H-ans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, most renowned for his fairy tales. I enjoy reading fairy tales because it's like escaping into a totally different world where almost anything can happen. In my opinion, Andersen is one of the best fairy tale authors ever. His stories are different and have a much deeper meaning. Most fairy tales teach about bravery, friendship, not to do evil, etc. but that's it. Andersen's on the other hand also have this philosophical thing.

Some of his fairy tales have very unexpected endings, and sometimes they're not entirely happy endings. I usually hate spoilers but I guess I have to explain the stories now so WARNING: SPOILERS!! Have you read The Little Mermaid? If you think the original version is the same as the Disney movie version, you are completely wrong. Lots of children watch Disney and they wanted the children (including me at that time) to see that if they followed their heart, they'd live happily ever after. They couldn't possibly tell the real story. Why? The prince ended up marrying a princess and the poor little mermaid threw herself in the sea and dissolved into foam. END OF SPOILERS.


There are also many other stories in which the main character dies. In a way, Andersen's fairy tales are more real. In real life, things don't always turn out the way you want them to, your dreams don't always come true, and sometimes you don't get a happy ending. Kind of like Andersen's stories. But there's a deeper meaning behind all that. A deeper but usually implicit meaning.

When I first finished reading SPOILER The Little Mermaid END OF SPOILER I was like "WHAT THE HELL?! SPOILER WHY DID SHE DIE? SHE'S THE MAIN CHARACTER! MAIN CHARACTERS NEVER DIE! ANDERSEN WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?!" END OF SPOILER I hated sad endings. But in the end I realized that it wasn't entirely sad. The main character was very wise, and he/she (I respect people who hate spoilers) accepted his/her fate. It didn't matter if he/she didn't get his/her happy ending because the fact that his/her loved ones got their happy endings was already enough to make him/her happy. Pretty deep, huh? I know.

So that is basically why I love Hans Christian Andersen and think that you should read his fairy tales. One day, when you only have less than a minute to live, you'd remember this blog post and think to yourself "Why didn't I read Andersen fairy tales? Now I don't have ti-" *dies*. You'll regret it. So go! Read!

-diralien-

G-ay rights

Homosexuality (lesbian and gay), bisexuality, and transsexuality (LGBT) rights - or as most people say it, gay rights - is equal civil and social rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual people. Governmental laws related to LGBT are drastically varied depending on the country and territory.

(Source: wikipedia.org. To read more about LGBT rights by country or territory, click here.)

In my country, same-sex sexual activity is legal but same-sex marriage is not. And you can still clearly see social discrimination. This is most probably because homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality is considered a taboo. Apart from that, around 85% of the population are muslims, and homosexuality and bisexuality are strictly forbidden in Islam.

I understand how Indonesian people can be so against homosexuality and bisexuality, but in my opinion, people should be open-minded enough to understand that transsexuality is a medical condition in which a person feels the desire to be the opposite sex and although they tend to become homosexuals, it's not their fault because it's a condition. People should respect them and the condition in which they are in instead of discriminating them.

I myself have personally known a transsexual all my life. There's this woman who has been working for my grandmother ever since before I was born. Her physical appearance is of a woman, but she has an intense desire of becoming a man. She dresses like men and acts like men and etc. and now she looks so much like a man that most people wouldn't believe me if I told them she was a woman. She is also a lesbian. My family and I live just across the street and we know her quite well.

I am very grateful that my entire family respects her and has never discriminated her. Because of that, ever since I was little, I never thought of transsexuality or homosexuality as something you can make fun of. I realized that people are different and that we should just accept that difference. As for the fact that it's strictly forbidden in my religion, it's not my problem. I'll leave the punishing to God. Besides, since Islam promotes equality to all human beings, discriminating them would just mean you're sinning.

What I'm trying to say is, stop discrimination to homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals. The world would be a better place if we could just accept and respect other people's differences.

