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Memories of a Broken Heart

Wow it's been almost 4 years since I actually wrote something. So many things have happened and I'm having a hard time "staying afloat" in life, thus this blog gets neglected ^^;;

The reason that I suddenly want to write in the middle of this hectic schedule though, is that I just read a manga in which at one point the heroine was dumped by the boyfriend unexpectedly. The author was really great at conveying the emotions that I suddenly reminisced about my own experience. It was so accurate that I could relate 100% to the girl's feelings because I underwent the exact same emotional states. The shocking moment the guy asked to break up... So shocking that everything just felt unreal. I remembered feeling as if the time stopped, my mind just when blank and I couldn't think or hear of anything else. It wasn't until a moment later after he left the scene that I realized what was happening and I broke down in tears. We were together only for 2 months; yes it was a short time and I was still a kid at the time. Even so, I loved him dearly and it broke my heart to find out he wanted to cut off our relationship so fast. I recalled asking myself repeatedly what I did wrong and why I was not enough for him. I also remembered waking up in the middle of the night everyday to find myself crying. Every time I saw him at school, I felt that my heart was torn into pieces.

When I remembered those moments, I felt the urge to write about it. I was originally thinking of posting on Facebook, but it was not really appropriate since I had my colleagues in there and they probably didn't care to know. So then I thought this was the perfect timing to write something on the blog, since only people who cared to know about me would visit and read my blog. Going back to the topic though, it took me several months, if not a year, to finally recover and go about my daily life as usual. Years later, I had my second relationship and now I'm happily married to my husband.

I think it's because I have a strong empathy that every time I see a similar situation, be it in a drama, comic, or a friend's experience, I end up recalling all those emotions again. In any case, my decision to write about it is to encourage any readers who are currently going through a heart break. It is extremely painful, and I know it feels like the world is coming to an end, but please hang in there. You might be asking why you still cannot forget him/her even after all these times. I am so sorry and I know nothing I say could make you feel better. Even so, please remember that time will heal your heart eventually so hang in there...

The King 2 Hearts

Nowadays it's pretty rare that I get the urge to write on my blog. I admit I have been lazy. But I strongly feel I have to write a review on this particular drama before it fades away from my memories, which could only mean that it's powerful enough to impact my current state of living.

The drama that I just finished watching recently is called The King 2 Hearts. It's a fictional k-drama about South Korean prince (or king later on) falling in love with a North Korean military soldier. The genre is a mixture of action and romance. Hearing the title being mentioned over and over again among some k-drama lovers, I tried watching the trailer and decided to watch it because it seemed interesting.

The start of the drama didn't go so well for me. It was kind of boring. The lead male character (Jae Ha - the South Korean king) was acted by Lee Seunggi, and I've seen him before in My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox with a pretty similar characteristics: immature and acting like a jerk. Similarly Ha Ji Won, who played the lead female character (Hang Ah - the North Korean lady), always acts as that strong girl like in Secret Garden or Sector 7. One thing that I've learnt from watching so many k-dramas is if I can finish the first episode, no matter how boring it is, it's probably not gonna be that bad. For some reason the first 2-3 episodes of k-dramas (with the exception of The Greatest Love) always make me bored. With that kind of mentality I decided to continue watching it, and I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be a really good one.

The number one reason I feel is the perfect choice of cast. Every single one of them can really act, even down to the minor supporting roles. As I stated earlier, I'm not that fond of Lee Seunggi and Ha Ji Won (I don't hate them either, I'm just neutral) because they keep having similar characters, but still they are good at acting those roles. I feel more content with Ha Ji Won especially, because she displays more range of emotions (and for some reason prettier haha..) than in Secret Garden. Lee Yoon Ji, who acted as princess Jae Shin - Jae Ha's sister, is as good as usual (she was that teacher from Dream High season 1), or I should say even better. Jo Jung Suk was already good in What's Up?, but I only became his fan after watching this drama. He had the same awkward character like in What's Up? as Eun Shi Kyung - Jae Ha's right hand man and Jae Shin's bodyguard, but Eun Shi Kyung is 100% stronger physically and mentally. Jo Jung Suk is simply a fabulous actor, his portrayal of his character is just perfect. It's impossible not to fall in love with Eun Shi Kyung, he's such a sweet guy. In fact, I'm actually more of a supporter of Shi Kyung - Jae Shin couple than the main Jae Ha - Hang Ah couple. Yoon Je Moon played as the bad guy, John Mayer/Bong Gu. I've seen him before playing as the bad guy too in Midas, but here he's even better. Same with that foreigner lady who played Bong Bong (or Bon Bon?) - John Mayer's sadistic underling. The fact that they both creeped me out throughout the entire drama just proves that they are really good actor/actress. As I stated earlier, even minor roles like the WOC team members, the head of the palace maids, John Mayer's secretary, and those nasty politicians were acted really well too.

As far as the storyline goes, it kept me in suspense. Except the first two episodes, it was interesting and made me want to keep watching. The last one and a half episodes were unnecessary though. The idea of the problem is good and it could have warranted another arc in the story, but it wasn't developed long enough. For me it felt like they put it there just to make the drama longer. There is also one part where I felt so so so disappointed with the writers, but I guess that's more of my preference and has nothing to do with the quality of the storyline. I won't spoil it here in case you want to watch the drama, once you watch it though I'm sure you can tell which part exactly I'm talking about. The ending is good. My criteria of a good ending is it doesn't make you feel you just wasted your entire time watching the drama/movie. You know, there are those films where the story was actually good but just because the ending sucks (whether it was done abruptly, didn't really tell the conclusion, or just sucks in general) you feel that you just wasted your time (yep, I'm talking about you, Flames of Desire and Introduction to Architecture). But yeah, this drama didn't make me feel like that, so it's a good watch.

The King 2 Hearts passed my criteria of highly recommended dramas: I couldn't stop thinking about it even after it ended, which made me search for behind the scenes videos and cast interview articles online. So yeah, if you're looking for something to watch, try this one :)

My Lasik Experience part 1

Yesterday my eyes went through a now-common procedure called Lasik. This is something I had wanted to do ever since I got engaged and started to plan my wedding. I'd been living with my glasses since I was in middle school and I had no complaints. It's just that only for this one day, my wedding day, I didn't want to wear my glasses. Contacts were not an option since I wasn't comfortable touching my eyes and putting on eye drops. Anyways, as much as Lasik had been so common nowadays and I'd known so many people around me that got it done, I was still super scared. I'm not gonna go into that much details so that I won't scare people who are gonna go through it soon, but you probably have heard how Lasik procedure is done (if you're still waiting for your appointment time, I suggest not to watch any Lasik videos because it might freak you out). Really, the procedure is quite invasive. All this time my biggest worry was, what if something went wrong and I went blind? Thank God everything went well and I'm perfectly back to normal now. I have a pretty good experience, I thought I should write about it while it's still fresh in my mind.

