Thursday, December 23, 2010

Cuti


sayup2 mendengar suara Ice Cream Campina....it's 18.30...kasian amat sih jam segini masih jualan :(

Tak terasa udah akhir tahun ya...2010 bentar lagi abis...gak banyak yang gue dapatkan setahun ini, tapi tetep semua disyukuri...
...seperti contohnya terhitung tanggal 20 kemarin, gue ambil cuti :)

Cuti yang garing mengingat gue ambil ketimbang 'angus', tapi sebenarnya gue di rumah aja...ngrecokin emak (????). Poor her.

Cuti ini gue habiskan dengan jalan2 (seputar Cibubur saja..) dan mendapat hasil: tas imut, baju 2 biji, dan grocery shoping tentu saja; lalu kadang gue iseng mencari korban: tadi pagi gue mandiin Unyil hehehe.

Siapa bilang jadi pegawai gak enak? Pegawai bisa cuti
:)

(foto: gue dan Koneng. Salah ketik, harusnya 17 Desember 2010)

Monday, December 13, 2010

Covergirl!

Hey! I'm a covergirl and Oliver is a coverboy!!

Actually, it's my boyfriend played with photo editing tools:)

Oliver wasn't sleeping in that picture. His eyes were closed.

And this one is a raw picture, no Photoshop involved :)

(Some of) Weekend Pics

Pose sejenak dengan Coki.

Mirip2 ama keladi (tua2 keladi, makin tua makin keladi, red), Coki ini makin tua makin norak. Kenorakannya tidak kalah dengan Bingo, walau dia tetap lebih behave. Sabtu lalu gue pergi dengan ortu sampai Magrib, pulang2 gue disambut dengan luar biasa gembira (agak lebay malahan), pake lari2, pake bersin2, pake ngulet2, dan yang aneh adalah: pake gonggong2! Bener2 cari perhatian. Tampaknya dia sedih banget kami pergi seharian...

Lalu ini foto gue dengan Bonyok, ibunya Bodas.

Bener2 Bonyok ini sesuai dengan namanya: kulitnya jelek banget, sering banget bonyok!!!
Ughh!!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Kabar Kabari

Lama banget nggak ngeblog!!!

Alasan utama adalah karena kantor gue...
No, I'm not busy...
Hanya saja admin kantor gue ngeblok Blogspot dan ketika di rumah, semua mood untuk menulis sudah habis (karena keasikan main game, hehehe.)

Dalam tiga bulan ini, tidak banyak yang terjadi tapi tetep aja gue pengen nulis (maksa ya).

Pertama, gue berduka karena anjing gue tinggal LIMA. Bingo (kesayanganku yang supernakal, superkutu pula) hilang, dan yang kecil2 satu persatu diracun. Sekarang tinggal Coki, Bagong, Kirik dan dua anaknya (Goldi dan Friday).

Berita berikut2nya tidak begitu penting tapi gue keukeuh pengen nulis:

Oliver tetap lucu. Menggendut dengan sukses.

Dan mengikuti jejak Oliver, gue juga menggendut. Eh sebenernya udah lama gue naik berat badan, cuman bener2 sadar ketika gue nyoba2 kebaya lama (ex kawinan sodara2) dan TIDAK ada yang muat!!

G.U.B.R.A.K

Tampaknya gue harus terima kenyataan bahwa usia gue yang bertambah serta berhenti merokok (juga gak punya kelenjar tiroid lagi) membuat hidup menjadi lebih sulit (????).

Jadi sekarang gue bertekad untuk mengurangi porsi makan dan mengurangi gula. We'll see.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Naik Angkot!!!

Today is a big day for me...

Pertama kalinya dalam 10 tahun terakhir, gue naik angkot ke kantor...
Lebay banget sih, dulu di Bandung juga kadang naik angkot...

Kemarin sore gue tutorial dulu dengan coworker, naik nomer berapa, turun di mana...dan bayar berapa :P

Anyway, walau terlihat mudah dengan berkendara sendiri, ternyata jalan menuju kantor dari apartemen cukup berliku2...Belum lagi gue belum biasa.

Pertama adalah gue harus keluar kompleks Epicentrum. Naik shuttle. Dan shuttle-nya muter2....

Kedua adalah turun di Pafes dan naik Kopaja, turun di tepat sesudah belokan ke CAsablanca.

Ketiga adalah naik angkot yang ngetem di bawah jembatan penyebrangan, turun di Kampung Melayu.

Nah bagian keempat ini yang agak mengerikan menurut gue. Kampung Melayu adalah wilayah slum, at least according to my standard. Tambah lagi gue tidak menemukan Mikrolet nomer 18. Jadi gue pasang tampang PD (tapi bodoh), nanya ke tukang jualan dimana menemukan si 18.

