Itik Bali (Balinese Duck): The most fishy duck in the world

I planned to just wonder around and killing time, as I was waiting for a meeting. But I screwed up my so-called-plan when I entered the bookstore. Shopping, thinking and counting at the same time is not recommended. It can caused you a headache, also a heart ache. Because you don’t have the budget to buy anything that time. Disaster.

Looking at the Agatha Christie’s novels lined up in front of me, I ran away to the bag isle. Nope, wrong choice. I drove my self to the aisle of children books, and suprised my self for there’s a lot of Indonesian comics now published, with a good packaging and the writers are all under 15 years old! I got excited, they have 4 big shelves full with those cute comics! Okay, now I’m touching and reading them. Right.

5 minutes and I have 10 books in my hands, from national and international sections.

Kill me, kill me now.

Then I decided tp make a little tour by putting down the books on each of their aisles again, and heading out. Get away for temptations.

I accidentally bumped with a man, a handsome man, I can say. He said sorry, smiled, and put a book down to a shelf. I smiled back, followed him with my eyes, and now look at the shelf: New Books. They have a lot of titles and I started to have fun browsing.

Because one thing about new books, especially those ones which written by first-time-writers, is I enjoy to predict. Which one si going to be good ones, which one is going to run down for the discount corners soon, and which one will be good to be adapted for a movie.

With my mind going on like that, busy I mean, I will forget my desire to buy.

That’s when I saw this book.

In a movie, you watch the first 5 minutes and stop. If you want to continue to watch more then it should be a good ones, simply because it has a good beginning. Same thing about a book. Read the back cover, and ask your self if you want to read more or not.

And this is what I read on the back of this book:

“My goal in life is simple, becoming a Top Celebrity and be loved by all the handsome boys. For a crazily-beautiful girl like me, it shouldn’t be hard to make it happen. Well, you can say, my face is a wonderful mix between Nikita Willy (US version (maybe): Emma Watson) and Angelina Jolie, beautiful, exotic. Apprently, reaching that dream is not easy. It’s harder than trying to breaking a coconut using your teeth! I pray, and put my best efforts anyway, so then some theories were born from genius experiment stupid things I did. All of them summarized elegantly in this book. Itik Bali (Balinese Duck), the most cute fishy duck in the world.”

I was laughing hard. I mean, she wrote things that every Indonesian teenagers will write. And yet, I can sense that she actually laughing on this phenomenon, the never endless debate from a girl’s teenager’s life (sometimes they carried them on until they’re adult): a value of beauty, the meaning of her name, the struggle to fit in, the plan to accept harsh facts about boys and the dream of becoming a famous star one day soon.

So I ended up buying that book, and read it in 1 hour straight.

I don’t write in Indonesian in this blog, simply because I’d like to train my own english. But some of my friends, they wrote in english because they think Indonesian vocabulary is limited.

After I read this book, I know that Indonesian vocabulary can be rich. When it comes to what people use to say and have conversation from time to time, I can say, every 3 months, we have different way of saying things. Different words, different meanings and way to use in a sentences.

Itik Bali, and everything inside it, offer a new way to look over events happenings in Indonesia lately, the history of Itik Bali’s name, her parents, he way to see silly rules of her school for freshman, love, boys, how to rule facebook, maximize your narciss skill, how to exist online, including Tutorial for Guys to succesfully understand what a girl wants.

Don’t get me wrong, if you don’t get it and take the words the wrong way, this book wouldn’t be good enough to read. You wouldn’t laugh. You may get defense and starting to think that this book offers nothing but just a spoiled girl dreaming big.

But if you have a messy life, sometimes you just want to punch someone, when love and life is not working the way we wanted to, you will remember how fun it is to laugh. You will realize that the best way to get over your sadness, is to laugh over them. You will find how entertain every silly events happenings around you. And instead of getting your self more stressful days, you will remember, once again, to laugh. You will remember Chandler. And Phoebe from Friends (the TV serials). Itik Bali is the reincarnation of those 2 characters, in a form of a cute-teenager-Indonesian-girl: Itik Bali.

