Traffic Jam Survival

Hello!

In this post, I shall tell you how to survive a traffic jam ('macet' in Indonesian; it literally means 'congested', 'stuck' or 'blocked'), or simply when you are stuck in an immobilised contraption for an average to unacceptable amount of time. 

I live in a place where your patience is regularly trained. I myself can't understand how we Jakartans have been able to put up with this ongoing problem that has been haunting us for countless years. I don't drive (yet), but I've been through my fair share of idle road time. Some people may gone through worse, though. Like a whole day getting to Puncak, and sleeping in your car for the night. This may seem like an unforgettable adventure to some,  With all the horrible traffic jams happening nowadays, we barely go out of our area! -__-"

Sadly, no matter how much you believe in luck, it's never guaranteed that you won't ever meet with this...

 

Or this.

Simply Garlic Bread

Well, I'm back with a really simple recipe :D

I know this recipe is basically omnipresent in the Internet. But this was actually my first time, hehe. I've always been a big fan of Italian food, and garlic bread has always been one of my favourite side dishes.

We decided to buy a baguette on a sudden impulse. We haven't eaten this in ages (I mean like, a decade or so). We were skeptical about the taste after all those years, but it definitely didn't disappoint. My brother especially loved it! And my brother is one heck of a picky kid. He's one of those people blessed with an excellent metabolism; he can consume a bag of chips and as much Coke as he wants without gaining a single kilogram. He rarely exercises, must I add. Stays glued to this computer seat for hours. Okay, enough of me ranting about that. So, here's what we did:

Cadeaux de Corée et Japon :)

Hello again, world!

It still thrills me to think that I have my own little space in the humongous worldwide network of webs that is the Internet xD I feel like a person! I wonder if that actually makes sense since nobody is a real human online. Lately I've been thinking about what else to write besides random rants about my interests and life, and honestly it's a bit difficult for me to focus on just one thing. I will focus this blog on one very broad topic though - art!

Speaking of writing, I'm having a hard time right now. I just got another idea for another book, even though I still have like, six others waiting in line to be written. One of the six is the first part of my trilogy. I'm not even sure if it's a good idea for a first-timer to be attempting a trilogy. Anyway I'm on Chapter 11, and moving on to the climax pretty soon, so it's too late to turn back now. Haha! Maybe I'll write down the details of my book here, but I'm not sure. I'm purty shy :P

I've recently received a letter from a wonderful aunt (my friend's mother's friend) who lives in Japan :) My cousin just came back from Korea around a week ago, and she gave me these wonderful souvenirs. I totally wasn't expecting these, and needless to say I was oh-so-very excited upon receiving them. I've always wanted to go to Korea! Like, so so badly! One of the things I'm going to do if I go there is to go and eat the real 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon - Chinese-style noodles in black bean sauce) and see if it really does taste like the instant ones, accompanied by a nice little portion of 단무지 (danmuji - pickled radish/daikon slices). I think 단무지 is the only pickled food I like.

The Rookie Tries: Abstract Painting

The title says it all! The main reason I decided to do this was because I still had a reasonable amount of acrylic paint left from my art class in high school ;P That painting, and a few others belonging to my friends, never returned to the hands of their owners. It's vexing, because it was my first painting on a canvas and I spent a reasonable amount of time on it, so I really wanted to treasure it. Ah, the sentimental value it had despite its lack of neatness! Haha! Another reason was that I wanted to see just what I could do with my nooby painting skills.

I made my first ever canvas painting for art class, so this is my second. To be really accurate, this also isn't my first try at abstract painting; it's my second. I made my first one on a canvas without a frame in 2007, following a manual. The colour scheme I used for it was purely blue, but on this one, as per my brother's suggestion, I decided to use all the colours related to mint. I'm really loving mint lately. My brother loves green and I love blue, so no debates were involved. Not that my brother actually had anything to do with the making of this painting, but it's good to ask for suggestions from others :P

Before I began, I stole (read: temporarily borrowed without permission) my brother's brushes and acrylic paint tubes. He won't be using them anytime soon anyway, since he's practically always glued to his computer. I had my own remnants-of-art-class paint, but I peeked into his, and to my surprise, he had two tubes of different shades of green. One was phthalo green, a dark shade of green, and the other was light green, a grassier hue.

