Life Literally: 2014

When God Created Mothers

©joelliea - Roses taken at my mom's home, December 22, 2014

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no way."

It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."

That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded.

One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."

God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...."

I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower."

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed.

But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure."

Can it think?"

Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.

There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model."

It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

What's it for?"

It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride."

You are a genius, " said the angel.

Somberly, God said, "I didn't put it there.”

― Erma Bombeck, When God Created Mothers

You are You

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Quotes by Dr. Seuss. Hydrangea taken by joelliea at Floating Market, Lembang (August 3, 2014)
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Blue Green

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Electric Pink

Rainbow

Blue White and Black

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Loomed: Star Weaver

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Loomed: Pom Pom

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Loomed: Double Braid

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Double Braid. Skin colours with different arrangement.

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Loomed: 6-Pin Double Banded Dragon Scale

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Loomed: Floral Princess - Belle

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Loomed: Floral Princess - Cinderella

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Loomed: Floral Princess - Ariel

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Loomed: Honeycomb

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Loomed: Floral Princess - Aurora

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Loomed: Rainbow Bloom with Detachable Flower Bloom Charm

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Loomed: Origin

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Tubuh Sehat, Macet Terurai

Screenshots BBM antara Mat dan Papa:

(Mama ga ikut-ikut)

Thor Reboot

Usually Owen liked to play with his foam hammer, the one that he got from Thor: The Dark World's promo. He even loved to take a bite of it, if he was really hungry.

However, on this fine Sunday morning, when I placed the hammer into his box for him to play ..

Hammer! *grab*

I am THOR 1/4!

Eh .. too heavy .. heavy .. uh .. oh ..

.. he didn't seem to be able to hold it for long.

Thus, recreating scene when Thor lost his power and couldn't pick up his hammer.

When my mom - who hadn't seen Thor - saw this particular picture, she asked what Owen's doing. Was he praying or something?

I was very tempted to answer:

"Forgive me, Father, for I couldn't hold my hammer and it ended knocking my teddy bear out."

Birthday

Photo Booth Frenzy

Judging how easy and fun it was when Mat and I raided a photo booth back then, presumably I'd very much like doing it again with Owen.

Turned out, there were couple of things I failed to acknowledge beforehand:

He was just a baby, with his ever-changing baby mood.
Though he loved to smile upon seeing his (and my) reflection in the mirror most of the time, I couldn't say the same of him seeing his (and my) face on the monitor.
No one else inside the booth that could help calling out for him, or cheering him up, or waving at him to trigger his laughs.
Strange sound, like the sound of the background roller, scared the hell out of him.
He might be claustrophobic too.
Carrying a 10-kg baby, comforting him, getting him to look at the camera lens' direction, while trying to hold both of our poses inside the frame through time-countdown, required an expert skill. Smiling needed some power-ups.

Then Mat came knocking on the booth's door in the middle of the second session, and joined into the crowd. By this time, Owen was already too upset. Pretty sure if he could, he would say to the camera, "NOOO!! You and I, END. NOW!", and then he would smack the camera till its doom.

Well, it was fun, indeed, that we gave another visit to the booth the following week. This time, with Oma. I told Mat they could use the props available in the booth.

I waited outside and the studio staff allowed me to join her screening the photo results on the master computer. We heard noises from the booth - Mat laughing and instructing things, Owen cooing and whining, Oma talking to both of the kids. Sounded like a mini-riot in there. And when the results were appearing one by one on the computer, boy, we really had a giggling fit.

Out of 16 shots (granted from 8 shots originally), we printed these ..

*giggling continues*

Definitely we would do it again some time, with Papa.

Bahaya Merokok

Tiba-tiba Opa mengeluh di depan Mat tentang pinggangnya yang sering pegal-linu. Beliau memberitahu Mat kalau beliau sedang menderita patah tulang.

Tidak lama kemudian, Mat diam-diam menghampiri Mama yang sedang menyiapkan makan malam untuk Mat dan Owen di belakang.

Mat: *berbisik* Mama ..
Mama: *berbisik juga* Ya?
Mat: *masih berbisik* Opa lagi patah tulang. *sambil merengut* Merokok terus siiiiihh ..
Mama: *senyum-senyum dan lupa berbisik* ...

Lalu Mat menuju ke kamar Oma, sepertinya untuk menceritakan hal yang sama kepada Oma.

Peringatan:
“Merokok Dapat Menyebabkan Kanker, Serangan Jantung, Impotensi, Gangguan Kehamilan dan Janin dan Patah Tulang".