-diralien-

F-ans

No, I'm not talking about these fans:

I'm talking about these fans:

People who love their idol(s) so much that their lives have changed in some way ever since they start loving him/her/them. The changes can either be very small or very significant. It depends on how much the fan loves his/her idol(s).

During my life, I have been a fan of a number of people. And when I become a fan, I really become a fan. Way beyond loving them. I literally become obsessed with my idol. In this blog post, I'm going to write all about the obsessed-fan side of me.

The first time I was ever obsessed with someone was when I was about 12 years old. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian came out that year and I became a fan of Skandar Keynes. This person here:

SLGHVJKSLGHVJK sorry I was just suffocating from overexposure to hotness. But back then I was still so shy and I didn't express my obsession as much as I do now. I only browsed around on the internet. As a matter of fact, no one probably knew that I liked Skandar Keynes.

That all changed when I was 13. For some reason I just stopped being "obsessed" with Skandar Keynes (I still like him, though..) and I became obsessed with Justin Bieber:

Aah yes, the world-famous Bieber fever. If you're wondering why he's holding his guitar backwards, it's because he's left-handed. He was still cute back then. I saw his 'One Time' music video for the first time on 9 September 2009 (I always write these things down on my diaries) and I just started to like him. Along with thousands of other girls my age.

I was so obsessed with him that I bought every magazine that has him on the cover. I had about fifty posters of him, all hanged up on my bedroom wall. Why the hell would I spend all my allowance on those posters? Like I said, when I become a fan, I really become a fan. If Justin went into my room, he'd probably be creeped out.

At one point, I was so obsessed with him that I actually cried when I saw a video of him singing. I didn't even know that was even possible. I thought people were only exaggerating when they talked about how they cried when they saw pictures and/or videos of their idols. Apparently, it really is possible.

Ever since that day, I prayed day and night for him to come to Jakarta and perform here. My wish came true. He's gonna have a concert in Jakarta on April 23rd. But I'm not a Belieber anymore. I'm grateful that my wish came true, though. So I'm still gonna watch him. See you on April 23rd, Biebs.

Why did I stop liking Bieber? Probably because my love for Tokio Hotel was so big that I no longer had place for any other idols. I started liking them on 30 January 2010. And I still like them. No wait, I don't like them. I love them. And I'm planning to love them for the rest of my life. Here's a picture of them:

Correction: a picture of them, their bodyguard (behind Georg), and a school girl. This picture was taken while they were in Chile, donating a music room and a library to a school. Left to right: bodyguard, Georg Listing, Gustav Schäfer, Bill Kaulitz, Tom Kaulitz, school girl.

Despite how much money I (read: my parents) have spent to buy CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, posters, and concert tickets (including airplane tickets because they've never had a concert in Jakarta), Tokio Hotel has changed my life quite a lot for the better. Because of them, I'm no longer insecure, I became a vegetarian, and I'm learning to play the guitar and speak German by myself. I still suck, but whatever. And I've made lots of amazing new friends. Fellow Tokio Hotel fans I met on the internet.

In addition to that, seeing, hearing, and doing Tokio-Hotel-related things always brighten up my day. I can go from having an extremely bad mood to having an extremely good mood. When I'm stressed out, I like to just lay down on my bed, put on my headphones, and listen to An Deiner Seite (my favorite Tokio Hotel song) while staring at my Tokio Hotel posters. When the song ends, my stressfulness ends along with it.

They've given a lot for me. What have I done to repay them? I - along with thousands of other Tokio Hotel fans - gave them an award.

In 2010, Tokio Hotel was nominated in Best World Stage Performance in the MTV EMAs (to read more about the MTV EMAs, click here). I thought that that was my chance to prove to them how much I love them. So I voted. And not just once. I voted at least a hundred times a day. And on the last night, I stayed up late and voted 1400 times. I just sat there in front of my laptop - clicking over and over and over again.

