My Random Journey and Passions

When a Honey Bee Queen is Stung to Death by Her Workers: A Phenomenon of a "Democratic" Incident in North Sumatera

2009-02-03T12:22:00.082-05:00

There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust - Dorothy Thompson

Entry #12321-1:
Another soul has rested in peace, in the name of democracy. Another descendant of Adam and Eve has fallen as victim, in the name of democracy. When subjects turn barbaric, they are even more violent than a pack of starving wolves. They even dare to prey on their own pack leader, the alpha male. A similar incident happened recently in North Sumatera, when a group of people demanding for a new province (somewhat similar to a state, here in the U.S.) has caused the death of the Province Chief of the People Representative Board, (Alm.) Mr. Abdul Aziz Angkat. The chief is suspected to be attacked to death by participants and was even previously held hostage. Recent followups suggest that people are blaming the lack of security that causes this incident. In my view, this implies that such anarchist democracy practice is permissible, and it is the duty of security guards alone to prevent such incident. I argue that this phenomenon is a manifestation of a misunderstood democracy, and hence all elements of the social system are to be blamed. But then again, is this how democracy supposed to function? What makes subjects take over absolute power in such violent manner?

What Went Wrong?
Ever since the fall of the late former President Soeharto in May 1998, Indonesia has since misunderstood the concept of democracy. In my view, Indonesia is, and still is, learning the gist of democracy. And the result is, however, the rise of many demonstrations whose agenda ranges from one that truly represents and conveys voices of subjects to one whose participants just want to appear on mass media and create social sensation. By all mean, I do not intend to dispose the political system of Indonesia which I personally believe have successfully progressed. I applaud the government and his subjects for their effort. The problem lies within the subjects, who are learning democracy by hands on experience (learning by doing) rather by proper education and socialization. As a result, people seem to perceive that democracy means demonstration, an organized form of protest by a group of people. But the government is also to blame for his incapability to control his subjects.

I Would Like to Request for an Audience with His Majesty: A Historical View
In the past, during medieval times when monarchy is the only known governmental system, government, particularly the sovereign, owns the absolute power to control his subjects. However, absolute power tends to bring out greed and lust for money and power and is thus abolished or, if not, undermined to certain extent such as that practiced by the United Kingdom and many other existing monarchical nations.

In comparison to the focal issue of this essay, monarchy has successfully controlled its subjects and guaranteed security for the government. Subjects (are forced to) abide to regulations and etiquette on how to greet, to meet, and to express their voices and opinions to the sovereign. Almost all monarchies allow for personal "meet and greet" between each subject and sovereign, whereby the mechanism dictates that a subject request for a formal audience with the King (or the Reigning Queen) and the King is to address all concerns the subject expresses. During the late 18th century in France, however, the practice had been diverted whereby sovereign held audiences only with nobles and ignored voices of commoners; thus infusing the French Revolution in 1789.

Today's practice of audience between government and subjects has been enhanced to a more justified method that allows for all elements within a social system to be heard.. This is a result of the ideology of equal opportunity. Democracy is said to be "from people to people." I view that democracy is a manifestation of energy transfer within and between social systems and thus can be controlled and even be manipulated.

A Social System: Democracy as a Manifestation of Energy
Indonesia is, like any other nation, a social system which is "organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships." And as a system, Indonesia consists of a variety of persons, families, organizations, communities, societies, and cultures; all that define the notion of subjects, or agents as do many sociologists opt to define. The social system theory, developed by Niklas Luhmann, posits that a "social structure is seen as comprising the relationships themselves, understood as patterns of causal interconnection and interdependence among agents and their actions, as well as the positions that they occupy"(Lopez & Scott 2000). Such causal interconnection and interdependence form what is believed to be relationship as well as energy. In essence, a social system generates transfers of energy or information, within and between persons or groups of persons in a social system.

This energy may appear in forms of 1) capacity for action, 2) action, and 3) power to affect change. I believe that the philosophical perspetives of democracy embody all such forms. Democracy encourages the capacity for action, democracy induces action, and democracy infuses power to affect change. The philosophical gist of democracy defines the possession of power by people, and thus abolishes the absolute power of a (small) group of subjects, which in the past is possessed by monarchs. In common practice, government, hence, is viewed as a group of subjects, as opposed to an overprivileged group of people such as those of monarchy, who represents the people. This is one form of democracy, which is called the representative democracy. Other forms include parliamentary, liberal, constitutional, socialist, meritocracy, etc. Despite its various forms, democracy stands on one definitive keyword, the people.

Disbelief and Violation of Trust: Demonstration and Its Chaotic Appearance
Trust is a relationship of reliance. Trust is a mental state, which is intangible and thus cannot be measured directly; but the effect is visible. Trust is an important and integral idea of social influence, meaning that trust eases persuasion and influence of an individual who is trusting. Affection and respect are common results of when trust is successfully gained. When trust is violated, however, the trusting individual will definitely react negatively as a result of disappointment and it is very hard to regain trust from him (or her). In relation to the focal issue, when subjects begin to distrust government, they start to react to reinforce their concerns and will as far as replace the government which could turn into violence. This reaction almost always forms demonstration, however some reaction may be an assassination of a member of government in the worst scenario. In essence, almost all kinds of demonstration are triggered by distrust.

In my personal observation, there are three types of demonstration based on the intention of its participants and the amount of its participants. Such demonstrations include:

Demonstration that truly represents the voice of subjects. This type of demonstration can be bloody as it often turns violent. The mark of this demonstration is the amount of its participants, which is massively huge, and it is always sporadic and distributed everywhere within the social system. Every element of the social system initiates to voice his or her concern over, usually serious, issues that threaten the existence of the social system. In a political system, this type of demonstration marks the revolution of political paradigm. In essence, this demonstration is a clear manifestation of a loss of trust of subjects toward their government.
Demonstration that conveys certain specific, or even political, agenda. This type of demonstration is less likely to be violent since its participants are trying to retain the positive image of the (political) group (or party) they represent. The amount of its participants is much smaller compared to that of the first type of demonstration. For political purpose, these participants often derived from the opposing group and they tend to nay-say or refute any policy and regulation of their counterpart, which is the government. The opposing group can be seen to have lack of trust toward its counterpart but it can also strive to defame its counterpart. However, this type of demonstration does not always convey political agenda as it can be a demonstration by a small group of civilians addressing certain social issues such as raising safe-sex practice awareness to prevent STDs, stop-smoking campaign, peace in Gaza campaign. However, this social-issue type of demonstration can also be steered or organized (i.e. manipulated) by certain political party with hidden agenda. This type of demonstration is very common.
Unclear demonstration with no important agenda. The issues brought up are almost often unnecessary to the welfare of the social system. The participants are often those who just want to seek fame, create social sensation, and appear on TV. Most people are able to perceive and determine that such participants comprise of a very small group of people who have nothing better to do and just waste their time and energy marching the street, carrying pamphlets and boards.

What Can be Done?

The first type of demonstration is often very hazardous and the second type has the potential to be hazardous as well. It is the duty of all elements within the social system to ensure security and safety of their social system. Violence on the first type of demonstration is unavoidable since almost all elements within the social system react as a result of distrust while the government desperately counteracts to defend his authority. Although bloody demonstration seems to be unavoidable for the first type of demonstration, prevention and caution can be applied to the second type of demonstration. As a mere observing civilian and an outsider, I am incapable of determining the type of demonstration that happened recently in North Sumatera. However, I am personally certain that this demonstration can be categorized as the second type of demonstration based on its agenda and the amount of its participants within North Sumatera as a social system.

I contend that the government raises issues with demonstration and introduces more proper and civilized ways to express concerns and opinions. Government is indeed responsible to guarantee security, safety, and education of his subjects. As with many aspects of relationship within a social system, expressing concerns and opinions needs to be further regulated and violators need to be penalized. Often in practice, it is the outcome of the incident that is used for penalty, such as charging the ones responsible for death in this case. The regulation and etiquette for formal demonstration are there however they are not fully comprehensive and they are not sufficiently socialized among people. Such lack of awareness results in common perception that it is alright to march down the streets carrying pamphlets and boards whenever a group of individuals want to express their concerns and opinions. It is not sufficient to report your intention to demonstrate protests to local police station and to have security guards assist you while you are voicing your opinion! The government needs to raise awareness of the negative impacts of demonstration such as political and economic instability and distrust, horrendous traffic jam, business slowdown, etc.; all which are the lesser degree of negative impacts of demonstration. But most importantly, the government needs to raise awareness that democracy is not always equal to demonstration!

People need to be aware that there are other methods to voice their opinion and have their concern addressed by the government. But most importantly, people need to be rational and wise when they choose to march down the street. They need to consider the negative impacts that can inflict themselves, the opposing party, and many other civilians that have nothing to do with the agenda. Demonstration participants need to be highly organized and coordinated to avoid unintended third-party participants who wish to create instability (and obviously defame the agenda you're trying to express), and to ensure security and safety of themselves, the opposing party, and other civilians. Moreover, people need to be aware that demonstration should only be permissible if there is no other way to voice their concern. In other words, people should perceive demonstration as their final and desperate move to voice their opinion and concern when the opposing party, or the government, seems to be ridiculously stubborn. Other than that, demonstration is just a waste of time and energy that inflicts instability to the social system as a whole.

When you think you're starting to distrust your partner, negotiate with him in a rational and more civilized way. You cannot just march down the street every time there is an increase in the price of gas. You need to learn to trust the government, let the government do his job! It is our duty to ensure Indonesia to mature as a democratic nation.

RIP - Mr. Abdul Aziz Angkat

Scholarly References:

Lopez, J. and J. Scott (2000), Social Structure, Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.csub.edu/~rmejia3/Social%2520Systems%2520Theory.ppt&ei=iWCKSbIToZu3B9iMmZ0H&usg=AFQjCNHDTHqkAYyjqm5tPWmDJ0CG-rJ8LQ

Mere Words from the Heart: A Journal of the Autumn Hype

2008-11-13T12:17:00.044-05:00

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart - William Shakespeare

Entry #11803-1:
Pianissimo [It's 12:00 noon. These lazy eyes are staring at the window; staring at those yellowish and brownish leaves, which most of them have fallen. The gray sky gives a gloomy feeling and the road is dampened with few puddles here and there.]

Fall season is on its peak nowadays. The weather has been steadily cold lately, around 50 degrees (or around 10 degree Celsius). Trees are starting to get bald, leaves are messing roads and contraptions everywhere. I was planning to give a presentation on my paper for my independent study and then work in my office when suddenly I woke up with soreness all over my body and a slight soreness on my throat. I cross my fingers that this will not take into a more severe effect. I need my health to realize my plan up to February.

