Observing the Observers

So, I attended Indonesia's 1st Hot Air Balloon Adventure at Sentul City yesterday (27/3). Crowdy, yet cheerful. There were only two balloons on ground when I get there, whereas the other 16 were airborne. I love seeing the colors against the clear blue sky. The anticipation of waiting the 16 balloons to get back and be displayed on a corner. It was pretty hot, I tell you, I had to squint my eyes very hard every time I got out of the shade. My bf was sweating his ass off. I'm sure everybody felt the same heat. It was only 8 o'clock and it felt like 12.

There's something else I notice from the crowd. The way everybody was holding their cameras, man, it could as well be a camera exhibition. So out of the mere excitement of seeing a lot--and I mean A LOT--of cameras, my dad offered a suggestion. Why not observe the observers? And so I did.

Here are some of them.

... and this is my very own personal favorite

What a weekend. I get to see the parade of balloons, spend time with my loved ones, and freshen my eyes with beautiful, beautiful gadgets. ;D

Until next time,

Kalista.

Victorious.

And at last.. here we are. The end of Ramadhan, in the eve of victory. The time we always spend with our family. The time when I have to drag myself to my kitchen and make myself useful. The noisy night, with a bunch of kids praising God on the speaker. The most familiar time. Blissful.

So with this, needless to say more, I just wanna ask your forgiveness, for my misdemeanors, my false presumptions, my thick head, my sharp tongue, .. my wrong doings.

Cheers,
Kalista Cendani

PS. I might do a feature on this event, probably post it on UPIU. wish me luck!

Panggilan

Sekarang lagi jaman banget ya panggilan "sist" dan "gan" (I don't exactly understand what does "gan" mean. "Ganteng" ?) ? Entah kenapa kok gue merasa sangat terganggu ya dengan panggilan-panggilan itu? Hmm. I think we were doing just fine before someone invented them.

Sampah Masyarakat

Di sebelah rumah gue, tinggal sebuah keluarga yang menurut nyokap gue udah sakit jiwa. Mobilnya banyak, punya supir, tapi peliiiittt banget. Bahkan untuk bayar tukang sampah aja nggak mau. Ini yang mengganggu. Instead of bayar tukang sampah untuk ngangkut sampah di rumahnya, mereka memilih untuk menimbun dan ketika udah banyak lalu dibakar. Gila apa? Bayar tukang sampah berapa sih emangnya? Dibanding bayar pembantu-pembantunya yang brengsek-brengsek itu?
Coba deh, lo hidup dalam komplek pemukiman, bukan di pinggir jalan. Face it, you have neighbours. Sangat nggak sopan dan nggak peka menurut gue, kalo lo tiba-tiba ngebakar sampah yang bejibun itu tanpa memperhitungkan asap yang ke mana-mana. Masalahnya tiap kali bakar sampah tuh asap masuknya ke rumah gue. And it's really disturbing. Udah baunya nggak enak, and who the hell know what were they burning? It could be toxic waste for all I care!
Maksud gue, apa sih susahnya bayar tukang sampah? Duitnya kan banyak. Lagian itu kan nggak cuma menguntungkan warga sekitar, tapi juga bagi-bagi rejeki sama si tukang-tukang sampah itu. Sama pemulung. Lagipula kalau udah di tangan mereka kan sampah-sampah itu bisa didaur ulang juga. Segitu nggak peka lingkungannya ya mereka? Orang-orang kayak gini nih yang bakal bikin bumi makin cepet matinya.
Oh iya. Dan mereka itu BEBAL! One night, mereka bakar sampah (bayangkan! malem-malem asap masuk ke kamar gue banyak bgt!) dan diomelin abis-abisan sama nyokap gue. I didn't get to hear what the pembantus said but they must have said something nasty because my mom got really angry she called them names. Harusnya kapok dong ya? Nope. They did it again just now. Dan tebak apa yang dilakukan the pembantus ketika nyokap gue ngomel lagi? They just ignored her and went into the house.
Amat sangat nggak sopan. Gila apa tuh satu rumah begitu semua orangnya? I think it's contagious. Gue bingung harus gimana menghadapi orang-orang kayak gitu. Nggak bisa didiemin juga, because they live next door, and we gotta deal with them everyday.

