Today marks the 28th day of her passing, and I really wanted to share the story of her life with Oppo

Aisyah.

I’m the one who give her her name, you know. I found a magazine with the same name when my mother was pregnant with her. I asked my parents if it’s okay to named my still-unborn sister Aisyah, as I think it’s a cute name, and I hope she’d be as cute as her name. And she was.

She’s actually should be the third children in our family, but my mother had a miscarriage. I was just entered the first grade. At that time, I joked to my parents that maybe God recalled my sister to make her even cuter and smarter than before. He probably thought that she’s still not good enough for us and strived to create an even better one. A few months later, my mother got pregnant again. My sister was estimated to be born at the end of my first grade. I still remember my homeroom teacher announced that I’d have a sister in the near future, and my classmates were clapping and congratulating me.

My mother was admitted to a navy hospital in downtown, the same hospital where I was born. However, while I was born in natural way (I mean without any operation), my mother should undergone c-section to birth my sister. I remember my grandparents picked me up from the school on a Thursday afternoon to go to the hospital. My father was already there. When we arrived, we met my mother lying on the bed being pushed to the surgical room. I can’t remember how long did we wait. I don’t think it reached an hour.

Then, the operation room opened and a nurse was holding a baby. The baby didn’t cry, but rather their eyes were wide open, looking around at their surrounding, looking interested. I had a brief thought that if only that baby was my sister. They looked so cute. Then the sister announced that it’s indeed the daughter of Mr. Rameli. I couldn’t believe it – the baby was my sister! I remember my father trembled holding my sister, and whispered the adzan – the Muslim’s call to prayer – to her right ear. I think it’s the equivalent of baptism to Christianity? Anyway, you get the idea.



I’ve always put a laissez-faire approach when supervising my sister. When she’s a baby, she loved to disassemble piles of stuff in our house. She’d create an avalanche of objects, then she’d inspect them one by one. Meanwhile, I was lying on the couch watching TV. She also did some weird stuff, like putting herself on a basket, for some reason? I love it though. I always laugh every time I see the pictures, even until now.

Other than being cute, my sister showed her intelligence when she grew up. When she’s in the sixth grade (the final year of elementary school in Indonesia), she joined me to take TOEFL ITP (Test of English as a Foreign Language – Institutional Testing Program) to accompany our cousin who was about to graduate. I just entered the university, and we were required to take the same test too, which I got the score of 587. The passing grade for bachelor students is 477, so I didn’t have to worry about my English test. This was my sister’s first English test, and for the umpteenth time for my cousin. All of the exam’s participants were students who were about to graduate, and my sister and I were the two youngest person in the exam room.

Aisyah and our cousin that I'm talking about

There are 3 sections for the TOEFL test; listening, grammar, and reading. You’re not allowed to proceed to the next section, and have to wait for the instruction from the invigilator. My sister didn’t know that, and she got asleep after finished working at the grammar section and waiting to move to the next section. The invigilator woke her up 30 minutes before the exam ended, asking if she already finished her test, which of course not. She answered hurriedly until the exam ended. My cousin and I teased her about it which upset her, but in the end she got the last laugh. I received 590, which I think is just 1 more correct answer compared with my previous test. My cousin got 420 something, which means he had to take the test again. My sister? She got 507, higher than some of the other bachelor students. When I was in sixth grade, I also took the same TOEFL test and only got 420.

Other than her predigious English skill, she’s also brilliant in school. She joined several competitions and won some of them. She was even interviewed on the local newspaper – here’s the article. It’s written in Indonesian, but I found Google Chrome’s translate to English feature works well. Her competitive trait was continued until she graduated senior high school (grade 10 to 12). She loved participating in competition to make posters or infographics, or being the illustrator for group projects. I have to share them here to you on separate post because her drawing is incredible. I even modified one of her illustration for my phone’s wallpaper.

(Left) Aisyah wearing a crown because she's a queen. (Right) Holding her award-winning poster

Holding her beloved Void

My father, my sister, me, and our maternal grandmother after my graduation ceremony

Oh I just remember that she made several funny pictures about Bunbun, though I could only managed to find two of them:

I have to tell you that she lurked on Oppo too. I’ve always wanted her to make an account and introduced herself – I’m sure Oppo would welcome her here. She asked some questions about Oppo, and here are 3 that I can remember:

• What is hour rule, and why is Pip-bip the only one to do that?
• Why did all of the posts are about red cars? (I think it’s because of theme day several months ago)
• Why does Just-jeepin keep making posts about Jeep accessories? Is he going to buy one?