 

An empty 20cmx20cm square canvas, brushes of various shapes, a palette and tubes of acrylic paint. I love and hate the fact that acrylic paint dries so quickly.You can't see it in the picture, but I had thinly sketched random quadrilaterals in a mint colour pencil to aid my colouring.

The finished result?

Highlights of My Week

Hi! :D

Last week was a great one, with a new addition to my maternal family, a gift of chocolates and a former homeroom's wedding. I can't stress enough how happy I was to see all my friends again. They haven't changed at all, and spending time with them was gold. Glad we weren't getting rusty and awkward just yet, since we talked about our current lives. For me, life will be the same as it is for a while. That is, my fate will be decided by the university I'm applying to. I literally check my application status every day, wondering when they will update it.

My cousin just bought my grandma a dog. She was initially named 'Tart' (as in cakes) after the name of the cousin who gave it to her. My grandpa changed her name to Desi (I'm not sure how it's spelled, but it's pronounced like so). And yes, she is a chihuahua! She was so tiny I couldn't believe it. I hadn't seen a chihuahua in awhile, the last time was the one that belonged to my friend Josie. Hers is male, so I've been discussing with her about possible marriage plans. Hahaha I kid :)

Here she is! All I could do was squeal when she came out of her pink carrier. She didn't bark at all during the visit, and was very calm. My aunt brought her here, and told us that she's actually really hyper at my grandma's house. Likes to run around and enjoys carpets - she must have been disappointed to see none at my house :P

Japanese Meal Time: Curry Rice

Today's curry rice day! My whole family is a big fan of curry rice. It's also going to be the last one in a long time, because we've finally run out of curry roux :(

For those who are unfamiliar with this dish, kare raisu (カレーライス) is the Japanese take on India's traditional spicy curry. It's mostly sweet and very thick. The Japanese curry comes in a variety of spiciness levels and flavours (I have heard of cherry-based curry, and it's pink!). You can buy them in the form of curry roux blocks but there are also instant pre-cooked, already-in-liquid-form ones in a package, ready for consumption (just heat it beforehand).You could probably find a 'library' of instant curry packages if you go to a supermarket in Japan. 

Curry rice (kare raisu, カレーライス) is one of Japan's most popular 'comfort food'. One of the reasons being its long storage period (hooray for refrigerators and microwaves!). It's definitely not the fastest food to prepare, but the method itself is pretty easy. You can just follow the descriptions on your curry roux box and bam! You're got yourself a Japanese comfort meal :D

Logophilia: Words Have Ancestors

I've spent this weekend writing. But I still use a great fraction of my time to research about various things I don't know. I don't want to write anything incorrect, so I spend quite some time abusing the Internet and taking up a lot of the bandwidth at home. :) Also I've told some friends about this blog, and the fact that they may be reading stuff that I write fills me with so much joy :3

I rummage through my labyrinth of thought every night, at times this causes severe insomnia. I think many Earthlings would find this habit familiar. When we try to go to sleep, we are surrounded by tranquility (hopefully this is true for others) after a long day, our brain contemplates everything for us. Sometimes our brain goes wild, that's why we have dreams. I don't think I could live without having dreams. Even though I know they give unnecessary hope sometimes. So, ideas come faster than I can write, which is totally annoying. Plus, I'm barely one third of the way :P

Anyway. I have quite the obsession with words, particularly those that start with vowels (because few words can do without a vowel but a vowel on its own can become a word). I am not a nerd though; just ask my friends. I could spend ten minutes just lying down while staring at the ceiling, thinking about why words are spelled and mean the way they do. We all use words in our daily lives. I do, and you do too. Unless you want to try not speaking for a day (not even to yourself).