Darla!

Blog

  • Meet the Parents

    Today, I finally got the chance to meet A’s family (minus one of his sisters). His mum is an elementary school teacher. She and her fellow teachers plus their families are on a vacation to Bandung and Jakarta this weekend. They visited Sari Ater this morning, so A and I went there to see them.

    I had always felt so anxious about meeting them. I’m sure that the anxiety was normal (right?). Turns out, his mum is super nice (without exaggeration) and very pretty (again, no exaggeration). I didn’t talk too much with his dad, though. It’s always kinda awkward for me to talk to dads. I don’t know why. I need to work this out ASAP. His sisters are also super nice. One of them who is in high school is already friends with me on Facebook. We’ve talked a lot through Facebook Chat and BBM, so when I finally met her in person, we could go on talking quite naturally. His youngest sister looked kinda shy around me, but we had a nice talk about her new pink watch-through whispering. Haha. She’s very cute 🙂

  • Happiness is a Matter of Choice #HappinessProject

    One of the happiest moments in my life: riding Gajah Bledug in Dufan

    There are a million reasons to be sad: breaking up with your significant other, losing a pet, being broke and tied in debt, having to be away from your family, Gaza war, starvation in Africa, et cetera, et cetera. When something bad happens to you, you may feel like the sky is falling, the world is crumbling down, your life is shattered into pieces, and the universe is so unfair. I know. I’ve been there before. And yes, I agree that it feels like nothing in this world can beat you in the Pain Olympics. What you experience is the worst.

    And of course it’s perfectly fine to feel so. Pain is a part of learning who you are. It is a part of growing up; a test to assess your worth. It is the gate to happiness, and as God has promised, there will be a relief for every pain.

    But please bear in mind that happiness is just a matter of choice. All the heartbreaks I’ve ever experienced have taught me that the key to happiness is believing that you are, indeed, happy. Once you’ve chosen happiness, the wall of sadness that’s been built around you will start breaking down. You will be able to see that the sun is still shining, the wind is still blowing, the world is still turning, and most importantly, you’re still alive! You survived the pain, passed the test, and now you’re one step closer to wisdom. Nobody can guarantee that you will never experience any more heartbreaks, but darling you’ve beat one helluva pain, any other pain will be a piece of cake for you from now on. You’re stronger now.

    And at that moment, you will see that God never breaks His promises.

    ***

    #HappinessProject is a project held by Hijabers Community Jakarta. The main event, called Hijab Day 2014, will be held on 27 April 2014 at Mall Gandaria City. See their blog for more details.

  • It’s Sunday Again


    Last week passed me by like it was only just two days and it’s Sunday again. I had planned to just stay at home, looking up for jobs online, but then I decided to go out with A for a flash date. We went to have surabi and milk soda in Waroeng Setiabudhi, then we walked to Ciwalk to play PIU. Turned out, playing PIU with a full stomach was not wise. We both felt like throwing up but at least we made it home. I really hope next week will be fine. I have a big thing going on on Friday next week. See you then.

  • Don’t Feed The Troll


    I admit that I am a troll.

    Yes. You read that right. I am a troll and I enjoy reading GOMI, though I have only written like 3 posts in the forum. I enjoy hate reading a particular famous blog that’s got a 500+ page thread on it and silently nod whenever somebody points out that the blogger(s) pull out too many pigeon toes. I also enjoy creeping on my Facebook’s news feed to read people’s statuses and laughing at their whinings. And if I find that someone I hate posts statuses about how shitty her job is and how they haven’t paid her for two months or how ‘unmanly’ her boyfriend is, I feel like a winner. Yes, I admit that I am that kind of person.

    Since I am such a horrible person and such a troll, I can tell you this:

    Don’t feed the troll.
    Don’t whine on social networking sites.
    Be smart when posting something that the public can read.

    In the age of digitalised social life, we often forget that there are literally million people out there who can get access to our private life. We often forget that when we post about (let’s say) family issues, not only our families or close friends can read that; the entire population on our friends list can also read it. Now, check your friends list. Out of those 2,000’s faces, how many of them are actually the people you know in person? They can read your posts, your private posts, unless if you limit what you share.

    So, here are some things that you may consider. (Remember, these come from a big, fat troll that I am, so you can say they are legit tips).
    – Stop whining.
    – If you just can’t stop it, use the privacy settings on Facebook very wisely. Put all those people in your friends list into several lists, so you can choose which lists can read your personal statuses and which lists can only read general posts (like those cute cat videos you share from YouTube).
    – Carefully accept friend requests. A big fat troll that used to keep bugging you and whom you unfriended a long, long time ago may create a fake account and try to friend you with their new account (yes, that shit really happens), so it can be useful to carefully choose the requests you accept.
    – If you blog, please bear in mind that you have chosen to give strangers the access to your private life. Therefore, you should be ready to be judged and criticised. Don’t be such a cry baby and/or drama queen; it makes us trolls even happier and gives us even more stuffs to snark about.

    Life is never simple, you guys. It gets even more complicated in this era. The trolls are horrible, but at some points, they can also be right. Now, if you could handle listening to what they’re snarking about, you could actually get some tips on how to make you a better person/blogger, and thus give them less things to gossip about. Just don’t feed the troll, alright?

    Image via

  • Samsung Galaxy Ace 3

    All this time, I had always been a Sony girl. Even before the age of smartphones, I never had a Samsung phone. I had always chosen Sony (or Sony Ericsson back then) because I liked its UI and the screen was usually better than Samsung’s. But when I went to buy a new phone a few days ago, I didn’t find Sony Xperias that appealing anymore. I think they’re very overpriced and I don’t like the designs anymore. So I went for Lenovo, having seen that my dad’s Lenovo S820 was very impressive especially its front camera (2 megapixels for taking selfies!). However, Lenovo S820 was too expensive for me, so I decided to give Samsung a try. Then I chose this phone: Samsung Galaxy Ace 3.

    So far, what I like from this phone is the camera. The primary camera is only 5 megapixels but the autofocus is very good. It can produce beautiful pictures even in a room with dim light. The secondary camera is VGA but it is good in poor lit room too. What I don’t like from this phone are the battery life and the amount of useless apps that can’t be uninstalled. The battery only lasts for about six hours after fully charged (with the internet connected and light use of gaming, i.e. Candy Crush and QuizUp). This phone also comes with several pre-installed apps, like Chat On, Samsung Apps, S Voice, etc.–apps that I don’t actually need, let alone use. They can’t be uninstalled, unless you root the device. Man, this is so frustating. They use up too much RAM and battery. I don’t want to root my phone just yet, so I guess I have to just accept it and let it go as for now.

    But just look at the brighter side. Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 has quite a lot of accessories and cases available in stores. I’m going to order a custom case with my favourite football team logo on it 😉

    Also, look how cute they are together.