Check-in

Hello.

My long abandoned blog.

And happy new year! Gosh it's been so long since the last time I wrote here, eh? And gosh, has it always been like that? The way I opened my blog post? Lol anyways.

HOW HAVE I NOT BEEN WRITING FOR SO LONG!?

I've been doing amazing stuff apart from watching sports and animes which were the only entries I made for the whole 2021. YES can you believe it!? As per now, January 4th 2022, I only made SIX blog posts in total - unbelievable! - including one F1 race review, two Olympic-related rants, and three posts about my Studio Ghibli marathon project — which all of those topics are obviously not finished yet because of course it should take more than just six articles!? Some of them are even on the draft already, ready to be finished and published...

Gosh I really miss those days when I was all too excited about everything, that whenever I just had a wonderful day it took only three days max for me to write it down here.

I miss you, my blog, really.

And that's why I'm here now, to drop all the topics I thought I owe my blog to tell, some of which even dated back in 2018! God bless you, Vicky Amin crazy pathetic procrastinate...

Anyways, so here goes:

2018

• The Toy Story Project: Bullseye & Wheezy
• 2018 World Cup Closing Post - yep no, sorry, I can't leave it hanging like that...

2019

• New Job
• Bali Solo Trip
• Bali Outing Trip
• Bali High School Trip
• Italy Trip
• Italian Grand Prix
• The Toy Story Project: Slinky
• Xie Xie, 2019

2020

• Taiwan Trip
• Bali Business Trip
• The Pandemic
• Canceled Japan Trip
• Podcast Lyfe
• Goodbye, Godwit
• New Job - again, lol surprise! I've changed job twice during the hiatus
• Bahrain Grand Prix
• Toys, Toys, Toys
• Thanks But No Thanks, 2020

2021

• Workshop Era Begins
• Work From Bali: Part One
• 2020 Olympics: Favorite Sports & Athletes
• Gift from the Office - oh yeah I won't spoil through the title so...
• Italian Grand Prix, Again and Again
• Saudi Arabia Grand Prix
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
• Work From Bali: Part Two
• Project Twenty One: Batch Three
• Thanks, Finally, 2021

Well, a lot of homework, eh? I better start working on those posts and talk less here. Or should I make it as one of my new year resolution?

Yea whatever it is,

Wish me luck!

The Playlist Continues

So lately,

I've been pretty much in the mood of a nostalgia, I don't know why -well you know why: it's what you always do. Visiting Disneyland, binge-watching Naruto, watching Power Rangers, TWICE -one was at the cinema, you know, the recent remake film, and the other one was the classic MMPR The Movie with my same-interest coworkers!- the whole universe seemed to conspire on this.

And speaking of coworkers, actually, they bear this big role of making me trapped in this back-to-childhood dimension.

One girl watched all the shows and films I watched, including Disney classics—and when the songs play, especially Mulan's "I'll Make A Man Out of You", we'll be a couple of fools. One boy is a big fan of Spongebob Squarepants. And he could make a quiet fair similar imitation of the voiceovers which sometimes dragged me into doing the same.

One other girl is a Power Ranger -I'm not saying 'fan', because for me, a fan of Power Rangers should be called a Power Ranger itself- and she was the one who organized this screening of the classic movie at the office. And there's this other guy, who is basically me, because apparently, we watched so many similar TV cartoons back in 90s. We work overtime a lot—most of the days we even stayed until there were only the two of us. And then began all the chit-chats and story-sharings about cartoon life back then.

One day he was talking about this robot anime I had no idea about, and it reminded me of one cartoon I used to watch, which I was pretty sure he also watched back then. So I asked him and what are the odds, it was one of his fave. We then browsed YouTube for the videos, Googled the images and the toys we had, and suddenly, all those reminded me of something.

My Neverland Playlist.

You remember some time ago, I have this plan to make my blog a bit more youthful, by posting the opening or ending credits of all cartoons I loved when I was a kid?

Yea it wasn't really that some time ago.

The last post of that kind was, August, 2014.

Ha ha. Fuck me, right?

But that night anime-talking with my coworker was a wake-up call. I told him that I had this nostalgic session in my blog, and he said that he'd really love to see it. And the next thing I know, bam, I had this sudden urge to resume what I had started.

