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Wednesday, October 29, 2003
delicious foodlately i've been eating lots of delicious food... *thanks, god* and almost all of them didn't cost me.. hehehe... here's the list:- starting with last friday night when i had a rendezvous with my junior high school friends at pisa cafe. my choice was "spagheti-gindara-spinach" *or something like that* i looooove smashed spinach so much, especially when it's served with homemade mashed potato. - for saturday lunch, i ate at my auntie's home. it's a luxury for me to have home cooking food coz since i stay alone out from my home sweet home i must always buy food for my lunch and dinner and don't always get good rice. :( - at saturday night i tasted "bihun goreng" (fried thin rice noodles) with my taize friends from theresia church & we're sitting by the side of lombok street, entertained by a very old man playing sitar. *a so rare experience in jakarta* - on sunday, my family's relative invited us to have lunch on their new home in pantai indah kapuk. again, free delicious food! *yummy* after that we stopped by at "jesslyn k cakes" to buy more delicious breads and cakes. my friend just told me a story about this jesslyn. he said its owner learned how to make breads from singapore breadtalk's competitor in malaysia. *no wonder they also sell flosss, the most famous breadtalk bread* talking about breadtalk, whose breads create such a long queue here, it's proved that jakarta people likes to "buy" lifestyle. they have high taste and will willingly spend their money for that. - lastly on sunday night: tom yam soup & gindara+lemon sauce at chatter box, plaza indonesia. my friend dared to taste spicy food whereas his tongue is used with sweet javanase food and he insisted on paying the bill afterwards. *see... so many nice people around ;p* stelly @ 7:52 PM Thursday, October 23, 2003 review: the magdalene sisters it's review time again, folks, and today we're going to ireland, in the mid 1960s. this film is not fiction. it tells the real fact about a church-run asylum in ireland (run by sisters of mercy), where catholic girls were sent by their families, for years, sometimes lifetimes, for unjust reasons. the story centers on 3 teenage girls who were sent to the asylum to be spiritually rehabilitated from their "moral crime". in the film's first scene, a handsome young priest is singing at a wedding, pounding the bodhran (irish drum). *i love this scene as it adds so much to the dramatic opening*
one girl is invited into a room upstairs by her male cousin. she thinks nothing of it, but a few minutes later, she has been raped. when she tells her friend what has happened, and while the music still plays, the world quickly spreads. the next early morning, her parents put her in a car and take her off to magdalene laundries. it is she, not the rapist, who is punished. a second girl has just given birth to a baby, to her family's shame. then a priest comes, gives her a pen to sign a paper to give her baby away. the third girl's "crime" is flirting a little too long with the boys who passed her orphanage, although there's no indication that she has done anything more than tease them a bit. the teachers look worriedly and decide to take the safest route: lock her up. she is sent to the asylum just for being pretty. *mind u, u only had to look potentially at 'risk' before being sent to the asylum. looks like there's a wrong belief in the community at that time that women and their bodies are evil.*  the girls were forced to work in laundries for 8 to 10 hours each day, 7 days a week, under the strict supervision of the nuns, with 100% of the profits going to the nuns. they're living under lock with no rights, no freedom, no privacy, and no contact with the outside world. they had almost no chance of release. if a girl tries to escape, her head is shaved. while the nuns eat plenty of meals, the girls only get a bowl of very simple food. and when the nuns get bored, they torment the girls by ordering them to stand naked while they vote on who has the smallest breasts and most pubic hair. even a priest has taken sexual advantage of a mentally disabled girl who is sent there by her family who thinks she might fall victim to men if not institutionalized. *how ironic*
the screenplay is based on magdalene victims' testimony. it is so scary to think that such things really happened, that some girls were kept there for their entire lives. and to my surprise, there are several laundries in ireland built on 1700s with the last laundry closed in 1996! the director had such passion for the topic and was successful in making people aware of it. i don't think the writer-director made this movie to accuse finger at catholic church, but at a social system that so easy robbed thousands of women of their liberty with little explanation and no hearing, and also at a human institution run by the greed and corrupt nuns. "i was an unmarried girl i'd just turned 27 when they sent me to the sisters for the way men looked at me." (joni mitchell, "the magdalene laundries) stelly @ 9:11 AM Sunday, October 19, 2003 review: what a wonderful world :(lots of interesting things happened lately. well interesting to me would be boring to u, but i'm gonna tell u anyway, my fellow readers. coz... that's the whole purpose of what this blog is all about... right?! *wink wink* shall we begin... (warning: i have a feeling that this will be a looooong entry).starting with the movie i saw on friday night: "bowling for columbine". this is a brillian documentary where michael moore - the film maker - explores the big question: why america produces such a greatest number of violence and deaths resulting from fireguns. the country is also known for another specialty: mass murders that are often committed by very young people. it begins with moore opening an account at a bank where there's an incentive program: u open an account and u get a gun. *no fooling* the bank is also a licensed gun dealer! this film is insprired a part by the columbine high school massacre in colorado where 2 students opened fire on their friends before turning the weapons against themselves. 