Ternyata gue harus menyebrang DUA kali, ugh menyeramkan sekali.

Lalu sampailah gue di depan kantor....

Pulangnya??! Sama, tapi kebalikannya dong...tadi hujan deras, arah ke UKI macet berat, untungnya arah sebaliknya nggak. Jadi dengan sedikit ketakutan, gue menyebrangi lautan mobil depan kantor....lalu naik 18, pake acara kena banjir....turun di Kampung Melayu, ganti pake 44, lalu turun tepat sebelum underpass Kuningan, lalu JALAN sampai ke UKM (warung2 dekat pos polisi), diakhiri dengan naik Shuttle.

Berikut ini adalah bbrp keuntungan/kerugian naik angkot.
1. Berangkat bawa mobil 20 menit, pake angkot 45 menit. Pulang tentative.
2. Pake angkot harus banyak jalan => tapi sehat dong..dan siap2 digodain..
3. Pake angkot, walau 2x ganti mikrolet, sangat ekonomis (mengingat gue gak perlu mikirin maintenance mobil; resiko ketabrak/mogok)
4. Pake angkot jauh lebih menyenangkan ketika Jakarta hujan deras dan banjir dimana2...Jika biasanya gue nyaris panik jika hujan gak berenti (dan depan kantor gue banjir, plus ancaman macet berjam2..), tadi gue cuek aja. Mau ujan, mau banjir, bodo! Kepepet2 tinggal turun dan jalan kaki pulang, gak perlu takut mobil gue kelelep, gak perlu stuck berjam2 di mobil!!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Oliver!!

This is the part when he played with Koneng and Pucat then fell asleep



We love him more!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Why Can't I Access My Own FB Account???!

What the hell is going on?

I tried to login in Facebook, it said
"Account Unavailable
Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Then I use my father's account (all the Farmville, Frontierville stuff in my father's wall, the blame is on me. Hey, you need neigbors right...?), opened my own page and got this:
"Profile Unavailable
Sorry, this profile is not available at the moment. Please try again shortly."

All my plants will wither!!! AaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Tank Top Squad

Eid 2010.
It was a sunny, hot day.

My father and his grandson switched their Eid-costume and ready for play-time!

Oliver!!




My father took this kitten near our house, he found the kitten crying on the grass OTW home.

This male kitten is not gorgeous, but he has wonderful purrsonallity. He eats well. He sleeps well (we 'sacrifice' Weyce to be his surrogate mother, hehehe), he loves to play, he purrs everytime we touch him...

He's so lovely.

Not to mention we didn't train him much with litter box. He just understands that easily!!

Then last week, I watched him rolling around on old socks...all I think about was Oliver Stone.

Don't ask me why. I don't even know his face.

So I named him OLIVER.

But to be honest, most of the time I forgot his name and I call him Daniel/Alfredo/Carlos LOL

I guess I still have to find a right name for this little creature :)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Eid 2010

We have rituals during Eid.
My neighbors came to our house, my father took pictures of them, I gave the kids goody bags...

And the dogs looked sooo proud of my parents :)

Zigiezag Menstrual Pad


I thought it's made in Indonesia product, then I found a Facebook page, said it's located in Malaysia??!

Anyway, I don't care about the country of origin of the product, all I care is the price. It's affordable!!

The pads are cost less than IDR 30,000 ...a 5" pantyliner is IDR 18,000; 9.5" day pad 23,000 and 11" night pad 28,000 . Compared to my expensive pads, ZZ is affordable, right?!

I didn't buy them as sets, but I remember browsing about this pads and a set is cost IDR 88,000.

Materials: suede cloth, lite microfiber, 100% cotton outer(?)...and I don't find it on the site, but I think it has PUL for waterproofing.

I love this pad. Here's the PROs:

It's waterproof, even the wings has PUL.
The surface has 'dry touch' effect. I realize this when I wash it for the first time.

The day and night pads have perfect size.

It's affordable.

and the most important (for me): it's very very very easy to clean. Means you'll use less water. dry fast too!

Now the cons:
Did I say it's affordable? I can't find any cons about this product :)

Probably this: probably the 6" pantyliner is little bit too small for cloth standard.
And I wish it has two snaps for narrow underwear.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Judes dengan sukses di Hyperm@rt

Hmmmm...marah2 di bulan puasa...abis lah pahala gue.

