The Pink Files : How To Make Hogwarts Sexier

Alright, guys, it's time for the mini surprise post I have talked about here and here. Let me present you : The Pink Files, a special installment where me and one of my blog lovelies, Nicola over *PinkNic's Planet* will blog together about a certain matter in one shared post.

In this case, make it two shared posts and two certain matters at the same time because you should also read about our awesome dream Hollywood movie imaginations over here. Go click, read, and comment before you read this...

...OR AFTER!

In the spirit of the new Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince, we're gonna share our thoughts on something others might have pondered but left unsaid :

How to make Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sexier?


YES! Let's make the whole thing a bit G-rated and see Nic's thoughts on this :

So, how would I go about turning Hogwarts into a sexier place?

As a non-Harry Potter fan who has never read the books or watched the movies, I can't say I know much about the School of Wizardry, or whatever it is. Fortunately though, I do have some knowledge of sex and that's what this is really all about, right?

So, I think first of all I'd have to bring in some sexier people. From what I've seen on promotional posters and trailers, none of the students or teachers are particularly good-looking. So we need some hotties! Enter the likes of Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Jessica Biel and Jennifer Aniston and you've got some smokin' teachers there! A few Zac Efron-esque kids and bingo! It's a sexier place already.

I don't know what the uniforms look like but I think the girls should wear really short skirts. The ones at my high school were knee-length and I used to roll mine up as far as I could get away with. Nothing wrong with showing a bit of leg! And since the chicks are having to show some skin, I think it's only fair that the dudes should too. Shirts off please, lads!

Maybe we could also throw in a jacuzzi and some massage oil for when they're not turning each other into frogs or whatever it is they do in that place.

Oh and kids, you can use that wand for a lot more than casting spells, if you know what I mean ;)

I don't know about you but I definitely know what she means.

And as for my thoughts on how to make it mas caliente :

I fully agree about what Nic said about hot male students should be topless, I vouch the length of robe for female students should be very short like a mini coat though. Inside it, they all can wear some sort of sexy mini dress? I also appreciate if they confund Christian Louboutin or some other awesome shoe designers to make Hogwarts girls personalized towered heel booties / pumps. Socks are banned unless they're in sexy leg warmer kinds for these girls, tights are encouraged.

More interesting school activities please, like topless quidditch. While we're at it, how about water polo teams for the wizards? Only hot students allowed though. We don't need to see nothing but definite muscle tones and chiseled abs, yes? Lets also form witches cheerleading teams. We need some mean girl type of witches in the squads. Also add some magic school gym with girly classes like witches yogalates or something? I second the motion of installing jacuzzis and hot tubs. Sexier times, happier students.

As for hot teachers and school staffs, we need Megan Fox for detention sessions, people! Her and Nicholas Gonzalez. Yum!















We need to put a nightclub in Hogsmeade Village so the students can party it up on the weekend, maybe some sexy motels with spas and also lingerie stores? Witches & Wizards need to get it on too, when will JK Rowling see this? And when will wizarding world be less old school? I mean, orchestra-type of music? We need some hip-hop, bring on wizarding Kanye West or something, with his own batch of video hoes, we can put veela to good use.

That Hogwarts Express train? Yeah, let's make it more pimpin with hotter facilities inside. Big red couches, lava lamps, insane stereo systems, dance floor with a pole? And let's make it more interesting by letting seniors fly their enchanted Aston Martins to school, shall we?

And that's how Lolita and Nic makes Hogwarts hotter. Well, you know, or destroy it for the fans. I prefer the first.

What do you have in mind about making Hogwarts a sexier place*?





*To hardcore Harry Potter fans who are offended by our random talks, we suggest you to shove your own wand down your...ahem, the bottom is, we're just playing. And one of us ( Miss Lolita ) loves Harry Potter.

You Guys...

...are amazing, each and everyone of you.

Thank you for your kind words and sympathy to my family regarding the tragic incident that happened to my cousin yesterday morning that I wrote in the previous post. It means a lot and I'm gonna try to show it to all of my family, I think it will bring a smile to their sad faces. So far the big family are reunited together again helping my cousin's family cope with all of this. Started by providing them for their basic needs and organize things. They've found a temporary place to stay for the time being, I hope it helps them heal slowly.

My dad has done a lot of interviews yesterday on behalf of my uncle. He and his wife are still unable to talk to people outside the family and it's reasonable for them to. The amount of reporters trying to shove microphones to their faces while they're still shaking in tears makes me wanna burst in anger.

But the shock has slowly passed, we started to feel like ourselves again today. For me, the routines helped, preparing for my final test in Friday, although annoying, has helped giving me distractions I need. That and 3 hours The City marathon, of course. I really didn't do a lot today.

Sorry for the short post as well, I'll be back with the regular ones tomorrow. Me and Nicola have prepared something for everyone since Monday and it got delayed but I'm ready to resume now, as soon as I get a hold of her that is!

Lots of love and thank-you hugs,

Through The Fire

I woke up today around 5.30 AM with my brother Danny tugging my feet simultaneously. I was about to snap but then I realized his eyes were red and his voice was pretty shaky as he said this :

"Melina died... Fire...Her house burned down to the ground..."

I felt like cold hands gripping my inside and I went speechless until my maid peeked into my room and told me to go get ready because my driver was waiting to take me there. A bit of background info for you, she's one of my favorite cousins. We may not meet up a lot these days but we grew up and took a lot of family vacations together. We come from a really big family ( my dad is the 15th out of 16 children ) and I can't easily get along with everyone. Her presence was always a comfort during family gatherings. She's only two years older than me, very nice and friendly, which really help me at my totally awkward moments.

Anyway, I got dressed and arrived there a few hours later still not able to talk, people gathered at this house only 5 houses away from where it happened. A lot of them were crying, reporters and cameras were everywhere as well. I tried hugging her teary-eyed dad, her siblings, and when I saw her mom in some sort of a trance state unconscious and crying for her kind of way, it's like the reality started to sink in and I couldn't help crying my eyeballs out. I walked to the remains and saw that there's nothing left from the fire with the exception of the gate. And the second floor, where she died, is tumbling down to the ground. Nothing left.