Particularly in this kind of weather is when I miss my Madam the most. Ah, her cute voice, her warmth, her picturesque, angelic face. Ah, her stories: what she's done at school, what she does with her "Josephine" cadaver, what she does to spend some time with her roommate(s), and how she plays and interacts with our unborn. It's going to be another 2 weeks until I meet her again, on the week of thanksgiving, which will be on the 27th of November. It is the same day when I was born 30 years ago and the same day my Parents vowed to spend their lives together in a holy matrimony 31 years ago. It's interesting that I was born a year after my Parents wedded and how the last Thursday of November is the day of thanksgiving here in the states.

Pianissimo [These lazy eyes turn to the corner of my bedroom. A little messy I must say: plastic bags, a sport bag, and a small luggage are laying on the corner of my bedroom. I don't actually dwell in this bedroom; it's not my original escape, definitely not my haven. After 6 months, I will finally bid adieu to this bedroom.]

I don't consider where I stay here in Richmond my permanent residence. I always feel Northern Virginia is my home here in the states. Northern Virginia, and all other parts of Washington D.C. area, is where my family lives: my Uncle and his family, my second Cousin who is of my age, my distant Aunt and her family, and my In-Laws who live in Rockville, Maryland. I know, I know, not-permanently staying in Richmond does not lend me an excuse for being unkempt. The only thing I have in this bedroom by the way, is an airbed, pretty much giving you the idea of how I feel that I don't belong here.

I live about 40 minutes away down to south from downtown Richmond. It's a nice suburb area with many white Americans dwelling here. It's interesting to see the demographic distribution in the states. That stereotype, rubbed on our faces by those Hollywood movies, by which the area where black Americans and Hispanics dwell is often for real. Often this area takes place if not in the downtown area or in the east side of a city. This is the area that people call the ghetto, the slum area where the crime rate is often slightly higher compared to the crime rate in other areas of the city. Interestingly, almost all cities in the states have their ghetto area in the east side. At least based on my experience living in St. Louis-Missouri, Washington D.C., and Richmond-Virginia. On the other hand, the west side is often filled by those mid-to-upper class white people. This area is often a convenient place to live with many family-friendly facilities. Midlothian, where I live, is not so much of a difference from the west side of Richmond. But its comfortable and convenient atmosphere sort of makes me feel unmotivated most of the times. I don't normally work from home cause I feel unmotivated once I'm home. But interestingly, this is not the case when I'm originally home in Arlington (D.C. area).

Pianissimo [These lazy eyes now turn to this laptop screen, staring at two electronic documents I composed earlier today. These documents have just been delivered to their proper owner, the one who is going to determine my future. The one who has been kind enough to me; the one with an extraordinary patience to deal with my tardiness.]

As I have managed to overcome my problem with anxiety, there emerges a new problem: I have become a bit of a laid-back type of person, if not too much that this causes a lot of delays in my daily schedule. I know, I know, it is something that I must deal with; a tardiness that has put many as victims. It's my way of overcoming that uneasy feeling whenever I'm bound to tight schedule and unmerciful deadlines; that essentially I'm not going to die just because I'm being late. Yes, I learn to overcome this in a not-so acceptable way.

Pianissimo [These lazy eyes turn to the window once again. The aura of the sky looks steady, the air seems motionless, the remaining leaves drip water drops. Rain has seemed to pour while these lazy eyes stare at this virtual diary of mine. I have seemed to be suspended in this bogus moment as I'm recording my life in this virtual diary.]

The bald trees mark the hype of autumn
The yellowish brown leaves announce the peak of autumn
That stream of melody applauds the gloomy sky of autumn
Streaming in harmony with the pouring rain of autumn

Whatever happens on this lane is mine
Whatever bursts in agony in my mind is mine
How autumn shreds this sanity in me is mine
How autumn steals my symphony away is mine

The small puddles celebrate the height of autumn
The motionless air stays to tell fairy tales to autumn
The cold weather is chilling with autumn
Streaming in harmony with the grayish sky of autumn

How autumn laughs at my face is mine
How autumn mocks my dignity is mine
Wherever I run to is mine
Wherever I stare at is mine

The ants hide away from autumn
The squirrels shy away from autumn
This tempo sways along with autumn
Winter lays her head in the upcoming death of autumn

Wherever I point at is mine
Wherever I dwell in is mine
Whatever I am mimicking is mine
Whatever I have done...
...is deceiving this humanity of mine

Midlothian, November 13, 2008
Muhamad F. Nasution

Note: the second picture on this entry belongs to Kris Cahill.

The Mirage State of Mind

2008-11-04T20:42:00.009-05:00

When the desert deflects the mirage again
That tune freezes, parting melody from the wind
I'm left tone deaf, blind
Dust and sands collide... This is all a deceiving blend

When a boat docks to a pier
I'll be in ecstasy, that reflection shines even brighter
Oh... but empty, static, oh... but gloomy
I'm running again, on a mere odyssey

When thousands of bubbles burst
Do you know which one I am?
Do I have to make the loudest burst?
But I'm helpless, it's just all the same

When a petal drops to the river
Am I the only one to see the ripple?
The current swallows the flicker
Should I dip my hands and grab that fate?

When the moon shies away in a partial eclipse
A grasshopper stunned, a snake lurks for a feast
No longer is his reflection in this pond
Just as I emerge from this state of mind

Frankly, I can see, I can hear, I can think
This playground is my comfort zone
Nothing differs, nothing excels
But I hate that new swing

Frankly, I can see, I can hear, I can feel
I stop and I hum
Go ahead, spin that ferris wheel
Near or far... They're just the same

Arlington, June 29, 2008
Muhamad F. Nasution

Entry #XX0:
It's been a while since the last time I recorded my life in this virtual diary. A lot of things has happened to me, Alhamdulillah. I am now a husband to a beautiful and greatest wife on earth, and a father going to be (the wife is now 6-month pregnant). Yes, I'm still a doctoral student and I haven't even done with my coursework, BUT, I've proposed to take the comprehensive exam on February 16, 2009, several weeks before my child is due. So I come close to actually becoming a doctoral candidate =) Yes, I'm still residing in the states and I'm looking at another 7 to 15 years at the very least to return home for good. But frankly speaking, I do miss my family back home, I do miss Jakarta. But whatever happened to me is of little interest. I do not intend to compose this particular journal to blab about my whereabouts.

You would wonder why I wrote this poem. This poem was kind of random, I composed it verse by verse while actually got fed up writing paper at around 3:00AM. I would see this poem as a helpless civilian's shout to dictatorship. So here's the thing, consider lethal circumstances similar to what happened in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta, in May 1998. By lethal I mean increasing prices, crowding out investments, increasing number of unemployment, and skyrocketing interest rate. With these attributes, you could expect a verging reformation or revolution followed by humangous civilians massacre. This administration turn-over often deflects the "mirage" truth, i.e. situational fallacy.

But not until circumstances become lethal, we just choose to watch and hum, and let status quo spin the ferris wheel. We do realize that the falling petal causes ripple on the river (let's just call it increasing number of unemployment) or that the snake preys on the grasshopper even during lunar eclipse (let's call this increasing interest rate). But before things become lethal, who'll notice such fallacy? Hey, we're just one of those thousands bursting bubbles. Like it or not, these fallacies look just the same as if nothing happened, what say you?

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2007-04-14T17:13:00.001-04:00

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

The Cradle of Spirituality

2007-01-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

I named thee voracious
To greatly consume my anger
To greatly devour my anguish
To greatly swallow my angst

I named thee redemptio
To free me from the plethora of sins
To save me from deceit
To bring me supremacy

My vigor voracious
Where art thee?
Why dost thou restrain?
I repell my jolly as to long for you

My immortal redemptio
Where art thee?
Why dost thou retreat?
I have failed to repent to this universe

I adore thee
Albeit this hatred I carry in my heart
Worship is my ship
A contraption to our promised supremacy

I admire thee
Albeit this ridiculous thought I have about you
Love is my sword
A weapon to save our supreme universe

Please return.....
I'll be waiting.....
For supremacy.....
For eternity.....

Dedicated to all holy souls of this universe. "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so." -- William Shakespeare

Fari Nasution, January 7, 2007 @ Glen Allen, VA

My Teaching Philosophy

2006-12-07T03:42:00.000-05:00

The next essay is part of the requirement for my "Seminar in College Teaching" class. Hehehe, I just realize that I might become one of those demanding professors =p If you're thinking to take any of my classes, be prepared for a lot of hard works! =)

Teaching Philosophy

The pedagogical philosophy that I am using as a teacher in the field of business and management is to foster critical thinking of dealing with real-world problems in business and specifically in information systems. Critical thinking, problem solving, communication skill, and the ability to work as a team are essential skills needed for (future) managers to survive the competitive world of business. Having been an undergraduate student in computer science and a graduate student in business information systems, I found that the core concept of these combined areas is to utilize Information Technology (IT) for the benefit of organizations. However, I believe that it is rather delicate to capture the real-world problems of IT utilization to classroom. Through my past educational experiences, the case-study approach is an excellent tool to introduce students to various current issues of IT utilization and dealing with real-world problems of IT utilization. Hence, my primary objective as an instructor is to advance the issues of IT utilization beyond theories covered in textbooks and field articles so that this knowledge are applicable in real-world problems. In the end of the semester, I expect students to be familiar with issues dealing with the use of IT in organizations and to be able to work as a team.

In an attempt to achieve this objective, I will adopt the use of cognitive learning strategies introduced by Weinstein, C. E. I believe that students are knowledgeable of my field to certain degree and fostering such a strategy will entice exciting classroom discussions. I believe that coming to class prepared is essential to succeed. I expect students to have read some concepts from textbook(s) or assigned article(s) and be prepared to discuss such concepts in real-world setting (e.g. by using case-study approach). In this way, knowledge is transferred not only between me, and the students, but also among students themselves. In practice, I will present concepts and theories unearthed from textbook(s) or assigned article(s) through conventional lecture, and students are expected to apply these concepts to group presentations by using materials from the assigned case(s) and textbook(s) and/or assigned article(s). Group presentation will arouse students’ ability to work as a team and to communicate their knowledge and thoughts professionally. In addition, I believe that the use of conventional exam(s), (pop) quizzes, and individual term papers will arouse students’ ability to think critically and solve problems individually. As an instructor, I would expect certain degree of freedom to design and select the reading materials in addition to the core textbook(s) the school required. Additional reading materials include case-study materials (e.g. the Harvard Business School (HBS) Case materials), and news or academic articles. To avoid overwhelming students, however, I agree that there are different styles and methods to facilitate learning for undergraduate level and graduate level. Although I expect the undergraduate students to have certain degree of familiarity with IT utilization, I realize the raw understanding of what IT is among these students. Graduate students should have more experience in terms of their academic and professional backgrounds. I would assume a more one-directional teaching style when dealing with undergraduate students since I will be the main source of knowledge in the classroom. On the other hand, I would expect to better utilize the cognitive learning strategies when dealing with graduate students so that they can learn from each other’s experience and knowledge as well. My perspective is to treat undergraduate students as individuals and prepare them to work as a team and to treat graduate students as groups of knowledgeable individuals. Despite the demanding and the rigorous nature of my course(s), I expect to witness the learning process that students experience as a team and as respective individuals rather than the outcomes.