I started with going online and find places with good reviews. Generally it's really hard to find reviews for medical related stuff, but I managed to find two clinics with several good reviews. After narrowing it down to one, I immediately called and scheduled my free exam. I was already nervous by the time I went through the exam. I repeatedly told the nurse and doctor that there were three different things that made me think twice about getting Lasik: getting my eyes touched, having to use eye drops, and becoming blind if something went wrong. They assured me that so far there had never been cases where someone went blind (even if there were, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't say that lol, but I don't care as long as it calmed me down). With eye drops, they asked me to buy lubricating drops and started practicing with it. As far as getting the eye touched, they also said they had been touching my eyes this whole time. I just didn't feel it because they used the numbing drops. Well, the clinic managed to assure me and I booked my procedure time immediately.

The appointment was still a month ahead, but I decided to google and find out more about people's Lasik experience. That was a bad move. Reading those made me freak out and I was so tempted to cancel my appointment. Luckily I remember people raving about some funny TV show called Shinhwa Broadcast so I decided to not think about Lasik at all and started watching the show instead. Boy, that show was super funny. My days were filled with Shinhwa Broadcast until I reached the week before the appointment day (while practicing my eye drop technique of course). The week before, I started preparing for my days after Lasik. From cleaning my dirty apartment, paying all my bills in advance, until buying food ready to eat for the next few weeks. I felt like I was ready to go to war!!! Hahahaha... Right then, my colleagues started asking me if I already made an arrangement to go home after the procedure. I told them I would go home by taxi. They said that wasn't a good idea since the eyes would hurt so bad ('burning hot' is the term they used), and what if the taxi driver took advantages of it. What got imprinted in my mind was the word 'burn' and I started freaking out again. I told my colleagues to help by stop talking about it, and I went online to read the good reviews for the clinic again. That calmed me back again, and to top it off I started watching other funny TV shows by Shinhwa since I finished the Shinhwa Broadcast.

The day of the procedure finally came. I got off work early, had lunch at home and took a shower, and went to the clinic by taxi (at the last minute I found a friend to pick me up when it's done). Surprisingly I was doing really good. Even until that morning I didn't feel nervous at all. I was still able to sleep, eat, and do everything normally. But as I was waiting for my turn to come, I started feeling the nervousness creeping up on me. Oh shoot... I felt like running away. I took out my phone and started looking for Shinhwa videos again when my name got called. The staff brought me to a 'personal waiting room' where I could do anything while waiting. They asked if I would like to take a mild sedative (calming meds), which I said "please". To my horror, the medicine came in the form of capsule >_< I was the kind of person who couldn't swallow medicines. Tablets were okay before I could chew it (it's bitter but I get used to it). I asked them to get me a spoon so I could take the medicines inside, but what's worse the capsule couldn't be opened!!! Oh fine, I put it in my mouth and tried to swallow it but it just wouldn't come in. I was forced to chew the capsule until I tasted the bitterness of it then I spit out the capsule container. Whew, first obstacle conquered. Next, the staff gave me a briefing on post-procedure care, what I should do and shouldn't do. She then gave me an ipad to play with while waiting for my procedure. Well then I should watch more funny Shinhwa videos!!! Apparently I became a fan ever since I watched Shinhwa Broadcast lol.

In the middle of watching and laughing, the doctor knocked. He said he would do one last exam before performing the procedure. I sat on the chair thinking of all the exams they had done a month before, but the only thing he did was looking at my eyes with bright light. Suddenly the staff started putting hairnet and asked me to lay down on the procedure bed. Before I could think of anything else, the bed moved and I was under this bright light. They put numbing eye drops, covered one of my eyes, taped my eyelashes of the other eye, put the eye ring (something to prevent you from blinking), and the light started blinking. Mannn it started before I even got a chance to think about anything! There were red light, green light, and some moment of darkness. I couldn't really remember much because I was just too nervous to pay attention to anything. I just remembered the machine sound making a countdown '30 seconds', '15 seconds', etc., which made me do my own countdown with my fingers xD The procedure itself was painless, it just felt like someone push or put a pressure on your eye. Things happened pretty fast and suddenly they moved to my second eye. I couldn't feel anything earlier but for some reasons, I was able to feel what happened on my second eye. Either the numbing drops had slightly worn off, or it didn't get enough of the drops. But since they already started and it didn't really hurt (I just felt my eye was being touched here and there) I stayed quiet and just sucked it up. Within a few minutes everything was done. Oh wow that was lightning fast!!! Immediately I was able to see! Thank God I didn't go blind! I started smiling and laughing with the staff, but I think I had been piling up the stress, worries, and nervousness. Because it was finally done, those feelings were released and my body started shaking/trembling by itself.

The doctor gave me a protector sunglasses which I should wear even to sleep for the next 24 hours. He reminded me to do all the post-procedure care instructions before he let me go. My eyes were able to see clearly when I was in the procedure room but when I got to the car, I felt like I was seeing through an old scratchy plastic/glasses. Contrary to what my colleagues had said, my eyes didn't feel burned at all. Throughout the ride home, my eyes produced excessive tears, which changed my voice too as if I had been crying. At that time I probably would be able to act in a sad movie and win the crying awards xD Because of the excessive tears though, my vision was blurred. It was like trying to see underwater. As soon as I got home, I took the recommended 4-6 hour nap. I couldn't really sleep because of the sticking sunglasses frame under my eyes, but even with only 3 hours of sleep, my eyes were back to normal. Hooray!!! By the next day, I was even able to drive myself to the clinic again for the 1-day checkup.

All in all, I'm quite satisfied with my Lasik experience. It's uncomfortable, but painless (I'm really bad with pain so if I say it's painless, it's really really painless :D). Still, it's a scary procedure. So unless you really have to, I wouldn't recommend it hahahaha... But if you really want to, I will confidently say, "You'll be fine. It's gonna be alright." I would like to say thanks to the staff and doctors at the clinic for performing my Lasik successfully; to my friend Mr. EI for agreeing right away to pick me up even at the last minute; to my husband for assuring me that everything's gonna be okay; and of course to Shinhwa for the laughs which kept me from running away xD

I'll continue with my post-procedure stories in the next post. For now thanks for reading :)

L'Arc~en~Ciel Concert 2012

Last week at this exact hour, I was at the Madison Square Garden in New York to watch one of my favorite bands: L'Arc~en~Ciel. I feel really nostalgic so I thought this might be the best time to relieve my memories and write about my experience.

I had always wanted to attend Laruku's concert so when they announced that they were coming to the US, I decided that I had to go no matter what. I went to Ticketmaster as soon as the presale started, but the front section ran out in about 8 minutes. I was too late and could only get the further ones.

