Nagea's Weblog

The story of how-dissonant-harmony-made-my-week.

nagea — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:53:23 +0000

Back then when I was in college, I used to sing with the university choir. No no, we’re not singing songs like the one in Glee (I really wished my choir sang those Glee songs, though). We sang Madrigals, Renaissance, Romantique, Contemporary songs. Very segmented genre, no? I too ain’t fond of it at the first time. However, singing those songs for 4 years over leave some trace in my head. Well, OK, not some, a lot!

After graduating and start working, I practically stops singing, especially with the choir. I still sing sometimes, alone. How sad, hahaha. Lately, I miss singing a lot. I miss rehearsing with the choir! hahaha. Sooo, now that today I have something to do at the college campus, I decided to go visit my university choir rehearsal afterwards, just to see them singing, to feel the rehearsing atmosphere, hehe. I came when they just start vocalizing (it’s similar to stretching in sports, you strectch your voice before you start singing; usually it goes with miredoremifasofamiredo and domirefamisofaredo, etc). It was so tempting that I could not help myself not to vocalize along, haha.

Then, the choir start singing. Rehearsing one lovely Romantique song to be sung in their cultural tour next September (fingers crossed!! Ganbatte, guys!). And damn, it felt so comfy listening to that dissonant harmony! Very very very comfortable! I love that classic melody, the dissonant harmony, the diminuendo, cressendo and all that things!! Oh damn, I miss this a lot! Theeen, when I was begazing at the singers and flashing back to my good old time sitting on their place, two very familiar faces showed up! It were Sindy and Sintya, the Soprano twin that’d been singing with me in the choir. What shocked me more is this: I asked them what they are doing here, and they answered they miss rehearsal! Too much for a coincidence, hahah. So we went on talking about our good ol time, enjoying the songs, complaining how we cannot maintain our technique without vocalizing, hoping to sing and rehearsing again someday soon, hahaha.

And that’s not it. Nope. The happiness is not finished yet. Our music director decided to rehearse another song, he was giving some options to the singers, and I heard one song I really like from our last cultural tour named. I, in a very fast reflex, vote for that song, “Abendlied”! Here’s what the music director said: “Well then, Abendlied it is. I wonder if the alumni would like to join us on this song?” . YES, SIR!! We’d love to do that! hahaha. So, we joined the rehearsal. And, although it’s self torturing to sing that kind of song with no vocal technique left, it’s been very very entertaining for me. Or, I must say, for the three of us. I should beg for apologize to the singers for ruining their rehearsal, haha. But I’m shure they’ll feel the same later on when they’re graduating and working and stops singing (well I’m not sure that they’ll stop singing, they look more choral freak than us back then). This day totally made my week! Totally! Well, doing the things you love just can never fail to make you happy, no? Carpe diem.

This Spine Issue

nagea — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 17:32:00 +0000

Back then when I was in college, I used to go to the gym to maintain my wellness (to be honest, it was at first to loose some weight, haha). One time, this gym gave their members a free consultation with a chiropracteur. Me and my friends (Shany and Donald) took this opportunity to see whether we’re doing good with our spine or not. That time, the doctor said that I had a perfect posture (which I think that was because I took yoga, pilates, and body balance classes almost everytime I went to the gym. yes yes, I love it so much I even wished for a swiss ball and yoga matress for a birthday gift, and my friends did present me those precious things!). But! But the doctor also said that once I start working (and having family. yes, he said that!) I would definitely loose it IF I dont keep on exercising. Because when you start working, you’ll be all the time in front of your computer, and with your overtime, you’ll get no chance to go to the gym, blablabla. That time I thought “yeah well, that’s gonna take like several years right to make my spine goes bad”.

Truth be told, it doesnt even take a year of working experience to fail that perfect posture. I’ve been working for 7 months now. Most of time is spent sitting arround (i wish i could add up “doing nothing”, but no, that’s so not gonna happen in this company I’m working for) in front of the computer. By most of the time, I mean arround 80% of the 11-12hours I spent at the office. I’m deffinitely not sitting in an ergonomical way. I dont want to blame anything, but 1. being the 5th percentile for height sometimes suck, and 2. we’re using notebook and doesnt have (yet) a monitor, so we’re working in a seated-hunchback-position. In addition to that, I do no sport at all. I have this swiss ball and yoga mat in my room, but I use it only for stretching up in the morning (I planned to do a routine sun salutation, but eventually I barely wake up early, hehe) or before going to bed (which really helps me relaxing). Well, on my 5th month, I started feeling that ther’s something wrong with my spine. The painfull backpain takes away my quality sleep. Now sleeping in a too comfy bed even, ironically, keeps me from sleeping. Now I cannot sleep with pillow. I’m affraid I’m gonna start sleeping on my yoga mat instead of on my bed.

