Olive Oil on My Face

I mentioned Sarah Urie in my previous post. I you check out her instagram, you will notice that she sometimes promotes skincare product. 

One of the product she promotes is Omega 3.6.9. from LiftedSkin. I visited LiftedSkin website and found out that Omega 3.6.9 costs $39.00. That's expensive for me. However, I really fell into "Sarah Urie's trap" (in a good way) so I still wanted to have facial serum or facial oil. I then bought Wardah pure olive oil.

Wardah pure olive oil is not 100% pure, though. I read the ingredients and it has fragrance so I can't use it for cooking (okay, sorry). When I bought it, it cost Rp 25.000,00 (about $ 2 if I'm not mistaken) so it's quite affordable. 

The problem was, I had no idea how to use olive oil on face. Many sources say to use it for facial massage. Questions: How should I massage my face? Should I use only oil or with something else? How often should I massage my face? Some say to do facial massage before bedtime. Should I wash my face after massage or just let it be there and sleep then wash face after waking up? I know that last question sounds silly but still, please answer any of those question.

I "experiment" by mixing face moisturizer and olive oil then I use it to massage by following Annie Jaffrey's youtube tutorial. I usually do it in the afternoon before nap. How long I wait to wash my face depends on my laziness. Sometimes I fall asleep for about 2 hours then wash my face after waking up. Is my "experiment" right?

Does it give me glow or twinkle on my skin? (Imagine twinkle on the skin) I don't pay enough attention to that. However, it does make my skin smooth.

On Sarah Urie and Kindness

In one of my recent posts, I talked about kindness as one of Hufflepuff's trait. 

I'm a Hufflepuff but I never consider myself a kind or nice person. Some experiences make me think to myself, "Maybe some people don't deserve my kindness." So, I confess, I may act nice but I often have "unkind" thought of what I could do when someone do or say unkind things to me. 

One day, I found Sarah Urie's instagram account. At first I felt something strange. I didn't know. She did nothing wrong but I felt strange. Later I knew it was because of her bio. Her bio is changed now but when I first saw her instagram, it said, "🐝 kind" Can you view the bee emoji from computer? 

What's wrong with that bio? Let me tell you, I spent times trying to conceal myself and selecting few people who deserve my kindness then this woman named Sarah said, "Be(e) kind" to my face (well, I face my cell phone so technically she said in to my face online). What?! Who does she think she is, telling people to be kind? She just doesn't understand the "bitter consequence" of being kind. Maybe she doesn't understand. Or maybe she understand that some people are horrible but she thinks it's still important to be kind anyway.

So I think I need to thank Sarah Urie for giving me perspective that it's all right to be kind. Also, I thank her for giving me idea to write some blog posts (seriously, this is important).

On Hufflepuff and Justice

In my previous post, I talked about how people often forgot about Hufflepuff's justice. People tend to think that Hufflepuff is a house of sweet innocent dumb people. Sorry, that "dumb" part is rude. 

We Hufflepuffs are kind, loyal, and hardworking. However, we are also just. Now I confess that even I forget that "just" part sometimes. 

Hufflepuffs value justice. This is why many Puffs helped fight Death Eaters during the Battle of Hogwarts. They couldn't stand the injustice that would have happened if Death Eaters had ruled the wizarding world.

However, why don't we, even the Hufflepuffs themselves, talk more about this "badass" trait? I'm not sure why but I remember something said by Miwako Sato from Detective Conan series, "But kid, remember one thing. The word 'justice' isn't a word you can involve in any occasion. It's something we must hold secretly in our hearts."

Justice is not something to boast about.

On Hufflepuff and Kindness

In Harry Potter books we know that Hufflepuff values kindness, loyalty, hardwork, and justice. Sounds too nice, huh? I mean, compare those traits to Slytherin's ambition, Ravenclaw's intelligence, or Gryffindor's courage.