Don't get me started on how her body looked like when they opened the coffin. I couldn't handle seeing it but some of my family did and told me. The body was completely burned / fried in charcoal-like color and there's a big chunk of her nose missing. Her blood's basically dried up.

The tragedy happened last night around 2 AM, fire was caused by electrical shortage or some other sort of electrical failure. All the people in the house were sleeping so it's already too late when they realized their house almost torn apart and smokes were everywhere. In the panic state, her siblings ran out of the house trying to get pass the fire. They had her sister's baby with them as well, unconscious and need to be taken to hospital immediately. Her parents tried to help her but it's just way too late and they had no options either to stay and unable to help but burned alive or ran. Melina was sleeping in the second floor along with 3 other relatives of hers, they couldn't come down and smokes invaded their lungs. They ran to the bathroom and tried to keep themselves wet but the fire was too big, it's a lost cause. She died in crouching position, I could not imagine her thoughts, fears, and prayers at the time. Just thinking about it giving me sharp pain somehow.

I was spending my day with the big family as we prayed for her then we all went to the graveyard for the funeral but I couldn't stay until they finished burying her. I was so light headed and dizzy, my dad took one look at me and told me to stay and wait at the car. It was so much tears as I began crying again. We went home later in the afternoon and I felt so tired, I slept until shortly after 6.30 PM. As I'm typing these, I'm watching the news still played on every TV station ( She's pretty known for being a model of several products ) and reading a lot of articles about it in the internet.

If you wanna watch one of them, here's a link :

Satu Korban Kebakaran di Tebet

Thank you for everyone's sympathy and kind words responding to these updates earlier today. It means a lot to all of our families.

Rest in peace, Mina, we miss you already!

Still a child, even when angry!

So I pretty much just woke up from around 6 hours nap.

Today has been... adventurous. Adventurous and extremely tiring. I didn't get to sleep at all last night ( dozing off for an hour doesn't count! ) since I had to read all these books for today's Conflict of Law final test. And I gotta admit I goofed around too much with these fabulous people and texted some of close friends so without I realized it, it's almost 6 am and I gotta get ready for my 8 am test, right?

WRONG.

The mean chubby professor decided to waste everyone's time by checking our knowledge on the subjects, I was lucky enough to hide behind a super tall dude to not be seen. The final test's postponed until a few hours later. Angie passed out beside me with her head on the table and some of my brainy law robot classmates competed with each other to become teacher's pets by kept raising their hands and voicing their legal opinions. Blah, dude. FAIL.

When the professor gave us a break, I didn't join the rest of the lawbots* for a quick pre-exam group study ( it's always irritating for me! ). I went to my comfy car to nap a little but when I woke up , the exam must have started for 10 minutes. The law campus is really huge and I happened to park in further areas so I gotta run back to the fourth floor with my hair still wrapped up in a messy bun, looking like a sleepy idiot and completely scratching my blue Marc by Marc Jacobs lace up suede wedges in the process. Have I mentioned it's very hot and dry today too? FAIL.

The professors gave me nasty look as she handed me the question and answer sheet, I was still sweating when I sat down and when I read the questions my mind went completely blank that I needed to do a little breathing exercise and tried to remember what I read. I did the first and last part pretty okay, but the second part of the test got some ridiculous dutch and french law phrases also a few questions about a few cases I remember reading but not really sure of the theories applied in them. Um, HALF FAIL?

I bought french fries on the way home but they forgot to put on chili sauce in the bag. Now those guys just provoked me even further. FAIL!

I went home to a completely dark house and news about a temporary black out since there's an electricity repairs in the area. At this point, steam is coming out of my head because when you have such an annoying day it'll be nice to go home to an air-conditioned room and working TV & entertainment system. They weren't available obviously. It's hot, I'm tired and stressed out and they're effin' not available.

Now I didn't say FAIL..I did what I have to do...

Screaming and cursing in several different languages from Indonesian, Sundanese ( haha! ), English, Spanish ( Mexican and Colombian ones, I'm hardcore! ), and of course a little bit of French and Russian. The last one's swear words I've mastered for watching too many Fashion TV. Even in my angry state, I'm still worldly. no?

The cursing went on and on as I started kicking the punching bag in my room and I felt a bit tired so I gulped down almost a bottle of water and laid down a bit...

As you can tell, I woke up exactly 6 hours later.

Temper tantrums followed by naps? What am I, 5? Luckily the electricity's back on. My tired self really can't kick anything else. Wishing you guys a better Monday!



*Lawbots = Law robots, geddit?

Sunday Lovelist #14

Due to my emo break down caused by Ritz Carlton Jakarta bombing last week, I didn't get the chance to write my regular Sunday love list. So for this round, I'm gonna take a break from my study for finals and bring you the lovely things that happened for the past week. I'm excited! Here they are, in no particular order :

1. Completing my four books analysis assignment without missing the weekend
In the previous post, I told you how I had to analyze four books of Buru Quartet for my Conflict Of Law class : This Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass. Yep, they're all as complicated as the title and around 500 pages each to be handwritten-ly reviewed. I read the first two books and ended up skimming the latest two. NO TIME, I still have to study for tomorrow's final. I can say the first two books are so moving and I bet the other two will be too. I'm gonna read them more thoroughly in my spare time, of course. Moving tales of Indonesian writer that had everything taken away from him by Dutch colony circa 1900. But for now, the assignment's done without me having to not go out at all for the weekend! Yay!


