My first bundle of joy

The mini album I made when expecting Mikaela.

Scrapbooking pregnancy - Made from Love in Bali

Scrapbooking pregnancy - Daddy's reaction

Scrapbooking pregnancy - Mommy's cravings

Scrapbooking pregnancy - My bundle of joy

Scrapbooking pregnancy

Renowned ‘timnas’ – a temporary euphoria?

Along with their constant victory in 2010 AFF Cup, tremendous support and admiration are attributed to Indonesia’s national football team. Indonesians are now spellbound as the football euphoria spreads across the country, making ‘timnas’ an overnight sensation, the audible song ‘Garuda Didadaku’ reverberate in every corner, and names such as Christian ‘El Loco’ Gonzales and  Bachdim emerge as long-time coming heroes.

 

My husband and I were passing Senayan yesterday and were quite astonished to see an incredible number of people cramming in Gelora Bung Karno trying their luck obtaining the 3rd class tickets of the AFF Cup final between Indonesia and archenemy Malaysia in the coming 29 December 2010. We’d known from TV the more expensive tickets had all been sold-out and that ticket buyers willingly spent the night waiting in front of the booths.  

Crowds were also around Senayan flocking the street sellers selling fake timnas outfits. My husband indeed gave me a significant gesture to pull over and buy, but I told him to get it from an authorized dealer, as we are such bad bargainers and God knows how easy it would be to get us into buying stuff much more expensive than they should be. Besides, the material of the genuine uniform would be much better, I reasoned. But apparently it has become one of the most hunted merchandises, because in every store the outfits had been sold out. He was quite dismayed. 

Some say timnas Indonesia was in their golden era in the 1950s, when the players played due to their passion towards football itself, the era when the team could hold back the mighty Russian team. I am very much proud to say this for the timnas captain at that time was my very own late grandfather, Chris Ong. 

Despite the fact, though, I am never into football, let alone being a nationalist. But this football fever is contagious and I find myself bewitched in this excitement and have actually been praying for our timnas’ success to become the champion of AFF Cup 2010. But I know, once the football season is over, I am no longer a timnas fan. By far, this is the proof that most people, including me and even the government, are suckers for victory, and that the escalating popularity of timnas may remain only if they keep on winning. 

But for this time being in this country of ours, where nationwide triumphant is once in a blue moon, timnas has been singled-out as the spearhead of the people’s solace after so many hitches in this country, and is thus hoped to not only provide consolation to the dreary hearts of the people but to also become a capstone to perk up the country’s image.  Go timnas!

"Eclipse", a humdrum crowd-pleaser?

Once upon a time I was falling in love

But now I'm only falling apart

There's nothing I can do

A total eclipse of the heart

Once upon a time there was light in my life

But now there's only love in the dark

Nothing I can say

A total eclipse of the heart

Having switched side to Team Jacob after New Moon, I felt very much touched by the excruciating pain Jacob feels all through the movie. I have read the story and listened to the audiobook more than twice, and felt deeply attached with the emotion. The song ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, is in my opinion depicts how Jacob feels.

***

I’ve just seen the third installment of the Twilight Saga and despite many people’s accusation of the movie being overtly-publicized and mundane, I’d have to say I quite enjoyed the movie and you could say my being inevitably subjective is due to my infatuation towards the saga book and, most of all, the fictional character Jacob Black. Eclipse is by far, like what Aini wrote in her blackberry status, is the most watchable saga.. .

My husband, who very much dismayed having to see the movie when the quarter final of World Cup between Argentina – Germany was on, like many non-Twilight viewers, could not understand why the movie was a big success worldwide. So, I’d like to defend what he and many friends of mine have accused of this far from 5-star rating movie. I’ve got to admit that the movie is not top-notch and the excitement cannot be compared to Avatar or Harry Potter, nor has it superior cinematic elements that deserve appraisal from critics. Just like the previous two, it’s just – another hyped teen cult movie with a bunch of muscular guys and not so (oops...) handsome vampires, watched mostly by fanatical readers (and their boyfriends – or in my case, husband) to quench their infatuation towards Edward or Jacob. But guys, the movie couldn’t get any better than that! I mean, you should have blamed Stephenie Meyer for what you call a dreary movie, as the movie plot is exactly like the one in the book. Ok, with some deleted details, but it’s all based on the book.