I think I have to end here. It’s already 900-something words. I’ll continue on a separate post about the rest of her life through the end of senior high school to university.

We learned about Aisyah’s scoliosis when she’s in the 6th grade. Our uncle – who is an orthopedic surgeon – warned us not to let her haul heavy items on her back, to avoid making her scoliosis even worse. Following his recommendation, our parents bought her a series of wheeled backpacks that she used during her time as junior and senior high school student.

My father was also concerned about the computer for her. Being a high school student means that a portable was basically a requirement. But due to her small stature, even the smallest laptop could still be heavy for her. Considering that she’s still in junior high school, our father and I decided that a tablet could satisfy her needs. I chose the iPad Mini 2 for her, in the highest spec available: wifi and cellular with 128gb of storage. And Aisyah chose a red case for it. Her friends later told me that it’s the trademark of her — Aisyah and her little red iPad.

Because of the form factor, she started to explore doodling on the iPad. I saw several lightweight illustrating applications installed there. I think she discovered her hidden talent of drawing thanks to the iPad.

In 2018, she got accepted to one of two best public schools in Surabaya. Our parents and I are extremely proud of her. Our father decided that it’s time to upgrade her iPad to something better. He wanted a Microsoft Surface Pro for her. But it wasn’t officially sold in Indonesia. My father and I even planned to go to Singapore just to buy it. Thankfully, it’s available on sale on various Indonesian online marketplaces. I ordered one from Jakarta – the Microsoft Surface Pro 2017 – with the fancy Alcantara type cover, because she wanted it. I told her that her computer worth double of the price of my laptop that I got when I entered senior high school. Later she also ordered the stylus for drawing. This marked the moment her creativity got unleashed to its maximum potential.

Let’s start with this very casual drawing of her. I really love its simplicity and the popping colors. I really wanted her to make one for me, but I always delay it.

I also found this doodle, though I can’t recall seeing her drawing this. The style looks very corporate-y – like the one you see on websites these days, so I don't know if she's the one who drew this.



During the early period of the pandemic, I saw her making this cool, badge-style illustration about Hotel Quarantina – partly thanks to our neighbor who, at that time, played the song “Hotel California”. You can see her creativity of twisting the song into something that’s relatable at that time.

I really love it that I even paid for it to be made as stickers that I put on my personal and work-issued laptop.

She also made this illustration about staying at home. I’m sure the black cat represents her beloved Void.

During the month of Ramadan – the time of the year when Muslims are fasting from dawn till dusk – she drew an illustration celebrating the arrival of the holy month.



Her next illustrations are my favorite. The one that I modified for my phone’s wallpaper. She made a couple of vintage style posters about a twin lens reflex camera called Rollerflex, which might be inspired by Rolleiflex. She might got the inspiration after I bought one, though it’s made by Yashica.

These are the pictures that she used for the inspiration:



And here are the results:

The words, translated into English, are:

It’s time for Sir and Madam to celebrate Eid with
the best camera!
Rollerflex

I modified the male version so it fills the entire screen of my iPhone:



The last illustration that she drew is about an advertisement of a fair – The 31st Surabaya Fair, to be precise.



Other than doodling using her Surface, she’s also talented in drawing and painting on canvas. She made 3 illustrations that are proudly displayed on her room.



I adore this illustration of potted plants. I also wanted her to draw one to be displayed on the house that my wife and I are going to live in, but again I delayed asking her for that.



I remember making some comments about these painting. I asked her what kind of planet is that house on. Colorful flowers, blue mountain, but red sky? And no other house in sight? She just told me to go away because I “ruined the vibe”, whatever that means. I also made fun of her painting on the right, saying that blue cat doesn’t exists. I also told her that I would secretly paint the cat in black when she’s sleeping.

Lastly, please take a look at her inspiration board. The stuff pinned there were different, depending on what made inspired at that time.