2. Watching Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince, as often as possible!
I watched it last week on the first day it came out here then well, the pirated DVD happened to be out already in a decent quality so I've been watching it a lot! I say all Harry Potter fanatics that hate this movie can suck it, because it may not be precisely like the book but still one of the best Harry Potter movies ever produced! Beside The Order of Phoenix, of course. I'm only disappointed for its anti-climax ending and the lack of final battle scene between Death Eaters and The Orders. I also think they forgot the part when Dumbledore confunded Harry under the invincibility cloak ( hence he couldn't help him for being murdered ), and the part where Harry supposed to get a glimpse of the lost diadem ( essential for the final movie ). Sure, they also didn't make the scene where Snape revealed himself as dramatic as I hoped for but THE REST OF THEM WERE GOOD. The new actors ( The young Voldemort actors were awesome! ), the impeccable devilish acting of Tom "Draco Malfoy" Felton, the effects, the darkness in the whole movie, and the additional love and teenage humors...why didn't the haters put these to account? Morons.
3. Finishing the verses and finding a singer for my next song, Chasing
This song is actually the first song of mine that would require a soft sexy voice of a singer to make it perfect and I found a guy friend who's up for it. We've talked to a few singers before but some things always happened so it didn't work out. I hope this one falls through, yes? The song is pretty much a sexy slow jam, I remembered drinking lots of coffee before I recorded to make my voice deeper and Lloyd, being the operator, kept laughing and told me my lyrics are poetically dirty, whatever that means.

4. Getting my single, with its ringback tone, available for public download
YES, I just wrote it in my previous post. My song Trust Me is out with its ring back tone, I hope you can download it here. I'm also interviewed for a major Asian Hiphop website in Canada, so if you haven't read it, just click here and leave tons of comments.

5. New sparkly pants
I decided to embrace my teenage years by dressing like a bit younger and bought myself sexy swarovski embedded pants. Yes it's exactly like the one worn by Victoria Beckham below. I figure if she has the balls to pull it off, I might have too. I actually got two in different colors, one in dark blue, you see? I don't know what's twisted in my head that time.


6. New blog followers and new musician page fans
I'm so blessed that you're willing to keep in touch with me and hear my new stuff. Thank you! I promise I'm not gonna be some stuck up blogger who doesn't even reply comments even for once. That Paris Hilton holier-than-thou attitude is sickening for everybody! Now if you haven't followed me, click that follow button in the side bar and if you haven't joined my musician page, then Hello! Click here! Pronto!

7. Long naps and long hours in front of the TV / laptop in my PJ's
I had a looser schedule earlier this week and I was up around noon for two straight days. It was heavenly! I could do with a few more days being a sloth though. These don't come too often.

8. Potato Head's Pistachio - Rock Melon Martini
Holy sh*t, I used to look down upon this drink for not liking any types of peanut with the exception of peanut butter, but all my friends seem to sip these like water and keep telling me how they crave it so I decided to give it a try. I'm shamefully hooked. They gave you pistachio sorbet on the side too. Is it my fault I purr comfortably? Need. More. Of. This.

9. Not slacking off on daily exercise
For a pretty lazy person, I'm not being so bad at exercising this week! I managed to hit up the home gym 6 times a week, without sulking so much in the process. A lot of bloggers have motivated me with their stricter routines. They do these amazing things like running for miles and miles, do kick boxing, and hardcore yoga and stuff. I may be a wimp with my elliptical and fitness ball but it's still better than not doing anything right? Adriana Lima, prepare to give up that bootay! -> ROFL. Not gonna happen until I sprout upward a few inches and you know, gain two cup sizes or something. Damn boobies!

10. Spending time with my loved ones
After being so occupied with my study and my music, I finally got to see some friends this Friday and Saturday night. Shahnaz just got back in town after her trip to New York and we met up for dinner with Angga, Fardhan, Dimas and the rest at Portico on Friday. Too bad suddenly I felt sick for sitting outdoor when it's pretty windy ( how fragile am I? ) so I went home. Made it up by meeting her and more girls for Japanese dessert at En Dining and movies on Saturday though. We watched Up. I'm never big into animations but this one's pretty good.


I have a few more less significant things to put on this list but this girl gotta study so maybe next time. Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!

Professor Lolita's Theories

No time, gotta run. But these are the things that make me scream today :

1. An assignment from last week that I didn't make
Seriously, I went home early last week because when your professor didn't enter the class after an hour of a half when the class supposed to start, it's safe to assume the class is canceled. It usually always does. But the crazy smart super diligent law student-robots apparently stayed in the room until the class was supposedly over then an out of breath teaching assistant came in a rush to apologize and explained that the professors were in some kind of meeting before giving us a case study to analyze for our assignment. Someone forgot to tell me that, apparently. Nobody replied my text yesterday when I asked whether we have something to submit. This proves my theory : Law students = competitive robots that like to see their peers going down.

2. An analysis assignment of FOUR THICK BOOKS for freakin' MONDAY

We gotta review and analyze four books by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, each of them is around 500 pages or so and we have to find the correlation between the books and theories of conflict law. Can I do 2000 pages analysis in the span of three days? Doubt it. Will I cut my precious weekend just for this? Doubt it. I rely my fate to my ability of skimming and googling and I'll just hand in whatever I have on Monday. Oh, I forgot to mention how it all can't be typed, but simply hand-written. This proves my theory : Law professors = bully robots that get sick joy from your tears.

3. Final Term for my summer semester
It's scheduled next week from Monday to Friday. Aren't I a lucky one? *proceed to vomit*. I'm actually out of words to explain the nervous pain in the pit my stomach. This proves my theory : I should ditch this law study and just go pursue a career to be a fire dancer or boat captain in the Caribbean.

4. Got my back dislocated...or ar least I think so!

Earlier, I was wrestling with my 1oth years old brother on the rug. We were joking around, he's chubby and despite I'm still taller than him, he's actually bigger than me. We were having fun and gruntling like those pro wrestlers on TV when I suddenly heard a crack from my back, right before I let out a painful high pitched scream. OW! I have a weird feeling every time I walk now, This proves my theory : Unless my opponent is a 5 years old thinking she's a barbie princess, don't even think of wrestling again.

5. Being featured in Asian Rap Worldwide
YESSS, a scream of joy with a lot of hip shakes. I mean, the blog features all these cool Asian rappers and Asian hip-hop from all across the globe. So seeing my picture in the latest article there makes me unable to stop grinning. I also like checking the work of other artists featured in the sites. This proves my theory : Anyone saying Asians can't bring it are completely blind delusional freaks.

