Money Tree, We Need Those!

This post is my entry for 20SB Blog Carnival. We basically have to answer this question : How do you friends and others affect your choices regarding money?

Tough.

I'm simply the last person you should ask for saving tips. I splurge. I make unnecessary spending. A lot. I read blogs with people giving detailed information on how much money they spend or save each week and how they have thorough financial plan and holy shiz, talking about embarrassed.

My friends definitely affect my choice in spending seeing that I'm not married or with kids, so I don't have to support anybody yet. I love hanging out with my friends, and hanging out needs money, right? Some friends affect me more than others. Because I might just go out to eat /drink with a group of people and with different groups? We might go to the movies too. We might go to bars/clubs, go to salon for beauty treatment, and hey check out those cute dresses displayed on the boutique window - they look hot! Shall we try? Oh they look good, we should buy those.

Hung head in shame, people.

Before I know how it feels to really work, by work I mean my now-daily work instead of my fun work rapping and let my inner superstar comes out (haha), my dad practically went nuts seeing my bills every month. Yes, I was that spoiled chick you love to hate. My dad used to pay for almost all of my stuff, even when I was in college. His monthly hobby was screaming at me, asking me whether I really need a 300 dollars dress that I only wear once or a new pair of black heels when I already have a bunch in my shoe closet. Speaking of stupid spending, there's also an eyelash extension, which only lasted for a week. Total rip-off.

I'm happy to say that working has made me less reckless. Especially working at my current office, where you'll be LUCKY if you just get off work at past 9 pm and not past midnight. Don't get me wrong, I love my job but I've experienced dizziness, sore muscles, fever, and a few heavy migraines here so for all those sacrifices, I would be reluctant to spend any of my sweet salary on unnecessary stuff.

By unnecessary stuff, I totally mean one of those bedazzled Hello Kitty blackberry cover. Cute, yes, but for 250 dollars, wouldn't it be better if you save it so later you can buy something cooler and more important like a new flashy laptop or I don't know, a weekend trip to Hongkong?

However, I also wouldn't say I've made smarter choices already. There are still times that I will most certainly spend. As I told you before, I love hanging out. I will almost always accept fun invitations from my friends to meet them for anything. But I figure now I can be smarter if they ask me to go shopping with them. I'll definitely try not to buy random stuff just because they're cute. I went out with a friend today to a huge Mango sale. SO MANY CUTE STUFF. If I followed my impulse, you bet I'd go out of the store with a bunch of shopping bags totally regretting everything when I got home. But NOPE. I didn't buy anything. Sure it took me to leave the store for a bit to do a little breathing exercise and calm my heart beat but I DID NOT buy anything.

Yay me.

Thank goodness it wasn't a shoe sale. I would have a panic attack before I force myself to go out of the store and do breathing exercise.

What's the one thing you must splurge on?





ps. My score for Charles Schwab Financial Fitness Quiz is 57. Woops. I need to change my habit.

Boy Talk!

Last Friday, I kinda had this heart-to-heart conversation with a new friend.

Well, actually she told me stuff, I listened, and as usual ended up thinking about it because I'm just THAT girl.

Anyway, she liked this guy who work together with us. A few years older and way more accomplished : LLM degree, middle level associate position, very classy attitude. According to her, he's the kind of guy you'd love to bring home to your family, the kind you wanna settle down with. For this story's purpose, let's call him Mr. Fancypants.

Her crush on him was so huge, it's practically all she talked about. I go out with her for dinner almost every night and there's always a moment that we talk about him.

Until last Friday, that is.

I asked her casually how he's doing and she said whatever. So of course I know something's up. She then proceeded to tell me that she doesn't like him anymore and she finds him annoyingly dull. How so, right? That girl have told me in details how she wanted their honeymoon to be. I mean, girlie, what happen to making babies on a fancy yacht in Southern France? Too much info, by the way.