So yea here it is,

We begin once again,

The tunes of the past

Keeping Up with Vicky Amin

I owe this blog lots of stories so...

Prepare for some
Internet Breakout

Sounds Like a Plan?

First of all, happy May Day.

I know, I’ve been off too long I only posted… ONCE!? HOW COULD I—HOW IS THIS EVEN—okay. I’ve been busy. I got a job, a permanent one -don’t interrupt yet, please, thank you- though that can’t be the sole reason.

This new job is nice, really, but gotta admit that I’m still not yet busy. So I look for many other things to do, SECRET things to do that of course I’ll uncover everything when the time comes. And that’s why I’ve been pretty idle in blogging.

Speaking about my permanent job, well, as every first jobbers have for their first year, I will not get any single day off for the next 450 days. Yeay? Super. And just a sec after I realized that, something struck me right on my heart. I’ll have to give up the most essential part of my life: traveling.

Shit. One whole year, or at least six to nine month, without even at least browse flights to buy ticket? I better make the most of benefits I can enjoy from doing this job, so I’ll always wake up smiling from my beauty sleep. So yeah first of all, the money’s good. Secondly, I’ll get some cute additional gimmicks because this company I’m now working for, it’s big.

And finally, well, this one’s what I like.

I’ll be forced to stay long enough in Indonesia.

Komodo's Kanawa Island, pic belongs to Wikipedia.

Which means, it’s time to explore deeper within my country. Where people from all around the globe travel all the way from their respective boring countries, to my tropical haven getaway, while I’m gone doing some traveling somewhere abroad.

Giving a lot of thoughts about nearby places I can visit in each short weekend, or somewhere further during longer religious holiday, or better yet, doing extreme sneaking trip for long weekends –which there are ridiculously so many long weekends we’ll have in two months, ahh Lord it goosebumps me in each hair of my body! I know it’ll drain out all the money I earn but hey, I work for this.

And that’s why I kept myself busy from doing some other things. Which money I’ll earn, will be actually saved for my future. My side, common future.

Because my real future,
Is definitely from traveling.
Oh I love this scheme

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

No More 22

So Brazil made a spot to quarter final round.

The battle of Neymar and Rodriguez reached its end.

Despite the fact that Brazil won, for me James kicked Neymar's ass. He really showed how a 22 year old football player should play. Still so reckless, and impatient, but that's okay it's so normal for a 22. He earned global respect, and even applauds from Brazil squad and crowd. He was just the man.

But Brazil going on, and Colombia going home,

No shining 22s left that we can see in this World Cup.

Because Neymar was literally got kicked on the ass--back.

It was so unfortunate.

Aside the hatred I grow towards him and Brazil, this is just not how I want him to exit the tournament. I expected him to leave the cup disappointed, not hurt, like what happened to those I hated 4 years ago. Lol that sentence just made me sound like a cold-hearted psycho, didn't it!?!?

Can't believe I'm saying this but, sorry that you're out, Neymar.
Pic's from here.

This malice won't be the same without Neymar.

Actually I still have Thiago Silva to hate. But he's 29.

It's so not gonna be the same

You're Not Lost

Hey readers, sup?

Well umm... I think I'm going to apologize

That lately, everything's all about football.

Seriously I can't control myself on this. Exactly three hours before the kick off I doubted myself if I still have my desire to watch the Cup or not. But you see what came next? Tons of smart-ass talkings about football crowded my blog. Consecutively. And I even have like three unwritten topics that'll be released when the time's right.

Okay so what I'm going to say now is, that you're still on my blog, buddy. I'm the same guy who writes about dumb stuff, but happen to be on the euphoria of busy-ing myself with football. It's just, I'm crafting something for my future me to read back soon. Like in a year or two, I want to re-feel Brazil, yes, that's when these football-analyst-like posts will be browsed again.

I'm bringing this up because I'm on this level where my blog could possibly be visited by my future employer. You know, I graduated, it's time to work like a real professional, so I sent away tons of applications and this blog is like my portfolio to convince them how lustful -and good- I am in writing. In English.

So yes, my future bosses, my soon-to-be co-workers,

You're now on the blog the address I put in my resume.

