Cosplay Recommendations for Muslim Girls

I'm not sure if cosplaying is my new hobby, but I keep thinking of next costumes. I have just done two costumes: Katara (Legend of Aang) and random-Jedi (Star Wars). I can say that people hardly notice a hijabi cosplayer, since modifications on the costume makes its typical features less visible. However, I will not prioritize cosplay than hijab, so I observe the following principles in creating my costumes.

• clothes are loose enough
• headscarf covers me properly
• at least half of my thighs are covered by skirt (or some kind of)
• costume is practical enough to be worn on daily activities

Well, the last point is not relevant to hijab; it's more because I don't want to waste my money on something I'll only wear a couple of times a year. And I'm happy to have something unique without attracting attention of commoners. To make me stop thinking of possible costumes, I decide to list it here.

1. Disney Princesses

I think they are obvious options. Most Princesses have official long dresses that need minor modifications (just cover the shoulders and add a headscarf). My favorite is Merida, and her hunting dress is on my next-cosplay list. If only dark teal fabric is not difficult to find...

The blue dress is pretty, but not practical, and I'm not skilled enough to make patterns.

Panjang Kain, Jenis Kain, dan Toko Kain Online (untuk Membuat Baju)

Sejak berhijab, saya kesulitan menemukan baju yang cocok untuk saya. Saya tidak suka memakai gamis, sementara rok panjang menyulitkan gerakan saya. Di sisi lain, saya tidak bisa memakai baju sepinggang (walaupun lengannya panjang). Baju sepaha sulit ditemukan; di mal sedikit saja merek yang biasa membuat baju yang berlengan panjang dan sepaha (salah satunya DUAL). Selain itu, harganya agak mahal. Kalau saya tunggu sampai diskon besar, pilihannya semakin sedikit. Untuk membeli baju yang murah, saya disarankan mencari baju di pasar, tapi saya malas ke pasar dan kalau terlalu murah kualitasnya kurang bagus. Maunya banyak ya, hahahaha.

Oleh karena itu, belakangan ini saya sering membeli kain dan pergi ke penjahit untuk membuat baju sesuai keinginan saya. Baju pertama yang saya buat sebenarnya untuk keperluan cosplay (meniru tokoh fiksi), lalu saya membuat baju-baju lain untuk keperluan sehari-hari. Sebagai orang yang buta soal jahit-menjahit, semula saya bahkan tidak tahu nama kain dan sebanyak apa kain yang saya perlukan. Jadi saya pikir, karena sekarang saya tahu sedikit, ada baiknya saya tulis pengetahuan saya untuk membantu orang lain yang ingin membeli kain dan membuat baju sendiri (di penjahit) untuk pertama kali. Sebelum itu, saya berterima kasih banyak kepada teman-teman yang meladeni pertanyaan-pertanyaan saya sewaktu masih buta dulu.

Sedikit demi sedikit, lama-lama menjadi bukit ^^;

Banyak di antaranya cuma perca, tapi tetap saya simpan

Kantor saya di dekat Pasar Tanah Abang, tapi saya pernah hampir kecopetan di sekitar situ dan saya tidak gesit saat berbelanja. Maka saya memutuskan jalan terbaik adalah membeli kain di toko online. Saya membaca artikel tulisan teman saya tentang belanja kain katun online, artikelnya tentang kain linen dan katun impor, dan beberapa sumber lain tentang jenis-jenis kain. Ibu saya menyarankan agar saya membeli katun jepang. Pertimbangannya: warna katun jepang lebih bagus daripada katun lokal dan harga katun jepang lebih murah daripada katun impor. Petualangan saya pun dimulai dengan katun jepang.

Di artikel ini saya akan menjelaskan sedikit-sedikit tentang
- panjang kain yang diperlukan untuk membuat baju,
- jenis-jenis kain yang cocok untuk membuat baju,
- rekomendasi toko online.

Resep Spageti Telur Praktis

Salah satu menu yang cocok untuk anak kosan adalah spageti, karena memasaknya mudah dan bahan-bahannya mudah ditemukan. Ini resep spageti telur untuk satu porsi.


