Slytherpuff Friendship

I see that many people post about friendship between Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Here I want to share my experience because I'm a Hufflepuff and my friend Lady Slytherin is, obviously a Slytherin.

Hufflepuff gets this reputation of being kind and loyal, even adorable. Slytherin, on the other hand, has the stereotype of being ambitious and evil. However, Lady Slytherin and I don't fit that stereotype. She's a sweet yet sarcastic Slytherin while I'm a troubled yet hilarious Hufflepuff. We also have different MBTI; she's INTJ, I'm ISFP.

Our friendship consists of:

1. Hufflepuff shares weird thing that she finds on the internet
2. Slytherin has various reaction to that weird thing: "hahaha", "what the hell", "aaaarrrghh", etc
3. oh wait, Slytherin also shares weird thing
4. we both can relate to Sirius Black's scene, "I did my waiting" because that would be our reaction when we finally become doctor
5. we have only one mutual fandom: Harry Potter
6. we respect each other's fandom but constantly compare them: she likes Tolkien's works, while I like A Song of Ice and Fire by George. R. R. Martin (Hufflepuff isn't always about cute story, you know)
7. Hufflepuff is that emo kid who still plays songs by My Chemical Romance
8. Slytherin is not really into bandom
9. our conversation starts with normal everyday thing but ends up with something absurd
10. usually I'm the one who makes the convo absurd
11. Hufflepuff relationship advice consists of: fiction book and some weird things from the internet (if you don't get it, it's all right)
12. Slytherin is more mature when it comes to relationship advice: give and take should be balanced, you should love yourself first, etc
13. still, we both don't really have good luck in relationship (being single for too long time and spending too much time with fictional characters, duh)
14. but if someday Lady Slytherin finds someone, I'm ready to ship them, they would be my OTP
15. and if someday I find someone, she would be surprised first because I'm not always that interested in relationship, not even fictional relationship
16. anyway, we love bookstore; we can just go to the bookstore trying the quill (kidding) or pen then feel happy 
17. or just look at the book covers and make joke about them
18. or give each other book recommendation
19. or give each other encouragement to buy book like, "Buy this Game of Thrones novel! You want it, right?" 

The list can be longer but I think that's enough for now. Do you have any experience with inter-house relationship?

"The Most Asian" Novel: My Experience with the Kite Runner

Few weeks ago, I read the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and it was amazing.

I will not spoil much but I will tell about my experience reading it. First, reading this novel in public place was a mistake. I brought the novel during my night's watch duty in hospital and I had to hold back my tears many times. So I was happy when I could finally read it at home because I could cry ugly tears as I wanted.

Second, this novel is probably "the most Asian" novel I've ever read. The "Asian things" come in many forms: Asian pride, parent-and-child relationship, our attitude toward people of different ethnicity or religion, the gender biased norm, marriage, the taboo stuff, etc. Then I realise something: regardless of ethnicity, location, and religion, Asians are Asians. Some proud creatures we are. Well, maybe not all Asians but I live in another part of Asia and I can relate and understand those things.

This is one of my favourite quotes in the book which is also one of "the most Asian" quotes, "Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was going to change that. Nothing. But we were kids who had learned to crawl together, and no history, ethnicity, society, or religion was going to change that either."

I guess those "Asian things", aside from the story line, are what make me love this novel so much. Because I could relate to it. Because it makes me cry and say, "Yes, right."

Just Like When I was a Kid

When I was in primary school, I often asked my mom, "Mom, if I get good grades, please buy me Detective Conan comics or Harry Potter novel." I always got good grades so my mom always bought me the comics and novels. 

I still asked my mom to buy me comics and novels when I was in middle school. I still got good grades so she didn't mind.

I was in high school and I still got good grades but my mom mainly bought me books to prepare for my final exams and university entrance. One day in a bookstore, I asked for a Detective Conan comic and she said, "No. Why would you spend such amount of money to buy a comic that you can quickly finish?" I understood that, considering how much money she spent for the other books. 

Then I become a medical student and I didn't ask my mom to buy me fiction books or comics anymore. I bought fiction books using the money I saved. Beside, I can no longer promise her for good grades. Living with less fiction books is fine, but at some points I feel wrong. I'm incomplete.

People may ask, "Why don't you just borrow books?" I answer, " I do borrow books but still, borrowing and owning are different."

I will present my thesis on Wednesday, March 16th. The child inside me showed up again a while ago. I asked my mom, "Mom, after I finish presenting my thesis, would you please buy me some comics and novels? You know, just like when I was a kid?" She said, "All right, I will let you buy comics and novels that you want." I was so happy to hear that.

I Will Miss Family, Friends, Food, etc

Let me respond to today's prompt before I actually study (duh). 

