I know.  The title’s silly, but this comic started out as a joke I pulled on my male friends who were confused about why girls love BL at all.  Now I’m working on the second volume, but this will come out coupled with another comic in a compilation the title of which I haven’t decided.  (Any suggestions?)

This is a rather hastily done image of the main characters.  The second character from the right is a new character, Alam.  Probably I thought about New Young Pony Club girls too much when I designed him :D  Oh well, let NYPC’s songs be his character songs then! :D

I have never, literally, visited Cilegon.  I just passed through it several times.  And the town always woke up some nostalgia in me.

Because I too was raised in a sleepy small town like Cilegon, that breathes her life thanks to an industry, or several industries, that may one day also bring about her demise, with the destruction of the environment or when they stop operation and leave just like that.

But I read somewhere some days ago that Cilegon has one of the best spatial-plannings of all regions in Indonesia.  I hope that is true, and I hope that Cilegon will continue living as a wealthy town - I’d love to see the lights of the factories in the night again, dancing around in the dark like some gigantic fireflies.  But I also observed that several of the hills around the town have been half-destroyed by diggings to extract the minerals or the sand, I don’t know.  I’m afraid such exploitations will one day make Cilegon inhabitable anymore - I heard there have been some regions lacking water, which is natural when you destroy the forest and vegetation around you like that.

My best wishes for you, Cilegon.

So are we having a dry season or a rainy season?  Just a couple of weeks ago we’re still in the middle of the killing heat of a dry season; the roads were dusty, the grasses retreated underground waiting for the next period of enough precipitation to emerge again — but nowadays almost every day the sky is dark and some rain falls to the thirsty land.  Global warming has stopped us from having our seasons regularly, eh.

A friend of mine, Shawna, sent me a wall decoration as my birthday gift.  I was struck when I unwrapped the package, because I’d just seen a similar thing painted on the cover of Ayu Utami’s latest book, Bilangan Fu.  A friend told me that it’s a Greek protection charm.  Looking at the appearance, could it be a charm against evil eye?

Am trying to read all books there are in Joan Aiken’s James III/Wolves Chronicles saga.  I still need to buy Black Hearts in Battersea, The Stolen Lake, The Witch of Clatteringshaws and Dido and Pa and to complete my reading.  I’ve read Is and Cold Shoulder Road when I was younger; my sister borrowed them from the school library, but now I want to have my own copies too.  Wait, is The Whispering Mountain part of the saga too? Woah!  I saw a copy in PIM, I have to buy it.

So far I’ve read Midwinter Nightingale, The Cuckoo Tree, and Night Birds on Nantucket.  Am reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, and Limbo Lodge is waiting on my bedstand.

I’m alive, yay.

I finally received my Association of Indonesian Translators (Himpunan Penerjemah Indonesia/HPI) membercard. It’s a great achievent for me, because I got the membership and the card because my skills were approved by professionals (I was invited to join the association–I was really honoured!). The membercard isn’t something like ID card or ATM card–it shows that I’m a professional!

And so last Saturday I attended the second member-meeting in Kafe Dapurku, Kuningan. (The second, because although HPI has been around for a long time, it once went to sleep for some years, so it’s all been reset to zero). The first speaker was Pak Kukuh Sanyoto, a Spanish/Indonesian interpreter/translator, once a weatherman for RCTI. Enviably slim and lively despite his age, he told us about, among others, how he got into the business. He said when he was 19, he had a fight with his diplomat father–at the time was posted in Africa–so he left home for Spain. He only took 500 dollars with him, and so he lived a life of a renegade there for months. He spent some more years there to learn Spanish in college. Wow. Isn’t that a very interesting experience?

The second speaker was Pak Widodo, with 30 years ‘ experience of being the translator for former president Soeharto. (”I’m also a son of a diplomat, but my youth was tame compared to Kukuh’s… and currently I don’t have as much hair as he does.”) There were also other interpreters/translators who shared their experience. All in all, it was very interesting.

Current project:

• I’m still continuing Regus. (Currently up to chapter 005A are available to download.) In fact, it is the only comic I’m working on right now; I planned to join the forthcoming magazine to be published by Megindo, but I don’t think I have time for it right now.
• Talking about Megindo, we have a new book division. A children book that I wrote will be published by the division, with illustrations. Right now I’m preparing to write the sequel, and another book not included in the series. We also have other plans for books to be published. Wish us luck.
• I’m currently translating the 8th edition of Campbell’s Biology, Dan Green and Basher’s Why Matter Matters (a very interesting physics book), and Plantagenet Somerset Fry’s The History of the World.

And there’s a plan for me to appear in m&c!’s Deathnote/Bleach-related events in Citos. Will update more about this.

New layout! Thank you Kat! She even put links to my AirComic… how very thoughtful of you, Kat :)

I’ve finished the translation for e-explore: Animals. Now I’m going to start with e-explore: Science, and also with the 8th edition of Campbell’s Biology (one of the most trusted undergraduate biology textbook in the whole world).

BTW, my translation for Scott McLeod’s Reinventing Comics (KPG) is now on the store. Go grab it!

Oh God, when’s holiday? I really need some break.

This is the poster that I made for a Mando Diao mission.

My idea was creating a poster for an imaginary anime-styled animated Mando Diao film.

I just hope that the image is big enough, and with a resolution high enough to be printed as a poster for their studio.

Mando Diao: Misty Mountain poster

Right now I, with a partner, am translating DK/Google e-explore Animals for a local publisher. e-explore series are very interesting science books for children and teens, so I am very happy to be appointed one of the translators for the Indonesian edition. After Animals, we’ll continue with Science and History.

Am thinking of revamping the whole site, this time to suit my AirComic, Regus. I have designed the nine sons of the demon; I will draw them all and display the images here.

And I’ve finished my Mando Diao mission!

Well, it’s not just because people have been telling me that the colour combination of this site is too dark or not too ‘girly’ (LOL), but I would like this site to accommodate my current joint project with Vanessa, Kimidori. For the time being, you can check illustrations and doodles at her DA account or mine. We have plans of turning this project–that actually started as a P3 tribute–into something really big.

And right now I’m busy:

- teaching and grading papers

- editing several articles on forestry

- editing a guide for talented teens

- editing an astrophysics book

- working on NASTEA MIX

So I’m pretty occupied at the moment; but I’ll have a long holiday in the last week of this year and the first week of next year. Wish me luck!

How time flies. I’m still busy with work (teaching, translating) and am preparing an essay on Ikeda Riyoko’s Orpheus no Mado for next month’s Animonster.  My friend is writing the main part of the feature (story, history, characters, etc), so this is going to be a great collaboration.  We both love Orpheus no Mado to bits - even more than we do Rose of Versailles.

Other news: I’ve bought a tablet, and I hope it will boost my drawing/colouring skill soon.  *cross fingers*  Well, holiday is coming - it’s almost Idul Fitri - so I will have spare time to give the tablet a shot and finish some artwork that have been waiting idly at home.  And continue playing Persona 3, of course.  I’m crazy about the game.

Eid Mubarak, Minal Aidin wal Faidzin, Met Idul Fitri!