Have a Little Walk

Move Out

2008-07-25T20:37:00.001-07:00

I've moved out to amirahkaca.wordpress.com

so please come and visit!

Bilangan Fu

2008-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

Finally, a new book by Ayu Utami is out. As a fan of her previous works (Saman & Larung). I couldn't be any more excited than this. I bought the book "Bilangan Fu" in Toga Mas and finished it in less than one day. Surely it was engaging but reading "Bilangan Fu " is more like reading Dewi "Dee" Lestari than reading Ayu Utami. I guess, "Bilangan Fu" is a bit more "pop" than Saman or Larung and it concentrate more on youthful self-fulfilling ambitions. Not only that, Ayu Utami put less politics and more spiritualism in this book. Another hint is, the book criticize propaganda monotheism and give support to Easter beliefs. No wonder it sounds like Akar by Dewi Lestari.
Well the point is, I like Saman & Larung much better than this new book. Saman is so much thinnerbut for me it contains a world many times bigger than the one contained in Bilangan Fu. However, still worth reading.

Attraction

2008-07-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Di Pagelaran LSS 2008,
Tari rakyat bubuka: penari jadi centil.
Tari menak bubuka: penari tampak anggun.
Tari Kandagan: penari berlagak gagah.
Tari Jaipongan Bentang Timur: penari terlihat menggoda!!!
That shows how women can be attractive in many ways..

(Jadi kangen masa-masa latihan nari & persiapan pagelaran LSS 2008 kemaren..hix.. Glad and sad it's over at the same time)

Rosaline

2008-05-13T17:24:00.000-07:00

"Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?" - Act I Scene I (Romeo & Juliet)

Romeo was in love, not with Juliet, but with Rosaline, his unrequited love.

At the first time, Romeo saw Rosaline as "The all-seeing sun / ne'er saw her match since first the world begun." but soon after she was replaced by "Did my heart love 'til now? Forswear it, sight / For I ne'er saw true beauty 'til this night." Romeo's love for her was short. She was forgotten. Romeo forgot Rosaline just as fast and as easy as he fell in love for Juliet.

Just after one second, Juliet became the dove and Rosaline turned into one of the crows and her name is only appeared in the later petrachan sonnets only to be compared to Juliet. Romeo was like an animist who is awed by the bright light of sun and turned his back after worshiping the moon in the night.

As the forgotten, Rosaline just sat in the dark side of Romeo's heart with her faint soft glow, just like the moon. Was she sad when she was forgotten? Did she regret being forgotten? Did she know she was forgotten? Did she really become "the pale and envious moon" killed by the "fair sun"? She was no longer the rose, because "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", even if the rose was named Juliet.

Maybe she was indeed lucky that she remained chaste and profoundly proud. At least she wasn't a foolish lover or didn't die in a dim manner or wasn't a part of tangled stupidity. She was lucky, because she avoided love and she ran away from it.. Maybe she was lucky to be forgotten...

Goodbye Mocca!!!

2008-04-26T18:35:00.001-07:00

I am writing this as I cry right now.. Why? Because my dearly beloved bunny Mocca died this morning. I remembered the first time we got her, Mum & Dad bought her when she was 2 months old. She was the most gorgeous bunny I've ever seen with its fluffy mocha-coloured fur (that's why I said we should name her Mocca!!!). Unlike Bon-bon who has been with us for quite a while, at first Mocca was scared to be patted and touched. She used to keep running away if anyone coming near her but as time goes by she has learn to trust us. She wasn't scared anymore to be touched or to be patted, she jumped on my lap to beg for food or jumped onto the bed I was sleeping on.
Lately I have been busy lately so I haven't spent much time with Mocca and Bon-Bon. This morning I found Mocca dead!!!
I felt so hurt with the death because I thought I loved this bunny but in practice I did not. If I loved Mocca, I was supposed to take care of her, I supposed to look after her and I did not. Maybe my love for this animal was utterly bullshit. Love doesn't only consist of feeling, it consist action. I consist of how far you will go or how much you will do for someone or something. In loving a rabbit, I have failed, how can I love any other?

