in another attempt to organize my blog (which i'm sooo wanting to move to different engine, since blogger will no longer supports ftp publishing soon), i ended up reading many of my previous posts. it's funny how loose and unmindful the way i wrote back then. i could go on and on describing about what i did that day or that weekend. and it seems that i always found an exciting thing to write about everyday.
then i went on reading until my present post.. it felt so.. different! i write more careful now, more serious and mostly around the same thing.. my daughter or family! wow, have my life become so boring?
maybe. after all, i'm not the happy-go-lucky single girl living in the busiest city with all the time in the world. these days, my time is about rushing to get my work done so i can be home and be with my family. even when i'm actually doing nothing .. as long as i'm with my family.
i remember, a single friend told me a while back. she hated how her no-longer-single friends have become domesticated and only talk about family or kids. on and on and on. i promised then that i wouldn't want to be that way, ever! but i can't help myself because my family is now the center of my attention, the center of my activities. i do have other things to do, my personal goals, my personal things, but somehow it's less important and not so fancy to be discussed or even to be blogged about. maybe i'm getting matured. when i really need to think about what i need to write, because i don't want to either spill too much info or giving out something unecessary on the internet. while back then, i couldn't care less. i write what i want to and i don't have to explain myself.
it's funny how i can see how my life has changed and myself maturing from my posts in blog. i do want to go back there, write about anything. but somehow, it's not as easy as i thought. my network has become very 'small' compared to when i was still in NYC and writing my hearts out. back then, only a few of people in my circle know about my blog, and most people i interacted with on the net, are just my virtual friends.
these days, my virtual friends have become my real life friends. and my real life friends also the people i would interact with on the net. there's no borderline anymore. for example, i'm having an argument with a friend. back then i would write it here and no one would know who i'm talking about. now? if i do pour my heart out, it gives people something to talk about, virtually and in real life.
are bloggers now - in her or his own right - a celebrity? i think so. after all, a social network sites like facebook or twitter, shows that everyone has a fan and a follower. therefore, you are a celebrity (with your own paparazzi & fans), in your own world.
anyway, as for my writing.. yes, i miss those days when i faced excitements every day, but i wouldn't trade my (boring) life now for anything in the world. i'm grateful to be where i am now.
ps: i also realized that my passion for writing has been exalted because i read less nowadays. as soon as i picked up that hobby back, i can't seem to contain my brain to start writing. hopefully, this will mean i would update more. who knows? one can only hope! :)
in our society, i find different people measure happiness in different ways. when asked, "how happy are you?" most would say "i'm happy!". but how do you really measure your happiness?
i'm interested in asking this question recently because i notice that people measure it by their materialistic achievements. how much they earn, how much they can spend, the brands of their bags, shoes, etc. but is that really a measurement of one's happiness? scientists have felt that the word "happiness" has been too vague and too surrounded by the mythos of cartoon or movie views of "happy people" dancing with pleasure or about being in love.
an acquaintance of mine once said that she's happy because she has a husband who loves her dearly and would shower her with gifts and all the branded stuffs she asks. for her, that's happiness. sounds shallow, but it's her right to measure her happiness from all the branded materials. it's her life.
on the other hand, another good friend of mine once said that happines for her is when she can roam freely in her time and eat chocolate every day. sounds too naive? but that's happiness for her.
honestly, i believe that the measure of happiness is relative for everyone. one can measure her happiness by the materialistics items she can buy while another measures it through the success he has achieved. it's definitely different.
as for me, i find my happiness when all my basic needs are fulfilled and i have my family with me, healthy. i don't need to live in a mansion or wear a fancy handbag as long as i'm surrounded with family and i'm able to achieve my goals in life. although having to be able to live in a mansion and wear fancy handbag would be nice :) but not a necessity. i also believe, that one's happiness may change over time. when i was young, my goal of happiness is more of materialistic items. the more money i can save, the happier i was. the more money i make, the happier i was then. now, i guess it just comes naturally, but no longer a measurement of my happiness. i'm more concerned about having quality time with my daughter and family rather than buying the expensive stuffs, cuz i'd rather save the money for my daughter's education. or family travel. or simply, for emergency.
health is also a measurement of my happiness. i'd rather be healthy than wealthy.
personal and professional success may lead to happiness but may also engender success. happy individuals are predisposed to seek out and undertake new goals in life and this reinforces positive emotions, say researchers who examined the connections between desirable characteristics, life successes and well-being of over 275,000 people.
