As I knew that November is my month, I always wanted to visit somewhere new on my birthday. And this year, I got my passport back. I risks the money I have in my bank account and I booked a flight to Thailand. And to add some surprises, I also booked a seat to attend Body Combat workshop as well.

I have never travelled abroad alone before. I always travelled with my Dad. It's honestly a new thing for me because as I always travel solo, that would be good for me if I do have an exact itinerary. I did not. I know myself as a go-show solo traveler-- which I'd share you some of the stories later.

I also invested myself into a more proper room. Because as I have lived in Ubud since earlier this year, I always wanted to live in Jalan Sriwedari, because it is located just 2 minutes away from the city center. I don't know how long I'm gonna stay here. But fingers crossed hoping that the neighborhood here to be quiet. That's what I'm technically craving for.

A friend of mine, a big sister of mine here Kak Flora once told me. "That's okay to invest in something better. Instead of thinking how you're going to pay your bills each month, what about thinking in how to earn more each month?" Kak Flora, terima kasih.

One last thing I have learned in my birthday month is to learn in how to learn from my past mistakes. And yes, shit happened. Again, it is not worth your time talking to a person who did not know that what they did is wrong. But one sure thing is, here in Bali you pay the karma cash. And I'll let that law speaks louder.

And when I think that my November is going to be a flop, I was wrong. I have received couple of facts that relieved me a lot. One thing: if there are couple of peoples has one similar towards someone, clearly the issue is not in ours, instead in that person. So no worries. Gustra, terima kasih banyak.

Heading to the 11th month, and the final month of 2017. December, let it be a good restart.

Saya memutuskan untuk bikin tulisan yang lebih proper disini. Karena dari posting di Facebook, banyak orang nanyain saya kenapa sampai bisa saya pulang hari Bali-Jakarta-Bali cuma perkara paspor aja? Nah, sekarang saya buatin deh jurnal khusus untuk kejadian ini.

Saya inget waktu sebelum pindah ke Ubud, seorang teman sempet ngingetin untuk perpanjang passport. Karena simply kita nggak tau kedepannya apakah kita akan traveling lebih jauh dari batas Zona Ekonomi Eksklusif nya Indonesia. Dan semenjak di Ubud, sebenernya kesempatan saya untuk berinteraksi dan bekerjasama dengan komunitas internasional disini lebih gede daripada di Jakarta. Lebih melting pot gitu. Kaya di kelas Yoga gitu kan, bisa kali itu kuping saya membedakan ada 5 bahasa yang berbeda dalam satu kelas, bahkan lebih.

OK. Jadi inti ceritanya adalah, sejujurnya udah ada 2x tawaran professional untuk ke luar negeri datang ke saya; ke Melbourne dan ke Fiji, dan endingnya saya tolak karena paspor saya mati dari tahun 2013 akhir. Keinginan untuk memproses perpanjangan paspor tuh ada. Tapi pas baca persyaratannya agak repot untuk paspor yang dikeluarkan dibawah tahun 2009 seperti paspor saya. Karena itungannya tuh jadi kaya buat paspor baru lagi. Tapi yaudah, saya anggap proses perpanjangan paspor ini adalah sebagai langkah pertama untuk investasi masa depan saya. Jadi kalau memang si suatu saat nanti kesempatan itu kembali datang, saya sudah siap terbang.

Seminggu sebelum ke Kantor Imigrasi Denpasar di daerah Renon, saya minta dikirimin semua dokumen asli dari rumah orang tua saya di Jakarta, semua dikirim ke Ubud: Kartu Keluarga, Akta Lahir, Ijazah Pendidikan, sama blanko eKTP. Kenapa blanko eKTP? Karena simply eKTP saya belum jadi jadi sampai detik ini. Diperhatikan untuk proses permohonan paspor baru atau perpanjangan dengan menggunakan blanko eKTP, bisa dipastikan dulu kalau blanko eKTP nya masih berlaku dalam jangka 6 bulan sejak tanggal pengeluaran. Kalau lewat dari itu, harus rekues blanko eKTP lagi dari kantor kelurahan tempat ngurusnya.