The very essence of Twilight Saga, is an intense, transcreature love story, presented in stunningly appealing first-person point of view (and thus with a lot of monologues) despite the rather flat plotlines. So, if you find the movie boring, the blame should be administered to the author, instead of to the film maker. The movie couldn’t get any better! Tributes must be paid to scriptwriter Mellisa Rosenberg and director David Slade, who have done exquisite jobs for spicing up the movie with witty dialogues (“Everybody knows, I’m hotter than you,” is after all my favorite line.) and good special effects (especially the fighting scenes between the new-borns and allied forces of the Cullens and the werewolves).

What comes to my mind after watching Eclipse is: How are they going to set the mental fighting scene between the Volturi and Carlisle’s coven in Breaking Dawn without making it ridiculous? We Twilight Saga readers are deeply spellbound as our hearts throb hard reading the scene, but really, the last chapters of the fourth book is about mental fight scrupulously described in, again, Bella’s monologue. I doubt whether ‘the non-readers’ would actually get it. Let’s just see. As for the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing the movie again.

2nd half of Glee: so far dissapointing

I wish I could still write about all the amazing elements of this so-called cutting edge TV show Glee, but no, after watching episode 17, I've got to say that the show has lost its spark ever since the beginning of the 2nd half of the season! I understand Glee now has a big name and while stars are queuing up to ‘sell’ their songs for the show, the producers and writers of Glee are thrilled to add some sparkles to make the show even better. But again, NO! The plots now have become so detached from the core that an amateur like me could see how each music piece is forced to fit in the show, like a bunch of random mosaic pieces put together in all the wrong places.

Each episode seems to have a blurred focus with more and more Bollywood stuff to fill in each slot of "musicality". It is may be brilliant to unify the situations of the characters under one umbrella of the episode theme, but don't you think it's kinda lame (and ridiculous) when it's done over and over again? In my opinion, the worst episode so far is episode 15 "the Power of Madonna". What were they thinking, beginning the story with Sue's empowerment of Madonna and out of the blue Kurt and Mercedes teaming up to get her a Madonna make over? The video clip of Sue singing “Vogue” is so long, boring and meaningless I don't feel it's worth watching! To top all the bad things, what are the odds of the not-so-lucky-in-sex-department Emma, Rachel and Finn being virgins, all decided to be deflowered in one night and later in unison all three of them realized they were not ready for it? Too much a sacrifice for the sake of fitting "Like a Virgin" in the episode, and based on the characters that have been developed since the first episode, the scenes are just NOT plausible!

As if it wasn't enough, in episode 17 “Bad Reputation” Sue was once again obsessed with another diva Olivia Newton John and a similar scene was taken: Sue imitating Olivia Newton John singing "physical". Uugh, please, I've had enough of Sue in video clip, please! Glee needs to pick up soon! I think they should stick to the catchy, easy listening songs like the ones in the first half of the season, as they really picked up the mood of watching.

Potential problems the Glee kids might encounter in the forthcoming Regional and personal problems within New Directions would be nice to watch, but please... stop focusing things on Sue!

Vampires: a modern trend of idolisation

I‘ve just had a long chit-chat with my friend about our infatuation on vampires, and how the teenagers and young adult nowadays are dying to be bitten by century-old vampires Edward Cullen, Damon or Stefan Salvatore. Almost instantly, vampire books and movies became a new trend as the perspective towards vampires changed. The fictional creature vampires are no longer described as horrific but rather as mysterious, god-like, alluring beings. The writer behind this phenomenon is Stephenie Meyer, who was successful in transforming the image of vampire in her novels the Twilight Saga.