As the concert date drew near, I kept having a mixed feeling. I was very excited to see Laruku but I also worried a lot about it (blame my worrywart personality). Seeing them live had been my number one wish for more than eleven years so I had a very high expectation. But their recent songs were not doing it for me. What if the songs that they sang were those newer ones which I didn't like at all? To be honest, I had been into K-Pop so I had not been listening to Laruku at all. I didn't remember any lyrics of their old hit songs. What if I couldn't sing along and enjoy the concert at all? It all came down to: what if they failed to meet my expectation? But this is Laruku we are talking about. They were so awesome and delivered a stunning performance. To my surprise, as soon as they played the intro, all the lyrics came back to my mind and I was able to sing along, dance, and jump around. I enjoyed it each and every second I was there.

Anyway, before going to the concert, I had checked online the concert goods they were going to sell. I was only interested in the hooded towel, but I think $70 for a towel is just too much. Since I didn't want to buy anything and every ticket is a fixed numbered seat, I decided not to go there early. The concert started at 8, but my fiancé and I arrived around 6 pm. Laruku concert wouldn't be complete without a glow stick, so I purchased one. I had always wanted to wave a glow stick like those fans in Laruku DVDs ^^ I thought I could do some people watching, but there weren't that many people with weird or flashy clothing. There were some, but not as many as during VAMPS concert a few years ago. The door finally opened maybe sometime around 7:30. As I had expected, my seat was soooo far away from the stage. Practically I won't be able to see anything on stage and could only rely on the big screens. I was glad that I asked my fiancé to bring his binocular, which helped a lot later on to see everything up close, to the point that each member's facial expressions were visible.

While waiting for the concert to start, I opened my glow stick packaging and was totally disappointed that I got the yellow color. I wanted blue the most, but everything else was fine as long as it wasn't yellow. I kept complaining and complaining, when suddenly the lights went out and everyone started to cheer. I stood up spontaneously and turned on my glow stick. Apparently it wasn't yellow but green! Cool!!! I couldn't believe that my dream to see Laruku was going to come true. I was way too excited that I was dazed and unable to grasp what was going on, so the opening was a little bit too hazy for me. With the help of Youtube videos, now I remember what the opening was like xD The screen displayed each member's name, then there was a movie of four people being encapsulated (reminds me of the Final Fantasy movie), with hyde opening his eyes, punching the screen, and the screen broke into pieces (in the movie, not real). The stage went dark again and suddenly the real hyde appeared under a spot light, singing solo for a little bit before finally joined by the entire band.

This is how the concert goes.

• Ibara no Namida (いばらの涙)
  This is the first song in the concert. As written above, hyde sang the first verse alone without any musical accompaniment (the stage was dark and only hyde was visible), then the stage light up and tetsu, ken, and yukihiro appeared. Forgive my inner fangirl, but hyde is soooo gorgeous ♥
• Chase
  
  yukihiro
  
• Good Luck My Way
• hyde MC
  

  What's up New York!!!!
  Where are we?
  Where?
  Yeahhh... *Or something like that. I just heard he made some grumbling noise* xD
  L'Arc~en~Ciel Madison Square Garden!!!
  We are the first Japanese band on this stage.
  *He said something but I couldn't hear it properly*
  We'll show you the best time tonight, alright? Alright!
  Are you ready???

• Honey
  One of the songs I voted for! Like usual, hyde played his guitar here.
  
  hyde playing guitar
  
• Drink It Down
  Another favorite song of mine :)
• Revelation
  I had always wanted to see this song performed live, and my dream came true. There was so much energy during this song. Of course I did the yelling part while jumping together with the other fans. At the beginning of the song, both Laruku and the fans (me included) did the yelling part for such a long time. So much fun!!!
• Jojoushi (叙情詩)
  They played the long intro first. As soon as I heard the intro, I kept telling my fiancé quietly, "My cell phone song! My cell phone song!" LOL. Throughout the entire song, hyde, ken, and tetsu were all sitting down in front of yukkie and his drums.
  
  tetsu
  
• XXX
• Fate
  Old time favorite. Whenever he sang the chorus I would start jumping like crazy xD
• Forbidden Lover
  Another old time favorite. But in order to match the sadness of the song, I decided to refrain myself from jumping and just wave serenely.
• My Heart Draws a Dream
  
  yukkie
  
  I was enchanted by hyde's smile *o*
  
• ken MC
  ken did the MC in English. He looked so cute reading it from a piece of paper. While it was a little difficult to understand because of his accent, I really appreciated that he tried speaking in English. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to understand him at all.
  

  Welcome to ### *I couldn't catch what he said*
  I came to new york a few days ago and I went to American Museum of Natural History because i love the movie "Night at The Museum".
  I asked the taxi driver, "Is American Museum of Natural History the museum in the movie?"
  He smiled and said, "Yessss!"
  I saw ### *didn't know what he said* and the American Indian and king by the entrance and I got very excited.
  At box office I asked again, "Is this museum in the movie?"
  He said, "Million people have asked me that."
  One of them *indicating himself*
  I didn't see ### *didn't hear it again* inside but do you know where he is?
  Where? Ha??? Haaaa??? Oh oh oh oh oh.
  *He said something here but I couldn't catch it again*
  I saw a lot of naked mannequins, almost naked so i took a lot of pictures *so typical of ken. LOL*
  The museum was so big. I got tired so I went back to hotel.
  By the way I bought a souvenir for yukkie.
  *He walked to the drum and give a bag of souvenirs to yukkie*
  *yukkie took out a box of monopoly from the bag*
  American monopoly!
  All four members of L'Arc~en~Ciel will play monopoly together at the hotel tonight.
  I bought a mug for myself too because it was very cute *laughing to himself, which made the audience laugh at him*
  *yukkie took out a mug and put it in front of his drum*
  Very cute. ### *didn't get what he said again*
  Enough of my talking
  Are you excited???
  Do you enjoy us?
  Do you enjoy us? *he said us, but he actually pat his butt*
  Ass? *pat his butt again*
  Not ass *pat his butt again*
  Us *pointed to himself*
  Sorry, I'm stranger here *I think he said stranger, but I might be wrong*
  Let's do next song, Caress of Venus

• Caress of Venus
  At the beginning of the song, there were black ribbons/confetti falling from the top. I loved how hyde danced. Sway here and sway there xD
• Driver's High
  Another song where I could join the yelling part "Clash!" and "Flash!" while jumping around ^^
• Stay Away
  Laruku didn't dance like in the music video, but the big screen was showing a bunch of human graphic dancing along to the song.
  
  ken
  
• Ready Steady Go
  The big screen was showing the text Ready Steady Go in giant green font. At the beginning there was some fireworks/pyrotechnics which shocked the heck out of me xD
  
  READY STEADY GO!!
  