She stated that Mr. Fancypants is too much work. He's very self absorbed because he knows that he's in demand. He acts like guys in The Bachelor. He's not down to earth at all, too fancy, and she just saw him asking the blackberry pin of another intern in our office who also hangs out with us from time to time.

Ahhhh, so that's the problem.

I gotta admit I used to do that often if i like a guy. I like a guy, a lot of my days spent obsessing over him and what he likes, being a real girly girl who always wants to look pretty in front of him and as soon as I find him giving attention to another girl, I stop liking him. Hell, I might dislike him instantly just like that. In a snap. Boom, you're ugly, I hate you.

In a way, it's so high school. Him talking to another girl and asking for her number or blackberry pin or whatever does not always mean he's hitting on her, right? I can see how it may look like it but any single person can mingle with anyone he or she wants.

So why do we do this? Is it just because it's easier to cross their names off our list rather than accepting the fact that they're more interested in other people? I've been in that situation and it's a pretty unpleasant feeling to not have our crush seem to be interested in getting to know us more. After all, asking for someone's contact details mean they want to keep in touch, right?

I don't know, maybe I'm over analyzing. But I KNOW WHERE SHE'S COMING FROM. Call me shallow but I'm also THAT girl who stopped liking a guy and wanted him out of my face if he didn't look like he would chase me back.

Anyone having the same problem?

Hold my hands and let's jump up and down...

...I HAVE SO MANY HAPPY THINGS TO TELL YOU.

Oh, where do I start? I'm overwhelmed and have to sort my thoughts.

First, I GRADUATED. The ceremony itself with cap and gown is not until early September but I defended my thesis last Thursday in front of 5 very senior professors and came out alive. This is the main reason why I didn't get the chance to update my blog and comment on yours. With work and gigs in the way as well, I'm lucky to still be able to breath. I almost broke down and forgot really basic stuff but it's such a relief when they told me I PASSED. I got my bachelor degree and temporary certificate and felt like screaming, "Bachelor of Law, bitches!"

I did not though. That would be pretty douchey.

Second, my office extended my contract. The internship was supposed to be up last Friday. I was pretty much a train wreck these past two weeks because I was afraid they wouldn't. I tried so hard to have the thesis presentation before Friday so I could tell them I have graduated, show them how I have more value now. One of the senior associates and the HR manager called me to their office and said they would extend my internship for one more month before scheduling me for an interview to become one of their trainee associates. I was speechless.

They asked whether it would be something I want. Um, HELL YEAH.

Third, I'll be performing in this really huge dance festival by the end of this month, Pop Up. My managers and event organizer promoted it. It's kind of like an indoor rave but classier since it'll be the after party of a local clothing brand's fashion show. The area is huge with 3000 people capacity and here's the kicker, one of the international DJ's I will perform along with?

Joel Madden.

I may not be a fan of Good Charlotte but dude, talking about BIG opportunity.

And get a little bit starstruck.

ps. I have new pictures. You wanna see?

Goofing off at work

Also at "work". The fun one, that is, with DJ Jeremy Jay


Out to play

70% Sober

30-35% Sober

pss. I also have cheerleading pictures from this law firm mini-olympic I told you about. Let me know if you wanna see so I can upload it and make you laugh. I didn't look that bad in little uber short skirt, you know. Haha.

Love Letter For You

So I've been told a lot of you can't view my blog these days.

I wonder what the hell is Blogger doing, they're trying to add new design features but somehow it reformatted everything so custom templates can't be seen.

I have so much to tell you guys. So many things happened. These past two weeks are officially the busiest weeks of my life (so far) and I'm still trying to figure out what to write.

I'll update soon, okay? I have to start commenting on your blogs again too, I will do it soon. Don't give up on me yet. If you read this, thanks for sticking around.


Much love,

Eff you Blogger.Com

Something's wrong with my template, and blogger in general.

I'll fix it later on and see what I can do. I can't do much of anything now since I'm working. Sorry, guys. Please bear with this boring original template for today.