I admire her illustrations. Seeing her drawing brings me joy, and I hope Oppo also enjoys seeing her creations as much as me.

Specifically on 30 May – a couple of weeks from now.

I've been dating my (first) girlfriend for more than 11 years, since we were in junior high school. Back then it was shocking that a jerk like me (I was a bully and rank 3rd from the bottom of the class) could attract someone like my girlfriend – a smart and kind person, so basically just the opposite of me. Not to mention that there were many other boys who also tried to court her. People were convinced that I used "love magic" on her

We were lucky that we got accepted into the same senior high school, and our classroom was adjoined. Naturally she's in the academically-top performance class, while I somehow got in the creatively-minded class. After high school we went to a different university – she studied Pharmacy while I studied Informatics.

After I got accepted to Iceland, my parents told me to marry my girlfriend before I go. I obliged, we went to her house, and her parents agreed for the marriage. After that, my parents told me that they won't pay the tuition to Iceland, and they know damn well that I can't tell my girlfriend's parents that the wedding is off because I'm not going abroad, so here we are.
 

The most recent picture of me and my girlfriend together, on my graduation day a couple of years ago

I saw an Instagram notification from The Nature Conservancy Organization tagging me in one of their post this early morning. I opened it, and to my delight I saw my photo of a praying mantis is used to promote their photography contest!

Here's the video in GIF format – at least I uploaded it as a GIF, not sure if it works or not:



And this is the picture of the praying mantis that I submitted:

Nikon D5200 + Nikkor 35-70mm at f 3.5 and 1/160 sec, with cheap macro filter screwed up front

I took this picture way back in 2019, a few days after I graduated university. I found it in our front yard, hanging on an orange tree. It definitely didn't enjoy being photographed and tried to scuttle away.

After several unsuccesful shots, I finally managed to get one that I like. Below is the original picture:



I hope my photo is worthy enough to get an award – don't care which one.

@Photography

Two days ago I finally married my girlfriend, after dating her for more than 11 years. Special moment needs to be documented using special apparatus, so I splurged and bought a couple of Kodak Portra 400 in 120 film format, loaded to my favorite camera – the Yashica Mat-124G TLR.

The event was held in the outdoor area of a hotel in downtown Surabaya. Coincidentally, the road where the hotel is located is next to our high school, where we met for the first time. My father and I went through this road every day when he took me to the school. Every time I pass this road, I was reminded back to those beautiful times.

We wear the modern take of traditional Malay clothing for marriage, which thank God because it’s not too complicated to don – well, at least for me anyway. Five minutes and I was ready to roll. Anyway, here are the photos.

All of the square photos were taken using the TLR

Welcome sign for the event

Waiting for the marriage official to arrive. I browsed Oppo while waiting there

My wife and I holding together the dowry, flanked by our parents

My best friends brought a cardboard cut-out of the one who couldn't arrive, because he was stationed in other island

 
It was very tiring – guests after guests asked to take photos with us. And I'm also the kind of person who hates being photographed. I prefer to be the one who take the photos instead.

I took this picture at the end of the event, before I left the venue, to see and remember the stage for the last time before it got dismantled.

The hotel management put up this nice decor for our room

And also surprised us with this delicious cheesecake

Still trying to get the makeup off her face

The view from our room, overlooking several old (and new) buildings

A beautiful evening to end a very exhausting, but memorable day

Today marks the 10th day since the passing of my dear sister. I wanted to thank all of you for your kind words. I was unable to personally answer each of your comments, but I’m touched with your kindness and eternally grateful for all of your support during the most difficult time I’ve ever experienced in my life.

My sister passed away during the recovery process following her scoliosis surgery. She was admitted to the hospital on February 6, after years of supervision under our uncle who works as an orthopedic surgeon, and months of preparation for the operation.

On February 10, the surgery was performed from 7.30 AM until 11.30 PM. Then she was moved to the ICU to recover, and was allowed to move back to her hospital room on February 13.

Succeeding the operation, the doctors started the physiotherapy to prepare her to get back on her normal self. She was so strong and persevere through all of it. Her progress during the recovery process was incredible. We were hopeful that she could come home soon.

