Christmas is here!

Have a merry Christmas! Wishing you all the magic and happiness Christmas can offer!

Year in, year out.

Sometimes I need to be reminded that my proper blog still exists. This past year, I've sort of taken up treating the Facebook status like a mini blog. Like Twitter. Speaking of which, I'm on Twitter as well.

2009 in review...Not a good year, for the most part. But it was definitely different. For one, most years of my life I was in school, and 2009 was my first out-of-school year since probably 1985. Secondly, this is the first year since 2005 that's seen me coupled...twice. Hahahaha. This year also sees the brave new start of my used books store, Vintage Reading. By the way, Multiply's moving their server to New Jersey from Miami, so some pictures aren't showing. New updates and promos (December is Girl Talk Festival) are stored on its Facebook fanpage for the time being!

I know I set up rather unrealistic goals last year for 2009 (after several years of no resolutions at all), but now I have simple wishes for 2010. Nailing a career (by "career" I mean a job I truly love. I smell journalism...) and for Vintage Reading to do better.

The Taylors...

On a recent Ellen DeGeneres show country songstress Taylor Swift talked about how the first name she shared with co-star Taylor Lautner (of The New Moon fame, of course) caused a lot of confusion on the set of their movie Valentine's Day. T. Swift said she came up with the solution of allowing everyone on the set to call her "Swiftly" and Lautner "Taylor".

And that's not the first time Taylor Lautner worked with a female Taylor. In 2005, Lautner co-starred alongside Taylor Dooley in The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3D. Bet it caused just as much confusion on the set!

Would be interesting to see Lautner work with yet another female Taylor in his next project. Yep, I'm thinking Taylor Momsen.

After the bookstore, now comes...

A new boyfriend. Yes fellas, I'm proud to announce that as of November 2 2009 I'm no longer on the market. The lucky guy is this good-looking halfcast (Dutch father, Manadonese mother), holder of an engineering degree and is currently learning Islam! Yes we're that seriois! His name is Willem Keemink.
In the meantime, don't forget to check out my store Vintage Reading! A lot of good deals await, and I'm currently adding more to the existing collections.

Soft Launching of My Bookstore

Yes folks it's here! We're ready for business! Don't forget to order something!

Blast from the past, courtesy of the world's sexiest woman

Hahaha I love this Megan Fox quote...

Starscream is the sexiest Transformer. 'Cause he just is. Why is Simba sexy? He just was. Maybe it was because Jonathan Taylor Thomas was the voice. I can't tell you. It's something I just feel."

First of all, good thing she remembers Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Secondly, JTT must be having an orgasm these days because (a)the prettiest woman in the world (though according to the likes of FHM) mentioned him in public and suggested he made Simba from The Lion King sexy, and (b)maybe it will give him a chance to revive his career?

Meet Vanilla, if you haven't already...

If you remember this girlband Vanilla chances are you lived in UK or Ireland during the heyday of Spice Girls. However, if you did live there during that time but didn't remember them anyway, it's not your fault because Vanilla really wasn't put together to give Spice Girls, All Saints or even Solid Harmonie a run for their money. The band was set up after record company execs made a bet about writing the worst pop song imaginable and sending it to the top of charts. The song was No Way No Way.

And, sure enough, No Way No Way won 'Worst Song' accolades. It's true that the whole thing was a joke, but we're not sure whether the worst song charts were the kind of charts those record execs had in mind...

What a classic!

I can hardly believe it's been ten years since the release of this video, the one that catapulted Jennifer Lopez to stardom. Hahaha look at the browser...But the layout and 'contents' of J.Lo's website are timeless (at least to date). Oh, and that' Internet TV' thing would be YouTube in the present day.
And the part that perturbs me? It's where the little girl watches J.Lo and copies her moves. I know, I know. I'm a typical feminist studies scholar.
Always loves the voyeurism theme!

Kids are more than meets the eye...

Hey guys!
My foster family from NZ, The Napiantos, is currently here. They're actually Indonesian. At first it was just the husband and wife who migrated to Auckland as newlyweds in 1999 or 2000. The couple went to have two kids born there (Haikal and Hafsyah), have permanent residence, and move to Australia in early 2008.
Yesterday we spent the entire day with them. Aunt Dina and Hafsyah and my mum, who'd been hanging out since 1 PM, picked me up from I Can Read at 6 PM, then we went to Emporium to have dinner. Meanwhile, Uncle Hendar, Haikal, my dad and my bro were jamming at our practice studio. The family Napianto didn't leave the Arslan pad until around 11 PM, and they might come again this Sunday, just four days before they fly back to Koalaland.
While my dad, Uncle Hendar, and my bro were jamming (they played mostly Beatles songs), the Napianto kids and I had a chitchat in the small soundproof room in front of the studio (which is also soundproof.) Hafsyah, who had been quiet unlike the little girl I knew back in Auckland, for the first time really talked to me. She asked, "Kakak Nana, why aren't you in New Zealand?" I was surprised when the question escaped her cute little mouth. I thought she completely forgot me since she refused to look at me when I saw her for the first time in 1,5 years. I explained that I had finished university, and had a hard time finding a full-time job thanks to the recession. That NZ, being a small country, was one of the worst-hit countries. I didn't even bother to explain the word 'recession' to the kids (aged 5 and 7 respectively)...and to my surprise they understood what I was talking about. Haikal and Hafsyah asked, "What about your fellow foreign friends from university? They left as well?" I told them a story about a Vietnamese friend who worked for L'Oreal NZ for seven (or nine?) months after graduating from my university, but had to leave due to the cost cutting policy of the company. I didn't even use the words 'get fired' but again the kids knew what I was implying. Little Hafsyah asked, "And what did your friend do after he got fired?" while Haikal asked, "Did L'Oreal keep the big, old bosses?"
These kids have such big brains!

