GARA-GARA DILAN

Aku telah terjangkit virus Dilanisasi.

Setelah sekian lama tertunda menonton ini dan ngiler tiap kali nonton trailernya di Youtube juga IG stories orang-orang. Sejak kabar novel ini akan difilmkan aku udah sangat excited nungguin. Aku suka bukunya, meski sampai sekarang belum selesai kubaca karena selalu saja ke-distract.. Tapi novel karya Pidi Baiq ini kusuka meski terkadang dialog dan humornya sedikit absurd.

Habis nonton film “Dilan 1990” ungkapan “masa indah adalah masa SMA” jadi seolah kembali dibangkitkan. Benarkah masa SMA masa paling indah? Well, buat aku sih kenangan di SMA punya memori tersendiri yang tak bisa dilupakan. Memang sempat terabaikan, tapi film “Dilan 1990” seakan mengajak untuk kembali bernostalgia. Sepanjang film bawaannya mesem-mesem sendiri, sementara suami yang menemani malah ngantuk hampir tertidur. Kalau diingat-ingat, tidak ada adegan spesifik dari film itu yang persis sama dengan pengalamanku, tapi perasaan yang muncul selama nonton film inilah yang membangkitkan rasa nostalgia itu. Padahal settingan film ini tahun 1990, dan saat itu aku masih umur 5 tahun. Tapi ada beberapa scene dan kebiasaan yang kayaknya masih relevan dengan masa aku SMA dulu. Diantaranya; upacara sekolah, ngobrol lama di telepon sama gebetan, terima surat cinta, digombalin pake kata-kata puitis, sampai berantem karena rebutan cewek. Fun fact: dulu tiap kali ada yang mencoba puitis dan romantis pasti bikin aku pengen muntah. Tapi entah kenapa puitisnya Dilan malah bikin kesemsem kepikiran terus. Milea yang digombalin, Tante Fanie yang ikutan berbunga-bunga.

Btw, scene yang bikin aku ngakak banget sangking relatable-nya adalah saat Milea tiba-tiba ganti baju karena Dilan mau dateng. Ini pernah banget (bahkan sering) kejadian di aku. Haha. Sumpah, kelakuan ABG banget gasih. Pakai baju cakep di rumah seolah harus selalu kece. Padahal meh. Kalau diingat sekarang sih lucu, padahal dulu waktu ngalaminnya cukup bikin ketar ketir.

Dari sejak awal diumumkan kalau Iqbaal terpilih jadi Dilan, aku bukan termasuk ke golongan kontra. Ngeliat pembawaan Iqbaal yang cuek apalagi saat dia main gitar sambil nyanyi, alamaaaak... tatapannya bikin jantung degap degup nggak karuan. Padahal sebelumnya aku bukan fans Iqbaal apalagi CJR. Siapa sangka ternyata pesona Iqbaal justru memikat hati ibu-ibu beranak macam aku. Dan kuyakin, I’m not the only one. Ya kan?? Hayo, ngaku! 😆

Begitupun dengan Milea, I have no complain at all. Nggak hanya bermodal wajah yang cantik pisan, Vanesha memerankan karakternya dengan sangat apik. Segala judes dan manjanya dapet banget. Apalagi chemistry-nya dengan Iqbaal bikin kita seakan terhanyut dalam romansa keduanya. I believe she’s going to be the next Indonesian sweetheart.

Film ini dikemas dengan sangat ringan. Bahkan cenderung minim konflik. Fokus di film ini cuma seputar awal mula perkenalan antara Milea dan Dilan sampai akhirnya mereka jadian. Semuanya mengalir dengan natural, layaknya percintaan anak SMA. Betapa gengsinya Milea saat awal Dilan deketin sampai akhirnya malah kepincut jatuh hati. Tapi yang bikin agak kurang sreg ngeliat adegan Milea yang cenderung agresif pada Bunda-nya Dilan. Dari panggilan “Ibu” terus malah request sendiri mau manggil “Bunda” biar samaan ama Dilan. Kebayang kalau anak sendiri yang begitu kok ngeri ya. Teruuus, pulang sekolah kok malah keluyuran sampai malam sama cowok naik motor. Mbok ya pulang dulu, ganti baju, pamitan sama orang tua gitu loh, Dik *terlalu serius*

Tapi yah balik lagi, namanya juga film. Anggap saja mungkin ini adalah bumbu supaya lebih meresap ditonton. Bukan untuk ditiru, cukup dinikmati saja.

