Thursday, August 28, 2008

On August 28th

It is now official. I hate cheerful people in the morning. And people trying to be nice at 2 am.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

On August 27th,

I'm having a good time at the 2nd international olympiad on astronomy and astrophysics farewell party. Music. Food. Dancing.
Bersama orang-orang paling norak yang bisa anda pikirkan. Who means the world to me.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

What I think on 'What the World Think of God'

For a politician, Imran Khan certainly is not compelling, nor persuading or convincing. How did he get elected? Meanwhile, nun Wendy Beckett is certainly more concerned on packages than on what really matters on discussion. And I found that simply distracting. And frustrating.

Regarding the poll numbers, for Indonesia, we pray a lot[1]. but mostly its because we're in poverty, similar to Indian novelist Sagarika Ghose's point of view to why Hindu ranks highest on praying frequency. 

Interestingly, only about one in four people in Indonesia claimed that they had studied religious text[2]. This may explain the reason why we're short minded and easily agitated in regard of whether a particular thing offend our religion(s). 

However, most of the reason why people in UK don't believe in God is because of the sufferings in the world[3]. Conversely, we're in Indonesia seems to be the ones who live through the suffering but we ranked top 3 as the most religious nation[4]. Is watching more painful than living? 

As the show progressed, the blame game question puts UK as country with highest proportion of finger-pointing people on the poll, while Indonesia has the lowest, with a mere than 8% agree to "I blame people of other religion for much of the trouble in the world."[5]

A very good show from BBC, overall. I'd recommend it to all of you, reader(s).

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Bonus: complete snapshots of the statistics and quotes shown at the show, here.

And apparently I have trouble putting link from each reference point to the respective image, so you can just head off to the album. Hope I can fix it asap.



And apparently it was not a recent show. but still a good show, nonetheless. see their website here

Rambling#2: non semper erit aestas

Me: Everything that can possibly go wrong went wrong.
Farah: N What was that? Ss (spesial sambal-red) tutup? :p
Me: Now that's a scary thought. 

But really. on July 31st, one of my friend told me that I need to reach Bandung by Aug 4th at the latest to process my final project plan. Seeing no need to hurry, I arrived aug 4th in the morning. At precisely 9am, I was told that the administration closed on Aug 1st. A good waste of energy and money for train.

I began distributed translation works to some at July 27th, giving a week deadline for everyone. Made an exception to one particular, being promised that he would have done it by Aug 4th. Not only did he did not finished it, on precisely Aug 4th, he just began to transfer the work to someone else without me knowing! Effectively deterred the completion of the work by 2 days.

All parts of translated document sent back to me to be compiled before final submission. Found two pages left untranslated. She insisted on her claim that she had translated it all. After two weeks' worth of haggling, it turns out that she had mis-attached the document.

Assigned a paper for me to read since two months ago. After cross-checking, apparently I downloaded and printed the wrong paper. Though it's not like I already able to digest the content just yet. 

Humming happy songs when found out that my leadership workshop application got through. Happily confirmed my attendance in the next workshop. Only after got in Bandung again I realized that the workshop will be hold in the same date with the series of events accompanying the Astronomy Olympiad, one I'm highly expected to participated in. 

Return back to klaten on Aug 10th, hoping cheery thought, fun with everyone else. But then found out that cheery hope is futile. Danti is being hospitalized. Arry is swamped with his last week of work. Cindy is stuck with KKN. Meanwhile, the TV tuner I brought for my sister was rendered useless, as one very important piece of cable missing.

Had it not been because The Dark Knight and the fact that now I officially no longer SEF president, the last two weeks of holiday would deserve a special tag of hell on Earth. 