Ceritanya begini....tadi gue dan bokap belanja keperluan lebaran di Hyperm@rt Cibubur Junction. Barang belanjaan gue adalah kueh kering 4o biji buat bingkisan tetangga dan daging plus ayam dalam jumlah tidak banyak.

FYI, gue bukan emak2 comel, tapi tadi keterlaluan banget ampe gue judes dengan sukses ke kasirnya.

Ohya, sebelum itu ada 'insiden' kecil. Gue sengaja berpisah dengan bokap: gue ke tempat biskuit, bokap ke tempat daging. Lalu ketika bokap nunggu gue, keranjang dia letakkan dekat buah terus ke tempat shampoo. Balik2 keranjang sudah hilang!

Terpaksa bokap ngambil daging lagi dan gue ngantri duluan.

Gue liat si kasir tidak cekatan, terbukti dengan dua orang di depan gue cukup lama dilayani padahal belanjaanya gak banyak. Sementara gue nunggu, gue liat ada mas2 yang tampaknya jabatannya lebih tinggi dan gue tanya "mas, bisa pake kardus kan?" dan dia bilang ada, menunjuk ke tempat kardus yang gak gitu jauh dari tempat gue.

Anyway, gue terbiasa dengan sapaan ala Superindo jika belanja kita terlihat banyak:
mau pake kardus bu?

Jadi ketika giliran gue tiba, langsung gue bilang 'mbak pake kardus ya' lalu si mbak dengan leletnya mengambil kardus, lalu sadar blm ada selotipnya...lalu dia jalan ke kassa yang jauuuuuuuuuh banget, dan menyelotip kardus dengan tidak cekatan...dan menghitung belanjaan gue dengan tidak cekatan gue: satu persatu, padahal udah gue tumpuk lima-lima. Pake nanya pula "bu, kardusnya cukup gak?" dan gue dengan judes

"kira2 aja sendiri, segitu cukup gak????"

Ohya, dengan pintarnya dia cuma ambil kardus satu. Jadi ketika ada gelagat dia mau ngambil kardus lagi, langsung gue cut "udah gak usah pake kardus!!! Itung aja langsung!!!"

Untung ketika itu bokap gue udah sampai, jadi gue gak repot2 amat ngurus belanjaan yang tidak dikardusin.

Sembari itu gue ngomel "mbak, kenapa sih, udah tau mau lebaran??! Udah tau semua orang ngeborong! Kenapa sih gak sedia kardus dan selotip???!!"
dan dia jawab 'selotip ada bu, tapi gak di tiap kasir..."

Gubrak.

Ohya, gue udah gak pake aksi lingkungan Say No To Plastic Bag, ntar kelamaan (padahal gue udah bawa kresek), jadi belanjaan daging pun pake plastik baru....dan itu pun masih lambaaattt............Si mbak masukin daging satu2 dengan alon2 asal kelakon lalu gue gak sabar
'lama amat sih!!! Saya aja deh saya yang masukin!!!!!"

Habislah pahala gue hari ini...ugh

Jadi, berikut ini adalah kritik saran terbuka untuk pihak Hyperm@rt:
1. Mohon pilih kasir yang cekatan.. Gue ngerti kalau udah sore, ramai dan puasa, tapi tadi belum jam 10, harusnya si mbak masih gesit dong??!

2. Inikan mau lebaran...banyakin dong kasirnya...tadi emang baru jam 9, tapi kan orang udah rame...ohya, ini tampaknya penyakit tetap kl belanja kepagian, kassa sedikit yang buka. But once again

3. Sediakanlah kardus (plus selotipnya) di tiap kassa...mosok orang beli 40 biskuit dikasih kresek??!

4. Looks like you're not environmentally concerned...you should offer us box instead of plastic bag.

Kasian orang2 udah ngantri di belakang gue (dan nambah excuse untuk judes, hehehee).

Lalu mengenai keranjang bokap yang hilang, tampaknya lagi ada petinggi mereka orang bule yang inspeksi, jadi ada keranjang2 'tanpa pemilik' langsung di-sweeping. Gile deh loe, mosok kita harus nenteng2 keranjang SEPANJANG waktu? Boleh dong ditinggal??! Dan FYI, tadi masih pagi lho, bukan toko udah mau tutup.

Aneh2 aja.

Sekian curhatnya.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Made In Indonesia

Finally...made in Indonesia menstrual pad.

Red reds are ZZ Pad and the blue is GG pad

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Mogok

Jumat sore minggu lalu. Di kantor. Udah bahagia mau mudik, jreng jreng jreng..
Mobil gue gak bisa distater....

Marah deh.
Kepaksa lah naik taksi.