• Intermission
  The big screen showed a graphic of people making a wave, so all the fans followed and made their own wave (me included).
• Anata (あなた)
  Before the band appeared, the big screen showed the chorus lyrics in romaji and the fans were singing along to it. In the middle of the song, hyde made a hand motion asking the fans to sing the chorus, so we sang again. This is another song where I just waved to match the mood of the song.
• Winterfall
• Blurry Eyes
  As usual, they stopped in the middle after the part "Why do you stare at the sky with your blurry eyes?" tetsu came out carrying a basket and asked, "Do you wanna eat my f**king bananas? Who??? Do you wanna lick my lollipops?" and started throwing bananas and lollipops to the screaming audience xD He asked again, "Do you wanna hear more?" then the song continued.
  
  L'Arc~en~Ciel: yukihiro, tetsu, hyde, ken
  
• hyde MC
  

  Did you have fun?
  Thank you so much.
  Thank you so much America.
  We're so excited to be here.
  You are the best.
  Thank you, thank you.
  It took us twenty years to get here.
  Will we meet again?
  True?
  Thank you so much America.
  Tonight the last song is Niji.

• Niji (虹)
  During the song, feathers were falling down to the audience.
  
  ken
  
• hyde closing
  

  Thank you New York.
  Thank you New Yorkkk!!!
  *hyde blew kisses. I almost died from it. LOL*
  Thank you.
  Hope you have a good night.

• Tetsu closing
  After hyde left the stage, tetsu came and started throwing bananas and lollipops again. He also brought a gold banana (some kind of decoration?) and banana water gun. He squirted some water to the audience before throwing it. He tried to throw the last banana far away, but it fell into the staff area. The staff tried to threw the banana to the audience at the back, but it fell into a different staff area again. One fan ran there right away and asked for it so the staff just gave it to her. tetsu then said "Mata ne. See you again!" and left.
  
  tetsu
  

For clothing, tetsu wore grey vest with somewhat red/pink over shirt, black skirt and black pants. His hair is like the usual length but shaved on one side, the color is mixed brown and red/pink. hyde wore black sleeveless shirt, black cardigan, and black baggy pants. His hair is long dreadlock, mostly blonde, but I saw a mixed of black color too (it was not that noticeable though). In the middle of the concert, I think starting at Jojoushi, he wore a somewhat girly somewhat elegant black hat, but still looked good no matter what xD After the intermission, the cardigan changed into white. ken wore all black clothing and the usual hairstyle. yukkie wore long sleeved shirt, skin color with black ornaments, his hair was short. I almost thought that yukkie didn't wear anything on top but just tattooed all over his body. LOL

At the end, after tetsu left the stage I was sooo ready to chant encore but surprisingly everyone just got up and left. I was like, wth? yukkie and ken didn't even come to say goodbye! How can this be?! Oh well, there was nothing I could do, so I was forced to leave the concert hall too. I think the concert took around 2.5-3 hours, but it sure didn't feel like it. I was having so much fun. I wish I could go see Laruku again!!! I can't wait until the DVD to come out so I could recall my memories more vividly.

About cameras, the staff didn't check the bags at all when we entered the concert hall. During the concert, the security kept walking around and "catching" people, telling them not to take any videos or pictures. But in such a large concert hall, it's impossible to catch every person, so you could sneak around and take pictures or videos. Just make sure when the security walk closer, stop taking and hide your camera. I didn't bring any digital camera so I could only take pictures with my cell phone. If you go to YouTube though, there are plenty of nice videos of the concert so go and watch them while waiting for the DVD to come out ^^

VAMPS Live Story

Last night feels like a dream.

Continuing from the previous post, after the autograph session Ms. JY and I went to grab a quick bite from the nearby McDonald's, and we came back asap to line up for the concert. The door was supposed to be open at 8 pm, but in reality we got to get in around 8:30 pm. Yup, previously we waited for 4 hours for the autograph session, so with this we had been waiting for almost 10 hours!!! Obviously it was really boring, but I managed to survive by spending time on various activities, such as listening to VAMPS' songs, chatting with fellow VAMPS' fans, and calling my boyfriend and parents to brag that I got to meet HYDE and get his autograph (originally I wanted to brag to my sisters but they were still sleeping. Oh well... Anyone will do =P)

While waiting in line, I made new friends with several HYDE's fans, and we unintentionally created an international circle: me from Indonesia, Ms. JY from Hong Kong, Ms. AI from Japan, Mr. M from the US, Mr. RA from Iraq, and Mr. PJS from Korea. Let me tell you, they were such a nice people =)

Anyway, when we got in, there were already a lot of people in front of the stage. I also wanted to stand close to he stage, but the people in front of me were so tall that they blocked my view. We ended up going a little further away, but we found this nice place that was a little higher and had some chairs to sit on. I knew I wouldn't be able to catch anything that the band threw (like guitar picks and drum sticks), but at least I could enjoy the show without getting blocked, squished, or crushed by the crowds. From that distance I could still see HYDE's expressions clearly, so it was pretty nice.

From the previous post, I'm sure you could tell that I am a 100% HYDE's fan. I'm sorry in advance if this story is centered in HYDE. Throughout the concert, my attention was focused 90% on HYDE, 9% on KAZ, and the remaining 1% on the other band members. HYDE was wearing blue jeans and a black long coat with frilly lace on the opening line of the coat and long sleeves (hopefully this is right, I couldn't really see the color properly since it was kinda dimmed). KAZ was wearing a black pants and a black shirt. I didn't really pay attention to him, but I remembered that I could see the tattoo on his arms, so it was either short sleeves or sleeveless. I couldn't recall what Ju-Ken, Jin, and Arimatsu were wearing, but Ju-Ken wore a hat when he first came out, and Arimatsu was bare chested on the second half of the show. HYDE and KAZ didn't change their wardrobe after the break.

I admit I didn't do my homework properly. My VAMPS album arrived just a day before I left to Seattle, so I was still unfamiliar with their songs. I was also not familiar with HYDE's songs from 666 and Faith albums, so I can't give you the exact setlist. The first song of the first half was SEX BLOOD ROCK N' ROLL, while the second half started with LOVE ADDICT. They also sang (not in order) COSMOS, SECRET IN MY HEART, EVANESCENT, REDRUM, DEEP RED, SWEET DREAMS, TROUBLE, JESUS CHRIST, and MIDNIGHT CELEBRATION. There were some other songs that I couldn't remember the titles. My bad...

While performing, HYDE, KAZ, and Ju-Ken kept running around, jumping to the top of the front speakers, shaking their heads and their bodies. There was this cool move that KAZ did a couple of times, which was throwing his guitar to circle his body.