Semoga teman-teman gue nggak kayak gitu ya? Ayolah, peka sama tetangga, meskipun nggak kenal. Nggak ada ruginya kan? You don't know, you might need them someday. :)

Networking Websites Can Kill Us All--Or Might Just Have Saved Us.

I just learned a few trivial details about my brother.
I know now that he likes Alesana as well as Jason Mraz.
I know now that his favourite movies are LOTRs, Night at The Museum, Star Wars, and Harry Potter.
I know now that Benny & Mice comics had a slight of an impact on his life.
I get a hint that he might be starting to date.

And I found out about all that through Facebook. How crazy is that???

Life?

At some point, something got me thinking; what do I do when future hits me? I dreamed so much about growing older, graduating from college, getting a job, doing great in it, get married, have children and so on. I even talked about it sometime, planned things. But then I get to the point where I list the things I'm gonna miss. Surprisingly, my house was on the top of the list.

Gosh, I love my house. The way the sun shines on parts of it. The antique furniture I always think of having too many. The way it smells really weird on account of my 5 cats and the air-freshener's scent bumping together.
How I always see my Dad sleeping on the couch downstairs early in the morning because he always wakes up around 5 or 6 but got nothing to do.
How sometimes I heard my housekeepers setting things up at 4.30.
How the house always seems noisier in the afternoon after my brother comes home from school and how he sometimes bother me when I'm alone in my room when actually he just wanted to check up on me, making sure everything's alright. Oh, I'm beginning to like him.

my brother, who, in my opinion, is too involved with his computer

How I know I put everything in my room, how it became my world. There's the scribbles and graffiti on my wall, things people wrote when they were here. There's the new Marvin the Martian helmet my bf just bought me. My books, each of them have stories that are really close to my heart. My artworks, cheap-ish but my mom always holds dear. My HUGE window people always so fascinated about, through which I can see the tower of my neighbourhood's mosque.

my room, and its excessive windows

and of course, I gonna miss my family. I've negotiated with myself if I could possibly still live with them after I'm married, but it's unlikely.
I hate growing old. I wanna just stay exactly like this. I'm scared shitless of moving on, and I can see in my parents eyes, they're scared too. I think I'm scared of losing them as much as they're scared of losing me, and to my misery, I think I may have sped things up for them.

my parents.

It's funny how you can resent your family and still love them with all your heart. I don't resent my family. And I should stop complaining about it.

Worse comes to worst, if I don't move on, everything around me is going to. So there's absolutely no point of staying. It's pretty sad.

Groan.

Something really nagged me. Eugh. I hate the way some people talk. You know, it's when you try nicely to create a conversation then they just respond to you with a word. No, the shortened version of a word. Not even a complete one. Eugh. I hate it. Did I say that I hate it? Yes, I hate it. Eugh.

Classifications of Friends

it's only two days and I'm already out of things to do. So I do what I can with my MacBook : rambling.

So here goes :
1. Regular friends, whom you always say hello to but never really stay to chat with. Pleasant people, you care about them but not in an intense way.
2. Close friends, people who see you everyday and know just what type of person you are. Are you the outgoing one, or the quiet one, or the cocky one and so on. But you don't really feel you have a connection with them.
3. Strange-bonded friends, those you had history with. You know everything's over between the two of you but you can't help feeling somewhat responsible for one another. You're happy when they're happy, and you're not afraid to let them go just to find that they can always be there when you need them.
4. Best friends, people who know you inside and out. You're not afraid to be the worst of yourself in front of them because somehow you know they won't mind. They appreciate the differences they encounter while being friends with you. They don't ask questions when they know you're not ready to answer. These are the people you really want to please because you're so grateful they're always around.
5. A soul mate, the other side of you, the Yin to your Yang, the person who knows you best. Who reasons when you're emotional, who taught you how to feel when you're thinking logic. Who's mad when you make a mistake and makes mistakes just to make you mad. Who has nothing in common with you, but is connected to your every move. Your bittersweet relationship. The tears in your laugh and the smile in your pain.



Ps : Sometimes it feels like I'm losing everyone on my list and I couldn't feel more alone.

