The Death of Traditional Bookstore (ranting)

Learning

In my teenage years there was one favourite bookstore in town, Nusa Indah (literally means beautiful island). There was no good library back then — school library collection was mostly classical Indonesian literature that I finished reading (not all but most) and scientific journals that bored me easily. And so Agatha Christie, Enyd Blyton, Karl May, and more local and international writers’ books displayed in Nusa Indah lured me instantly. Indonesian Nina comic books and books with weird titles would also do me some intrigue.

Until uni years that bookstore was still a place to hang out every time I visited my parents. Yet I was slightly disappointed when finding Nusa Indah name didn’t even exist in my last visit this year. It was nowhere to find. A big electronic store is now situated where my favourite bookstore was in. When I asked my cousins about its whereabouts, they said it was gradually scaled down and closed several years ago.

There is no more representative bookstore in town. Maybe because the city libraries have better collection? Or, people prefer reading e-books? Heaven knows.

Is it possible that people don’t like reading as they did before? Nowadays information is coming like heavy rain and they don’t have to spend time to hunt readings anymore; people just need to search in the Net and boom! all needed info is abundantly provided. When I was young, information was expensive, luxurious, curated through written media and hard to find like water in a deep well — we had to read as much and keen as we could in order to be informative.

Maybe it is time for traditional bookstore to die. My friends said bookstores in their cities are vanishing too. One good bookstore in Jakarta called QB was closed in 2006. Kinokuniya Jakarta was closed in 2021. Gramedia sells more stationery and school bags than books.

Time flies. Oldies dies. Let’s fly with time without losing wisdom and sanity by reading life. Yet stay young in heart! 💝

—

a very good book to read, oops to listen to 👍🏽

Definition Limits

Learning
Is that, Beloved,
Limit? Power that defines
Sphere, circle and curve?

—

Living between two points—starts and end— means she is defined. Defined means limited. Limited leads to making priority. Making priority takes consistency. Consistency requires strong will.

RC Gorman’s

A Dream

Learning, Poetic, Those People
A dream, Beloved,
A bloom of sleep or a sign?
Each has drawn a smile.

—

Sometimes a dream brings me to an immediate mood of contacting a friend. Last night I dreamt of someone who has set a strong boundary against me. I dreamt of this person surrounded guarded almost like being swarmed by many tough guys and beautiful ladies; becoming the top of all! Waking up this morning, I decided to text this person who has blocked me in WhatsApp (of course I made mistake as the reason) and summarised my dream— what I didn’t tell was that those guys and ladies in my dream rigorously chased me away. And as expected of course no reply; maybe another anger and frustration against this ridiculous me 🙃

Then I prayed that this friend is enjoying the best time of life; which must be happening now.

I’m still smiling remembering the dream. How could it be such dream? Scary yet entertaining! I must have been traveling to a multiverse! Maybe it was a sign about a raising boundary; or simply because I was too tired!

Thanks for the dream.

🙏🏼

Sky Is The Limit?

Learning, Poetic, This Person
The sky, Beloved,
Layers of defined arches
Limiting a range—

—-

Have you ever thought about limit?

What is limit? Who/what has limit? Who/what has no limit? Which is the limit? How to set a limit? Questions that have haunted me for almost all my life! I tried to formulate the answers for almost 20 years and yesterday —just yesterday— a convincing answer reached me like a tap on my shoulders. One of the answer is that with this limitation I can do something that the one with no limit can’t. 💝

This hopefully be a breakthrough in my life.

Thank you!

I’ll rant about the mind blowing answers from a young scholar. Not today; someday when I find the most suitable dictions.

Welcome, new week!

they said this type of cloud is a sign to fishermen that there are a lot of fish around this limited sea area under this type of cloud 👍🏽
cotton-like sky, limit….
good to go! 17:38

Frequent Flyer’s Cabin Bag (ranting)

Learning

When starting being a frequent flyer in 2007, I didn’t know it would change my life to a level that was never even prepared. No one briefed me what to bring and what to do except that I had to apply for passport and sometimes visa. So it was about trial and error.