So, for your capability to make me laughs (which the last time I laughed was for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”), Itik Bali, I took my hat off to you. And hope to be part of your craziness journey to grow up, out of these crazy mess in Indonesia.

Look what you've done to me, Itik Bali! -_-

Falling in love deeply with your writings craziness, Itik Bali! ^_^

http://bukuitikbali.blogspot.com/

simple way to cover your book

It’s Dec 19. Just a month before I reach 31. Yay! I’m growing up. Older for sure. Wiser? hopefully. Anything that makes me move forward from being 30, is always better.

Under piles of bargain books I have in my room, I found this book I long to hang on to. It’s a bargain book, and the plastic cover seemed to damaged. Maybe it’s time to put a new one. This book, I believe had it’s own adventure. Hang on there, Celestine Prophecy! I’ll cover you good 😉

Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

As you can see, the cover is not bad, so I’m gonna keep it that okay at least for a couple years more.

I always love doing this, covering my books with a plastic sheet. It’s like coffee time with friends. The only difference is, I had my own home made coffee and ‘Friends’ on TV with me (never get bored of these guys).

So lets start. I only need 4 simple things. The plastic sheet, binder clip, knife cutter/scissor and scotch tape.

plastic sheet and knife cutter, and oh, my binder clip and scotch tape is with my mom, we'll get some later 😉

You can get this plastic sheet everywhere. they come in many kinds of plastic, and sometimes, they came in colors!

Now, before anything else, I used to wipe my book cover with wet wipes that contains alcohol. After this, I put it standing to let the alcohol dry up, also give the pages of the book breathing for a while. Yes, the books are human too 😛

don't forget to wipe each corner carefully

Now, while I wait for it to dry up, I will pay attention to this smart dialogue in ‘Friends’, when Phoebe and Ross have an argument about Evolution.

 

teeny tiny possibility that we could be wrong

Phoebe: Uh-oh. It’s Scary Scientist Man.
Ross: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.
Phoebe: Ok, look, before you even start, I’m not denying evolution, ok, I’m just saying that it’s one of the possibilities.
Ross: It’s the only possibility, Phoebe.
Phoebe: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn’t there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can’t admit that there’s a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?
Ross: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.
Phoebe: I can’t believe you caved.
Ross: What?
Phoebe: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn’t agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how, how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself? Oh!

Ha ha. Full of surprises that Phoebe. Thank God, there’s a ‘Phoebe’.

Alright now,the book is ready to be covered. You see, I never take off any sticker that comes on any book, whatever sign and words written on it. I always believe that even books, have their own journey. And since I’m not gonna take them all cremated with me when it’s my time to die, I figured I can keep some spaces for those marks! 🙂

 

even books have marks on it...

I’m spreading the plastic sheet, put the book on top of it, and cut it.

 

I took advantage of the thick plastic roll to substitute ruler part. tricky, but fun!

Now let’s get that binder clip to clip plastic sheet to the cover book, both front and back side, for a while.

 

a little tip, make it tight, we want it to cover the book well 😉

Next step it cutting the edge of tops, like this:

 

both front and back, up corner and down corner of your book.

Done? Now you will see what I mean by cutting that plastic off.

 

slip that little part inside the cover of the book, outside the hardcover. this will protect the corner edges..

Do you remember the binder clips before? That buddies kept the plastic going here and there while we’re trying to put a cover to the book. Another reason, is this:

 

fold the plastic and cut the edge's plastic if you dont wan't too many palstic there...

or, my favourite way, is to fold them together without cutting it at all. this way we won't have too many plastic trash.

Either way, you can always close them with a scotch tape.

 

try to not put it on the book, but only on the plastic cover. so that the glue in scotch tape won't damage the book for a long time use.

