Lomba Blog Depok - Top 10 -

Artikel yang sama dalam Bahasa Indonesia

I didn't make it to the TOP 10! But I'm not disappointed at all because through this event, I have met many great bloggers and it means so much more to me than winning the competition.. :-)

However.. Mother made it to the TOP 10! And she is rounding everyone up to vote for her.. well, I AM rounding everyone up to vote for her.. ;-)

Don't vote blindly.. Go to her BLOG

and read her POST that is in the TOP 10..

Then, you can VOTE for her in the competition website.

Mother's post being competed under the group 'IBU RUMAH TANGGA' and her post title is "B.H. Yess." It is shown like this on the voting list:

http://binmas.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post.html 

By voting for mother's post, you are not only supporting her to win the competition, but also supporting the activities of the Senior Citizens Group 'Dahlia Senja.' Mother always posts activities of the group on the blog. So far, the blog has intrigued the interests of the local government and elderly care support organization. Your visit will spread the interests further and hopefully will bring new and brighter future of elderly care program in our country.

Happy voting!

The big boy 'Ariq'..

Ariq is now 7 years old, and I'm starting to notice that he is changing a lot.

A few months ago, he surprised me with his enthusiasm in learning to play Monopoly. I still remember that I didn't handle the game too well, the first time I played it when I was his age.

Ariq is still as energetic as always, but he is far more responsible now, and he is more aware of people and situations around him. With a little hint, he is usually ready to act accordingly. When he senses that I am being tactful with Aza, he will follow my lead. Whenever I need to do some things quickly around the house, he can be relied on to keep Kyra entertained for up to an hour -even longer when he is in the right mood.

Last night he amazed me with his impromptu coloring competition with Aza. Well, it wasn't really a competition, they just happened to like this one picture -in Kid Pix- and decided to color it in their own style. Ariq did it first and came up with this result..

During the time Ariq was coloring his picture, Aza kept complaining that Ariq was taking too long, and that he wanted to color the picture. Ariq responded calmly to Aza to wait until he was done.


As soon as Ariq finished his picture, he left the computer to let Aza start coloring his picture. Aza happily started from scratch -the same picture without any color-. He sat quietly for a few minutes and when he was done, he announced it and asked me to save the result, which was this..

As Ariq was watching Aza coloring this picture, he said to me, "Wow, Mum! Aza's picture is much better than mine!"

I said to Ariq that Aza is better in coloring because coloring is Aza's hobby. I also told Ariq that he was better in other things, like playing computer games and handling electronic appliances.

Ariq was happy with my explanation because he knew it was true. However, even without my comment, Ariq was sincere when he complimented Aza's picture. I saw it as a good thing that, Ariq was happy about Aza's ability without being jealous of it.

Ariq is growing up and soon he will not be a little child anymore. I'm happy that he is more mature now, but sometimes I miss his childish mischief. I hope he is not growing too fast..

Unique Engagement..

Busy weeks.. now followed by tired week.. pheewww... :-P

The 'butterfly sign' was all right.. the guests came as planned. Joe's family came and met ours last Friday morning, and now it means.. Sinta is officially engaged to Joe!

In Indonesia, the romantic moment of "Would you marry me?" and "Yes", cannot be considered an official engagement, until the family of the future groom comes to the home of the bride to follow up on the 'personal engagement'.

Once the representative of the future groom's family (can be the father or an appointed spokesperson) expresses the intention of proposing for the girl to be wedded to the guy, and a representative of the future bride's family (can also be the father or an appointed spokesperson) provides an answer based on the future bride's answer (which usually is a 'yes').. Then, the engagement becomes official and the two families can start preparing for the wedding ceremony.. :-)

Sooo... CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-)

Anyway.. It was a very unique engagement ceremony, since neither of the couple was here.. Sinta was still in Moscow, Russia (doing her Master degree), and Joe was still in Verona, Italy (doing his PhD).

During the engagement ceremony they appeared only on the TV screen which was connected to the laptop. We used Yahoo Messenger for the video chat (Skype doesn't have video conference chat) and Skype for the voice chat (voice chat quality of Yahoo Messenger was not as good as that of Skype).

Love is a mystery.. we only know it when we have found it.. The process of getting to know each other between Joe and Sinta was not long. They met each other face to face once around last August, then they followed up via the internet..

They met again once around the New Year in Moscow and they decided they were going to get married. After that, most probably, they are going to settle down in Italy for some time.. :-)

The little sister is getting married.. and flying away with the love of her life.. it always sounds strange in every family.. at the same time, it is one of the happiest moments too.. :-)

Here are pictures of the event:


Ahmad (My husband-as family rep), Mother, Joe's mum, Joe's dad (as family rep)



Joe's mum, Fiki (Joe's brother) and Tia (Joe's sister)



Shahliah (Dani's wife), Mother and Me..
Mother and her two daughters-in-law (a son-in-law coming right up very soon.. hehehe...)



The cousins, chatting with Sinta and Joe (left and right top of screen) after the official engagement ceremony


Congratulations again, Sinta and Joe.. wishing you both a blessed future together.. ;-)

Expressions in artworks..

