destiny May 26, 2012

Do you believe in destiny?

I just watched Serendipity last night – I know it’s late, but I remember watching it several years ago and didn’t like it. The word means “fortunate accident”, which points closely to destiny. And yes, Sara [Kate Beckinsale], the girl in the movie, believes in destiny. So when she met Jonathan [John Cusack], she tested themselves in order to prove that they’re destined to be together. Of course, as always happened in a romance movie, they are destined.

Serendipity

I believe in destiny myself, but I just don’t believe that everything will come to me by itself. Trust me, even though we are fated to be successful in an exam, for example, we won’t that easily succeed without any effort – study, in short. Everything that happened to us must both be fated *that is, we get by believing in it* and hard-worked on. Ora et labora. Pray and work.

Anyway, quite a good movie to watch on a cold Friday night.

Have a nice weekend!

The Proposal Brother May 23, 2012

Based on the recommendation of Analia – my good friend since junior high – I watched this Japanese dorama titled “Propose Kyodai” or “The Proposal Brother” [and fell in love once again with Japanese series - way more efficient than Korean dramas]. The story is about 3 brothers and 1 cousin raised in a family proposing their wives. It focuses on how different order of birth (the cousin is an only child) influences their behaviours. Interesting~ [I've brought up this order-of-birth topic a long time ago]

Here are the gist:

1. The eldest child. As someone who is always relied upon by the whole family, the eldest child will usually become a responsible person who cannot let anyone who asks for help down. This applies to Yamato Ichiro [Sato Ryuta], the eldest son who runs the family business after their father decides to retire to go on around-the-world tour with his wife. Ichiro then always focuses on how to keep the customers happy, instead of thinking about his own happiness.
2. The middle child. This is the child whom even the parents often forget. Even though they say they always love their children equally, the middle child always feel that the parents are lying. They always rely and are proud of the eldest child, while nurturing the youngest one. Thus, the middle child tends to become someone who doesn’t like conflict, because he’s afraid of being rejected. Yamato Jiro [Koike Teppei], the middle son who works in a huge advertising company, is always afraid of getting into a competition. He becomes indifferent in all things, including love.
3. The youngest child. Everyone in the family does things for him, making him a crybaby and irresponsible person. He lies a lot, but his family don’t care, even though they know every lie he said. This becomes a problem, however, when he’s mature enough to work and he doesn’t want to because he always feels like a child. Yamato Saburo [Nakamura Aoi], the youngest son has these traits.
4. The only child. Being the only child in the family, Tanaka Kazuo [Ito Atsushi] didn’t have to share anything with other people. That is why he tends to avoid conflicts and prefers to be alone in doing everything. He doesn’t like his space to be invaded by others and he does things in his own way.

Kazuo’s wedding – visit DramaCrazy.net to watch Asian series

In the end, all the characters, apart from Jiro who seems indifferent even when it comes to picking up girls, got married to the girls of their opposite – Ichiro to a clumsy girl, Saburo to a mature and caring girl, and Kazuo to a girl who comes from a big family.

With only 4 episodes with 37-38 minutes each, this series is worth watching. You can laugh while keep nodding at the traits during the episodes.

textbook romance May 18, 2012

I went to this bookstore last week and found an interesting book which I haven’t bought yet. The book is titled “Textbook Romance” from the author Zoe Foster and Hamish Blake. The tagline is “how to get a guy”, so the book is definitely for female readers.

I always like reading books about romance, occasionally. I’ve read “Why men don’t listen and women can’t read maps”, “Why men marry bitches?” and “He’s just not that into you”. Even though the most popular is the last one, I like the second one better. Sometimes they just point out obvious things, but it’s always interesting to get to know guys better [and how different they are to women].

Textbook Romance by Zoe Foster

Back to topic, I was totally “locked” when I first saw the book, but I just didn’t buy it because it’s expensive. I will definitely buy the book after I save some money. I read some first pages of the book and it’s really interesting [the comments are a bit annoying, though, being in the margin and so on..]. Every time I’m about to buy a book, I always read some first pages to get to know the storytelling style of the author. If I like it, then I’ll definitely buy it [sooner or later]. Some authors just have this complicated style that I don’t like. I read books for my relax time and not for something serious. I read textbooks for uni and that’s my serious reading.

Anyone read the book yet? This book was published in 2008 [I Googled ].

shy May 17, 2012

I’m not a love guru or anything, but I just can’t stand seeing a very shy guy. I’m watching a Korean drama right now *yes, new series again * where the main character was this very shy guy that he couldn’t even tell his best friend face to face that he likes the girl his best friend likes. I’m going to tell the drama review later as I’m currently fighting myself not to strike my own laptop seeing this guy’s shyness. Wish me luck! ;P

“All is fair in love and war.” – There is something right here. In this guy’s case, I think he should’ve told his friend that he likes the girl too! A guy is supposed to be a “hunter” when it comes to love, so he has to fight for it instead of just give up to the condition. I’m someone who believe that shyness is the attribute of a girl and not of a guy.