This afternoon, when I’m putting on my clothes, I was looking at my mirror, and I just noticed that the line from my waist to my hip now has a different gradient for the right part of my body and the left part of my body. It freaks me out. There’s deffinitely a problem with my spine. So, I start asking my friend who had had a chiropractical therapy before, googling, blog walking, just to find more information about the spine problem and solution. Most of them would go with chiropractic therapy. OK. As far as I know, there are not so many of them in Indonesia. I know there’s one Canadian Chiropractic in this mall in Bandung, but there was fire there today, so the mall’s closed for several days. I found some information that there’s another chiropractic in Bandung, located in Cihampelas. OK. So, now I know I have somewhere to go to consult my problem. Next thing is the money. How much would this cost me? Not so shocking, but it totally sucks to know that it will cost me more than IDR 500,ooo per each visit (some clinics charge you upto 1mill). Darn. I can tell that this spine problem will not be fixed in 1 visit. No chance! From what I read, it will take 10 visits or more, depending on the severity.

Health DOES cost you that much IF you dont take a good care of it. If you do, it will only cost you 15 minutes of exercising per day, straight-back-bone sitting position, and 15 minutes of your long sleep to do some stretch up. So, take a good care of your health, for life is only life when blest with health.

Farewells.

nagea — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:00:31 +0000

Farewell. To me this is a very bad word. Worse than those words people would shout at me when I dont send their cost requisition. I know that people come and go, I know. But somehow it always sucks everytime the “go” come. Time heals, fur shure. But some remain unforgettable, for different reasons. Here are some that I can still remember very clearly.

1. Farewell of Kimo, my neighbour, arround 1996/1997.

At that time, i was 8/9 years old. I remember almost all of us (the kids in my neighbourhood) went to the airport to say goodbye to him. He was such a funny person, well, sometimes a bit weird when he was exagerating things (but still, it was funny. everything was funny when you were a little kid, no? hehe). I remember I was looking inside the airport through the glass, hahaha, I was such a drama queen since I was little. But hey, it wasn’t only me, other kids were too! hahaha. That’s the first farewell I had. The first time I cried for having this feeling of not going to see the same person arround any longer.

2. Farewell with Steina, my Icelandic friend, 2004.

Totally paralyzed. Hahahah. Steinun Aradottir is an exchange student who stayed in my house for 1 year. It’s been an unforgettable year to me. It’s like having a sister. We share bedroom, bed, and lastly, stories, heheh. We fought sometimes, hahaha, really it was like having a sister, a really good one. So, it was so upsetting for me that I cannot be with her on her last days in Indonesia for I was trapped in this debating championship. Fortunately, my parrents somehow succesfully kidnapped me for several hours to take her to airport. It’s mooore upsetting that not even a word came out of my mouth! sh*t! I was like paralyzed, hahaha. I dont know what to say, I dont know how to act, trying hard not to cry, hahaha (and I made it! I didnt cry!). But paralyzed. Worse than crying outloud. Because when you’re paralyzed, you cannot express what you really feel. Ah, I’m still very upset about that.

3. Farewell with friends in Padang, 2004.

Right, in the same year, my family is moving to Bandung. It was a tough year, hahah. So, I held this farewell party at my house, inviting close friends. Everytime a friend said he/she had to go home, I cried. At the end of the day (or night, hehe), I had this frog eye and Rudolf nose in each and every picture that was taken that day, shame. Anyway, that day my friends sang a song for me, Kisah Klasik by Sheila on 7, as far as I remember. Cynthia on guitar, Fajar and Esha on vocal, and Setia (who is also my cousin) reading a poem! And, the next day, which was the day I left, I was sitting at the airport, waiting for boarding pass, when bunch of guys suddenly came after me. It was Agi, Agung, Hafiz, and other guys from high school, and it was 5 am! These guys whom probably wakes up at 1pm on weekends came to say goodbye at 5 in the morning. These people might not remember this, but this is one of those moments that can always make me smile (of course not at that very moment, I cried like one full week that time hahah I’m exagerating).

