I’d Better Kill You Before I Kill Myself

Dunning-Kruger Effect dan Nasihat Umar

~ mariskova ~ 4 Comments

Sumpah, saya malas ngobrolin politik, terutama suasana politik di negara ini menjelang Pilpres dan Pileg 17 April besok. Obrolan politik sekarang ini sudah tidak ada harga dirinya lagi. Dan, terutama, harapan politik orang-orang, termasuk saya, bahkan sudah tidak lagi bisa mengikuti nasehat Pak Nelson Mandela. We are driven by fears.

Tidak perlu lah saya ceritakan di blog ini apa yang terjadi sekarang. Cukup google dengan kata kunci Pilpres 2019, semua akan terpampang jelas. Dari berita receh sampai berita penuh analisa. Di sosmed, tidak ada tempat untuk menarik napas. Twitter, Facebook, bahkan sampai Instagram dan apalagi Whatsapp group isinya hanya itu. Mungkin hanya Pinterest yang bisa jadi tempat pelepas lelah 🙁 .
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Lebaran Aman

~ mariskova ~ 613 Comments

Wiken ini adalah wiken terakhir setelah ambil cuti sejak hampir 3 minggu lalu. Senin besok sudah harus masuk lagi. Sebal kan? #Eh

Walau judulnya cuti panjang Lebaran, perasaan saya malah kepingin liburan abis cuti ini. I certainly need a vacation after this leave. Kenapa? Karena cuti Lebaran itu judulnya doang di rumah tapi kegiatannya ya jauh dari leha-leha. Dengan pulang kampungnya si Mbak Asisten Penolong Rumah Tangga dari Kehancuran dan Remah-remah Biskuit, ya saya harus menyingsingkan lengan baju untuk bangun pagi buta, nyuci baju, jemur, nyapu, ngepel, nyiapin makan pagi, nyiram tanaman, gosok baju….ya ya kalian pasti bakal bilang ‘biasa aja keleues 99% orang di dunia tiap hari juga begitu!’. 😆

Ya ngaku deh saya masuk yang 1%.

Puas? 😀
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Dress Your Age, Yourself!

~ mariskova ~ 284 Comments

Baru seminggu lalu, seseorang, perempuan, menyapa saya di satu acara setelah saya mengenalkan Hikari dan Aiko ke dia dan beberapa orang lain. Hubungan kami sebatas urusan kantor dan kalau bukan karena acara yang bersamaan, kami tidak akan bertemu. Kali itu, saya membawa anak-anak.
“Wah, Mbak De’ ini ternyata anaknya sudah besar ya!”
Awalnya saya pikir dia mengacu ke Hikari. “Iya yang pertama sudah SMA, tapi masih ada yang kecil ini.”
“Maksud saya, yang kecil pun sudah besar.”
“Nngg…iya. Sudah SD kelas 1.” Jidat saya mulai berkerut.
“Padahal gayanya masih kayak perawan loh!”
Hmm. Oke. Mata saya spontan mencari teman saya yang seumuran dan saya yakin masih perawan. Gaya dan kelakuan dia kayaknya 11-12 sama saya.

Saya bisa lihat si pemberi komentar itu serius dengan ucapannya. Serius takjub. Takjub melihat anak-anak saya UDAH SEGEDE ITU dan saya masih waras riang gembira. Dia bolak-balik menatap anak-anak dan saya. Girl? Please?

via GIPHY

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Biarin aja lah

~ mariskova ~ 568 Comments

Saya sedang makan malam bareng beberapa teman asing di sebuah resto di Makassar ketika saya dengar seorang tersangka korupsi kelas wahid menang pra-peradilan di Jakarta. Saya cek twitter dan…yup…it’s there. Sontak semua keriaan saya di makan malam itu langsung menguap. Rupanya perubahan air muka saya terbaca jelas oleh teman-teman, entah bagaimana. “Everything OK, D?”
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Semua Suka Sinetron

~ mariskova ~ 499 Comments

A post shared by dmariskova (@dmariskova) on


Jam makan siang di resto padang ngetop di dekat rumah ketika kami ditunjukkan tempat duduk sofa nyaman yang anehnya kosong sementara meja lain terisi. Begitu duduk, kami langsung celingukan karena tumben-tumbenan tidak ada pelayan yang biasanya segera menghampiri. Di sekitar kami, para pelayan yang semua laki-laki tampak bergerak dalam slow motion. Apakah jam makan siang masih berpengaruh pada para pelayan restoran? Haha…

Akhirnya piring demi piring disajikan di depan kami, tapi saya masih merasakan slow motionnya para pelayan dan sepertinya bukan karena pengaruh jam makan siang. Daging rendang, sambal cabai ijo, paru goreng, dan nasi panas mengepul lebih menarik minat saya untuk mengeksplorasi dibanding mencari tahu kenapa para uda-uda ini seakan berada di alam yang berbeda. Iya saya emang sering aneh gitu nyari tahu yang enggak penting-penting 😀 .
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Got to Work It Out for Love