Kereta dan VRRM

Hari ini jalan-jalan naik kereta bersama pacar. Ahh, ya terjebak tugas jurfot yang mengharuskan foto transportasi publik Jakarta. Tapi cukup menyenangkan. Si pacar excited karena baru 2 kali naik kereta. Lucunya. Gue juga sih, tapi udah keseringan ngeliat tiap hari jadi rasanya udah sering naik aja. Hahaha. Naik kereta ekspress tuh oke juga lho ternyata. Nggak sumpek, bau, riweh, basah (?) kayak kalo naik kereta Ekonomi. Kayak naik subway di pelem-pelem. Lumayan laah.

I think occasions like these are what I love about my current relationship. We're not afraid to try something new. Eat someplace we've never been, go somewhere even if we don't know how, ride different transportations. It's so much fun! Instead of just going around in a car, eating at some fancy place at the mall, seeing on-sale items we still can't afford to buy.

Yang kayak gini yang bikin hari-hari gue lebih berwarna, lebih gado-gado rasanya (seperti kacang?).

For this, I'm thanking him : Vicky Rangga Restu Moyo. For the colours you bring to my world. Not all of them are bright, but each completes the others. :)

Here Comes UAS

Setelah hampir 2 minggu gue absen dari dunia pergosipan (baca: Facebook), akhirnya gue kembali. FB canggih ya sekarang? Chatnya udah bisa diatur appear offline to some, trs notificationnya to the point skrg, bukan muncul merah2 di pojokan lg. hihihi. Norak deh gue. Hm. It's not gonna be a long visit, I'm just checking on some things. Lalu gue akan absen lagi karenaaa jengjeeng! UAS akan menyita perhatian gue. Apalagi dengan banyaknya tugas, gue rasa nggak akan selesai kalo gue fesbukan mulu. AYO 3,9! Hahahahaha.

PS : hari ini mau nonton Angels & Demons, setelah kemarin gagal total gara-gara penuh di mana-mana. Imagine me sprinted from Pejaten Village to Citos wearing 7 cm wedge shoes (or was it 9?) just to find out that everything's full booked. Well, I didn't actually sprint, but it's not an exaggeration, it felt like I did.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right

--The Beatles (duh!)

Eyes of The Beauty

I watched Oprah today, it's about beauty and how people from different countries and cultures perceive it. The show featured countries like India, Brazil, Indonesia (yay!), Mauritania, Japan, and Iran. It got me thinking about the concept of beauty itself. All these years there are always two sides of arguments about beauty, one who says that beauty is what you can see, touch, smell; the other says beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I'm still deciding what my stance is.
Yeah, I know beauty is beyond looks, beyond fashion. But I'm not gonna deny the fact that I'd like to dress up and put on make up once in a while to look good. I love fashion, don't get me wrong, and I love it edgy.

The thing is, I learned not to perceive beauty only by looking at the exterior of a person, the hard way. Isn't it ironic, the person you don't even know, whom you think you'll never harm, who looks prettier than you--nobler, even, is the person who in the end hurts you the most? You know, the miss goody-two-shoes who's actually hiding a pointy tail and horns?

I think, when you truly wanna be beautiful, you'd have to live up to what you're gonna wear. For example, if you wanna wear something graceful, then be graceful. Otherwise you'll just gonna look desperate. If you want people to see you're a good person then be one. Smile more, do good deeds instead of just fool around with somebody else's boyfriend and claiming you care about them.
I believe, unconsciously, we all understand this. It's those comments I often hear from my friends :
"Ih padahal celananya bagus, sayangnya dia yang pake!"
"Cewek cantik biasanya brengsek."
Ha.
These comments happen for a reason, you know. We're perceiving beauty in a wrong way. I think, before you dress all beautiful and fancy, mend your personality first.

That way, you won't need much else to look.. truly beautiful.

LeH kENaL?

Hahaha.
Bagi orang-orang yang sudah cukup mengenal gw tentu mengerti apa yang akan gw tulis di sini hanya berdasarkan judulnya. Ya, kaum itu.

