The One That Gone Away

It was one hot night at Jakarta. I was just nearly arrive at some meeting spot to see my fellow academicus when my boyfriend told me this bad news.

His motorcycle was stolen that afternoon! I was like...WHAT?! ARE YOU OKAY, LOVE? WHY! HOW! Then when he told me he was okay, I suddenly feel more comfortable. Well, in Indonesia you should take those robbery-news seriously today. Why? I've seen so many many bad news in media, warning us, the citizen, about how cruel those thief this days to their victim these days.

Anyway, my boyfriend was safe and sound. It's just his motorcycle was gone. He was cool, I was not so cool. For me his motorcycle is one of our love artefacs. We share some funny memory with that bike. 

Its just such a pitty it has gone. Well hey, the thing is I had my boyfriend in okay-situation. It's priceless :) 

"The one that gone away", we will remember you at our memory 

Singaporean Kopi with Milk

I had a crush on coffee. I had a crush with them since I was like hmmm...well, 8 years old.
Blame my mother for my addiction to those black-bitter-heavenly drink, hehe

I was so into it "the real" coffee, not the one that we could by in any mini market. Yeah, I like "serious" coffee rather than the 1 minutes instant white coffee. Now I fell in love with singaporean signature coffee style. It is not so fancy like Indonesian coffee (like for example the Bolang Mongondow-North Sulawesi coffee or Balinese coffee or even the Papua coffee), but still the way they served it really makes me happy.

I usually ordered the Kopi with Milk. Nothing sophisticated, its just freshly grind robusta, more "tasty" than the western (or I should say the ordinary Starbucks-taste-like-coffee). People in western, as like my fellow lecturer told me, likes arabic type very much. Its more "light", less caffeine than this robusta one.

So then, Kopi with Milk become my fave because of :
1. It tasted like "real" coffee. I mean it still use sugar and condensced milk, but still I feel it strong.
2. I like to see how the barista made it. And likes the smell of the coffee brew hmmmmm
3. I like to drink it in gloomy day. Its just so right drinking this Kopi with Milk in such weather hehe

This picture taken in Jakarta. I was surprised I found some simple singaporean style coffee here. Its really a nice place, they served signature singaporean food, and its yummy :)

Have a wonderful sunday, people :)

Life For Shopping

John Fiske, seorang pakar komunikasi yang bukunya banyak dikutip mahasiswa strata satu maupun pasca sarjana dan doktoral, suatu hari pernah terkaget-kaget ketika berkunjung ke Australia. Seperti yang dituturkan oleh John Storey (sama-sama John, dan mengkaji bidang yang mirip pula), Mr. Fiske ini agaknya tergaket-kaget ketika memasuki sebuah toko kado. Entah menurut saya Storey kelewat berlebihan dalam menuturkan kejadian ini. Karena ternyata adegannya adalah Mr. Fiske yang terhormat menemukan sebuah kartu ucapan yang tulisannya seperti ini, "Bekerja untuk hidup, Hidup untuk Cinta, dan Cinta untuk belanja, maka jika saya tidak membeli cukup barang, saya tidak perlu bekerja untuk cinta lagi".

Perlu dicatat, Fiske adalah seseorang yang kritis dalam menyikapi pelbagai perkembangan pop culture. Penelitiannya beberapa menggunakan pendekatan semiotika untuk membongkar makna di balik pesan yang ditampilkan oleh budaya populer. Secara samar-samar melalui kartu ucapan ini, Fiske ingin menyampaikan "lihat apa yang telah dilakukan oleh ideologi konsumerisme pada kita!"

Namun, seorang filsuf, antroplog, sekaligus sosiolog (yang menurut saya memiliki wajah khas pria tampan Perancis) Piere Bourdieu (1984) mencoba untuk memberikan argumen dari Fiske. Singkatnya meurut Monsieur Bourdieu, lifestyle adalah sebuah pertarungan kelas. Secara sadar dan tidak sadar ideologi konsumerisme ini telah melegitimasi perbedaan-perbedaan sosial. Lifestyle digunakan oleh kelas dominan untuk memastikan reproduksi budaya itu terus berlangsung.

Bourdieu tidak ingin membuktikan apa yang sudah jelas, seperti misalnya setiap kelas sosial pasti memiliki lifestyle yang berbeda. Tapi dalam pemikirannya tentang kelas sosial ini Bourdieu ingin meneliti tentang proses yang menjadikan manusia dikotak-kotakkan, melalui budaya. Walaupun semuanya bersifat ekonomi, tapi ia percaya bahwa budaya lah yang menjadi "agen"-nya.