I'm here, if you need a help :)

Best Number So Far

When I turned 20, I freaked out like a chicken. But then I explored that being 20-something wasn't that bad.

So last year when I turned 21, instead of crying of getting a lil' bit older, I was excited like a kid riding jetcoaster for the first time. And what came to me all year long, were the best twists I could ever asked on my life.

Now in 10 mins I'll be 22.

A friend who's 24, right before she turned 23, said that the number, 22, was like the best for her. She started everything, moved to Indonesia, found the best job, made friends with the sickest individuals on this planet and closed the age with a very mind-blowing birthday party I never even imagined before.

I want that kind of 22.

I'm sure I'll get that kind of 22.

22's damn good. 22's a fancy number.

Even American Sweetheart has a song about that.

So thanks 21, thank you so much.

I had such great times entitling you for this last year.

You gave me chances and I rocked everything.

Now let's have a great-10-mins flashback

To cherish all things I did while I was 21.

Before I open my eyes and realize,

That I'm a 22 year old guy

殆どそこに - Almost There

Let's update about my Japanese skill.

Anybody's dying to know??? I do, I do!

Since next year or so I'll be going to Japan -AMEN O LORD ALMIGHTY, I been working my ass off to master how to speak Japan. I bought the textbook, I watched Naruto like everyday, reinforced myself with a dictionary, got to admit I began to know some words, how to use it and... I still can't speak Japanese.

So I asked to myself, where did I do wrong?

Apparently, it's because I skipped the basic part.

手紙 - The Letters

Yea stupid me, I started everything just knew some Japanese letters. I constantly forgetting certain letters it made me lose my will to get to know what words those are forming and at the end of the day, I earned no progress.

But call me Vickette if I quit so soon.

For the last four days, I gave myself an intense letter-memorizing-session every night. It was identical to common student studying at night with books and papers everywhere, trying to memorize some math formulas or historical chronological orders by writing it down time and time and time again.

A note I made to easily memorize katakanas.

To be honest, the method was kinda helpful tho because now,

I know each and every single letter of both Hiragana and Katakana!

So next stop: Kanji.

Okay, that's just it. Told you it'll just a brief update.

Now if you excuse me, Vicky needs to learn some kanjis.

Or should I call myself, フイキ ?

Solitude

You might be wondering where have I been, eh?

No? Ahh too bad, I prepared A good long story for that.

Hell no, kidding.

I've been pretty occupied by Whiskas. Yea you know my situation. It's D-31 due the thesis submission deadline and chapter four drove me crazy already but, I can do it MYSELF of course. I produced some print ads and other cool stuff I honestly want to show all in here but, maybe later after I graduate? :)

So. Basically this post is just a taken-for-granted one because I only made ONE post along November. There's no particular thought or experience I want to share now so...

Oh I do have one!

Today everybody left to Singapore.

It's only me now at home, with six cats of ours.

I never been literally ALONE at home. And there's no historical track in my family that they go traveling just the four of them, without me. Well I just got home from US and I have this purple thingy to take care of so, I have to let them go.

Now the interesting part is, as I told you, that I'm alone.

But that doesn't seem too desperate for me. In fact, I like it.

Woke up early to wish my family a fun trip, chilled inside the air conditioned room watching The Mentalist -seriously, lately I been exposed by many serials that turned out to be so entertaining, talk about it soon, fulfilled my curiosity watching some Bermuda Triangle documentary, spent the whole morning singing to MTV, bought some random chicken black pepper that turned out to be extra yummy and ate it while streaming Naruto, took nap while the TV aired Lilo and Stitch, wasted all afternoon down to the evening watching Hell's Kitchen, The Apartment, America's Next Top Model and Miss Universe 2013 -I honestly have no idea whether I should be proud of watching these things or not.

Well the point is, as you might guess,

I seriously enjoyed this total LONELINESS.

And to make it complete, it rained most time of the day.

It's just me getting to know and hangin out with me,

Talking, judging and having intense discussions with myself,

I might just gonna marry you, Vick

Took Me All The Way

It ended yesterday.

You do know what I'm talking about.

The best time of my entire life so far.

A moment I never expected to come. 

October.

How couldn't it be not the best?