HYDE opened his eyes really big, it looked as if it almost popped out. Hehehe... And as usual, he really liked sticking his tongue out. Oh, you know in the song TROUBLE, there was a part with the sound of car crashing, HYDE made a very cute surprised/uh-oh expression. On another song (I forgot which one), he sexily touched his chest with his two hands and slided them until they reached his thighs. Of course the fans started screaming. Me? I just said oh-la-la~ =P

My favorite part of the show was SWEET DREAMS. For this song, Ju-Ken changed his bass to the big one like the one in an orchestra, but I think it was still an electric bass. They started the song by playing a longer intro. I really loved it, it was so serene and peaceful. There was also a part where HYDE improvised his singing, it was really really beautiful =)

For the MC, HYDE was saying something about taking six hours to come from East Coast and having jet lag. He also said "Seattle is so beautiful~~~" (he sang the 'so beautiful' part like in SWEET DREAMS). At one part he said a word a couple of times, but all of us heard differently. Orca? Oscar? A car? His hands was making some wave motion trying to explain what he meant but I still didn't get it. Some people from Seattle said the correct one should be Orca, the hand wave was to motion fish swimming. Orca = Seattle whale, I didn't know that. Haha...

P.S. Sorry it took more than two years to publish the story. I had written it up on a piece of paper, but I forgot about it until now -_-;;

Welcome to Dongmakgol

This started as a homework from my Korean Language class. The teacher asked us to watch a movie called "Welcome to Dongmakgol". He didn't tell us much, he just said it was a movie related to the Korean War. As soon as I heard that I became so uninterested. I'm just not a fan of war movies because:

• Most of the time I can't tell which side is which. They all basically look the same: soldiers.


• I can't tell what's going on. There are a bunch of explosions, shootings, blood, body pieces everywhere. They are just jumbled up into one.


• Most importantly, I can never understand how these people have to heart to kill each other, and sometimes it includes civilians.

Because of those reasons I procrastinated and didn't watch the movie on time. But I decided to be a good student, so I started watching it. The movie began with a scene war between the North and South. I couldn't remember much about it (and either way I didn't really get what happened), but then it transitioned into some weird scenes. I did get discouraged from finishing the movie so I stopped watching (and I felt bad when the teacher found out that I didn't do what he asked).

Anyway, this evening I decided to pick up where I left off last time. As I kept watching, the story developed further and further. Ah! Now it started to make sense! From enemies to friends, funny to heartwarming to touching. At some point I even thought of wanting to live in Dongmakgol. It seemed so peaceful there and the villagers were all happy.

I think all the actors and actresses did a very good job of portraying their characters (Yeo-Il was especially a cute character ^^). Although there were some weird scenes (like the one with the boar), I still feel it was worth my time. It's a good movie with a good message (to remind us to STOP THE WAR) so I definitely recommend you to watch it :)

Kalo BT, jangan dipapasin ke orang laen.

Oke, gue janji bakalan cerita soal konsernya VAMPS, tapi itu ditunda dulu ya, belom sempet soalnya. Gue cuman mau curhat colongan, bentar kok, cepet.

Kalo orang lagi BT, itu wajar. Gue ngerti kok, gue juga sering BT sendiri. Tapi gue paling benci sama orang yang lagi BT, trus semua orang jadi di-BT-in sama dia. Jerk banget sih, BT-nya jadi nular tau nggak? Ada nih orang yang kalo udah BT, dia jadi rese abis. Semua orang dimusuhin sama dia hari itu, dicuekkin. Emangnya gue tiang? Tembok? Patung? Kambing congek? Gila ya lo... Gue juga punya rasa!

Hehe.. Gue brenti di situ dulu deh, gue ga mau nularin ke-BT-an gue yang disebabkan ke-BT-an orang ini ke elo-elo semua. Remember people, be nice to others :)

The most amazing 5 seconds in my life

I tend to do stupid things when I'm nervous.

There was a rumor that the VAMPS autograph session was only for the first 100 people, so I left four and a half hours early to get to the venue. I reached there exactly at 10 am (the session didn't start until 2 pm), and I was approximately the 50th person that got there.

When I looked around, everyone was in a Punk/Gothic attire. With only T-shirt and jeans, I seemed so out of place. They were all so full of VAMPS spirit: wearing VAMPS merchandise, purple and pink colored clothing, brass knuckles, etc. Some of them even colored their hair and nails hot pink and purple. I also saw people dressed up in Lolita style (full with the Rocking Horse shoes) and Kimono (complete with the wooden sandals). I really looked so plain compared to them! Hahahaha.... By the way, I saw two middle aged women wearing punk clothing too! Oh my gosh, I'm pretty sure they were around the same age as my mom ^^;;

With me looking so out of place, it was really hard to blend in with the crowds. I tried to start a conversation with two punk kids in front of me, but it didn't go that well. Finally I met this lady, Ms. JY, who was queuing up by herself, and she also dressed casually like I did. I started talking to her and we got along nicely =) Although she was pretty quiet and I was more chatty ^^;;

An hour before the session started, the line had gotten really long. And then something happened. There was this store that got blocked by the line. The owner got irritated or something, and she started to act like a staff member, telling us that we were lining up in the wrong place. She asked us to follow her, and we all stupidly believed her! Thinking back, I don't even know why we simply followed her lead (she didn't even wear a staff uniform, nor did she have any badge). Maybe we were hypnotized? Hehehe... Anyway. she left us confused in the middle, and the line got really messed up. Then we just realized that we were fooled! Dang it... Those people that were at the back became at the front of the line and vice versa. Guess what? I became the X hundredth person in line =( Of course all of us who came very early got really really mad, and things started to get out of hand. Then the Showbox staff came and sorted things out, and I regained my position as the fiftieth or so person in line xD

At long last it was two o'clock and we started moving inside. Oh my gosh, I got really really excited!!! I kept telling Ms. JY "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna meet HYDE, I'M GONNA MEET HYDE!!!" And you know what, my body started shaking out of the nervousness. Well, I had wanted to see him since nine years ago, and I finally got a chance to do so. Still lining up, I caught a glimpse of that familiar figure. I said to Ms. JY again, "Oh my gosh! It is HYDE! IT IS HYDE!!!!" The big security guard who stood close to me said, "Don't worry kid, I ain't going anywhere. Don't get too excited." I didn't really understand what he meant. Either he jokingly implied that I was going crazy for him (the security guy), or he thought I would get too excited to the point that I would kidnap HYDE. Hahahahaha...