15 died: 14 students and 1 teacher. and before the shooting the boys went to a BOWLING class (moore sarcastically questioned whether bowling should be blamed of this killing). it was also the same morning when bill clinton dropped extensive boms in kosovo. moore then wondered about the reasons behind this violence. is it the rock music (rocker mr.marlyn manson), violent films, or history? i agree with the rocker manson's saying when moore interviewed him. he said..."maybe it wasn't the media or music, maybe it was the actions of the u.s. while we were dropping bombs, so were they. what's the difference?" moore also interviewed the author of "the culture of fear". he's talking about the 'making money oriented' tv news programs. if it bleeds, it leads. the whole idea is to capture the audience with shocking and provocative stories to keep them watching. tv news is full of murders, rapes and fires, and it surely drives a lot of FEAR. we're living in a culture of fear - he said. fear of violence. fear of disease. fear of war. fear of our neighbors. fear of black men. it is FEAR that makes american kills each other. the author said, while the real nation's murder rate declined, the number of murder stories on tv increased much much more. how can u stop this culture of fear from entering your own home? what can we do? not watching tv?? the statistic fact is powerful by the way. the movie notes that u.s. have a highest records of firearm homicides. it's more than 10.000 a year (compared with only 100s in canada). (moore also traveled to canada interviewing the residents and city officials and he found that the canadian doesn't even lock their doors!) the ironic american policy history is also cited: america trained osama bin laden and his army to kill soviets, america gave $ to saddam husein to defeat iranians, america secretly financed iran to defeat iraqis, and so on until the sept 11 disaster planned by osama and his cia trained armies, plus several "helps" u.s. did on solving government problems all over the world. one of special interviews was made with the nra president who is also a pride actor. the nra (national riffle association) does not believe in any forms of gun control and supports the right of gun owner to purchase and sell any forms of guns. the actor was speechless and even walked away when moore questioned him regarding the highest statistic of america's firearm violence. moore also shamed him for showing at one nra campaigns immediately following the columbine massacre. moore has such a talent of interviewing people that this nra president came close enough to unmasking himself as an uncaring racist. in animated history of america, moores links the nra with the ku klux klan. oh, and there's also a highlight scene when 2 columbine survivors, accompanied by moore, ask k-mart not to sell any more bullets. they finally get promise from k-mart's management of a total withdrawal of bullets from the store within 3 months. too bad the massacre had to be happen first. well, it's definetely a movie all americans should see. stelly @ 11:33 PM Thursday, October 16, 2003 gamedo u know "the missionaries & cannibals puzzle"? it's about 3 missionaries and 3 cannibals who wish to cross the river but they have a problem of not ever leaving one missionary with more than one cannibal or otherwise they'll eat him. i just received its flash version from one colleague in surabaya and it's reminded me of my brother's assignment long time ago that i helped to solve. it's the same puzzle! interested to try? please click here and try beating it.stelly @ 5:37 PM Wednesday, October 15, 2003 about becoming momgot a message on my mobile : "dear stelly, dah ke dokter kmrn malem & positif - doain gue yg dah mo jadi mami2 ya biar anak gue cantik & pintar kayak elu. hehehe. thank u ste... :-]" *translation: "dear stelly, have seen the doctor last night & POSITIVE - please pray for me who is about to become a mom so that my child will be pretty and clever like you.*this sweet friend of mine married last year on febr 2nd. i remember that day i was supposed to sing the opening song in her wedding mass in bogor. unfortunately there was quite a huge flood that morning and it covered some main streets in jakarta and also blocked the exit road near my home. even the choir whose personnels from jakarta couldn't make it there. *so sorry, pei...* and though u're worried that u're not ready to be mom, i know u can!! many women can... :) being mom is a wonderful experience. u'll learn so much from that innocent creature and i bet u'll rejoice each day of it. have a happy and healthy pregnancy! Having a baby changes the way you view your in-laws. I love it when they come to visit now. They can hold the baby and I can go out. -- Matthew Broderick (on Sarah-Jessica Parker's in-laws) stelly @ 9:41 AM Tuesday, October 14, 2003 Zip A Dee Doo Dahlife is a mix of joy and sadness. yesterday we just smiled, who knows for sure today we won't burst into tears? sometimes i'm so fragile it hurts my body. there r times when i'm sort of running out energy and have no spirit at all to do anything. i'm not used to feeling like this but when this feeling comes and overwhelmes me, i'm such a needy child inside and that scares me. but thanks to enough sleep and morning sun, i'm usually back on happy mode again at the beginning of the day. there r so many things i wanna do in my life, starting today. it makes my heart want to sing...Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay, My, oh, my, what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine headin' my way, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay! Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -- Mark Twain stelly @ 8:02 AM Wednesday, October 08, 2003 review: jeepers creepers! last night i saw this not-so-good movie, jeepers creepers 2. i was actually expecting a horror movie but what i got was a flying demon who appeared more than he should. the teen conversation is so bored and dumb. no wonder there are only 7 of us in the theatre. but what does jeepers creepers mean? hopefully it's included in my cambridge dictionary. it's an exclamation expressing a surprise. it's similar to "gosh!" or "gee!". *jeepers, what a movie!