Terima kasih Dilan Milea, sudah membuatku merasakan kembali gelora asmara masa muda. Mengenang betapa nikmatnya rasa deg-degan tiap kali dering telepon berbunyi berharap si doi yang menelepon, betapa manisnya masa-masa PDKT, betapa indahnya digombalin dengan kata-kata sayang nan mesra sebelum tidur, dan betapa serunya sensasi dikirimin surat cinta yang berisi rayuan oleh orang yang terlihat cuek padahal naksirnya sampai ke ubun-ubun.

Juga terima kasih Iqbaal dan Vanesha, telah menghidupkan kedua karakter ini nyaris tanpa cela  sehingga aku sebagai penontonpun merasakan chemistry yang telah susah payah kalian bentuk. Bikin aku keluar bioskop dengan muka yang tak henti-hentinya tersenyum dan hati berbunga-bunga. Sampai aku lanjut begadang nontonin video kalian di Youtube dan ngeliatin postingan Instagram kalian hingga dini hari begini. Dan akhirnya aku merasa harus menuangkan segala excitement-ku dalam bentuk tulisan biar nggak mendem nambah jerawat.

Akhirul kalam,
dedeq Iqbaal, kakak padamu ❤️
((KAKAK))

KEGALAUAN BERTAMBAH USIA

Why hello 33!

 Ulang tahun bagiku bagai mata uang yang berbeda. Di satu sisi, aku sangat menantikannya, tapi di sisi lain, aku pun tak siap umurku bertambah. Mungkin ketakutan bertambah tua tapi masih banyak yang belum diwujudkan. Kalau tahun lalu, ulang tahunku masih dengan euphoria baru jadi Ibu. Begitupun dengan tahun sebelumnya, ketika aku tengah hamil. Aku ingat banget, saat itu kayaknya nggak ada keinginan selain anak-anakku bisa lahir dan tumbuh dengan sehat dan kuat. Saat itu rasanya impian terbesarku, tujuan hidupku akan terwujud. Yaitu menjadi Ibu. Apalagi dapat bonus dari Allah swt, menjadi Ibu untuk sepasang anak kembar. Bucket list checked.

Sementara tahun ini...

Aku ngerasa tidak produktif, sama sekali. Hampir useless bahkan *deep sigh*.

Tahun ini, tepat di ulang tahunku, sepanjang hari aku terus uring-uringan. Suami yang menghadapi tingkahku tentu merasa kebingungan. Tapi tampaknya dia sudah paham dengan kegalauanku. Meski semua yang dilakukannya serba salah di mataku, ia tetap meladeniku dengan sabar.

Bukannya aku tak bahagia menjalankan peranku sebagai Ibu atau sebagai istri. Tapi kayaknya seiring bertambahnya usia, aku ingin punya sesuatu yang lebih. Bukan hanya soal materi, tapi lebih ke self actualization. Bukannya aku tak bersyukur. Sama sekali tidak. Justru karena rasa syukur yang teramat dalam mendorongku untuk menjadi manusia yang lebih baik lagi. Aku ingin menghasilkan sesuatu yang bermanfaat, sesuatu yang bisa membanggakan, sesuatu yang bisa membuat anak-anakku kelak bangga punya aku sebagai Ibu mereka.

Tapi setelah berdiskusi panjang dengan suami, aku mulai mengerti bahwa ini belum saatnya. Masa sekarang adalah masa anak-anakku mendapatkan haknya untuk mendapatkan perhatian penuh dari Ibu mereka. Masa dimana mereka butuh aku untuk bisa menemani dan membimbing mereka. Yang kubutuhkan hanyalah rasa sabar dan ikhlas kalau waktuku akan tiba. Waktu dimana aku bisa menyempatkan diriku untuk berbuat yang aku butuhkan. Tapi tidak sekarang.

Tuhan,
terima kasih atas segala kesehatan dan keberkahan yang telah Kau berikan padaku selama ini. Maafkan jika aku hampir selalu menjadi manusia yang banyak mengeluh.
Semoga aku bisa menjadi manusia yang bermanfaat bagi orang lain.
Dan semoga aku bisa lebih mencintai dan menghargai diriku lagi tanpa membandingkan.
Amin!