First of all, dad was having his 50th birthday. A special number not just for him, but to every single member of this little family of ours. It was just a day we all together realized that, in no time, dad -and mom- will start settling down, and there'll come our time, the kids, to take control the life business. Crazy.

Also, I finally finished the pain-in-the-ass Mirai Ocha task -although on some level, it was all majorly done by my teammates because I left them... ごめんね、皆さん :(

And for the whole month, my mentor made it smooth for my final assignment -the Whiskas stuff. It's now down to the last complicated chapter, and one complementary part to finish. Should I say I can't wait for the trial? No? Of course not, I'll regret saying it...

But the best part, as you know... Is USA.

Want me to tell about that all over again?

Haha don't worry, I know you're tired.

It won't feel good for me anyway.

Yes, because I still haven't completely moved on.

And I'm tired of keep thinking about it, honestly.
But umm, can I say just, this one last thing?

Okay.

"I'll be back there, somehow.
But for this trip, I'm done.
So memories,

Safe flight!"

Halfway to Half Done (Pt. 1)

Selamat sore, sobat sejagat!

Huff udah lama juganih gak bikin postingan pake bahasa Indo haha pegel juga euy ngomong pake bahasa orang. Sudah saatnya bahasa sendiri dikumandangkan!!! Padahal bahasa yang dipakai pun tidaklah baku :)

Oke jadi gue udah semester 7 kan nih ceritanya. Semester akhir. Nah tengah semester pun udah lewat minggu lalu, jadi masa masa gue sebagai mahasiswa tuh kayak cuman... Tiga bulan lagi? :')

Minggu lalu udah pitching klien pertama buat matkul Praktikum Periklanan -which was Mirai, yang sukses bikin anak iklan UI 2010 trauma denger kata "ocha". Laporan magang batch 1 out of 2 pun udah diluncurkan. Nah buat TKA Whiskas gue tersayang, udah memasuki bab 3 dari 5.

Intinya, semua udah serba setengah jalan.

PrakPrik udah ngeluarin brief kedua soal, ehm, kondom. Laporan magang udah harus dilanjutin sampe abis dan TKA, tanggal 17 Desember udah harus dikumpulin buat disidang Januari.

Serem gasih?

Gue sih sebenernya excited.

Excited karena udah mau lulus aja.

Tapi kalo mikirin mau kemana dan mau berbuat apa sehari setelah wisuda...

To be honest,

I still can't tell

Rebirthday

For you who have no idea, according to the Hijri calendar, I was born in the holy month of Ramadan -well that's why my middle name is 'Ramadan', and that's why I'm holy :)

But somehow, people oftenly mistaken the date. When they ask my full name and Ramadan is near, they'll be like "Oh cool, you'll be having your birthday soon!" but seriously guys, you do know that Hijri calendar's not synced with Gregorian. So my birthday is March 27, and don't you guys bother asking me some treats in Ramadan.

Although actually, I know when my Hijri birthday is.

All these years, all these 21 years living in this planet, I never knew in what Islamic date I was born. Mom and dad never had an idea either, so I convinced myself that I lost the track.

But fool me, I never realized in what era I'm living now. So weeks ago, I browsed the internet to find out what Hijri date was that when I was born on March 27. And boom, I finally answered my all time top priority question of my life.

And yes, it's today.

Ramadan 23rd. Today.

Picture of Agrabah, obtained from here.

I'm so glad I finally explored it.

Now I have two birthdays in one year.

But don't you guys bother asking me some treats

Because we're fasting, remember? :)

Rebranding

Hey there daily visitor!

Well, if any...

So if you wonder, today I've been doing some changes to my blog appearance. You know it's 5 years old already and I guess it's just time to rebrand this stuff. I've even been thinking to change the name of this blog. Apparently, personally, naming this blog with my own name is not quiet selling.

But this gon' be a major transformation for everything like, everything.

Everybody knows this blog as rifkyramadhan blogspot, not anything else.

Every blog buds linked my blog to rifkyramadhan blogspot, not anything else.

All my life, all this time, it's always been rifkyramadhan that I ran to, not anything else.

It's risky I know, it's emotionally challenging.