6. Having my single "Trust Me" available for download in Import Musik


Another scream of excitement! The song will be out in Hip-Hop United album later this year / earlier next year but you can have it early by downloading it here. The song is produced by Gregg Sartiano ( if you live in Los Angeles area and familiar with the music scene, he's the one working with Snoop Dogg, Ray-J, Warren G, and several other artists in the industry ). The download isn't free but it's really cheap so you can buy it for your friends too, wherever you are in the world. Ring back tone is going to be available soon for my Indonesian friends so stay tune.

Yes, this proves my theory : I'm such a shameless internet whore. Pimping since pimping been pimping, dammit!

Now the professor is off for a quick escape from harsh reality of assignment making for a bit, I'll school you some more when I have meaningless theories. Meanwhile, be good and enjoy your upcoming weekend, lovelies!

A Typical Day Off for The Insomniac

I read in High-Heel Gal's blog two days ago about her being confused and bored as hell during lazy days when you don't have anything like work ( or school in my case ) to go to. I gotta say I'm mostly the same way but there are times when I actually need it. This week has been pretty loose so far, I've been catching up on sleep and lyrics making, I have to admit I like it. Since Sco and several other beloved bloggy friends point out to me how much of an energizer bunny I am, I'm gonna show you how carefree ( and how much of a bum ) I can be.

This is taken from one of my weekdays off :

12.30 : Woke up ( WHAT?). Proceed to roll over the bed like a 5 years old until I had enough.

13.00 : Stumbled into my study / game room looking like a sleepy chihuahua, turned my laptop on, and wrote something stupid in Twitter to offend someone uptight.

13.3o : Still reading blogs, checking email / Facebook / ReverbNation / Myspace / 20SB while having a really late breakfast ( usually it's nutella on toast and coffee ).

14.30 : Feeling guilty being a sloth, decided to do something a bit productive by hitting the home gym a bit. It usually means around an hour elliptical followed by some weights while playing crackberry and watching some stupid DVD. STILL a sloth.

15.30 : Showered, trying to figure out whether I had to do something. It's usually either a school assignment to work on, a song to finish, or I promised to hang out with someone.

16.00 : Getting dressed, started my car and be on my way either to somewhere cozy to work on the assignment by myself, or to a studio, or to wherever my friends at .

16.30 : This is Jakarta. I'm usually not arrived yet in 30 minutes drive unless it's anywhere near my house since there's usually traffic jam everywhere. This is the time where I blast out my speaker / honk people / have cursing matches with bus drivers / give the finger to people in motor bikes trying to cut my way.

16.45 : Arrived at my destination, did whatever it is I have to do ( assignment making / song making / laughing like an idiot with some friends ).

19.30 : Had dinner, this can either be sooner or later though depending on people around me but let's just take a rough guess. This can be followed by DVD shopping since I always itch to watch something new in daily basis.

21.00 : Arrived home, changed into pajamas or any other comfy clothes that make boys say "ick." Seriously if men think all girls are telling the truth when they say they're home alone wearing nothing but skimpy lingeries with laced thongs, they must be deluded. Girls may wear all those to please their men but we certainly don't wear it when we chill alone. PJ pants, loose shirts, cotton panties ladies, put a ring on it!

21.30 : Laying on the couch / rug with big pillows surrounded me, watching whatever crap I bought at the DVD store.

23.30 : Taking a break from DVD watching and check the blogs / Facebook / Myspace / ReverbNation / 20SB again.

01.30 : Tried to sleep and gave up, it's like an undying cycle. Proceed reading a book or watch some more trash.

03.00 ( or later ) : Slowly drifting to sleep with TV on / book on my tummy.

Have you cringed yet?

What do you do when you have a week day off? Can you beat that kind of laziness?

Explorations in Insomniac Lolita -- The 5th 20SB Blog Swap

Finally after all these times, I participated in the 5th 20SB Blog Swap. My partner for this event is the beautiful Emily from Explorations in Life. Don't forget to check out my blog swap post in her blog, I know you're curious whether I'm posting something totally inappropriate there just how Lolita likes it. Show some love for this post too, lovelies. Drop some kisses in the comments!

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Hi guys! I'm Emily and I blog over at Explorations in Life. This is my first time doing the 20Somethings blog swap, and I`m really excited. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the United States. I recently graduated from college (with a degree in Communication Media) and am still trying to figure out what I want to do in life. I love cooking, reading, writing, and doing everything a typical 21-year old does.

It was tough for me trying to pick a topic for the blog swap, as I wanted to write something that was pretty personal to me. As I was sitting at work today, thinking about what I was going to fix for supper, I suddenly was hit with inspiration, not only for the meal, but for my blog topic.

If you had asked me a year ago if I had ever thought about cutting meat out from my diet, I would have paused only briefly before answering, "Heck no!" In fact, I remember about 6 years ago when I bravely ordered the vegetarian burger from Burger King. I took one bite and spent the rest of lunch hungrily eyeing my friend's food.

But now, I`m starting to realize some things. One: I never actually eat that much meat. Usually I just eat chicken, in some form or another. Very rarely will I eat steak or pork. Two: With all the newest products like the Morning Star and Lightline faux meat products, it would be very easy to just start omitting real meat from my diet.

So as I went grocery shopping this past weekend, that what I began doing. I picked up various vegetarian substitutes for foods that I already eat, i.e. meats, cheese, pepperoni. To ease in to the use of vegetarian products, I decided that I would simply use a combination of both until my taste buds adjusted to any differences there might be. For instance, I made English Muffin pizzas for supper last night. I used regular cheese, but vegetarian pepperoni (Smart Deli Pepperoni from Lightlife). It was delicious, and I felt good about myself.

See, I've always loved animals. I hate watching any television show where an animal gets hurt, whether it's real or not. But growing up, I lived in a very "meat-friendly" household. Sure, we ate a lot of fresh vegetables, but meat in some form or another was always present, and that is what I grew used to having. 21 years later, I`m trying to force my taste buds to relearn something. I recently learned to love red bell peppers, something I've always hated.