If I go to Mars and never return, I will both miss Earth and be happy to leave it. 

I will miss my family and close friends, unless they go with me to Mars. I will miss the food on Earth and I'm not sure that we can cook well on Mars. The bookstores and books will surely be missed so I think if I ever go to Mars, I will bring many books. I also think that I will miss cats so I hope the cats on Mars are just as interesting as Earth's cats. Beside, considering that I spend a lot of time in the internet, I hope as soon as I arrive at Mars, I can create super internet technology so I can see find out what happens on Earth and share what happens on Mars.

However, there are things from Earth that I will be happy to leave, annoying people for example. There are so many of them and sometimes I feel frustrated that I can't get rid of them. Those people, and crowd. I don't like crowd.

Since I don't plan on leaving the Earth soon, I guess I just have to cherish every moment on Earth and deal with the bad things.

What Makes Them Gryffindor?

Among all Hogwarts houses, Gryffindor is the most exposed through Harry Potter series because Harry Potter was a Gryffindor and his life was surrounded by Gryffindors.

Gryffindor's most well known trait is bravery and Gryffindors, in my opinion, are brave to do what they think is right. And for that "right thing", they're willing to sacrifice what's important for them, sometimes to the point of doing reckless or stupid things.

I know almost too many Gryffindors that I sometimes forget they're from the same house. There are trouble-making Fred and George Weasley, smart Hermione, ambitious Percy Weasley, clumsy Neville, and flirty Lavender Brown. We also see the infamous Peter Pettigrew. The question is, "Are they brave enough to be Gryffindor?" 

Look at Percy Weasley. He's smart enough to be Ravenclaw and ambitious enough to be Slytherin. Still, he was a Gryffindor. He was a Gryffindor who left his family and chose to work for the Ministry of Magic. How can a Gryffindor do such thing? I think Percy actually considered family important. Remember, even after he left his family, he congratulated Ron when Ron was chosen as prefect. Percy, at that moment, thought that Ministry of Magic was right and his family was wrong. Simple as that. He had the nerve to go after what he thought was right. He believed in Ministry of Magic, then he work there and left his family. After a while, he realised that his family was right then he came back to his family.

Hermione stated in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that the Sorting Hat had considered placing her in Ravenclaw but she chose Gryffindor because, as she said herself in her first year, "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - oh Harry - be careful!" She valued bravery more than cleverness. Also let's just remember how many times Hermione was involved in breaking the rules for the sake of "everyone's safety".

Neville Longbottom was sorted into Gryffindor for his bravery although he didn't realise it at first. I found a post that may have been reposted many times so I couldn't find the original resource. The post was written, "I had a thought: Neville's greatest fear was Snape. And for ten months of every year for seven years, he went back and faced that fear over and over and over again. It would be like tossing Ron into a nest of spiders every day. Or pitching Harry against a Dementor every day. Neville went back to Potions every time, never skipped out, never ran away. Kid was braver than anyone ever noticed from the very beginning, even before he started standing up for himself." That post explains how bravery doesn't simply mean not being afraid but it's more about how someone deals with fear. Neville, in this case, faced his fear.

What about Peter Pettigrew? I guess the Sorting Hat thought this way, "Peter wasn't loyal enough to be Hufflepuff. He wasn't smart enough to be Ravenclaw, neither ambitious enough to be Slytherin. So let's sort him into Gryffindor, muahahaha!!!" Ignore that "muahahaha". Or maybe Peter was sorted into Gryffindor because he chose it, since he wasn't brave enough to be Gryffindor. 

At the end, we can learn from Gryffindor that the act of bravery takes many different ways. Except from Peter Pettigrew. Really, I still don't understand how he was sorted into Gryffindor.

P.S. I feel satisfied that I can finish writing this post. Really, I didn't expect that writing about Gryffindor would be difficult. It was even easier to write the Slytherin post. I don't even know why.

Learning from Slytherin

I had a random conversation with Lady Slytherin. She's a self proclaimed Slytherin who was sorted into Gryffindor in Pottermore. 

Apparently, Lady Slytherin didn't accept that. She never accepts it. Then she tried a YouTube quiz "Which Hogwarts House Are You in?" and was sorted into Gryffindor. She said, "I'm not evil enough." After that, I showed her a BuzzFeed quiz "These Five Questions Will Tell You What Percent Slytherin You Are". And her result? She's 100% Slytherin.

This is a problem that bothers us. Many quizzes about Hogwarts house still consider Slytherin as evil. Lady Slytherin and I see Slytherin as a house with people who have "unique" priority and do their best to keep that priority safe.

Let's take a look. Harry, Order of the Phoenix, and Dumbledore Army's priority is to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters so people can live in peace. For that reason, they practice their magic and make strategies to defeat the dark wizards.

