Phideo Story Friday: Mutiara dan Bayu

okay, I cheated again. this is not a photo, it's a video.


Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

just a practice, I and Ibit, before our real performance on 2 november. my friend will be launching her first book. I was asked to perform reading one of her poet. I never read a poet and don't think I can. so I chose to bring her poet to a song and will sing it in a duet with Ibit.

baru latihan... buat tampil nanti tanggal 2 nopember. seorang teman akan meluncurkan buku pertamanya. aku diminta membacakan salah satu puisinya. aku tuh ngga pernah baca puisi. dan rasanya memang ngga bisa. jadi aku memilih menggubah puisinya ke lagu, dan nanti akan kubawakan berduet dengan Ibit.

what do you think?
bagus ngga?




a little mistake would be okay, I think. we'll be good at the time...
salah dikit ngga papa kan. nanti kalau tampil beneran bagus deh...

err... sorry for a blur and dark video. it was taken with a cell phone in the night. not a good scene I know

I am Published.

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

I can't remember exactly when I started writing. If writing in blog counts, then may be when I started this blog over two years ago.
Aku tidak ingat dengan pasti, kapan aku mulai menulis. Jika menulis di blog dihitung, berarti itu adalah saat aku mulai bikin blog ini.

But writing short stories, umh... I've just been doing it in the past year I guess, on my other blog. I tried to translate some to English. But as English is not my mother language, I bet they don't feel as good as they were in Indonesian.
Tapi menulis cerpen, umh... baru sekitar setahun belakangan ini, di blogku yang lain. Aku sudah mencoba menerjemahkan ke bahasa inggris. Tapi bahasa inggris bukan bahasa ibu-ku, jadi rasanya tidak seindah yang seharusnya.

A good friend of mine suggested me to try to send my writings to magazines or news paper. Hohoho, I wasn't that confident. But I gave it a try. I sent it to a local tabloid, 'Cempaka'.
Few days after I sent my writing, I received a message from the tabloid. They said my story was good but too long. I was asked to edit it become 5-6 pages (from 8). No it wasn't easy. I use to write like water flow, and cutting some parts might change the idea I wanted to share. But still I worked on it, and resent it.
Seorang teman menganjurkan aku untuk mencoba mengirimkan tulisanku ke majalah atau koran. Hohoho, aku masih kurang pede. Tapi aku beranikan mencoga. Aku kirim ke tabloid lokal, 'Cempaka'.
Beberapa hari setelah aku kirimkan cerpenku, aku mendapat sms dari tabloid tersebut. Katanya ceritaku bagus, tapi terlalu panjang. Mereka minta aku mengeditnya menjadi 5-6 halaman (dari 8). Agak susah. Aku terbiasa menulis dengan mengalir, memotong sebagian mungkin akan mengubah ide yang ingin kusampaikan. Tapi aku berusaha, lalu kukirim lagi hasil editanku.

I didn't receive any notification that I would be published. Oh it sucks. I mean, if they didn't mean to publish it, why did they ask me to edit it? But if they would publish it, why didn't they tell me?
Aku tidak menerima pemberitahuan bahwa itu akan dimuat. Menyebalkan. Maksudku, jika memang tidak akan dimuat, kenapa mereka minta aku mengeditnya? Tapi jika memang dimuat, kenapa aku tidak dikabari?

So I just prepared myself for the worst. May be they didn't like my editing and decided not to publish it. But in another side, I still hope that wasn't what happened. So I bought an exemplar of the tabloid this morning, and...
Jadi aku menyiapkan diri untuk kemungkinan terburuk. Mungkin mereka tidak suka hasil editanku dan memutuskan untuk tidak memuatnya. Tapi di sisi lain aku masih berharap bukan itu keputusannya. Maka pagi ini aku membeli 1 exemplar Cempaka, dan...



Unfortunately the tabloid is not available in online version. So I just share a picture of it here. I wanted to translate to 'whatever-English' so any English reader can at least have an illustration what it was about. But.. ah may be later. Forgive my limited time (and energy).
Sayangnya tabloid ini tidak tersedia dalam versi online. Jadi aku bagi gambarnya saja di sini. Aku ingin menerjemahkannya ke 'Inggris-saksake', jadi paling tidak para pembaa yang berbahas inggris bisa punya gambaran aku bercerita tentang apa. Tapi... mungkin nanti ya. Mohom maaf atas keterbatasan waktu (dan tenaga).