Another change that I've been trying to make is to switch from drinking soda to drinking tea (which is a big deal for me). So far, that's going really well. I`ve tasted teas that I loved (matcha powder/any green tea), to teas that are just horrible (anything peach for me). For me, in general, sugar is the hardest thing to give up. I love sweets, everything from chocolate ice cream to cupcakes. It's hard to find alternatives though, at least in my experience.

Every little step towards my goal counts, no matter how small. Even if I bought both soy milk and regular milk, I will have at least started on the right path. Right now, that's all that matters to me, giving this an honest effort. Any change that I might make, like substituting tea for soda, or eating less meat, it will affect my body, mind, and spirit, hopefully for the better.

That's all I really have to say for now. If anyone out there has any tips, or suggestions (especially for alternatives to sweets), then leave a comment!

As for supper, I ended up cooking chicken fried rice with Morning Star's chicken meal starter. Delicious!

Don't forget to check out Andhari's post at my site!

This is...My Favorite Book!

Tuesday is coming to town, so it's time for a round of This is... in the insomniac's den. As Carina pointed out a week ago, the theme question for the week is : What's your favorite book?

Now to begin with, I'm no Amy or Chase or Floreta in terms of knowledge of good books and extensive book collections. In fact, I don't really talk about books much here because I'm pretty much a rookie in reading and I'm afraid if I open my mouth about it, I'll sound like an ass hat. You know, just like if bunch so-called modern hip-hop heads come to me and tell me Lil Wayne and T.I are the greatest hiphop artists alive, I'll call them ass hats. In fact, I'll call them ass hats and try to run them over with my SUV. Although, you know, their annoying songs kind of stuck in my head and I know all the words to Miss Officer. Ahem.

Why am I talking about popcorn music? I should be talking books here.

Anyway, with risks of sounding like a total asshat, I'll talk a bit about one of my favorite books, which is Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho.

If you read my last post, the part when I told you about some of my favorite reads would tell you that this book has helped through some of my troubled times in the past. A friend of mine recommended this book as I tried battling constant depression two years ago and I'm hooked ever since. I read it all over again and recommend it to a lot of my friends as well. Apparently, the book is being made into a movie starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and will be released soon.

The book told a story of a Slovenian girl named Veronika, she seemed to have everything from beauty to loving family to good career and healthy dating and sex life but she felt constant despair like something missing in her life. She thought that she had nothing left to live for so she took a lot of sleeping pills to help her numb the inner pain and may be with some luck, her life would end.

(Please take notice that this is practically me and how I felt back then, only I took anti depressants more than sleeping pills, no wonder my friend shoved this book to me )

Anyway, in one cold November morning, Veronika drank too much of these expecting to surely die this time but instead she woke up in a mental hospital, Vilette. She was disappointed and made a vow to never leave the place alive but then the head psychiatrist, Dr. Igor, told her that she had a week to live. All the pills she consumed taking its toll on her heart and damaged it beyond repair. Mission accomplished, Veronika!

However this knowledge slowly changed her perceptions of life and death. She met many unique patients in the asylum like Zedka who had severe depression, Mari who had panic disorders, and Edward who's diagnosed with schizophrenia. Throughout the book, you'll learn through Veronika's eyes about their histories, backgrounds, and what brought them to Vilette. Veronika learned how these people lead limited but oddly satisfying lives. You see they're misunderstood, their families gave up hopes for them and they couldn't adjust to social structures yet each of them seem to show Veronika desires and fresh vision for life outside the hospital's walls as she explored relationships with each one of them. She used her remaining time to reflect and through her own self-discovery she realizes that she should have been more open to feelings, and more importantly life itself.

The first time I read this book I wonder whether I needed to be in Vilette and handled by Dr. Igor, who apparently told the news to Veronika as an experiment whether you can "shock" someone by convincing her that death itself is near. As you can read above, the shocks of dying opened Veronika's eyes to appreciate things around her. She finally allowed herself to feel and respond to emotions. I read somewhere that Vilette is an asylum in the purest sense of the word: a place of protection, where one is shielded from danger. In this case the danger is society. Those who refuse to accept society's rules have two choices: succumb to the majority's perception that they are mad, or struggle against that majority and try to find their own way in the world.

I guess you can tell now which option I chose back then.

Some of my favorite quotes :

• A lot of people would talk about the horrors in other people's lives as if they were genuinely concerned to help them, but the truth was that they took pleasure in suffering of others, because that made them believe that they were happy and their life had been generous with them.

• That's why I was crying. When I took the pills I wanted to kill someone I hated. I didnt know that other Veronikas existed inside me, Veronikas that I could love.

• You have two choices : to control your mind or to let your mind control you.

• Sexual desire disappeared in the 3rd or 4th year of living together. After that the wife felt rejected and the man felt trapped.

And as for how it ends, whether she died or not. I think you have to read the book yourself, NO SPOILERS. All I can say is this book got some pretty shocking revelations, plots and ideas that only someone as genius as Coelho can describe in such a beautiful yet sad way. This book brilliantly articulates the importance of questioning the society norms and examines the line that is crossed as people drift towards insanity.

It surprises me that some readers gave the book a bad rating but I think I may have take it more personally than a lot of them. Sure, it's a bit slow in the beginning but as you read further, you'll feel like giving a standing ovation in tears. The ability to relate to this book is one of its greatest strengths. I mean, who among us has never felt crazy and alienated? It gives you THAT strong of an impression and message that it's up to a person to make the most out of every day. Maybe it's better to be a little crazy and live rather than let life passes you by, right?

I'm looking forward to watch the movie, I hope it can really capture the essence of the book. Some famous book-adapted movies are way too disappointing these days. Here's the trailer if you haven't seen it yet :



Phew, that was long, I hope you guys don't skim. Now tell me, what's your favorite book?

Will you hang at Lolita's Place?

So the other day, Mr C tagged me and a bunch of bloggers to do a special task about how good of a host we can be, assuming we were going to allow people to spend the night at our place.