BENDING ON MY KNEES AND PRAY

Remember how I'm having a hard time letting go tears from my eyes? Well, I finally cried tonight. Right after I finished reading Al-Quran and doing prayers. Not for something bad or any thing. I think it's a grateful tears.

I have just realized that I haven't talk to Allah lately. I prayed, but in my prayers, I never really talk about what's going on in my mind. I think I elaborated it on Twitter more than I share it to God. Feels like there is not enough words to thank God for whatever happened in my life. It might sounds cliche, but it is what I really feel from deep inside of my heart. Just by thinking of it, the tears suddenly flooded my eyes.

Not really sure if it's the age that is really talking, but as time goes by my wishes is getting simpler and simpler. And as for tonight, my top of prayer is for God to always protect me, my family, friends, and everyone I love. May Allah always lead us to the right path.

Amen.

FOREVER YOUNG

This is a one week late post. I was too busy learning Photoshop in order to fulfill the satisfaction of my ideal wedding invitations. It was so stressful. I didn't get much time to sleep, I even forgot to eat. Well, it would've been easier if only I excel in photoshop or illustrator or else. But as someone who has minimum skill, you can say I have a lot to ask. So with a little help from a friend and some tutorials on the internet, I managed to get it done *phiuf*

So, I've turned 27 last week. It feels... undescribeable.

This is my last year to celebrate birthday as single. Insha Allah, next year and a lot more years to come, I will be celebrating my birthday(s) as a wife and hopefully as a mother. *crossing fingers*

The fiance took a half day off from work. When he told me the plan, I was surprised. Because I was hoping for him to save the days off for our wedding and honeymoon. But turns out, he has saved the day off from from last year for my birthday. Sweet.

As usual, he came to my house after work. Just few hours before I officially turned 27. And when the time comes, he got me a present and some pink roses. He started to know me so well, he even wrapped my present all in pink. Even the bag from Kate Spade is also in the cutest shocking pink. That was so lovely. And the present itself may not exactly the same like what I've wished before but I love it still. Just what I needed.

Both my parents forgot my birthday. I did not blame them. They were too busy with work at the moment so I have to tolerate it. I'm a grown up now, remember? Although it made me sad a little bit. Plus none of my close friends wish me for the birthday this year. I can tolerate if one best friend didn't wish for my birthday, but all? It's just inexcusable!

Then later at night, an unexpected surprise came from my closest friends. They came all the way to my house after work just to surprise me with the birthday cupcakes and birthday wishes. I was not suspicious at all before, because it's not our habit to give birthday surprises like this. Turns out they all planned not to wish me on my birthday until they come to my house and surprised me. Ouh girls, it really worked!

Anyway, 27 is just a number. I still have a long, long way to go. Many dreams to catch and bunch of goals to be done. Though, I will always be forever young at heart.

MY MOOD TODAY: RED & BLUE

Today I became a monster. Got angry with no exact reasons. Getting so grumpy and cranky at the same time. And at the end, my fiance's being the victim.

Sorry honey, I shall blame the PMS for me being so moody.

It's 3.00 am and I couldn't sleep yet. Not after I saw the news on TV about the tragic accident that caused the death of 9 people plus an unborn child. It's so sad and makes me shaking. I'm not exaggerating. I can feel myself trembling real hard. The most shocking thing is that the accident was caused by a drunk lady who crashed her car to all of the victims. And what I heard, she was too drunk to push the break pedal. I really don't have a heart seeing the video of those innocent people suffering to death by that tragic accident.

I keep wondering how she sleeps at night after it all happened? Can she survive from the guilty feeling for the rest of her life? Knowing she took 9 lives just because she was not responsible enough to drink and drive. The latest news I heard she's also under influenced of ecstasy, marijuana, and God knows what else. Oh, my..

Many people think the suspect didn't look guilty at all. But I think she just tried to calm down. Or maybe the drugs effect were too strong?

Actually it is a valuable lesson for all of us, though. Not by bullying the suspect or even mock her physical appearance like most people did. It is irrelevant to the case. It's not her physical appearance that matters, but her irresponsible action that we should focusing on. I, myself, have lost my nerves to hold my cell phones while I'm driving. Or even have a peek on it. It's not just risking my own life, but others too. Does it even worth it?

This tragedy could happen to anyone. But I'm praying to God this kind of thing won't happen anymore. Not to you, me nor the people I love. May Allah SWT always protect us and lead us to the right path.

YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN

I was predicted as the first to get married among my high school gang. Who knows, 10 years later, today, my last fellow single friend in the gang gets married and it makes me officially become the last one who is tying the knot. Right after my high school best friends getting married one by one, after they already having kids, some are still expecting, and others already had their second and third child. Funny how life works out sometimes.

As for me, I really don't give a damn about the wedding sequences among my circle of friends. Never thought I would be the last, but it's really not a big deal for me though. The most important thing is that I'm about to marry the man I very much love and loves me back, hopefully for the rest of our lives. What's the point of getting married first if you chose the wrong guy, 'aite?

Well, I've been planning to get married at young age ever since I was only 16 years old. To be honest, I didn't give enough thoughts of it at that time. Maybe peer pressure had brought me into that thought. But to think of it now, I really don't regret any of my decisions. I really can't even imagine what could have been if I ever get married at such young age. In fact, I feel relieved to be planning my wedding at this age. After I met a lot of people, knowing different types of men, experiencing the great feeling of falling in love, surviving from being hurt and also learning to put back the pieces of my broken heart into one whole shape. I consider myself lucky to be introduced to those kind of feelings. It might be the quarantines that I should experienced before tying the knot then I won't have to deal with it in the marriage phase. That's how much Allah cares for me.

"Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you deny?"
(Ar- Rahman)

I Choose To Learn From Other's Mistakes

I really can't thank God enough for giving me the chance to live in this era. Although I sometimes think it would be great to be experiencing the '70s. The fashion, the lifestyle, and the legendary musicians. But it must have been perfect if internet already exists those days. Don't you just love living in this era where we can get any kind of information so easily? Looking for references, inspirations or else just by typing the keywords on Google. And not to mention internet also make us easily tracking (read: stalking) on anybody. Especially those who happily shared their personal information on every social networking.

As for me, I'm also addicted to internet. It's okay for me to not interact with anybody as long as I have my internet. Not to chat with anyone, but I just love seeing pretty things, saving breath taking images, go on blog walking, find some inspirations and references on everything and updating my own social networking accounts. Not to impress anyone, but it is just because I love seeing my blogs loaded with beautiful and inspiring pictures. Just for the sake of my own satisfactions. I personally not so much into chatting with people. Not that I don't like making (new) friends, but I'm not that good in making conversations. Yes, I am so much aware that I am that boring. But I just don't care.

People say that we have a freedom of speech through internet. I'm not completely agree with that statement though. My account my rules as some people might have thought. Yes, we are given the freedom to post anything that is going on our mind, but there are still bold lines that some people might have forgotten. Sounds cliche? But that is the truth.

I think the most risky social networking goes to Twitter. It is loved by many people around the world. Common people get to interact with celebrities directly and we get to post what is happening around us in only 140 characters. It's quite challenging to compact our feelings into words in such limited characters. And I think the existences of Twitlonger reduced the beauty essence of Twitter. And those people who demand the request of follow back is also damn annoying. I mean, how interesting and important are your tweets that you can force people to follow you back? What is the good about it? In fact, if your tweets are very much interesting and useful, people will follow you automatically.

Once in a while, there are times when it is best for you to avoid tweeting or updating your status on social networking. Especially when you are in a very bad condition and you feel like your emotion is out of control. The urge of updating may suddenly raised up. But to think of it rationally, what's the point of letting everybody in the world know about your anger? You just don't know how people really feel about you. They replied you with a sympathetic responses, but in real life, they may actually laughed at you and love seeing how miserable you are. What's the use?

Being so frankly on social networking also impact one's image. There are some people who I slightly knew in real life but followed them on Twitter. I never knew about their real life because we hardly talked. But seeing their updates on Twitter suddenly changed my images of them. This also applies to celebrities. And I do believe some people might also have changed what they think of me after they see my oh-so-unimportant tweets. But that's life and you've got to deal with it.

Although it's actually a fun thing to do, but bitching about other people on social networking is also unrecommended. Dropping names also a big no no. But most people, including me, prefer to add some sarcasm. This is when #nomention twitwar starts. It often landed to the wrong directions. You are meaning to point the sarcasm to someone and yet other people may think you are insinuating them. And there goes another enemy for you to collect.

It's a funny world we're living in.

In one side, I'm happy enough to have internet as my source of inspirations and references. But in other side, I really hate it when I'm starting to lose control and don't know when to stop. It became addictive, it even makes me an advance procrastinator.

