The typical year-end post: recap...and more on omens

Hi. This the last entry in the year 2010. The 25th, to round up. The year 2010 was ok - I lost some passions this year, broke up with a boyfriend (I was the dumper, not the dumpee, so everything was fine), unexpectedly have stayed in the same job (if by February 2011 I'm still at Lessons I'll have worked there a year - a record for a full-time job thus far!) - but overall it was better than 2009. 2009 was crap. A year I don't want to remember. I'm hoping 2011 will be more than just ok. Hope it will be rocking!

And omens. Yes. A chick I went to secondary, high school and diploma with, Tika, has just passed away (those who speak Indonesian: the obituary, which is not really an obituary, but well...). The moment I heard about her passing, I remember I haven't added her back on Facebook (I have soo many friend requests, I can get up to more than ten a day), so I added her right away to check if the news was true. I didn't even have to look at the many condolences on her wall. Right after I added her, first on the list of "people you might know" (friends in common with the newly added friend) was Sanny Sanura, a high school friend who passed away ten years ago of drowning in a river (of course Sanny's Facebook account was made by someone else as a memorial). Anyway, coming across Sanny's account right after adding Tika was like a sign that Tika really had joined him up there.

Omens...

I believe in omens. Six years ago, as I was finishing my English language vocational degree at UI, I was planning to get my bachelor's degree overseas but I had no idea exactly where I was going. Around March 2004, I came across a forum about The Whale Rider. The Whale Rider is a critically-acclaimed New Zealand movie whose leading actress, then 14-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes, was nominated for Best Actress in Academy Awards. The forum mentioned that Keisha was half Maori and half Pakeha. I had no friend from New Zealand, I often forgot the country existed, but right then and there I knew what "Pakeha" was. It's Maori for "caucasian". I wasn't so sure it was an omen that I'd move to New Zealand, but I did feel that somehow the country was waiting for me.

One year and four months later, I packed my bags and moved to Auckland, the biggest city in The Land of The Long White Cloud. The Whale Rider, by the way, never screened in Indonesian cinemas.

At home, we have a set of antique Italian-made picture frames. The set consists of one big frame, filled with a picture of Mum and Dad taken circa 1985, and two smaller ones filled with pictures of my brother and me respectively, taken circa 1987. The pictures have hung on the wall of my dad's study since 2001 (after ten years of being hidden somewhere, since we moved from our old house.) Just recently I took the frames off the wall and saw the backsides. On the back of the big frame there's an engraved writing that reads, "A souvenir from Poerwani, Ningsih, Mini and Wasti. Jakarta, 12/1/1983." On the back of my brother's frame is a painting of some 18th century European royalty I can't recognize, and guess what's on the back of my frame...A famous painting of Marie Antoinette! Even if you're not a long-time follower of my blog, you can tell right away I'm a Marie Antoinette fan from the Marie Antoinette and Marie Antoinette the movie badges in my fanlisting columns. This is also an omen. That Marie Antoinette painting has sat behind my picture for about 23 years. I first heard about the ill-fated Austrian princess-turned-French queen when I was 12, in 1995.

In remembrance of happier times...

A friend that used to follow my old blog asked me why I didn't blog as often I did.

Ok, here's why. Again.

I keep to myself a lot lately. I have so many thoughts that I simply don't feel like sharing with the world. For one, my aspirations are changing and I haven't even come to terms with it. I guess the world has had enough of my coming-of-age stories, they need to know no more.

Those were the happy days, yeah. Now that I'm back to school and have (sort of, for now) decided to stick to my teaching gig because at least I don't have to think a lot while postgrad has given me so much to think already and the money is good, I should be able to whip out entries about how unique my students are, how Terrorism Studies postgrad is driving me crazy, how blessed I am to have my friends at Terrorism. And there's this guy...no, two...But I just don't have the vigour anymore. I'm still wondering why a lot of things have changed, yet I feel nothing has changed. Explanation is impossible.

Oh, and I've given up my dream of becoming a writer. So stop expecting a best seller from yours truly.

But there's no way I'll really stop blogging. That being said, expect your name, or at least your initial, to surface again. Hahaha. Consider that a warning.

To a (supposedly) former arch enemy and one I can't name...

Someone who was almost my arch enemy back in high school is turning 27 today. To wish her a happy birthday or not? I'm dying to bury the hatchet. I have a feeling so is she. It's been ten years, we're not teenagers anymore and the whereabouts of the guy we fought over are unknown - I don't think we still care about him. But experience has proven that, arch enemy or not, annoying traits do stay.

So yeah, happy 27th birthday CKR. May your life be joyful in the year to come.

Please don't hesitate to drop me a line if you follow my blog (like I tried to follow your LJ but I couldn't because it was private, followed your MSN blog for a while and now your Twitter - all in secret, of course.) I want to see us exchaning friendly hello's for the first time in nine years.

And to ... (I'm afraid to even type your initial), I'm sorry our long-standing friendship, which we brought to a new level in 2008, had to end. I meant well. You've always had a soft spot in my heart, no matter what you've done. But I have a feeling that this is temporary. You, my love, are taken by my real personality and before long you'll change your mind and we can be friends again!

Oh, to try to hang on to your real self in La La Land...

Whoa, what do we have here? Another troubled Disney star.

Hey guys. Been forever. Uni and work have been driving me loca these days. I breathe students, Realism, Liberalism, Salafi, Napoleon...

Bet all of you have heard what happened to one of Disney's remaining squeaky clean stars. Demi Lovato has just admitted herself to rehab on the issues of eating disorder and self mutilation attempts. While we give kudos to Demi for taking personal responsibility to seek help, one cannot help but recall her song about staying real in Hollywood that she released two years ago.



Staying yourself in the La La Land machine certainly has taken its toll...