Jogja Java Carnival 2011

Jogjakarta, one of Indonesia's favorite tourist destination held a yearly festival called Jogja Java Carnival (JJC). This festival is usually being held in mid October, though this year, it was held at 22nd October. This year was the most spectacular one I've ever seen! People from all over Indonesia and even from other countries came to celebrate. The more the merrier! The show started at about 7.30 PM. The crowd was wild. Small people, big people, children, old people, cartoon characters, men, women, and even trans gender came to celebrate the night! Everything was so beautifully colorful! I stayed there until midnight, and one word to described it: AWESOME!

Started with this colorful guy...

Then came the Javaness Princess! She's so beautiful!

Suddenly, this old Wonder Wo"Man" came to cheer the night.

They also have this pretty rainbow car…

Even Spongebob showed up! Nice to meet him =)

The crowd started to get wild! They even climb the tower and roof tops.

People from other countries came too! This lovely couple is from India.

Then there's the famous Jugde Bao from China.

Even an Egyptian creature came!

The people from Arabia's 1001 Night!

And there's this funky golden girl came from nowhere! So amazing!

Not to forget this girl wannabe! Lots of kisses for the guys!

And the music is played by this accordion guy!

A scary Balinese monster started to dance!

And look at this adorable little girl!

They even brought the Trojan Horse in town!

And an AMAZING dragon came to end the night!

It was like a fantasy! What a wonderful experience! I can't wait for next year =)

Book Hunting

Book hunting is one of my favorite things to do. Well, of course I like new books, but buying a "second-handed" book is also fine with me. A few weekend ago, I when to this huge supermarket (kinda like Walmart in USA), and found a section of old books. The books were really really old! But nevertheless, I have lots of time, so I thought, why not try to find "some hidden treasure"!

It was so much fun, I spent almost an hour to find my hidden treasure hahaha... My aim was for the books of my favorite author, Paulo Coleho, but I had no lucky with it. Maybe because the book was still kinda "new". Then I tried to find older books from my other favorite author, Katherine Paterson. I loved reading her books when I was in high school. I have three of her books, and others I only read in the library (my favorite place on earth!). I was hoping to get a copy of "The Great Gilly Hopkins" in English. It was my favorite of them all. But errr... No luck on that too! It's relatively hard to find in my place. I'm hoping someday I will find it =)


After searching and searching and hoping there's a system like Google where I could just type-in what I'm searching for, I finally found these books that I still found it worthy. Those books are:

- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I've watched the movie many of times, maybe about 15 times and still can feel the emotion (a.k.a I still cry through the movie hahaha...). I've read the book before, but not the English version, so I was happy I got this one.

- The Mermaid Chair, another book by Sue Monk Kidd. I've consider to read this book a few years ago, but never bought it until now. I hope it will be as touching as the first book I mentioned.

- A Year In Provence, by Peter Mayle. Quite an interesting title and I love the book cover although I know I literally shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but to be honest, this book cover gave me a very good first impression. Lately, I don't know why, but I'm so attracted in books about changing how someone's lives.

- Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding. Watched the movie but never read the book. Not a favorite category, but I guess it's just a nice light reading.

So I guess I have a lot of reading to do! HAPPY READING!

The Versatile Blogger Award

Surprise! Surprise! I got The Versatile Blogger award!


Well, it's not often that I got an award, so I'm so happy to get this one. This award is more about friendship and making connections, so I would happily be a part of it. Here's the three things I should do:

First, I would sincerely thank Harinda Bama, a blogger buddy, a great traveler writer & photographer, a wonderful traveling friend, for sharing this wonderful award! And for the description about me, I loved it so much! Never knew someone would thought it like that! THANK YOU, you're awesome!

Second, here comes 7 random facts about me:

1. I'm a girl who loves a song by it's lyric! I'm not good in music but I love it so much! And I could not live without my iPod :)

2. Teddy Bear is my love! LOL… I love Teddy Bears since I can remember! Especially, a very special Teddy Bear I got when I was five. Ssst… I still sleep with him (or her?) HAHAHA…

3. I like watching people and wandering what their life is like. I don't judge, I just WATCH. I think that's what I like to do since I was little. Maybe I'm a watcher rather than a do-er (that's the sad fact). I don't know why, but watching other people's life can amaze me. That's the idea of my blog. I want to be able to captured interesting things about life. And now, I'm trying to come out as a do-er rather than just being a watcher.

4. When I was in the 4th grade, I have this theory that the mind is the most powerful thing a human have. I didn't know that theory like that was something popular because I never heard of it before. I discovered it when I wanted to go to the kitchen at night. Our kitchen was so dark and far from the living room where everyone is, so it was a bit scary. One day, I tried to go there and not thinking that it was scary. It was a success! I didn't even felt scared at all. Then I did another trial, I went there and thought all of the scary stuff that could happened. It worked! My heart pounded so quickly and I was so afraid that I ran out as fast as I could.

5. I secretly wanted to be a model! Why? I love their job: to tell a story with the scenes created and they get to travel the world to do that! I think that not all models are stupid. Some were even so smart and have a good value of life. I sometimes envy girls who have the body of a model but don't want to be a model.

6. My favorite time of the day is sunset! It's like the happy bright day is over and we entered to a mysterious dark night, so exciting! I have captured a lot of sunsets and I wanted to see more in the weariest place of this world (cross my fingers).

