Grateful Attitude

One thing I really admire about Javanese people are their general grateful attitude. It’s not just about being grateful when they have a roof over their head, or food on the table, or friends and family. But when they got misfortunes, they  always try to find the light in things.

Let me give you an example:

Say there’s a car accident, and…

… everything is alright, just a minimal scratch: At least nobody got any damage.

… the car is broken and the person is alright: At least the person is unharmed.

… the person is injured: At least the person was not severely injured, and there are people who helped him/her.

… the person is severely injured: At least he/she is still alive.

… the person died: At least he/she didn’t have to suffer long.

I used to think: What’s the point then? Why be grateful when even in worst case scenario you’d find something to say “at least….”

But most times now, I learned that having this kind of grateful attitude is a good exercise. It helps to realize I’m not the most miserable person in this world because I still have [insert something good here], or at least I didn’t have [insert something really bad here]. It does bring the light into things, and I’m grateful that I could always find something good in my life (I have a good set of working legs, I can smell things, I have people who loves and cares about me, I have internet connection, and hey, I’m still alive and breathing!). And I know that there could always be worse circumstances.

So, yes, I am grateful that my parents taught me this. And yes, sometimes (or often times) I completely forgot about it, especially when I’m in my dramatic moments. But I loved to get reminded of it again, and that’s also why I wrote this post. To remind myself to be grateful .

Tags: grateful, inspiration

Giving Me the Permission To Read

I know it sounded silly, I mean, I LOVE to read. It is my hobby. And as I writer I could even categorize it under research. BUT lately I haven’t been able to do it. I get a somehow guilty feeling when I got lost in a book. Perhaps because I didn’t feel I have done enough work in that day, or perhaps I was thinking that reading is somewhat an indulgence.

It is quite scary for me when I realized that I haven’t been reading that much last year!

Lucky for me, a couple of weeks back, Amle came up with an idea to read a book every week. I’m thinking, this was probably the kind of motivation I have been looking for!!! So I joined her, along with some friends from my Plurk circle, and now I can proudly say: I’m right back on track with my reading *happydance*.

It’s not that hard to do, given that I could actually read the thickest Harry Potter book in a day. It’s just lately I have been hesitating to get immersed in a book. Now I have another reason to do it. A permission, that it was something I had to do, with a deadline set in my head.

Along the way, I also became more motivated to write and edit (even more reason to do a happydance ). I used to find it funny when someone had to give themselves permission to do ‘fun’ things. But, you know what, sometimes that’s exactly what we need. Not a kick in a back to force me to move forward, but a gentle helping hand to motivate me .

Tags: books, inspiration, reading, writing

My Workspace

Started off in an Informatics major and ended up being a writer means half of my life is doomed to be in front of a computer. In other words, my chance of having a back problem is severely high. It’s like a time bomb going tick tack on my life watch. Uncool. That’s why I’ve been trying to improve my posture in any way possible. I do back strengthening sports like yoga and pilates. I make my workspace ergonomic and comfortable.

One problem I had with my laptop is that it’s fairly small that I would have to hunch when it’s on the table. Pain pain pain. Then I decided to get me a notebook riser. However, I would also need an external keyboard and I am very picky on keyboard. The only external keyboard I like is the apple keyboard, which ate all my budget so I end up with this:

Seemed like a good temporary solution, even though the ‘temporary’ had turned into more than a year. And now I kind of want to read the screenwriter book. Fortunately for me, I found a nice notebook riser on sale on Amazon and it arrived yesterday! So here’s how my workspace looked like now… TADA!

Bliss .

Tags: health

15 Books I’ll Always Remember

It’s originally a facebook note. Was tagged there by Ambu Dian. I decided to post it here too.

Make a list of the 15 books that you’ll always remember. Don’t think too hard. Choose the first 15 books that you’ll be able to remember in 15 minutes.

1. St. Clare series by Enid Blyton. It made me want to live in a girls’ boarding school when I was a kid. But yeah, I changed my mind when I was older.
2. The Secret Garden by by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The idea of having a secluded spot in my garden where nobody can find me fascinates me for years!
3. Matilda by Roald Dahl. I want to lift chalks with my mind power too!
4. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Nuff said.
5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Perhaps it’s because I’m writing a book with a similar setting, but I think this one is brilliant.
6. The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. There’s a piece of me in there somewhere… I won’t tell where
7. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Like it or not, I will always remember the sparkling vampires!
8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. It changed my perspective on money.
9. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire.
10. Pippi Långstrump series by Astrid Lindgren. I read this one in three languages .
11. Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Never stop being a child at heart.
12. On Writing by Stephen King. Best writer’s memoir.
13. Being Happy! by Andrew Matthews. This one changed my view on life. Be happy, now. Don’t wait until tomorrow.
14. Gede Prama’s book. [note for non Indonesian reader: he's an Indonesian philosophical, spiritual writer]
15. A Chance of Sunshine by Jimmy Liao. A lovely illustrated book about love at first sight.

Feel free to do your own, in the comments or a link back on your blog.  I’d love to know which books you remembered most!

Tags: books, meme

The myth of my ‘former life’

I read this article today on guardian.co.uk: The myth of the  writer’s ‘former life’. It made me think of what would be the most dramatic story of my life.

There will always be a couple of viewpoints you’d want to go with anyone’s life. People has their ups and downs, happy and sad moments, smooth sailings and hardships. One person’s hardship could be considered as another’s smooth sailing.

The thing is, I love my life right now. I wouldn’t want to trade it with anyone else. And most importantly, I don’t like to dwell on the negative things. I believe in accentuating on the positive until it outweighs the negative.

But yeah, okay this post is not about that. So let’s see…

How do I make money right now… Well, I don’t. I live through… being married. I’d like to call it as my husband’s investment on my writing career. I still hate the fact that I couldn’t make money on my own (yet!). But being supported by the husband (which technically means I’m a *gasp* housewife ) doesn’t really qualify as a dramatic job.

We are expats/immigrants in Germany… that always comes with a bit of hardships, right? Although.. my first intention of moving here is to pursue a Master Degree. Not that romantic.

What did I leave to be a novelist? A nice paycheck in an IT job… which could go from 30k to 50k EUR a year here. I still bangs my head from time to time over this.. but you know what? I follow my heart to get here. And following my dream is worth every single lacking penny! (note: someone please reminds me again of this when I whine about not being able to buy that shoes!)

So, I think I’d be a former Software Engineer who follows her heart.

Tags: inspiration, life, writing