This week will be hard for me. Farewell to my boss, who is going back to his country, and to 2 of my colleagues, who endeavors to reach what they ought to reach. Laissez faire .

Scattered thoughts

nagea — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:23:51 +0000

You see, I got a problem here with my mind. I got many things going on in my head. Well, everybody does of course. Only, in my case, i failed to link all those scattered things into an idea. I cannot focus those scattered things I have in mind. So, ended up, those scattered thoughts just floating up in the air until they evaporate.

Another thing is that I cannot communicate what I have in mind. It always came out in a different way to the one I actually have in mind. I dont know how it happened. Not having a systemathical thinking? Limited vocabulary? In need of Ginko Biloba? Hahah. These things just start driving me nuts.

Okay, my scattered mind is now thinking that some exercises might help. I shall start writing in this blog more often. Right.

That’d be all for tonight.

*Darn, re-reading the draft before publishing confirmed that my mind is scattered (is this even a right phrase? “my mind is scattered”. whatever).

That’s Amore

nagea — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:08:38 +0000

Okee gw harus menulis ini dengan cepatnya sebelum mood gw berubah lagi,hahah,apa sih. Tadi malem (apa sore ya?) sungguh menyenangkaan, unexpectedly met dear friend gitaditya dan dita ayu. Satu jam saja. Tapi cukup untuk berbagi cerita. Tentu saja ada cerita cinta2an juga haha, wajib hukumnya! hahah. (aduh sekarang gw udh berpikir ini post ga penting deh tapi yaudahlah). Yaaak, tentu saja yang paling ditunggu adalah cerita cinta2annya si gita. Hmmhh berbunga2 abis, life’s so beautiful, fun, and everything just seems right. Such a coincidence, pas di perjalanan pulang ke Bandung, ipod gw yg lagi dalam shuffle mode menyetel lagu yang lucuuu sekali musiknya (eh awalannya ga bagus sih, tapi pas udah masuk lagu benerannya jadi bagus haha), brings the nuance of a venesian river, hahah kayak pernah aja ke venesia. tapi beneran membangun suasana hati deh,heheh. Then I listened to the lyrics. And it fits! hahah. Liriknya tentang cinta2an. Langsung inget si gita deh. Pas banget! ini niih liriknya

When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie
That’s amore
When the world seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine
That’s amore
Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you’ll sing “Vita bella”
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella

Ada lagi sih abis itu liriknya, tapi this one is my favorite part,dan paling cocok buat gita (menurut gw), ya ga siiih giiit? hahaha. La vita et bella, eh git? hehehe. Aaah gw suka banget lagu ini, padahal gw ga lagi jatuh cinta. Kenapa ya? Well, penjelasan yang paling memungkinkan adalah bahwa gw sangat senang karna bisa berjumpa dengan Gita dan Dita (haha,doi lagi anteng dan diam entah kenapa, jadi namanya Dita dulu deh bukan Toil), yeay Trio TI nya psm’05 hahaha,nawoon. My heart plays tippy-tippy-tay!! hahaha. Because “amore”, that’s not the term you use only for your spouse riiight? It could be to anybody or even anything, am I correct? Of course! hahaaha. Why would I be singing ting-a-ling-a-ling then if not? Of course that’s amore! amore pour my dear friends! mmuuach! A verrry well-spent 1hour! Untung travelnya penuh ya jadi ketemu hahaha! Coba kebetulannya lebih banyak orang lagi yaa, eh tapi tadi byk deeng, accidentally met inu dan alia jg! haha seru! Ini postingan ga jelas ya maunya apa, entah arah ceritanya kemana hahaha, yaudahlah gapapa ya. Baiklah sekian saja, selamat tidur semuaa! May you have days full of amore. Cups!

eeh ini klo mau denger lagunya, tapi dari yutub dan cuma cover albumnya haha. ey bagian awalnya emang ga oke, jangan ilfil dulu pas baru denger lagunya haha.

