roompoot

Hello, my name is Andhika Nugraha, and this blog is a bliss for my egocentric abyss.

[rumput]

15242400

Since you were born, there have been:

4 generations of K-pop,

6 new independent countries,

7 Makoto Shinkai movies,

9 new chemical elements discovered,

177 episodes of House, and

1074 One Piece chapters

On a more personal note, you:

learned 5 languages,

visited 24 countries,

won 35 VPs in Holland Games (none of them for 7 Wonders),

have a 192-day streak on Duolingo,

spent 279 hours playing Fire Emblem Three Houses, and

played... how many levels of Matchington Mansion? (I remember you saying that you finished all the levels, but is that still the case? Google said the known record is been 8433 levels???)

I first said happy birthday to you in a very windy bus terminal in Washington when the candles were almost a fire hazard, and now I say happy birthday to you in a very-windy apartment in Singapore as PRs.

In those 11 years, I have witnessed you grow. It's hard to see how you change on a daily basis, but I noticed how your catching-up-with-a-good-friend story changes over time: from how you were once insecure, how decided to go to the UK instead of going straight to your job, to how working at Shell is so much more refreshing compared to Citi. How you were enjoying married life in Singapore with just the two of us, to being afraid about the end of lockdown meaning the end of control. How much you love your super-cute niece, to how being a PR is like having an additional anchor. To how you're not as ambitious as you were before but you're fine now (and how great life is in Singapore!), and most recently, how content you are overall with your life.

The way you look at yourself in the mirror has also changed. You have always had a shimmering glow in your eyes (Ais's eyes are even prettier), but now your whole presence radiates with a sense self-fulfilment.

But alas, you are now 29 years young. Here's to many, many more years of experiencing what the entropy of the universe has to offer*, and every oscillation of Cesium-139 in between.

Happy birthday!

[rumput]

1.974 × 10¹⁰ km

On-time happy-birthday posts are so passé.

Or maybe they're not, but I only finally ended up writing this one the day after, so let's pretend that they are passé and that I'm setting a new triend.

So let me begin this post with the obvious, impersonal, everybody-says-it-too line: Happy birthday Cahya!

People often associate birthdays with a moment of reflection, a day that signifies one step in the stairs of growing up, being more mature, better people.

In the case of Cahya, the date 19 February on which she was born has occurred no less than 21 times ever since she was born.

That means, the Earth has orbited around the Sun 21 times, or travelled a distance of no less than 1.974 × 10¹⁰ kilometres, throughout Cahya's life.

Let that number sink in your mind for a minute. Given how big it is, I'd say that Cahya's birthday is a pretty special day.

I've only had the opportunity to get to know Cahya three years ago, and since then I've had the pleasure of celebrating her birthday with her in five (sort of) different cities: between Washington and New York (though we weren't dating then), Bandung, Canterbury and yesterday Jakarta. (I just realised this now, actually. Pretty cool right?)

Being her boyfriend and spending most of my time with her, sometimes I become oblivious to how much she's changed over these years. My changes have been more obvious, with a much better hairstyle and wardrobe, and perhaps (very) slightly better reliability.

But if you think about it, Cahya too has changed. She's changed from an obvious extrovert to somewhat of an introvert, finding calm in her own space. She's more independent now, and doesn't think of long-distance relationships so badly anymore. She barely has moodswings anymore (something you only get to experience if you're her boyfriend), as long as she's not hungry. She's changed from being a dominant to becoming an analytical personality. Her Enneagram number has changed too (and she shares the same number with all the cool people).

She speaks French now (or at least a bit of it). She's metamorphosed from a second-year university student to an outstanding careerwoman, inching closer to her dreams of someday revamping Indonesian museums, always making her parents and fixer-upper boyfriend proud.

But most of what makes Cahya who she is hasn't changed one bit. She's always the creative, passionate, hardworking person you can rely on to give nothing but her best. She's always the true-to-herself friend that gives wise advice when you ask, and honest feedback when you need them. She still doesn't get most of today's pop music unless you actually tell her about them. Her favourite Disney princess is still Mulan. She's a lot slimmer now, but her cheeks are still chubby enough to pinch.

Her parents appropriately named her Cahya, because that's what she is: a source of light to the people around her, that gives assurance, guidance, comfort, inspiration and hope, but not the kind of light that's so overbearing you'd want to close your eyes.

That last sentence could use some work, but if you know Cahya, you'd get what I mean.

So, happy, happy birthday to you Cahyawardhani. May the entropy of the universe guide your path with enlightenment.

[rumput]

Meet Cahya's eyes.

When she talks, they gleam with the adorable curiosity of a ten-year old. And since our eyes don't grow, you can expect them to stay that way.

More often than not though, you'll find them with a cold, serious, commandeering look. Don't worry though, that's just their default state. You won't turn into stone or anything.

When she's hungry, they turn to the vicious eyes of a hungry hawk. Unless you can get her the exact thing that she wants at that very moment (give or take 30 minutes), you're as good as prey.

When she pouts (and her eyes go all pouty and all (is pouty even a word?)) you can't help but do what she asks you to do. (the same thing applies when she's mad)

These are eyes of conviction. If you're lucky enough to be working with her, you will feel confident that she will do nothing but her best.

If you don't see them long enough, one gaze is enough to make you salting (menggaram).

I can actually go on and on talking about her eyes, but I guess it'll sound freaky. Like, psychopathically freaky.

So, in lack of a better ending: I love these eyes. (so much for not sounding freaky)

((( honest trailers stare scenes montage )))

[rumput]

Life can be shaky at times, but as long as you have someone to hold on to, everything will be alright.