But something inside tells me to

P.S. : Wish me luck :)

Mr Worldwide: The Birth

Udah dua belas hari di bulan Februari, tapi gue belum juga ngepost apapun. Hmm gapapa dong ya, karena gue baru aja pulang dari perjalanan super menakjubkan gue di negara tetangga dimana gue cuma seorang diri.

Banyak banget yang mau gue ceritain, banyak banget yang mau gue share, malah tadinya gue mikir apa mending gue bikin satu blog sendiri khusus buat perjalanan ini aja yak? Haha tapi gamungkin sih.

However, I'll tell it anyway, anyhow.

Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and George Town

"Two passports (stamps), three cities, two countries, one (plus eleven) day" -- Pitbull

So, shall we

Get it started?

Quick, It's Still So Hypstah!

There will always be a time when hipster things started to turn mainstream-ish, whatever it is. That's what happened to Logos Quiz. Yea so I lost the exclusivity of the app. Especially since the game outline now are ruined by annoying ads.

That, is the time I found Icon Pop Quiz!

Basically the rules are the same. Only in this app, the questions are all about TV series or movies, and whole wide range of characters and even mascots.

The major thing I like most is the icons. Those are super cute, and minimalist. For me, the generator of the questions are much more creative than the one who made Logos Quiz because they did more than just erasing or wiping some part of the logos. They constructed more twisting things to be answered!

I can't tell how dumb I laughed when trying to answer the top-left question.
Felt like I needed to hit the creator of the app with a tank :'D

But one thing I hate about the app is, you know, the inconsistency. There are some certain confusion in answering because sometimes the answers are flexible. Like for example, Princess Jasmine of Disney. When you just answer 'Jasmine', it turns out to be incorrect.

Some characters need to be answered with their full name, yet some others don't. Like 'Mickey' with 'Mouse', but on the other case the answer is just 'Fred' without 'Flinstones'. Sounds unimportant tho, but for perfectionist people who craves for perfect answers with full points like me, that's just a big, big deal.

But yeaaa, at least the game's fun.

Let's enjoy this before it turns to be
Another no-longer-indie game

Please Be Teased

Good evening.

Since I don't like seeing my blog so empty, I'm gonna put this here.

Please just consider.
We're worth trying

More to Come

Gosh I've been so harsh to this blog. August almost ends but can you feel it? No sparks at all in this month.

So now that I'm on my grandpa's house, got a wi-fi access and blogger app on my phone, and have a spare time while umm you know, dealing with the toilet, I'm listing down some posts I'd like to publish soon after I reach home:

1. My Internship Last Day

I was too busy preparing the Eid that I really had no time thinkin about this. And since I have no photos of my co-workers and bosses, I'll post this soon after I get back there.

2. My Very First 'Takbiran' With Highschool Fellows

This one was quiet random, can't wait to tell. Kidding, it's finished! Click here.

3. The Local Battlefield

And this, was on top of all! Just write the title makes me on fire already. So I guess I'm gonna use it as the post title.

4. My Recent Future-Money-Maker
I'm currently involved to something. It's so exciting because it could be my source of income soon when I'm tired of working for someone else's company. Tell ya more here.

5. Miscellaneous

Like the BSO fourth project -which deadline was August 18, I don't know whether I'm forgiven or not- then the female singers I've been recently flinging to, and also about Schnauzer dogs.

Cool, eh? Lots of things to tell. And I hope it'll all be finished before September comes.

You know what, I ran out of poop.

Time to flush goodbye!

Totally Lost

The latest post about Euro,

I was still confused choosing which team to support.

Either Netherlands, Germany or Spain.

Then the Netherlands kicked out early.

German troops were shooed away by Italy.

Dutch's sadness comes from here and German's misery belongs to here

It's down to Spain.

But I'm not so psyched.

I'm just too sick seeing Torres.

But Italy beat Germany.

I can't see them win the cup.

But Spain has Torres...

But Italy stopped Germany...

Yea well, I'm lost.

Who cares, for crying out loud.

It's not my national team anyway

Brand-gasm

So yesterday I happened to install an app for my iPod and guess what, it's about a brand logo guessing game woot woot!! Some of you may knew about that, but for you who hasn't heard, it is called LogosQuiz.

I know sooner I'll be dealing a lot with these

That's why I'm soooooo interested to play the game

I may even call myself a logo-fvcker