Sunday, December 31, 2017
I'm leaving 2017.
2017, what a beautiful year. Yes, it was one of the best years. Which are the other best years? Well, I'd say 2003. I love 2003 so much. It's probably the best.
But now I'm gonna tell you about 2017, not 2003.
So many things happened in 2017. Best moment in my life and one of the worst moments in my life both happened in 2017.
My brother got married in February. I've been writing and telling people about it. It's not just because he is the first sibling who got married. Everything was just so beautiful and perfect! But I'll tell you about it later. I'll have some special article for them.
I can't move on, really. Every time I remember about that day I got all teary and melancholy. The wedding itself is perfect and beautiful. And it was really a wonderful blessing to get all of our beloved family members and family friends altogether. Almost all the people we love were there to celebrate with us. That's why I love weddings. And by weddings I only mean my family weddings btw.
I gotta meet all of my beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and it really brought me joy. Yeah it might be a surprise, or not, but I really love all of you, my uncles (except my mother's brothers), my aunts (including the wives of my mother's brothers), my cousins (including the children of my mother's brothers), and of course my nieces and nephews! Oh I have the most adorable nieces and nephews, and the most adorable family! Thank God!
I was so happy to have almost all of the people I love and care about around.
But more than that, we, me and my siblings, were unspeakably happy to finally see the lovebirds got together for the better or worse. They deserve it. Yes, I've written an article special for them. I guess you know when I will release it.
On April, my bestfriend for 11 and a half years, Bulbul passed away. And of course I'm writing a special memoir about him. But here, I just wanna say how devastated I was, to finally have to say goodbye to him forever. He's old, and he's a dog. But the fact that I would never see him again is just so soul-crushing.
Okay, those are the two most important moments of 2017. But there are still other moments.
February was all about wedding and other celebrations. It's the month of my sister's birthday, biggest annual event in our family. Lol! But seriously! Oh I love her so much, that lil brat!
The rest is about weddings. The last technical meeting for my brother's wedding, the some-kinda-bachelor-and-bachelorette party for my brother and his then-bride-to-be, the prayer and showering ceremony for my brother, and then the wedding itself. Two of my old friends were also getting married. One of them is my best friend, one of the most caring person I've ever met. She got married on March 4, but I threw a bachelorette party for her on February.
Yes! On 2017 my brother and my bestfriend both are getting married. And this year, hopefully my sister and my other bestfriend are getting married too. Should I make it clear that they're marrying their partners, not to each other?
I'm not fond of marriage life myself. I don't think I want to share my life with even more people. I've had enough people and love in my life. And for me, if I really love someone, I don't need to vow to love them forever. Love should be a pure feeling, not an obligation to fulfil a vow.
But when I see other people getting married to the loves of their lives, I'm really happy for them, because I know they're happy. And wedding is a celebration. I love celebration. And it's a celebration of love.
Okay, what else?
I've made a lot of sketches on 2017! I love most of them. They might not be that great, but they are for me. You can check on my Instagram account @alavishpirate .
I was so productive, especially in January and June. In January, my New Year resolution of making at least a sketch a day was still really fresh from the oven, so yeah I sketched almost every day.
In June, there was this 'Game of Thrones 30 Days Challenge'. There were 30 questions, and I made sketches for the answers. I made a Disney-ish GoT characters. People loved it and really appreciated it. I have so many stories to tell about that challenge.
First of all, it was so great to finally be able to finish a 30 Days challenge. Believe it or not, I've never finished such challenge in my whole life. So, finishing the challenge itself has been a small achievement for me.
And I had a really great time making the Disney-ish characters. I love Disney illustration so much! Their animations are the best. It's my personal taste btw, don't even try to debate me about it. And I love Game of Thrones and its characters so much! So, those 30 days were the most enjoyable 30 days of my 2017. I love each day of it.
I wasn't satisfied with all of them. But mostly I was, and still am, satisfied. I think I executed some of them the best I could possibly be. But there are two pictures that are very special.
First, 'the Battle of Bastards' episode. The challenge was to post (for me it was to sketch) the scene in GoT that made us cry.
Now, if you haven't watched GoT until the last season, just skip to these next six paragraphs, and just read from the seventh paragraph after the 'SPOILER ALERT' warning.
-- SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!! --
You know, watching GoT, I've never cried but once. I didn't cry when Ned died, or Drogo died, or Lady, Hodor, not even Viserion (but maybe because it was already spoilt for me). You know, the one and only scene that made me cry in GoT was the epic battle between Jon's (Stark) army and Ramsay's (Bolton) army.
That episode was so tense and it was such an emotional rollercoaster for me. We've seen the Starks keep on losing and being humiliated since season 1. I love Tyrell and Martell. They're my favourite houses. And I'm rooting for Targaryen even though I like none of them. I don't always like Dany, but I always support her. I don't like any of the Starks. They're all too naive, and they upset me a lot. But somehow, I can't help but longing to see them win for once!
They're the good guys, or at least the closest to good guys we can possibly have in GoT. I'm so rooting for them, but they kept falling down. So, when I saw Jon trampled under his own army, I already got ready for another Stark disappointment. But then Sansa came with the Knights of the Vale, and situation changed dramatically. Ramsay lost. If you're a typical GoT fan like me, you'll understand how satisfying it is to finally see Ramsay lose like that. He lost the battle, his face was bitten to pulp, and the way he died... Oh my... This episode made me love Sansa instantly.
But the one that made me really cry was when the Stark banners replaced the Bolton banners. It was very emotional for me. The Starks finally got Winterfell back! For me, personally, that's the most beautiful moment in GoT history.