Note to self:
Start to use internet properly and know your limit. Take control of yourself and don't let the internet takes control over you. Oh honey, you really gotta learn when to stop.

*this post is inspired by Mrs. Kamseupay. Mam, your madness taught me a lot*

Bridezilla Attack!

When was the last time you cried? Me myself, I hardly remember when was the last time tears flooded my eyes. I think it was in May, on Niina's bachlorette party. But it doesn't count because that night was wild and everyone went so crazy.

Letting go tears is necessary once in a while. I've been trying to cry in these couple of months. Every time I got into problems or handling stubborn people who fed me up, I tried to cry. But I failed. I really don't know what is wrong with me. I find it so damn hard to let go the tears lately. Even fake tears refused to get along with me. When there's so many problems in your mind and it won't get out, then trouble breathing and pimples coming out.

It sucks. It really is.

My sensitivity level is on its highest point right now. Especially today. I feel like everyone is trying their asses off to pissed me out. Even small things by random people had made me want to yell right at their faces. I guess it really was a very bad day for me. If you think it's PMS reaction, then you might be right. Post-Menstrual-Syndrome, it is. Or was it the bridezilla side who strikes back? Or maybe I was just being a total beyotch and looking for something to blame? Ah, well..

Project 365

So it's already January, people. This is my first post this year. Hopefully I can manage to keep this blog updated more often than last year.

My new year's eve was just like any other regular night. The plan is to watch DVDs and buy good meat at Mastro. The fiance and I, we did watch "Dream House" and "Final Destinations 5". But we didn't get to buy meat because I had major cramps last night. After we stopped by Grand Indonesia to buy some makeups for my 'seserahan' at Makeup Forever, my tummy ached so damn bad I couldn't walk or even talk. I think that's the worst cramps I had in quite some time. So we went straight home.

I've always have a love-hate relationship with January. I do love the fact that this is my birth month. But at the same time, the image of getting old kinda scares me. Seeing me in the past few years, I must say I feel like I'm growing up. Not only my looks, but also my way of thinking. If you think it's my narcissism talking, then go ask my mom :p

In order to file every memories of 2012, I'm planning to start using this application in my iPhone which I like to called it "Project 365". I will post daily photos this year. So I am required to take photos every single day and try not to miss any day. Hopefully this will run well. I am excited!

My 2011 was Splendid, How's Yours?

Time flies and without you realized, it suddenly brought you to the last day of 2011. It feels like it's only yesterday I was staying in the apartment refusing to go out with some friends who came and asked me to join them to the new year's party at the other friend's apartment. I'd rather stayed at home, watching TV and some DVDs than blending into the crowd. That's what I did in the past few years. As for this new year, some DVDs are already waiting to be watched. But what will make this year different is that I have the fiance to accompany me passing through the new year's blast.

Just like me, the fiance also refuse to go out on every new years eve. We'd rather stay at home than wasting our energy on traffic jam and facing the crowd. We might buy some good meat at Mastro and do a simple barbeque at my house. Just the two of us. Sounds romantic or boring? I'm reaching the phase where I just don't care what people think of us. As long as he's on my side, good food and DVDs as our companion, I think that will be enough.

Unlike last year, I am excited to face this new year. I always think 2011 as my journey to grow up as I took some huge decisions regarding my future. I stood for what I believe in, have faith, put a lot of hope, and finally I think I got what I deserve. God had answered my prayers. He might not give what I asked in a blink of an eye. The road to get there might be rocky, but it's worth the wait. What I've been through this year had me realized that everything happened for a reason. Every good, the bad, and even the worse. God knows what best for us.

Oh my dear 2011, you have taught me a lot. Now I'm looking forward for what will 2012 lead me to. Hopefully, it will not only lead me to the new phase of life but also to the better life. Amen.

♫ ♪ Camera Obscura - "Happy New Year" ♫ ♪

Hectic Months

So I've resigned from my job. It's almost 2 months now. Not planning to find a new job anytime soon. I'm thinking of starting new business and work from home, though. Not that my husband to be won't allow me to have a career, but I just think it won't be fair for me to have much time at work more than I have at home once I got married and have kids.

The wedding preparation took a lot of time and energy too. Thank God for my super mom. I really don't know what would I do without her. The updates of my preparation is on my other blog. Lot of things to post, but still haven't got time to do it. But since I've resigned and jobless, hopefully it would be updated in these few days.

