osaraba: (laby sarah !)
I've had an insanely busy week in Indonesia. Liz and I landed in Jakarta on Saturday night local time and spent two days there with family. Then:

- flew out to Bali (with my cousin Ade and her friend/coworker who were on business) for three days wherein we stayed at a beach resort hotel and did SO MUCH EATING. AND SHOPPING. I actually got these awesome awesome bone talons with a wing shaped carved on one side (almost exactly like this pair).
- flew back to Jakarta Thursday night, SAW A CONCERT (the famous boy band kahitna, don't even ask) then drove out to Bandung on Friday for shopping and food
- drove back on Saturday; Liz flew back to NYC
- flew out super early on Sunday morning to Kalimantan (with Ade's friend/coworker for more business)

It's Monday now and I'm sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for Yantri to finish up her business. Our flight back to Jakarta is at 6pm tonight and I'm REALLY REALLY looking forward to being able to sleep without having a specific wake up time. Especially one that's not 4am to catch a flight, or to go to the floating market before it disperses.

Here are a few photosets of some highlights:

- Bali resort hotel
- traditional market in Bali
- driving and traffic in Indonesia
- Banjarmasin Floating Market in Kalimantan

In more detail.... )

And last (for now), but not least... and weirder than I can possibly express... I... didn't realize this at all until about an hour ago, but... Panic! At the Disco is playing Big Wave Festival in Jakarta tomorrow. And... I'll be in Jakarta tomorrow... so, I'm going to try to get tickets.

HOW FUCKING WEIRD IS MY LIFE?!

Like [livejournal.com profile] asolarfever said on twitter, I'll be able to say I've seen them in two countries! (Even if it'll be ridiculously weird that those two countries are THE US and INDONESIA. O_O

This totally beats the (probably unpopular) awkwardness I feel about the news of Bden & Sarah's engagement. =/

-----

Feel free to ask any questions you want about Indonesia; I'm sort of keeping things (relatively) brief in this post, but I don't mind expounding furthur on anything you're interested in. =D
osaraba: (sara skydiving)
I've really got to get back into the habit of posting again, I really hate going a whole week without checking my flist and then having to play catch-up and missing awesome things like music friending memes and M&G/concert reports, and then also having like a million things to update about, too. So here goes.

Drove down to Philly on Tuesday so Juliet and I could get inked. This was also THE DAY OF THE DC EARTHQUAKE WTF. Juliet had to take the bus back that night so Nicole did her first; I stayed over and she did me and I drove back to NYC on Wednesday afternoon. So actually, these weren't as painful as the chest tats I had done a couple years ago (and didn't take as long, either -- 5 hours altogether instead of 8), but the aftermath has been way worse. My upper arms are very swollen, which is sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes very painful; I've got heat rash from the humidity like you wouldn't believe. Don't even ask me to describe it because it's horrible and icky and you don't want to know. The redness probably won't go away for another two weeks, but I'm hoping the swelling will lessen soon because it SUCKS. And also I've got a fucking P!ATD concert to go to on Thursday and I'm going to be on the fucking rail if it kills me. Which, let's face it, it won't, because it's a P!ATD concert and I'll have to restrain myself from popping 15-year olds in the face, but maybe I can find a bunch of guys and convince them to start a mosh pit with me. LOLZ.

Anyway, I'm not posting pics of the back-of-the-arm tats til they look better. But here's a pic of the third one, on my right forearm. A prize for you if it rings a bell:



The other big news of the day is that I'M GOING TO INDONESIA FOR SIX WEEKS!!! Um, yeah. So, I'm currently unemployed and I've got relatives there that I can stay with for free and a dollar goes a LOT farther there than here, so... yeah. I'm sort of SUPER EXCITED and also like, SIX FUCKING WEEKS, WTF. But I mean, I've meant to go to Indonesia for a couple of years now and what better time to go than when I don't actually have to take vacation days to do it? Liz is going to come with for 10 days at the beginning and then leave to go back to work. I'm ecstatic over that because while I still would've gone, it just wouldn't be the same without her. And meeting a hundred relatives for the first time, most of whom don't speak English, will be a lot less intimidating and a lot easier to handle when we've got each other. =D

You know what's going to be the weirdest? I'm going to a place where I will BLEND IN WITH THE NATIVES. Think about that for a second. And I don't mean that I will, really, because I'm sure I'll be dressed differently and relatively easily-identified as a foreigner (or a freak), but-- I could theoretically just disappear into the crowd. I've never, NEVER, looked like anyone else. In NYC there are so many ethnicities -- and I've only ever lived in areas that have extremely diverse populations (Queens is really good at that) -- but the Indonesian population here is relatively small and I've never really been part of it and I've NEVER looked like everyone else. This whole idea is sort of freaking me out!