Well, the last step is to take binder clips buddies off, now that the book is covered.

 

off duty now, buddies! good job... 😀

Let’s see the final look of the book now:

 

a simple way to cover your book for sure! 😉

Well, I say, it’s not really bad. Doesn’t required too many equipments, no need to spend a lot of money, and this work will be done in 10 minutes, maximum. If this is your first time, try to give it 20 minutes, later with exercises you will do this while you’re watching TV or ‘Friends’!

Have a good day, beautiful people! 😀

letters to sam

In the tradition of such bestsellers as ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ and ‘Riding the Bus with My Sister’, this emotionally powerful collection of letters from grandfather to grandson will touch readers right down to their core. Award-winning radio host, newspaper columnist, and psychologist Daniel Gottlieb has created a truly inspirational work.

When his grandson was born, Daniel Gottlieb began to write a series of heartfelt letters that he hoped Sam would read later in life. He planned to cover all the important topics — dealing with your parents, handling bullies, falling in love, coping with death — and what motivated him was the fear that he might not live long enough to see Sam reach adulthood. You see, Daniel Gottlieb is a quadriplegic — the result of a near-fatal automobile accident that occurred two decades ago — and he knows enough not to take anything for granted.

Then, when Sam was only fourteen months old, he was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disability, a form of autism, and suddenly everything changed. Now the grandfather and grandson were bound by something more: a disability — and Daniel Gottlieb’s special understanding of what that means became invaluable.

A lovingly written, emotionally gripping book that offers unique — and universal — insights into what it means to be human.

faces of God

well, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll have a chance to see faces of God. on the street, on your way to school, your way back home, your sleep, your everything. you might not notice at the first time, but it would really change your day. change the way you look at everything. by a simple touch, simple smile, simply by being there sit beside you. don’t bother to really understand this, ‘cos when it happens, it just happens.

like today, I see one of God faces (don’t make too many analyze about this now, too early) on a book, titled ‘letters to sam’. I found this book under big books, best seller books, and have it in my hand in a second and just moved to buy it, to hurry read it.

and baby, it’s an amazing book. well, not that there’s a dragon, or hobbit inside, or telling you stories about frog who becomes a prince once a simple girl kiss him -and your Dad is laughing now-, it’s simply a collection of Grandpa’s letters to his Autism grandson, named Sam.

I’ll write the review later, but what I’d like to share with you is how you communicate is truly up to your choice, and now in this century, we have a lot of media to communicate, and it’s fully yours to decide which one will you use.

Grandpa chose a letter, that contain words and every single character inside it, to share, to communicate. well, you’ll be one of the next generation that might invent new media to communicate better, but even until now, if you look around, words to write, never die, baby.

it became more than culture. more than any disease, if you want to call it that. otherwise, it’s something that we would call ‘written history’.

and Grandpa wrote to his grandson, his daily lives, so that his grandson would understand the world better, no matter if he’s still alive or not.

that such simple thing that brings a lot more meanings, even to imagine that the grandson will finally understand grandpa’s letters when he’s already gone (to meet God) and people like me who read his book will share with him, just simply unremarkable. those simple words build unlimited connections and for that, I must admit, it’s one of God’s faces.

…and it wont be too long before it’s time for you to write.

and we have all the time in the world for that, my dear.

meanwhile, good night.
sleep tight,
kisses from your mom and dad.
love u.

Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 12:18am

the boy in the striped pajamas

Forget all of your schedule to meet friends and co-workers to debate about Life. Re-schedule them if you need to. Find your comfort zone, then read this book. Introducing Bruno, a nine year old boy, who happened to meet a boy in the striped pajamas. Turn your radar off, about Life, Man, Rasio, Heart, Death. Leave it all behind. For a while, be someone who knows a little, too little., then follow Bruno. Trust me, trust him (Bruno), it’s worth an adventure, even more than a trip to Bali!

Friday, May 16, 2008 at 4:54pm