However, Slytherins have various priorities. For the Malfoys, their family matters. All that they do is to keep Malfoy family and lineage safe. Lucius stated that he had been under Imperius curse during the first Wizarding War (the one before Harry was born) then he wasn't prisoned in Azkaban. Thus, Malfoy family was still safe, rich, and powerful. After Voldemort was back, Lucius declared his loyalty again. He did it because he knew what Voldemort was capable of and he didn't want to risk his family.

For Snape, Lily was important. All of his act as double agent was motivated by his feeling for Lily. His motivation might not so "pure" as the other members of Order of the Phoenix. He still hated Harry at some point because Harry was James Potter's son. However, as Harry himself said, Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. 

And finally, let me talk about our infamous Slytherin, Tom Riddle aka. Voldemort. What did Voldemort consider important? Power and immortality. For those things, he was willing to read old books and travel the world. For those things, he was willing to live through the pain of splitting soul. And also for those things, he was willing to act polite and courteous to people (remember Helena Ravenclaw and Hepzibah Smith?).

Now I'm not saying that Slytherins are right. I'm saying that there's nothing wrong with being Slytherin as long as you understand what truly matters to you.

When I Read Cat's Cradle

I've just finished Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Cat's Cradle. I'm not going to write a review. I just want to write how I feel.
When I read the beginning, I was amused. As the story went, I became curious and surprised. When the story ended, I felt empty. I feel like, "So it ends? There are still more to tell."
Now I'm reading another book.

Book Hunting with Book Mate

I wanted to post this on Friday but my internet connection was poor so I couldn't.

Last Friday, my book mate asked, "Is there any imported book Togamas bookstore?" I said, "I don't know. But if you want imported books, I know a store that sells used imported books." 

We then went to the store and spent hours there. She found many interested novel but ended up buying nothing. She actually wanted to buy a novel by Nicholas Sparks but she didn't buy because the paper was not in good condition. I bought a book talking about pants (of all the books in the store!!). The book contains stories we know such as Trojan Horse but it adds annoying story about pants. It really is annoyingly funny.

We then went to my home to pray and take a rest. After that, we visited a library. The library was quite famous among bookworms in Solo and it was our first time going there. Arriving there, we gasped. We were overwhelmed. We were excited that we considered living in the library to spend our time reading all of the interesting books. Again, we spent hours with the books.

My friend borrowed four books (crazy bookworm she is). I didn't borrow anything. I guess I will just come back again since the library isn't so far from my home.

Note: I call my friend in this post "book mate" because we often talk about the book we read or we want to read. We don't always like the same book. We just love to read.

Take Me to the Bookstore

Today's prompt in Writing 101 is, "If you could zoom through space in the speed of light, what place would you go to right now?"
I would go to book store right now. It sounds simple but I really need to refresh my mind. I didn't actually do a lot of things recently but I'm just a little tired.
In the bookstore, I usually go to stationery section first. I have this weird obsession for stationery. Everytime I see a cute notebook, I just want to buy it. If I buy it, I won't know what I should use it for. If I don't buy it, I'll be obsessed a little longer.
I will then visit the shelves of fiction novels and look for any unsealed novel so I can take a look and read. That unsealed novel is a good thing when I visit a bookstore and I don't have enough money to buy book. I once read "Peter Nimble" novel in a bookstore but I didn't finish it. I then came over and over to read Peter Nimble but one day, I can't find the book. It was sold out. 
I also like comic section. My favourite comic? Asterix, Conan, and Miiko. I also want to read "Three Kingdoms" comic series but I can't find them in the bookstore. If you're curious about Three Kingdoms, you can read it in here. The comic version is interesting and easy to understand.
What do you like to see in the bookstore?

A Book about Amazing Grandma

I found a post by Aggie. In that post, she wrote her New Year's resolution. Her 5th resolution in the list is read. I then recommended "Saga no Gabai Baachan" by Yoshichi Shimada. It's always the first book that comes to my mind every time someone asks for book suggestion.
The book is based on true story. It tells a story of Akihiro who lived with his grandmother, Grandma Osano, in Saga, Japan, after World War II. They live in poor condition but Grandma Osano Akihiro's grandma always know how to be happy and cheerful no matter what. I don't want to tell much about it because well, some people don't like spoiler.
A memorable quote from Grandma Osano in this book is, "There are two ways for poor people: gloomy poor and cheerful poor. We are cheerful poor people." The book I read is an Indonesian translation of the original Japanese version so if you read the English version, the words may be different.

p.s. I don't know Japanese. The book actual title is "Saga no Gabai Bāchan". My cousin, who can speak Japanese, told me that bāchan is read as baachan.