Saya sampai kantor Imigrasi Denpasar itu hari Senin 7.30 pagi. Saya ngerasa semua dokumen lengkap; dokumen asli dan fotokopi beserta paspor lama. Kira-kira nunggu 1 jam sampai dipanggil nomor antrian di pos pertama. Dari sini kericuhan itu dimulai. Aplikasi perpanjangan paspor saya ditolak dikarenakan oleh beberapa hal:

Nama paspor saya beda sendiri sama nama saya di dokumen lainnya. Nama ketiga di paspor saya menggunakan nama marga Ayah, sementara nama ketiga di dokumen lainnya menggunakan nama ketiga saya. Ini jadi masalah di Imigrasi Denpasar. Solusi nya adalah, saya diminta untuk mengajukan surat kuasa dari Ayah sebagai bukti kalau nama marga saya itu sama dengan nama marga Ayah saya. Dan surat kuasa tersebut akan dipergunakan untuk proses Berita Acara balik nama paspor, dan akan di proses sekitar 4-5 minggu. Disitu saya tau, hangus aja kesempatan saya untuk menghadiri workshop Body Combat di Thailand 2 minggu lagi. Tapi ya sudah, kalau belum rejeki saya ya udah, mau bilang apa.

Blanko eKTP saya nggak ada yang asli nya. Dan nggak dikirim dari Jakarta. Soalnya dari kantor Kelurahan saya di Jakarta itu dibilang, cukup serahkan fotokopi nya saja. Tapi ternyata, untuk pengurusan paspor, regulasi tersebut nggak berlaku.

Kartu Keluarga saya kan baru, dan belum ditandatangani oleh Ayah saya. Mengingat profesi Ayah saya sebagai Ship Engineer, Ayah saya banyak menghabiskan waktu di luar negeri dan menurut dia, ngasih tanda tangan di Kartu Keluarga itu bukan prioritas. Dan beruntungnya, Ayah saya lagi di Jakarta sewaktu kericuhan ini berlangsung.

Aplikasi saya ditolak jam 8 pagi. Saya langsung ambil langkah seribu aja. Jam 9 pagi saya ke Uma Seminyak, saya nenangin diri dulu sekalian siap siap titip motor sambil liat penerbangan paling cepat hari itu dari Traveloka. Karena saya tau, mau nggak mau saya harus ke Jakarta. Soalnya saya udah nggak ada waktu lagi untuk ngurusin paspor ini karena minggu depan kerjaan saya banyak yang ngantri untuk diselesaikan. 

Udah. Akhirnya jam 12 siang saya take off dari Ngurah Rai, landing jam 1 siang di Halim Perdana Kusuma. Saya sempetin mampir dulu ke Citos buat makan siang karena dari pagi itu saya baru sempet makan roti aja dari Ubud. Lanjut perjalanan, akhirnya jam 3 sore saya sampe rumah orang tua saya di daerah Tangerang Selatan. Nggak ada momen kangen kangenan, saya langsung nodong Ayah saya untuk tulis surat kuasa, minta blanko eKTP asli dan menandatangani Kartu Keluarga.

Jam 4 sore waktu Jakarta. Semua dokumen aman, saya langsung booking pesawat untuk penerbangan jam 21.20. Masih ada waktu 2 jam, masih ada kesempatan buat minta Ibu saya nemenin saya makan siang di daerah Bintaro. Udah deh abis itu, saya langsung pamit. Langsung ke Soekarno-Hatta aja sekalian. Maksudnya tuh gimana, ya. Saya kan manusia biasa, ya. Walaupun di pesawat cuma duduk doang, tapi capek juga loh. Terus yaudah, saya emang sengajain untuk sampe se cepet mungkin ke Cengkareng soalnya nggak ada yang bisa prediksi macetnya Jakarta itu se buruk apa.

Jam 21.20 take off dari Cengkareng, landing lagi di Ngurah Rai udah jam 12 malam dan baru sampai Uma Seminyak itu jam 1 pagi. Saya tau saya harus balik ke Ubud malam itu juga karena pagi nya, saya ada meeting back to back dari jam 9, 11 dan 1 siang. Dan sorenya saya harus ngajar kelas Body Combat di Denpasar. Ini alasannya kenapa saya harus bela belain pulang ke Ubud malam itu juga. Alhasil, saya sampai Ubud lagi itu udah jam 2.30 pagi, dan baru bisa tidur jam 4 pagi. Lalu harus bangun lagi jam 8 untuk 3 meeting yang saya sebutkan diatas.

