Sep 10, 2008

Sep 9, 2008

Thank You

Thank you for being there for me.
Thank you for putting up with my selfish behaviors.
Thank you for giving me a peace of mind.
Thank you for comforting me.
Thank you for understanding.
Thank you for not pushing me around.
Thank you.

even if I write a thousand thank yous, it wouldn't be enough to convey my feelings.

once again.
thank you.

Sep 4, 2008

Book Review: Not Without My Sister

this book i read during lectures.
that's how boring block 13 lectures are, with all those statiscal words like internal validity, confounding validity, sample size, etc.

on to the book!




author: Celeste Jones, Kristina Jones, Juliana Buhring
Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment (2 Jul 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0007248067
ISBN-13: 978-0007248063
when i saw Erica reading this book, i know i must try it. mainly because it got lovely cover (yeps, i'm a sucker for pretty book cover). the blurb doesn't tell much, but it summarize the whole story beautifully.

This tell the true stories of three sisters, on how they survived and freed themselves from a cult (Children of God, later known as Family of Love, and now the Family International). They were physically and sexually abused, with no one to help, and no way to run from it.

The key character of the story was their father, Christopher Jones aka Simon Peter, whom all the sisters yearned affection for. his reckless behaviour of leaving his children on the hands of the Family members resulted in various sexual encounters for the sisters as early as the age 6 years old. One of their blood-sibling (the Family considered all members as brothers and sisters) died after long years of drug addiction due to dismissal from him (he said that he had a new family and would not care for her since she's in the "System").

The Family lived on the whim of a narcisstic leader, David Berg, also known as Moses David or Mo for short. his words are the rules they lived by, and they memorized every single words that came out of his mouth. he communicated with his followers through series of letters known as Mo's Letters, which will set up new rules, or new whatever. he was the one who said that sharing is loving, and by loving, he allowed the Family to have sex with anyone and everyone as sex is the ultimate form of love.

Later as Mo died, his "wife", Karen Zerby risen up, and appointed herself as the Queen Maria. she too, continued his legacy of free sex, though not as free as during Mo era. during Maria's time, the Family started facing bad press due to confessions and reports from the second generation of the Family, who ran away and quit the cult. many of the second generation have mental problem and one of the Royal Family members , the prince, Davidito, committed murder-suicide, which shaken the Family system.

that's roughly what happened in the Family from the three sisters views. the Family ways were told mostly from Celeste and Juliana's side, since they were in the cult until their 20s while the System side was told by Kristina, since her mother quitted the cult and brought her along when she was 12.

Celeste and Juliana didn't have much life in the Family. they were treated like goods, and when there's trouble, they'll be shipped to another Family base around the world (eg, Japan, Uganda, etc). they never knew the address of the house they were staying, never had an identity of their own. names could be change in an instant, it had no meaning, no significant what so ever. after encountering major events in their life, they decided they had enough and wanting to leave the Family.

orange kite says: scary!!! all those child abuse stories... it makes me feel really grateful of my life. lost childhood was something that cannot be found again. i rarely read these kind of books because, well too depressing to begin with, and i am depressive enough for myself. but for the nice story and not making me feel stupid, i give this one a 9/10.

Sep 3, 2008

For Something Less Dark

Okay N.K, this is my less dark entry of the day.. XD

Rules :
1. Each player of this game starts off with 15 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself.
2. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 15 weird things/habits/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly.
3. At the end, you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names.
4. No tags back!!

  1. all my stuffs are males. eg: takuro the guitar (named after Takuro the guitarist of Glay), kentarou (or ken-chan for short) the blue scooter, ritsu the beloved laptop (named after a really cool guy in a manga), kouji the dead fish (isk...), Les Miserable Marius the golden bear (named after Marius of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and because i was miserable when i bought him).....

  2. i always think i was born 10 years too late. sometimes 40 years too late. i so wanna experience the music scene during the 70's till late 90's. they got rockin' rock artists back then. oh, terase sangat orang tuanya saya!

  3. i was a notorious flirt back in intec. i don't think i flirt that much now. hahahahaha!!!

  4. i wanted to pierce my tounge badly. the only thing prevented me from doing so is the thought of my mom yelling at me. haihhh..

  5. donald strongly influenced my music preferences. before knowing him, i'm more into lighthearted pop songs even tho i dabbled a bit in the rock music scene ( mainly for L'Arc~en~Ciel). he's the one responsible for the Nine Inch Nails, dark lyrics, and experimental sounds.(and the dark brooding thoughts)

  6. i hate heat with a vengeance and i can't stand cold weather. so where should i live?

  7. all of my favourite colors have a significant. be it ridiculous or not, but each means something to me. so when you see me in purple, appreciate the punk rocker wannabe in me. if it's white, well, i just perasan i'm being sweet. wahahahahhahaha!!

  8. i have this weakness for cute things. i really like cute things. tho not much available in my room, due to my inability to keep my own room neat. too much cute things = too much dust collected. so i just gave up before even thinking of buying. hahahaha!

  9. my extended family from my mom's side called me Sayang when i was still a kid. even now, my closest cousins still call me Sayang. and i still introduced myself as Sayang to them. urgh.

  10. the name rean was given by my friend on a whim. i went by the name rai back then, but this girl told me that rai wasn't glamourous enough, and raihana was just a mouthful. hence the name rean. there were several versions of spelling (eg, ray-ann) before i decided on the simpler version of r.e.a.n.

  11. i'm still on the prowl for great rockers. until now, my great rockers are L'Arc~en~Ciel, Onmyouza, Shiina Ringo, Buck-Tick, The Pillows, Rancid, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails etc

  12. my greatest and biggest dream is to travel the world. alone.

  13. i (not so) secretly hoped to be the greatest rock star on earth. oh yeah!

  14. sometimes i feels like i could just leave everything and disappear. hopefully i will not be that selfish.

  15. my earphones are usually in full blast. but i hate speakers.

bloggers to tag:

aisyah-because i know you'll have a lot to write, and a lot to tag. XD
raje-revenge of the sperm. hahahaha!!
atai-just to give you something else to do
solehah-if you're still blogging
intan-dude!!update more! don't be lazy!

long winding journey

i was checking out my old blogposts. has it been three years since i started blogging??

wow.
and my writings had only mature a teeny bit.

i filled my earlier posts with anime, lyrics and of course my daily life. (that was in friendster)
and after a while, i wrote about my j-rock journey (it didn't last long, since not long after i started, i had one year of no internet, and that was in xanga)
and i still writing about my life currently, tho it's not as childish as it used to be. haha! (or is it?)

ah..but life is all about adventures and growing up...

and i can't wait for a new adventure tho i'm dreading the growing up part...

Sep 2, 2008

deciding between the two

i am allowed to have crushes on two guys, am i??

it's not like i'm cheating or anything, since its just a crush..

aaaaaaaaa..

do make up your mind, girl!

Sep 1, 2008

Ramadhan and MSK

Yeahh!!
Ramadhan is finally here!
wohooo!!!

and MSK, is finally over.

despite everything...i had fun!!!
too bad it ended too soon...