Fiuh, I guess I need to send a copy to my father. He was the one who taught me to tell a story... Thank you, Bapak.
Fiuh, sepertinya aku harus mengirim satu kopi ke ayahku. Beliau yang mengajariku bercerita... Terima kasih, Bapak.

*****

Updated:
I have given my self some time, and now you can read the whatever-English version to the story here.
versi bahasa Indonesia bisa dibaca di sini

It’s o so quiet

Hosted by Cecily and Angie

I believe, every Mom in the world would agree, when it is so silent – you have to beware. A disaster could be happening. Painting using lipstick on the wall. Messed up toilet paper. Soap and tooth paste all over the wall. Spread cereal.
Semua Ibu di seluruh dunia pasti setuju, kalau suasananya terlalu tenang -- mencurigakan. Bisa jadi sebuah bencana sedang terjadi. Ada lukisan lipstick di tembok. Tisu toilet acak adul. Sabun dan odol diecret-ecret. Cereal disebar.

Usually, Ar + Ir = noise. They do wrestling, they run around the house, the play with the toys, they fight over things. Even when they are drawing, they will be busy telling the story about what they are drawing.
Biasanya, Ar + Ir = berisik. Mereka main gulat, lari-larian di dalam rumah, main mobil-mobilan, rebutan. Bahkan kalau lagi nggambar pun, mulut mereka sibuk bercerita tentang apa yang sedang digambar.

I was wondering what has kept them busy silent this time.
Aku ingin tahu apa yang bikin mereka sibuk tenang kali ini.

TAA…DAA….

They got a set of stickers from their creativity magazine. Do you think this is cute? I think it is. But I can not feel the dot on ‘F’ and ‘J’ as the guidance to ten fingers blind typing. And can hardly see the letters as well.
Mereka dapet stiker dari majalah kreatifitas. Bagus ngga? Kayanya bagus sih. Tapi aku jadi tidak bisa merasakan titik di huruf 'F' dan 'J' sebagai pedoman mengetik buta sepuluh jari. Dan hurufnya juga ngga jelas dilihatnya.

Well it is cute anyway. I will get use to it sooner or later.
Alah sudahlah, yang penting lucu. Nanti juga lama-lama terbiasa.

***********

And psstt.....
I got a surprise this morning from my bloggie friend Forgetfulone
Dan pssttt.....
Pagi ini aku dapat kejutan manis dari teman blogku Forgetfulone

loyal commenter

Isn't this sweet? I am so honored receiving this, as I don't visit her blog every day. Basically no blog I visit everyday. But I do give some time to visit blogs I like whenever I can. Thank you Forgetfulone!
Baik banget kan? Aku merasa tersanjung menerimanya, mengingat aku ini ngga tiap hari mengunjungi blognya. ya, pada dasarnya memang tidak ada blog yang aku kunjungi tiap hari. Tapi aku selalu menyisihkan waktu untuk mengunjungi blog yang aku suka kalau aku bisa. Terima kasih Forgetfulone!

Batik Indonesia

Hosted by Cecily and Linds

where did Batik come from?
I would answer: Indonesia
dari mana asalnya batik?
aku pasti akan jawab: Indonesia

Some other countries have claimed Batik as theirs. Well I don't learn much about the history of Batik so I could not protest this, although basically I could not agree with the claim.
beberapa negara mengklaim batik sebagai miliknya. lha aku ngga terlalu ngerti juga sejarah perbatikan, jadi ngga berani protes. meskipun sebenarnya dalam hati jelas aku ngga setuju klaim mereka

But finally, UNESCO has decided to announce hand made Batik from Indonesia as one of World Heritage. The announcement will be tomorrow (October 2 - 2009). So now I have no doubt, Batik is from Indonesia.
akhirnya, UNESCO memutuskan untuk mengumumkan Batik Indonesia sebagai salah satu warisan budaya dunia. pengumumannya akan dilakukan besok (2 Oktober 2009). jadi tidak ragu lagi, batik memang dari Indonesia