7. And last, all I ever wanted in this life is to have a ticket of the world! A phrase I took from Spandau Ballet song "True". I hope in a not long time I would have it!

And last, in no particular order, I would like to dedicate The Versatile Blogger Award to:

colormekatie My idol! Katie can always brings up my best mood. I love her life, her blog, and even her cat.

rob.in.the.blog A dear friend who shares a one year training experiences and now become a fellow blogger, traveler, and photographer.

A Sparrow‘s Flight A very nice blogger friend who shares beautiful stories about life.

aroomsomewhere I've followed this nice blog from a long time ago. She a wife, a mother of two, and a great blogger.

neil slorance Neil has the awesomest doodle ever! I always enjoy his arts.

I would also say thank you so much for those who read my blog. It's so fun being able to share a piece of life...

Quote of the month

It would be appropriate if this month quote is dedicated to Steve Jobs. "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." was the closing of Steve's prepared text of the Commencement on June 12, 2005 in Stanford University. This phrase was actually his favorite phrase from the final edition of the Whole Earth Catalog, entitled Whole Earth Epilog (1974). I loved the idea of it. And it is still something I try to always be.

I won't write much, you just have to see it for yourself. It's inspiring.

Goodbye Steve Jobs...

Today, the world has lost one of the amazing human being ever lived, Mr. Steve Jobs… (1955 - 2011)


Excerpts from President Barack Obama's statement:
Steve was among the greatest of American innovators — brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

Maybe I'm just a Mac user and a fan of his work, but I believed in him. Something amazing about Steve is that he's a person who did followed his dreams and made something great for man kind. What I like from Obama's excerpts is "And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike." It is so true. Maybe Steve Jobs was once a nerd, but what makes him stand out from other nerds is his ability of storytelling. Storytelling is the most basic thing that a human being have. For the first years of childhood, children learnt lots of things from storytelling. And as an adult, don't you think that you're not doing it anymore? Well, I guess that's not true. Everything single song, movie, books, even blogs are about storytelling. Even when you work as a marketing agent, you have to tell a story to get a customer, don't you? So I believed that storytelling is an essential part in human live, and Steve Jobs has done a very great job to help us make storytelling a big part in our lives.

Steve Jobs' live is a live that is so worth to capturing. How he spent his live doing the thing he loved, going through those ups and downs in life and still came out and made something good for man kind. He had big dreams and he did made it to life. I guess that's the kind of spirit I needed to continue living my dreams.


I'm a Apple fan even since I don't have money to buy one. The first Apple that I bought was the first generation of iPod Shuffle. I did some work in my college just to get it. At that time, we didn't have an Apple Store yet, so I bought it with the help of my friend's sister who lives in the US. I love my little shuffle so much! Then after college, I worked for about 6 months to earn my first Macbook! Something that I always wanted to have (and I still use it)! The love of Apple products landed me a job at the first ever Apple store in my city! It was a short 3-unforgettable-months before I left for a job at the bank. I was in a big dilemma at that time; to worked at my favorite store or go on a more serious job. Well, I guess faith had took me somewhere else, because later on, I experienced more life turning adventures.

That's what Apple is for me. I love the products because of the great vision behind it. I planned to buy the last Steve Jobs product, "iPhone 4s" once it's released in my country. A friend of mine wrote on his FB; why the new product was not iPhone 5 like everyone's prediction, maybe it's because iPhone 4s stands for iPhone "for" Steve. Well, whatever that is, Steve Jobs was the a great artist that exist in my time. GOODBYE AND THANK YOU MR. STEVE JOBS…

The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

Have you ever felt like there's something or someone that's always bothering your mind? From the morning that you wake up until the end of the day, there's always something that made you think about that certain thing or person. And it sometimes just consumed your whole mind… Well, that's what this book is about. I found it an amazing reading. Couldn't stop reading and wondered if all of that was real for the author. I believed that the occasion would be different, but the feeling in this book is real. Paulo's have this great ability to captured life in his books.


A Zahir (or sometimes Zaheer) comes from an Islamic folklore about an object that traps everyone who takes a look at it. It made the person obsessed with that thing until the person cannot see reality anymore. In Paulo's case, the zahir was his lost wife (or you may call it ex-wife). After losing his wife mysteriously, I became obsessed to her. The void that his wife made, made him go to a search for her from the beautiful city of Paris to the majestic landscape of Central Asia. At the end, the search has became a search of the truth on his own life and made him understood the nature of love.

I love the story about why the railway tracks is always 143.5 centimeters or 4 feet 8 1/2 inches. It's an absurd measurement, why not make it 150 centimeters or 140 centimeters to be easy? It's funny but it's true and I won't spoiled it here for you.


This is something that Paulo puts it in a way I never thought before but I really agreed:
"The Zahir was a fixation on everything that had been passed from generation to generation; it left no question unanswered, it took up all the space; it never allowed us even to consider the possibility that things could change."
I think I have lived my life that way and I know that others do it too. And I have the feeling that I don't want to be like that, but in the other hand, I feel that I don't have the power to change it. It's a search that I owe myself and I will go for it.

When I read a book that connects me in a certain way, I always wondered if my story will end up the same. To be honest, I don't really like the ending of this story, but the journey itself is a wonderful journey to be followed.

It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.
~Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

Fly...