Puty's Journal

Happy (belated) Blogger Day! :)

It should be yesterday but I didn’t know what I should have posted to celebrate it. It’s unlike a birthday when you can make wishes, or have sparkling cakes. It’s unlike a wedding day when you can tell about how much you are nervous and happy and in love. It’s unlike Kartini day that everybody should wear particular costume, in this case, for example, wearing modem as statement necklace.

It’s Blogger Day because the minister of communication and information declared so, in the first Pesta Blogger this date two years ago. I didn’t attend the previous twos (2007 & 2008), so I decided to come this year. Pesta Blogger 2009. And it felt like a reunion. Reunion with good old friends. ‘Old friends’ because we talked about ‘those good old days’. It is called ‘those good old days’, not because our days are not good anymore. It has just changed a lot.

After 7 years, some of us stay, and some quit. A few have gone famous and succesful. Many have got married, and the rest have got drunk. I left my teenage years and I grow up. It has just changed a lot. How I write, and how I mention myself. How I read other blogs, and how people read mine. How we define ‘blogger’, how we define ‘blogging’.

‘Good old friends’, because we’ve been friends through these changes :) :)

And here are some pictures of Pesta Blogger 2009 I took with my Fish Eye camera (well, yeah, call it Lomo):

With Stormtrooper from KDRI :D

Stay young and healthy! :P

Don’t we look like geologists? :P

With Lala. Finally we met! :) :)

BBV, as always, hehe :D

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So, happy (belated) Blogger Day, everyone!

Let’s blog. Let’s start, and restart :)

Treasure

Look what I found lying in 50% OFF section at Aksara Plaza Indonesia:

Saint Exupery: Art, Writings, and Musings
by Nathalie des Vallieres

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Confession
I love books and I love being surrounded by them. I love being in libraries, being in bookstores. My father does too. He loves books. We love and collect them the way lepidopterists collect butterflies and moths. We spend a lot to love and collect them; money, time, space.

I love books and I love buying them, bringing them home, and being close with them. They cheer me up. They keep me safe. Safe from loneliness, safe from having nothing to do, which I’m so afraid about. And I’m safe. I always have something to do each day, and then I start to have many things to do each day. Writing, photography, meeting people, learning about the mother Earth. Then I start to have too many things to do that I can’t really keep my books safe in return. I can’t keep them safe from loneliness, I can’t keep them safe from having nothing to do but filling up the spaces of my room.

I love books and I love their stillness and their patience, and how they wait for me. With the truth, or their dreams inside.
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Addition
Trust me, after 2 weeks of not posting, I have a stack of lines to tell. Whether you’re listening (well, reading, I mean) or not, I’m gonna mention them all on the next post. Because you have to wait. I’m a half analogue.

After a year, everything seems still to be misplaced.
Like a carton of white milk outside the refrigerator, a Vogue subscription form lying wet on the bathroom, a camera inside the wardrobe, books under the table, dolls upside down, keyboard near the empty wrapper of instant cappuccino. Broken sofa on the crowded street.

Your messages, dated almost a year ago.
I still have them completely. Like stamps of dead philatelist but also like lyric of an instrumental song.
Your face, his face, my fate.

My little heart.

After a year, everything seems still to be misplaced.

Actually I’ve been thinking of writing about postcards since I joined Postcrossing. I knew site from Devishanty. Postcrossing, in short, can be described by its tagline,“send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!”.
Just visit the link to know more about this very very nice project :)

Although I spend most of my life in front of the computer with internet connection plugged in, but my heart goes analogue. I prefer handwriting to typed-text, I write my schedule in a schedule book made of paper, I can’t live without drawing pen, and I’m a fan of Lomo, which is all way analogue :D I love letters, and greeting cards, and postcards. I’ve been always too lazy to send them, but I DO love them. I keep all letters and greeting cards I received inside a box as a treasure.

There is something different about receiving words those are real. Words those are still there when the electricity goes off. Words those traveled some distance before arriving in our doors. Words those take time and patience :)

I joined Postcrossing and wrote “I want to travel around the world with an hot air balloon” in my profile and sent my first 2 postcards, which meant I deserved to receive 2 random postcards from random countries from random people. I received my first one on July which is from Brussels. After that, I didn’t send any, or receive any.

Yesterday I received my second one.

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Do you believe in coincidences? Yes or no, I’d still call myself Miraculous.

I’m always interested into old European cities. Even though I have never been to any of those, I, umm, I like to see the photos those are taken in old cities. I like to see the lonely statues, the elegant buildings, the streets with Caucasian and coffee and bakeries. And one day, I saw a truly beautiful picture in GettyImages. Here is the picture.

The caption tells it is an old city called Riga in Latvia. I fell in love with the picture of Riga. I browsed Wikipedia, I browsed, and browsed, and saved some pictures. I put them in folder: “inspirational > ingin kesini > Riga” (‘ingin kesini‘ are Indonesian words. they mean ‘I want to go to this place’.)

I want to go to Riga someday! :)

And my very second postcard is from Riga, Latvia.

It’s from Digna S.
She said:

“Hello Puty,
When you will travel around the world in your hot air balloon, please be careful flying through Riga, because we have this monument of Freedom. =)

Best wishes & happy postcrossing! d.”

Thank you very much! :)

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One postcard. One from many, from many cities, of many countries.
One from a city I’ve been particularly daydreaming about. From one of its 713,016 citizens.

Do you believe in coincidences? Yes or no, postcards are miraculous.
Try to send one, and when you receive one, tell your story, and tell me. :)

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Well, and because this is Batik Day, I’d like to say, “Happy Batik Day!”
Long live batik. We all love you ?

Beside wearing it, today I made 3 batik postcards (with real Batik fabric) for Postcrossing. They will be sent to Finland, USA, and China. What do you think? :)