Talking about wedding, my other two friends are also having their wedding early next year. Right a month before me and they both will held it on the exact same date in 2 different cities, Bandung and Jakarta. I have to split up so I could attend both of the weddings. It's impossible for me to miss one of those because both are my good friends. I feel that I need to give them support on their big day.

Best of luck for the brides-to-be, including me!

Bedazzled!

What I love from living in this era is that everyone has the freedom to express themselves. Showing how they really feel, what they have experienced and achieved. Therefore, I have just created another place for me to blabbering about the hectic of my wedding preparation. It's called: "Wedazzling; you and I, we make sense".

It is so hard finding names that is representative to your image. Then I just came up with Wedazzling. Took it from the word "We" and "Dazzling". Well, since it'll be talking about the wed plans, so it can also be "Wed" and "Dazzling". I know it sounds a little bit weird. But so far, it's the best I can get.

This new blog is made for the forgetful me as a wedding diary. My bad habit force me to file any important things so in a few years later, I could have something memorable regarding this wedding preparations. The plan is, once the preparation is over, the blog might continue on the journey. I will talk about marriage stuffs, perhaps. Yeah, we'll see.

Everyone is welcome to visit. Simply click this to surf it up. Enjoy!

♫ ♪ Royksopp - "Happy Up Here" ♫ ♪

Friends With Benefit

It's funny to see how people act is if you are their enemy. With no exact reason. I get that a lot. Start from a former friend to people I just slightly know. I really don't know what they're problem is. I've confronted some of them. And as you can predicted, they'll say nothing's going on. As I recall, I never made anything to upset them . Well, maybe that's just me.

I'm the type of person who know many people, but just make friends with some. Only people I feel comfortable with. And now I really think I need to expand my circle of friends. Start knowing other new people. Those who have a sincere heart and appreciate other's existence and also take friendship with no granted.

Mind to make friends?

Saturday Night Fever

Have I mentioned how I love playing make ups? The only make up class I took was a short course with Make Up Forever a year ago. Even though the class was only for an hour, but I've learned many things about the basic of doing a cocktail make up. No more make up class ever since, except bunch of make up tutorials on Youtube.

Last night the boyfriend asked me to accompanied him to his friend's wedding at Hotel Borobudur. It's been a while since my last time playing make up. So I go through Youtube to find some inspirations to make myself look a lil bit prettier with those colors on my face. Then I decided to try this Beyonce's look on her latest video clip, "Countdown". She's so pregnant-ly (is this even a word?) beautiful with Audrey Hepburn-ish kinda look.
Though the make up steps are quite easy to follow, there's a slight problem I still have to faced. Regarding the poor lighting in my house, I have to do the make up in such a low light. That's quite a challenge because I couldn't tell whether I put the right amount of blush on or not. But turns out the result was okay. Well, at least my boyfriend liked it.
♫ ♪ Suede - Saturday Night ♫ ♪

Thank God for The Freedom of Blogging

I've been working at this company for about 7 months now. One of my job desks is to make the company newsletter to be distributed to visitors. I love to write. So actually my job desk is never a problem for me. But struggling with what the boss' wants, that's quite hard I must say. As for the October issue, the first theme to came up was Halloween. But then she wanted to add an article about gadget with this as the reference. Here goes my article which she apparently was not very satisfied about. So let me just post it here. Ah, well..

KIDS & GADGETS

In this era of digital information, technology has become every human needs. not just adults but children too. You may think it as a trend, but like it or not gadget has become an essential part for kids, especially those who live in metropolitan city such as Jakarta. We can easily spot kids in every corner of the playground concentrating on their gadgets.

There are pros and cons regarding this case. Those who disagree think the main reasons parents give gadgets to their child is because of their hectic schedule. When parents don't get time for thir kids, they provide them with the latest gadgets to keep them occupied. The cons also think giving gadgets to children at early age will only cause negative effects. While the pros side think the opposite. It's clear that today's kids live in a very different world than the generations before them. The evolution of technology growing so fast, thus parents need to teach their kids to keep updated.

According to Allan Hoffman, book author and technology expert, there are steps and ground rules you may want to consider before giving digital appliances to your kids.