~ mariskova ~ 282 Comments

I’ve never (yup, I think never) written a novel review in my entire life -not because I can’t- because I don’t want to. I feel really bad to comment on the masterpiece(s) of fellow writers no matter how unimpressive their work is. Why? Simple. I knooooow the behind story. The long late hours spent to write a 200-something page novel. The screaming of lacking of ideas. The feeling of being suck at something you are passionate about. The fear of being a bad writer. I know. And that’s why I always keep my opinion about a novel, for myself. Until now. Until I read this recently famous novel and #1 New York Times Bestseller and I. Just. Need. To. Get. This. Out. Of. My. System.

Warning: a few spoilers and a lot of heartbreaking comments.

So, a friend literally forced me to read Me Before You novel because she was sooooo moved by it. At the same time, the movie was a big hit here. To be honest, I wasn’t so much into this novel. I was never interested enough in picking up the novel from the bookshelf at the bookstore and was not even close to watch the movie. I read the synopsis once and decided I’d rather buy Jenny Han‘s 😛 . But my friend was really persistent to hear my comments for the novel. So, okay, I was at the airport on my way to I-don’t-even-remember-where-anymore and out of habit, I bought the book for those long hours of waiting and flight. I read a couple of pages but decided that I was more interested in sleeping than reading through. So weird of me.

When I continued reading the first chapters, I was like ‘Okay. Intriguing. Could be something’ but again I kept putting it down. The introduction about Louisa Clark was not that impressive after a few chapters. And then the next chapters made my eyebrows raised. I flipped back to earlier chapters trying to figure out how in the world a girl named Louisa Clark can become the girl who melt a rich man’s cold heart while her own sister herself calls her idiot? After that, throughout the next chapters I was hoping the answer to my question would be on the next page. I was wrong.

So, here is my disappointment with the novel.
I like the storyline -I think it is an interesting storyline! I do!
I like the male character, Will Treynor. He gives more than enough opportunities for the story to build up drama. I even love the male character. I think it is a brilliant choice by the writer to give this background, this story, this personality, to this male character.
I am interested in the background characters: the family, the sister, the boyfriend. They are all amazing for background.
I didn’t mind the slightly predictable ending because the story could (!) offer surprises here and there.
Aaaand, I would like to fall for the female character. The heroine. Louisa Clark. I was waiting to fall for her. But…nothing.
With that storyline, this male character, that background, Louisa Clark has just provided me with consistently annoying character from the beginning -the clueless girl who can’t even show me why she deserves to be loved. She is not maturing. She is not developing enough to turn the story around!

So, I ended up being so irritated with the novel and stopped reading when I reached page 337. I told my friend that and…she was upset 😀 . After that time, my friend started to nag me to watch the movie to see if I could change my mind. Yeah. Right. But she was so insistent and annoying and she checked on me several times if I had watched the movie. So, I did it just to stop her nagging while secretly hoped the movie was better.

But, it wasn’t! 🙁 . It just looked nicer from all the nature and scenery in the movie.

So, what makes me change my habit of not commenting on a novel?
My annoyance that the story could be better IF THAT LOUISA CLARK COULD SHOW ME SHE DESERVES THE ROLE.

On another note, this novel is a learning tool for me. I got to reflect on how a character should mature throughout the novel. Or how a character should be developed. Or how a good story can be ruined by one not-convincing character. Or how -even in a fiction- you’ve got to work hard to deserve someone’s love.

Rumus Matematika Sebuah Bangku Bis

~ mariskova ~ 264 Comments

Bus APTBBis APTB (bis penunjang daerah pinggiran dengan halte bis Transjakarta) jurusan Blok M-Cileungsi sore itu lumayan padat. Seperti biasa saya naik dari halte TJ Kuningan. Seperti biasa pula saya langsung bergeser ke ujung belakang sekadar mencari ruang sedikit lega sekalian memberi tempat bagi penumpang lain. Saya mendapatkan tempat berdiri di sebelah seorang perempuan yang kelihatannya lebih tua dari saya. Dia sudah lebih dulu naik entah dari mana. Paham bahwa penumpang bis berjarak jauh ini jarang ada yang turun cepat, saya girang juga begitu penumpang yang duduk di depan saya persis bersiap-siap turun beberapa kilometer setelah saya naik. Si Mbak pemilik bangku itu pun tersenyum pada saya seperti minta ruang untuk berdiri sekaligus mempersilahkan duduk. Saya balas tersenyum.
Begitu si Mbak meninggalkan bangkunya, sisi kanan saya tiba-tiba terasa disikut. Saya menoleh ke perempuan yang tadi berdiri di sebelah saya. Daaaaan dia melototin saya, sodara-sodara! Dia mendongak (karena dia pendek) dan melotot segede-gedenya matanya ke saya!
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