Dans la vie, chaque chose a son temps.

This is a post that I salvaged from an old blog project (that only had 1 post which is this one). It's kind of funny that I posted a 7-year old writing, haha, but I just don't want to lose it. Reading this post again is kind of funny since tumblr isn't blocked in my country anymore and that I was still using it a few times after I wrote this.

I'm starting a new blog project again right now, hopefully this will go well but let's see where it goes. See you when I see you I guess. :)

Alien

Suatu kehormatan bisa bertemu. Terima kasih telah mencari. Semoga kita sefrekuensi. Mari kita mulai perjalanan. Jarak membentang diantara kita, tapi semoga kita bisa menemukan sesuatu yang baru dan baik untuk kita di masa depan. 

Sebuah Tempat

Mimpi-mimpi merengek minta dikejar. Destinasi-destinasi harapan. Semoga sempat dalam kehidupan yang sekarang. Semoga kamu tidak keberatan. Semoga suatu hari nanti aku dan kamu bisa berbahagia di tempat masing-masing dan tidak ada kata selain ucap syukur.   

210819

Kita manusia memang tidak pernah puas, tapi semoga kita tetap bisa bahagia hari ini.   

Earphone

Akankah suatu hari nanti perasaanku akan bocor seperti penyuara telinga orang yang saat ini duduk di sebelahku? Kala itu tiba mungkin aku harus memilih apakah akan kuredupkan atau kubiarkan saja dengan bangga agar seluruh dunia tahu. 

Percakapan Sebelum Tiba di Bumi

Kubilang Ada yang mengintip di jendela Tapi kau bilang, Cuma perasaanku saja Kubilang Ada yang mengikutiku diam-diam Tapi kau bilang, Cuma perasaanku saja Kubilang Ada barang-barangku yang mendadak hilang Tapi kau bilang, Cuma perasaanku saja Telah hilang Judul berita di televisi Sementara mereka sibuk bertanya Barangkali ada perasaan Sebelum kejadian Dan kau memilih Untuk tidak bilang...

Setiap kali aku mengatakan itu, kawanku selalu mengingatkanku. Jangan suka sebut itu seenaknya, katanya. Tapi bagaimana lagi aku mengungkapkan kalau aku benar-benar, sangat, sungguh-sungguh, tidak main-main, dengan segenap hati, betul-betul, dari lubuk yang terdalam, bermaksud demikian? 

Dalam dunia yang senantiasa bergerak sedemikian cepat, terkadang kita lupa kalau hidup itu bukan balapan. Entah dilalui dengan berjalan, berlari, melompat, atau pun menyeret kaki, semua ini adalah tentang mencapai tujuan. Mudah bagi kita merasa iri pada orang-orang yang mampu berlari kencang atau berjalan begitu melenggang, tapi lupa kalau masing-masing dari kita punya tujuan, halangan, ritme, dan batas kecepatan masing-masing.

Mari terus belajar untuk mencintai diri sendiri dan menghargai apa yang kita punya.

12/06/18

Lately I’ve been really into 80s Indonesian pop music. Especially those which fall into jazz fusion/jazz funk and progressive rock. The scope of music which I’ve been listening to is still incredibly limited so I’m looking forward to find more good songs that suit my taste.

Speaking about music, there is one thing that I notice in almost every old music video I watch on Youtube: there must be at least one comment that says: “Old music is better”, “This is true music, modern music is crap”, “People nowadays prefer to listen to trash music instead of good ones like this”... etc etc. You get what I mean. 

There is this feeling of superiority if you listen to music public don’t usually do. Not only music, but this also applies to books, movies, basically anything. When something non-mainstream finds its place in a wider audience, there will be people who will appear and say, “I’ve been with him/her/them since they were still unpopular!”, or “I’ve been reading that before it was made into film!”. (I’m guilty for both of them). And when there are people who don’t know about something that they know, they’d say: “Dude how come you don’t know this masterpiece!? What’s wrong with your taste!?”

Guys...

Who’d have thought I need this in my life? A nursery rhyme sung by these 4 awesome dudes! Can I get more, please.

Lyrics are under the cut.

Dari dulu saya selalu iri pada seniman ataupun orang-orang yang hidup beriringan dengan seni. Yang bagi mereka, seni adalah bagian besar yang integral dari hidup. Dari tangan-tangan dan pikiran mereka, terciptalah karya. Goresan pensil dan pena, untaian kata, alunan nada dan irama; serbuk-serbuk kayu, potongan-potongan kertas, kain, ataupun benang. Pada akhirnya, mata saya hanya bisa menatap, telinga saya mendengar, dan pikiran saya mencoba mengapresiasi setulus-tulusnya; yang kadang-kadang mewujud menjadi kata dan lolos dari mulut. Menjadi komentar yang mungkin cuma selewat dan hilang di udara.