[hackersofny]

TL;DR This hacker spent some time at the UN. Turns out their stack is as old as government itself.

"I started coding because my Neopets guild needed a web page and there was no one who knew how to code, go figure. I built all of their websites in really dinky HTML, CSS, and PHP. It was an exciting time on the Internet. I met someone who learned to code building Sailor Moon fan sites. Nerds, right?

I worked at the UN briefly for two years and oh my god - everything is so old there, like their processes are ancient. Their events person was sending out emails by hand; manually, one by one to thousands of people, like thousands of people. Imagine an event hosted by the UN. Imagine how many people are invited to that. I told her, ‘It’s called MailChimp. It will change your life.’”

Cathy is currently hacking on Wikitongues and leads software product at Coalition. She will be featured in the Wall Street Journal’s upcoming documentary about women in technology, and she has a knack for modernizing companies’ outdated technology stacks.

Wikitongues | Coalition

[rumput]

SHE STARTED OUT CODING BECAUSE OF NEOPETS! More than a decade ago it was also Neopets that drove me to learn to code, but it wasn't because of my Neopets guild. You see, back then Neopets had a feature called PetPages, where each Neopet you own can have a single web page to call its own. I filled mine with a lot of cheesy CSS and Javascript (back then they called it DHTML!) tricks, like IE-only colour filters and snowfall. Oh and blinking text and marquees as well, of course.

[rumput]

My girlfriend hates microwaves.

She complains how when she defrosts chicken using it, part of the chicken becomes cooked which she thinks its gross.

She complains how the same chicken, because of the microwave, becomes wet and causes all the oil to pop up and splash everywhere.

She disagrees with any thought of heating food with the microwave. I tried heating up spring rolls in the microwave, and she blamed the soggy filling on the microwave.

The water heating jug-thing (what do you call those?) in my house is broken, so when she had a cough I offered her warm water which I had warmed using my microwave.

She refused. Because of the microwave.

For the past three weeks, we've been living 2 minutes apart. We've ate most of our meals together, most of which we've also cooked together. We've shopped together, weightlifting with kilograms of groceries afterwards. We've never succeeded to fulfill our promise of jogging in the morning, but we have played badminton and agreed that doing sports together improves our bonding.

The past three weeks have given me time to notice the littlest of things.

Like how she hates bread when it's not toasted.

Like the amount of nutella she likes to have on her bread (hint: not much)

Like how she doesn't drink fresh milk without cereal.

Like the proportion of salt and pepper she likes to have on her chips.

Like how she never peels potatoes before using them.

Like how she jumps back when oil splashes from the pan.

LIke how she folds her sajadah.

Like the same way she opens the kitchen door everytime I come knocking.

Like, well, a lot of other, more miniscule things, really.

The past three weeks have shown me that we have a lot of fundamental differences that neither of us are willing to put aside (such as microwaves).

But in between those differences, in between the sauteed broccoli and fruit pastilles, every day I am faced with the ultimate truth:

My love for her can only grow stronger <3

[rumput]

Doubt of Faith

Adult Pi Patel: Faith is a house with many rooms.

Writer: But no room for doubt?

Adult Pi Patel: Oh plenty, on every floor. Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested.

[rumput]

Jodoh

Dika: Mau ee.

Ica: I just farted omg kita jodoh.

[rumput]

"Now I'm just chasing time with a thousand dreams I'm holding heavy."

[rumput]

Living without her is like me trying to make my eyes juling.

I just can't.

[rumput]

A constant flea of faith. (in reference to this)

[rumput]

D: You know, if you were to be able to dance, cook, speak French, and talk in English with a British accent, that'd definitely be wife material.

C: No, that'd be overkill.

[rumput]

Meet Cahya.

(HIHI LUCU BANGET YA ARKH GEMES)

I miss her.

I tried coming up with something more poetic, but due to lack of reading anything else besides Javascript, C# and HTML lately I utterly fail.

Oh hang on, that gave me an idea:

I.miss(her)

Or more precisely:

async.whilst()( function() { return Cahya.isIn(UK) }, function(cb) { I.miss(Cahya) I.life.state = 'weird' }, function() { I.life.carryOn() theFuture() })

...alright, perhaps I've been coding a bit too much lately.

[rumput]

My mother on ice cream-flavoured Oreo

Ibu: *makan Oreo rasa blueberry ice cream*

Ibu: Oreonya ketumpahan minyak kayu putih ya? Rasanya menthol gitu.

[rumput]

DNA

We are like a strand of DNA.

If you take a 2-dimensional picture of a DNA from above, that would illustrate how we are. We’re close, but a lot of the time we have our share of quarrels but that’s part of the fun, right?

(Although technically it would appear more like the graph of a wave and not a strand of DNA and the wave would be irregular, but you get the point.)

And just like DNA, we have a blueprint of what’s coming up next. (You know, like, the genetic code.)

(Come to think of it, that’s rather irrelevant.)

Oh well. I make corny analogies and I suck at biology, but today marks 17 months of me being with Cahya, and I love her very much.

(And she’s pretty good at biology!)

[rumput]

On blind maps vs cetaceans

(Cahya and Gici are looking at a map of Europe. Cahya is testing Gici's geography knowledge)

Cahya: OMG YOU CALLED ITALY GREECE. THAT'S LIKE WORSE THAN CALLING DOLPHINS FISH.

Gici: NO IT'S NOT. HOW DARE YOU CALL DOLPHINS FISH?

[rumput]

On gold

Vienda: Andaikan upil gue emas...

Robert: Wah kalo gitu langsung gue bongkar deh idung lo.