Bahan saya:
- Spageti secukupnya (saya pakai La Fonte)
- Telur ayam satu butir
- Kornet sapi satu sendok
- Tomat satu butir, iris
- Bawang bombay sepertiga butir, iris
- Garam secukupnya
- Saos cabe secukupnya
- Minyak goreng dua sendok makan
- Air secukupnya

Bahan alternatif:
- Jamur kancing
- Paprika
- Sosis
- Merica
- Penyedap rasa

Cara memasak:
Tahap I
1. Rebus air di panci
2. Patahkan spageti, masukkan ke panci
3. Pecahkan telur dan masukkan ke panci
4. Rebus 5 menit (tinggal saja untuk menyiapkan bahan-bahan lain)
5. Angkat dan tiriskan

Tahap II
1. Panaskan minyak di wajan
2. Masukkan bawang bombay, aduk-aduk semenit
3. Masukkan kornet/jamur/paprika/sosis, aduk-aduk sebentar
4. Masukkan spageti, telur, tomat
5. Masukkan garam, merica, saos, penyedap rasa
6. Tuang air sedikit
7. Aduk hingga warna dan rasa memuaskan
8. Angkat dan sajikan

Mari makan! :D

Spaghetti for #dinner :3

A photo posted by Melody Violine (@melodyvioline) on Mar 17, 2015 at 4:43am PDT

Resep Makaroni Brokoli Mayones

Sebulan lalu fanpage komik Arigato Makaroni membuat lomba fanart (karya penggemar). Salah seorang teman saya, pemilik fanpage Cooking Mama Stall membuat infografis resep makaroni brokoli yang kelihatannya enak sekali. xD

Post by Syarifah Tika Irmasari Bahasyim.

Singkat cerita, saya ingin membuatnya. Saat membeli makaroni, saya melihat Mayumi (mayones) punya rasa baru: pedas. Jadi, cocok tidak cocok, saya merasa harus mencampurkannya dengan makaroni brokoli yang akan saya buat, huahahaha.


Bahan:

• makaroni, satu porsi dua genggam
• brokoli, potong kecil-kecil
• keju kotak diparut atau keju lembar dipotong-potong
• mayones
• garam
• lada hitam (bisa diganti merica)
  
  

Hari-hari Cumi-cumi

Beberapa hari lalu, karena sedang bosan dengan masakan warteg, saya pergi ke penjual sayur agar bisa masak sendiri. Sepertinya sudah waktunya saya coba masak sesuatu yang baru, jadi saya beli cumi-cumi... setengah kg (11 ekor cumi-cumi sedang). Banyak sekali, hahaha, semestinya saya beli seperempat kg saja. Yasudah, saya cari wadah untuk menyimpan cumi-cumi dan memasukkannya ke dalam laci kulkas. Saya mencari beberapa resep dan bertekad menghabiskannya dalam 3 hari, walau ternyata baru habis pada hari ke-4. Sebaiknya 2 hari saja cumi-cumi disimpan di kulkas, tapi 4 hari tidak apa-apa kok.

Beberapa hidangan cumi-cumi yang saya incar berdasarkan hasil pencarian dan usul teman-teman:

• cumi masak hitam
• nasi goreng hitam
• sapo tahu seafood
• spageti cabonara
• calamari ring
• bakwan dan peyek cumi-cumi
• cumi-cumi asam manis
• sayur tumis cumi-cumi

Tentu tidak semuanya berhasil saya masak. 11 cumi-cumi tidak cukup untuk memasak semua itu (kecuali dihemat banget ya), tapi sudah cukup membuat saya kewalahan (makan cumi-cumi sampai bosan). Untung pada dasarnya saya suka hidangan laut.

Saya belum pernah memasak binatang utuh. Selain malas membersihkannya, saya agak takut melihat matanya, haha.

