted anything), Plurk, Listography, Goodreads, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, dan kayanya masih ada lagi yang saya bahkan ga ingat namanya. Kebanyakan akunnya sudah terlupakan.

Dalam rangka mengisi waktu luang di kantor pula (ini juga ironi) saya jadi baca artikel ini. Jujur saja selama ini saya ga pernah berusaha dengan serius menghentikan kebiasaan menggigit kuku/ujung jari. I have been a nail-biter since forever. Dari dulu nyokap sering ngomel tentu saja, tapi saya juga sudah terlatih untuk ga gigit kuku di depan nyokap, hehe. Tapi sejak baca artikel itu mikir-mikir lagi, sepertinya sudah saatnya berhenti menggigiti kuku/ujung jari. Bukan karena saya menginginkan kuku cantik panjang-panjang, tentu tidak. I love my nails! Sebagai gambaran, kuku saya sekarang ini luar biasa pendek, dengan ujung ga rata karena digigitin. Tapi yah niat baik ini semata-mata untuk alasan penghentian jalur penyebaran kuman.

Ah sudahlah.

OK, so this is why I feel so mad. It's past 5 pm and I'm stuck at the office doing nothing. You think it's no big deal? Well, let me tell you, you're wrong.

Office sucks today. I went here cheerfully because I wore my best suit and it was raining. But as soon as I put my finger on the fingerscan, my spirit was gone. I did my usual routines and opened the familiar QA form which I hate with all of my heart. I prepared some XML files but as the users are always too busy, the UAT is always, always, always delayed. So I googled "what to do when bored" and one of the suggestions is to join social network sites. I tried LinkedIn and StumbleUpon. That kept me busy for a while.

I've been trying to remember good things. Maybe after this I will go to PP and spend money on frozen yoghurt or ice cream. Maybe they can make me feel better. I'm broke but I'm dying for something tasty and expensive. Bah. I should remember those who are not as lucky as I am before buying something I don't really need.

Hmm, it seems like I can't finish any book lately (woot).
Ever since I work as the so-called Senior IT Officer (yes, that's written in my card), buying books is never really a problem anymore. I have the money, I just don't have the time to read. Now, I don't know whether I bought the wrong books or it's just me being too lazy to do anything but sleeping in my spare time, but I can't finish some of those books.
Here are some of them (I don't even remember the rest):

1. Garth Stein - The Art of Racing in the Rain. This book has good reviews and easy to read. I read the first few chapters but can't find anything to keep me read on. I'll continue sometime later. 
2. Susan Patron - The Higher Power of Lucky. This book is a Newbery winner and has a little girl in its front cover, that kind of book I would definitely like. But as the first one, I put this down and haven't opened it again. 
3. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - Pertanda-pertanda Baik (Good Omens). Ok, this is Neil Gaiman, my all-time favourite author. Is it just me or the translation makes it hard to read? I didn't feel the fun of reading it. I should try again sometime, or bought the imported edition. 
4. Yann Martel - Beatrice and Virgil. I bought this book with a very high expectation, considering the fact it's the same author who wrote Life of Pi. I didn't read any reviews before buying. I just saw it on Aksara and didn't really care about the price and bought it. Well... I know Life of Pi is a bit boring in the first few chapters, but turns out it's one of the best book I've read in my entire life. So when I found Beatrice and Virgil boring, I just kept on reading. Until Monday came and I was busy with my crappy job and and forgot this book.

So, there they are. I spent quite a lot of money on them so I made a promise to myself to finish them and write the reviews here. But I don't know when, I have other books to buy :-P

But let's use it anyway. Ini UAT kayanya ga kelar-kelar deh. Udah nyaris mati bosen saya. Lalala.
Pengen jalan-jalan ke PP deh ntar, semoga ga disuruh nemenin vendor makan siang. Huhu.
Kemarin saya sakit. Dan sesungguhnya hari ini saya juga masih pengen ga masuk karena sakit. Sayang sekali hati nurani ga mengijinkan. Yah, di satu sisi lumayan juga sih, karena pagi ini ada rekan kerja yang ulang tahun dan bawa kue raksasa. Meskipun saya cuma makan sepotong kecil karena takut gemuk. Boong deng. Bagian takut gemuknya.
Yah sepertinya gosip pengunduran diri sudah menyebar. Petinggi-petinggi mendukung, tapi yang ga begitu tinggi cukup heran kenapa saya mau berpusing-pusing lagi dengan bahan kuliah. Yah saya sepertinya enggan menjelaskan. Karena dunia persekolahan menghidupi saya dan dunia perkantoran membunuh saya? Huhu. Buktinya saya sekarang hampir terbunuh kebosanan dan polusi.
Ngemeng-ngemeng, postingan ini saya tulis dengan hp alay (dalam artian keypadnya qwerty). Hp N70 sudah saya pensiunkan. Lumayanlah jadi gampang ngeblog dari hp. Huhu, baiknya saya sudahi saja postingan ga penting ini.

I want life at a slower pace. I want to wake up earlier and not having to rush to the office. I want to take my time at prayers and enjoy the dawn. I want to drive more slowly and see the people on the streets who drive more slowly too. I want to enjoy whatever I'm working on and remember what Dr. Seuss said: that Life's a Great Balancing Act.

I want to chew more slowly. I want to eat less fast food and instant noodless, and cook more. I want to write journal instead of some limited characters of microblogging status. I want to read course books instead of presentation slides.

Life at a slower pace. To take notice to little things. To walk to the mosque. To save more time to think but not too much. To not being hurried by nonsensical deadlines: getting a permanent job after graduating, getting lmarried by 25, having two kids and a house and a car before 30.

I want to sit down and relax and remember the meaning behind of this, all of we're living for: that it's all for Allah's blessings.

Been veryyyyy busy. This week I never went home before 8 pm, so much work to do. So many things that stressed me out: visa, UAT, leave preparation. I didn't have the time to read any book, or even to log in to Blogger or Tumblr.

Well, it's now June, and I still haven't prepared anything for my departure. Visa application, resignation letter, cooking lesson... I haven't done any of them, huh. Don't really want to talk about them either.

Last week I went to Peucang Island in Ujung Kulon with my family. It was beautiful but too hot. Um, I don't know, we did what other tourists did: enjoying the beach, taking photos, snorkelling, saving every drop of water (it's hard to get clean water there, and the electricity went out like every 2 hours). I didn't really like it, hehe. They should improve the facilities.

Anyway, we also went there with my father's friend and his family. And there was this girl about my age. My brother asked me who was older, I said it was me. And then he said, she looked so much older or is it you that still look like a child? I'm glad he said that, because lately I feel old and tired.

Enough for the photo, you might be laughing now.

Another topic. Umm, I just want to say it's funny how sometimes we misjudge people. That happens often to me lately. Like when I entered the room of the Head of my division to talk about resignation, preparing myself for an anger or disappointment, but instead went out of his room feeling happy and thankful for his wisdom. Or the way this man I once hated bacause he refused to tutor me becomes the one whom I can tell about my future plans and seek for uncle-ish advice. I easily misjudge people, maybe for their addiction to BlackBerry, or they way they like lame movies, or even the way their ears looked weird. Well the truth is, some people are really nice, even the people I haven't met (like those from LCT consorsium). I should start seeing the good in people.

In my office now, everyone is like a family. It's getting nearer to my resignation and I'm sure gonna miss them. Oh, I still hate my job and mostly I hate hate hate the fact that I have to work this Sunday. But still, I had some fun, too.