Ada banyak orang-orang yang saya kagumi karya-karyanya. Sebagian besar hanya mampu saya nikmati karya-karyanya dengan bantuan teknologi bernama internet secara bebas. Sebagian tidak tinggal di negara yang sama dengan saya. Namun seiring waktu berjalan, saya terus memeriksa sesekali, seperti menengok teman lama yang baik. Kadang-kadang saya merasa senang jika ternyata mereka masih aktif berkarya--bermusik, menggambar, atau menulis--tapi beberapa kali pula saya mendapati diri kecewa karena orang-orang yang saya kagumi memutuskan untuk berhenti dan tidak bisa saya temui lagi jejaknya di dunia maya. Membuat saya harus berusaha sedikit lebih keras jika ingin mendengar tentang kabar mereka saat ini. Haruskah saya terbang dan mencari? Ataukah saya terima saja dan berharap pada sepersekian kecil kemungkinan suatu hari kami bisa bertemu? 

Inside myself There is a lake Sometimes it overflows

If you walk around the shore And you find The wave buries your feet The sand sanks your step The pebbles, scattered around, Hurt your sole It bleeds

Just keep walking away.

I never ask you to swim.

I've just recently finished a certain manga and found myself infatuated with it. I enjoy reading manga--really, 'enjoy' doesn't really cut it--correction, I love it. Manga is a very dear existence to me, just like how people love books or films. I can easily drown myself and gulp down hundreds of chapters and thousands of pages in one sitting. That being said, there are still a lot of things I haven't read yet. But after finishing this certain manga, which title I will tell you very soon, I came to realize that I have several titles that have this atmosphere I quite like. I don't know the technical term for it, but for this purpose, I'll call it "the deafening silence." deafening silence. a conspicuous and striking lack of noise or sound I'm writing this post because I realize that I know these titles by heart, and even though they are not uber popular like some major shonen or shoujo works, they just clicked with me. I read these mangas' reviews and not all of them are stellar. The mangas are certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I just want to write about it. (Click the manga titles for more info.)

1. Undercurrent by Toyoda Tetsuya

This is the manga I talked about. I came across the title when I was looking for some reading that has quiet main protagonist in it. And boy does it not disappoint. Instead, I remembered about Please Look After Mom by Shin-Kyungsook when I read the earlier part of the story. Also it turns out this is not my first time reading Toyoda Tetsuya's work, as I have read his Goggle years ago. It's a seinen manga which explains the lack of effects and embellishments in the artwork but it maintains the lightness (for the lack of better word) of the manga. It's light, but it has a considerable depth, is how I want to describe this manga and its atmosphere. It has many subtle moments where there is no dialogue and the expression of the characters speaks for itself. This is definitely going to my mental list of favorite mangas.

2. Coelacanth by Shimotsuki Kayoko

I ran across this title years ago, and by a chance. I really like the heavy atmosphere and its stark contrast with the characters' design and their dialogues. The design is typical to that of a shoujo manga, but the way the mangaka focuses on expressions and the uses of tones sets it apart (in my eyes at least). It's definitely not a manga that entertains you, but it sure got me chills when I first read it, and I love it. I also like her Mayonaka no Ariadone, which has the same atmosphere as this one.

3. Kizu by Kiyohara Hiro

Also ran into this by chance. The art is very dark for a shounen, much less the panelling and use of tones. Her other works that I've read is Tsumitsuki and Another (I didn't finish the latter), and they also have the same flair as this one. The art is simple but vivid and intense, I remember being unsettled while reading this. 

4. Eternal Sabbath by Souryo Fuyumi

I think I found out about this manga years ago when I wanted to read some quality seinen, which it is. The main attraction of this manga is its complex plot and the artwork does a good job in complementing the story. I haven't read her another famous work, Mars, that I think I had actually picked in the past but dropped it later because I wasn't interested. Anyway, this is definitely one of the must-read manga for seinen.

5. Bitou Lollipop by Iketani Rikako

As usual, I think I found this manga by chance. I'm quite fond of it, surprisingly, considering this one is a shoujo. One aspect that I like of this manga is the comical expressions and behavior of the main protagonist. Although the main protagonist is a funny, foolish person, she can be profound and decisive at times, which I like. The profound, subtle yet expressive moments of the main character is what I dig in this manga.