The problem started when she tried to wake up and sit straight, after she passed the breathing therapy that she did while laying on the bed. The therapy for sitting started on February 21. That night, she started to throw up, and it happened until the next day. The doctors were confident that it’s just a normal side effect and diagnose her with something, that my mother refuted because my sisters didn’t exhibit the symptoms at all in her entire life. Alas, the doctors didn’t change their mind and proceeded with the analysis.

On Wednesday, 23 February, they finally realized that they might be wrong, and did some check up on her for another diagnosis, that was indeed the cause for her death.

My dear sister, Aisyah Hana Rameli, passed away at the tender age of 18 years, 9 months, and 22 days young.

The last time I saw her was on the day she went to the hospital. My wife and I weren’t able to visit her because she was isolated due to her weak immune following the surgery, and most importantly to prevent her from catching Covid.

The last time I communicated with her was on Tuesday afternoon – I told her that the outfit she’s been waiting for so long had arrived. I wanted to talk more with her, but decided not to as I wanted her to continue to take a rest. There would be plenty of time to talk about silly stuff when she arrived at home. The time that never comes.

Each day I regret why I didn’t talk more to her. She was in so much pain after the surgery. My mother told me after her funeral, that she often found my sister awake in the middle of the night, pinching her own legs to divert her mind from her pain. If someone came to me, offering me to erase her pain but I have to set fire to my Taft, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I wanted to write an eulogy to her, but still unable to do so. I’m overwhelmed with emotion every time I remember about her. For several days after her passing, I couldn’t say her full name without breaking down in tears. I still can’t believe she will not be next to my side for the rest of my life.
 

 
This is all I can say for now Oppo.

Feels like I have to change my handle to annoyed_salman these days because of the bullshits I got from the office. Tight deadline, insane amount of work, unhelpful coworker – you know the drill. The web should be deployed to production on November 14, but the project manager was able to delay it to November 28.

On top of that, my coworker spilled that another developer had been talking shit about my (and some others) coding skill, though not publicly. We think that it's because he's too ignorant to understand what is happening behind the screen. At least our team lead doesn't share the same view as his and knew that he's in the wrong here, so that's nice.

I'm so sick looking at computer screens these days, so I try to minimize the amount of time I use my laptop and phone. I spent my weekend walking around the campus in the morning and evening with my wife, while also bringing my camera – either the Yashica Electro 35 or the Mamiya RB67. I haven't finished the roll inside the Yashica yet, but I had finished the one in the RB67.

Taken with the Mamiya RB67 + Fuji Pro 400H

I just can't wait until this month to end so I can back to the regular shitposting schedule.

Tomorrow will marks one year of my marriage – can’t believe it’s been a year already. I made this post because tomorrow is Monday and I’ll probably dead tired when I arrived home from work. But I still remember the things that I did the day before the big event. Went to the hotel at 4PM with my father and my cousin to drop all the gifts used for the procession, then made a brief stop on grandmother’s house for something, and finally back home. My parents and my sister went to the hotel just past 7PM while I followed them to the hotel later at 10PM, because I wanted to talk to my close friend first to offload all the things inside my mind.

I think we finally received the pictures of the wedding almost a month later, and here are some of them:

During the event, I couldn’t help but think how Aisyah’s wedding would be. I didn’t know if I would still in Surabaya or would I finally be free abroad and unable (unwilling?) to go back home. To this day I still don’t know if she ever liked a boy or not. Maybe I’d get the answer by reading her diaries, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Actually I did read the last entry of her diary (courtesy of my mother), and it hits me like a ton of bricks. If she did fancied a boy, did he reciprocate the feeling? Does he know that she’s not in this world anymore? These thoughts often appear in my mind, mostly when I’m unable to fall asleep.

Anyway, I asked her to man my Yashica TLR camera, because special event has to be documented by special camera. Normally she complained every time I asked / told her to use my TLR because it’s heavy and it hurts her back, but she didn’t this time. One of the reason why I bought a TLR in the first place is so we could learn how to operate it. A TLR is not a common camera these days, and knowing how to master it would be a useful, if niche, skill. She was the talk of the photographers on the wedding because of the TLR hanging on her neck. I found it amusing and told them that she’s my sister. They even took some pictures of her while using the TLR:

She also liked the pictures so much that she used one of them as her Instagram’s profile picture.