Oh no they didn't...

I used to read Cleo magazines while chilling at the Gloria Jean's opposite Imax back in Auckland. Among the Cleo's was the issue whose sealed section contained pictures of naked couples telling about their, um, sexual activities. Lynne and Antonios (their surname undisclosed in the section) interested me the most because they had the biggest age gap (when that issue came out (in April 2008 if I remember correctly), Lynne was 24 and Antonios 45.)
Fast forward a year, several days ago while having nothing to do, I punched in 'Antonios and Lynne' on Google, hoping to find out the Cleo May-December couple's last name. And gosh did they cause ripples. And did I find out more than just their surname. The parents of one of Lynne Tziolas' students at Narraweena School, where she taught grades 1 and 2, reported The Tziolas' raunchy pose to the school's executive board. That resulted in Lynne getting discharged from Narraweena, and she fought back, taking legal actions to be reinstated.
I myself have mixed opinions about this case. First of all yes teachers do have sex life, private life, and it's up to them what to do about it. In Lynne's case, she must have thought posing naked for Cleo wouldn't be a problem, since she taught 7-year-olds and 7-year-olds don't read Cleo, right? Plus, the pose was in a sealed sex special section. You have to buy the magazine first to be able to tear the section open. Mrs. Tziolas even stated that she wouldn't have done it had she been a high school teacher. On the other hand, when I try to put myself in the shoes of the concerned parents, I can see what this might cause in the long run. Who knows, ten years down the road that magazine still exists in thrift stores and Lynne's students - now ex students and about 17 years old - might find it and think posing naked with your spouse on a magazine is cool. It's absolutely not. You don't make money by selling your private parts to the public eye. You make money by using your brain to make the world a better place.
Anyway, the Tziolas brouhaha also made news here in Indonesia, just not in the headlines.

Fashion mishap?

The Zima sisters at the 2007 Hollywood Style Awards. I don't know what movies Vanessa and Yvonne are in, but you might remember eldest sister Madeline, right, as Gracie Sheffield from The Nanny. Anyway, what kind of dress is Yvonne (middle) wearing? Take a look at the top of the dress. Doesn't it look like a bra to you? It does so to me. The whole ensemble looks like a tube dress lowered down to below the breasts and topped with a bra. Not a good look. And with that hairdo, she seems to scream 1992. But anyhoo, it's a good vintage outcome, especially if she sported that look unwittingly.

That mandatory MJ entry

1958 - 2009

Michael Jackson has died. I think now is the time, more than ever, to blame it on the boogie.

One simply must respect the enormity of Michael Jackson's death. Shame on those people who were suing him for cancelling his shows, kinda obvious he had a valid reason.

In the long run how much does it affect you...Didn't you all forget about him because of his trials and the last album?

Rest in peace, genious.

Good riddance

If you're wondering, the boyfriend and I are no more. He dumped me like he never went to school.
I'd say good riddance. I didn't have feelings for him in the first place. True I loved him, but the love came well into the relationship. And I'll get a new guy in no time - not that I'm desperate for it. He was in competition with another guy from the old office when he approached me, and even back in my fat and pimply days in New Zealand the best-looking guys around hit on me.

Remember when pre-teens were actually mini grown-ups?

I came across the first episode of Girl Talk on Youtube the other day. If you grew up between the late '80s to the early '90s (or mid '90s to those in Indonesia), you must remember a series of books chronicling the everyday life of four 13-year-olds from the fictional city of Acorn Falls, Girl Talk. Well this show Girl Talk wasn't an adaptation of the series into the small screen. Instead the show, which aired in 1989, was a talk show where three host, the then very young Soleil Moon Frye, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Russell Koplin, discussed girly matters like sleepovers, clothes, boys, school, music, and boys.

Anyway, here's the only surviving episode (on YouTube) of Girl Talk. It's comprised of three parts, but we need only the first and last bits...





Take a look at their school clothes and the going out clothes that they wear to see the Knight brothers. Don't you think Soleil's yellow shirt looks two sizes too big? Russel's school clothes too heavy? How about their party clothes - TUXEDO!? On a girl? The black blazer and mini dress on Soleil scream a 13-year-old trying to pretend she's 25. Which sets me thinking. There must have been no pre-teen fashion back in the day. The likes of Urban Angel and Jay Jays must have been non-existent. You were either a kid or an adult, and adulthood started at 16.

Heya!

Hey hey Blogger :) Finally I jumped on the tagcloud bandwagon! What a refreshing feeling! Ok, first thing first. I'd like to wish someone a belated 33rd birthday, and look what I've found for you, you huge Burger King fan!



That's four-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar, in a 1981 Burger King commercial. It's said to be one of the first commercials that blatantly named their competitors, and obviously McDonald's sued Burger King, the advertising agency that released the commercial, and the then four-year-old Sarah! The charges were dropped a year later, but I wonder if she was (or still is) ever banned from McDonald's...