Indonesian Traditonal Batik is very unique. It took long process to coloring the fabrics, and has various patterns and colors. Hand made batik, I guess including writing-batik, the type which the pattern is manually painted by hand using batik-wax. And also stamp-batik, the type that the patterns painted using a stamp.
batik tradisional Indonesia itu istimewa. proses pembuatannya lama, warna dan polanya juga sangat bervariasi. batik hand-made itu, menurutku termasuk batik tulis dan cap. batik tulis digarap dengan menggambar secara manual menggunakan canting dan malam. sedang batik tulis menggunakan bantuan alat cap

painting batik

stamping batik

washing the wax

Indonesian handmade Batik

to show the world how proud us to have batik, the President himself has asked us Indonesian to wear batik on October 2. and there is noway I will miss it.
untuk menunjukkan rasa bangga, presiden sendiri mengajak kita semua untuk memakai batik tanggal 2 Oktober nanti. jangan sampai ketinggalan...




updated:
this is a collage of some Loenpia.net (Semarang blogger community) members proudly wearing Batik in this very special day. Picture taken from mailist Loenpia. Can you see me?

The Gift - God is Humorous

Hosted by Cecily and Linds

I stayed awake till almost midnight, having this imaginairy conversation.
aku ngga tidur sampai hampir tengah malam, terlibat percakapan khayalan ini:

Is this a joke? (I asked)
No it is not
Why are you giving me this?
Because I have to
Why do you have to?
Because you wanted this
I never asked for this
You don't have to ask to tell Me what you want. I always know, and you know that

ini guyon?
bukan
kenapa aku diberi ini?
karena harus
kenapa harus?
karena kamu ingin
aku ngga pernah minta ini
memang. tapi kamu kan ngga perlu bilang apa yang kamu mau. Aku selalu tahu. kamu tahu itu

yeah, right. I said I have had enough. I didn't want more. But deep down inside I wanted God to laugh at me and speak: you can say you don't want more. but I do. and there is nothing you can do to prevent me from giving you more, when I want to.
I thought I have prepared my self for this since Ar-Ir was six. still I found myself not that ready though. but this good friend of mine told me, I still have nine months to get ready. well, ready or not it will come to me, and I will have to be ready.
iya. memang aku bilang sudah cukup, aku ngga mau lagi. tapi sebenarnya jauuuuuuuuuuuuuh di dalam lubuk hati yang hampir tak terjamah, aku berharap Dia tertawakan aku lalau berkata: terserah kalau kamu ngga mau lagi. Aku masih mau nambah lagi. dan kamu bisa apa kalau Aku berkehendak memberimu?
kupikir aku sudah mempersiapkan diri untuk ini sejak Ar Ir berumur enam tahun. nyatanya aku belum begitu siap. tapi temanbaikku ini bilang, aku masih punya sembilan bulan untuk menyiapkan diri. siap tidak siap memang harus siap. waktunya akan tiba.

one bag. still can not see how many babies inside. needs couple more weeks to find out. wish me luck *sigh*

I never really liked condoms anyway. and I'm glad that I don't have to deal with it for the next (at least) nine months.
pada dasarnya aku memang ngga terlalu suka kondom. jadi kupikir asik juga, aku ngga perlu berurusan dengan benda itu untuk (paling tidak) sembilan bulan ke depan

thanks. you are funny ya Allah, you really are
I'm pretty humorous if you know Me, actually

terima kasih. Kau lucu ya Allah, benar-benar lucu
Aku ini humoris sebenarnya, kalau kamu cukup mengenalKu


so I slept through the rest of the night, in God's warm embrace, peacefully...
aku pun tertidur lelap menghabiskan sisa malam, damai dalam pelukan hangatNya...

Even an Angel Needs to Step Down the Earth Some Times

Bidadari juga kadang-kadang perlu turun ke bumi

And find out how it feels to climb up to reach the height.
Supaya tahu bagaimana rasanya memanjat untuk sampai ke atas.