The most important thing is always how to make every travel light and well-prepared: compact! After all this time among all there is a list of logistics that must not be missed and so put in cabin bag, just in case the checked-in luggage arrives late (so far never happening to me, while some colleagues do and did); or there is long flight delay.

In early years I packed a lot although I thought it was still travel light. Gradually the must list got shorter and shorter although still longer compared to some of other colleagues (mostly male), also shorter to others (mostly cosmetic-aware female).

Last night I thought of shortening the list when realising that travel light doesn’t mean turning myself into an extreme backpacker— as much as I want to be a backpacker, the attempt has always failed!

Just like my life…. I want to unload unnecessary emotional burden but I don’t want to lose my emotion quality. No anger? No surprise? No disgust? No fear? No sadness? No happiness?

Without those, what would I be called? A zombie! No, thank you.

Travel safe and light!

Today’s bonus: handsome pilot and co-pilot 😍

—

cabin bag must list of getting old person (minus all MacBook, iPad and cables and connectors and business cards and house keys) 😛

Endgame by Gita Wirjawan

Learning, Those People

Excellent people highlight other excellent people. Hope Gita Wirjawan’s dream to build his “Darul Hikmah”(“House of Wisdom” where scholars dedicate their expertise and vision for the good of the humankind) come true to bring this nation to its brilliantly wonderful era.

God bless you, Pak Gita!

—

Some latest Endgame shows worth watching – long talk, might need patience and passion to enjoy.

This region needs leaders whose strength level of leadership is at least the same as Soeharto (minus his corruption & dictatorship), Mahathir Mohamad (minus the history of racism among races), Lee Kuan Yew (minus $&@¥£€%~), Marcos (minus his corruption & dictatorship), King Rama IX (minus &@$)(/????) so we can be decently respected. The current most leaders are all like “kerupuk melempem”, corrupt and weak.
literacy – wish my nephews love it more 🪶
protecting Mother Earth through public policy 👍🏼

Love Makes

Learning, love, Poetic, This Person
Love makes heart full.
Love makes heart empty.
Love makes heart laugh.
Love makes heart cry.
Love makes heart closer.
Love makes heart distant.
Love makes heart trust.
Love makes heart distrust.
Love makes heart bloom.
Love makes heart wither.
Love makes heart healed.
Love makes heart broken.
Love makes heart warm.
Love makes heart cold.
Love makes heart enlightened.
Love makes heart blinded.
Love makes heart beautiful.
Love makes heart wicked.
Love makes heart bright.
Love makes heart weary.
Love makes heart sing.
Love makes heart scold.
Love makes heart write love poem.
Love makes heart compose hate speech.
Love makes heart recite ballads.
Love makes heart scream hoax.
Love makes heart look foolish.
Love makes heart look angry.
Love makes heart love more.
Love makes heart hate more.

Love makes heart swing like a pendulum between two ends.

You say love is
You say love is not
You ask what is love

Love makes space 
To those willing
To feel,
To taste,
To experience
Millions of what’s-nots
To know
The what-is.

We decide
Which space
To be filled
With what.

This is about love—
An unlimited edition
But still
Difficult to grab.

—

missing home where love is as simple as opening the door ajar to let the breeze in – please bless me oh Allah…. this poor soul 💝 thanks for everything

Sky Lantern

Learning
This song, Beloved,
Sky lantern blinking at me
To read your message?
I don’t read it. I sing it
To thank you for being you.

—

Some story is just so beautifully bitter that can’t be read, can only be recited as a musical poem — just like your story.

Some love stories must end because of greater reason. I wish you lovers, fiancées, wives, husbands, parents, children, best friends and all others broken hearted happiness. Maybe the greater reason is your own self — yes, must be!

Salaam. 💝

beautiful song to lament a lost lover; and also it is not easy to lose a father or a father to be – may all beings be happy

Home Early

Learning

Who doesn’t love laughing should not be given holiday. 😛

Mother: Dear, you are home earlier than usual today?

Child: I was the only one who could answer the teacher’s question and I was allowed to leave the class earlier. He also gave me 3 days off.

Mother: That is incredibly great! That’s mama’s child! I’m proud of you! What was the teacher’s question though?

Child: Who threw the chalk to my head?