While being the first in describing vampires as sparkling and hard as marble, Twilight was not the first novel which illustrates modern depiction of vampires. At least two authors L.J Stine (Vampire Diaries) and Charlaine Harris (True Blood) had had their novels published long before Stephenie Meyer did, but Twilight got the most acknowledgments worldwide. The predecessors were later read - in my opinion - as the impact of the Twilight Hype, when people can’t get enough of Twilight and alternatively read other books in similar genre (or run to Twilight fanfics *grin..grin*). I was one of those people (yep, I did read fanfics), and now having watched two seasons of True Blood and half-season of Vampire Diaries, I was wondering what has made Twilight outshine the other two, any why the world is in Twilight fever but never in Vampire Diaries or True Blood fevers.

The three vampire stories: Twilight, True Blood and Vampire Diaries share similar theme of star-crossed love triangle, all of which described the leading roles as male vampires who are gorgeous and irresistible, who fell irrevocably and inexplicably in love with a human girl. I have to say that in comparison, Twilight has a rather simple plotline. The problems always revolve around vampire Edward and human Bella with little development on other characters (except werewolf Jacob who became Bella’s temporary love interest). This is probably because the author wrote it in first person’s point of view (Bella’s most of the time) and so being omniscient is quite unfeasible. However when it comes to the film-series and movies, both Vampire Diaries (being only in half-season and progressing) and True Blood (2nd season, so far) are a lot more interesting in some extent: the stories and the characters seem to be layered, each of which is revealed as a twist as the stories go.

So, while her plotline is relatively flat, Stephanie Meyer’s biggest success is perhaps in presenting the characters of Edward and Bella. This is proven significantly by the universal popularity of both Edward and Bella (and other characters as well), compared to the recognition of Stevan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert (Vampire Diaries), or Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood), whose characters were not renowned before the films were aired.

In one of her blog post The Hype of Twilight Saga, my Twilight-buddy Aini gave a scrupulous enlightenment on Edward and Bella. I do agree with her that Bella represents a big percentage of women around the world: plain, an outcast; and Edward is prince in shining armor, sweeping Bella from her dull life and promising an unconditional love for eternity. Edward is described as a flawless guy, besides his lacking of vampiric traits (no fangs, no monster face): out-of-this-worldly handsome, forever young, smart, rich, and committed only to one girl, Bella. The character Edward Cullen alone is described as if the author literally and intentionally shouted the traits of a perfect guy, and it echoed around the world. Hhm, how many women have lost their mind because of Edward Cullen?

Close the toilet lid when flushing!

Have you ever realized the importance of closing the toilet lid when you flush? Lots of people don’t. A close friend of mine once told me about the importance of closing down the lid but I never took it seriously, as it comes from the person who always overstresses in sanitation by bringing her own tissue and toilet-seat paper and gel-cleaner whenever she feels the urge to visit a public restroom. She claimed the bacteria could fly up to 6 meters, leaving the walls of the restroom full with the bacteria of our crap (including on the paper-toilet provided in the cubicle). Hmmm, she’s exaggerating, I once thought.

So, I did a little research on the net myself, and the result is quite surprising. In Mythbuster episode 12, it was proven that the toothbrushes hung everywhere in the bathroom are with specific bacteria found in our ‘disposal’. Ugh, gross! I just can’t imagine brushing my teeth with an extra ‘toilet ingredient’!

In this matter, it’s true then that hygiene begins from the bathroom. Health-freak might bombard himself with lots and lots of expensive vitamins and precautions to keep healthy, but might neglect the necessity of closing down the toilet lid. Come to think of it, why bother consuming tons of megavitamins if you’re sprinkled with mushrooms of toilet-germs at least three times a day!

I don’t know how accurate this experiment done by Mythbuster is, and many people claimed the germs should not be dangerous for human. But isn’t it something to brighten up your day to know you might actually live a healthier life (for free!) by doing an effort of closing down the toilet-lid? After all, closing down the toilet lid will leave you with lots of advantages. Apart from averting things dropping to the toilet (that's how my ex-student Vicky lost her cellphones - two times!), it’ll look prettier when the lid is closed, don’t you think? And in my case, it prevents Hazel drinking from toilet.