Foto di atas adalah suasana ketika di-jumper besoknya.
Keren ya, sabtu2 'ngantor'

Macet, Macet, Macet!

Bulan puasa ini macetnya pol2an. Menyebalkan.
Hampir tiap hari gue satu jam pulang ke apartemen.

Yang paling menyebalkan adalah jika ada demo. Macetnya bener2 dari flyover Saharjo.
Sh*t.

Biasanya gue ambil jalur paling kiri dan gak masuk terowongan.
Kecuali tadi.

Udah jumawa paling kiri, eh eh eh ternyata yang naik ke RAsuna Said malahan stuck!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggg

Untung keliatan yang masuk ke terowongan agak jalan...
Alhamdulillah juga Rasuna Saidnya gak semacet kemarin...

Total 1,5 jam.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Body Shop Camomile Waterproof Makeup Remover



Usualy I use Maybelline waterproof makeup remover, but I decided to try The Body Shop.

Unlike the liquid Maybelline, TBS has creamy texture.
And it doesn't do its job as good as Maybelline :(

It removed MAC Fluidline eyeliner perfectly, but it took me more time to remove waterproof mascara (Cat Eyes by Maybelline).

To be honest I don't like this product. It's not cheap (IDR 99,000 for 100 ml) and it takes much time and patient to remove waterproof mascara.

Health Comments



I promised myself not to tell/complain about my condition: tired; flu; cold; etc because people tend to give me advices, such as:
Eat healthy; sleep well; don't exhaust yourself; take Vitamin C.

I try to live healthy. I quit smoking. I don't drink cold drinks anymore...

So it's better not to tell anything about my health, especially to someone who doesn't know me well.

PS: the picture is not related to my health :) I took that with camera phone, tried to capture my scar...and I failed :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010



My boyfriend says I look fat in this picture, but I think I look good :)

and yes, I gained 2 kg..that's why you don't see many pics lately

After Haircut

After the haircut, I tried to find good lighting because I love my (blowed-out) hair sooooo much and want to get a picture of it.

IT was dark...it was a camera phone...don't expect good result...:)

Hair Cut...Finally

My hair loss was getting worse...so I decided to get a trim.

The process didn't take long..I mean, it was just a trim and blow out. I loved the blow out, I even ask for hair spray!

Anyway, during the cut the stylist commented on my skin, "wow, your skin is sooo flawless..do you go to dermatologist??"

*blushing*


Sorry for bad picture..it was hard to find good lighting and the camera was a camera phone

Monday, August 2, 2010

Pups

Friday


Goldi => Goldie. She's very very nice. Love her. My favorite.


Frenli => he's so friendly


Ugly Broni :)

Cross-body Bags

Just wanna share some of my cros-body bags

I took this on last year trip to HK. It's Elizabeth.


Faux Kipling I bought in Plaza Cibubur. It's cute but it's not too roomy -for my folding bags-


Ohh..another fake bag. It has Agnes B logo, but even a non-expert would know that it's fake.


And this one is a dream come true. It's Elle I bought in Batam.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Cerita Ah....


TL'96 girls...eh women :)

Posting terakhir gue adalah tentang Girls Night Out...yang ternyata harus gue bayar dengan agak mahal. Kondisi gue blm pulih, gue masih cepet capek dan kedinginan melulu.

Gue ketemu dengan temen2 gue hari Selasa. Jangan bayangkan ketemuan = dugem, wong ketemunya ama ibu2. Jam 9-an kami sudah bubar. Memang, hari itu gue gak gitu enak badan, tp gue maksa: kapan lagi mau ketemu temen2 gue? Terutama ada satu yang lagi pulang ke Indonesia. So the show must go on...Gue ampe bawa jaket dua. Alhamdulillah gak gitu dingin.

TApi besoknya ketakutan gue pun terjadi. Gue tumbang. Boro2 ngantor. Lemes banget. Meriang berat. Nyaris demam bahkan. Hari RAbu itu gue habiskan dengan Pusing. Lemes. Tidur. Makan. Main Game.
Udah, gitu doang. Gak bermanfaat banget.

Hari Kamisnya gue paksakan ke kantor. Masih tetap kliyeng2...jalan kesandung2. Jadi gue naik taksi. Sembari tidak lupa menyempatkan diri ke dokter kantor --lumayan, ngobat gratis--

Hari2 sebelumnya, sehubungan dengan hormon yang blum normal, gue jarang keringetan. Nah ketambah pake demam, masih untung gue gak menggigil. Kemarin gue habiskan sepanjang sore tidak pake AC, dan tetap tidak berkeringat. Mengerikan.