The setting was in 1970s, though.. I dunno whether it’s normal those days to be a shy guy. There are things to be kept in your heart and there are things that should be spoken out.

interviews May 11, 2012

It just came up to me that I’d have to go through all the recruitment process once again *the job-hunting-long one* when one company I applied for called earlier. I wasn’t really prepared to do the interview, resulted in me stuttering and lost for words.

I’m never good in all interview sessions, but I might be even worse now. I forgot how to speak Indonesian formally, especially because I expected it was a call from one English-speaking fellow. Well, I must prepare.

Wish me luck, guys!

Personal Taste May 10, 2012

I’ve just finished watching “Personal Taste”, or also known as “Personal Reference” and “Kae Mi’s Taste”. Out of all the Korean dramas I’ve watched in the last 6 months [including "Secret Garden", "My Girlfriend is a Gumiho", and "49 Days"], this one is the best IMO.

Personal Taste

The story starts with an unwanted meeting between the two main characters, Park Gae Mi [Son Ye Jin] and Jeon Jin Ho [Lee Min Ho], where [of course, typically] they seem to hate each other so much because of this and that. The story goes on with Jin Ho pretending to be gay in order to be able to be a tenant in a vacant room in Gae Mi’s house. The reality was that Jin Ho’s firm was up for a tender, he was looking for an inspiration from Gae Mi’s father’s [who appears to be the "guru" of architecture] masterpiece, his house. They started to love each other after Jin Ho revealed that he’s not gay. The ups and downs of the relationship were a bit forced in the story that I got tired of it. (-__-”)

Some love scenes from Personal Taste <3

Talking about dramas will not be complete without the presence of the supporting and mean characters. Here Jin Ho has his “hyung”, No Sang Joon [Jung Sung Hwa], and Gae Mi has her best friend, Lee Young Seon [Jo Eun Ji], who always support them no matter what. There are also Han Chang Ryul [Kim Ji Suk], who dated with Gae Mi up until the day before his cancelled wedding with Gae Mi’s once housemate and friend, Kim In Hee [Wang Ji Hye]. Not to forget Director Choi Do Bin [Ryu Seung Ryong] who is always very nice to both of them. Unlike any other dramas, though, the antagonists are not so mean you want to kill them – here they are not that strong in characters. There were moments you felt like slapping the b*tch In Hee was, but that’s all. No desire to kill her. LOL.

Main characters of Personal Taste *the one on the left is Tae Hoon, Jin Ho’s employee at the firm

However, as many series’ and movies’ problems, the ending was a bit disappointing. They focused too much on the main character’s love story that they make all the other characters ended up with one another without further explanations.

With a total of 16 episodes with 64 minutes each, this drama is quite a good one to watch *but remember, prepare for the disappointing ending*.

updates May 9, 2012

Every little thing in life needs update every once in a while, don’t you think?

A blog like this needs to be updated by the writer *in my case, who occasionally got too tired with life she doesn’t have time to update her blog*, a friend needs to hear updates about what happened with other friends, a software needs to be updated to newer version to keep it running well, even Facebook updates its layout every once in a while *which sometimes is hard to accept*..

In life, people grow as the time passes by. The one thing we can do to make life worthy is by updating ourselves. The simplest example is to remember to always take the house keys with you every time you go out after you left it on your desk at home one day. We learn from yesterday, update ourselves today and keep updating for a better tomorrow. Sometimes it sucks but we have to deal with it, and the process of update is what makes you more mature each and every day.

Good night!
*I love Wednesday. I always do. *

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge May 5, 2012

Hi All! It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy with uni and other stuff while I was out of uni. I’m currently watching a Korean dorama named “Personal Taste” or “Personal Preference”, but I’m gonna tell you about it later.

Before watching it, I watched a Japanese dorama called “Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge”. It’s actually a dorama from 2010, but I just got the time to watch it last week [and practically couldn't stop until I finished all 10 episodes]. The dorama is based on a manga [Japanese comics] with the same title – or “Perfect Girl Evolution”, as it was translated to English. I read the manga, of course, and was a bit upset with the ending, but the dorama was a bit better.