Mother: $&@“/!?#~

—

(from Pinterest) no no definitely not this cute girl 😁

Where’s Mr Sun?

Learning, Poetic
Mr Sun’s hiding
Behind curtains of colours.
This brain cheats the eyes.

—

Ah! What is before these eyes isn’t always what is. It doesn’t matter; although it is not what is, it is still what is when it is clear what is not.

Bumpy road of saying no before finally saying yes is a long battle, a long journey to win the best throne of this heart. Know it and accept it.

Salaam. 💝

is it the ability to capture the horizon or the limitation of man-made lens that makes the shot scenery not as stunning as when viewed with these eyes? Or these very eyes get cheated?

I Slowly Spell Your Name

Learning, love, Poetic
Though not a true ID,
Your name ships all senses to
An existence.

A name that I spell slowly,
A name representing silence and unattendance,
Almost ignorance.

Is
Your name
A password
To where a gap between real and unreal resides?

Is
Your name
A padlock
With which a visitor busily matches the key?

Is
Your name
Sugar leaf
With which a cup of tea gets sweetened with its dissolving?

Is
Your name
Coffee powder
Which settles at the bottom of a cup after its releasing caffein and acidity?

Is
Your name
A myth
That resembles history?

Tell me
The story of
Your name.

Your name
That
I slowly spell
Every time 
A face flickers
Around this nerve system.

—

Indeed a name isn’t a true ID. The ID is more than just the given name.

Namamu Kueja Pelan-Pelan by Pusakata

A Fool’s A Fool

Learning, life, This Person

Disclaimer: Please don’t take it seriously. Putting funny tone when reading it will do some favour to enjoy it.


AF (a fool, or whatever you want): Hello!
G (God, not ghost): Hello! What now, funny bit?
AF: Look at me. I’m capable of cooking. I know how to do laundry. I can clean toilet. I can make the room. I take care of plants. I can put smiles at the most bitter person…. I’m an excellent one! Am I not?
G: And?
AF: What about making me an owner of a good hotel? Or at least a small nice clean affordable Airbnb? I will manage it myself.
G: Briliant!
AF: So it’s a deal?
G: Oh, wait, dear sneaky bit.
AF: What’s that?
G: Do you remember when you had food poisoning? What did the hotel do?
AF: They arranged a doctor and ended up paying for the bill as their food was the cause.
G: Do you remember a friend complained about the bed sheet with some weird thing? What did the hotel do?
AF: They upgraded to higher class with original booking price.
G: Do you remember when your peach pants accidentally got some unexpected colour stain?
AF: They compensated unnecessarily extra.
G: Do you remember….
AF: Stop. You are trying to tell me I’m not capable of doing all those?
G: I’m not saying it. It was more questioning you whether or not you are willing to do all those to strangers. Sometimes the bitterest snobbish strangers.
AF: No.
G: Then? What now?
AF: Alamak…. Why is it always difficult talking to you? Amen.

—

It is sometimes not fun doing the talk but it is always leaving a funny feeling of being thankful and content. Human being!

Thanks for making me a human being though. Hey, God! Are you still there? Sorry, sorry, sorry…. 😘

Alhamdulillah.

Done! I’m a champion of the home! 😛
and a stupidity! 😭 by a champion 🤮

Long Battle

Learning, life, love, Poetic, This Person
This love, Beloved,
A battle to win the heart
Zooming in and out—

—

How distant are we? Never away, just the lines and dots that project substantial distance. Once perspective is well understood, near far is never an issue as all are cluster of objects in the same dimension.

Yet how well is perspective projection can be accepted by this foolish brain?

Not easy to do it well. It is to play the focal length. It is a long battle to win the heart; is it my heart? Or your heart? Or both? It depends on what the computation is based. Can only wish it is based on mathematics that contains literature for accuracy without beauty kills hope. And living without hope is walking zombie.

💝

red torii: balance that stands out, mercury painted to battle the climates, poetic geometry

Daydreams of A Lover

Learning, life, love, Poetic
You
Have got everything:
A sweetest smile,
A cheery hello,
A loving look,
A warm hug,
A good kiss
All in loving care.

Yet in all daydreams of closeness and connection….

