THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT


so its 2011.
so it is.


and my book is still not done.
while this blog has spanned several years.


shame on me.


BUT FEAR NOT!
i gots me something real good in the works.
i'm really really excited about it.


i know you guys hear that a lot, but this time...
...i think i really mean it.

OF LIGHTS IN THE DARK

click on the images to see their creators and more of their work

some inspiring images to give you a hint of

the story i'm currently working on.

wish me luck!

OH DEAR ITS BEEN A YEAR

it's been a year exactly, oh dear oh dear, 

and i'm still slumping along. 

with no progress on the bookywook.

it's just that i'm bursting with ideas for books

and i keep switching between all of them

because i'm itching to write all of them.

i'm so confused.

the one that i'm really excited about,

is a story about the stars and the moon.

i'm gonna try and get that one done.

oh god, so confused.

wish me well.

LOOKIE HERE

SNEAK PEEKS

because I'm a cheeky little teaser. hahaha.

ET VOILA!

THE BOOK IS FINISHED!!!!

okay, well, technically just the first draft.

i still have oodles caboodles to polish up and make pretty.

WISH ME LUCK ALL! I'M ALMOST THERE.

INVISIBLE METEOR SHOWER

CACHE

HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT?

whenever i see a word,

i can always guess how to pronounce them,

by just looking at the arrangement of letters.

but this word, cache,

it has always annoyed me.

i think i have a pretty good idea

how to pronounce it,

but it's just always annoyed me visually.

all those jutting consonants,

bullying the poor little vocals.

it has always bothered me.

anyway, on a more important note,

THE BOOK IS ALMOST FINISHED.

gosh, the journey went really fast.

even for me. i was surprised.

but here i am,

standing in the threshold of the ending,

scared and nervous.

i am about to end everything.

would it end well? would i screw it up?

i'm so nervous.

i've been putting it off for about a week or so,

i haven't written anything because of this.

i'm so nervous. what if i fail.

i've never been too good at writing endings.

because i've never properly finished anything i did.

so what if i screw this thing up, too?

everything felt so right.

the writing just went so smoothly.

not too much trouble along the way,

nothing i can't handle anyway.

and it's about to end.

what if the ending sucks? what if i ruin everything?

i've been sitting around,

trying to summon something from inside of me,

courage or something similar,

so that i could finally write this thing.

but so far, nothing came up.

i couldn't pull anything out from within me.

then, i read a phenomenal book.

it was a phenomenal day, too.

a day spoken to be unlike any other day.

which made me believe that there is someone,

a greater force beyond the cosmos,

that really wants me to do this.

so yesterday,

a friend of mine told us that

there was going to be a meteor shower that night.

at precisely 02:00 AM.

so my friends and i,

sleepy to the point of death,

waited around the balcony

with the hopes of seeing something truly magical.

i got bored of just sitting around,

so i went and picked up one of my friend's books.

i was tired of reading the same magazines again and again.

the book was called Dewi Kawi,

written by an Indonesian legend,

Arswendo Atmowiloto.

initially,

i read the first few pages like

someone who just wanted something to read

to pass the time.

but then, deeper into the book,

i couldn't put it down.

i could feel that it affected something in me.

i finished the book that night,

by the end of it, the meteors never came.

but that was alright.

the sheer anticipation of it

was enough to make the night special,

and moreover, i read a book that i know full well

has changed my life.

after i woke up today,

i grabbed an A2 sketchpad,

ripped a piece of paper,

folded it in four,

and wrote.

now, back to the blue book...or whatever.

RUT-TUT-TUT

ORANGE CANS

THAT GO RUT-TUT-TUT

i just got back from Kedai,
my little magic spot in Kuta Jr. (Kemang, that is)

and for those of you who don't know what the hell Kemang is,
just think of it as like sort of a teeny tiny Beverly Hills in Indonesia.
where people saunter about
and hangout and act cool so they could be seen.

(okay granted, there are some people
that you can find there who are actually cool people. but only some.)

anyway, the reason i say this Kemang place is Kuta Jr.
is because that is what it's becoming.
and for those of you who don't know what the hell Kuta is,
it's a spot in Bali where it's really hot.

not temperature-wise.
visit Kuta and you'll get it.
(do i sense a little Visit Indonesia 2009 trick here?)

anyway, yes.
i digress. a little too much.

so i just got back from this Kedai place,
and perhaps you'll be happy to know
that i finished Chapter 4 of my writing.

and it is so far,
one of my most favorite chapters.

i started Chapter 5,
but stopped because i needed
to go home before it got too dark.

i left my phone in my sister's house
so i couldn't call my driver to pick me up.
so i had to use public transport.

since i didn't have much money with me at the time,
i had to consider using the cheapest
mode of transport available to me.

which was this.


for those of you who do not know what this is,
don't bother to find out.

all you need to know,
is that this is a big orange can
that go rut-tut-tut as it goes along the road.

hence the title.

and i didn't want to go home too late,
lest it got too dark out.
and Jakarta is not the safest place
once it's dark.

anyway, my decision to go to Kedai today
was because i needed just a little touch of magic.
and this Kedai is my special place.

just like Tsukishima Shizuku's special antique place
in Whisper of the Heart.



if you have time,
you should check out this movie.

i promise you,
if you have any kind of dreams in you
that you are not sure you can pursue,
this movie will change your mind
and get you straight onto the path
of that impossible dream.

i know it did me.

oh, and i feel i have to express
how much i was inspired by James McAvoy's eyes.
i just watched Penelope recently,
with my mum and nephew.


quite ordinary and predictable movie,
nothing too special.

not the best work for Christina Ricci,
and actually rather mediocre for James McAvoy,
Reese Witherspoon looked bored throughout.
i'm sure the book was a lot better. if it was a book.

but regardless, the EYES.
James McAvoy's eyes.

well, let's just say because of those eyes,
i based an entire character from him.

and that's all i'm telling you.

and normally,
when i end my posts,
i end with "now, back to the gold book"

but i think i should change it for now.
since the gold book is all the way in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.
it's still alive and well,
but at the moment,
i'm actually writing in a different book.
it had a rather empty cover with only
the picture of a single, solitary little sheep.
so i added some illustrations of my own.


and the color of this book,
as you can see, is blue.

so i should say...

now, back to the blue book.