I'm a Hufflepuff and believe me, I once thought, "What 'badass' quality does my house have?" The answer to that question is, "Maybe none." If you insist, I can say that Hufflepuff's justice is badass but people often forget this one trait when they talk about Hufflepuff.

When talking about Hufflepuff, we often talk about kindness, loyalty, and hardwork. The harsh truth is some people view kindness as weakness. I need to learn more neuropsychiatry to find out why. Perhaps because kindness is associated with a child's innocence. That possible reason is, in my opinion, what makes Hufflepuff precious. This house understands that Hogwarts teaches children.

I found this tumblr post a while ago and I shivered with a little pride. It said, "Children. They were teaching children. Rowena, Godric, Salazar; they tended to forget that. .... 'I will take them all,' she said. .... 'I will teach them how to be the backbone, the heart of this world. I will teach them how to stand steadfast, when all hope is lost.' .... No, she knew theirs would not be an easy path, or a glorious one. They would have no songs. No great tales in books. No laurels. No consolation, no thanks. But they would be the reason why, when darkness finally came, all of them in all their different colours would stand shoulder to shoulder and draw their wands as brothers in arms. ...." I also recommend you to read the tag, seriously. Some of the tags say #and this my friend is why no one is quite sure what a hufflepuff really is #the answer is: everyone.

And that, my friends, is why I like being in Hufflepuff, being a Hufflepuff.

The Moon and Two Songs

The prompt is moon and I instantly think about a part in Northern Downpour lyrics, "Hey moon, please forget to fall down," and that part in When the Day Met the Night, "When the moon fell in love with the sun, all was golden in the sky. All was golden when the day met the night."

Also, the moon looks beautiful tonight seen from my place.

(Internet) Friend of Different Belief

A while ago, I saw a picture in instagram. It's a picture of Marissa Sitompul and Ria Ricis. In that picture, they pray before meal. They position their hands differently because they have different religions. On that picture, there is a text, "Sahabat, perbedaan yang membuat kita satu." It means, "Friend, difference is what makes us one." It's a nice picture with good message. They praise the same God whom they call differently (some people may say they praise different gods) while still being friends.

I'm a muslim and my close girl friends in real life are all muslims. However, I have one good internet girl friend of different religion. Wait, no. She doesn't even have religion. She's an atheist.

I've known her for about 7 years. Our friendship is built on weird and sometimes deep conversation. After seeing that instagram picture, I decided to send her a screenshot. I felt strange doing that because we don't usually send "cute thing". 

Under the screenshot, I wrote to her, "That's us? But you don't pray, I don't wear hijab, and I don't lift my hands for prayer before meal. And we're internet friends."

At first she didn't understand. After I explained about the message behind the picture, she said, "I am drinking cognac with pelmeni. And I didn't lift my hands before the meal."

I responded, "I don't either. I drink tea with banana cake."

When I was Nine, I Read Greek Myth

There are nine Muses in Greek mythology. They were written as "Musae" in Indonesian spelling. I first read about them when I was 9. I remember at that time I liked Urania, the muse of astronomy simply because she held a globe. Nine-year-old me had a thing for astronomy and such.

Before opening the wikipedia page for Greek Muses, there were only two Muses that I remembered: Urania and Kalliope. Kalliope was the chief of Muses, the main inspiration for poets and artists.

It turns out that I still have the Greek mythology book that I had read long time ago. The book contains some stories. The main focus is "Orpheus and Eurydice" story. That story affected me in weird way when I was a kid. I once believed that Hades had kingdom underground so when I knocked my girl scout bamboo cane to the ground, I thought I knocked Hades' kingdom.

I considered Orpheus and Eurydice as one of the best love stories. I may still do. One day, when I was teenager, two radio DJs talked about love story and asked if the listeners had and favourite story. I called and told them the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Now I'm a young adult who doesn't like romance. Should I die first, I hope my "Orpheus" continues his life in healthy way. 

I also still wait for Kalliope to come and inspire me to write beautiful poem.