What I hoped when I married my long time girlfriend is so that my sister finally had a sister to talk and share things. I often pulled my wife to Aisyah’s room under the pretense of annoying Aisyah, but it’s actually to make them grow closer. Not sure if my scheme worked though. Aisyah often questioned my wife if she’s sane enough to marry me every time I did something silly or when I told her about whatever harebrained plans I had on my mind. I didn’t expect that Aisyah would experience having a sister for only around 8 months.

Well that’s it for now. In my post about Aisyah, I wrote that I’ll post more about her and I promise that I will write it, someday. I still find it hard to go through her stuff and memories and remembering all the good times that had happened.

I lost Aisyah earlier this year, and now Bunbun. I know that Bunbun will meet her demise, but I didn't expect to be this soon. We got her way back in 2015, on November 9 to be exact. She's just a tiny furball that hops around while leaving trail of poops.

She grew up to be this sassy rabbit who loved to receive head rubs. She's also fond of being chased around the house. She'd jump while running to express her happiness. She'd then flopped to sleep when she got tired from zooming around.

I noticed that she didn't look normal last night. Her eyes look like she's scared of something. Her ears was down to her body instead of rotating left and right, trying to hear what's happening around her. I was afraid that she wouldn't survive the night.

This early morning my mother contacted the vet, asking him to pick Bunbun up and treat her. I gave her lots of head rubs, saying that she'd be okay. The last picture I took of her was at 9:11, showing the vet how she looked like.



Half an hour later, I went back to her to see how she's doing, and saw her lying on her side motionless. I'm so devastated losing her. She had entertained me, Aisyah, and my wife with her antics. Just last Monday, she nipped on my trouser because I stopped giving her head rubs with my feet when she lied under my desk.



This is where she rest now. It's so painful to dig the soil and put her there. She still looks cute and adorable, yet lifeless. Life sucks man.

Picture this: my Taft fully laden with vegetables — 1 sack of potatoes, 2 boxes of bananas, 1 box of tomatoes, and assortment of others — given from my wife’s grandmother, taken fresh from their garden. The road was very steep and narrow. I had to use first gear to move forward, and the road’s width is the same as my car. I can’t see what’s in front of me after the road leveled.

Then, when I arrived at the top of the road, I got presented with this absolutely breathtaking view:



The picture can’t do justice about how incredible the view is. I can see for miles ahead. I feel like I was at the highest point in Madura.

The routes I had taken were also amazing. Let me just show you the pictures:

I will definitely miss driving through Madura.

@The-Crazy-Kanuck Ok I can't imagine the operating cost of a 6x9 camera So the 105mm lens is equal to, what, 35mm lens I guess?

@pip-bip said in Stocktake day 2:

question, how reliable can a Land Rover really be when dealers have control arms in stock

Paging @AkioOhtori please stand at the lectern immediately.

@The-Crazy-Kanuck My father won this Lumiere something folding camera from an auction when he lived in France in the mid 80s. Shame that I'm unable to use it. Owning an operable folding camera is definitely in my bucket list.

@amoore100 said in XBOX has a problem… Developer Direct:

...considering my most played game of all time is 'Euro Truck Simulator 2'...

Come on man, you can't say that without giving me us some pictures from the game.

@tophercrowder Detroit you say?

@Ad-absurdum-per-aspera Ha! Good pun!

I already shot roughly 6 out of 27 exposures, so still a long way to go. I had eyed this camera since I started to take film photography rather seriously because of its quirks and features, but almost every time I found one on sale, the cameras were either priced out of my reach or the conditions weren't good cosmetically or functionally, sometimes both! I'm so lucky that my wife found this seller — the price that they put in relation with the camera's condition and equipment is fair I think.

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly Regardless, if I have to put a score for Indonesia right now, I'd probably give 2.5 or 3 out of 10 — between not recommended and proceed with caution.

@Vondon302 Join the fun!

@CarsOfFortLangley What's the name of the documentary? Indonesia is a great country as a vacation destination, but not to live in as a citizen.

@іди-на-хуй-Влад-formerly-known-as-Distraxi Yeah, the main difference between the rainy season and the dry season is that the cars are partially submerged while sitting in the traffic jams during monsoon.