TAdi pagi (Jumat) rasanya udah agak baikan. Gue udah siap2 ke kantor, kali ini tentu bawa mobil. Pikir gue 'ntar pulang cepet aja biar blm macet, alon2 asal kelakon yang penting sampe di Cibubur!' dan gue agak centil pake rok panjang.

Pagi ini gue merasa hari begitu indah, cerah, dan 'termostat' gue tampaknya membaik karena gue mulai kepanasan. Lebih tepatnya, gue jadi keringetan.
Lalu gue turun ke parkiran di basement.

Guess what?!

Ternyata mobil gue gak bisa idup. DAMN!!!!! SIAL!!!!!
Gue kotrek2 sekringnya....ugh gak bisa juga.

Naik lagi ke lobi, pesen taksi.
SIAL! TAksinya lagi kosong!! Alamat jalan ke Aston deh..

Jadi gue naik lagi ke rumah, ganti pake jins dan dengan perkasa jalan ke Aston.

Sampe kantor, ternyata ada kerjaan. Jadi gue pulang jam 16.30, jam yang rawan macet jika pulang ke Kuningan. Tapi apa daya? Gue lagi gak bisa pulang cepat dan alhamdulillah, badan gue udah baikan jadi kuat ampe sore.

PUlang pake taksi ke apartemen...dan gue liat jalur cepat yang mau muter balik muacett cet cet cet. Jadi gue minta turun di jembatan penyeberangan aja. Jalan lah gue sampe ke apartemen, pake melipir pula ke Tower 15 beli buah!

Alhamdulillah gue udah kuat!!! Gak pake acara nyaris pingsan!!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Girls Night Out

I just got back from Pacific Place....a place I rarely visit :)

I went there to meet some of my old friends. While I don't write much about my friends here, it's because I don't have many friends, but I do have friends :P

It was just the 5 of us. No husbands/boyfriends, and it was good. We just chat and laughed.

Sometimes I forgot how close we were back in ITB...and we are so far away now.

But, hey, life goes on. You can't be college girl forever, right?!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Hidup Tanpa Tiroid

Sejak tiroid gue diambil, gue harus minum hormon seumur hidup. Untuk keperluan treatment lanjutan, gue harus 'puasa' hormon.

Gue mulai puasa dari 9 Juni, jadi hingga hari ini, udah sebulan lebih gue gak minum thyrax.

Kayak apa rasanya hidup tanpa tiroid (dan hormon yang dihasilkannya?)

Menyebalkan.
Lemas.
Laper mulu (eh ini gara2 berenti ngerokok kali ya)
Berat badan naik, dengan cepat. This thing is little bit frustating. DEngan demikian, gue mengurangi karbohidrat, tapi karena makan dikurangi, gue jadi agak sulit BAB (yang ternyata sebenernya berhubungan dengan tiroid).

Singkatnya, tiroid itu mempengaruhi metabolisme...sehingga semua jadi berantakan ketika dia tidak ada.

Bahkan dokter gue pun bilang "mbak kalau cek kolesterol sekarang, pasti tinggi!"
Gubrak.

Namun akhirnya semua penantian itu berakhir. Akhirnya tadi gue 'diizinkan' minum thyrax (atau penggantinya, tauk namanya).

Thursday, July 8, 2010

1st Anniversary

Halah.

I read my older posts....just to realize that I started using shopping bag in June 2009. Then in September I started using cloth pad. Toilet-towel (cloth wipes) in October. And I forgot when I started bring lunch box (and tumbler) for work.

Gak kerasa ya? It's been a year.

Wet Bag

If you browsing around looking for cloth pantyliner/menstrual pad, you'll see in Etsy people selling wetbag.

It's a bag for your dirty pads. Sometimes it has two compartments: 1 for used pad, 1 for clean pad.

I used to use regular small plastic bag for dirty pads, but not anymore.

While I'm still thankful for everything I have, I have to admit that this year I'm not blessed with good health....I'd been sick and got presciption. A lot.

And I ended up with plenty reseable (and reusable) small plastic bag.

Is american call it Ziplock?!

So, there it is...my wet bag...

What Would Happen...

...if I don't bring my own lunch box from home.


Waste. Waste. Waste.

I hate generating unnecessary waste.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

An Incovenient Bag (by Ellen Gamerman)

This article isn't mine. It's written by Ellen Gamerman. Source: The Wall Street Journal

It's manufactured in China, shipped thousands of miles overseas, made with plastic and could take years to decompose. It's also the hot "green" giveaway of the moment: the reusable shopping bag.