Over

2008-04-20T02:32:00.000-07:00

Still not over...

Tentang Saya

2008-04-13T01:42:00.001-07:00

Nama saya Kaca. Kebanyakan orang memang menemukan nama saya unik, tidak biasa, dan setiap orang memiliki respon mereka masing-masing. Sebagian tercengang atau kebingungan, sebagian tertawa dengan nada tidak percaya, sebagian memuji. Apapun yang terjadi, selama hidup saya, hubungan antara saya dan nama saya memang dapat dikatakan ‘a love-hate relationship’. Saat saya kecil, saya sering sebal karena nama saya sering dijadikan candaan tetapi sekarang saya malah bersyukur dan menganggap nama saya suatu berkah. Nama ‘Kaca’ selalu gampang diingat dan sulit dilupakan kebanyakan orang.

Saya lahir pada jam 11.25 tanggal 28 Februari 1989 di kota Bandung. Saya diberi nama Amirah Kaca yang merupakan hasil kolaborasi ide antara Kakek, Nenek, Ibu dan Ayah saya. Ayah saya adalah orang paling optimis yang berprinsip dasar joie de vivre. Ibu saya, sebaliknya, adalah seseorang yang reaktif dan gampang khawatir tetapi meskipun begitu beliau adalah seseorang yang telah mencapai banyak hal (over-achiever). Saya memiliki tiga adik perempuan yang membuat persaudaraan kami seperti cerita “Little Women” yang ditulis oleh Louisa May Allcott. Keluarga kami juga memiliki ‘anggota tambahan’, yaitu dua ekor kelinci bernama Bon-Bon dan Mocca, serta satu akuarium yang diisi oleh banyak ikan air tawar (karena banyak dan kecil-kecil tidak ada satupun dari ikan tersebut yang diberi nama).

Saya melewati masa-masa Taman Kanak-Kanak (TK) dan Sekolah Dasar (SD) seperti kebanyakan anak-anak lainnya. Saya juga melewati Sekolah Menengah Pertama (SMP) seperti remaja lainnya. Namun saya merasa bahwa hidup saya baru dimulai dan karakter saya mulai berkembang saat saya pindah untuk tinggal di Adelaide, Australia Selatan pada umur tiga belas tahun. Pindah untuk tinggal di benua lain, di negara lain yang sangat berbeda dengan Indonesia merupakan pembelajaran saya tentang hidup yang paling pertama.

Dengan tinggal di Adelaide, saya mendapatkan banyak pengalaman berharga yang tidak bisa ditukarkan dengan apapun. Saat saya baru pindah, saya masuk ke sebuah sekolah internasional bernama “Adelaide Secondary School of English”. Untuk dapat berada di sebuah sekolah internasional dimana semua ras dan kebangsaan berbaur membuka mata saya dan mengenalkan saya kepada dunia yang baru. Selain mendapatkan kemampuan untuk mengucapkan “Halo, apa kabar?” dalam lebih dua puluh bahasa, saya dapat memahami secara langsung kultur-kultur negara lain yang sebelumnya tidak dapat saya bayangkan. Saya belajar banyak dari teman-teman pengungsi dari Sudan maupun Bosnia yang pindah sejauh mungkin untuk kembali membangun hidup setelah meninggalkan peristiwa menyakitkan yang terjadi di negara asal mereka atau dari banyak teman-teman imigran yang oran tuanya beradu nasib untuk mendapatkan hidup yang lebih baik dari sebelumnya. Setelah setengah tahun, saya pindah sekolah ke “Aberfoyle Park High School” yang merupakan sekolah mainstream yang terletak di suburb kawasan Selatan. Meskipun sekolah ini tidak memiliki keanekaragaman kultur dan kebangsaan (kebanyakan muridnya adalah warga Australia asli), saya merasa sangat senang berada disana karena saya dapat berbagi banyak tentang kultur Indonesia dengan banyak teman-teman sekolah dan membuat mereka tertarik dengan Indonesia.