Some things we have to answer here :

1. What books are on your favorite shelf?
2. What DVD's are on your favorite shelf?
3. What are your TWO favorite cookbooks.
4. Select 1-3 recipes you will cook for your special guest.
5. What will we be drinking that is available?

Now guys before I answer all those and make you book a flight to Jakarta, I'll let you know that hanging out at my place is FUN. Many of my close friends have confirmed this. You don't have to give a hand in everything and just chill. I happen to have people who will clean the place if you make a mess, we can use my drivers if we wanna go out ( and believe me, we will go out! ), and if you feel like home cooking then my cook can whip out any dish imaginable to make your tummy purr comfortably. Tempting?

I'll throw in a bonus for the girls : you have permission to raid my closet.

Now let's go back to the real questions, shall we?

I have several book shelves at home, I keep my books in my room and in my study / game room. As you can see, a lot of them are law books for school although I do have some good ones I read for pleasure. I read everything from trashy chick lit novels to memoirs to non fiction down right to some mystery and even some philosophical stuff, aside from the necessary Harry Potter series and Twilight Saga of course. Proceed to roll your eyes.













Some of them are gone though, I'm guilty of misplacing my books a lot.

A couple of my favorite reads are the classic Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita ( Isn't it obvious? ), The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and Coelho's Veronika Decides To Die. The last one was a book that has been with me through all my tough times, recommended for you emo and depressed people. I currently just start reading Sookie Stackhouse series due to True Blood but the last book I've read is this amazing book from a legendary Indonesian writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and it's called Perawan Remaja dalam Cengkeraman Militer ( Women in Military Grip ). Telling a sad tale about Indonesian women circa 1940's when they're being tricked by Japanese colony to be sex slaves in remoted areas for Japanese soldiers. I suggest you read it if you find an English copy, definitely makes your heart aches with every line.

Now let's put a stop to this book talk because I can continue all day and I have to tell you about my DVD collection.

Yes, yes, those are all my DVD's and I know they look like junks since I keep losing the covers after I watch them. They all can be played pretty well, you just have to try harder on looking for a particular movie. I have almost every DVD to movies and TV shows that are out in theaters and cable networks, maybe even more than some people you know. It's easy for me since Indonesia is big on selling good quality pirated DVD's. Good pictures and everything for less than $1. I shop for DVD's at least once or twice a week and always bring home around 5 or so movies / shows. You can go nuts watching stuff at my house on my huge couches / comfy rugs with pillows for hours, I'll provide huge bucket of buttered popcorn and wine. How do we wanna do it? Started by all movies featuring Al Pacino, or Star Wars since the beginning of time? For the ladies, I'm up for Sex and the City / The Hills / Gilmore Girls marathon and I do not dissapoint with my ( too much ) knowledge of the plots and characters.













For the cookbook question, I don't have any favorites because I can't cook but my cook may have a lot of answers to that. Let me know if you want her phone number, she can only speak Indonesia though. However, like I said above she's really a genius in terms of providing us with crazily delicious foods. You name it, you want sushi? Done. Home-made Spagetti Pesto? Done. Chicken Teriyaki? Done. But I guess if you wanna hang at my place, some of you will want authentic Indonesian food, right?














How do Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce or classic Indonesian Fried Rice sound to you? Many Indonesian dishes are very tasty and if you like spice, you will adore them. It's like chinese food only with more flavors, I guess. For desserts, I'm thinking cold cut up mangoes or Durian Ice Cream if you want to do it locally. But if you wanna keep it international, my cook makes really mean blueberry cheese cakes and caramel puddings, and I happen to have a few tubs of Ben & Jerry ( Cherry Garcia & Chunky Monkey ) stocked in the fridge.













As for the drinks, you're in for a treat. I like white wines so I'm sure I can provide you with those at any moment's notice. I like fruity cocktails in a bottle too like Hpnotic and Alize ( either the blended liquors or the champagnes ) and I ordered them from time to time. I like Wild Passion Alize the most! It tastes like a mixture of mango and passion fruit. So if it's a party you're looking for, it's a party you're going to get. But really, after all those drinks, are you sure you just wanna stay in? They're pre-game's, baby! My driver is just up front, don't you want a tour of Jakarta's finest clubs?















Just make sure you make an excuse for work / class tomorrow first, if you happen to have any.

So there you go, are you interested in coming over? And just like Mr. C said, if you are, please return the favor and post about what we can expect to read, watch, eat and drink at your home. Also, try to include pictures that are genuinely in your home currently as well as invite some of the bloggers you wanna chill with.

I'm tagging and inviting EVERYONE!

In 36 hours...

First, I would like to say thank you again for your supportive comments and concerns in my last post about the bombings in Jakarta. I appreciate your kind words, including your tweets and direct messages and emails. They're really touching and it really means a lot to all of us here.

I wanna write my regular Sunday love list but I just couldn't get myself to do it, not that nothing good happens in the past week. But the sad and bad stuff happened more often and I've been in some serious emotional roller coaster to even whip it up. So with this I'll post something else and I'll be back with a love list next week.

In 36 hours post bombing I've been :

• Getting into a lot of heated arguments with some of my closest people that brought me to tears and a messy room since I was exploded and no punching bags in sight

• Accused to write something I didn't exactly write in Twitter. Which brings me to these questions : Who's insane enough to practically stalk and hack a twitter with privacy setting? and Who's messed in the head enough to use other people's status updates against them?. Either way Jakarta is one hell of a bitchy place and this only proven a point that you can't really trust anyone!
  

• Thinking that how on earth my blog friends are the ones who are sincerely nice to me without any hidden agenda to bring me down? Some people might say that it's easy to turn into your bloggy friends for crutches and the fact they don't live in the same city as you and don't know most people you know will make it easier but at least it's genuine and so far I feel safe talking to them! They don't exaggerate what I said in twitter and definitely not talking to other people about it ( well, even if they do, I don't know the people they're talking to, right? )
  

• Repressing my emotion and try not to lash it out every time I feel annoyed. I doubt how much longer I can keep this up though.