Hosted by Cecily and Sports Mama

Watchout, this time I'm gonna talk a lot, and more pictures than I usually show too.
Siap-siap, kali ini aku akan bicara banyak, dan juga lebih banyak foto daripada biasanya.

Eidil Fitri has always been my favorite annual moment. Like most of Indonesian Moslems do, I guess. It is time when children, parents, siblings, families who live apart – come together. Yes, it is time when dandelion seeds come to where it used to be.
Idul Fitri adalah salah satu momen favoritku. Kayanya semua Muslim begitu deh. Saat-saat seperti ini, anak berkumpul bersama orang tua, saudara, dan keluarga yang tinggalnya berjauhan. Yup, ini saatnya biji dandelion melihat kembali dari mana dia berasal.

This year I meet my siblings in my parent’s home, except my younger brother Bond. He is going to his wife’s parents this time. I also stayed for couple nights in my parents in laws. Dan’s brother didn’t come either, he is celebrating Eidil Fitri in Jakarta with his wife’s family this year.
Tahun ini aku bersyukur bisa berkumpul dengan saudara-saudaraku, kecuali Bond yang lebaran di keluarga istrinya. Aku juga menginap beberapa malam di tempat mertua. Adik Dan juga tidak bisa datang kali ini, lebaran di mertuanya juga di Jakarta.

after sholat Eid, yes I finally finished sewing my kids batik wears

I and my siblings always tried to make a good time together, just when we can all stay together for awhile. We have gone to the beaches these last couple years. So this time we decided something different: hiking. Not to a mount too far, only to a hill next to the village we live in. This hill is called ‘Gunung Buthak’. In Javanese it means ‘Baldy Hill’. I don’t know why it is called so. May be because in the dry season all plants in the hill dried. The hill turns to brown and you can barely find a green living plant. Like a baldy head, funny.
Aku dan saudara-saudaraku biasanya bikin acara yang menyenangkan, selagi kita bisa berkumpul. Beberapa tahun terakhir kami pergi ke pantai. Kali ini kami memutusukan untuk melakukan hal yang berbeda. Naik gunung. Bukan gunung beneran yang jauh, sebenarnya cuma bukit dekat tempat kami tinggal. Namanya Gunung Buthak. Entah kenapa dikasih nama begitu. Mungkin karena kalau musim kemarau, semua tumbuhan di bukit itu kering. Warna bukit kalau dilihat dari kejauhan jadi coklat, ngga ada ijo-ijonya. Kaya orang botak, begitu. Lucu.

This is what I am going to talk about. Some thing I have learned from this year's family time. Hiking a hill is not a journey upstairs on an elevator. You need to make your steps on the rock, find the right rock to step on. Some times you find slippery sand layer, and need to hold on a tree – or fall if you failed. You might get scratched by sharp dry grasses or branches. And some thorny wild plants might hurt you.
Ini yang ingin kubahas, sesuatu yang ku pelajari dari kegiatan lebaran kali ini. Neik gunung bukan perjalanan dengan elevbator. Kita harus berjalan mencari pijakan yang tepat. Kadang kaki kita menginjak lapisan pasir yang licin, sehingga harus segera berpegang pada pohon terdekat -- atau jatuh. Banyak rumput dan ranting kering yang tajam dan melukai. Tidak sedikit juga tumbuhan berduri.

Dan helped my brother Bot

this part is quite hard

Everyone enjoyed the climbing and all it took. Reaching the top was an achievement. We were tired but it was fun. We had a simple breakfast up there. The kids (and the adults especially) made some paper planes and flew it down the other side of the hill.
Secara umum semuanya menikmati perjalanan. Sampai di puncak itu sebuah pencapaian. Capek sih, tapi senang. Di atas kami sempat sarapan sedikit. Anak-anak (terutama yang tua sebenarnya) bikin pesawat dari kertas dan menerbangkannya ke sisi lain bukit.

our house is somewhere down there...