Limpahkan semua masalah kesehatan (dan tulang yang patah) sebagai akibat dari merokok. Setuju?

Something's Not Invisible on 2014 Grammy Awards

Not many people know that though I love singing too much, I'm more a movie person than a music person. As simple as I prefer visual than audio. Or the combination of both.

Call me old-fashioned, I find it a bit hard to keep up with music nowadays. I guess I'm still clinging on to the songs that I grew up with. Well, it doesn't mean I'm not opened for new songs or new artists, but they have to catch me.

Grammy Awards has never been much appealing to me. I don't know, it kinda annoys me when they're redundant with limited nominees for various award category. Like one artist/song is nominated for 3-4 categories. Or I hear the same song or certain artist's name been mentioned over and over again throughout the ceremony .. and WIN again and again (especially when they're unknown to me). Like there's no other good enough to be considered. Sometimes I feel there's monopoly ruling.

And usually I don't favour most of the winners.

(Oh wait. Maybe it's because I have never listened to the winning songs/artists)

I do enjoy the performances though. As stated above, it's the combination of both, visual and audio. So it was not that difficult to do, sitting back on The 56th Annual Grammy Awards' performances while chatting on mobile with some friends and nibbling on some chocolates last Monday night.

What could anyone expect me to do while watching Beyonce and whatever she was doing on that chair? Eeeee-yaaaaw.

Then Lorde went way-above-her-age wicked style in "Royals". This girl .. she's 17. Seven-holy-teen! Tsk.

Then L.L. Cool J. asked me to listen ..

Ok. *still trying to peek on my mobile chats and sneaking in chocolates into my mouth*

.. and this young guy on a piano appeared out of nowhere, playing and singing nice tunes, with inspirational quotes flashing on the background, and he asked me to listen for a minute ..

Trust the one who's been where you are wishing all it was / was sticks and stones / those words cut deep but they don't mean you're all alone / and you're not invisible

.. and he went on .. Hear me out ..

SOLD! I stopped nibbling, chats and chocolates were completely forgotten ..

.. there's so much more to life than what you're feeling now / someday you'll look back on all these days / and all this pain is gonna be invisible

Then the band ascended, the guy stood up and grabbed the mic stand - this was the point where I made my mobile more useful not to chat, but to touch Shazam instead. Blessed the creator, it showed:

The 56th Grammy Awards

Hunter Hayes

INVISIBLE

True, he was kinda lost in the pitch department - it was not the best vocal of the night. But he definitely was not lost on that big stage, in front of his seniors in the audience. His performance had his heart pouring out. He engaged his audience with a powerful anti-bullying message, with his passionate rendition.

You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are.
~ John Lennon

Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
~ Steve Jobs

There really is no difference between the bully and the victim.
~ Lady Gaga

As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fit in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had no talent at all.
~ Johnny Depp

I get it Hunter Hayes is not new in the business. Yet he's one of the obscures for me. Talking about dare to do something different, this 22-year-old debuted this very brand new song right there .. on Grammy telecast! Yea, he caught me big time. Blew me away. That was 3+ minutes worth listening, a performance so good it overcame any flaws. It basically wrapped up the show, I didn't bother putting much effort to watch the rest.

(Well, I did watch the wonderful duo - Carole King and Sara Bareilles - singing "Beautiful / Brave", two songs which complimented each other and are almost similar with strong messages).

"Invisible" Official Lyric Video was posted on Hayes' YouTube channel on the same day as the Grammy telecast. He sounds very pleasant in studio track. I'm currently addicted to it.

[UPDATE] And his official music video:

So here's to you and here's to anyone who's ever felt invisible ..

30 Years Ago: Email What?

There was a time,
when electronic-mails were still underground,
waiting to take over the world ..

we used these papers ..
for sending friendly messages,
for writing love letters.

They often came with matching envelopes, bookmarks, stickers ..
Some of them were so shiny, we could use it as mirrors.

Some of them were completely made of clear plastics -
we wondered if permanent markers or overhead-projector markers were needed.

Some were in funny shapes, we didn't even know how or where to write on them.
Sometimes they were too fancy ..
(I mean, seriously, how could you scribble on Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, My Melody or Tuxedo Sam?)

so we just bought to keep ..
or kept one set on file and traded the rest with friends -
the fastest way to build up our collection ..
and the fun way to spend time with our friends
(y'know, messing with their collections, testing our skill of persuasion)