* and it's getting interesting when i extended my search to the internet. jeepers creepers is an old-fashioned phrase that was used in the 1920s and 1930s. people rather say it instead of cursing. and in the 1930s, there was a hit song called "jeepers creepers", which is about a young woman's beautiful eyes ('peepers'). its phrase 'jeepers creepers, where'd you get those peepers?' is still widely known. *interesting, huh?*stelly @ 5:37 PM Tuesday, October 07, 2003 review: the italian job.jpg) on saturday night i watched "the italian job" which is full of chasing scenes. only once in the beginning the scene is so calm - it is when they shoot the beautiful venice canals. but soon its intense tension kept my adrenaline pumping. new bmw mini coopers become the stars in the movie, and also charlize theron. i've seen her movies before like the devil's advocate, that thing u do, the astronaut's wife, the cider house rules, men of honor, and sweet november. the last movie is the one i'm going to talk about.  it's a sweet and charm movie which reunites charlize and keanu as lovers. charlize is a charming person who brings out the best in everyone she meets. she is a free-spirited woman who is full of "joie de vivre" (joy of life) spirit. she has a strange habit of taking a new lover every month. she moves them into her appartment, uses her gift to fix them psychologically and then moves on to the next fella.  keanu on the contrary, is a workaholic advertising executive with a cell phone permanently attached to his hand. he is so self-centered, arrogant, and cares only about him and his job. he can get all the money and sex he wants, but has an empty and shallow relationship with his girlfriend. when charlize meets him, she directly sees him as her new project. so she convinces him to spend a month with her so that she can help him overcome his unresolved emotional issues. she promises to show him what life is all about : to enjoy the simple pleasures life has to offer, to take time to hear the birds singing, to learn to slow down... she promises to change keanu's life for the better in 30 days beginning on nov,1. after 30 days, he is free to go back to his fast-paced life and forget all about her. keanu finally learns what it means to live and love and *as always* falls in love with her. *surprise surprise* charlize is dying of cancer. that's the reason behind her fear of commitment. because of her cancer, she has now quited her former fast-paced life to live for the moment. she believes life is great and wonderful adventure meant to be enjoyed and treasured. she then focused her life on having fun and helping as many people as she can. a month is long enough to accomplish her objective and short enough not to be serious. one thing i don't agree in this movie is that charlize's character doesn't have hope in god. her hope in in this life only. whereas as christians, my hope is in god who loves me. *jesus, i trust in you* however, this film leaves us a positive message: we should take time to recognize the beauty of life and treat others kindly. "it is better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all" (alfred lord tennyson) stelly @ 10:09 AM Saturday, October 04, 2003 one too-early-morningone too-early-morning, i got a message on my phone from my friend : "if someone like you and that someone is occupied, what should he do?" at that time i need to re-read the sentence twice before i can understand the meaning correctly. and since my friend sent it at 2 am in the morning, i guess it must be HE himself who was struggling with the question, trying to find an answer. so my friend like someone, but being with someone else, he is confused what to do. let me give u my opinion...liking someone is very human. all god's creature are very unique and easy to be liked. i believe people come into your life for some sort of purpose, whatever it is. nothing happens by chance. so if u like someone else rather than your girlfriend, be thankful for that. it proves u're still a normal guy. :) open your heart, appreciate every moment as long as u can *for u might never be able to experience it again* i'm not teaching u to betray your girlfriend... but based on my own experiences, we should be more relax in maintaining our relationship with someone. hold it loosely with freedom and it remains with u. hold it tight and it will slip away. *it's like holding sand in the palm of your hand* so, let yourself fall in love, because u're a great person and u have every right to. stelly @ 11:35 PM Thursday, October 02, 2003 i just asked building maintenance crew to reduce the ac vent above my head. it's usually very cold here that i have to wear a few layers of clothing. besides, too much exposure to an ac will make our skin dry, right?! tomorrow i'm going to survey ciputra hotel swimming pool. i've called them asking about the price. it's reasonable - 300thousand rupiahs for 3 months, opens from 6am to 10 pm. hopefully i can persuade some of my friends so i get motivated to swim there regularly. stelly @ 2:57 PM Wednesday, October 01, 2003 marriage testgot an email with "how about getting married" attachment. and here's my result:TYPE D You don't have much fantasy towards marriage. You think marriage is taking away your freedom and privacy, and this is what you are trying so hard to avoid. You feel very irritated when someone stops you from doing something you like. Although you want to have a partner, you don't want to get married, so that you can commit all your time and effort on your carrer and interests. Having a free and comfortable life is what you dream of. However, sometimes you are attacked by loneliness, this is the time to surround yourself with a group of friends. my comment: it may be right for this moment, but as i said once in my previous post, i would love to walk down the aisle one day in my life. stelly @ 9:25 AM |
