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Saving family’s budget for long term can begin from now, even though when we haven’t raised a family instead.

I’m interested in an article in a site months ago, which wrote that if you intended for smart saving, you may start by not buying a baby crib.

Coz it’s more sense if you buy an adult-sized bed so your kid can use it until they grow up later. I assume that the person who wrote this, he hasn’t had a baby.

Or even worse, he was broken coz he’s ever had a baby.

Babies never ask to sleep on a bed which got star on it. Kids never ask a bed with stars, either. So why should we buy beds with stars around it? Photo from http://thearticle1.com

But it’s true, coz a baby crib is an happening-not-happening in someone’s life.

If you think it more, if you’re a baby, then you sleep in a baby crib.

When you grow up, just about three years old later, are you gonna keep sleeping inside the crib? Of course not.

You’ll gonna ask to move to a bigger crib, a.k the “real” bed, just a bed which hasn’t got a rail on it. The question is, what are you gonna use the baby crib for, then?

Then I think, that actually babies never request to be laid down in cribs.

Actually the people who want to lay them down in it are their parents.

So, it’s gotta be the parents who bother mostly for picking up a crib, they bother to hurd up a crib which has Winnie the Pooh figure on it, then they wanna hang a toy which make sound “klenong-klenong” above the crib, and they hunt small pillows which smell like a baby oil.

The baby?

It doesn’t wanna sleep inside the crib, it just loves to lay down in its mommy’s arms instead.

Parents hunt for buying lamps, pillows, toys, and even towels which have lambs picture on them, so they match to the sheet. What an effective way to teach the kid to be a farmer as it grows up later. Photo from http://maternityandbabyshoppingmart.com

I also feel how hard it is to maintain a baby crib.

My sister was born three years younger than me, and I saw her got a baby crib.

It made her sleep alone, and she didn’t sleep with our mom.

Those years, I hadn’t slept with my mom anymore; we were still in the same room, but I got a single bed for my own.

As my sister grew up, she slept with me and the baby crib was buried in our storage.

I think, it was an effective way for farming rats.

There are lotta solutions for recycling baby cribs.

The most effective way is by donating them to orphan houses.

But now I don’t care about it. I just care, that do we really need baby cribs or not?

Coz if we don’t, then we shouldn’t buy it.

So as the baby is born, then it sleeps with us, and we have to sleep with its urine smell voluntarily.

Hm.. and my husband won’t be able to hug me in our bed coz the baby joins sleeping with us. J

A baby gazes to its mom on another corner and it desires to sleep with her. But her mom just lays it down in a crib. Photo from http://thekidswindow.co.uk

By the way, I never sleep in a baby crib.

Coz when I was born, my parents were in a difficult condition, coz my dad worked in a very far place from town, so it was hard for him to buy me a crib.

When things were getting better and that year my dad could move to town, I had grown up and I didn’t need any crib anymore. And I guessed, I really didn’t need any.

Probably my sister did, coz she wasn’t sung lullaby by my mom, but our maid did it for her.

Suddenly I wanna have a baby now.. Hahahah!

Tags: baby cribs, saving

Maybe you just love the outer side.

But when you’re asked to get into the inner side, you’re not interested of it.

Angklung of SMP 2 Bandung

I fought with my parents last week.

I wanted them to go with me to a mall, coz I read in the newspaper that there was a bamboo traditional art festival on the mall.

But my dad wanted to go to an electronic shop, coz he wanted to buy a TV.

I told him to wait for another day if he wanted a TV, coz the festival weren’t always held annually (or probably I wouldn’t notice if there was, coz the event organizer looked stupid enough, didn’t know how to make promotion).

Ronteng

My dad asked why I wanted to see the bamboo festival.

My dad said that if I just wanted to see angklung, he would take me anytime to Saung Mang Udjo on the eastern town. I felt I wanted to throw him a chopstick coz he said that.

Didn’t he know that all I wanted wasn’t seeing people play angklung, but I wanted to see crowd in parties?

Seratus Persen

Briefly, that day I accompanied my parents to a tv shop.

We went home by bringing a pretty good enough TV, but I wasn’t really enthusiastic coz I’d got my mind in the festival.

I really wanted my dad to accompany me to the festival after we returned from the damn TV shop, but it was already midday and my dad had already been exhausted.

Finally I asked him to be dropped on the mall and I didn’t look at him anymore.

Samba Sunda

It wasn’t just an angklung show.

I saw people played Sundanese gamelan and Balinese gamelan, mixed with techno and ska, and even jazz.