Although I emphasize learning process rather than outcomes or products, I believe that the use of conventional assessment is, still, a relevant and most powerful tool to measure students’ learning progress. I will assess the rigorous effort that students undertake and the performance students demonstrate on various projects and assignments. Certain criteria will be assessed based on performance rather than content when certain required skills are deemed more necessary. For instance, oral assessment and task distribution of group presentation are the more essential variables to assess as they convey communication skill and teamwork. Comprehension assessment is more appropriate to assess on quizzes, exam(s), and individual term paper(s). The degree of content comprehension demonstrates critical thinking and problem solving skills. As for the goals that I require students from different academic levels to achieve, I believe that the degree of evaluation varies between these levels as well. As individuals who are learning to work as a team, I encourage undergraduate students to primarily achieve critical thinking and problem solving skills. I emphasize individual efforts on undergraduate-level works; Group works are considered a secondary tool for undergraduate level. The opposite is expected for graduate-level works as I assume the participants are more mature students. To what degree should I consider my expectations have been successfully met? I expect and see my undergraduate students to grasp the contemporary issues of IT utilization in organizations and possess the skills needed to survive as (future) professionals. I expect and see my graduate students as responsible individuals who can teach one another and become leaders in their respective fields.

I realize that as a human being myself, I am not the most reliable source of knowledge for these people to rely on. By designing the learning process in such a way, I hope to learn from these bright individuals in return. Knowledge and thoughts I receive from my students may help me keep track with my own field and research. And I hope to be able to return this favor through teaching the newer generation by formulating these insights into better knowledge. I realize that I may not be capable of addressing each student as different and unique individual. Information systems field develops rapidly and is a field that was born from such disciplines as management, psychology, computer science, and economy, and coping with each individual’s cognitive style is a challenge itself. Without undermining each student as different individual, I emphasize more on delivering contemporary issues of information systems and that is my duty as a teacher. Taking the religious point of view, I believe that teaching profession is one of the most noble and prestigious professions God has ever bestowed upon us. We, professors and/or instructors, are responsible for creating experts and professionals by sharing our respective knowledge and expertise and this is how we, teachers, contribute to make the world a better place to live.

Kermit the Frog - The Rainbow Connection

2006-12-03T13:35:00.000-05:00

This song brings back memories when I was 4 or 5 year old in France. This song is the opening theme of The Muppet Movie (1979). Even until today, this song makes my eyes warm whenever I listen to it. Well, the point of this song is, believe in what you're doing, no matter how irrational it might seem to others. Only you who understand the reason for doing it. And in the end, you're the one who'll be glad that you've done it, and the others might be happy too! =) Don't forget to turn the music on the left-side navigation off to enjoy the video.

Lyrics

Kermit the Frog - The Rainbow Connection
Written by Paul Williams

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it,
And look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

All of us under its spell,
We know that it's probably magic...

... Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
... Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm s'posed to be...
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

Laa, da daa dee da daa daa,
La laa la la laa dee daa doo...

Stranger than Fiction OST? Help!!!

2006-11-29T19:51:00.000-05:00

Yep, as the title said, it's all about a song! I ain't gonna cover anything about the movie but overall I like it. I went to watch it at the cinema in Rockville, Maryland with my girlfriend last Saturday (November 25? Oh yeah, it was November 25 =p) It's a good movie, I would rate it 4 stars out of 5. My main concern here it's about this song, a sweet, jazzy song. You can hear it scatted by a female as a background music when Will Ferrell's character and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jake Gyllenhaal's older sister) 's character were cuddling in front of TV on the night before Will's character was "supposed to die." (woops, sorry, spoiler =p) This song continued to play until they went cuddling on bed (but they were not making love. The background song when they were making love, which was before this scene, was "Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric)

This song goes "La...la...la...la..." and nothing more. The first time I heard this song was when I was in middle school. It was a piano instrumental song. So, to make matters worst, I can't find this song by simply "googling" it. It's easy if there's a lyric to it, whenever there's a song on the radio and I instantly fall in love with it, all I need to do is to memorize a piece of sentence of the lyric. I "google" it when I got back home, and voila, the artist and the title of the song show up. All I need to do later is to "limewire" or "ARES" it with the artist name and the title of the song (oops, I know it's illegal =p). But what about this song? I found the OST album sold anywhere online and these sites have audio samples of this OST. But none of those songs is exactly what I'm looking for. And I'm sure of it, cause although I don't know that song, I'm actually familiar with it. I even left a message on a discussion board at amazon.com (click here to look at it), but no one replies yet. I think I'm starting to lose my sanity cause this song keeps haunting my head. I keep humming this song as if it's tattooed on my mind! HELP! SOS!

Random Blab.....

2006-11-23T13:33:00.000-05:00

*Yawn* I've been "hybernating" a lot lately =) Richmond is cloudy and it has been rating these couple of days. I hate rains! It just makes me lazy and makes want to crawl in my comforter. Well, today is Thanksgiving. *Huff* Some Thanksgiving. Last year I was excited since a Thanksgiving would mean a half-day of work =) *aaaahhh, those days back in the World Bank* But this time, I'm left with a bunch of articles to read, as if they are calling my name "Faaarrriiiiii, I long for your tender warm eyes. Read. Read. In the name of God." *wait a minute, this sounds familiar? =p* But this freakin' weather just seems to mess up with my reading appetite.

I can't wait till December comes. I would go to NoVA (Fairfax) more often, like prolly 3 or 4 times a week. Visiting my girlfriend and wushu!!! God, I miss training a lot. I went for some wushu last Saturday, my body was aching for 2 days! Frankly, I never stretch at home so I think my body couldn't take that kind of harrassment no more =p Even my right ankle still hurts a bit today. But I promise myself, gotta get that purple sash by the end of January next year. It was funny when I stepped into OMei last Saturday. I was excited to train again, I always love the forms that I'm doing now. I love seeing my friends once again. But in the same time, I'm sad since some people that I'm close to are not there anymore. I miss Stephon, Fabienne, Li Yang, and Nhan. I mean, sometimes I think that OMei would never be the same without them. And it's true.

I'm torturing myself with this song, Les Nubians "Makeda". It brings back memory on April 2006. Some of the best days of my life. My *tedious and routine* job at the Bank and rushing to OMei in the evening. Training with my close friends (those that I mentioned above). Hanging out with them almost every weekend. During those days, I listened to this song every now and then. Everytime I listen to this song, it really brings back memories of OMei and all of those training and hanging out *sigh*. I will see them this Sunday afternoon, hopefully, for lunch. Just can't wait to see them. It feels like ages already =)

ICIS 2007

2006-10-13T02:24:00.000-04:00

PERCEPTION AND DIFFUSION OF IT: GAINING SUSTAINED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

ABSTRACT

There is no doubt that IT has contributed major impacts on various socio-institutional contexts (e.g. firms, industry, or society). Firms, in particular, are in huge dependency on IT as a technology artifact that is capable to achieve sustained competitive advantage. However, a firm consists of a hierarchical structure of individuals and each individual perceives IT as an artifact to increase one's power and influence as well as to help firm reaches its goal, which is sustained competitive advantage. This paper uses bibliographic research to investigate how IT as a piece of artifact is perceived, accepted, and adopted by individuals in an organization, diffuses among the hierarchy structure of a firm thus affecting organizational behavior, and achieves sustained competitive advantage.

Keywords: IT artifact, sustained competitive advantage, IT acceptance, IT adoption and diffusion, organizational behavior

Yep, I came up with that abstract couple of days ago. This is supposed to be elaborated as a research paper for the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) on December 2007 at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Well, I'm not gonna be presenting alone though, my classmates and my Professor will colaborate with me. This is a chunk to a larger research paper. But *sigh* this is such a big conference. It's considered the most prestigious gathering of Information Systems academics and research-oriented practitioners in the world. It's tough to get paper published at this kind of conference.

I consulted this abstract to a third-year IS Ph.D. student at my school, overall she likes the topic. But she said the research method (bibliographic research) used in my abstract would get my paper nowhere. Well, what to do? I'm a first-year IS Ph.D. student, and the only research method that I've learned so far is case study research method. I'm taking qualitative research method and the philosophy of science class this semester and I'm planning to take the quantitative research method class 2 years from now before doing my Ph.D. comprehensive exam (so I'll be able to take applied multivariate analysis and applied linear regression before taking quantitative research method). Well, back to the main problem, bibliographic research doesn't have the rigor to make a "research" scientific and presentable enough in academia. Well, I haven't learned more qualitative methods though as this is just the mid semester. There are more qualitative methods to be covered for the rest of semester, which are action research, ethnography, grounded theory, etc. Well I'm in a middle of educating myself in grounded theory though, as this concept is required for my work as a Graduate Research Assistant. This method will actually be covered some time in mid November, so I'm one month ahead of my classmates =) But I don't know, the Professor hasn't given me a feedback on my abstract so I don't know whether I should change the research method. I don't know, I personally like this topic and I'm planning to evolve it to be my dissertation topic in couple of years from now (and I'm planning to use quantitative method instead). What do y'all think?

The Real Life of a Ph.D. Student: Part #1

2006-10-08T01:13:00.000-04:00

Alas, it's been 5 months since I posted something here. Many things happened to me in the past 5 months. I went back for a 1 1/2 months vacation in Indonesia, I got myself a new, cool apartment (but kinda expensive for 1 bedroom apartment in Richmond), I got a girlfriend (yep, peeps, a girlfriend!!! And that lady of mine is very beautiful), and I've turned into a nerd because of these overwhelming reading assignments for this Ph.D. program I'm doing =)

Well, what to say about my vacation in Indonesia? Uhmm, Jakarta has turned into a city of malls!!! Many new skyscrapers can now be found around the downtown (Sudirman street and Thamrin street.) The Government should do something with the traffic though, cause it's getting even more ridiculous (believe me, if you're used to driving in a country with strict traffic law, you don't wanna drive in Indonesia.). They should try to add more comfortable and safe public transportations (please get over with the monorail train project!) and add huge taxes for households that have more than 2 cars and those whose car is over 10 years old. What I did was just going to Batam Island on my first week in Indonesia and visiting my families and my close friends (hey Rico, I was trying to look for you, I sent you e-mails, like twice, how come you did not get back to me, even until today?)