I was planning to vote in all the countries which means about 2000-something times but all of a sudden my mom came in and started to yell at me saying that I was so over-obsessed to the point where it's unhealthy and she reminded me that it was past midnight and I had school the next day and you know the usual things mothers tell their daughters when they stay up way past their bedtimes to vote for their favorite bands. And so I slept that night feeling guilty for not voting until I max out all the limits. I knew my mom was right, but you know how stubborn I can be.

On 7 November 2010, I saw the MTV EMAs on TV and Tokio Hotel won. Bill Kaulitz said, "Thank you so much! And I think everyone knows what that means. The EMAs are very very good and we are so proud that we have another award. That's so cool! We can't be with you tonight because we are in the studio right now in Los Angeles but we wanna thank everyone from the MTV World Stage who made that concert so special. And we wanna thank everyone at home for voting for us like crazy. I don't know how you guys do it but it's incredible. Thank you so much. And for the other bands who were nominated with us, we are sorry. Our fans are the best fans in the world. Thank you so much, have a wonderful night."

Knowing that my idol thinks that me and all the other Tokio Hotel fans are the best fans in the world made me feel so special. Thank you, Bill. And that's the whole story of the obsessed-fan side of me.

There is this girl on twitter who goes by the name of @nadheehae who once tweeted, "We are generally happier if we are a fan of something." I don't even know who she is, but I agree with her. So go! Be a fan of something!

P.S. yes I'm fifteen now. My birthday was on March 5th. I'm actually quite sad to lose another year from my teenage years which I believe is the best period of life, but oh well.

-diralien-

E-nseignant

Once again, I am in my school's computer room. We have to make a new blog post about teachers but since I also had to keep my blog posts in alphabetical order, I used the word enseignant instead. No, I don't speak French. I used google translate like everyone else does.

As you all know, teachers are people who teach. In my opinion, there are two types of teachers. Teachers who make you passionate about learning, and teachers who make you don't want to learn at all. I once had a teacher who taught this particular subject that I hated with all my heart but he was fun. As a result, I always got good grades. On the other hand, I once had a teacher who taught this particular subject that I loved with all my heart but he was annoying. As a result, I hated every moment I had to spend learning the subject and my grades dropped.

Unfortunately, not many teachers realize that in order for their students to get good grades, they have to be fun.

I want to thank all the fun teachers who have given me the knowledge I currently have. Thank you so much. I have so much respect for each and every one of you. And to every teacher that I hate, I want you to know that every time you're explaining something in class, I'm secretly writing in my notebook about how much I want the president's photo hanging on the wall to fall on your head and make you unconscious. I mean no offense, but I think everyone is thinking the same thing. No, I know everyone is thinking the same thing. Because I can read minds.

There. Once again, thank you to all the fun teachers for being fun. That is all.

-diralien-

D-eforestation

I apologize for not having posted any new posts for quite a long time. I am currently in my computer class at school and we're studying about blogs and we're supposed to write a new post so I'm writing a new post.

According to Wikipedia (my favorite website to learn things from), deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use (to read more click here). People convert forests to create areas for housing, industry, and etc. There's no problem in creating areas for such things, but some people just don't know when to stop. They keep deforestating (?) forests without thinking about ecologic balance.

I'm quite embarrassed to say that there are a lot of illegal deforestation in my country, in which most of the forests are tropical rainforests. Rainforests are home to over 50% of all living species of plants and animals on earth. If this deforestation continues, a lot of these species might go extinct. As a person who cares for animals, I don't want that to happen.

Forests also provide most of the oxygen we need to breathe. Living creatures cannot stay alive without breathing. If all the forests disappear, (although that probably won't happen any time soon) we wouldn't have enough oxygen and the entire planet would die.

The easiest way to stop deforestation is not to waste paper. Please do so. It's not that hard. But if you want to do more, you could donate to Rainforest Concern here.