get happy, get successful. it's a good outlook.
personally, i think happiness should be a measurement of your satisfaction in life. in a scale of 1 to 10, i'm on 8. there are tons of achievements and goals in life i want to achieve. and an 8 is not a bad number.
so how do you measure your happiness? in a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you? tell me!
i find it funny.. that most people's motivation to vote in jakarta is to get discounts with their purple-inked finger
i find it funny.. that some still consider of not voting at all cuz they're confused on which couple to choose
i find it funny.. that i've never exercise my right to vote before...ever!
i find it funny.. that people need an invitation to vote when it's actually their right to do it
i find it funny.. that i don't have an ink on my pinky finger
i find it funny.. that i'm not going to election booth to vote, instead caught up with deadlines at work
i find it funny.. that i'm voting by mail instead
but i find it damn serious that i need to vote and exercise my right this time, for better indonesia .. however it may be, however your motivation is!
happy election day, indonesia!
whoever wins may bring indonesia to be a better country. for those who have waived your right to vote, you have also waived your right to bitch and complain about the government for the next 5 years.
many girls dream about wedding and romance. they dream about spending time in love with that prince charming for ever and ever. girls love fairy tales. that is the reason why books, novels and movies about fairy tales never short of its die-hard fans. girls would love to see it even if the storyline is just pretty much the same from one to another.
in short, girls love to daydream on the fairy tale lives. and it's pretty much the same to all of them. live with that prince charming, in a beautiful house with beautiful well-cared gardens with beautiful kids running around. i think this stereotype is still implated inside every girls' head that many girls today still want that. beautiful house with well-cared gardens and playground. though, i'm not generalizing as i've met many girls who choose otherwise.
unfortunately, is it practical, logical or even ideal at this day and age to dream of the fairy tale life?
recently, my lil family was visited by a family friend. she grows up in jakarta her entire life and never been out of the country until that time when she visited us. during one of the conversation, she made a comment about our lives here in singapore, who must live in an apartment - away from the dream home she would imagine. she said that if she were ever to get married, she'd rather live in a house with gardens filled with beautiful flowers so he can spend her time gardening and play with her kids. does she even garden? who knows!
i do respect her dream as i too may have that same dream long time ago. i couldn't remember anymore. but i grew up to adulthood living from one apartment to another. aside from my childhood, only when i go back to jakarta to visit my parents, then i have the experience of living in a landed house.
but the question remains, in this day and age, would it still logical to live in a landed house? in jakarta, there are still plenty of spaces to have that kind of house. people live all the way in the outer part of jakarta so they can have an affordable house, landed with gardens where they can have their kids play & run around. but the consequence is that they must travel for soooo long to get to work, not to mention that the traffic is just getting worse every day. it's quite impossible to find an affordable house in the city center area cuz the price of land is way too high, unless you get it from your parents who owned that piece of land for a long time.. :P so the most ideal way to live to the city is to live in an apartment that's been popping up quite tremendously in the city center area. apartment price, of course still lower than buying a landed house, but it still doesn't come cheap. especially when you want to have the ones with nice facilities.
back to my question. if i were still live & working in jakarta.. i would still have that dream of a landed house with beautiful garden, but i'd prefer to stay in an apartment so i can be close to work. why? cuz i'd rather cut my travel time short and spend it with my family instead of dreading the long hours in traffic just to get home and found my daughter already fell asleep. after all, i am a working mother.
as for living in singapore, it just makes more sense to live in an apartment cuz landed house is too expensive and the maintenance also doesn't come cheap. at least for now, i opt to live in a nice apartment with full facilities so that my daughter can have access to enjoy the playground, the pool and walk in the park.
and slowly, my home dream is no longer a house with beautiful gardens and playground. and i've said it once before and i'm saying it again .. home is where your heart is. no matter whether it's one-storey high or twenty five-storeys high, with gardens or just a balcony, home is not just something you live, sleep, and eat. it's where you spend time with your family. quality time. no matter what, how and where it is.
in another attempt to organize my blog (
in our society, i find different people measure happiness in different ways. when asked, "how happy are you?" most would say "i'm happy!". but how do you really measure your happiness?
many girls dream about wedding and romance. they dream about spending time in love with that prince charming for ever and ever. girls love fairy tales. that is the reason why books, novels and movies about fairy tales never short of its die-hard fans. girls would love to see it even if the storyline is just pretty much the same from one to another. 