Sebelumnya gw ingin meminta maaf jika ada orang yang membaca tulisan gw ini dan merasa tersinggung. Sungguh, it's nothing personal. Cukup lama sebenarnya gw kepingin bikin tulisan ini, mempertimbangkan dampaknya nanti kalau sudah "terbit". Karena topik ini sebenarnya bisa sama sensitifnya dengan topik yang berkaitan dengan SARA. Hopefully, I've found the right approach to it.

First, imagine : kalian nonton.. let's say Friends. Suatu hari Joey bertemu dengan seorang cewek hot dan menyenangkan di Central Perk. Withouth hesitation Tribbiani mendekat dan mengumandangkan pick up line andalannya : "hey, how you doin'?". Si cewek kemudian tersenyum and bam! just like that mereka kenalan. Cewek ini nggak merasa tersinggung, atau males, atau mengeluarkan komentar-komentar ketus (baca : nyelekit) atau pergi begitu aja. Dan kita yang menonton pun nggak mengernyit. Intinya itu normal buat mereka dan kita. People meet someone new everywhere.
Atauuu. Udah nonton You've Got Mail? Yep, complete stranger met through the server and became good friends (they even hit it off at the end of the movie). Yaya, gw tau ini rekayasa. Tapi toh kita nggak pernah menganggap perkenalan mereka itu weird and awkward or even gross. It was normal. They use the network to its full potential. Networking.

Lalu bayangkan kalau itu terjadi di sini. Boro-boro kenalan lewat FB atw Fs, ketemu di mall yang notabene nya udah bisa ngeliat the whole package aja kita masih males. Dapet sms yang isinya : "hAy, LeH kNal?" kayaknya nistaaaa banget sampe bisa bikin kita ngomel-ngomel seharian. Coba kalo Jonathan Rhys Myers yang sms dengan kalimat "hEy cAn I gEt tO knOw yOu?" what will you do?

Personally gw juga nggak suka metode kenalan ini. Lebih sering mengganggu daripada menyenangkan. Menurut gw handphone, e-mail, dan account Fb gw adalah barang pribadi gw. People have to earn the access. Either they're my family, good friends, a friend of a friend, my seniors, my juniors, people I met during some events, and so on. I have to meet them personally first. I tend to communicate with people outside this category on a professional basis. Jadi kalo ada orang yang tanpa ba-bi-bu langsung ngeadd gw dan gw nggak kenal, maaf aja harus gw ignore. Sama halnya dengan orang-orang yang entah dari mana dapet nomor hp gw ngsms gw dengan tulisan yang amat sangat susah dicerna ngajak gw kenalan. Mending kalo kenalan trus beneran jadi good friends. Ini baru juga dua hari kenal udah coba-coba ngomong aku-kamu, nanya-nanya udah makan atau belum. Please deh, bukan urusan lo banget. Udah gitu kalau smsnya nggak dibales suka miskol-miskol!

Haha. Udah lama sih gw nggak mengalami yang beginian, karena nomor hp gw sempet ganti, tapi beberapa teman dan bahkan pacar gw masih beberapa kali mengalami hal ini. Gw nggak sepenuhnya menyalahkan orang-orang ini sih, after all "leh kenal?" itu kan semacam istilah lain dari "how you doin?". Kenapa sih begitu sampai di telinga kita kedengerannya beda banget? Dan kenapa gaya kenalan yang kayak gini merajalela banget? Friendster seakan tenggelam di tengah-tengah tumpukan "leh kenal". Facebook pun sepertinya mulai terjalar.

Karena gw pengen tulisan ini sifatnya netral (or maybe not so), mari kita renungkan kembali :
1. Bagi kita orang yang nggak suka sama gaya kenalan seperti ini coba deh buka mata. Kalau mau menolak lebih halus sedikit karena toh mereka juga manusia yang bisa sakit hati.
2. Bagi orang-orang yang menerapkan metode ini, tolong deh dijaga sedikit mannernya. Orang-orang tuh pada intinya nggak suka lohh sama gaya SKSD. It's one thing to be friendly, it's a whole other thing to be intrusive.

So there's that. Apa yang ingin gw sampaikan tanpa harus ngomel-ngomel. Haha.

PS: Gw tetep akan meng-ignore orang-orang yang ngeadd gw tanpa ada hubungan apapun. If I wanna make friends, I'll meet them in person.