I wish to give
You a warm kiss,
Yet impossible
As
You are too high
Up the sky;

I hope to give
You a pretty daffodil
Yet unlikely
As
You are too disguised
Behind the curtain;

I want to spread for
You a good breakfast
Yet too early
As
You wake up too late
In another day;

I want to paint
You a red torii
Yet too trivial
As
You know torii much
Better than me;

I am writing
You secret love poems
Yet in vain
As
You don’t even care
They exist.

Beloved,
Breath is with what I count life.
Breath is in what I save love.
Breath is on what I paint faith.
A warm kiss,
A pretty daffodil,
A good breakfast,
A red torii,
And secret love poems
Have livened this breathing
Although
You have got
A sweetest smile,
A cheery hello,
A loving look,
A warm hug,
A good kiss
All in loving care.

Beloved,
I only wish
You behind the curtain
See me breathing
For and with
You.

—

This long weekend of Eid Al-Adha is turning to brighter space with slow breathing, daydreaming and chili party.

Happy Eid Al-Adha, family and friends. Hope we are blessed with closeness and connection with the Source of Love.

Alhamdulillah 💝

RC Gorman’s – what an inspirational picture for chili lovers 😁

Postcards

Learning, love, Poetic
I’ll send
You postcards.
Cards with white flower
On white paper
And some messages
On white ink
That will glow
When
You bring it to the dark.
Only
You and I know what it is
Until one day
You bring the light
To burn it or frame it.

—

Dear you…. 💝

postcards draft for friends – not perfect, yet purely poured from the heart

Been Through

Learning


This cart, Beloved,
Been through deserts and oceans,
It now resides here.

—

Sometimes she just doesn’t want any. It’s just enough to be what is. Sitting down, ignoring planned route, forgetting prescribed destination, letting other travelers pass by with no hallo or hi, enjoying silence, remembering what’s not describable through resting senses….

…. Not anything….

…. Of nothing….

…. In everything….

“Remembering” by RC Gorman

One by One

Learning, life, love, Poetic
Wishing, Beloved,
Upon a star where dreams sit
Waiting to be picked
One by one to the bucket
Before the steps reach the home—

—

Many dreams look so much near. Places to go on earth displayed in Pinterest lengthen the list and be a good escape for mind every weekend before dosing off. Can only wish that the lengthened list lengthens the life, pushing the EOL later and later— 🤗

Some dreams can’t even be described…. You are as near as far away…. 🙃

Happy weekend. Oops long weekend.

next year, next year…. please 🥰 want to stand under those trees and greet the women who carry loads on their heads! beautiful! 💝

Sketches

Learning, life, Poetic, Those People
Sketches, Beloved
Turning imagination
To the sensible
That won’t last longer than life;
Let go from the very start—

—

Sometimes I asked myself “what will happen to all these sketches when I die?” 🫥 Not easy to answer until I realised what I have done to most of my mistakes: let go.

🤡

orchid – in progress; let go from the very start

Mirror

Learning, Poetic, This Person
Mirror, Beloved.
Look back while looking forward!
Sigh. Blank. Mute. Smile. Shine.

—

Acceptance has gathered laughter, smile, speechlessness, emptiness, anger into a frame with a figure looking into a mirror at the same time seeing what is situated behind.

Beloved, the past is the past but it is what has molded a present person. It should be forgiven, it should not be forgotten.

Thank you, yesterday! Hello, today! Welcome, future!

mirror — rear-view, too

lovely reservoir — under the clean night sky, with the bestest friend of mine, my own self 💝

Cheese!

Learning, This Person, Those People
Two friends are chatting under a tree.

Friend #1: I think God takes care of us very well.
Friend #2: I think God stopped working after creating us.
Friend #1: You just don’t know.
Friend #2: I just don’t care.

Suddenly a lightning strikes not far from the tree.

Friend #1: Cheese!!!
Friend #2: What the hell are you doing?
Friend #1: I told you! You don’t know! God just took a picture of us gossiping.
Friend #2: @&@$#%^*~


(this is a very common joke among Indonesians, modification is applied here)

—

It is the way some crazy heads respond to what’s striking around them. 🤩

enjooooy!