So, two things of note:
  1. Indonesia is 11 HOURS AHEAD. Which means, tweeps, that I will try to stalk your twitters anyway and DON'T LEAVE ME OUT OF ANY IMPORTANT CONVOS OR UPDATES, OR I WILL BE VERY DISSAPOINT. #wolfpack

  2. Do you or someone you trust happen to be looking for a room in NYC to sublet for 4-6 weeks? If so, please point them my way!


To reiterate: INDONESIA. SIX WEEKS.
Spencer Smith is now going to demonstrate how I feel:







ETA:...oh yeah, that whole itinerary thing I meant to post:
Friday 09/09/11:
CX 841 JFK 10:05 → HKG 14:05
CX 719 HKG 16:00 → CGK 19:40 (arrive Saturday evening)
[22.5 hours travel time]

Monday 10/24/11:
CX 798 CGK 00:05 → HKG 05:50
CX 830 HKG 09:20 → JFK 13:10
[24 hours travel time]
osaraba: (p!atd spencer shiiiiny)
So while LJ was indisposed I decided to pretend it didn't exist and pretty much ignored the situation altogether. It seems to be back (or close) to normal now, so here I am. I've been in this weird limbo of unemployed with lots of free time.... and somehow finding myself sort of busy. And ffs, spending too much time with my parents. I spent 10 hours with them yesterday, helping my father buy and set up an awesome new laptop. But. TEN HOURS. =/

Just saw this movie from 2007 called Shelter, which was just great. It's about a guy named Zack, an artist in the ghetto of some SoCal city, with a sister who's a big flake and a 5-year old nephew who has clearly hung the moon and all because Zack is holding the ladder steady beneath him. His best friend goes out of town for a while and his brother stays there, and he and Zack end up hanging out, surfing a lot, and falling for each other.

Of course there's more to it, but it's pretty typical and straightforward -- nothing happens that you couldn't see coming a mile away, but it's sweet, and it's just-- nice to see this sort of romance/drama with a gay couple. =D I recommend it if you're looking for an easy, pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. <3

So now is where I'm going to get all fannish and say I WANT THE SPENCER/BRENDON AU! FIC FOR THIS MOVIE! They're surfer dudes! In southern California! The artist (~musician?) angle with family troubles is ALREADY THERE! There's an adorable kid! What more do we need? And really, WHY HASN'T THIS BEEN WRITTEN ALREADY? =(

And so I leave you with this, one of my favorites from the 8/09 Chicago M&G, from what I refer to in my head as Surfer-era!Panic. <3

osaraba: (sara skydiving)
I ended up driving my parents to Connecticut today -- Torrington? if anyone is familiar with CT? -- about 100 miles away from NYC, so a 2-hour drive. Luckily, the car's air-conditioning is working perfectly. Truthfully, I think I'd've been fine with the windows rolled down, especially since we were going 70-75 mph the whole way, but my parents have long since passed that point where they can survive the heat without a/c.

I had a great time, though, because I love driving, and we had a good time listening to music and watching the scenery pass by. I rarely have anything less than a good time while driving long distances. The drive back added another hour to the trip, because of rush hour, and that was really frustrating at times, but it wasn't anywhere near my limit.

*

Last night's Clutch show was pretty fucking awesome. The mosh pit was crazy and great; I heard two guys talking during the break before the encore about the three girls one guy had spotted in the mosh pit -- one of which ("the big girl") was me. I wanted to ask whether that was a "good" or a "bad" thing, but I figured me asking would skew the answer, so I kept my mouth shut and continued to eavesdrop in the hope of ascertaining the truth. Alas, they never specified and it was hard to tell from context. My inclination is to guess that it was a generally positive observation as they didn't seem put out/annoyed by it so much as just remarking in surprise.

I told one of the girls who kind of stayed on the outskirts of the mosh pit with me for most of the time that she was awesome (and then she hugged me!) because she was SO VERY TINY -- it takes guts to get into the mosh pit on purpose. I only went in a little myself, because it was particularly rowdy at times, though I stayed on the outskirts the rest of the time. My left arm is suuuuuuper sore from fending off collisions as well as pushing people back in! SO MUCH FUN.

As on-the-fence I am about their lyrics, Clutch ALWAYS puts on a fucking awesome live show. Their music, without fail, makes me want to dance or jump or, you know, mosh. <3

Is tomorrow supposed to be as insane, temperature-wise, as today? If so, that's fine, though I will likely spend a good portion of it in front of the fan since I don't generally bother with the a/c we have in the living room.
osaraba: (fma together forever)
My father used to sing Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula to me all the time when I was younger, so I suppose if I ever were to have a wedding this would be an important choice, I think it would make him happy like not much else. He loveslovesloves American rock'n'roll music from the 50s and early 60s, back when he was a teenager in Indonesia. "That kind" of music was sort of frowned upon and my father's father sort of banned listening to music in the house (a lot of which had to do with them living in the midst of a very large population of Muslims, and I gather this was a sensitive thing in that particular place and time). It's sort of crazy to realize what sort of upbringing he had, and what the social climate was like when and where he lived... and to compare that to what my own upbringing was like, in NYC, poor but not in poverty, with a smart, liberal, socially-conscious mother and an adventurous, rebellious father...