• Told by my mom that one of my past flings had totally gone completely out of line by approaching her and bragging about how successful he is now as a young lawyer in my dream law firm, while I'm still at school in my fourth year not even making it yet. He's this geeky, smart, really nice homebody kind of guy ( in other words - definitely not my type! ) who went to the same college as me but already graduated since he's a genius and doesn't mess around and play like I do. Geez, I told him we couldn't work out nicely and got on with my own life since why force something that isn't working, right? He's hurt, I get it, but doing something like this? Low blow, man. Very tacky.

• Spending Saturday night watching late seasons of America's Next Top Model while hoping none of my favorite places in town getting destroyed to pieces by some crazy religious radical organization ass hats. Thankfully, no more places are harmed.

• A hater threatens to ruin my life in a surprise this week, saying the surprise will make me unable to smile anymore. Well as long as I have my family and my best friends, I think I'm good. I detect she wants Mr. Angga Makaveli so much yet so sad to not make it so she pulls the trigger by trying to blame everything on me. I don't know about you, but it's a little sad, don't you think? Being anonymous, being a vicious online personality while another person didn't even do anything to you? Thought so.
  

All in all, I feel awful and if there's a time for me to wanna just escape and disappear then now would be the time. First step toward a change is admitting, right? I can admit that despite all the occasional fun I get to have doing what I do and the perks that come along with it, I do feel unhappy and unsatisfied with my life a lot. Something's gotta change.

Tough Day For Indonesians

In case you live under a rock, you may have heard about bombs exploded in Jakarta's two of the leading luxurious hotels, Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott this morning approximately around 8 AM local time that killed at least 9 people and injured around 40 or so people.

Here's one of the videos post bombing recorded by a reporter if you want to see some glimpse of the tragedy :

Words spread like crazy and with Twitter around, Jakarta was quick to be a trending topic as soon as one of the victims started reporting it live :

Thank you for everyone who wrote me and expressed kind concerns. It means a lot, my family's okay. My uncle and my cousins indeed work at Ritz Carlton Jakarta but thankfully due to morning traffic jam, they were still far in the highway when the bombs went off. One of my uncle's assistants unfortunately however was walking from a bus stop to the hotel, causing him to still be unconscious right now in Metropolitan Medical Center, Jakarta. It crushes all of us and I hope he gets better somehow. I'm praying for the victims and their families too.

This isn't the first time JW Marriott is bombed, the first one was a couple of years ago, but the methods were the same. Bombs were suspected to be found either in each hotel's main restaurants ( Syailendra and Airlangga, two of my favorite brunch places ) or the second floor of the hotels. Headless corpses at the locations gave assumptions that this might be a work of suicide bombers if it's not worked by timers, probably might be the work of religious radical groups like Jemaah Islamiyah ( JI ), a regional terrorist network tied to Al - Qaeda. The authorities later on managed to defuse more bombs that haven't gone off yet in one of the hotel rooms.

It's crazy how things like this still happen here due to security is actually very tight in both hotels, I know this very well. Let's start with the metal detectors and how you can't drop people in the lobby of JW Marriott since no vehicles are allowed ( 2003's bomb source was from a car ). In Ritz, all cars are checked in the front gate since the securities open your hoods and everything. There's an underground tunnel between both hotels although the investigators still couldn't figure how it may be used with tight securities and everything. Now some hotel staffs might be suspected as well since they can arrive early in the morning without having to go through all the security checks, however it's too early to speculate.

President confirmed this afternoon that it's a terrorist attack with very possible politic motives to undermine Indonesian democracy and how it's not strong enough to end terrorism. There are some suggestions the explosions are connected to dissatisfaction with the recent presidential elections, which only help stating the sad fact that there are still violent extremists over here who refuse the idea of a free, open, and tolerant society. Their purpose is to create fear and the fact that Manchester United team were scheduled to stay at The Ritz tomorrow made points delivered easier for them.

If you need more news, you can read here, here, here, here, and here. If you wanna watch more video click here and for snippets, just click on Jakarta or Ritz Carlton trend topic in your twitter because writing about this already made me very depressed.

And angry. Angry to know after a couple of years of calmness and stability post Bali and Australian Embassy bombing, this problem is floating to the surface again. Angry for the travel warning that several countries have given to us again. Angry for the city and country that I love stained once again in the world. A lot of people have worked so hard to prove that Indonesia is a very much developed nation, not what some of you stupid ignorants might call a typical third world country ( this word always gets on my nerves! ) and slowly we've shown the world how we should matter but then something like this happened and made us looklike a bunch of primitive primates with underdeveloped morals and weak security.

This will affect a lot of things, and just like what Kevin Rudd said earlier today, this made me sick to my stomach.

To all my friends who happen to be in town, be careful. Especially if you're about to go to malls or other crowded public places like cafes, restaurants, or clubs. This is definitely one of our saddest weekends of the year. Stay safe!

Sorry can't talk much...

...Because I'm way too excited to finally get my hands on Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince tickets!!!

Finally, after long months of waiting and letting my heart thumped a lot during all those trailer watching. The trailers gave me the impression that the movie might turn out better than the previous ones. I don't wanna jinx it though. I'm just so happy to get the tickets. Every theater in town is packed since the morning even though it's clearly Thursday. People just seem to ditch work and school for this. Such determination! I would've shoved a grandma for the tickets.

WHAT? I didn't! Do you think I could do anything like that? *battling eyelashes*

Have you watched Harry Potter & The HBP? What do you think?

And now for you bad boy lovers, whose wand would you rather examine ( hahaha ) ...

The Evil Prodigy Draco Malfoy

Or

The Prince Of Darkness Lord Voldemort / Tom Riddle himself?

When he was younger, of course. BUT the one played by Christian Coulson in the second movie instead. Let's not rob the latest movie's Tom Riddle's innocence just yet and I'll feel bad to see any of you hit it off with this creature. Unless you're into it, which, you know, acceptable but slightly icky. And yes you have to pick, no matter how young these boys seem to be, you know what they say about younger boys these days *wink wink*.