In those few minutes, I rehearsed what I planned to do when I met HYDE: give him my VAMPS CD, watch him sign it, shake his hand while saying thank you, and then tell him "keep up the good work" with a big smile =)

And then my turn came. I gave the CD to the staff and he passed it in to KAZ. He signed my CD and slide it to HYDE, without even looking up =( He was gonna sign the next person's item, but I raised my hand right in front of his face (he was looking down, his head was really close to the table). Oops! Hehehe... I'm sorry for the rudeness, KAZ, but I really don't want to waste this opportunity =P I could tell he was a little surprised, but he still looked up to me and shook my hand while smiling. I said "thank you" and he said the same thing to me. KAZ was such a sweet person =)

Then I stepped in front of HYDE. It was dark so I couldn't really tell what he was wearing (or maybe I was just too nervous to pay attention). His hair was curly and he was as cute as ever. He signed my CD and shook my hand. I said "thank you" and then he said "thank you so much" while looking right into my eyes. May I repeat one more time, HE LOOKED AT ME RIGHT INTO MY EYES!!! OH MY GOD!!! The moment we had an eye contact, everything just went blur. HE IS EXTREMELY GORGEOUS!!! I don't really remember what happened after that, I think his gaze successfully numbed my entire brain. Hahaha... All I know is that I left without telling him to keep up the good work. And I stupidly touched the part of the CD with his signature on it when it wasn't dry yet, so his signature now had my fingerprint on it -__-;;

Speaking of which, I didn't really prepare anything to be given to HYDE or KAZ. I just thought they would get lots of letters that they wouldn't have the time to read mine. As for presents, they would probably be given to the staff members instead. I didn't even try to make any impression on him, he met a lot of people everyday so he wouldn't even remember me anyway. I think there were only two ways for a fan to be remembered: either by being extremely weird, or extremely pretty/attractive. One of the girls who lined up in front of me excitedly showed HYDE a "HYDE" word tattoo on her back. I heard him saying "oh cool", but after she left, he made a weird eye contact with a western-looking staff in front of him (maybe it was J?), the sort of eye contact that you made to your friend when someone did something weird in front of you both. I certainly didn't want to be remembered as a weird person, but no matter what I did, I knew there would still be people prettier or more attractive than me, so whatever. HYDE might not have a memory of me, but I will have a memory of him =) I don't know, maybe I'm getting old. For some reason I start to get more realistic than ever.

Alright, this is getting too long. I'll stop now and continue with the live story later. Stay tuned.

P.S. Sorry, no pics. The staff threatened that they would take our ticket and ban us from the concert if they saw us taking pictures.

Di kala matamu menipu

Pernah nggak suatu ketika mata lo menipu? Dulu gue pernah ada kejadian begini.

Gue punya temen cowok yang udah gue kenal agak lama, sampe gue tau sifat-sifatnya. Menurut gue dia orangnya baek, tapi sering juga dia agak rese. Mungkin buat orang laen gpp, tapi ke-rese-annya itu salah satu sifat yang nggak bisa gue tolerir. Trus dia juga bukan tipe gue banget, bukan tipe idaman, dan bukan juga tipe yang secara nggak sadar bisa gue suka (tau kan, kadang-kadang lo bilang idaman lo kayak gini, eh ternyata lo sukanya sama tipe yang jauh beda). Nah, karena itu buat gue dia hanya seorang temen.

Tapi pernah suatu hari gue ketemu dia dan entah kenapa mata gue lagi menipu. Hari itu kok dia keliatan atraktif banget ya? Wth? Padahal hari itu penampilan dia juga seperti biasa, pake kaos dan jeans doang. Hari itu pun gue jadi kalang kabut. Gue berusaha hindarin dia, takut gue jadi makin suka. Gue mikir, gue nggak mau suka sama dia!!! Kenapa? Karena dia bukan tipe gue. Hahahaha... Meski gue berusaha ngehindar, tapi mata gue selalu nangkep di manapun dia berada. Sial...

Hari itu pun berlalu, besoknya gue kebetulan ketemu dia lagi. Gue coba liatin dia. Huh, biasa aja tuh. Gue coba liatin dia lagi lebih lama. Huh, gue udah nggak deg-degan lagi. Gue coba mikirin dia. Hmmmm... Jelas banget bukan tipe gue. Ohhhh... Ternyata hari ini gue udah balik normal lagi. Di mata gue dia udah nggak atraktif lagi. Hore!!! (Lho? Gue juga nggak ngerti kenapa gue bisa segembira itu)

Intinya, hari itu mata gue lagi menipu. Hmmm... Mungkin gue lagi sakit mata kali ya waktu itu. Hehehehe...

HYDE, here I come!

I've wanted to make a post for quite sometime, but my computer is broken and so I didn't really have a chance to do so. I'm using someone else's computer at the moment so I can't write that long. I promise I'll tell you about the computer pretty soon, as I'm getting a new computer in a few days =)

With that being said, for now I'm just going to give a quick update. In a few hours I'm going to Seattle! I'm going to attend a VAMPS concert as planned. This is going to be my first time attending my favorite artist's concert, and it's HYDE no less. Add the autograph session opportunity, of course I'm super duper excited! There are a lot of uncertainties at the moment, I'm a little worried but hopefully everything will be fine. I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck! =D

Tipe-tipe orang komputer (menurut pengamatan gue)

Sebelom baca, gue cuman mau ngingetin. Hasil pengamatan gue ini nggak 100% bener, soalnya obyeknya cuman orang-orang di sekitar sini doang. Kalo dibandingin sama orang-orang di seluruh dunia, tentu aja mereka cuman sepersekian persen dari populasi semua orang di bumi ini.

Beberapa waktu lalu, gue pergi ke seminar perkomputeran. Setelah gue perhatiin (dari seminar yang itu dan seminar-seminar laen yang dulu gue datengin), ada empat macem tipe orang-orang yang dateng ke sini: tipe geek (15%), tipe plain (44%), tipe berantakan (25%), dan tipe metal (15%).

Tipe geek tentu aja seperti geek-geek yang lo liat di film-film. Mereka pake kacamata super tebel, celana tinggi banget ala jojon, dan rambutnya rapi klimis. Biasanya, orang-orang yang ahli di bidang perkomputeran stereotipikalnya orang-orang macem ini. Aslinya, nggak banyak kok orang-orang komputer model begini.

Tipe plain itu model-model yang pake baju kasual tiap hari (jeans + kaos). Yang cewek biasanya nggak dandan. Tipe plain ini adalah yang paling banyak gue liat. Gue sendiri juga termasuk dalem kategori ini. Tiap hari pake celana dan kaos (kemeja kalo di kantor). Ummm... oke kadang-kadang gue dandan, tapi cuman kalo lagi niat doang, bisa diitung kira-kira cuman empat kali dalem sebulan.

Tipe berantakan biasanya pake baju kasual juga, tapi ukuran bajunya yang gombrong-gombrong (gede banget, lebih gede dari badannya). Trus rambutnya gondrong tapi kayak nggak pernah disisir dan berantakan ke mana-mana. Mereka biasanya nggak cukur kumis sama jenggot, jadinya lebaaaaaaat banget kayak sinterklas.

Kalo yang tipe metal, mereka biasanya keliatan sangar. Pake anting banyak banget, pake rante di celananya, rambutnya gondrong atau cepak yang ada jambulnya. Kalo dipikir-pikir lagi mungkin mereka cenderung ke arah gothic, soalnya warna baju dan dandanan mereka biasanya item-item.