The bags usually are printed with environmental slogans as well as corporate logos and pitched as earth-friendly substitutes for the billions of disposable plastic bags that wind up in landfills every year. Home Depot distributed 500,000 free reusable shopping bags last April on Earth Day, and Wal-Mart gave away one million. One line of bags features tags that read, "Saving the World One Bag at a Time."

But well-meaning companies and consumers are finding that shopping bags, like biofuels, are another area where it's complicated to go green. "If you don't reuse them, you're actually worse off by taking one of them," says Bob Lilienfeld, author of the Use Less Stuff Report, an online newsletter about waste prevention. And because many of the bags are made from heavier material, they're also likely to sit longer in landfills than their thinner, disposable cousins, according to Ned Thomas, who heads the department of material science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Used as they were intended, the totes can be an environmental boon, vastly reducing the number of disposable bags that do wind up in landfills. If each bag is used multiple times -- at least once a week -- four or five reusable bags can replace 520 plastic bags a year, says Nick Sterling, research director at Natural Capitalism Solutions, a nonprofit focused on corporate sustainability issues.

Just as digital music downloads were the giveaway of choice last year, reusable shopping bags are the new "it" freebie. Earlier this month, Google handed out 525 nylon bags bearing the company's logo at its "Zeitgeist" conference, a meeting of business and political leaders held at its campus in Mountain View, Calif. The Sundance Institute gave out 12,000 fabric bags at its annual film festival earlier this year. Elisa Camahort Page, cofounder of BlogHer, an online community for women bloggers, says she even gave away 150 reusable bags to guests at her wedding last year.

Fueling the reusable-bag boom is the growing unpopularity of the ubiquitous throwaways known as T-shirt bags, so-called because the handles look like the top of a sleeveless T-shirt. An estimated 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away in the U.S. every year, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the bags from supermarkets and chain drug stores, and this month, the city of Westport, Conn., banned most kinds of plastic bags at retail checkout counters. Boston, Baltimore and Portland, Ore., are also considering bans.

Earlier this year, Whole Foods Market grocery stores stopped using the T-shirt bags, and now offer paper bags or sell reusable totes priced at 99 cents to $29.99. Next month, Ikea will also discontinue their use, forcing customers to carry their purchases to their cars, bring bags from home or buy the chain's 59-cent reusable blue plastic substitute.

Such efforts are helping make reusable totes the nation's fastest-growing fashion accessory, with sales this year up 76% to date over last year, according to Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the market researcher NPD Group. At Bags on the Run, an online-based Phoenix company that sells nonwoven polypropylene bags, sales this year are up 1,000% to date over last year, according to Aerin Jacob, senior vice president of business development. Eco-Bags Products, which sells bags made of fabric, recycled materials and plastic, had $2.2 million in sales in 2007, a 300% increase over 2006, says Sharon Rowe, who heads the Ossining, N.Y.-based company. ChicoBag, in Chico, Calif., has tripled sales of its $5 reusable polyester tote this year, says president Andy Keller.

Starting Monday, Target will move displays of its own 99-cent totes to the checkout lanes, to boost the bags' sales. On Wednesday, Rite Aid, which currently sells its branded bags in selected markets, will start stocking them in all of its 4,930 stores. CVS expects to have three million of its own bags in the marketplace within the next year.

Finding a truly green bag is challenging. Plastic totes may be more eco-friendly to manufacture than ones made from cotton or canvas, which can require large amounts of water and energy to produce and may contain harsh chemical dyes. Paper bags, meanwhile, require the destruction of millions of trees and are made in factories that contribute to air and water pollution.

Many of the cheap, reusable bags that retailers favor are produced in Chinese factories and made from nonwoven polypropylene, a form of plastic that requires about 28 times as much energy to produce as the plastic used in standard disposable bags and eight times as much as a paper sack, according to Mr. Sterling, of Natural Capitalism Solutions.

Some, such as the ones sold in Gristedes stores in New York that are printed with the slogan "I used to be a plastic bag," are misleading. Those bags are also made in China from nonwoven polypropylene and have no recycled content. Stanley Joffe, president of Earthwise Bag Co., the Commerce, Calif., company that designed the bags, says the slogan is meant to point out that the bag itself is reusable, taking the place of a disposable plastic bag.

Some plastic bags are, in fact, made with recycled materials. The polypropylene bags at Staples are made from 30% recycled content, according to company spokesman Mike Black. Target sells six types of bags, including a $5.99 variety made from recycled plastic bags, says spokesman Steve Linders.

And yesterday, at the Clinton Global Initiative, a public-policy gathering in New York of business and political leaders, Wal-Mart pledged to reduce plastic bag waste by about 33% in every store world-wide in the next five years. Starting next month, the company will sell a new blue reusable plastic bag with a small amount of recycled material for 50 cents, half the price of its current black bag, which is 85% recycled plastic, says spokeswoman Shannon Frederick.