I Am Not Yours

nagea — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:19:07 +0000

I Am Not Yours adalah puisi karya Sara Teasdale (1884-1933), seorang penulis sajak dan lirik dari Amerika yang pernah memenangkan forerunner Pulitzer Price, yang lalu dibuat aransemennya oleh Z. Randal Stroope menjadi sebuah lagu yang, hmm, menawan. Saya sudah dengar lagu ini berkali-kali sebelumnya, bahkan menyanyikannya beberapa kali saat berlatih bersama PSM-ITB. Tapi baru sore ini, saat sedang nge-freak bersama beberapa teman, di beberapa bar terakhir lagu saya ngerasa lagu ini sedih banget. Banget. Padahal saat itu saya tidak sedang memperhatikan lirik, hanya membunyikan nada, tapi mendengarkan harmoninya saya ngerasa sedih. Lalu saya jadi memperhatikan lirik pada bar tersebut, lost..but not lost in you, pantas harmoninya terasa begitu sedih. Saya baca kembali puisi nya.

“I am not yours, not lost in you, not lost although I long to be lost as candle lit at noon, lost as snowflake in the sea. You love me, and I find you still a spirit beautiful and bright, yet I am I, who long to be lost as a light is lost in light. Oh plunge me deep in love – put out my senses, leave me deaf and blind, swept by the tempest of your love, a taper in a rushing wind.”

Seketika saya merasa diacak-acak. Hahah. Berlebihan. Tapi saya ga tau frase apa yang bisa menggambarkan perasaan saya tadi. Mungkin sejenis dengan saat saya mendengarkan When I’m Gone milik Randy Newman. Tapi tidak sama. Walaupun keduanya membuat saya menangis. Tapi sekali lagi, tidak sama. Intinya saya merasa diacak-acak, berantakan, hahah. (mohon maaf, saya memang kurang bisa mengekspresikan emosi dengan kata-kata, biasanya dengan ketawa, nangis atau marah-marah doang,hahah). Tiba-tiba saya ngerasa berantakan, semuanya berantakan. Entah ini tiba-tiba, atau sebenarnya saya sudah merasa berantakan dari lama tapi tidak (ingin) saya rasakan, atau saya sedang post menstruation syndrom, atau karena sepi, atau entah apa, atau mungkin semuanya. Saya sedang tidak in the mood membuat fishbone diagram untuk mencari apa penyebab utama dan penyebab-penyebab pendukungnya. Tapi yang jelas lagu ini sebagai pematik nya. Seketika terbakar, hahah. Dari puisi yang menjadi liriknya, sampai tiap melodi dan harmoni nada dengan segala dinamika, aksentuasi dan ekspresi dalam lagu ini, semuanya terasa begitu sedih, terasa begitu menampar, menyanyikan ini rasanya seperti mengekspresikan diri saya saat ini, atau mungkin lagu ini sebegitu hebatnya hingga membuat saya menjadi segini mellow.

ps : bagi yang ingin mendengarkan lagu ini silahkan di link ini. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_olylpAPmM . Tapi saya tidak jamin anda suka, mengingat ini genre yang lumayan segmented. Tapi kalo anda suka dan merasa mellow habis dengar lagu ini, berarti Randal Stroope adalah sangat hebat.

Cerita tentang Iskandar Muda

nagea — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:31:53 +0000

Tau Iskandar Muda ga kawaaan? pasti pernah denger ya pas jaman sekolah dulu di pelajaran sejarah. saya pribadi sih ga suka pelajaran sejarah semasa sekolah, pernah sih suka sejarah pas kelas 2smp karena gurunya menyampaikan sejarah itu dgn sangat baik. Padahal kan sebuah bangsa yang kuat adalah bangsa yang mengetahui sejarahnya, hehe, memang kurang berjiwa patriot saya ini. Tapi akhir-akhir ini, saya jadi lebih menikmati sejarah, terutama karena cerita tentang budaya saat itu. Menurut saya menarik sekali mengetahui bagaimana nenek moyang kita dulu hidup, beraktivitas, berjuang. Terutama saat sejarah yang diceritakan adalah sejarah dari kampung halaman saya, tanah Sumatra. Bukan karena arogansi suku. Tapi karena saya merasa jadi damai saat membaca ataupun mendengar apapun yang mengingatkan akan kampung halaman saya, ya karena memang saya lahir dan besar disana, dan keluarga besar ibu saya juga masih memegang adat kami cukup kuat. Dan saat berada di negeri orang, mendengar hal-hal berbau kampung halaman seperti menjadi pengobat rindu.