In any case, I've just realized that music and food are two of the extremely few things we have in common, but that we both actually get excited about.

The idea of marriage makes me uncomfortable for a multitude of reasons, not all of them necessarily Good or Rational, and while (sadly) I don't think I'll end up getting married (and even then, not in a traditional sort of ceremony) before my father dies (wow, this is turning morbid), if it did happen, I'd be well pleased to play this.

Fave lines: be-bop-a-lula / she-e-e's my baby love / (my baby love, my baby love)



List of all days.
osaraba: (jgl suitpr0n)
So here's a little taste of what I've been doing at my parents' house this weekend: cleaning, mopping, scrubbing (MORE cleaning, mopping, scrubbing), SHOVELING FUCKING SNOW. Also, putting up mirrors. Oh, you know, EIGHT of them.



die, die my darling (SPOILERS for Misfits ahead) )

MOST IMPORTANTLY, HAS ANYONE WRITTEN ANY INCEPTION/MISFTS FUSIONS OR CROSSOVERS YET?!!!! Because that needs to happen, like, ASAP!!!

I can't figure out exactly who I want to be who, and whether I want to base that choice on ability or personality. I want Arthur to be Nathan so bad, because I love them both the best and also because ARTHUR AS AN UNRELENTING PRICK IS A HUGE FUCKING KINK ALL ON ITS OWN, GUYS. PLEASE TO BE FILLING MY PROMPT, OH MAGICAL WRITERS OF FLIST!!!

ETA: MISFITS UPDATE (HUGE SPOILERS 2x03-04) )
osaraba: (brick brendan bleedatyou)
So I'm mostly still away from my computer until Monday at work, but I'm eating into my sleeping hours reading fanfic and profic because I'm GOING FUCKING CRAZY helping my parents work on house stuff before a cousin on my father's side comes to visit next week. And I don't think you guys have ever seen me going fucking crazy because I'm normally the most even-tempered person you've ever seen and I don't really allow crap to crossover into LJ much, but JFC, when this is over I'm going to lock myself in my room and not come out for days and days, which is kind of what I've been doing after work for the last month or two anyway. lasjdfljasfl

ANYWAY. I have to make a couple of random recs for fic that have really really lifted my spirits because of how fucking amazingly badass or angsty or epic or hilarious they are:

  1. THE BADASS: [Inception, Arthur/Eames] [livejournal.com profile] ethrosdemon's Unexpected Plot Twist. WIP (currently at 2/3, but with the end part projected for Sunday) Parts: 1 2, 3a, 3b. The description I wrote for my delicious notes effectively describes all that I love about it: romantical. action. potty-mouthed badassery. DADT. clothes-shopping pr0n. dialogue like broken glass. "turning obscenity into something aspirationally untouchable." hair triggers. gratuity of every flavor. basically, FUCK YES.

  2. THE ANGSTY: [Inception, Arthur/Eames] [livejournal.com profile] whiskyrunner's Rough Trade. WIP (at 1/2, with the end projected for next week). Written as a fill for a prompt from the heavens by a magical OP-anon; Arthur can't admit to himself what he wants, and Eames doesn't let him deny himself. That's really an inadequate description, but it's all very harsh and kind of brutal and devastatingly delicious.

  3. THE EPIC: [Inception, Arthur/Eames] [livejournal.com profile] sho_no_tabi's Life During Wartime. Can be read alone, but it's really part of a bigger series (in order: A Soul Awake, Something Like, LDW, and then the current WIP complete Red Oni, Blue Oni), wherein Arthur's background is something that makes me squee uncontrollably. Relatedly, some of the dialogue makes me flail uncontrollably as well. I don't want to spoil the subtle reveal because I know that not knowing about it at first made the realization SO MUCH SWEETER for me.

  4. THE HILARIOUS: [Merlin, Arthur/Merlin] [livejournal.com profile] moonythestrals' A Random Collection of Firsts. Really you should read the absolutely unexpectedly adorable Fratboy!AU that comes before this because it would lack impact if you didn't -- which was great, don't get me wrong -- but the coda is what had me giggling and laughing full-out, with a moment or two of jaw-droppingly HOT FUCK YES sort of reactions.




  5. BONUS MUSIC REC: So I went to see the Alvin Ailey dance performance on Wednesday, which was lovely, really. But I left determined to find more music by the FRENCH INDUSTRIAL PERCUSSION group Les Tambours du Bronx. FUCK YESSSSSS. During one of the pieces I had to resist the urge to get up and dance. I wanted nothing more than to leave and go to an industrial club and dance until 4am. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THEY EXIST?! I have been listening to them ALL NIGHT tonight. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you some mp3s!

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