Getting people to actually use the bags is another matter. Maximizing their benefits requires changing deeply ingrained behavior, like getting used to taking 30-second showers to lower one's energy and water use. At present, many of the bags go unused -- remaining stashed instead in consumers' closets or in the trunks of their cars. Earlier this year, KPIX in San Francisco polled 500 of its television viewers and found that more than half -- 58% -- said they almost never take reusable cloth shopping bags to the grocery store.

Phil Rozenski, director of environmental strategies at the plastic bag maker Hilex Poly Co., believes even fewer people remember to use them. Based on consumer surveys conducted by the company, he says roughly the same number of people reuse their bags as bring disposable bags back to the grocery store for recycling -- a figure he puts at about 10% of consumers, according to industry data.

This month at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, marketing professor Baba Shiv dedicated the first day of a weeklong seminar on green marketing to the "road blocks" facing reusable bags. He says it can take "years and decades" for consumers to change their shopping habits, and only when there's a personal reward or an obvious taboo associated with the change: "Is it taboo yet to be carrying plastic bags? I don't think so." Mr. Shiv also says that according to surveys done by his graduate students, many shoppers say they are less likely to carry a retailer's branded reusable bag into a competing store. "What these bags are doing is increasing loyalty to the store," he says.

Dan Fosse, president of Cambridge, Minn.-based Innovative Packaging, produces a line of bags called SmarTote. Each one comes with a bar code that allows stores to track whether it is being reused. The idea, says Mr. Fosse, whose bags carry the slogan "Saving the World One Bag at a Time," is that companies can offer prizes or other incentives to customers who can prove their bag isn't just collecting dust at home.

Grocery stores are starting to report incremental results, says Mr. Fosse, who added the bar codes last spring. "It's really hard to change customer behavior."

Sarah De Belen, a 35-year-old mother of two from Hoboken, N.J., says she uses about 30 or 40 plastic bags at the grocery store every week. Late last year, she saw a woman at the supermarket with a popular canvas tote by London designer Anya Hindmarch and promptly purchased one online for about $45.

But Ms. De Belen says she soon realized she'd need 12 of them to accommodate an average grocery run. "It can hold, like, a head of lettuce," she says. Besides, she adds, it's too nice to load up with diapers or dripping chicken breasts.

Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com

So, after reading this, what do you think? For me, no matter the price, the design, the materials, reusable bags are always better solution IF you USE them over and over and over again :)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Sunsilk Damaged Hair Treatment



Finally...hair product review!!

It's new Sunsilk Damaged Hair Treatment Conditioner
This happens because finally, finally, I find a product that really really really soften my hair after countless hair serum, leave on conditioner, hair oils etc..

The best part is this product is not expensive.

I Hate You But I Need You

I'm talking about plastic bags!!!!!!

I live in my aunt's apartment and we still need plastic bags to dispose our garbage. And in this tropical climate, it's impossible to store organic waste more than one day. They'll decompose.

I want a small composter for organic waste, but she said no. What can I say?!!

So, it's been hate and need relationship. Sometimes I accept plastic bags when shopping, but I stay clear from the small ones.

I used to use it to collect my cigarette butts, but I don't smoke anymore.
I used to use it to wrap my disposable sanitary napkins, but most of the time now I use washable ones.

It's useless.

Anyway, here's my collection of reusable shopping bags by Greeneration

Monday, June 28, 2010

Project No 2: shopping bag

Finally...the shopping bag project finished!!!


The shape is like a regular plastic bag you'll find in grocery bags.

It wasn't easy task, my mom said probably it's intermediate because it has a lining (made by 2 ply of fabric), but I succeed..
Well, not much :)

If it's collapsed, you'll see many many asimmetrical lines. And 1 handle is wrinkled.

Who cares? It's not I'm gonna sell it in Etsy :P

Saturday, June 26, 2010

New Pads: Homestead Imperium

My new pads by Homestead Emporium.

I purchase this from HyenaCart.
A set of 'two tiny liners' and 'comfort contour sampler package'
The sets are not cheap. It cost me more than five hundred thousand rupiah.

Anyway, I think I choose wrong color. The menstrual pads (the bigger ones) are red, they look like they've been worn :)

Hair Story...with Pic

Here's the proof of my previous post.

That I'm too lazy to straighten my hair

(the photo is photoshop-ed, you can see my pink skin tone. But the hair texture is not)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Hair Story

You rarely, rarely read stories about my hair in this blog. Simply because I don't have beautiful hair.

