Gracias, Dos Mil Catorce

Starting from 2012, by the end of the year, I gave a theme to the following year I'd be facing. 2013 was "The Year of Traveling, Maybe?".

And it was. I went solo traveling for the first time. To Malaysia and Thailand. For ten days. It fulfilled the theme already. But then Singapore, Bali twice and on top of all, USA, made it all complete. My hesitation shown by word "maybe", turned out to be just fine. Beyond just fine.

Then 2014 came. I was so into traveling that on the first place I was considering to gave a theme "The Year of Traveling, FOR SURE." But then I deliberated to myself. Traveling, without a doubt, will surely be done in 2014. Many times. So it's not about traveling anymore. It should possess a value higher than that.

Then after thoughts and thoughts considered, I welcomed 2014 with theme

"The Year of Worldwide Fun"

Sounds too big eh? Yea at first I kinda thought so. Because the only international trip I committed this year was Vietnam, Cambodia and Philippines. That's all. It wasn't even out of Southeast Asia. The rest of the year was Bali, Bangka, and more Bali as the end of this year.

But then like around July or August, I was texting with a friend. We were talking about something and out of the blue he jokingly mentioned about the theme. My theme. I then giggled and told him that I was making too much deal out of it. But he responded with something I didn't even realize.

"Well, at least your friends and things you did were worlwide-ish."

And he was damn right.

Met international multi-races people during my Vietnam-Cambodia trip. From Russian, Korean, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, French, Chinese, you mention it! And the best thing is, I've been in touch with some of them, up till this very day.

Then made new cyber friends from New York, keeping in touch with them on a regular basis, with WhatsApp, Skype, made a serious bond with their 11 years old pug, had this discussion of them giving shelter to me if I ever come back to NY again.

Went to Bali with a group of bule. Rode a bike in Ubud's rice terrace, got one of them bule girls fell into the ditch. Along with me. And the bike. That was really something.

Hosted a Vietnam-American guy. Guided him around the town, treated him traditional dishes. Accompanied two gorgeous Polish girls around Jakarta. They were awesome - and one of them keeps sending me postcards from everywhere she travels. Started learning Español and got into a Spanish speaking class, met Irish girl and Serbian guy. Attended a writing session with a senior speaker from Poland - well...

I actually lived what I expected from this year.

It's actually crazy that now my Facebook timeline is even full of people from other places with weird Vietnamese, Thai and Polish letters, Tagalog posts and French sophisticated accents.

Crazy eh?

2014 was so worldwide alright.

And I hope it doesn't just stop this year. For next year, next five years, twenty five - all the years down to the day I die, I hope my life remains worldwide.

We'll see if it's true.

New year is 4 hours away.

Show me what you got, 2015

Mockingjay Part One

Katniss destroyed the 75th Hunger Games arena and was instantly rescued by District 13. Leaving Peeta who eventually got captured by The Capitol--wait, de javu, de javu... Think I've done this before... Oh ya! I did, but for the book. But I think it's the same so, I might wanna skip it.

So...

What did I feel right after? Actually, not "right after". More like, "during". And the answer to that is, I cried. During the movie, yes. Well I knew the story pretty well. As I re-read the book several weeks before the movie was released. I cried because I got carried away. Katniss' rebellion, I never thought it was that touching, before I saw J.Law on screen. She played the role beyond perfection. Her gesture, her face, her trembling body... I never completely agree that she suits well with Katniss Everdeen, before this movie. Then we have Alma Coin. Oh President Coin. I was more than grateful when they picked Julianne Moore for the role. Well I didn't expect her to play really well as what I inferred from the book, Coin is a cold-hearted bastard I couldn't even guessed how she actually is in real life. But Moore's versatility was really relieving to me and I was right! She played damn good.

And the whole movie was, I don't know, maybe I'm a little biased because I am a fan of the trilogy but, it was that mesmerizing. The terror, the pressure, it was just exactly what I felt when I read the book. Even more. Although some scenes from the book were removed but, with that kind of output, I don't even care if they kicked Gale out of the script.

But what trembled me the most, was something off the storyline. It's Philip Seymour Hoffman. Well to be honest I have no idea who he was until he appeared as Plutarch in Catching Fire. But then, maybe because I love character Plutarch itself, I felt like I really love this guy. Philip Seymour Hoffman. And seeing him all healthy, bright with positive smile all along the movie, it just broke my heart.

Well, well. Look at this.

In the world of Neverland blog I'm running, movie review should only consists one prologue paragprah in English, one review paragraph in Indonesian, and if necessary, a glimpse of closing statement in English. But look what I did today.

It just shows how much I love...

Katniss? J. Law? Plutarch? Philip?

No. Suzanne Collins

image source: here

Well

It's been a while.

I even forgot what the last thing that I wrote was. Well, it's actually easy as I just need to click "view blog" and check it out myself. But the pressure of seeing my blog with not much updates, I can't take it. So I just went straight away to making new posts section.

Well.

I been through so many things lately. Meeting new friends, getting along with my co-workers -which unfortunately I'll be saying goodbye to, at the end of this month, participating in The Color Run, well, I can make a book out of everything I did in the past four weeks. And speaking about book--well, never mind. Maybe later.

I'd love to tell every single thing happened to me but, it'll take forever. So I'm gonna break it down to three big topics that, yea, I'm doing this because all of these topics can't be loaded in just one post. This blog will explode.

So those three things are:

1. The Hunger Games

2. Citra Pariwara 2014

3. Something Neverland

That's all. Nothing else to say.

I hope I can maintain this mood to write.

Because if I wait until I resign to start writing,

Those three topics would just

Swell