Pada umur lima belas tahun, saya memulai pekerjaan saya yang pertama. Saya bekerja untuk Peregrine Corporation, sebuah perusahaan franchise yang mengelola banyak pom bensin beserta food-court. Untuk hampir satu tahun, saya bekerja paruh waktu sebagai shop-assistant yang harus melayani pembeli dengan ramah dan senyum yang hangat setiap saat dari belakang counter dan mesin kasir. Di tempat kerja, saya belajar banyak tentang kerja keras dan kedisiplinan. Selain itu saya membentuk banyak pertemanan baru sembari bekerja, tidak hanya dengan sesama rekan kerja tetapi juga dengan para pelanggan yang sering saya layani. Saya bekerja secara loyal dengan Peregrine Corporation selama hampir satu tahun lalu saya memutuskan untuk mencari pekerjaan baru dengan maksud untuk mengembangkan diri lebih jauh. Setelah melewati beberapa tahap interview, saya akhirnya diterima sebagai retail team-member di sebuah franchise Boost Juice-Bar. Boost Juice Bar merupakan suatu tempat kerja yang hip, keren, dan menyenangkan karena suasana kerja dibuat kasual dan tidak formal. Di Boost Juice Bar saya lebih banyak tidak hanya tentang team-work dan kerja sama tetapi juga tentang bagaimana menciptakan lingkungan kerja yang efektif dan efisien.

Empat tahun hidup saya dijalani di Australia dan selama empat tahun itu saya merasa saya berkembang secara pesat. Meskipun pada awalnya saya kurang suka ide untuk kembali ke Indonesia, ternyata segala keraguan dan ketakutan saya jauh lebih kecil dibandingkan rasa kehilangan saya akan tanah air. Saya pun meninggalkan satu kehidupan yang untuk membangun kembali satu yang baru di tempat yang pernah saya tinggalkan. Saya kembali pada bulan Desember 2005 dan hanya memiliki enam bulan untuk persiapan SPMB. Pada awalnya saya merasa kesusahan karena pelajaran yang saya pelajari di Australia memiliki standar yang jauh lebih mudah dibandingkan materi-materi pelajaran di kurikulum Indonesia. Saat itu hanya enam bulan waktu yang tersisa dan saya belum belajar tentang integral dan sebagian besar materi fisika belum saya dapat, belum lagi materi tentang Bahasa Indonesia yang sudah terlupakan. Terkadang saya menyesali kepulangan saya ke Indonesia tetapi untungnya saya tidak menyerah sehingga saya bisa mengejar berbagai macam ketinggalan hingga akhirnya berhasil masuk program studi Teknik Industri ITB.

Saya adalah seseorang yang benar-benar percaya bahwa buku adalah lebih dari sekumpulan kertas-kertas karena buku memiliki pemikiran yang hidup; yang tertera di halaman-halaman. Karena itu saya merasa bahwa filosofi dan tujuan hidup saya berkaitan erat dengan buku-buku yang saya baca. Salah satu buku yang sangat mempengaruhi saya adalah Toto-Chan. Pertama kali saya membaca Toto-Chan adalah saat saya berumur delapan atau sembilan tahun. Toto-Chan bercerita tentang seorang anak perempuan Jepang yang nakal di sebuah sekolah yang sangat spesial karena sekolah yang baru ini mengajarkan banyak hal sederhana tentang kehidupan dan kebaikan yang seringkali terabaikan oleh kebanyakan sekolah yang berpatok pada kurikulum pendidikan standar. Toto-Chan merupakan suatu kisah nyata saat sang penulis (Tetsuko Kuroyagi) masih kanak-kanak pada masa Perang Dunia ke dua. Hal-hal yang Toto-Chan pelajari tentang kejujuran, kebaikan dan toleransi seperti yang dituliskan di buku merupakan sesuatu yang juga saya resapi saat saya membacanya. Hal-hal tersebut masih saya ingat sampai sekarang. Selain Toto-Chan, buku yang sangat influensial dalam hidup saya adalah “To Kill a Mockingbird” oleh Harper Lee. Buku ini adalah salah satu pemenang Putlizer Award dan saya rasa merupakan buku yang harus dibaca setiap orang setidaknya sekali dalam hidupnya. “To Kill a Mockingbird” bercerita tentang bagaimana ketidakadilan terjadi pada kaum kulit hitam Amerika pada tahun 1936 di negara bagian Alabama. Buku ini sangat menyayat hati karena akhirnya yang tragis dan ironis. Ceritanya selalu mengingatkan saya akan prinsip-prinsip keadilan, kemanusiaan, serta toleransi. Satu kalimat bijak yang saya selalu ingat dari buku ini adalah, “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them!”