Lanjut ke hari Rabu. Saya nggak mau nyerah. Saya mau coba untuk mengajukan aplikasi di Kantor Imigrasi Kelas 1 di daerah Jimbaran, Nusa Dua. Iya, 30 kilometer lebih dari Ubud. Tapi saya nggak peduli, soalnya saya anaknya batu. Kalo udah basah, basah aja sekalian. Iya jadi, kantor Imigrasi yang di Jimbaran ini tuh lebih melayani ekspat yang ingin mengajukan atau memperpanjang visa mereka. Dan mereka hanya melayani maksimum 70 orang per hari agar pelayanan bisa lebih maksimal.

Dan ternyata benar, saya antri nggak begitu lama. Juga, perkara nama saya yang berbeda di paspor dengan di dokumen pelengkap saya itu ternyata tidak menjadi masalah di Jimbaran. Nggak perlu surat kuasa Ayah saya dan nggak perlu balik nama paspor, nggak perlu nunggu sebulan. Iya! Nggak perlu. Cukup nunggu 2 hari aja dan udah, paspor nya bisa di ambil hari Jumat.

Tanpa menyampingkan kantor Imigrasi di Renon, tapi menurut saya pelayanan kantor Imigrasi di Jimbaran jauh lebih baik. Informasi jelas, sehingga untuk saya yang notabene ngurus semuanya sendiri pun nggak dipersulit karena pos pos dari foto sampai pembayaran pun semua jelas. Dan akhirnya bener, saya balik hari Jumat dan paspor nya udah jadi. Udah bisa bernafas lega, karena jika suatu hari ada tawaran untuk ke luar, jadi udah siap berangkat aja, deh. Tapi bener deh, 72 jam pertama itu lumayan melelahkan, but it finally paid off and I got my passport back.

Couple years back, I do spent my New Year’s Eve catching fireworks at the capital city because I don’t think I’d go out of town during the date. This year actually a bit different than previous years because there’s no car free night event around Bundaran HI or Monas, and I just browsed the news at the afternoon that there’ll be no event on that. So I am thinking to keep a spot to Old Town (Kota Tua) area in West Jakarta, accompanied with Irwan, my gym buddy.

We arrived at Kota Tua around 8 PM, and there are all humans at the center of the piazza. All peoples gathered there waiting for the fireworks. They’re like all sitting on the cement floor. It was pretty chaotic but I guess we handled that well as the time clicked pretty quick to the midnight.. And finally, the fireworks are shooting towards the bright night sky.

For me, I kinda see that fireworks could be a good symbol for a shimmering hope. That is why I always love fireworks. I thanked 2016 for all lessons learned. Because I do have some goals to achieve this year. And I am willing to hang a quite big hope for it. And not to forget that, give me a little luck and I’ll conquer the land. Please be good, 2017.

Guess what's back? The intriguing Bi-annual Jakarta Contemporary Ceramic Biennale (JCCB), and they're doing their fourth edition! I discovered this exhibition right around 2 years a go when a friend of mine, a ceramic artist Zia Fauziana had been selected to showcase her works on the past JCCB and I directly fell in love to discover and to learn fine arts in another interesting forms. Here are selections from the 4th edition of JCCB, entitled "Ways of Clay: Perspectives Toward the Future".

Ryota Shioya

Arya Pandjalu

Muhammad Rizal Salleh

Panca DZ (in collaboration with Kandura Studio)

Antonella Cimatti

--

Curated by Nurdian Ichsan & Rizki A. Zaelani, this exhibition is open for public starts this December to next year's mid-end January. As a friendly reminder from the staffs informed me earlier, flash photography & selfie sticks are prohibited here. And yes, she's being serious about that.

Aside from emerging local talents like Agugn Prabowo and Arya Pandjalu, there are numerous talents from Eastern Asia like Takashi Hinoda and Ryota Shioya, shining with their interesting shapes & colors.

As the exhibition is still running on and if you're seeking for place to go, feel light to drop a visit to Galeri Nasional Indonesia. It's pretty refreshing for your eyes & brain from your weekday routines, eh?