The first week back in the U.S. was already terrible. I drove back and forth Fairfax and Richmond, putting stuffs and buying furnitures. Even until the first week of school, which was in the mid of August, I would still be assemblying my furnitures (I love these furnitures! Thanks to Ikea =D) and went back to Fairfax in the middle of the night cause I couldn't sleep over at my own apartment (my Uncles helped me assemblying my bed on my last day of going back and forth Fairfax-Richmond. Thanks Uncles =)). Then my body couldn't take it anymore that I got cold (it was very bad that I lost my voice). The apartment where I live is called "The Gardens at Twin Hickory". I love where my apartment is located, at the back of my apartment you can find Super Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Food Lion, Short Pump Mall (this is a huge mall! There's Nordstrom, Dillard's, Macy's, Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Apple, Bose, Brookstone, etc., you name it! They have everything in this mall except for Banana Republic and Aerpostale!), Target, Lowe's, Gamestop, Starbucks Coffee (there are even 3 branches, one of them is inside the mall.), Barnes & Nobles, Wachovia (there are even 3 branches), Staples, Blockbuster, Midas (one of the busiest branches in the U.S.), Jiffy Lube, Citgo (I'm their loyal customer =p), Bowl of America, Regal Cinemas, Best Buy, Circuit City, a fitness center, many kind of dry cleaning and alteration, and a lot of fastfood restaurants (in case I got too lazy to cook). You name it! Twin Hickory is a new community located at the back of Short Pump and it's a quiet and safe place to live (I hate living around campus cause those undergrad kids who just got their first experience to "see" the real world, living away from their parents, would always be loud and wild on weekends. Rebelling from their parents rules. Jeez, grow up will ya!!!). Even though there's a huge mall at the back of my place, that doesn't mean that I go there often, and as a matter of fact, I've been to the mall just once! (I shopped for a cologne, and just explored the mall). Places that I visit often are, of course, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Citgo, Food Lion, and Lowe's (when I need to buy new bulbs) for grocery shopping. Despite the apartment's monthly rent, I LOVE where I live =)

Another thing why I haven't been able to explore Short Pump and Richmond a lot is because I got to visit a beautiful lady at Rockville, Maryland every weekend =) (besides the fact that I'm not really interested in exploring the surrounding area of my apartment.) I've been single for a very long time, even for half of my age, so it's kinda weird for me that now I'm in a relationship =) We're trying to be as communicative as I can despite of our busy schedules. She's an Indonesian like me, and Alhamdulillah, a Moslem and she comes from a very devout Moslem family. She's currently working full-time as an assistant to a lawyer and as a waitress at a cookies store (Mrs. Field's Cookies). Just so you know this, she is very beautiful (need I describe her physical appearance?) and I'm not being bias and subjective just because I'm her boyfriend (my Brother and a lot of my friends admit that she's very beautiful). She has a very cute and soft voice. Overall, she's very ladylike, something that I really treasure from a woman. I love her very, very much and I get along very well with her family (her Mom is a great cook, her Dad is very nice and very kind, and her Brother is cool. I wish I could spend more time with her Sister though but she's a student at Virginia Tech so she's only home during school breaks.). We, my girlfriend and I, share a lot of same personality traits and I'm glad that she's a person who really values privacy. She's not demanding at all and she really understands my crazy schedule as a Ph.D. student. Although we may not talk on the phone that much and that long (we only call each other for like, every other day, three times a week, and only for like 10 minutes.), but we know that we'll be there for each other. In January 2007 she'll become a student at the University of Maryland - Eastern Shore, majoring in Physician Assistant. She plans to go to a medical school after graduating the Physician Assistant program in 2 years. Gee, I'm very proud that my girlfriend will become a medical doctor =) Thank you Mayang and I'm sorry that I can't visit you next weekend (aaarrrggghhh, those reading assignments have stolen my social life =( As if I had a social life before =p)

Now, this is the root cause of everything, why I move to Richmond, why I quit my full-time job at the World Bank (which many people think it's a pity), why I can't see my families (my Uncles, Aunts, and Cousins) and my girlfriend as much as I want to (I even sacrifice wushu although I'm still paying the tuition-fee). I am now a full-time Ph.D. student at VCU's School of Business and a part-time Graduate Research Assistant to one of the most famous Information Systems researchers in the U.S. A Ph.D. program is very demanding! Doing a Ph.D. program is not like doing a Masters program (or even an undergrad or Bachelors program), so do consider getting a Ph.D. if and only if you're really into research and academia! First of all, let me describe how the classes (seminars) work, which affect my daily life. Most of Ph.D. classes are held during daytime, in the late afternoon (except for statistics research method courses, which are held in the evening cause these are Masters level courses). So you can never assume that the way these classes are conducted is the same way as Masters level classes are conducted. Professors (of course, they must hold a Ph.D. degree and be at Associate Professors level) do not act as teachers, they act like moderators or hosts in talk shows (such as Oprah Winfrey or Jay Leno). Most of the times, they learn together with us cause the reading assignments mostly consist of new academic journals, so they're learning together with us to keep themselves up-to-date to the current researches in their respective fields. We, the Ph.D. students, are the ones taking control of the classes; we discuss and debate the assigned articles. The Professors just assign reading assignments (and the amount of reading is crazy and overwhelming!!!) and pick which students are going to present or lead the discussion on some particular articles. Well, they still grade you though cause anyway, they are the instructors (although they don't act like teachers or instructors during Ph.D. level courses). Sometimes the Professors will assign us to read a book (and I mean the whole book, 200 something pages for a week) along with the assigned articles. So, one class usually demands at least 3 articles per week, at most 7 articles per week with one book. One article usually consists of somewhere between 8 pages and 38 pages and one book usually consists of somewhere between 75 pages and 250 pages. I'm taking three 3-credit classes this semester (there's another one, which is a 1-credit class, but this class doesn't need that much reading assignments). 3 articles x 3, so I have to read at least 9 articles per week! Sometimes it can be 15 articles and a book per week! The one week assignment is like one semester assignment for a Masters level or an undergrad level course. Not to mention my duty as a Research Assistant, which sometimes costs me more than 20 hours per week (my supervisor is the School of Business' Associate Dean, so of course I have to be an assistant to both a Professor and an Associate Dean. But we get along very well. I think because we're both East Asians. I respect him very, very much and I wish someday I could become as famous as he is in the IS researchers community.). And I'm also sitting in for an Intermediate Microeconomics class (I'm not allowed to register for this class since this is an undergrad level course, so I won't get credit for this) to prepare for the Advanced Microeceonomics Theory class next semester (now this one is a Masters level class and I will be given credit for taking this class.). Yup, this Ph.D. program really stole my social life, I've turned into a nerd as a matter of fact =p (I chatted with 2 other first-year Ph.D. students last Friday, and we all agree that at this point we've turned into nerds and had no social life =p We laughed dramatically at this fact =p) But call me crazy, I really LOVE and ENJOY what I'm doing now. Although at some point I got fed up of reading journals and books, writing papers, and making powerpoint slides presentation (have you ever felt like throwing up every time you look at a pile of papers?), I'm not complaining what I'm doing. I love writing and now I've developed passion for doing research. Getting a Ph.D. program is very rewarding to me, it makes me feel smart. Your fellow Ph.D. students are some of the brightest people you've ever met and Professors do not treat you as a student anymore; they treat you as their colleague. Most of the time the Professors will invite you to have coffee and chat for topics ranging from current research to even personal life.

I'm really looking forward to my first symposiums, one on March 2007 at Jacksonville, Florida, and another one on December 2007 at Montreal, Canada (McGill University). I'll be presenting my papers, which are my semester research projects for my 2 IS major classes this semester, the Decision Support Systems class and the Information Systems Strategy class. I found a topic on the DSS class (all I need to is to write the abstract and find some research articles that relate to my topic) but I still don't know what to do for the ISS class. I'm very anxious about the fact that I'll be presenting my works at major IS symposiums cause, of course, the participants are IS Ph.D. students and IS faculties from other universities (I'm terrified to think these bright people would ask questions on my works during the discussion session.). All in all, it's easier being an employee at the World Bank than being a Ph.D. student. But this is very rewarding cause I can put this experience (and my works) on my resume. Now you all see why I have no time for myself. But how come I have time for updating this blog then? =p Guess I'm currently fed up of studying =p

4 Things

2006-06-05T12:45:00.000-04:00

Hehehe, I just got the chance to do Rico's homework now.....=p I've been extremely busy these past days, well, this is my final week at the World Bank. Well, I'm gonna tell you all the rest on my next post, where I have been and what I've been doing, but I got a promise to keep for now.....=p

4 Jobs You Had in Your Life
a. Student
b. Programmer Analyst at Pertamina (full-time intern)
c. Web Programmer at BPPN (IBRA)
d. Business/Research Analyst at the World Bank
Note: I've spent 90% of my life as a student!

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over

a. Any classical Chinese Kung Fu movie (or TV series)

b. Rat Race

c. A Walk to Remember

d. Home Alone 2

4 TV Shows You Love(d) to Watch

a. The Golden Girls

b. The Nanny

c. Friends

d. American Idol (or any singing-talent show or Idol show. I think I'm gonna be rooting for Indonesian Idol when I'm in Jakarta this June to August 2006 =p)

Note: notice that 75% of my favorite shows are sitcoms. I just love shows that crack me up like crazy!

4 Places You've Lived

a. Jakarta (Indonesia): for most of my life

b. Paris (France): for about 5 1/2 years

c. St. Louis (Missouri, U.S.): for about 2 years

d. Washington, D.C./Fairfax (Virginia, U.S.): for about 1 year.

Note: I will be living in Richmond (Virginia, U.S.) this August 2006 for the next 4 to 5 years!

4 of Your Favorite Foods

a. Pasta! (I don't care whether it's marinara or it's alfredo)

b. My own combination of Padang cuisine: Nasi Kapau, Rendang, Sayur Nangka, and Perkedel *yummy*

c. Any Japanese food

d. Korean food: Bibimbap with Bulgogi

Note: I really, really hate seafoods! (my apology to all seafoods lovers =p) There was one time when my little cousin Rishah couldn't finish her dinner (she always orders a huge menu but then isn't able to finish her meal). It was Pad Thai (Thai Fried Noodle) and I always love Pad Thai. But when I started to devour this meal, I sensed some seafoods aroma and tears started running down my cheeks (I wasn't crying, but whenever I eat or drink something that I trully dislike, tears just run down from my eyes). I started to pay close attention to the food, there were lots of small shrimps in it! I had no choice that I had to finish the food cause it was gonna be a non-stop trip from New York City back to Fairfax. But the very odd thing (many people find this bizzare and hillarious) is that I love sushi and sashimi! Hey, I did say that I love any Japanese food, didn't I? =p I used to hate boiled eggs (but I love omelette), but now I've overcome it. Still I prefer the Balado one instead of the plain boiled eggs.