P.S. you might have noticed the clock, calendar, and the chat box thingies. I didn't plan to add any of them here, but I had to otherwise I won't get a good score in computer.

-diralien-

C-icak

First of all, you may have noticed that I've changed my blog design. I made the background myself, about 2 or 3 months ago, and I thought it'd be cool if I put it here because it's full of things that reflect my life.

Cicak - or Hemidactylus frenatus - is the common house gecko:

Its name is derived from the sound it makes.

And it is also my archenemy. I have this sort of phobia of cicaks. But as far as I know, we don't have the name for people with cicak phobia. I used to be not-so-scared of these creatures, until one unfortunate incident happened.

I was carrying my laptop with some cables on top of the laptop. I was about to enter my room when I saw a cicak on the wall above my bedroom door. I wasn't that scared of them back then so I just went "Oh they'll probably just stay there with those sticky feet of theirs." but I was wrong.

As I approached the door, it sort of panicked and I think it forgot to activate its sticking system or something so it fell down and I jumped and squealed and the cables on top of my laptop (which I was carrying) sort of jumped with me and the cables landed on my hand and I thought it was the cicak that fell on my hand so I screamed in terror.

Turns out the cicak was on the floor.

But ever since then, I've been afraid of them. I don't know why. Back when I was in 4th or 5th grade a cicak fell to our dining table (from the ceiling) when my family and I were having dinner but that didn't traumatize me.

And no, I've never tried to face my fear of the cicak. People are always like "face your fears" and stuff but I think everyone has fears and it'd be weird if someone didn't have any fears. It's completely normal to have fears. So I say as long as it doesn't disturb your everyday life, let it be. And if it does, go get therapy.

P.S. today is world leprosy day. Leprosy is this sort of skin disease. To find out more click here. And to donate click here. Please donate. Pretty please with sprinkles on top :) Trust me, it feels good to help those in need.

-diralien-

B-ill Kaulitz

Who's Bill Kaulitz? He's the guy who's currently on my background. Yeah that's a guy. I wanted to make sure you know he's a guy because a lot of people have mistaken him as a girl. But I actually don't have any problem with that.

Bill Kaulitz was born in Leipzig, Germany, on 1 September 1989, 10 minutes after his twin brother Tom:

Problem is, I don't know which is which.

Bill is the singer from the German pop-rock band, Tokio Hotel. Which is my most favorite band in the entire universe ever. He has showed in interest in singing ever since he was very young, and formed the band with his brother Tom. This post isn't about the band so I'll just skip this stuff.

Bill has this androgynous style. You don't know whether he's a guy or a girl. And when he was still in school. He made his own clothes. He pierced his eyebrow and his tongue and dyed his hair black (it was originally blond). Everyone kept mocking him because he was different. But he didn't care.

Even after he got famous, people kept mocking him. He was even once voted the 'ugliest woman in Germany'. But like I said, he doesn't care what haters think. One of his quotes:

"The most important thing is to be yourself."

And that is why he is my biggest idol and role model. All my life I have felt that I'm different. I wanted to fit in and be exactly like everyone else, but I just couldn't. And it was constantly bothering me. But ever since I found out about Bill, I learned to embrace my difference. Now I feel completely comfortable with who I am - flaws and all.

Bill is a vegetarian (and so is his twin brother Tom) and because of that, I am now also a vegetarian. They love animals and adopted stray dogs. One of their dogs:

(Yes he smokes. And I hate the fact that he does. But it's the only thing I hate about him.)

Aside from that, he and Tom also participated in PETA's campaign (picture included in my previous post), and he and the band participated in the DAA (Designers Against AIDS) campaign:

(If you would like to help fight AIDS, visit the DAA website here.)

So yeah. That's it. I guess. Oh yeah I want to thank Bill Kaulitz for being who he is. If he didn't I wouldn't have gotten rid of my insecurities. Danke, Bill.

-diralien-