Think and wait. If in doubt, hold off on the purchase. Be thoughtful about your decision, considering how this device may encroach on other activities and priorities. Kids are often crushed for time. Does this mean there's less time for bike rides or homework?
Establish rules. Be clear about how much time your child can spend with the device. Do you want your kid playing games at the dinner table? Or during a brief visit to grandparents? Probably not. In fact, if you think you're going to have to set up too many rules, then maybe it's better to hold off on buying the gadget altogether.
Emphasize doing, not watching. If possible, it is better to buy a device with the idea of inspiring creativity so it will give good affects to your kid's growth and development.
Calculate the costs. Many devices require you to buy music, games and assorted applications. So before buying device, figure out how much you are willing to spend money on its feeding and upkeep.
Use parental controls. These devices often have controls to allow parents to monitor usage and prevent the viewing of inappropriate material. Use them wisely.

There are so many devices these days that giving space for the kids to sharpen ups their creativities. LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., for instance. The company which is known for its educational children toys has just launched The LeapPad Explorer. It has built in microphone, camera, video recorder and kid-size stylus for writing and drawing on its five-inch touch screen. This tablet can be used for reading e-books, playing games and also as personalized education. Children can enter their grades, ranging from prekindergarten to sixth grade and then the device's activities automatically tune to a child's capabilities. Regardles the pros and cons, it's actually okay to introduce children at young age to technology in the right amount of proportion. So now it's up to you parents, how ready are you to give your kids digital devices?

Words is Only Few Letters

Here, I admit it. I have been a bad blogger. Planned to updated my wedding preparation here in this blog but I got tight up with work and also the apartment renovation that is very much tiring. Since I got to go to work in the morning until afternoon, so I only got after working hours to clean up my stuff. Guess what, it needs 2 whole night for me to clean up all of it. Never thought I've been saving a lot of junks since I lived here. Found some stuff that needed to be thrown away, some of them need a new home and many of it haven't been used yet. What a shame.

Promised myself once the renovation is over, I will only save stuff I'm gonna use. Not only plan to use, but stuff that are useful. No more junks saving here in the apartment. It will only caused me major headache in the future.

Pardon for the lack of quality on this pictures. It was all taken by my Blackberry. But I have to post it anyway. Ah, well..

my old empty room

some of my junks I have been saving these years

I have been searching on some inspiring decorations for my new apartment. I will post it later because I've got so many, it got me confused which one to choose.

A little more updates, I have just resigned from my job. Well, it will be officially on October 15th. Actually, it was a huge decision to make. But a girl got to do what a girl got to do. Lucky to have a great boss like mine. She even said, I have to let her know if one day I ever wanted to come back to the company. You bet I will, Boss! I have got so many plans to do right after I quit the job. The wedding preparations, DIY projects, and start on my own business. Hopefully it will work out well. Wish me luck! *crossing fingers*.

♫ ♪ John Lennon - "Working Class hero" ♫ ♪

Deep Sigh

How come you got so frustrated having the fear of losing something that never actually yours?

1. Pet Shop Boys - "Always On My Mind"
2. Best Coast - "When I'm With You"
   
3. The Cure - "Mint Car"
4. The Jezabels - "Disco Biscuit Love"
5. Daft Punk - "Something About Us"
6. The Magic Numbers - "Gone Are The Days"
7. James Iha feat. Nina Gordon - "Said Sadly"
8. Little Joy - "Keep Me In Mind"

Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead. But even though we have to say goodbye, please keep me in mind..

If You Don't Make Up Your Mind, Then I Will Make Up Mine!

They say, life is all about choices. I hate the fact that so-called bull shit is actually true. There is some time where you have to choose because you can not have it all. Choosing between what you want and what you actually need. Right at this very moment, that is what I'm going through..

I'm being in the middle of something that forced me to choose. To analyze using logical mind without ignoring the feeling I had. It is quite hard because my mind is often being fooled by my own heart. But then again, I really have to choose. Try my best to put aside my ego and start to think of other people. I've put all the past behind me, trying to forget everything. The good, the bad, and the not-so-very good. But it seems like the problem is not stopping at that point. There's still some other issues that keep coming up.

I don't want to turn myself into a bad person, because I know I'm not. I avoid myself in being a selfish bitch that thinks all the world is only surrounding around her. In this case, I also don't want to hurt anybody no more because I've hurt them enough already. Really should find a way to make it better. But how does it start?

♫ ♪ Tame Impala - Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind? ♫ ♪