4 Websites You Visit Daily

a. My Yahoo! Inbox

b. Liputan6.com

c. Aquabotanic.com (I'm thinking about becoming an Aquarist; fishkeeping and aquascaping seem to be fun and challenging!)

d. Petsmart.com (don't ever think of making fun of me by saying that I'm doing my online grocery shopping here =p)

4 Tagged

a. Ricorea

b. Wulan

c. Budi

d. Chris Sexton

7 Business Lessons from "American Idol"

2006-05-25T12:12:00.000-04:00

My own review: Okay, now the show is finally over with Taylor Hicks crowned as the new American Idol. I came across this article, 7 Business Lessons from "American Idol" as I find it very interesting (well, I got a Master of Business Administration, or MBA for short, title behind my name). It kinda makes sense how phenomenal this show is, last night votes for the new American Idol casted for over 64 million votes! Even more than votes received by any President in the history of the United States. I guess the movie "American Dreams" starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid and Mandy Moore is a good satire to this phenomenal show. This movie portrays how Americans prefer to vote for a pop idol over their own Presidents! =p

This season show is extremely phenomenal (drawing viewers and voters for over 30 million each week and over 64 million for the finale showdown) that it makes other TV networks in U.S. to reschedule their shows to avoid competition. The numbers here are viewers and voters of the U.S., imagine how much the number will add up (I can't count the voters since voting is only available for U.S. viewers) if we include viewers from around the world! This show is also a marketing tool for established pop stars or musical icons to boost their popularities. Guest stars for this season only have been (in no particular order) Kenny Rogers, Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli, David Foster, Barry Manilow, and Rod Stewart. Last night finale presented Dionne Warwick, Meat Loaf, Prince, Toni Braxton, and Mary J. Blige! It's like watching the Grammy Awards. Anyway, this article was taken from Small Business-MSNBC.com (click these bold words for link to the original article). This, is, "American Idol" (quoting AI host Ryan Seacrest, every time the show starts).

7 Business Lessons from "American Idol"

Business lesson #1: If you're looking for a business idea, remember that everything old is new again.

The reality TV way:

"American Idol" may seem like an original idea, but this American TV series was based on entertainment entrepreneur Simon Fuller's British series "Pop Idol", which basically borrowed elements from musical variety shows from the 1950s and 60s ... which in turn were taking ideas from the radio shows of the 1940s and 1930s ... which took ideas from 1920s vaudeville shows ... which -- well, you get the idea. The only sort of new idea "Pop Idol" presented was to offer a cash prize at the end of the series, but even that had been done recently in series like "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (another take-off on a British show) and as far back as game shows during the 1950s. Obviously, nobody has to invent the wheel -- you just need to come up with a wheel that looks flashier than the last one.

Your reality:

Whether you want to start a business or already have one, there's always a twist you can bring to your company, no matter how removed from Hollywood entertainment it is. In Washington, D.C., there's a dry cleaning service that -- at least for a while -- was known for playing matchmaker for its single customers. In Silicon Valley, there's an entrepreneur who has a hair salon that's does business in three buses so they can go to their customers' houses and clip and shampoo hair on the premises. In Dallas, the Cafe Izmar has no menu -- when you go, you just find out what's cooking that day. And in California, the multilocation Legal Grind Cafe offers legal advice in a coffeehouse.

It's not hard to be creative. Just think outside the box: Start a maid service that specializes in only cleaning children's messy bedrooms. Or a petsitting service for fish. The key is to be useful and different with a pinch of fun -- everything that "American Idol" arguably is.

Business lesson #2: Spread the wealth. If you can get other companies to give you money and you help them get rich off your product, you're going to be very well off.

The reality TV way:

"American Idol" has this lesson down to an art. Their show has millions of viewers dialing exclusive numbers on the Cingular Wireless network. Exactly what kind of money they're generating from this partnership isn't public knowledge, but Cingular is clearly doing well. For instance, in 2005, the voting system produced 41.5 million Cingular text messages. In the quarter that just ended in March, Cingular reported a 9 percent increase in revenue and a profit of $350 million, attributing that increase partially to "American Idol". And no wonder. They sell ring tones of "Idol" performances as they happen, and they recently produced a service that permits the 70 million MySpace subscribers to sell their own "Idol"-style karaoke performances as ring tones through the MySpace site.

Meanwhile, Ford gives away cars on the show, and Coca-Cola is the official sponsor of the series. They're everywhere on the show, from the Coca-Cola Red Room where the remaining contestants meet after their performances to the cups of Coke placed inconspicuously throughout the program.

And while "American Idol" scratches Coke's back -- like sending their contestants to NASCAR's Cola-Cola 600 -- Coke is also promoting "American Idol". As Coca-Cola spokesperson Susan McDermott says of their relationship with the series, "It's given us a lot of opportunities to involve local markets and take the 'American Idol' experience outside your TV screen."

Your reality:

No matter how big or small your business, you can always find a useful partner, and both of you can benefit from the alliance. Provided you're each serving the same market but offering different solutions for them, it makes sense to have a friend you can count on.

If you have a popular restaurant, for instance, you could offer to sell snacks or foods to a local bed and breakfast or hotel -- at a reasonable discount -- provided they talk up your place and hand out restaurant coupons. Or if you have a tutoring service, you might offer your city's biggest school free in-school tutoring once a week, or free seminars on how to study, provided that the schools are promoting you. If you own a pet store, you might want to team up with a local kennel or doggie day care. They need supplies, like dog bowls and leashes; you need more customers, which you'll get from the free promotion they'll give you. You would obviously promote their service in return.

Business lesson #3: Foster enthusiasm among your customers.

The reality TV way:

It's the viewers, not the judges or producers, who choose the winners of "American Idol".

Your reality:

You can find ways to get your customers involved in your business. If you have an art gallery and willing artisans, you could offer customers the opportunity to pre-pay and have something custom created just for them, which could be as involved and expensive as having the artisan meet one on one with the customer or as fun and whimsical as having the customer fill out a multiple-choice quiz on what they're looking for and then wait to see what the artist creates for them.

Some customers don't want to be involved in your business -- they just want what you have to offer and want it fast or cheap. But a lot of people are creative, and if you can offer people the opportunity to be involved -- and even better, offer an experience -- they'll actually you pay you more. Why do you think people go to farms to pick out their own pumpkins or strawberries? It may be backbreaking work to the laborer who has to do it all day, but for the family who wants to spend a few hours in the sun, it's fun. You may design handbags and see it as work, but your customer might love the chance to help create the look of their own purse.

Business lesson #4: Get your employees to talk reverently about your business.

The reality TV way:

Everyone involved in "American Idol", from the show's host Ryan Seacrest to judges Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell talk about the series whenever they get the chance, even when they're working on other projects.

Your reality:

You can have your employees talking about your business, too, but it obviously needs to be in their best interest to promote your company at all hours of the day. Since that's in your best interest, too, come up with some reason for them to love your business, whether it's offering some form of profit-sharing, or simply having pizza parties once a month or even once a week when sales are up. And keep in mind that what you choose to do for them will really depend on the age of your employees: A fully salaried middle-aged man with a family is going to have different interests than a teenager who waits on customers just a few nights a week.

Business lesson #5: Get the public to talk about you.

The reality TV way:

Paula Abdul's alleged affair with one of the shows contestants, Simon Cowell's withering putdowns, the controversy around the fairness of phone call judging -- the news out of "American Idol" may not always be good, but people are talking about the show, and watching it, and purchasing the products involved with the series.

Your reality:

We're not suggesting you try to become embroiled in a scandal, but publicity is certainly important to spread the word about your business. It often comes when your business can offer a new twist on an old idea (see Business Lesson #1), but there are dozens of other ways to get people talking about your company.

Get involved in community projects. Or get a local celebrity to endorse your business in some way. Offer a free or low-cost seminar or workshop that draws people in. Provide your employees with an unusual perk, like letting them bring their pets to work on Fridays (which could just be the talk of the town, if your company is in a small town). Or paint the outside of your business bright pink or green or orange, or all of the above, depending on the message you want to send. The important thing is to make sure that your business isn't invisible.

Business lesson #6: Brand yourself.

The reality TV way:

"American Idol" owns all the licensing and trademarks associated with the show, and they have every contestant under contract for three months after the series ends. Meanwhile, there are "American Idol" clothes, thermos mugs, watches, iPod carrying cases, clocks, track bags, videos, DVDs -- and numerous other products for sale at the "American Idol" online store. The point is, as much as possible, "American Idol" controls its image and makes sure its name is out there for the public to buy.

Your reality:

You may not be able to get the public to buy T-shirts or thermos mugs featuring your auto supply store on them, but you can still make sure that everyone knows your business is the best. You could have a contest for your customers: Ask them to write about the best experience they've had at your store, and give the winner a free tank of gas, or more, if you can afford it. Then send the winning essay and list of winners and runner-ups to your local newspaper, and use the essays in your ads. Considering how valuable gas is these days, you might get a lot more attention than you've ever dreamt of.

The critical thing to remember is that you need to get your name out there, attached to what your business does, in a creative way. If you can enter competitions or get your name positively mentioned by your peers -- at a trade show, for instance -- that can be even more helpful. You want to be the driving force in branding your business, but if you can have the public or your peers saying you're a great company, your credibility and brand are going to be even stronger.

Business lesson #7: Once you have your idea up and running, keep thinking of new twists to add to the mix.

The reality TV way:

The show's creator, Simon Fuller, could have said, "I'm satisfied with 'Pop Idol'," and just called it a day. Instead, he spun that show off into "American Idol" -- and also created "Indian Idol", "Indonesian Idol", "Malaysian Idol", "Latin American Idol" -- and many, many more. More than 100 versions of "Idol" exist around the world.

Meanwhile, host Simon Cowell started his own production company, creating series that are arguably similar in vein to "American Idol", like ABC's "American Inventor" and the upcoming NBC summer series, "America's Got Talent". Ryan Seacrest is constantly reinventing himself as a host. And Paula Abdul has recovered some of the popularity she once had as a pop star. In fact, many of the people behind "American Idol" are constantly dreaming up new ways to expand their empires. Partnering with Sony, "American Idol" has albums that showcase its contestants talent, and they have a summer concert tour.

Your reality:

Franchising is one of the best and most tried-and-true ways to expand your empire -- and that's just what Idol is doing around the world. If you don't want to franchise, though, there are always new markets to find. If you own a car wash, for instance, you could eventually expand to wash buses and large trucks. You could send crews to individual homes or neighborhoods to personally wash cars. You could develop your own brand of automobile soap and start selling it to other car washes and auto stores. You could write a book about washing antique cars. You could have a car show at your car wash once a year and draw in thousands of people.