Back to my GoT challenge, that day, I was so sure about what I wanted to make for that challenge. I wanted to illustrate the epic scene when Jon stood by himself against Ramsay's cavalry running towards him. I wanted to illustrate Jon trampled under his own army. I wanted to illustrate the dramatic twist when Sansa came with the back up plan (or maybe her actual plan). I wanted to illustrate all of those epic scene, and end it with the moment when the Bolton banners got down and replaced by the Starks. I've imagined great illustration.
But, because of the limited time and skills, I finally only made one picture of that moment when Stark banners replaced the Bolton banners.
--
Okay, the SPOILER ENDS there.
So, I finally made that one illustration, that I found very unsatisfying. First, because I wanted to make more, and second, because I've never been good in making a landscape illustration. I'm bad at drawing buildings and still objects.
So, I thought... "Ah well, this is one bad illustration. I'm not good at drawing buildings. It's okay. I just want today's challenge to be done and it's done."
When I posted it on my Instagram account and some people started to give it some likes, I was like, "Ah well, there are still nice people out there who appreciate even a lousy art like this."
But then people kept on liking them, and turned out that it got even more likes than any other posts in my Instagram account! It broke a record! I mean, I'm not a popular Instagram user. I only got like 500 hundred something followers, so I only got around 30 to 60 likes in one post. But that picture, that illustration that I thought was lousy and so unsatisfying, it got almost 100 likes! Wow! I was so surprised.
Okay, that's the story of 'The Battle of Bastards'.
Now here comes another spoiler, but only if you haven't watched season 4. Skip these 2 paragraphs.
ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT!
Then there's this story of The Mountain. One of the most horrible deaths in GoT, or for me, it was the most horrible, was the death of Oberyn Martell. But I made it for another challenge actually. The challenge was to post the best fighting scene in GoT.
So I made the Disney-ish version of The Mountain crushing Oberyn's skull. I've seen the better version. There's this awesome artist that also made Disney GoT, but much better than mine. And her/his version of Oberyn vs Mountain is so awesome. But I was satisfied with mine anyway.
--
SPOILER PART ENDS.
So, I was and still am so satisfied with my Disney-ish illustration of The Mountain and The Viper. But what really crazy for me was when I found out that the actor who plays The Mountain, Hafþór Júlíus "Thor" Björnsson, posted my drawing on his own Instagram account!
I didn't realize it before, because he didn't mention me. He didn't know, because his friend sent it to him without mentioning my account. But it doesn't really matter. I just found his Instagram account and I was stalking on him, because he's one of my favourite GoT actors. Yeah I have a thing for big guys with big boobs and big butts. So I stalked on him, and, while scrolling through his timeline, I suddenly found my sketch! Omg! That was unbelievable!
He is a really nice guy and he really appreciates his fans artworks. I found that I wasn't the only lucky fan whose artwork has been posted by him. But still, that's really something for me. It almost felt like a dream!
Those are some stories from the art department of my 2017.
From the sports and activities department, there are some stories too!
I finally played futsal again! And I finally wallclimbed again! I used to be very active around 2010-2013. I played futsal, I practiced football (soccer), I went wallclimbing weekly, I practiced muay thai, yoga, and I even went to the gym. But then I needed my money, energy, and time for other purposes, so, slowly but sure, I retreated from those activities, one by one. The last time I went wallclimbing (weekly) was 2013, and the last time I played futsal was 2014.
My last futsal team always played so far from my house, in the middle of heavy traffic, on Saturday night. So it was really a struggle for me to even get there. But I also got sick a lot, I don't know, probably because we played at night, we usually started at 8 or 9. And also, there are some dramas evolved too. So, there were too many reasons for leaving that team. It's not a professional team anyway.
So I've never had a team for like two years. Yeah, two years, from 2014 to 2016.
But on 2017, it was all coming back to me. I went wallclimbing with my new friend. Well, he's not technically new. We've known each other for years, but we just started to hang out with each other last year. And we went to a really cool wallclimbing place. It is the best place for wallclimbing I've ever seen. It is indoor, there are so many tracks, there are auto belay, the shower room is pretty clean for a public shower room.
And futsal! Oh my...!
It all started when my cousin asked me to play with her team. It's not a real team that practice weekly. They're the alumni of the same university. They were in the campus futsal team together, and now play occasionally.
So I played with them, and they asked me to be some kinda presenter in their university big reunion futsal tournament. So, two days after, I became a presenter, and that's when I met this amazing futsal team.
The team plays in between my office and home every Saturday. And I have a weekly meeting every Saturday. So, I can easily go from the office, to the futsal place, and then go home. They play from 4 pm to 6 pm. For me, it's the ideal time to do something physically active. And they're all very good players! In short, the team is perfect!
But anyway, I haven't played with them for maybe two months now, because there were always things to do or events to go, or I was simply not fit enough to play. Yeah, I miss them.
What else?
Languages!
Last year I've learned German, Greek, and Japanese. I think that's the only goal I've reached.
I planned to learn German from January to March, Greek from April to July, and Japanese from August to December. But I haven't started to learn German until the end of January. So I had to reschedule the Greek lesson to maybe May or June. On April, I thought, forget Greek, I'll just learn German this year. But no. I couldn't stop myself from starting to learn Greek. When I finally learned Greek, I promised I wouldn't learn any new language until I can really communicate in Greek. I thought, let's just reschedule Japanese to next year. But on October or November, I started to learn Japanese. And I finished all the lessons before 2018 started!
Well, that was my 2017. Overall it has been treating me well with all those blessings.
Good bye 2017, welcome 2018!
I haven't really talk with those languages, but I've finished the lessons in Duolingo, so I got the basic rules. This year I wanna really improve them.