Invading KL : The Recap

I'M BACKKKKKKKK!!! *Alvin & The Chipmunks tone*

I've been back since Sunday night actually, but work hit me like a ton of bricks so I have to wait until now to update.

As I wrote in my last post, I was in KL last weekend for a gig in one of the clubs there, Sultan Lounge. Some of you asked where it is or what is KL, it's what we usually say over here in South East Asia to refer to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. I hope you've heard about it.


The trip was fantastic. I'm still speechless and feeling grateful for this first opportunity of performing abroad. The thrill didn't hit me until the plane took off and I went, "Oh my god! Oh my god!"

Most of the people in my event organizer team (D'Makaveli) went : two managers, two DJ's, and two performing artists, including yours truly. We were welcomed in the airport by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Kuala Lumpur people who carried our luggages to two pimping cars, one of them is a brand new Benz. It took almost one hour to get to the hotel. We saw a lot of pretty sceneries. KL is sort of like Jakarta only less busy and more arranged. The last time I went there was a few years ago and I'm so impressed on how it has developed quite a lot. Wide variety of entertainment and good food. LOTS of good food.

Speaking of good food, I need to go back just to eat at this Indian place right on the side of the street in KL. I forgot the name. It has the best curries. Meat, chickens, seafood and such that you can eat either with rice or naan. BIG portion. VERY spicy. My taste buds explode and went to a happy place. They don't make them that extreme in Jakarta.

Okay I should stop talking about curries, it makes me hungry. Where were we?

Oh yeah. The hotel. It's a pretty 5-star hotel right in the middle of the city, right beside the iconic Twin Towers and KLCC. We're shown to our room and pretty much stoked to find out that they gave us one of their suites. It's a HUGE three-bedroom one with jacuzzis, big king size beds, and big flat screen TV's. We rested for a bit before meeting Sultan Lounge people for our sound check. They're all a bunch of friendly, helpful people. Very easy and fun to work with. After making sure all the systems are great, we rested some more before dinner.

Around 11.30 PM, we all headed down to the club again and I still remembered the club manager grinned and asked me, "You ready to show them how Jakarta does it?"

I WANTED TO PEE.

But then I reminded myself that I want to see how KL would respond to my music and there's no way they will respond well if I was shaking like a 5 years old at a talent show.

Funnily after a couple of drinks the I-wanna-pee feeling disappeared. Replaced by something more like, "YOU REYDEE TO PARTEEY WITH NDEESASTER? HELL YEAAAAA..."

Didn't say that though. That would be retarded.

The result? As I predicted, I LOVE KL CROWDS. They're so attentive and appreciative. They listened for a bit before they started dancing and shouting to the hooks. After I was done, I was approached by a few people who gave me back pats and shook my hand. Some even approached me in the DJ booth to ask me about my music and where they could listen to it.

It means a lot for an aspiring musician, that's all I have to say.

I wanna go back!!!

KL Here I Come!

Tickets are bought.

Rooms are reserved.

Told the people in the office that I can't work or send them anything on Saturday and Sunday if they happen to need me to.

It's official : I'm flying to KL to perform.

I'm pretty nervous.

But so excited.

I don't know what else to say.

Speechless.

My first gig EVER outside Indonesia.

I heard KL crowds are more able to accept other people's music. SOME Indonesian crowds have very cheap taste of hiphop music so they consider every Indonesian rapper on TV is good. You know those with weird clothes, no rap technique, stupid popcorn candy beat and talk about spending night and day in the internet?

My music is actually pretty easy listening and not that hard to process (right?) so when SOME OTHER Indonesians tell me that they like and GET my music, I feel like saying, "Wow, your brain is more developed than the rest of people in this damn place."

Hence why I always have wanted to perform or rap in more musically open-minded, appreciative neighboring countries. Malaysia is the first, probably Singapore next? Ha.

Wish me luck, guys.