Jarang banget gue liat ada orang ahli komputer yang trendi / metroseksual dan ngikutin trend busana terbaru. Paling cuman tiga-empat biji dari sekian ratus orang. Makanya gue cuman kasih 1% untuk orang-orang macem ini.

Heran gue, hasil pengamatan ini cuma berlaku di daerah sini doang atau di tempat-tempat laen juga ya? Menurut pengamatan lo, apa pendapat lo soal penampilan orang-orang yang sehari-harinya kerja/sekolah/hobi di bidang komputer?

NB: Meski penampilan mereka beda-beda, kemampuan dan otak mereka sama intinya: CEMERLANG sekali boooo!!! :)

Obento!

I haven't posted any recipes for quite a while, and that's because I am too lazy to cook nowadays. Whenever I'm out of food, I just order a take out. Of course, it doubles my food spending -__-;;

That's why I was kinda shocked when I had the desire to cook this evening. For some reason, I felt like making a bento. Yes, BENTO, a boxed lunch in which there are multiple kinds of food, complete with the vegetables no less (I usually just cooked rice and one type of meat).

Here is the result of the sudden-cooking-soul-appearance (it's not pretty but it's a good start) ^^


Rice, Tamagoyaki, Chicken Katsu, and Stir-Fried Vegetables

And here is how to make them (I don't really have the exact measurement since I usually just estimate the ingredients and the spices until it tastes good).

Rice:

1. Cook the rice as usual.


2. Put some furikake on top.

Tamagoyaki (Sweet and Plain):

1. Beat an egg with a little salt and some sugar.


2. Fry it.


3. Fold it into a roll.


4. Cut the roll.

** You can make different kinds of tamagoyaki by mixing the egg with dashi or some other toppings. Maybe I'll try this some other time.

Chicken Katsu:

1. Beat an egg in a bowl.


2. Dip the chicken into the bowl of egg.


3. Bread the chicken with some panko crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs).


4. Deep fry the chicken until golden in color.


5. Cut it into long narrow pieces.


6. Add some Tonkatsu sauce on top of it.

** I don't really like deep frying stuff because it's a waste of oil. I managed to cook it by pan-frying the chicken =P
** I don't have Tonkatsu sauce so I just use Unagi sauce. Some other people use Japanese Mayo instead. You don't really have to put any sauce if you don't want to.

Stir-Fried Vegetables:

1. Cut some carrots, zucchini squashes, mushrooms, and onions.


2. Stir fry the onion first until it smells good, then add the other ingredients.


3. Add some water, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, and white pepper.


4. Cook until the vegetables are soft enough.

Death Note Marathon

For me, a good fiction is something that will leave a deep impression upon me even after I finished watching or reading it. The last time it happened, it was around the end of last year after I read several chapters of NANA manga. I couldn't stop thinking about it to the point that I made a post to analyze the storyline. This past weekend though, my boyfriend and I had a Death Note movies marathon. I guess it happened again, I was too impressed by the movies and now I can't take my mind out of it xD

The first and the second movies, Death Note and Death Note II: the Last name, were based on the Death Note manga. I haven't finished reading the manga, but I can tell that there were some differences between the manga and the movie. I guess the movie was made different in order to tell the storyline more effectively and to dramatize it even more. To rate the storyline, I will give an A+ since it was so puzzling and captivating. You can't guess what's gonna happen next and it makes you wanting to know more and more.

UPDATE: The movies were unpredictable and kept me in suspense because I had never read the manga or watched the anime before. If you have done either one or both of them, it might not be that exciting for you anymore since you would have known the outcome of the story.

I had never read the manga before I watched the movies, so I wasn't sure if it was going to be good. I only knew what my friend roughly told me, it was about a book to kill people. It sounded like a horror story to me, so I was never interested in watching it. The library close to where my boyfriend lived just happened to have the movies, I decided to give it a try. I asked my boyfriend to watch it with me just in case it was really a horror movie (not that it would really make any differences whether I was watching it alone or with him, oh well... xD) Anyway, even for both of us who didn't know anything about it, I think the director did a good job in introducing the characters and telling the story.

About the main character, most of the times I thought of Kira as this crazy psycho guy, but there were other times I was amazed by his intelligence. I often thought, "This guy is smart! What will he do next?" or even "What?! What is he thinking? I don't understand him at all" It was kinda sad though when Kira was captured. Not because I was a supporter of him, but because I could empathize with the people around him. These people trusted him so much, but they were left disappointed when everything was revealed. The last scene in the second movie really drew out the sadness ;_;

About the other characters, L gave me the impression of a creepy guy. Hahaha... The way he sat, the way he picked up a phone, the way he stood, the way he ate sweets, they were all so creepy. My boyfriend and I kept laughing at his eccentric behaviors. Hahaha... Of course I also often thought "Man, this guy is also smart! What will he do next?" and something like "Who's gonna win? Is it him, or Kira?" In any case, my favorite character is not either Kira or L. It's Ryuk! His appearance was scary, but a devil that screamed "Eeeeeeeee????", now that was funny! There were his other antics that were so funny and refreshing, by the end of the first movie, I was already fond of his character. Hahaha...

The third movie, L change the WorLd, was not based on the manga (at least that's what I think), but it was using several pieces out of the manga, such as Naomi's case and the name Near. My boyfriend did not like this movie as much as the first and the second ones because this one is more predictable, but I really like it a lot! It showed L's emotions that were more humane: feeling anxious waiting for 'the time' to come, confused over what to do when he suddenly had to babysit a boy, and the feelings of care that he developed for the little kids, etc. I must say that Matsuyama Kenichi portrayed the character really well. Oh, before I forget, I should point out that there were more humor in this movie! No matter what, I definitely recommend this movie as well. It's not necessary to watch the first two Death Note movies before watching this, but it will be more interesting if you do.

After watching L change the WorLd, I became a fan of L too. Hahaha... I guess after watching those unknown sides of him, it was more easy to empathize with him (and to erase those creepy feelings that I sensed out of him). Now that I think about it, I think it was this movie that left a deep impression on me, particularly the last scene. I kept thinking about the Death Note storyline and characters, and now I have started reading the manga as well. So then, was it L that made me intrigued to read the manga? Oh dear... xD

Lost in Love

Kali ini gue nonton Lost in Love di YouTube (iye gue ketinggalan jaman, hehehe). Ini lanjutannya film Eiffel I'm in Love kalo nggak salah. Ceritanya ringan dan ada unsur humornya sedikit, jadi lumajan kalo lagi bosen tapi males buat nonton yang terlalu berat atau serius. Latar belakangnya masih di kota Paris, ngebuat gue makin pengen jalan-jalan ke sono. Hehehe... Satu poin yang gue suka, ceritanya jujur kalo Tita emang kurang bisa ngomong bahasa Inggris. Nggak kayak film-film ABG laen yang sok-sok ngomong pake bahasa Inggris, padahal belepotan.