Woof! It's Hazel.

I was wondering if a dog could have autism, but if it could, then Hazel, our beloved Golden Retriever would be a perfect example. This five-year-old, one-balled adorable dog can turn into a Greek-hydra, having the time of his life decapitating all in his sight: balls, fish nets, slippers, you name it!

We all know that munching is a habit of a puppy, so I’ve found his way of expressing himself atypical. We had a professional dog-trainer train him when he was a year old, but little fruit can be seen now as the lessons seem to vaporize as he gets older. He understands the basic command ‘sit, down, sleep and stay’ and in many cases that is what you can expect from a dog. However, as a Golden Retriever, known as “pet with brain”, he’s quite a dim-wit. Well, munching being one of the many reasons. I wonder if it has anything to do with his being a one-testicle male. ;-) duh!

As an adult dog, he's often assumed as a one-year old, mostly by looking from his not so big bone structure and his lack of mane. His behavior doesn't help either: very hyperactive – a puppy character. He'll captivate everyone around him with his innocent cute Golden Retriever face, which I couldn't agree more, but again, looks can be deceiving. In this case, I think I'm one of the few people who can relate well to John Grogan, the author of Marley and Me. Marley was a wholesome, and Hazel is too: the attention seeker, very playful, ball-blaster Golden Retriever!

Putting all his misdemeanor would be an endless list. Maybe I should narrow it to what he did in this past week:
- stealing warm bakpaos (which were supposed to be our dinner) from the dining table in stealth mode
- drinking from our new fish aeration
- munching chocolate pie left-over from the coffee table
- lurking our koi fish and presumably swallowing a small one (as we found a fish scale in his mouth)
- snitching a sausage and fish from the kitchen table
- chewing a bundle of tissue from the bathroom
- blasting a neighbor's ball
- escaping from the window to another neighbor's house
- tearing two door mats to pieces

- scratching our livingroom floor with his gigantic paw nails (as a result of trying to dig a bone underneath, perhaps?)

As we live in a cluster-type neighborhood and so it's without a gate, we usually have him tied to a 40-kg block of cement in our garden. I'd love to see him unleashed at all time but unfortunately Hazel's wayward, fun-loving attitude made it impossible. He's easily distracted and will dash out of sight once he sees something interesting (that includes leaf falling from a neighbor's garden, cat passing or kid running). But, I really marvel at the power he possesses; he can drag the block of cement with him! There's this guy living in front of us, and he's always picking on our dog playfully, with a ball sometimes. Once Hazel chased him while being leashed, dragging the cement block to my neighbor's door for the chance of playing.

Like what Marley had done in John Grogan's life, Hazel has brought colors to our life; he's both a nuisance and blessing. He's may be a transformation of a hellish creature in a comical way, whose meal portion equals to that of five persons'. But for me and my husband, he's more than that. He's literally one of a kind son of a bitch, a happy-go-lucky furry friend who'd willingly serve himself as a living carpet and follow us whenever we're with food.

On the hindsight, the blame should not be put on him. Maybe this is the result of having lots of negligence since he was a puppy. He was originally my husband’s family’s dog and used to be put in the porch. He didn’t get many people to pet him, except my husband, who also spent limited time with him – after he got home from work. Now that he lives with us, we’ve been trying to make ‘talking to pet’ a habit, and have seen a good progress: when he comes to his senses, it’s really easy to communicate with him, though there are still times when he’s more than what we can handle. It’s frustrating for us and I know it’s also exasperating for him too, being talked in a stern way.

But then, how could you be really angry when he shows this face:

Assuming his hyperactivity is a gesture of attention seeking, I hope in the near future there’ll be time when it’s no longer impossible to put towels or food in his reach, without him trying to snatch it. Let it be soon, please..