Saya memiliki cita-cita yang sangat global, yaitu “world peace” atau perdamaian dunia. Mungkin memang terdengar sedikit bodoh dan dangkal seperti yang terlihat di film komedi “Miss Congeniality”. Akan tetapi saya percaya bahwa “world peace” bukanlah suatu cita-cita yang bodoh, karena tidak ada yang lebih baik di dunia ini dari ketentraman, kebahagiaan, dan kesejahteraan bagi seluruh umat manusia. Memang tidak ada seseorang pun yang dapat mengubah seluruh dunia, tetapi satu orang tentu dapat mengubah suatu bagian dari dunia. Sampai saat ini saya masih memperjuangkan harapan masa kecil saya yaitu untuk membuat dunia ini tempat yang lebih baik . Bukankah semua orang juga ingin melakukan hal yang serupa?

Essay diatas sebenarnya ditulis sebagai salah satu persyaratan untuk mencalonkan diri menjadi senator. Kata teman-teman saya, membaca tulisan diatas seperti membaca chick-lit (karena sebenarnya tulisan diatas pertama-tama ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris baru di-translate). Ada juga yang bilang lebih persis seperti application essay untuk Miss Indonesia atau beauty pageant daripada essay pencalonan diri senator (mungkin karena embel-embel world peace-nya). Tapi semua orang berkata bahwa "This essay is you, Kaca!". So this is me, and this is the way I am :)

Missing Mobile

2007-12-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

Maybe some of you have tried sending a message to my phone or even try to call me in the few last days and failed. I have lost my phones, both of them. My lovely Palm Treo 650 and my Nokia which I use for my CDMA (fren) number are both gone in the hand of a stealer. The story is pretty interesting really, coz I lost my phones in my car. The story started when I hit a motorbike or a motorbike hit me. The car and the motorbike was actually alright, but it's just in my nature to panic like crazy. I got out of the car and the person was like yelling and telling me off and there was this person who just got into our conversation as well. I was soo panic and almost burst out in tears. The motorbike was alright and my car was alright too. Both of the people who talked to me went and I was on my way to go too. Suddenly, I realised that my phone went missing and burst out in tears again (crybaby!!! =P). I went back home.. and cried my heart out.
My Mum said everyone has to lose a mobile phone once in a while because it's just everywhere and phone-stealers just keep getting better and better in their way of stealing so sometimes we just can't avoid them. She continued with her old usual saying of "It's okay as long as you are safe.." (That's what she always say everytime I put scratch or bump or do anything to ruin my Honda Jazz). On the other hand, my Dad told me off for hasn't been synchronizing my data for such a long time. "What's the point of having a PDA if you don't synchronize it regularly!," he said.
Letting my Palm Treo go is sad but reliefing in the same time. It is sad just like a goodbye with an old friend that you know you will never meet again. It's true that my Palm Treo has been the witness of everything I did for the past one year. I never have to delete any single message I recieved since I got it and it has records of everything I did for the past one year. It has more data than my laptop.
On the other hand, losing a phone is nice if you really think about it. I realised before losing my phone I always get annoyed with phone calls or messages and yes I almost got in some point when I feel like throwing my phone away. I used to put my mobile away in a drawer or just simply do not reply messages or do not answer phonecalls if I don't feel like it but I don't do that anymore because I consider it as a dishonest act. If I don't feel like answering someone's call, I should have just answer it and say that I don't feel like talking to you, but of course I don't have the heart to say that. The conclusion is that losing my phone is like a way of get the hell of those messages and phone calls without feeling guilty. It's also reliefing because it's like you drop your past. Whatever happened in the past just go and you will start a new time where you rebuild your life and network.
Those are my story, and today my time of missing mobile has ended. My Mum bought my dream mobile phone which is the lucious red Palm 680, therefore her old Palm650 (which is exactly the same type as my old mobile) belongs to me and I already got the same Nokia phone for my Fren number. Both of them are active now. Anyone is welcome to contact me again. It's time to rebuild life and network for me.