Namanya juga film romance, jadi inti ceritanya juga berusaha nunjukkin sesuatu yang romantis. Tapi nggak tau kenapa menurut gue masih kurang deep gitu, entah karena jalan ceritanya, atau karena aktingnya. Sampe sekarang gue masih belom bisa mastiin apa yang kurang di film-film romance Indonesia. Kenapa ya? Apa karena film Indo menggambarkan cinta sebagai sesuatu yang gampang abis? Misalnya si Tita yang lulus SMA aja belom, pacaran baru sebentar, trus tau-tau udah tunangan padahal orang tuanya aja nggak tau kalo dia punya pacar. Menurut gue tuh kayak 'Hah?! Gitu doang trus langsung happily ever after?!'

Menurut lo gimana? Setuju sama gue, atau gue-nya yang terlalu sok tau? Hehehe....

*PS: Ini random sih, tapi yang maen jadi Adit di Lost in Love lumayan cute juga ya. Hahahahha....

Bukan Bintang Biasa

Gue lagi kangen nonton film Indo. Gue keinget temen gue pernah ngasih tau, 'Ada film Indo tentang anak-anak Art School juga tuh Pei. Judulnya Bukan Bintang Biasa. Coba deh nonton, ada di YouTube kok.' Akhirnya hari ini gue tonton juga tuh film.

Mmmm.... Sori yah buat semua fans-nya BBB atau aktor-aktris yang maen di situ, tapi buat gue film ini enggak banget. Mungkin gara-gara gue udah pernah nonton Nodame Cantabile atau Center Stage, jadinya gue masang standar setinggi itu. Karena ceritanya tentang Art School, gue expect bagian performance-nya juga bakalan keren abis, namanya Art School gitu loh. Tapi BBB performance-nya sungguh amat sangat mengecewakan. Gue ngerti, pemaen film belom tentu bisa macem-macem kayak gitu. Tapi kalo film luar tuh, pemaen filmnya biasanya dikasih training beneran dulu biar hasilnya sesuai sama karakternya. Atau setidaknya, mereka pake double supaya keliatan profesional gitu.

Trus jalan ceritanya juga berkesan dangkal banget. Bentar-bentar gampang jatuh cinta. Gue bukan ahli film, jadinya gue nggak tau pasti apa yang kurang. Gue cuman tau ceritanya nggak ngena. Bukannya berasa romantis malah berasa gombal. Entah kenapa film-film romance Indonesia masih berasa gombal-gombal deh, kecuali AADC (movie-nya loh, dramanya juga amit-amit). Gue masih nunggu nih, film romance Indo yang bisa ngebuat gue ngerasa 'Uhhh... so sweet...' =)

Daging vs Saos

Pada umumnya, kalo makan di restoran Asia di sini, nasi putih itu gratis. Mau nambah nasi putih sebanyak apa pun nggak usah bayar. Kadang, ada juga restoran yang gratis nasi sepiring kalo beli lauknya (atau harganya paket, udah termasuk nasi dan lauk), tapi kalo mo nambah nasi harus bayar ekstra. Yang pelit? Ada juga. Nasi nggak termasuk di harga lauknya, jadi harus beli secara terpisah. Emang sih pelit, tapi gue masih bisa maklum berhubung di Indo juga nasinya nggak gratis. Nah, biasanya kalo mesti beli sendiri-sendiri begini, terserah pembelinya mau makan pake nasi atau enggak. Yang jelas, harga lauk tentu aja udah termasuk dengan bumbunya.

Dua hari yang lalu, gue nggak sengaja nemu satu resto Asia pas lagi iseng-iseng lewat jalan laen. Hari ini gue dateng ke sono buat nyobain. Ternyata mereka jual nasi sama lauknya terpisah. Nasinya agak mahal, soalnya belinya harus paket nasi plus sayur-sayuran (kubis, ketimun, tomat). Berhubung gue nggak doyan tiga sayuran itu, plus di rumah gue masih ada nasi, gue memutuskan untuk beli dagingnya doang untuk dibawa pulang.

Ternyata sodara-sodara, ada yang janggal dengan cara resto ini berjualan. Saos untuk dagingnya termasuk dalem paket nasi + sayuran. Dengan kata laen, kalo nggak beli nasi nggak bisa dapet saosnya. Ibaratnya sama seperti ini:

Pembeli: "Bang, bakso satu mangkok."
Abang Bakso: "Mau pake bihun atau mie kuning nggak dek?"
Pembeli: "Nggak deh, baksonya aja."
Abang Soto: "Boleh, tapi nggak ada kuahnya ya, soalnya adek kan nggak beli bihun atau mie-nya."

Contoh laennya begini:

Pembeli: "Bang, beli sate sepuluh tusuk."
Abang Sate: "Pake lontong nggak dek?"
Pembeli: "Nggak bang, sate aja."
Abang Sate: *Ngasih satenya sepuluh tusuk*
Pembeli: "Lho Bang, bumbu kacangnya mana?"
Abang Sate: "Adek kan nggak beli lontong, jadi nggak dapet bumbunya."

Coba, nggak masuk akal kan? Akhirnya setelah memohon-mohon sama yang punya resto, gue dikasih saosnya, tapi gue mesti bayar ekstra (masih lebih murah daripada beli nasi sama sayuran sih). Huhuhuhu... Gila, pelit banget nih resto!

Feed Issue Solution part 2

This post is a continuation from this one.

After reviewing the code of both Blogger's default layout and my own layout, I realize there is another easy way to solve the feed issue if you are using Blogger. You won't need to add any auto-discovery links in your head section. Instead, add this piece of code right after your opening <head> tag:

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

I suppose Blogger has the auto-discovery feature embedded to it (the all-head-content), so that should fix the problem. Speaking of which, this code will only work on the new Blogger layout. If you are using the old one, you will have to search for the old syntax.

Hopefully this helps :)

Feed issue resolved!

I went to my friends' blogs, TETRA86 and Venny Karlina, and I realize that my link is not working properly. There was no latest post title and last updated time listed on their Blog Lists. At first I thought I didn't set up the feed settings properly, but the settings were perfectly fine. And then I thought it was an issue with Blog List widget, but I could not find any satisfactory fix online.

After researching for two hours and trying various kind of methods, I finally figured out how to solve it thanks to Pete Freitag's tutorial. Apparently the problem is on the layout that I created -__-;; There's still so much I need to learn!!! So anyway, if you notice that your blog does not appear correctly in your friends' Blog List widget, you might want to try adding this somewhere between the <head> ..... </head> tag on your layout:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom Feed" href="[complete link to your feed]" />

Sorry for the inconvenience, but if it is possible, for those of you who have linked to my blog before, could you re-link it again? Thanks a lot! :)