Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday, April 10, 2008

I-N-T-P

Yep, above are my favourite album covers, and the songs listed under the album will have a high play count, if only walkman counts how many time those song are played on the phone. upon further inspection, I'm sure you can easily find a common denominator of those seven covers: the parental advisory label, as some of the songs contain explicit contents.

If you encounters me on a regular basis, I'm hope you never see mee as a potty mouth, while I myself have a tendency to list pacifist under my characteristic. and javanese101 will teach you not to confront anyone directly, thus lessening the occassion to employ such words.

While it would not be baseless for you to say that my favorite list is somehow made to compensate my characteristic (and maybe it is), I'd like to contend that it's more to the rhythm of the musics that made them to my list. just google up The Bird And The Bee, and then it'd be pretty easy to say that this is a view shared by many; while Nellie McKay's Get Away From Me sure has a witty lyrics.

what i would like to offer as a lesson is a well-known idiom, and for people it is easier said than done: never judge a book by its cover. Sure, some books (or movies, or music albums, or institutions, or people) are crappy and their covers (or posters and trailers, or covers, or logo and taglines, or faces and attires) communicate much of its their crap inside, but it is none of an assured parameted to deduce a quality of work. there are countless stories told where people like you and me deceived to buy an item or two that should be listed as mediocre at best but its advertisements or packages are so damn compelling. of course, it also apply on the contrary, where out of utter chance we tried (or read, or listen, or watch, or order, or acquaint) things we would never order in usual circumstance, and on some special occassion, surprised by its quality.

this is where the folly of absolutism label lies: it simply is dangerous to put the world in a 1-bit mode of black and white, as things inherently have its good and bad side. i personally believe you cannot disregard both extremes of features. and if the recent brouhaha over Roy Suryo's remark on blogger, and the new UU ITE, and on Fitna is of any indication, it shows that at the very least, the world is absurd: some people will fervently reject any imposition of absolutism towards them yet in the very same time seeing the world in a black-and-white perspective.

and i guess there's next to nothing that we can do to alter that. you may call me a pessimist, and i'd happily list it on my index of character, just below pragmatic, several lines below pacifict, and well above affectionate.

ITB EXPO 2008 Debate for High Schools

Amidst the excitement offered by the booths and the main stage in the previous ITB Expo, I guess it'd be pretty easy to miss the completely different amusement at Plano classrooms, where the ITB Expo committee held a parliamentary debate in Indonesian language for high school students. Yes, apparently there are parliamentary debates using indonesian language. And it was indeed an honor for SEF to be able to participate in the tournament as adjudicators for the tournaments.

The tournament itself used asian format, where there are two teams in each debate, each defending or opposing a motion offered, a basic format. During the tournament, as there were no preliminary rounds, it offered the participants added thrill, in addition to the lucrative prize money available (I don't have the details here, but rumour has it it was in order of millions of rupiahs). there were lots of interesting and vigorous debate on nuclear power plants, foreign investment and so on. 

On a side note, the grand final debate was an epic one, as it was a battle of sexes, boys (Tarogog) versus girls (3 Bandung); as well as battle in the manner of speaking, of fast-paced speech (3 Bandung) and deliberate demeanor (Tarogog). Finally concluding the tournament, SMA 3 Bandung speaking on behalf of opposition bench emerged champion of the tournament, defeated SMA 1 Tarogog in the motion of battle between modern market and its traditional counterpart. Congratulation!

As for us, it is very heartening to see our high school students involved in more debate competition which hopefully will then be more involved on issues surrounding them by invoking their critical thinking ability for the greater good. On behalf of SEF, I'd like to express my warmest gratitude to the committee, who had been so kind to provide the very opportunity to take part in the competition.

Monday, April 7, 2008

rambling #1

This is what I wrote Sunday last week, when bad mood kicked. But now I'm good again.  Really.

Cranky, testy and grouchy. Chronic and perpetual when it's the time of the semester: exam.

What's more, you can never expect any solace in any organization you join, as they're more likely to aggravate your stress and bad mood.

Which is what happened to me these days.

It began with Thursday, when I have a lab schedule to observe as a part of astronomy lab course. Curse it! The preparation needed was tedious, wearisome, exhaustive and rigorous in its literal sense. And yes, my lector is part of it. Which is the reason why I partially detest him at this point. My bad mood at the observation session was enough to make me thinking of starting an anonymous blog just for the cause of defamation. Thank god my mood got better after a plate full of food and a sachet of Antangin JRG (thanks, Lucky!). Now at least I can refrain from saying ugly things of him.

Then, before the weariness wane, we had to participate in ITB Expo, which require us to decorate our booth. A. Lot. Of. Work. Shall I say I am overwhelmed? You're a useless slug if you haven't figured that out.

For the next two days, I gracefully evade the hubbub in our booth by signing up to adjudicate the debate tournament, hold as a part of ITB Expo itself. Little did I know that it's not a saving grace. The debates were awful. Hideous. Dreadful flaws of logics. And the food was too salty on day one.

But finally it ends, with a relief I prepared for my midtest on stellar physics. Again, it did not go well. Means there'll be a lot of hard work on final exam. Yukk. As far as the chains of exams went, interstellar matter was a decent one. The same can be said for galactic astronomy, but not for cosmology and astronomy lab, where I cannot recall anything I memorize the night before.

My anguish did not end there, because shortly after my last test or the week ends and I prepare to immerse myself with the bliss of all-night online to cheer myself up, I was barred from happiness! Aaargh! Because I have to pay attention on the meeting for the astronomy students association, hereafter shall be known as h*, one of the most lethargic body I joined as a part of tradition. As usual, delay and late was to be expected, and a scheduled one-hour meeting has to be extended to 3 hours!

In order to preserve my sanity, I get away, to embrace a sound presentation of logic at SEF's training for upcoming alsa ui ecomp. But I did not get what I seek, instead, I got provoked by the pricks working for campus bureaucracy, as well as by my peers, particularly with one’s attitude.. Little fool! Miserable miscreant! And total hypocrite. I have no other word to label someone that can openly say demeaning remarks of "dia kan bego" on jobs requiring English proficiency while in the same time do not know what the word entitled means.

And walked back ho h*, my little hope of get-together escapade to a cinema dissolved into thin air. And I found myself brazen and blatant, kicking things, made a mess on my room when I got home.

So, now what? I've done four ice creams today, and hardly feeling any better, yet painfully aware of the rapid thinning of my wallet. Tons of laundry to do, a room to clean, assignments to do. I feel the very need to punch somebody's light out right now. Can anybody blame me for choosing Get Set Go – I Hate Everyone as my song of the week?

One last thing: help me to refrain myself from saying or writing ugly things about these same people in the near future, will you?