Just like any other manga-based dorama, this one was about a group of cute boys [that are chased by girls] living together in a boarding house. The landlady left the house a lot that she asked her niece to look over the house for her. As for the boys, she promised that she will waive their rent until they graduate [they were all college students - while in the manga, they were high school students] if they can turn her niece into a “yamato nadeshiko” [a lady]. They agreed to the condition without knowing that Sunako Nakahara [the landlady's niece] was a weird girl who really likes horror and always sees other people as “bright creatures”.

The characters from the dorama are:

1. Nakahara Sunako [Oomasa Aya] – unlike what have been told in the manga, in this dorama Sunako really transformed to a more feminine figure at the end of the series. I like her character because she’s funny but mature – regardless of her strange hobby of collecting horror stuff.
2. Takano Kyohei [Kamenashi Kazuya] – he’s the cutest of all 4 guys, but he has lots of problems – family, financial, temper.. He gets angry a lot and is also a strong fighter. He’s the reason Sunako changed.
3. Toyama Yukinojo [Tegoshi Yuya] – he’s the sweet one. He wasn’t really exposed in the dorama, but he’s supposed to be so cute when dressed up as a girl, emotional and soft-hearted. He even one day thought that he’s a useless person because he can’t help with anything compared to the other 3. However, he’s always the thoughtful one.
4. Oda Takenaga [Uchi Hiroki] – the wise one. He was someone with a rich background – his father owned a successful ikebana business. That is why he’s always calm and wise. He’s someone with class, but he’s kinda inexperienced around women.
5. Morii Ranmaru [Miyao Shuntaro] – the playboy. That explains all. He can’t stay with only one woman. He’s a jerk but very loyal to his friends. In the manga, he’s the one with older girlfriends, but in the dorama he likes all kinds of women. LOL
6. Nakahara Mine [Takashima Reiko] – the landlady that got away… all the time.
7. Nakahara Takeru [Kato Seishiro] – the landlady’s son, who didn’t get to see his father and had to be so mature at such a young age. I like him because he can be so cute sometimes. He wasn’t in the manga, though..

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge

It’s quite an amusing dorama. Quite good to watch if you have spare time. Only 10 episodes with 46 minutes each.

(happy) Easter April 6, 2012

It’s still 3 days to Easter, actually, but I’m just in the mood of writing (believe me, once the mood’s gone, I can’t write anymore).

This year’s Easter is my 25th one, the first half of which I can’t remember about.

Easter Bunny

What is Easter? It’s a celebration of Jesus’ rising from His death. It might not be a new story for most of you. I’ll try to elaborate in my own language *I’m not a really religious person tho* the sacred mystery of Him and what we celebrate on the Holy Week:

1. Maundy Thursday is the day where Jesus held the Last Supper with all his 12 disciples, said about one of them will betray him, then “service” them by washing their feet. (Love = costly – service of love = the way people will remember you because you don’t expect them to give anything in return)
2. Good Friday is the day Jesus died on the cross. On this day *which is today*, we fast in order to set our minds free from any bad thoughts, keeping ourselves in peace of mind and we keep silent to mourn for His death.
3. Holy Saturday is also known as the “Celebration of Light”, the night before Jesus resurrected from death. People who loved him had put his body in the cave and prayed for Him.
4. Easter is the day of His resurrection, the third day of His death.

What does Easter mean to me? It’s the 40 days of patience and compassion to prepare His resurrection from death, keeping my head as clean as possible from any harm and bad thoughts. It’s not an easy thing to do, but I always try my best to.

Why do we Catholics keep the Jesus sculpture on our cross if He’s already resurrected? Because we believe that He will still be there as long as people keep making sins – He’s always there to sacrifice Himself for whatever sins we’ve done. It doesn’t mean that we can freely make sins, as what people are thinking, but it is as a reminder that He’ll always be there for us, no matter what, and that He’ll always forgive our sins.

Sorry for the shallow language I’m using here – as I mentioned earlier, I’m not that religious person.

Anyway, happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

change April 2, 2012

What do you think is the most frightening thing for someone?

For me, it’s change. I admit that I’m a conventional person, hence I’m not that accepting when it comes to change. I’d like to, but my inner self just won’t accept it easily. I’ve seen some people who seem to accept changes easily – I’m definitely not one of them. I’d need one week at least, before finally accepting the change.

Change is, however, unavoidable. In life, you’d have to deal with changes. The most simple thing is when you move to a new school or to a new neighborhood as a child. The most change resistant creatures are children. They adapt really quickly. As time goes by, when you’re getting older, change is not that easy anymore. The hardest age for change is teenager. You have the most unstable emotional states and dealing with it will only make you even more unstable.

One of my friends use this sentence in his status: “Change is the only constant.” and I think he is really right. What makes you survive is your adaptability to change and how you stand for what you think is right, rather than what others think you should stand for.

… I dunno what I was just writing up there!