Hampir semua provinsi di Sumatra memiliki budaya yang serupa, dengan nuansa melayu yang kental. Aceh merupakan salah satu provinsi yang memiliki budaya cukup dekat dengan kampung halaman saya, Sumatra Barat. Oleh sebab itu, saya sangat senang mendengar seorang teman saya, Banda Arya, menulis cerita mengenai Iskandar Muda. Saya pribadi lebih menyukai jika cerita ini diceritakan dengan cara hikayat Aceh biasa diceritakan, tapi menurut sang penulis,tentunya pembacanya juga menjadi terbatas. Bahkan dengan penceritaan yang sederhana, saya tetap menyukai cerita ini. Bravo untuk Banda! Cerita tentang Iskandar Muda ini bisa dibaca di blog yang baru saja dibuat oleh penulis. Berikut link ke blog tersebut.

http://iskandarmudathestory.blogspot.com/

Selamat menikmati!

When I’m Gone – Randy Newman

nagea — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:40:28 +0000

It’s this add jingle (jingle? song will be a more appropriate word i guess) of Monk finale season. I reaaalllyy like it since the first time I heard (and watched) it on tv. I personally think it’s a very very very good song, and it reminds me of the song “and so it goes” by billie joel. Anyway, I didn’t even know the lyrics that time, but somehow listening to the melody and the piano just made me feel gloomy. Today i asked a friend of mine, Banda, who is a big fan of Monk i’m guessing and also a big fan of that kind of song, if he knew the song. And he answered “just google the lyrics”. And so i did that. Found this.

well,i’m now in this melancholy phase, recalling most of my friends are going to have their colloqium really soon (and some of the closest are already done and back to their hometown) and of course recalling that there’ll be another graduation this april, which i’m looking forward to be one of the graduates (fingers crossed!!!!). And this song just strikes at the very beginning “the time to say goodbye is near…though many hearts are broken we must carry on,cause i think you’re gonna miss me when i’m gone”. all the lyrics in this song just describe how i feel about parting that sooner or later i’ll be facing inspite the “today is yours” this april is gonna be mine or not. i sure am gonna miss all my friends when they’re gone. i am now missing them already actually,hahaha. i know gita,toil, and izki will simply say “it’s just a phase to maturity and you have to deal with that”. yeah,but still,farewell has never been merry,haha. but then again, as Saint Exupery said in his lovely book Le Petit Prince : the world is so small, nobody can go very far. well..please dont go very far,would you pal?

It’s A Secret

nagea — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:59:31 +0000

It’s amazing how kids these days learn. I can still remember how hard it was for me to write even a sentence in english when i was in elementary school. My little cousin here, Aqilla Diani Rahman Panca, 11 years old, 6th grader in Sekolah Alam wrote how she felt about her friend on a whiteboard in her house. I do think this is reaaally good!! It goes like this.

It’s A Secret

I think Salma is my best friend.

She is fery kind to me.

Her perents want to her go to AL-SYIFA.

But my perents want to me go to SAB.

I like SAB but, I don’t like AL-SYIFA.

I want Salma go to SAB with me.

Please, don’t tell to Thifah

I don’t want make her angry.

Thifah like me but she doesn’t like Salma

She said “Anggaplah Salma bukan sahabat kita!”

I think it’s hurt because I like Salma

I want give Salma something, 1 for her n’ 1 for me

I think it’s enough.

SALMA YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND!!!

Dont you think it’s reaaaly great?! those few errors are very very much understandable for a 6th grader, and even people my age in the university still make the same errors that she did. Oh, and since it’s a secret, please dont tell it to anybody.

first migraine attack.

nagea — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:02:46 +0000

started at 5 in the morning when i was going to pray Subuh. Bad headache on the left side. I had antalgin, a pain killer, then it stopped for 2 hours, then it started again. The day before i had marie biscuit and milk for bfast, then mixed carrot orange (with the seeds, not the pulp, the seeds) juice at 10am, then had rice with chicken and cassava chips for lunch, and had coffee mocha and espresso brownie at 4pm. I stayed in air-conditionned room from 3-9pm only wearing tee,jeans and thin pashmina. Then had nothing for dinner. Had a high level of anxiety and stress. Then stayed awake until 3am, in front of the computer screen most of the time since 10 in the morning. Woke up at 5am (only 2hours sleep). I had another antalgin at 2 pm, and rub my forehead,neck and shoulder with low concentrate cajuputi oil, then sleep for arround 2,5hours. The headache is still there but in the level that i can carry with.

An article i found in the internet suggest to write a diary on what i’ve eaten and other factors on every attack to look for commonalities of the trigger. So,this is it.