People came into the crowd ahead the shows, and I must struggle to find a strategic position so I could snapshoot, but it was really a joyful day.

I returned to home for an hour (my house was just 20 minutes driving from the mall) to charge my cellphone’s battery, coz the cell was the only instrument that I got and accidentally the battery was low. I sweated and I smiled, but my face was shining of cheers.

I told my mom that I just came home a minute, then I’d be back to the mall.

My mom asked what kinda show that I was gonna see there. I saw a lazy expression on her face, and I realized that she wasn’t really asking.

So I just answered, “I’m gonna see a bunch of people playing music full of noise.”

I wasn’t kidding, the sound system in the festival was so loud and the techno ethnical music was really enormous.

Garniati

I returned to the festival with much more ammunition: a stomach with full of homemade food, a cellphone which has been recharged a third, and a pocket camera which guaranteed of battery-saving.

The day had already been late, the music got out louder, the artist performed all out crazier.

I was more confused coz it was getting harder forme to prefer, whether I should join the shaking into that goddamn cool gamelan ska music or I should concentrate in snapshooting.

I came home from the festival late at night, very extremely exhausted, but it was really fun absolutely.

Angklung of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Yesterday, I evaluated the pictures that I got and showed them to my mom.

My mom got astonished coz actually the bamboo festival wasn’t just a people’s parade to play angklung on the stage as she thought before, but it showed a lotta people played angklung on the center plaza of the mall. People played Sundanese ethnical instruments in rock nuance in a pub.

A woman danced jaipong with Samba rhythm arrangements on the background.

Including a band played rap with Balinese rhythm.

My mom said, if only she knew that the show was gonna be like this, she would have joined me into the festival two days ago. I just shat up my mouth coz I didn’t believe her.

Balawan

I’d asked my dad and my mom yesterday, I’d told them that it was an ethnical music festival.

But they refused to join me and preferred the damn TV. I knew that ethnical music was their favorite.

Then I realized that my parents might just like it coz they loved heard them slightly, but if they’re asked to watch the real show, they wouldn’t always accept it.

It’s like as if you like something coz it looks good, but if the thing comes up to you, you just say no.

As if you love the look of a cheese cake, but if someone offers you to taste it, you refuse it coz you’re afraid the extra-topped cheese will make you sick.

As if you like someone, but if the person wanna get close to you more intimately, you just run far away with no reasons.

Indonesian proverb says that it’s called hangat-hangat tahi ayam. Warm like a chicken sh*t.

Tags: family, festival, music, parents

I was enjoying my blogwalking yesterday as my friend updated her Facebook status with news which shocked me then: Stephen Gately was dead.

As a teenage chick of nineties, I remember exact that Stephen Gately was a member of Boyzone, and though I refused to be called as a Boyzone’s fan, but I should admit that I had two of their first albums completely at home, and I argued with my dad coz my dad declined to buy me the third one.

Stephen Gately was the prettiest Boyzone’s member –I’m not kidding ya-, his face was as pretty as a girl.

I’d suspected him that actually he was a wimp, if only he didn’t shock his girl fans at ’99 that actually he was gay.

Stephen Gately performs in the clip of Boyzone's No Matter What.

When I was a teenager I loved collecting pictures of music groups, and my hobby was determining who’s the cutest of them all (what a shallow!).

People said the cutest among the Boyzone was Ronan Keating, though I preferred Shane Lynch (coz of a cheesy reason, I love men with strong mandibles :-p).

Lotta girls loved Stephen Gately coz he’d got a sweet smile, but I was always suspicious to guys with sweet smiles.

Look at his thin smile. A normal guy won't even smile like that.

Stephen confessed that he was gay at ’99 and girls got disappointed.

He had been gay for long time, far before he entered Boyzone, but he admitted later after the group became a hit.

Louis Walsh, the producer who casted the Boyzone’s personnel, didn’t know that Stephen was gay.

He said later that if only he knew it from the start, he might gonna think twice to input Stephen into Boyzone.

It’s not cool if a boys group which created to make girls hysterically, has a member who doesn’t love girls, but prefer boys, is it?

This is an important lesson for any casting manager, next time if you wanna create a handsome artist which targeted girls as his fans, ask him first, “Do you love pussy or Mr P?”

Stephen must’ve known that Boyzone’s created for girl fans, but he insisted to apply.

I think he’s got crushed on the money, though he must suppress his different sex orientation.

Then I ask his motive, should we sell the whole of ourself, including our sex orientation, just for reaching popularity and high income?