First of all, I never thought that I’d put a reality TV related blog post into my page. But for this time, I think I have to. I have been watching The Amazing Race since I was only 10 years old. Yes, I am The Amazing Race aficionado. I grew up watching the show. And in short, I think I kinda understand the race elements.

The idea of this blog post comes from the infamous Leg 9 episode of The Amazing Race Asia taken at Banyuwangi, Indonesia. And yes, an episode where they kick out people’s favourite team to be, best friends Treasuri & Louisa from Indonesia. It was such an intense episode, and there are lots of reactions coming on the social media; as I’ve seen (and involved) pretty much on the Facebook fan page, and also in each racers’ personal social media account.

It’s all started when the episode featured both Yield and U-Turn in one leg, which means for me personally, it feels pretty peculiar to watch if there’s a team who got both Yielded & U-Turned, it’s an obvious statement that they’ll leave. But there are lots of things are missing. It’s like this episode is designed to kick both Treasuri & Louisa out from the competition (quoting season 4 3rd placer Hussein Sutadisastra on Facebook), as we already know that they are the front runner by winning 4 legs and being consistent in Top 5 placement since the first leg in Bogor.

Now how I, and numbers of fans out there are questioning the episode is, how the earth they featured a U-Turn before they even done any detour? It’s not like that. From The Amazing Race Wikia, it’s clearly written that “The U-Turn is located immediately AFTER a detour”. Now take a look on the episode, the U-Turn comes even before the team open their clue. Somebody please explain us, ah?

Treasuri & Louisa did the Kebo Keboan Detour first, head to head with Malaysian beauty queen Yvonne & Chloe and they finished before the beauty queens. But another thing happened as Treasuri & Louisa had to wait around 30 minutes until the Philippines team did their Detour (quoting Louisa’s statement on her Instagram page). System error, man. In early seasons of The Amazing Race US, teams are free to choose which detour they wish to perform. And yes, there’s a possibility of an unperformed Detour option, like that one episode of classic The Amazing Race US season 2 in Thailand, if I’m not mistaken. All teams are doing the exact same detour back at the time.

And yes, shouldn’t the team has the RIGHTS to choose the detour they want, eh? Nowadays, they put the first come first serve mode in Detour. So basically, if there’s a team who wants to perform Detour A, and there’s no place left, that team HAS to perform Detour B even if they don’t wish to perform that. Which again, numerous fans are disagree about the modified system. Why don’t you just put at least 4 stand by horses as there are 4 teams left there? It’s a clear disadvantage if Treasuri & Louisa had to wait for 30 minutes waiting for the Philippines team. And if there are more horses, I’m beyond sure they can catch up.

But here’s the thing. I am not promoting hate to the fellow Philippines teams, Eric & Rona and Parul & Maggie, because at the end yes it’s a game. And as a fan, I do appreciate Eric & Rona’s behaviour because they apologized in what they did towards Treasuri & Louisa; both at the telé and at the social media.

Yes, I personally want Indonesia to win The Amazing Race Asia. But frankly speaking, what we-- fans saw is that; this Banyuwangi leg seems designed to kick the strongest team out. I really wanted to know what is the reason behind those multiple Yield and U-Turn back to back in one single freakin' leg, and how the earth there’s a U-Turn before they done any Detour? How is it even possible? Once again, I am not spreading hate about the Philippines team. But I really do wish the Production Team would speak up about how awful the race design is.

Indonesia kalah terhormat, everybody. It took both Yield & U-Turn to really stop them.

Screenshot credits here.

So as I do graphic design for nearly 4 years since I graduated from university, I do have chances meeting various clients and brands to work at. Ranging from pro-bono to the good one. As the time flies, I indirectly learned their behaviours & characteristics. And at this post, I’d like to share you guys what I feel and what I keep deep inside about being a so-called graphic designer.

There’s a time I had to do an editorial design project. It was multiple pages and I had to set my layout set up for the design. But a client keep giving me the revised version of the copywriting. Yes, it look simple for you because you are the one who edit the copy. But me, who is working for the layout, even a single word can change the face of my layout. So it’d be good for both of us if I have the final version of the contents, so I can concentrate more in how I develop my layout design.