Of course, it costs money and time to pursue new ways to bring in income, but if your product or service is the best in town -- and if you have the imagination -- there's no reason the public won't rally to your cause. If you want to have business students at your local high school or university bow before you, you, too, can be an "American idol".

Intermezzo 10: How Will You Die??

2006-05-24T11:54:00.000-04:00

You scored as Posion. Your death will be by poison, probably because you are a glutton and are around so many people that it would be easy to get away with it. Several important people in history share your fate.

Posion

80%

Natural Causes

80%

Bomb

67%

Suffocated

60%

Cut Throat

53%

Gunshot

53%

Disappear

53%

Stabbed

47%

Eaten

40%

Suicide

40%

Disease

40%

Accident

27%

Drowning

27%

How Will You Die??
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American Idol 5: Elliott Yamin

2006-05-19T12:58:00.000-04:00

Source: Wikipedia.org

Elliott Yamin (born Efraym Elliott Yamin on July 20, 1978) is an American singer who is best known for being the third place finalist on the fifth season of American Idol. Elliott (pronounced yah-meen) was born in Los Angeles, California to an Israeli Jewish father, Shaul Yamin (of Iraqi heritage) and a Jewish American mother, Claudette Goldberg. He began singing at the age of five and had no formal training. As a child, he suffered from allergies to grass and pollen. Yamin is 95% deaf in his right ear, which he mentioned in the third round of the semi-finals. When he was eleven years old, he moved to Richmond, Virginia and attended Tuckahoe Middle School. At the age of seventeen, Yamin was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and has to wear an insulin pump. He attended Douglas S. Freeman High School in the West End Richmond neighborhood until he left in his sophomore year. He went to work at Foot Locker and with the help of his employer, he eventually received his GED. He later worked with a jazz band, DJed for a radio station under the name "E-Dub", and worked at Westbury Pharmacy, a job he left to audition for American Idol. Elliott auditioned for American Idol in Boston (he originally considered auditioning in Memphis, Tennessee, but the audition was cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina). Elliott performed "A Song For You" (which he also later sang in the finals) and made it to Hollywood.

Yup, my most favorite contestant has been voted off on last Wednesday's AI elimination show (May 17, 2006). I can't believe how I have become so attached to this show, and particularly to this guy. I have never, ever before favored or idolized someone as much as I did to Michael Jackson when I was a kid. When I just started to watch AI this February 2006, I just thought I would just enjoy this show as it is "just" a talent show packed in a reality show. I've never watched this show before because of my evening classes when I was doing my MBA at the Univ. of Missouri - St. Louis, and I did not recognize this show back when I was in Indonesia. I first caught my eyes on Taylor Hicks (who still remains on the show and is predicted to be this season's American Idol replacing the currently reigning Carrie Underwood), but although he has a lot more charisma, I just thought that his stage act is kinda ridiculous. I still was not interested enough in this show (I even left the TV several times during the show) until I came accross this "ugly" guy who sang Stevie Wonder's "If You Really Love Me". I was completely stunned and amazed. I was like, whoooaaa, where did this guy come from? I don't remember seeing him on the Hollywood Round show. I started rooting for Elliott Yamin ever since. He got more of my attention when the following week, he sang James Moody's "Moody's Mood For Love", which is considered one of his best performances on the show. I really, really love his voice and the genres that he adapts, soul, R&B, and jazz; all of these are the only genres that I choose to listen to over and over again. This guy might have some ups and downs results during the show, but he remained strong until May 17, 2006. Guess the power of AI has finally metled me as I "kneel down on my knees" in front of this guy.

Elliott's story is one of the perfect examples of the realization of the expression "reach for the stars no matter how high they are" or the famous proverb "shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". Some have described him a perfect realization story of Cinderella. On a physical term, you should be able to notice his physical transformation on the top picture above, which was taken shortly after the Hollywood round when he made it to the top 24 back in February 2006, to the second picture above, which was taken during his latest performance, Tuesday, May 16, 2006. This shy guy, who only did karaoke performances and couple of gigs with a jazz band, has turned into a major international superstar, thanks to the power of AI. Before the show started, he was just an average high-school dropped out who worked as a pharmacy store clerk in Richmond. He admitted that he was "lost" before he joined the show. But now, look at him. His unfortunate background has contributed to how humble, sincerely nice, and emotionally kind he is. I'm not making this up, if you've been watching the show throughout this season, you would have clearly noticed the golden personality traits of this guy. An average guy who really loves his Mom, his family, and his friends. Even during the episode in which they showed clips of supports from families back in the contestants' respective hometowns, Elliott clearly mentioned that he missed his family and friends the most and emotionally cried after he watched the clips made especially for him (unlike other contestants who said they missed their hometowns' cookings.). But then, as the clock ticked off on May 17, 2006, Cinderella has to go home to Richmond.

Unlike one of the remaining contestants the other night, who said that she doesn't talk that much to her parents, live, on TV. I've been noticing the cocky attitude of Katharine McPhee lately, and this has turned me off as being a McPheever fan. Her body language whenever she receives comments from the AI judges and especially, her too early celebration of her victory over Elliott the other night clearly turn me off. But most importantly, an idol should never say that he or she doesn't talk that much to his or her parents, live on TV. What kind of image is she trying to build up anyway? I am no longer a McPheever fan and now I'm rooting for Taylor Hicks to receive the "idol" crown for this season in an attempt to block Katharine's chance to get the crown (I will vote for Taylor next week, I will!)

But to me, the real idol is still Elliott Yamin. Not only because of his singing talent, but also because of his exceptionally kind nature (you should watch his AI Exit Interview. Really emotional and humble.) This funky white boy (nicknamed by AI judge Paula Abdul) is loved by everyone and if you watched the other night's show when they showed the clips of the contestants' parades in their respective hometowns, you would see how crazy the crowds were on Richmond. You could see how much he is loved by the citizens of Richmond. I was at Richmond on the same day (Friday, May 12, 2006) to take care of my academic matters (class registration and administrative matters) and to get a tour on my future apartment. I was planning to join the parade and watch him throw the first ball on the local baseball game, but the tickets were sold out and I couldn't bare the risk of getting lost in Richmond. At around 3:30 PM, after I went to VCU Graduate School of Business office, couple of the main streets/roads that lead to the downtown of Richmond were blocked, as if a President were planning to visit the city. I figured that I better went home although I kinda regret my decision at that time. But hey, if I move to Richmond this August, there might be a chance to see him, am I right? So why risking myself in a city that is still foreign to me?

Well, for the time being, I will miss his live performances. I just hope that he'll get a recording contract deal so I will be hearing more from him. I hope his story will end just like how Cinderella story ends. Good luck Elliott!

Resigning: A Draft Letter

2006-05-10T10:52:00.000-04:00

Dear all,

It's been a great journey to work with you here at the World Bank. I have gained a lot of experience and surely applied the theories I received at school. This August 2006, I will be back to school and become a student once again. However, due to my optional practical training restriction as an international student, I will have to resign earlier than August 2006. Friday, June 9, 2006 will be my last day of work as I will be receiving a new I-20 form, making it not possible for me to continue my work. I cannot mention any of you here one by one but again, my sincere gratitude for your guidance while I am part of the big family of the World Bank. I hope we can still keep in touch. You can contact me by sending e-mail to attar1297@yahoo.com or by cell-phone: (703) 589-4784 . Thank you.

Fari Nasution
Business Analyst
Information Solutions Group - Enterprise Administration
The World Bank
1850 I Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
E-mail: mnasution@worldbank.org
Phone: (202) 458-8703

How did My Blog Change My Life?

2006-05-05T10:03:00.000-04:00

Well Mbak Tina (Zeventina), here is the "homework" you assigned me to do =p At first, I completely forgot about this (gomenasai =p) but then I was reading those comments on my shout box (Nosy Section) when I found yours and realized I haven't done this yet =p Uhmm, let's see, why me, making and writing this blog? How this has changed my life? Uhmm, it all started back in October 2004, shortly after the Indonesian Night 2004 event at the UM - St. Louis. I kinda wanted to follow the steps (what a copycat =p) of my other Indonesian friends that I was (am) bonding with because of that event. Most of them at that time had blogs and all of them used blogger as their "trusted" domains =) I read some of their blogs and was inspired of how carefree and intelligent they are to express their ideas and their feelings. Some of them even write intellectual topics in a highly artistic fashion (the topics, the chosen words or language). They trully inspire me (I don't need to mention names here, you know who you are). Through blogs, we can see the owners' personalities and the way they think, the way they view their surroundings and the world. You'll get to know them, what they have been doing, their pasts, etc. This envied me back then =p Then was born, "My Random Journey and Passions" and this blogging thing soon became a trend among the Indonesian community in St. Louis until now.

For me, my blog is a piece of art, my work of art and I treat it as my electronic diary. Although I selectively write what's in my heart and what's in my mind to avoid controversy (I'm not that brave and no offense to others who are having or have been having controversy just because of expressing their feelings), I always try to be as honest as I can. Of course, I couldn't bare to lie to myself. My blog is a medium to communicate with my family and my closest friends, to let them know how I've been doing lately and what my plans are when phone calls, messenger chats, or e-mails are out of reach. Also to introduce them to the other side of me and to share with them my past, my sorrow, and my joy. My blog is my medium to practice my english writing skill. It surely helps me get 5.5 out of 6 on my recent GMAT Analytical Writing section (5.5 is similar to 87 percentile, which is, of course, considered very high). Well, indeed, I discover that I love writing. Some of my non-Indonesian friends (my wushu friends and my co-workers) were amazed of the length of each of my entries. "Jeez, you write so long. I usually write a short entry, a paragraph or two, or even just one sentence", said them. My blog helps me discover my other talent, which is writing poems. I used to hate poems when I was little. I hated seeing those classmates of mine (during the K-12 era), crying out of fake while reading patriotic poems during the Bahasa Indonesia subject. PHOOEEEWWW!!! You don't need to exaggerate with those fake tears just to get an A! That made me hate patriotic poems. But when I read poems by Wulan and Freddy (and recently Budi discovered his talent in writing poems as well =p), I was moved to write poems myself. I treat poems as the media to express my feelings that I feel will greatly cause controversy. I hide them behind many symbols. So, when you find any entry entitled with "Intermezzo bla..bla..bla...", and the content is a poem, expect me being overly happy or overly upset about something or of someone during the time I post that poem =p

My blog is also a medium to introduce readers to my taste of music. Many, many times I state that I'm a music lover and I love to sing. But of course, I'm very selective to the genre that I prefer to listen to. Expect to hear songs or watch music videos by artists in the likes of soul, smooth jazz, funk, groove, R&B, or pop. Yes, I'm very picky and my taste of music is not universal and I'm not affraid to say that =p Recently, I found that blog is also a medium to meet new friends who happen to share similar hobbies, similar favorites. That's how I found people such as Rico, Zeventina, Elisabet, Rahma, Enda, and Nita, whom I have never, ever met physically =p My blog has helped me discover things that I never knew I could do and helped me meet new friends. Conclusion, my blog is my electronic diary, the electronic journal of my life, and so you wanna know me? just sit back, relax, turn your PC's speakers on (turn them louder), and then read my entries. I think that's the new motto of this blog =p Although I will selectively write whatever I feel or think to avoid some people's dissapointment, I will write whatever I like, whatever I want here so forgive me if some of the entries might (will) upset you someday! This is, the journal of "My Random Journey and Passions".