Pertama kali masak makhluk hidup utuh (ada matanyaaaa) #food #cooking #seafood #Indonesia

A photo posted by Melody Violine (@melodyvioline) on Jan 15, 2015 at 2:55pm PST

Resep Sup Miso

Akhir tahun lalu ibu saya mendapatkan oleh-oleh dari tetangga yang pramugari berupa bumbu miso. Saya tahu sup miso adalah santapan sehari-hari orang Jepang, tapi belum pernah memakannya di sini. Ibu saya memasaknya dengan kacang merah dan otak-otak... sepertinya kurang cocok (tapi saya suka kacang merah dan otak-otak, jadi saya tetap makan banyak).

Saya bawa dua bungkus bumbu miso ke kosan dan mencari tahu sup miso yang sebenarnya seperti apa. Saya tidak bisa menemukan (atau kurang rajin mencari) bahan-bahan idealnya, jadi saya ganti-ganti sedikit, walau akibatnya sup miso saya menjadi agak "Indonesiawi", hehehe. Kebanyakan bahannya tidak ada di tukang sayur sih. Cara masak saya juga sepertinya tidak ideal, hahaha, tidak apa-apa, yang penting hasilnya enak di lidah sendiri.

Matt Damon in The Bourne Supremacy and The Rainmaker

My sister is going crazy about Matt Damon. I exploit her admiring this actor to force her to study English, promising that I'd buy one movie for every 5 chapters of TOEFL preparation book she finishes. She has finished 37 chapters so far. The last two I watched with her were The Bourne Supremacy and The Rainmaker.

I like the fighting and tracking scenes in The Bourne series, especially in this one.
But of course, I still love Jackie Chan's.

As a law school fresh-graduate, Matt Damon looked so young here.
The movie is old-stylish, and has an adequate climax with an expected ending.

GRE and a Poem

My last post was my first exercise of GRE issue task. I'll keep posting my exercises. There will be lots of them, I hope. Well, you see, I'll post them only to stimulate myself, and to share it with others also preparing themselves.

By the way, I wrote a poem this morning.


All The Time

Sometimes I wonder what
when your eyes are wandering into the sky
or when you're talking to others about things I don't have in mind

but I always know that
every time I'm around, you constantly look at me from the corner of your eye
and when I'm not, you actually never leave me behind

o even the subtlest touch
and the slightest smile
brighten my day and night

all the time

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I watched it last Tuesday with two future pharmacists, Wulan and Irma. We liked it, especially because Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) was very cute, but sadly too young for me (LOL). The first scene wasn't smooth, but the others were sufficient.


Despite my friend's criticisms toward this movie, I think it was fine. Everything was logic and it wasn't meant to aggrandize the American culture/society. The pearls were scattered in the states, but it didn't mean all pearls were in the states. The gate to Olympus could be available in some places, not only the one in the Empire State. The casts dominated by white men, yes, because there was no colored man in the ancient Greek mythology.

However, the movie was entertaining and gave me an adequate insight on Percy Jackson that I'm not interested to read the novel.

Poseidon and V for Vendetta

I watched this one with my room-neighbor, Ranchan, and her roommate, Anis. I enjoyed the movie, especially because there was no ghost or evil-spirit at all! Hahahaha, I hate watching horror movies in my lodging house, it's already scary staying there at night, you know.


This cute little boy is Jimmy Bennet, staring as Conor in Poseidon. He looks like young Macaulay Culkin a bit, doesn't he?


And then we tried to watch V for Vendetta, but we found out that we didn't like it. The movie was too comical, and the masked man (Vendetta?) was too talkative and boring. I really prefer The Mask by Jim Carey.

Leonardo DiCaprio

I watched it a couple of nights ago with my sister at home. I told her it was Leonardo, but she hardly believed. Unfortunately, I only watched the last half an hour. I supposed it's a great movie about violence related to diamond's trade in Sierra Leone.

The Quick and The Dead followed Blood Diamond that night. This time, I only watched the first half an hour. Nice. Leonardo di Caprio was damn cute, acting as a young yet fast gunman called Kid. How old was he? 21? Aaaaaw. Hahhahahahaa.