Great, even in my 21 years old self I manage to sound like a cougar.

Have a great day, my lovelies.

I'm a good crackberry junkie!

I've been asked by a lot of blogger friends before how do I manage checking up a lot of blogs and leave decent regular comments in them regularly? I mean, I do slack off once in a while but it's never really noticeable ( said them! ) and I somehow usually post in daily or every two days basis. There's never a time more than 3 days that I don't blog.

Then some of them, of course, proceed to assume and ask the most hurtful question people can say to someone with an ego huger than Brazil at times : Do you even have a life?

...Which is so ignorant to say and make it clear that they're either a bunch of new readers or they just skim my blog without really reading the posts in the first place.

Yes, yes I do have a life. OBVIOUSLY. You just need to really read my posts more to find out most of the things I post are usually my activities. I go to classes almost every day since the morning and as a law student, I have bajillion of assignments. In case you never really read too, I am a rapper. And not a jobless one at that. Even at my loosest days, I've always been semi productive making songs and lyric and practicing for my gigs. I have regular events to do and beside all of that, I still maintain a healthy social life with going out and having fun during the weekend or weekdays. I meet people and socialize with them although I also enjoy have my alone time curl up in my laziest pajamas and have a little bit of DVD marathon.

So how do I keep my blog reading and commenting addiction, you say?

I use my semi functioning ( because I drop it a lot! ) blackberry to the fullest.

Really that little purple device comes in handy everyday and every time. I check up my google reader everytime I have a little break from my crazy schedule...oh, and when I'm bored. It includes a lot of hours in class when the lecturers are boring. I quickly use the opera mini application to open google reader and click-read-comment away. Can you imagine how many blogs you can read and comment this way especially with such readable mini screen and your ability to fast type? Other situations I do this oh-so-pleasurable activities :

• When I'm bored in the process of making assignments, songs, and lyrics everywhere either at home, studio, or coffee shops I happen to be. This is also why I don't really carry laptop everywhere I go unless necessary.

• When I'm in the car, either driving or not. Yes it should not be allowed when I drive and believe me I already am so much better to get my crackberry away when I drive.

• When I'm waiting for people on something. I'm one of those people who really hate waiting and despite people are always late for everything over here, I usually come on time. This is when blog reading and status updating with crackberry's opera is so useful.

• When I'm on my elliptical machine. This may sound silly but it really helps passing the time away when I have to get my daily exercise in. I'm pretty grumpy when I don't work out but I'm also easily bored when I have to. It helps distracting you from all those pedaling and without you realizing it, ka-ching...you've done an hour cardio and shed 600 calories or so away ( depends on how you pedal, of course ). Not bad, right?

• When I'm in the salon / spa. All those self pampering activities are good but come on, don't tell me you don't feel bored at all during a creambath or hair blow or pedicures, especially without good magazines around. Your hairstylists aren't always interesting, you know?
  

• Before I go to bed. I'm a hardcore insomniac, as you can tell. And spending all those times sitting in front of laptops make my back hurt a little. Crackberry makes it easier for me to read blogs as I lay down. Yes, it's not good for my eyes though. But it helps me sleep since I often wake up with my phone beside me with the screen still open in the last blog I read.
  

So there you go, you know my secrets. I'm far from not having a life, people. That's the last thing you should assume about me.

However, despite all these addictions, I'm not one of those addicts who use their crackberries this way in appropriate times like during hanging out with friends or families or during a party, or even during every other activity that I happen to have a company. That's never polite and nice. You should always be able to function as a good social being. I hate it when I see people ignoring others because they're busy typing away. Ocassional textings are okay, of course. But they're definitely not okay when being done too much. I wish some people could see this.

Beside, you can't help feeling one of the people you're with is gossiping about you when he or she keeps looking at you when you talk while texting away with this obnoxious smirk plastered on his or her face, right?*




*I gotta admit I did it once or twice. But don't tell me you never did!

This is...one of my sexiest shoes!

Happy Tuesday, guys! As you know, Tuesday is always time for a round of This is... and the theme for the week happens to be your sexiest pair of shoes!

As some of you know, I'm one of those ladies you can call shoe girls. I LOVE shoes. Some girls might be more into bags, but I'm seriously in love with shoes, the higher the heels the better. When I see beautiful shoes at the stores, no matter how much I try not to buy them because I don't need any more and I plan to save up, I still cave. Lots of times. Have any of you ladies felt this way? Feel your heart thumping and skipping a beat SO bad you just open up your pretty purse and cringe as you hand out your credit card?

Yes, I have a problem. They say admitting is the first part of recovery.

Yes, I'm stuck in that first part. Ahem.

However, when Carina told us to write and show our sexiest pair of shoes I got quite confused. I like a lot of my shoes and think they're sexy. Should I feature the sexy satin black pumps like Carina did or the Louboutin booties although they're basically more of a fall wardrobes? How about strappy sandals? Or that knee high Beyonce kind of boots?

They're all very, VERY sexy. I can talk about them for ages.

Anyway, finally I decided against all of them and chose one of my latest pairs of shoes instead. They're Anne Klein's. Also sexy, also high, very cute and cheery for the summer and the most important thing is...

They're zebra printed pumps

May not be so sexy for the guys who expect anything leathery, but I like it so much. Well, actually I like anything with zebra prints and motives on it a lot. Some girls may prefer leopard for animal prints, but they're getting old, aren't they? Anyway, this is the pair of shoes that make you smile and can still make you look stylish during your lazy days, although you only wear simple jeans or even a simple top and mini pants.


Oh yeah, you bet I'm gonna turn a simple writing task for an outlet of my narcissism. It's always a photo op for the lolita, you guys. Just in case you want me to look-booked it ( although I think I look casual in the pictures above ), the straight leg pants are from DVB and the black cardi / thin coat thing is from Zara. I can't remember where I got the white top though.

What's your favorite sexy pairs of shoes? I'm not gonna limit it to just one pair so just shoot as many as you like. And if you happen to have this pair of pink Givenchy, I may have to scream and steal them from you.