Life as a Ph.D. student?

2006-05-03T15:13:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been quite a long time since my last post. I was very busy with a project that I did for my co-worker. Not just that, I've been busy doing small research on apartments in Richmond, VA, cars (I'm planning to buy a car by August 2006 when I come back from Jakarta), and of course, school and courses that I'll be taking for this Fall 2006. All of these were done during my breaks. Besides, I'm also taking care of my new laptop that is getting on my nerve lately. I have to return this thing to the manufacturer, Sager Notebook. This gadget is suffering infinite reboot every time I turn it on. Every time the Windows XP logo appears, the laptop will restart by itself, the same thing goes whenever I load it using Windows Safe Mode. I tried to reinstall it using the Windows Recovery CD, but the system fails to recognize the hard drive. What more can I do besides returning it to the manufacturer? All in all, no time to blog anyway ;-)

As I'm preparing my life as a Ph.D. student for this upcoming Fall 2006 until the next 4 to (probably) 6 years from now, I begin to wonder, am I ready for this? I don't care about the living though cause I don't mind living solitary as I'm not the kind of person who needs constant companions even during my breakdown times (a call to some of my closest friends is enough for me). But what scared me the most, is the rigorous, tough nature of the life of a Ph.D. student that awaits me in 3 months from now. I've been browsing these websites, ISWorld Ph.D. Page and IceWorld. The first one is sort of a portal that contains lots of useful resources for I.S. Ph.D. students and researchers while the second one is a blog written by various I.S. Ph.D. students around the world as a medium to share their experiences. All of the information I read kinda overwhelmed me. Am I really ready for this? The classes are not those typical classes you take even in the graduate (masters) level. I contacted my academic advisor, Dr. Gurpreet Dhillon, a well-known scholar in information security, to ask for the pdf or word file of a doctoral seminar course he'll be teaching this Fall 2006, yet he insisted me to visit him at VCU to talk about this face to face. His reasoning was that I will have to choose courses wisely cause these courses will greatly affect my research expertise and my future dissertation (these are not similar to the typical courses that I took in the past). Wanna know what kind of courses that I will (might) be taking this Fall 2006? Don't ever think that it will be one of those introductory to e-commerce, management information systems, database practical approach and such, these courses are seminars and research method courses such as:

1. MGMT 691 - Advanced Research Method (3 credit hours): Semester course; 1-3 lecture hours. 1, 2 or 3 credits. Study of current topics. Topics may vary from semester to semester.

2. INFO 691 - Doctoral Seminar in Information Systems (1 credit hour): SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDENTS ONLY; GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY; PHD CANDIDACY REQUIRED; Semester course; 1-3 lecture hours. 1, 2 or 3 credits. Study of current topics. Topics may vary from semester to semester.

3. STAT 643 - Applied Linear Regression (3 credit hours): Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: MATH 200-201, STAT 212 and MATH 310 or equivalents. An introduction to the concepts and methods of linear regression analysis. Topics include simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, the impact of model misspecification, model selection criteria, residual analysis, influence diagnostics, diagnostic plots, multicollinearity, transformations and response surface methodology. Applications involve the use of a statistical software package.

4. GRAD 602 - Seminar in College Teaching (1 credit hour): Short course (eight weeks); 1 lecture hour. 1 credit. Prerequisite: GRAD 601. Focuses specifically on the act of teaching. Graduate education in this country has only recently begun to address college teaching issues. While mastery of the discipline and of the research skills necessary to contribute to that discipline have long been a staple of graduate training, mastery of the knowledge and skills necessary for teaching the discipline are often neglected.

Notice that doctoral seminars and research method courses apply less than 3 credit hours and do not have detailed course descriptions. I'm like walking in the dark, I don't know what I will be facing. If it's not seminars or research methods, it will be math or statistic courses. Plus, I will be working for a Professor to pay for my school and earn my money. Being a planner, this sort of freaks me out. During my undergraduate and MBA programs, I could always ask those who had taken the courses that I would be taking. But who am I gonna ask for suggestions this time? Ph.D. program is highly individual, specifically tailored to match with your research interests, plus the size of the class is very, very small, up to 6 students at most. Besides, I've heard creepy stories about those who are facing the comprehensive exam, how some (or even most of the time) time you will feel like throwing up whenever you see a pile or a stack of research journals lying on your desk. I could end up having no life. The thought of me giving up most of my wushu training has already made me sad. I'm also sad thinking that I won't be able to see and train with my wushu friends as often as I do now (I'm planning to visit Fairfax, VA to train at O-Mei every Saturday, starting this August 2006). Am I gonna be able to finish these courses with satisfactory results? (I prefer to get at least a B of course) Am I gonna be able to give huge presentations in major conferences or consortia, in front of hundreds of other I.S. Ph.D. students and scholars? (the thought of these people giving critiques and asking difficult questions after I give my presentation has already freaked me out) Am I gonna be able to produce quality research journals and publish them in top I.S. academic journals? (such as MIS Quarterly or Communications of the AIS) Am I gonna be able to sit for the 6 to 8 hours comprehensive exam and pass the comprehensive exam? Am I gonna be able to teach, to become a good teacher? Am I gonna be able to finish my dissertation in less than 2 years? Am I gonna be able to become a Professor with good rating (such as those listed in RateMyProfessors.com website) or a well respected I.S. scholar just like my academic advisor? Or am I just being over-excited? God, please help me get through this. I must earn the title Ph.D. at the back of my name, 4 to 6 years from now!

The Busy Bee

2006-04-18T09:10:00.000-04:00

My co-worker is having her days off..... Hmmph, she left all her works to me, which keeps me busy these past days. I'm almost done with my (or should I say, hers?) works though, only 15% or 10% left. Before yesterday, I actually had 40% of my works left so you can say that I procrastinated almost the entire leftover tasks yesterday =p I was so tired I slept in the subway on my way back yesterday. Actually I didn't wanna go to train for wushu yesterday, but I promised the guys the day before (and it turned out one of them didn't show up =p). Went home when for the first time, I screwed up at home which really made the owners of the house mad at me =p FYI, I'm gonna confess, I'm really, really scared of insects (or bugs) that bite or sting! (I'm not afraid of cockroaches, spiders except venomous spiders such as Tarantula or Australian Black Widow of course, or worms though.) Cause to me, these are harmful animals that can fly everywhere and can land anywhere or on any part of your body and sneak inside your outfit and then bite you or sting you =p

I was enjoying my leisure moment, watching TV and munching on Ritz chips, when suddenly I realized there was a huge bee falling from the air vent! I started panicking (one more thing, I'm a person who can easily get panick and when I'm panicking, I don't think clearly =p It runs in my gene, my parents are like that =p) when I saw the bee (it was huge, black bee with a yellow spot on its back) crawling and flapping its wings between Sekar's old binder and 2 stacks of CDs/DVDs. Sekar who noticed my gesture (and who is even afraid of any kinds of insects =p) started panicking as well. I panickly grabbed a can of RAID, ant and roach killer, and started brutally spraying that bee. I know, I didn't think at all at that time although I did notice that it wasn't a spray of mist that came out of the can, it was more like a white, bubbly liquid. My thought at that time was I don't care what's gonna happen to the binder and the CDs/DVDs cause all I know is that I have to eliminate that creature first and then I'll start worrying the binder and the CDs/DVDs later =p Yes, I successfully ruined the binder, CDs, and DVDs =p (and of course, the bee itself, which Oom Marfi, Sekar's Dad, had to flush in the toilet.). The binder, and some of the CDs/DVDs stank and had some white spots or blotches on them. Don't get me wrong, I do love animals, but when I think they are harmful to me (and they can fly too), I'll kill them for my own safety for sure =p For the very first time, Sekar's parents yelled at me for ruining the binder, CDs, and DVDs =p (especially Sekar's Mom, Tante Tika, who was actually very tired after coming back from work. I terribly, sincerely apology Tante.) When I think of that, it kinda makes me sad but it tickles me as well (I laugh at it now =p), but well, I was an idiot and was acting childish though =p She was actually preparing dinner when she then had to clean up and wash the binder and some CDs or DVDs that got contaminated (some of those CDs and DVDs belong to someone else.). She was really upset that she refused my help.

But it wasn't for long though, a couple of minutes after that, we sat together watching a movie although they now teased me and made fun of me for being afraid of bee =p (they said that it wasn't actually a bee. It was some sort of a bug, I don't know what it was, but still it looked like a harmful bee to me =p) Now they know that I'm afraid of biting and stinging bugs and that I would become brutal when I'm panicking =p Think about it now, if only it was recorded on a video camcorder, it would look like some silly sitcom scene where I brutally spraid an insecticide and was mumbling unclearly (out of fear) and Sekar behind me was screaming =p But again, to me, this is some everyday scene that could happen to everyone who lives under the same roof. No matter how hard you try to become and to act innocent, you will have to screw up once or twice (but not too often as the others might become fed up and pissed off =p) in order to "introduce" the other side of yourself and in order to learn and understand each other. You'll understand that he or she is afraid of something or doesn't like to be treated in some sort of way, and vice versa. I didn't get this kind of experience when I lived in St. Louis cause my roommate, although nice and very helpful, was extraordinary individualistic (he almost never came out from his bedroom. He has 3 computers and 1 laptop, his own TV, his own TiVo machine, and his own microwave in his bedroom. He only came out to go outside, to use the bathroom, or to get some drinks or raw foods to be further "processed" in his microwave. Talking about quality time, we rarely chatted and never hung out together. The only thing we talked if it wasn't about electric, internet, and cable TV bills, it would be about classes and Professors at UM - St. Louis =p I had to run out of house and spent most of my weeks, sleeping over at others' places. That's how I became close to Wulan, Freddy, Edhy, and Budi =D). Once again, I'm sorry.