Revision is designer’s best friend, as we know. One time, there’s a client who asked me to do custom manual illustration for their materials. Then as usual, I gave them alternatives to pick at. They choose one. It was almost all good. The day after tomorrow, I had an email, and the client asked if can I edit some of the lines on the drawing because the tend to don’t really like that in the way. I was cringing a little. Editing a manual illustration is an equivalent version of re-do the illustration from a blank white paper, just so you know.

Also, please give us time to develop our product. This is a personal preference, though. But if a client keep seeing my laptop screen while I’m doing my design, it’s like they are blocking my ideas. Please give me space to develop first. And please just take a moment to wait. This one usually happens when your clients are rushing at the deadlines and there are things to fix. I’m like, alright I know you’re in a rush but please go sit down, give me a time limit and I’ll finish 15 minutes before the time limit you give me. That’d be better for both of us.

As I met lots of great clients, there are clients who are… less great to work with. But yes, I need the bucks so I’d rather to listen to meditation music on my Spotify playlist while doing their projects. So here I go, I do respect you as a client, not as my art director. I finished my Bachelor’s Degree studying Visual Communication. So more or less, I know what I’m doing with what colors I choose, with what style I apply, and stuff. And for me personally, I am not doing this to make your not-so-good idea becomes a better one- but a bitter one. And also, we tend to design to what your brand’s target market needs, not to design what you want. I am not going to put snowflakes to your A-class like hand bag brand. Or in short, please listen to us.

I met this guy as a total stranger during our flight from Bali to Jakarta earlier this year. We become friends as we shared similar visions about Ubud. We talked a lot during our 2 hours of flight back to Jakarta. We exchanged our number yet stopped contacting each other as he worked as a Flight Attendant. It was on May.

Until couple days back, he went to my dream twice and the vision as long I can remember is, we were running around Desa Singakerta. I decided to search his LinkedIn and I found his full name. Then I type his full name on Facebook and what I found are rest in peace messages from his colleagues.

He passed away because of cardiac arrest last month. It was 2 hour period of I had good talk with a total stranger, we exchange our number and we used to had our hypothetical plan that it'd be cool if he has his Ubud mate during our hypothetical trip. So it was a premonition. Thanks for coming to my dream, so I know that you just done your final departure. It was such a good conversation we had on board for 2 hours, my friend. I'd take a moment of silence on the next time I go to Campuhan. May you fly higher, and may you rest in peace.

Iya. After years of hiatus. As I’ve been blogging since 2008. 8 tahun lalu, jo!. Waktu itu masih kelas 3 SMA. Dan motivasi pribadi untuk mulai blogging itu tuh lebih ke “pelarian” aja. Hah? Pelarian? Ho oh. Pelarian dari rutinitas SMA yang menurut saya tuh yaudah gitu-gitu aja. Cuma mungkin emang dasarnya introvert ya udah introvert aja kayanya, ya. Jadi emang kurang begitu mengapresiasi diri sendiri kalo lagi ditengah keramaian gitu, loh. Disaat temen-temen yang lain kalo hari Sabtu sama Minggu biasanya main kemana gitu, saya mah mendingan di kamar aja browsing, ato kalo nggak nontonin The Amazing Race.

Lalu kembali lagi, selain sebagai pelarian, waktu itu saya blogging sebagai sarana ekspresi diri juga; karena saya emang udah suka sama fashion dari SMA pun. Jadi yaudah deh, waktu itu tuh itungannya saya sempet jadi fashion blogger kira-kira dari 2010 sampai 2014. Nah dari 2008 ke 2010 itu nggak saya itung karena emang tema blog saya tuh jauh lebih ke personal diary aja. Baru kaya 2010 gitu saya mulai menetapkan nih untuk bikin blog saya jadi blog fashion. Konten nya pun saya isi dari personal style saya, review review brand, model dan editorial dari luar dan dalam negeri, sampe fan artworks gitu. Kan saya dulu kuliahnya ambil DKV, ya. Jadi yaudah deh tuh iseng iseng sering bikin artwork gitu, deh.