You won't be interested on how damaged it is...
how it's long but I'm too lazy to go to salon to get my hair a trim....
how the roots are curly/wavy because I haven't done straightening process to my hair...
how I use hairmask once a week and they don't do much to my hair....
hot most of shampoo and conditioner don't reserve the damage...
how I'm not interested in styling my hair...

But I think my hair deserve some publication. I should be grateful that it's still growing -although not as good as I expected-

I look good in long hair. I don't care what you say, but I don't follow trends because my strong jaw doesn't soften during season :)

It has to be long. It has to be straight.

Those requirement costs me alot. First, unlike my trouble-free skin, I don't have strong hair. Second, it costs alot to straighten the hair, time and money.

My long and (fake) straight is damaged. It's dry. Hair loss. Probably not dangerous one, but I suffer hair loss, probably from the breakage.

Usually I straighten my hair every 5-6 months, but I think this time I need a break.

I've said goodbye to L'Oreal Extenso, well temporarily.

How do I look?

Not terrible of course, but not good :D

Curly roots. I started wear headbands. Then the hair grow longer and curls showed.

So now, I style my hair after I wash it. Yes! Indira and hairdyer!!! And a styling brush...

I dry my hair with hairdryer then styled the crown with a straightening brush by Babyliss Paris. Then finish it with Pantene Classic hairspray (imported product). The hold-level of hairspray is 'flexible' said the company, almost 'feels nothing' in my experience. But probably without it, the hair won't stay straight for 2 days :)

I don't use straightening iron, it's too damaging for everyday life. If it's curly little bit, who cares?!

Singing Update

Hmmm...I think I stop recovery-ing because I started gaining weight if I eat anything I want :)

I can talk perfectly now, alhamdulillah. But singing is another story.
Believe it or not, I find it hard to sing in low tones.

FYI, I was a good alto back then
:D

But that's all right. I think it'll take some time to be a good singer once again....

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

FB Games

It's called FB Applications, actually...but I prefer it as 'games' :)

How many games do I play?

Hmmm....I can't say I'm a gamer, but yes I play several games *shy*

My first game was Farm Town. There was a time I left the game when it has no challange anymore: level 34 was the higher level and I was level 34. But now???! Ugh, the levelling is unbelievable!! Also you can produce many things with the crops, such as turns wheat into flour. That's cool.
I'm level 50s now.

Then Farmville. What I love about this game is it has lots and lots of surprise. For instance, if you master a crop, you'll get extra XP and coins.

Cafe World: this thing is a disaster for old computers. IT'll make them slow..very very slow...I'm level 76 now.

YoVille, a home-decorating game. What I hate about this game is the furnitures are very very expensive compared with your earning (visiting 25 friends and working in factory), probably the maker expect us to buy coins and cash (hahaha). Also it takes time to visit friends (slow loading). The best part? Those furnitures look very very very realistic. But to be honest, this is not my favorite game.

My Town: no longer in priority, but I love this spatial planning (?) game. The goods are not to expensive and I love decorating the cities. I have FIVE cities !!!!

Hotel City: new game. My level is under 20.

Country Life: it takes ages to jump to higher level. Used to play this one like crazy, but not anymore.

BArn Buddy: this one is very very boring, minimum decorating effort. I stopped playing this game.

Social City: not interested in the graphic.
Also I have several applications I don't play: just accept them for my friends (to be their neighbor).

Most of my gamer friends still playing Farmville (I think it's the most popular game, along with Mafia Wars).

Friday, June 11, 2010

Apple

Since quit smoking, I can't stop eating :(

This is why I bring apple to my office as snack.

=> I have breakfast. Then at 10 I eat the apple. Then at 11 I'll be hungry :)

To reduce waste, I wrap my apple inside handkerchief...here's how it looks




And now....I'm thinking about cute sandwich bags in Etsy.com....

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Joint Custody :)

Foto2 lainnya.



Joint Custody :)

Bulan lalu rumah gue kebanjiran kitten...Fla, Panjat, Ici lahiran..dan ketambah lagi 4 kitten yang ketemu dekat rumah..semua diasuh oleh Fla dan Panjat. Joint Custody ceritanya :D

Anyway, Panjat tampak enjoy dengan banyak anak...sementara Fla ketakutan :)

Ini foto bulan lalu, Panjat heboh dengan anak2nya (kandung dan pungut, dan anak Fla).




Recovery Update

After 1 month, finally I can talk loud(er)...I'm so happy.
I even can sing!!!
Please don't ask how it sounds..

Anyway, here's OPI's last month picture.Enjoy