I don’t know whether Stephen’s breakthrough as he confessed that he was gay at ’99 made a better condition for him or not. Definitely, another year later, Boyzone split.

Their latest single, Everyday I Love You, hit the chart, but essentially they split.

Stephen made his own solo album, A New Beginning, another year later, and promoted himself in my country.

His management team warned the Indonesian press, not for asking Stehen’s sex orientation. Dunno why.

Stephen Gately and his husband, Andrew Cowles.

Stephen Gately married his gay partner, Andrew Cowles, at ’03.

He died two days ago while he was enjoying vacation at Majorca, Spain.

As I’m writing this, I haven’t got a definite reason of the death.

The dead of Stephen Gately, another storymaker of my teenage age, has just reminded me that another part of my teen side has gone.

Tags: gay, music, my teen age

Is there any place in the world which safe and sound from disaster?

I ask the question after the quake rocked West Sumatera last week.

A friend of mine, also a blogger like me, raised that her mom had lived long in Padang and she almost lost her house due to the quake.

Then another blogger advised her that her mom should move to another town, coz considering the unpleasant fact, that Padang has been rocked by earthquakes in recent three years.

A temporary building is breaking down due to earthquake. Until I write this, there has been about 500 people died coz of the earthquake, and about thousands lost their houses. Source: www.padangkini.com

The suggestion actually sounded kind, but my friend whose her mom almost died of the quake, got furious.

Coz, her mom has been living in Padang much more before my friend grew up, so Padang has become her hometown.

Asking an elderly to leave the house which has been her living place for decades ain’t an easy thing to do. You must’ve been understood what I’m talking about.

If you’ve lived in the same place in more than 20 years, it’s not supposed to be easy to leave the place though you’re offered a much more glamorous place.

I think, if only the mother didn’t live in Padang.

She might live in another place, such as Medan, or probably Pekanbaru, would she be avoided from the quake which hit her last week? I’m not sure.

We know that basically Sumatera is area which full of volcanoes, whether on the land or beyond the sea, and where there is a volcano then there a quake can threat it.

So where should she live at except Sumatera, should she live in Java or Bali instead?

I laugh to imagine the solution.

On the world’s geological map, Indonesia is located on the Ring of Fire area, the world area which consists lots of volcanoes.

Please pay attention to this picture which exposes the Ring of Fire in Pacific. It’s definitely clear that Indonesia is located on the area which consists lots of volcanoes, and it’s really susceptible to have earthquakes. The other countries which also have lots of volcanoes predispose to quake are such as Philippines, Japan, Mexico, and Peru. Source: wikipedia

So if there are often earthquakes in Indonesia, then it’s supposed to be understandable.

An expert in Kompas yesterday even said, “If you wanna find the most safest places of earthquake in Indonesia, then you should run to West Borneo or southern Papua, coz those places have no volcanoes at all.”

Then, should we blame someone’s living place which often becomes an earthquake location? I think it’s unfair.

Japan has more volcanoes, and earthquake has become their daily breakfast course.

Are we gonna say that Japanese shouldn’t leave Honshu or Hokkaido?

That’s a crap, I said.

Until today, Tokyo is still one of the world’s most populated city, and still becomes one of my favorite destination to visit.

Gadang House (Indonesian: Rumah Gadang) is a West-Sumatran architectural which nowadays are harder to find coz people prefer building houses from cement. The quake ruined the rests of the gadang houses, such as one of them inside the picture. Source: www.kabarindonesia.com

Back to the case of my friend’s mother.

Is evacuating the mother from Padang to insist her for living with my friends in Jakarta still the best solution to avoid the earthquake? The answer is no.

Coz basically earthquake comes from God, it’s not a disaster which created by human.

If Lord didn’t give the quake as a test for human, then He’ll give the test in another form.

Shortly, the death will always find you, and you can hide nowhere, even though you run to the end of the world.

So if you didn’t die due to the quake at Padang, you might still gonna die in Jakarta due to another cause.

I’m amazed to the mother’s reason which refused her daughter’s plea to leave Padang.

“Padang is my home,” she said. “I can go nowhere, but here.

This is the place where I grow up, this is the place where I met your late father, this is the place where I made you and turned you into what you’ve become now.

The quake might destroy my house, but it’ll never be able to destroy my home.

The whole of my life belongs here.

I can’t leave it, coz if I did it, then I’d leave the part of my own life.”

Pay attention that the mother used the word of “home” and “house”.

The house may be just a place where you live.

But the home, is where your heart belongs.