Nah seiring berjalannya waktu pun, readers blog saya yang dulu tuh jadi growing juga. Lalu akhirnya beberapa email masuk ke kotak masuk saya dari beberapa instansi untuk nawarin partnership dan endorsement kecil-kecilan. Terus yang paling seru jadi fashion blogger tuh, saya bisa dapet akses ato dapet undangan dari desainer untuk menghadiri fashion show mereka. Lumayan bisa dibilang sering dulu muter-muter Jakarta Fashion Week sampe Indonesia Fashion Week dari tahun pertama. Nah yang paling memorable itu tuh pas saya dapet kesempatan buat jadi official blogger nya Indonesia Fashion Week taun 2013 sampe 2015. Cuma sayang aja, abis itu manajemen Indonesia Fashion Week lagi ada sesuatu yang perlu diberesin, untuk tahun ini blogger pun nggak ada yang dapet all access unless dapet ticket show. But that’s okay, though.

Tapi ya, pasti ada masa-masa down nya juga kan, ya? OK, karena ini personal blog, jadi boleh dong ya ber opini? Iya, jadi gitu. Kalo jadi fashion blogger tuh kan ada aturan tidak tertulis untuk selalu terlihat fashionable secara visual, kan? Jadi harus sering-sering beli baju gitu kasarnya. Nah dulu kan saya statusnya masih kuliahan, ya. Masih irit irit ngeluarin isi dompet, mau minta sama orang tua juga nggak enak, secara kuliah saya tuh butuh ina inu nya banyak. Paling nabung buat beli Danjyo Hiyoji 1-2 pcs, ato nunggu XSML diskon 50%. Udah begitu aja. Terus ya kan fashion blogger bukan saya doang, ya.

Dan blogger blogger yang lain tuh kaya ada aja loh yang make Alexander Wang ato Yohji Yamamoto. Secara singkat, saya sempet jiper. Dan sebenernya lebih ke mencoba menerima kenyataan that I couldn’t afford them. And most importantly, I am not being myself kalo akhirnya saya blogging untuk pleasing people’s eyes aja gitu. Jadi nya jauh dari motivasi awal saya blogging sebagai sarana ekspresi diri. Nah cara saya mengekspresikan diri tuh gimana, sih? Ya pake baju baju thrifted di Pasar Baru terus saya modif sana sini aja. Dan sejujurnya, saya nggak gitu peduli kalo harus duduk di front row kalo fashion show. Lebih enak gabung sama media biar dapet foto lebih bagus sekalian gitu, loh. Jadi kalo prinsip saya, kalo mau front row, front row sekalian. Duduk bareng temen-temen media :D

Lalu sampai akhirnya 2013 saya lulus kuliah. Dan syukur kepada Tuhan sebelum wisuda udah dipanggil untuk kerja. Ya makin tersita deh waktunya kalo mau ngikutin status waktu itu sebagai “fashion blogger”. Kaya mau OOTD an di depan kantor pun rasa rasanya udah nggak ada waktu. Mending waktunya dipake buat istirahat makan siang ngobrol ngobrol gitu, kan. Nah yaudah deh, dalam jangka waktu 2013 sampe 2015 itu tetep blogging tapi udah nggak yang serius blogging lagi. Kasarnya kaya udah makin nggak tau mau diapain lagi sih ini blog? Februari 2015 pun jadi bulan terakhir saya nge blog di blog lama.

Sampai di awal 2016 kemaren akhirnya memutuskan untuk memulai kembali. Kembali jadi diri sendiri. Itu yang paling penting. Karena saya tuh percaya kalo kita nulis ikhlas sebagai diri sendiri tuh jadinya lebih adem aja gitu rasanya karena nggak ada tuntutan sana sini. Terus, yang konten yang mau diisi disini apa aja? Masih sama, sih. Masih ada fashion nya pun. Tapi sekarang pengen lebih diluasin topik nya juga. Reviews, thoughts, travel journal and artworks juga bakal ada disini. So yeah, mari memulai kembali. Mari kembali menjadi diri sendiri!

Satu pertanyaan pembuka untuk blog post kali ini: ada yang percaya reinkarnasi nggak, sih? Menurut Wikipedia Indonesia, definisi universal reinkarnasi adalah merujuk kepada kepercayaan bahwa seseorang itu akan mati dan dilahirkan kembali dalam bentuk kehidupan lain. Yang dilahirkan itu bukanlah wujud fisik sebagaimana keberadaan kita saat ini. Yang lahir kembali itu adalah jiwa orang tersebut yang kemudian mengambil wujud tertentu sesuai dengan hasil pebuatannya terdahulu. Kira-kira seperti itu. Jadi reinkarnasi menurut pengandaian saya tuh kaya mitologi burung Phoenix, dimana dia mati, terbakar dan lahir lagi dari abu nya sendiri kan ya kalo nggak salah? Ya kira-kira seperti itu. Jadi ya inti dari konsep reinkarnasi itu tuh, kita manusia saat ini tuh merupakan lanjutan kehidupan dari manusia yang hidup mendahului kita di kehidupan sebelumnya.