But Ibit couldn’t enjoy it pretty well. She felt bothered with some sands getting into her shoes. The grass, the dry branches scratched her leg. And it seemed an ant thought she had bother its sunbathe and decided to bite her. Itchy off course. Ibit grumbled along the way up, to the top of the hill. She really didn’t enjoy it. I wonder how come. She always wanted to do this before, but when the time comes she didn’t like it. I always needed to ask her to smile every time we took her picture.
Tapi Ibit kurang bisa menikmati. Dia merasa terganggu dengan pasir yang masuk ke sepatu, tergores rumput, kena duri. Tambah lagi sepertinya ada semut yang merasa terganggu lalu menggigit Ibit, gatel deh. Jadilah Ibit ngrundel sepanjang jalan sampai ke puncak. Aneh juga, padahal dia pengen banget naik gunung. Eh setelah kesampaian malah ngga suka. Kami sampai harus memaksa dia senyum setiap kali mau foto.

on the top of the hill

We went down the hill on another path. A rocky path is good for climbing, but is difficult to go down. So we went another direction with almost no rock. Only sands and dry leaves all over the ground. No it wasn’t easy if you try to walk on it. It would be easier if you just sit and slide down, and it took less time, much. Again Ibit thought it was no fun. Some stone, she said, has hurt her butt.
Kami turun lewat jalur lain. Jalan berbatu enak buat naik, tapi susah buat turun. Jadi kami ambil jalur yang batunya sedikit. Lebih banyak tanah berpasir yang tertimbun guguran daun. Malah susah kalau jalan. Lebih enak kalau jongkok lalu meluncur sambil tangannya mendayung. Cepet sampai lagi. Tapi lagi-lagi Ibit tidak bisa menikmati. Katanya pantatnya kena batu, sakit.

slide slide down...

Come on. I and Dan and my sisters told her, that’s the good thing about doing an adventure. How you can get through the difficulties and finally reach the goal: you win. You surely will get some small blisters on your skin, but soon it will be healed.
Plis deh. Aku dan Dan dan saudara-saudaraku berusaha memberi pengertian ke Ibit, itulah hal menyenangkan tentang sebuah petualangan. Melalui berbagai kesulitan hingga mencapai tujuan itu sebuah kemenangan. Pastilah akan ada lecet-lecet sedikit, tapi sebentar juga sembuh.

Have I told you how Ibit has been so very special? My angel. She was able to read when she was four. She is a perfectionist. She sings. She plays piano. She writes stories. She draws comics. She blogs. I just realized that all these time we let her have fun only with her brain while her body didn’t do enough. She even spends her resses time in school reading in the library. A little hard out bond activity we did has become too hard for her… Funny. I remember she was going to bring a book going hiking, good thing she put it back when I told to.
Aku pernah cerita kan, Ibit itu istimewa? Bidadariku. Sudah bisa membaca waktu umurnya baru 4 tahun. Sang perfeksionis. Menyanyi. Main piano. Menulis cerpen. Menggambar komik. Ngeblog. Aku baru sadar bahwa selama ini kami membiarkan Ibit bersenang-senang dengan otaknya saja, sedangkan badannya kurang. Bahkan kalau jam istirahat di sekolah, dia ke perpustakaan baca buku. Gerak badan sedikit begini menjadi terlalu berat buatnya. Lucu, waktu mau berangkat naik gunung dia nyangking buku. Untung dia mau nurut waktu kusuruh ninggal aja bukunya.

It’s a note for me and Dan, to make a balance to what Ibit ‘eat’. Now we are planning to give her more activities like this, so she can enjoy life more than just reading books and get stuck inside her room. I surely hope it will work.
Sebuah catatan untuk aku dan Dan, untuk lebih menyeimbangkan apa yang 'asupan' Ibit. Sekarang kami merencanakan untuk lebih banyak mengajak Ibit beraktivitas fisik, supaya dia bisa lebih menikmati hidup lebih dari sekedar baca buku dan mengurung diri di kamar.

I should have known, too much of something is never good.
Harusnya aku tahu, semua yang serba terlalu itu ngga baik.

2009-1999= .........

20 September

then: the wedding day
dulu: hari pernikahan

now: the family
kini: keluarga



and oh.....
this year, 20 september is the day of Eidil Fitr
how would I call this, a double happiness?

so,

HAPPY EID MUBARAK, everyone!

Hosted by Cecily and Izzy 'N Emmy