Matt Damon and Greenzone

Yesterday my sister forced me to take her watching Greenzone. She's been crazy about Matt Damon lately. It was weekend, how expensive -___- but finally I brought her to Pejaten Village, much cheaper than Cilandak Town Square on weekend.

The movie was good, though not great. Matt Damon was cute and cool as always. I like the storyline, however, especially the idea that D.C. might hidden the truth that an Iraqi officer has told them that there was no WMD (weapon of mass destruction). Some people said that this movie is anti-American, and I think it's just one of self-critics for the states. Why did they invade Iraq if there was no such WMD? Why did they impose democracy to another country, seeming a paradox to the essence of the democracy itself?

My friend recommended Hurt Locker, another movie about the US invasion in Iraq. I'm not eager to it since I think Greenzone is enough for a while.

The Little White Horse and The Prophecy of the Gems

I'm still reading this book. It has an enchanting language.

Well, I couldn't force myself to finish this book. It's boring.

My Movie Review: Valentine's Day

I watched this movie a few days ago. I wasn't really eager to see it, but it turned out to be a nice movie.

Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift were the only ones I was looking forward to, but their part wasn't interesting at all. Lautner looked hot, but Swift looked really stupid there.

I really like the idea that finally Reed (Ashton Kutcher, he's cute as ever!) fell for his bestfriend Julia. That's sweet :)

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature

This is one of my favorite games. I had a big reason to play it--learning English, lol.
It taught me a lot about farming and cooking vocabularies, hahaha.

Suikoden II

This is my all time favorite video game. I think I've played it 8 times.
It has a strong storyline and complete environments.

I gave the hero a name--Reil.

This is when Reil and Jowy (his childhood friend) parted,
and then they had to walk in very different paths.

Wanted Books

I'm really looking forward to reading these books, but I have to finish my translation projects first...

Viva La Vida by Coldplay

Right after I opened my second IETLS result, the IDP office played this song. Fitted my mood at best!

Here is the lyrics.


I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
Once you go there was never
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world


It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Assassin's Creed II

I'm reading a novel adapted from this video game, and damn I reaaaally want to play it. Its visual quality is AWESOME. Unfortunately, I don't have any Xbox :(




Above you can see two pictures of the game. Below is the nowadays picture of Florence in which the story get started. It's damn beautiful.

Boyband

I’m so glad that Motion FM (97,50) is playing boyband tracks during this whole January. Yaaaay! Despite how melancholic they were, I loved them. Listening to their songs really bring back my childhood memories. Here I provide you with some of my favorites.

Backstreet Boys

They are my all-time beloved boyband. I still listen to their songs frequently. My first encounter with their sons was accidental. I bought a VCD of the Little Mermaid, but the first disc comprise the songs of Backstreet Boys and Michael Learns to Rock. My brother liked the latter, and of course I loved the earlier. I can say that I grew up with the Backstreet Boys, and I’m glad to find that they still exist though their oldest member has resigned. My Favorite Song: 10.000 Promises (accapella version).

Blue

I wasn’t a big fan of theirs, but I admit that they did have terrific songs and quality. However, they didn’t last long. My Favorite Song: If You Come Back.

Westlife

I bought the first version of their first album, but then the marketing team went wildly and released two or three other versions. That’s crazy as well as the whole buzz about them. At that time, you can ask a girl, “Do you like Westlife?” as if asking whether they have a Twitter account. I think they are still exist, but almos unheard. My Favorite Song: Flying Without Wings.

Boyzone

This was Westlife’s big brother as they were nurtured by the very same manager. They were not cool at all, but I like some of their songs. My Favorite Song: Love Me For A Reason.

The Moffatts

They were not boyband since they played musical instruments. However, many people refered them as one because they are young and cute. They broke up as soon as they became young adults, and later I found out that Dave Moffatt is actually a homosexual (I’m not opposing it, but ouch he broke my heart). Bob and Clint Moffatt formed a duo named Same Same with which a young Indonesian female singer had a chance to make a duet, but they only lasted for one album. My Favorite Song: Misery.