A letter to my 15 years old self.

•

Dear you,

If you think that the bullying stopped once you're out from junior high, you're wrong. People will always judge you even when you're older. And you know what, Anggia is the one who stays. Have you ever wondered about that?

There are lots of life lessons at your upcoming year. You fall in love with your best friend that you'll meet when you're 16. Things are going smooth at first. Until a person crack the code and ruins everything. But let me tell you. Friendship over love relationship. And I really wish you're wise enough for not having a relationship with your best friend. Because once you are unable to control the ship, it'll sink. And you're not only losing your love, but your best friend as well. But yeah, that’s just a little intro, so.

You know that you started to question what you want in life. But that’s okay. I’ll let you to keep searching. But don’t forget to keep studying. You want to be like Rob & Brennan from The Amazing Race? You know you’re on the right track as you keep learning about geography. Remember when you were younger, you read all those Rangkuman Pengetahuan Umum Lengkap materials in hoping that someday you can visit those countries. It sounds good that you know what you’re doing at that time. But hey, don’t forget to socialise.

I hope stay strong, Vo. Yet people will always judge you by how do you look. You’re pretty much keep in silence when those high school scums yelled at yourself, calling you names at the corridor. You’re tall, skinny with a backpack on your body. You’re looking neat by keeping up your uniform shirt under your gray high school pants. In an additional, your wavy hair that makes you look like a piece of malnourished broccoli. If you think that junior high was already sucks, wait until you see what would happen during your final year on high school.

Friends that is jealous of your skill on doing Adobe Photoshop 7.0, and by that time you think you’re cool because you’re able to do that. Yes, be proud of that. Because couple years later, that software is the one that gives you bucks. Back to jealousy, one of your classmate removed your watermark for final Seni Musik poster. You know it sucks. But you know what, patience has always be the main key if you want to survived. Please take a serious note of that.

At the other case, you know that it seems you’re interested in Linguistics. Friends are starting to ask your help to translate some of words during Bahasa Inggris subject. They don’t even say thanks. Yet, they call you names after they got your help. I know sometimes you wanted to skip your school days, though. But at the other side you always wanted to enrich yourself, in order to think that someday, you’ll slap their dirty mouths.

You’re full of insecurity. You listen what people says. You grew up as a shy boy who doesn’t even wanted to talk in front of the public. But today, I just can spoil something that you might surprise in what you will do 10 years later. So feel free to stay shy. As long as it makes you comfortable. Your life is quite messy. I wish you do have a little intention to re-arrange some little things left. Your relationship with your parents. Talk to them.

Especially your Mom. Because she secretly worried about yourself because you just went to your bedroom once you arrived at home from school. But I know that you might be disappointed with them because they don’t give you freedom in doing things you love. Let’s say to go with Anggia, Wiguna & Tutu on Saturday night. They’re okay if they come home above 10 PM. It was still 8 PM yet Mom already gave you calls. Another disappointment in how you couldn’t get your amount of freedom. But again, please hang on.

After all adolescent disappointments, and I already told you to be extra patience about that. Yes, I really mean it. Because who knows that in couple of years, you do grant an access to choose your own freedom. Just hang in there. If you think you can’t do that anymore. Go swim sometimes, or 4 times a week. You’re born under the water element, so it’s good to stay beside the water.

Oh, you’re quite tall. That’d be your weapon. Please do consider that. It might gives you surprise(s)!

"Awalnya Supernova ini adalah hadiah dari Dee dewasa kepada Dee kecil, karena Dee kecil sempat punya impian untuk melihat buku ciptaannya ada di toko buku. Saya ingin mewujudkan keinginan Dee kecil."