Manila Misadventures #3: Fruity, Fishy, Feisty

Selama kami tinggal di Makati, kami berjalan-jalan ke banyak tempat (benar-benar jalan kaki!), tersasar ke lebih banyak tempat, dan nge-mall di berbagai mall yang ada. Namun ada satu tempat yang patut disebutkan disini: Balikbayan Handicraft (hereafter BBH), yang mirip kayak Mirota Batik gitu lah. Barang-barangnya juga banyak yang mirip kayaknya (ga pernah ke mirota batik juga sih, tapi mestinya ada patung-patung kebo, mangkok2, kerang2 dll).

BBH ini punya cabang dimana-mana, kami sendiri lihat-lihat yang di dua tempat: Makati dan di dekat Ilalim Ng Tulay (literally under the bridge, dan tentu saja, kami sempat nyasar lagi pas menuju tempat itu). Ilalim Ng Tulay ini adalah paduan antara kolong jembatan Pasopati di Jl Kebon Bibit Bandung (karena di bawah jembatan), Pasar Balubur di Tamansari (karena di sebelahnya ada pasar basah), Malioboro di Jogja (karena kiosnya berasa di Malioboro, tapi lebih lengkap Malioboro), BNI cab. Tamansari (bau deket TPS) dan Pasar Ikan (karena baunya amis-asin ikan asin dari pasar basah).

Sayangnya, level persuasi menawar kami dimentahkan oleh ibu-ibu penjaga kios di sono. saya mencoba menawar pin bendera filipina kecil-kecil dari 35 peso ke 15 peso dan ibu-ibunya ketawa dong. Terhina, dongkol, dan jaim, saya meninggalkan si ibu pedagang itu, bersumpah tidak akan merendahkan harga diri dan membuang-buang uang saya untuk hal-hal trivial seperti oleh-oleh! (25 menit kemudian saya deketin lagi nawar jadi 20 peso tapi beli 15 biji dan tetep diketawain lagi). Jadilah saya tidak membelikan oleh-oleh massal semacam gantungan kunci kayak pas saya dari Thailand/Singapura dulu. Ya sudalah, ga bawa oleh-oleh ga patheken.

Tapi omong-omong oleh-oleh, waktu di Makati, jarak 5 toko dari BBH ada semacam toko suvenir juga (lupa namanya), yang mengaku sebagai toko suvenir pertama di Manila, kalau saya ga salah inget. Dan di toko inilah Uphie menemukan benda ajaib berlabel Peni Fresh seharga 50 peso. Yang dari labelnya sudah jelas kalo itu adalah allusion buat peni(s). disamping gambar tangan yang merogoh.. uhm. Ada juga pasangannya, sabun warna pink berlaber Fem Tight. Gak perlu dijelasin deh disini, hohoho.


Namun yang bikin kami penasaran dan ketawa-ketawa ga jelas selama kami di Manila adalah rasa heran, kenapa TUTTI FRUTTI nya dicetak kapital. dan kenapa pula rasa Tutti Frutti? hehehe.

Belakangan baru saya tahu jawabannya, dari blogpostnya Liza: poin #14. Tahu begitu kan saya beliin satu buat Liza biar dipake Fajar deh. heheheh. *kaburrr*

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Bonus: complete album can be found at My Opera, or at my Facebook photo album.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Earlimart - Hymn and Her

This was my best find for last month, when the album literally accompanied me everywhere, including the Manila Misadventures, and the trip back to Klaten afterwards. I know I'm a sucker for song with 'oohs' and 'aahs',  notably on track "Time for Yourself."

One better review of the whole album. It seems that the original page has been removed, for whatever reason I don't know.

Although the excitement has somewhat waned, I found this just in time. One that I can heavily associate with myself. Worth quoting from its lyrics, 

"In my heart, I've always known/I gotta be happy alone/So burn the mail, destroy the phone/I'd rather be happy alone"

But why happy alone? I'll say that

"Love is difficult.
For one human being to love another human being--that is the most difficult task
that has been entrusted to us. The final test and proof, the work for which
all other work is merely preparation."

Though the last quote is from Brothers and Sisters, a serial I've been meaning to write about. But that would be all from now.