Percakapan antara saya dan mas-mas barista.

u: (ke mbak-mbak kasir) ice long blacknya satu, dibawa pulang ya mbak. (trus bayar) (trus ngeliatin mmb bikin kopi)

mmb: suka kopi mbak?

u: (wow pertanyaan sulit. gimana ini jawabnya) suka mas, tapi biasanya beli aja, kalopun beli juga ga tiap hari. trus kan aku masih mahasiswa mas, kalau udah kerja trus punya uang sendiri nanti pengen beli kopi sama mesin grindernya langsung. kan sekarang masih mahasiswa mas, jadi ya belinya sesuai musim (-dompet lol), kalau di rumah ya biasanya pake kopi sasetan aja mas.

dan kamipun ngobrol sampai kopi saya jadi. terima kasih mmb untuk memberi saya sedikit edukasi tentang kopi hari ini.

Percakapan antara tiga orang teman yang lama tak berjumpa.

u: jadi lagi sibuk apa skrg?

f: kuliah aja mba, oh sama bisnis cuci sepatu. ayo mba klo punya sepatu banyak, free ongkir loh

u: ooh, aku sih nggak--eh aku ada banyak sepatu sih, tp aku tipikal orang yang walaupun punya sepatu banyak tapi cuma pake satu aja

d: coba ada cowok yang denger kayak gitu trus bilang, "tapi aku suka" gimana coba

u: hahahahaha

It's 2018!

While thinking about what I'm going to write on this post, I realized that I didn't keep my promise to write a post in the beginning of 2017 last year. I also didn't write any resolution, so I have nothing to check this year. If you didn't catch it already, I always wrote a post to start off a new year, and if I'm not wrong I had done it for 2015 and 2016 but not 2017. So here I am, this will be a bit long!

2017 was like a movie... which has no climax. Nothing dramatic happens in my life in 2017. No dramatic events, no climaxes, nothing. It's like that one short moment of quietness in a movie. It just flew by.

However, even though nothing big has happened, I feel like I've been learning a lot this past year. I experienced many things that weighed on me a lot that makes it a little difficult for me to write this. But let me recall things that have happened in my life in 2017:

inspiration

My first drawing of 2018! I initially wanted to write a post to start this year but haven’t been able to do so yet, so here it is for a start.

Menyambung post yang sebelumnya.

Sesungguhnya Internet dan orang-orang di dalamnya adalah cobaan untuk orang-orang yang bersabar. :) --ulaaidesu, 2017

Akhir-akhir ini saya sering mendapati postingan-postingan viral yang kontroversial di berbagai saluran media sosial, yang selalu mengundang perdebatan siapa saja yang membacanya. Katakanlah misalnya, aksi sekumpulan golongan yang merasa harus membela umat suatu agama karena merasa dilecehkan dengan berkumpul di sebuah lapangan besar dengan atribut-atribut dan panji-panji yang khas. Atau sekelompok mahasiswa yang mengatasnamakan mahasiswa seluruh Indonesia yang memilih untuk unjuk rasa dan akhirnya berbuntut panjang dengan ditahannya sebagian dari mereka di kantor polisi. Atau para kaum penganut teori-teori yang diragukan kebenarannya seperti: PKI yang mulai bangkit dan mengancam Indonesia, konspirasi yahudi, anti-vaksin, hingga flat earth. 

Saya berusaha menuliskan paragraf diatas seobjektif dan senetral mungkin, meskipun menurut hemat saya beberapa topik di atas bahkan bukanlah topik yang pantas untuk diperdebatkan. Bahkan most of the time saya akan mikir: ?????? Are you serious?????? Dan saya akan heran ketika melihat orang-orang yang tidak sependapat dengan saya. Karena, pikir saya, isn’t it obvious??????

Saya tentu menyadari, bahwa umat manusia terus berkembang, dengan semua teknologi dan permasalahannya yang tidak pernah berhenti berevolusi. Bangsa kita pun masih sangat muda, baru 72 tahun. Mungkin untuk negara-negara tua seperti Inggris dan Prancis, kita mungkin masih seperti anak-anak: masih bego-begonya. Peer kita masih banyak.

Masalah-masalah inilah yang biasanya jadi pemicu terbitnya postingan-postingan yang saya singgung sebelumnya. Biasanya, postingan macam ini akan menuai berbagai komentar dari warganet aka. netizen: mulai dari yang setuju, tidak setuju-tapi masih menyampaikan argumen logis, tidak setuju-tapi malah bego-begoin yang ngepost terlepas apakah si empu post memang layak dibego-begoin, yang ngepost stiker dan meme-entah karena iseng atau memang pengen ngompor-ngomporin, dan orang yang sibuk ngumpulin meme yang berlimpah. Akan tetapi, semua postingan dan komentar ini, terlepas dari bahasan dan sentimennya, semua punya satu kesamaan: semua ngerasa paling benar.