Sebetulnya pas tau akan ada event tentang serial Supernova yang terakhir Intelegensi Embun Pagi ini, saya sebenernya pasrah aja karena saya nggak bisa ngebayangin betapa panjang antrian on the spot nya. Tetapi karena satu dan lain hal, ternyata saya dikasih kesempatan untuk menghadiri acara yang bertajuk 15 Tahun Supernova: Bintang Jatuh Hingga Embun Pagi di Galeri Indonesia Kaya.


Konsep acaranya tuh lebih mengarah ke semacam "napak tilas" serial Supernova sendiri yang dimulai dari tahun 2001. Dan sejujurnya kalo nggak dateng ke event ini pun saya nggak akan tahu fakta-fakta menarik dibalik serial Supernova itu sendiri. Seperti contohnya pas mau launching Kesatria, Putri, Bintang Jatuh (KPBJ) pas tahun 2001. Ceritanya waktu itu Dee ke penerbit, dan ngumpulin uang sendiri untuk biaya percetakan. Lalu Dee pun bertanya, "Saya punya uang sekian, kira-kira bisa cetak berapa banyak, ya?" Lalu orang percetakan nya bilang, "Ya, kira-kira 5000 buku". Lalu tercetak lah buku KPBJ sebanyak 5000 eksemplar. Abis itu, kenalannya Dee (saya lupa entah itu publicist nya atau apanyaaaa gitu) bilang, "Hah, cetak 5000 buku? Penulis best seller (pada era 2001) aja maksimal 3000 eksemplar per tahun!". Nah loh. Terus buku sebanyak itu mau diapain, dong? Akhirnya yaudah, dibagi-bagiin ke wartawan. Sama dibikin KPBJ versi murahnya. Waktu itu harganya Rp.17.500,- saja.

Lalu juga, ada video taping tentang orang-orang yang menginspirasi Dee dalam setiap novel nya. Dan saya cukup shock ketika saya bisa melihat darimana inspirasi sosok Bodhi itu berasal. Saya sampai betul-betul nggak sempat ingat namanya dan saya langsung nggak fokus ketika saya harus mengabadikan sosok inspirasi Bodhi ini dari big screen di Galeri Indonesia kaya. It's truly because Bodhi is my favourite character. Dan dengan melihat orang ini, saya merasa sosok Bodhi itu begitu hidup. Dan saya terdiam beberapa saat di momen itu.

Kembali ke acara utama, acaranya diisi dengan pembacaan narasi singkat setiap buku dilanjutkan dengan lagu yang masih sinkron dengan narasi singkat. Seperti setelah narasi singkat Partikel dibacakan, Dee melantunkan lagu "Ayah", sesuai dengan narasi singkat Partikel yang membahas hubungan Zarah dan Ayahnya. Pembacaan narasi dibacakan oleh Chicco Jericho, Joko Anwar, Amanda Zevannya, Dinda Kanya Dewi dan Dee sendiri. Lalu ada Arina Moka, Reza Gunawan dan lainnya sebagai pengisi musiknya. Keren banget! Tim musikal nya Mas Reza, 2 orang rekannya bagus banget. Dan ini kali ke-dua saya menonton penampilan live kolaborasi suami istri ini, dan masih tetap suka banget dengan cara mempresentasikan musik mereka. Adem banget.



Terus juga di ruang pameran Galeri Indonesia Kaya, juga dibuat pameran kecil tentang Supernova itu sendiri. Ada manuskrip original dari Supernova KPBJ sampai Gelombang, ada cetakan pertama dari masing-masing buku. Dan ada laptop yang digunakan Dee ketika Dee menulis novel-novel nya. Dari jaman laptop nya tebel, lalu transformasi ke iBook, sampai Macbook Air. Dan ada juga pemetaan cerita di setiap buku yang digantung di pojok pameran mini tersebut.

Jadi ya... Begitu. Ada baiknya jika sebuah awal memiliki akhir; begitu kata Dee. Supernova ini pun ditutup, tetapi kemungkinan ceritanya berkembang pun masih bisa banget. Karena katanya, ending di IEP ini pun masih bisa dikembangkan sesuai imajinasi. Tapi karena sampai review ini saya tulis pun saya belum menyelesaikan bukunya; but soon I will. Jadi semoga buku ini menjadi kejutan sendiri untuk saya nantinya.