Bingung? Mudahnya begini saja, coba ingat-ingat kembali film-film remaja yang pernah Anda tonton. Film Hollywood maupun Indonesia, keduanya selalu menampilan popular gank, nerdy, the most sexy girl, the most loser dan sebagainya. Perhatikan bagaimana mereka di representasikan di dalam film. Well, ini baru di film, contoh lainnya masih banyak :D

What will I do in my Life

will going there someday somehow :D

Kiss kiss bang bang

I like my hair cut, but i just want something new. So I decided to cut my hair just like 3 cm, the same style, with new trap. Then, I add some new things, I had a new bangs hehe :)

So, since the class is officially on holiday, I dare myself to cut off my bangs. I once has this kind a style, back then in high school and my first year at university.

Oh, the office mates called me "Ling ling" as I entered the room. I'm just like some chinese girl LOL

5 Human's Ego

I'm not an acting or performing person, but the chance to join a three days workshop with namely famous acting coach like Margie Haber is really thrill me. So here come Paru, my new account executive for Hers Magazine. He was persuaded me to join this class or I must say to cover this event, and having interview with Margie herself. FYI, she is the number one acting coach on Hollywood, have been teaching acting for like 20 more than years of her life. She also making Brad Pitt from zero to superstar as well as Halle Berry.

So there I go on the night before the event, sitting on a bar chair in hotel's pastry lounge waiting my chance to chit-chat with Margie. I was like cannot control my nerves, I just can't believe I'll talk with the one who teach Brad Pitt Acting! To make it short, I'm having like 45 minutes chit-chat, talking about her career, my career, the relationship between those acting-technique and the basic communication. Then my conclusion is this person is totally charming.

On the first day, I was like really exiting. Having my best friend Upeh accompany me and making new friends with the other participant it makes me feel exited. Mostly the one who joined this workshop is genuine Indonesian artist, famous movie star, famous writer, famous singer, famous radio announcer (well, these guy is actually on my side, THE MEDIA PEOPLE) and others who has a great passion on acting.

Me and Upeh was like, sitting there, analyzing the situation, making friend and so on. For me is a good opportunity to learning the other way of communication. Then Margie told us about this 5 human's ego. This ego or we must a voice inside our brain, is very natural. Everyone has it. The problem is sometimes we do not understand our ego.

Here the 5 human's ego:
1. Critical Parents
You hated when your parents worries about you all the time. You hate being treated as a baby? Well, your parents play a critical voice. Always worries all the time.

2. Nurturing Parents
Your parents worry about you but they give you a chance and put a trust on you. They let you do extreme sport, but they also tell you what they feel I you hang on that robe doing bungee jumping from 50 meter building. So that what we call it as a nurturing voice

3. Fearful Child
Doesn't has any guts to do anything. Always worries about what people think about you. That is fearful child!

4. Playful Child
Likes to do anything without thinking. Never worries about what people says about you. Feel confidence anytime anywhere you go.

5. Adult Voice
Has an equal size of fearful and playful.

Where am I? I have the fearful child equal to playful. I think what I need to improve is the adult voice and the nurturing parents to make it balance.

So what are you?

Me and Gracia Simmone

Siapakah Mba Gracia Simmone ini? Dia adalah tokoh fiktif hasil karangan si nona kumis alis nunu designer baru di media tempat saya bernaung saat ini. Saya meminta dia menjadi narasumber rubrik opini bertajuk Let's Talk. Edisi kali ini membahas tentang pegalaman romantis yang pernah dialami pembaca di saat liburan (musim panas) tentunya.

Disaat saya sedang bingung dan gundah gulana mencari-cari siapakah teman yang mau dijadikan "korban" si Nunu menawarkan diri dengan antusias. "Gue ajah bud!", ujarnya lantang setengah membelalak.

"Okeh boleh marii. Ceritanya gue tulis dengan indah deh. Mana sini foto lu", ujar saya mulai sumringah. Nunu dengan segera mengajak saya mengubek-ngubek isi folder foto dirinya di halaman facebook. Saya bantu memilih dan si Nunu pun akur dengan pilihan saya.

Setelah tulisan rampung dan foto siap tayang, Nunu yang sudah me-layout halaman itu dengan cantik berujar, "Eh nama gua ganti yak, biar lain dari biasanya. Sama pekerjaan juga ah gw mau jadi fashion stylist. Jadi biar makin ciamik nama nya gw ganti yak jadi Gracia Simmone".

Saya : "Hehh??"
Adit yang duduk disebelah saya : "Gracia Chusnul ajahh nuu" (secara memang Nunu punya nama aseli Siti Chusnul)
Nunu: "Ah kaga ah Gracia Simmone, 25 tahun, Fashion Stylist.Itu aja keren banget gak guaa"
Saya & adit: "Suka-suka elu dah ...." (^_^)#