The best thing about Ariq.. is that he never gives up!

He did not stop being creative even when he was feeling very uncomfortable (before and during the first few days after he had his tonsils operation)..

This was the artwork he did four days before the operation.. At that time, his tonsils were swollen and the fish bone was stuck on the right one..

These are the artworks he did on the day after his operation.. He was still feeling very sleepy from the painkiller and his throat was still feeling 'funny'..

These are the ones he did two days after the operation.. He strongly refused soft food at this stage (except noodle soup) and he was quite grumpy when he was hungry, because he couldn't wait to start being active again..

Finally, this is the one he did four days after the operation (after he had his first 'normal meal').. He was feeling very happy about the great meal, but his throat was having its first 'real' adjustment to solid food.. so, he was having quite a mixed feeling..

Somehow I think, Ariq's artworks always do a good job expressing his feelings and moods.. :-)

I found more of Aza's work on my computer..

I kept reminding Aza to close all the applications and games he plays with every time he is done with them, but somehow, he keeps leaving his arts open..

Maybe.. just maybe.. he has been doing it on purpose (without realising it). Maybe.. he is not sure of how to save his works and leaves them open for me or Ariq to save them for him?? Clever boy!

Now, every time I walk back to the computer, I always find something interesting on the screen, so I save them..

Aza's art works are really getting better every time..

I found these ones during last week..

These are the two I found today (the purple one only had a few square shapes when I found it, then Aza worked back on it with Ariq when I asked him about it)..

I hope he keeps making more cute art works..

Ooppsss... I forgot..

I just opened Aza's folder on the computer.. and guess what??!! There are two of Aza's work there!

WOW! I completely forgot that I successfully saved those two for future viewing.. ;-)

These pictures are not his best, but, these are the ones I managed to save..

The abstract drawing was done with Kid Pix Deluxe 4.. He was only playing with the colour PINK..

While the house.. well, Aza asked me to draw it for him, but then he decided it wasn't good enough for him to colour! Ugh!

At least with this one, he put dots on the roof and planted a small tree over my flower.. my other house drawing.. he completely scribbled over it.. He said that the house collapsed because of the big hurricane! Hmmppff...

Kid Pix Deluxe

Watching Ariq and Aza being creative with Kid Pix Deluxe made me feel creative too..

This is just a trial.. I will save and display the ones created by the boys in the future.. :-)

Blog's Privacy..

Blog is a little funny thing.. It's not a open website, but it's not a completely private diary either.. and each blog owner has a unique expectation on who they want to read his/her blog (including putting a comment)..

I have met and become friends with bloggers that I met through the internet and I find this a valuable experience of friendship for me.

I am also following blogs without really ever making any comments, since their blogs are more for information or sales purposes, rather than friendship/communication purposes. These types are are really great if you are really interested in the certain things that they share the information about (or selling).

These two types of blogs are not really difficult to understand for me, as the owners are quite open to anyone who are willing to read, follow and leave comments on their blogs.

The unique ones are the personal blogs that I come across, which the topics addressed are somewhere between personal and general, and the blog owners are very successful in making their blog very very interesting to be read by general public, but they actually don't really expect the wide population to be much involved in their blogs..

I have posted comments in these types of blogs (which needed to be moderated before posted) and my comments were rejected. I feel a little disappointed at first, of course.. but, I grasp the reality that it was the nature of comment moderation that the owner of the blog explicitly states the authority he/she has on what's coming in and going out of his/her blog.

I truly respect that.

If I may, I just would like to say to all blog owners who might have rejected a comment from 'orcalion' .. is that you have a very interesting blog and although I have never met you in person, I really believe that you are a nice person. Therefore, I wish you all the best in your future..

For every blog owner who have become my friends in this blogging world.. I want you to know that I am truly honoured to have met you and have the chance to know you..

Last but not least, for everyone who comes across this blog.. I never moderate any comments posted on my blogs, so, please feel free to visit and leave me a comment or even better, become my friends..

Have a great day!

There is always a challenge

Right when I thought I was getting better at prettying up my blogs, I decided to choose a template that I really like, the 'Rounder', which had the more rounded corners on each element. It turned out that I had to admit that I wasn't that advanced in working with HTML format of blog templates :-P

I really like the rounder template, but it needs more work in doing, as I need to make the image of the corners myself, or at least adjust the images that the creator created for the original template and I haven't had much experience in image creating software (such photoshop or paint).

After doing a few trial-and-error with the original 'Rounder' template, I had a good idea of what I need to learn to be able to do it in the future (nowhere near getting it done in the short future, though)..

The book that I have (which I wrote about in here about a week ago), was only explaining how to do a blog makeover with the simplest template, 'Minima' and as a non-computer scientist, I think I did a satisfying job using the 'Strech Denim' template based on the instructions laid out in the book.

I will find other books to learn about more complex blog template adjustments, but for now, I am staying with 'Stretch Denim' as it is the one that I like and I can work comfortably with. I will deal with this challenge as I go.