Printing 3200 Photos

2007-10-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (09/09/2007) I spent almost 7 hours in the "Seni Abadi" photo studio which is a small (not exactly small, but smaller than Jonas) located in the corner of Jl. Merdeka and Jl.... (I forgot) and next to the railway. Let's follow my day chronologically:

I came to the photo studio at about 12 pm, sat down at the digital photo section which was on the left of the entrance door, talked to a smiling lady who welcomed me right away and asked her how much is it to print some picture. She told me that it was Rp.800 for each 3R (postcard) photo printed. I asked her to give me at a lower rate. She insisted that she couldn't give a lower price, still with a smiling face, and said they only give lower price to special customers.

"I will print more than 1000 photos.", I told her.

She paused and get the manager right away.

After a negotiation with the manager of the store, I got the price that I wanted... Firstly he gave me Rp.750,00, I asked for less.. He then give me Rp.600,00, I asked for Rp.500,00... and it was a deal right away.. =D

My job doesn't stop there, because in my laptop I have so many photos that my Dad asked me to print, and they weren't sorted. My next job was to sort out those pictures. It was meant to be really a tedious job staring staring at the computer screen for that long time, along with one of the staff there, sorting out the photos like deleting blurred ones and fixing red eyes and choosing each ones, but it wasn't really. I got to have some flashbacks of "my life with my family" for the past four years and realising that my Dad SLR camera actually came into use (I kept thinking Daddy bought that thousand dollar SLR camera to look cool because he doesn't knows much about photography - sorry Dad =P). I got to laugh together with the staff seeing my sisters making funny faces camera and had fun sharing stories about our family holiday skiing at Mt.Buller, Melbourne and my parents' "2nd honeymoon" in Cambodia & Bangkok (in which they didn't get any of us to come, sight), and the renovating of my grandmother's house in a village at Klaten, and so on. Hours passed with a headache and hurting eyes for staring at the computer screen for song long and lots of fun.

I am glad finally about my Dad's little obsession on documenting events. We sometimes get embarassed when our Dad kept insisting to stop and take photos so often on so many occassions, but hey it's all worth it. Seeing those photos again make me tremendously happy to feel all the memories of what we had been through this time and realise how precious all those time we spent together (even though I somehow get irritated to realise how hideous I used to look 4 years ago).

One time my Dad asked me and Amanda (my sister), "If the house burnt down, what would you save first?"

We answered, "Money, passport, important documents, expensive electronics etc etc"

Then my Dad said, " No, what you are supposed to save first are photos and other products of memories. Money you can regain, Important documents you can remake, expensive electronics you can rebuy. However, photos and other things with a value that cannot be found anywhere else cannot be regain.."

Fair enough, now I remember what to save fist when our house is on fire: My postcard and letter collection from friends, scrapbook made by my Aussie friends along with other albums, last not least the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" ( I will want to save the whole shelves if possible though)

Finally, a blog

2007-10-09T04:05:00.000-07:00

My first posting in this blog... LOL

So exciting...

For all this time, everytime I feel like writing something I could only make use of my friendster blog akacas.blogs.friendster.com/histrionic but I guess it isn't as cooler as this XD

Why is the name "The Sweet Lil Journey U Have to Accompany Me Along"?

The answer is I don't really know, I wasn't preparing the blog's name before doing the registration so when I came into the p my mind was going, "Give me a good blog name pronto!!!" and voila that was the first thing that came into my mind..

I will write later, maybe not so often, and maybe not many of you are reading this but well... Try to read, and accompany me on my sweet lil journey in this world...