[Yaaayyy, my new laptop will arrive this Thursday, April 20 =)]

The 2006 Cherry-Blossom Festival Parade

2006-04-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

You might be wondering, why I did not post any American Idol review this week. Simple, as I said earlier, I hate QUEEN, so I think there's no value for me to post any such review =p I'm just gonna focus on posting the thing that really kept me busy for these past three weekends, especially on Saturday as I gotta go straight to the Indonesian Embassy for rehearsal, right after wushu practice. Yes, I, along with several cousins of mine, participated in the 2006 Cherry-Blossom (Sakura flowers) Festival parade, or precisely the closing of this festival, which dated back on April 8, 2006. I think (this is just my opinion though, I've never confirmed this) this festival is the only one made in U.S. in order to celebrate the coming of spring.

Washington, D.C.; April 1 & 2, 2006; 1:30 PM: First of all, I have to say I hate my outfit! We had to pick our outfits a week before the parade. The system was who came earlier got to pick earlier. So those terrible outfits were the leftovers, at least that's what I thought. So there I was, late because of wushu practice, got to pick the leftovers. It was actually a traditional outfit of my Dad's cultural background (tribe), North Sumatera. There were two types of this outfit, the traditional Indonesian style, and the traditional Melayu (Deli) style. I like the first type better cause it's a black trouser with an ulos sheet. The other one, the Deli style, is a plain blue outfit with gold embroidery, which I hate so much. Nonetheless, my cousin, Daniel Tobing (he's a batak as well), who got to the Embassy earlier than me, got to pick the cool one =p I got to wear the "golden blue" outfit =p (blah) Anyway, the parade was, I think, divided into four groups. My group (and Daniel's of course), which was with the Permias (Indonesian Students Association) Washington, D.C., got to be on the first row (we were to do a fashion show with some traditional dance movements to make it look interesting), followed by the kids group (this was the group which my little cousins, Rasha, Rishah, and Sekar got to be assigned. This group had a similar task to mine except that they didn't do any dance.). The second row was used by a group of young and older females, which was performing some sort of Melayu dance. The third row was used for Reog (East Javanese traditional dance) performance (this is the coolest part), and the last row was for Pencak Silat (traditional Indonesian's martial art) performance. Pretty long group, ain't it? =p Anyway, we picked our outfits on Saturday, and we did the Dress/Technical Rehearsal (we say it Gladi Resik/Gladi Kotor in Bahasa Indonesia) on Sunday, April 2. The rehearsal took like, the whole day, at Wisma Indonesia (the official residence of the Indonesian Ambassador). It was pretty fun, rehearsing under the sun! =p (it reminds me of those flag ceremonials we had to go through every Monday morning during our K12 education =p) The kids were such a riot, especially when there were bees around =p

Washington, D.C.; April 8, 2006; 5:00 AM - 2:30 PM: Finally, the day had come. We were encouraged to come to the Embassy at 6:00 AM because the female performers had to put a lot of make-up and their outfits were very complicated to be put on by themselves. I had noticed a week before that there was gonna be raining and a thunderstorm on that day. So, I prepared some extra clothes for the after-show. Woke up at 5:00 AM and headed straight to Dunn-Loring Metro Station at 6:00 AM (I know, I bailed a little late, but I was not the one who needed the whole make-up stuff.). Right when I thought everything was under control when the gate at the station was closed *sigh* I just found out, after 10 months living in D.C. Metropolitan area, Metro subways operate at 7:00 AM on weekends =p I was just about to head to my Uncle's place when a cab with a bunch of Hispanics stopped by at the station, as then I hopped in to the cab and made my way to downtown D.C. (there goes $40 and my debit card/visa check card left inside the ATM machine. I forgot to pick up my visa check card cause I was in a hurry, and I just realized it at night when I wanted to pay for the Pizza Hut delivery service =p Well, I had my visa check card canceled and now I'm waiting for the new one to be issued.) A nice way to start my day. The next thing isn't that necessary to tell, just a usual chat and breakfast. We arrived at the National Mall (not those usual malls, it's the large green open space in downtown D.C., surrounded by the Capitol Hill, Abraham Lincoln's Memorial, and Smithsonian Museums. Remember the one on the movie Forrest Gump?) around 8:30 AM while our turn to parade was scheduled at 11:00 AM. Rain started to fall right when we stepped out of the bus (there were 4 buses, and these were school buses. The first time I ever rode in a yellow school bus =p). The girls were starting to complain, including my partner (see my picture on the right). They were worried of their make-ups, their health, their outfits, etc. I had to joke out of it to cheer her up and got myself humiliated when I just realized I was being taped by the Voice of America (VOA) (no thanks to the others who just giggled =p). And you know what? This is gonna be broadcasted at several TV stations in Indonesia (the likes of RCTI, Indosiar, MetroTV, oh boy, they're gonna see and hear me pointing at the sky, yelling in Betawi accent =p) Anyway, I think we had a blast, we had fun when we started at 11:00 AM =) Well, the Indonesian group was the most unorganized group, at least that's what I noticed when I watched it myself the next day at ABC 7 or News Channel 8 (these are local channels folks, and Rishah got to appear on TV twice.). I saw that in the kids group, one of the girls left her shoe (kinda like Cinderella), and hilariously a group of 5 kids ran back to get the shoe for her (including her of course). Cause it was so crowded, we couldn't hear the music, so we created a music ourselves, I even sang dangdut =p (Alam's "Mbah Dukun") Our turn to parade around 10 blocks was exactly 1 hour. We got back in to the bus, and everyone was so quiet, tired and soaking wet =D We had lunch (of course, those delicious Indonesian cuisine =D) and chatted a while after I decided to go back and took a long nap (3 hours and then a good night sleep for like, 11 hours!) Below are the pictures of my cute little cousins in the kids group =)

Intermezzo 9: What Does Your Birthday Mean?

2006-04-13T12:46:00.000-04:00

Your Birthdate: November 27

You are a spiritual soul - a person who tries to find meaning in everything.
You spend a good amount of time meditating, trying to figure out life.
Helping others is also important to you. You enjoy social activities with that goal.
You are very generous and giving. Yet you expect very little in return.

Your strength: Getting along with anyone and everyone

Your weakness: Needing a good amount of downtime to recharge

Your power color: Cobalt blue

Your power symbol: Dove

Your power month: September

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

American Idol 5: Mandisa.....

2006-04-06T09:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry it took me quite long to post my own review, cause I woke up late today and I had breakfast at McDonalds' and spent some time there =p Ah, song choice, song choice, it can boost your popularity but it can also be the start of your doom. The latter is the case if the genre of the song choice doesn't fit your vocal characteristic. When I found out last week, that this week American Idol's theme was gonna be "country music", I knew right away that this is gonna be a problem to Paris Bennet, Mandisa Hundley, and Elliott Yamin. These three are soul singers! But I never thought that it was gonna be a very serious problem to the three of them.....

I remember what Budi wrote the other day, when some of my friends were confused of my new obsession with American Idol. He wrote that, this is a competition show, you can compare this to sports events where fans will become overly obsessive with those shows that fans will finally develop a strong bond with their favorites, who are completely strangers to those fans. The same thing goes to American Idol, which is a show that also packs reality show in it. Let's face the fact, reality shows have boomed lately in this 21st century, everybody loves reality show. American Idol is a combination of talent show and reality show. And for someone who is an excessive music craze like me (I can't pass a single day without listening to my iPod and sing it out. Before I owned an iPod, I used to do this in front of my laptop, listening to my collection of 3000 mp3 files!), this soon becomes my favorite show, before that I used to like sitcoms. Besides that, I have never watched American Idol or any Idol (or top-rated talent show) show before, due to my evening classes back in St. Louis, Missouri. Watching American Idol has become one of my rituals after coming back from work and wushu practice.

Okay, back to the review, we all know that this week's theme is "country music". Personally, I have nothing against with country music, I treat all genre besides soul and smooth jazz the same. If I think it's a high quality music with intelligent lyrics, I will fall in love with that song. This goes to the likes of genre such as country music, hip-hop and rap, heavy metal, rocks, pop, alternative, underground, hard-core jazz, etc. Soul, funk, smooth jazz, groove, and R&B have their special places in my heart. Hey, why am I again babbling something out of AI's review? =p Anyway, I will concentrate my review on last night's bottom three performers and Katharine McPhee.

Back in Tuesday, April 4, I have to agree that some, if not most, of the contestants were kinda struggling with the songs they performed. Mandisa, I'm so sorry for her and I'm also sad of the fact that she won't be in the show anymore, was actually doing okay. She sang Shania Twain's "Any Man of Mine". I did feel a weird poppish kind of thing at the beginning of the song, but she did great in the middle of it and the refrain part of the song. Actually, Simon Cowell praised her by saying that her rendition was "fun" and "cutesy", but the song choice was horrible. Well, I did realize that she did not show the best of her that night, but she struggled in the middle of the song and she did okay! At least that's what I think. I know that choosing a genre apart from someone's style is stressing, but the logic behind this is that every singer should be able to sing any kind of song. I just never thought that America would be that harsh on her. AI judge Simon Cowell, "No matter how good the singer you are, you're always going to be tied to the song you sing. If I have to guess based on the song you sang, I think Elliott, you'll stay." *sigh*

Another extreme shock to me, Elliott Yamin joined the gang of the bottom three list! When AI host Ryan Seacrest divided the contestants into three groups, I thought the group that had Bucky Covington and Ace Young would be the bottom-three-performers one. Although I was a little bit sad that one of my favorites stood there again for the second time. I thought that the first group on the right, "Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, and Kellie Pickler" was the group with the top three performers, the middle group, "Mandisa, Elliott Yamin, and Paris Bennet" was the second best group, and the last group, the one on the left, "Bucky Covington, Katharine McPhee, and Ace Young" would be those with the lowest votes. Don't get me wrong, I was dead wrong. I got chocked by popcorn chicken nugget when Ryan Seacrest announced that the middle group was the performers with the lowest votes! (I was having dinner when I watched AI's result show last night and literally got chocked out of shock. And I am not joking! Luckily I managed to swallow my food instead to spit it out. Imagine if that happened =p) The three best singers, the soul singers, were voted worst performers for the April4's show! About Elliott's performance, I kinda had a feeling that he might not shine as he did before cause it was a "country music" theme. When I found out that he was gonna perform "If Tomorrow Never Comes" a couple of minutes before the show started last Tuesday night, I was excited about this though the fact that I've never known that "If Tomorrow Never Comes" is actually a country song and was originally performed by Garth Brook. All a long, I always thought that "If Tomorrow Never Comes" was originally performed by Joose (click Joose to find out who they are and you'll see that their biggest hit was "If Tomorrow Never Comes"), a gospel soul group consists of Jay Farmer, Trell Lewis, Rocky McKaufman and Leonardo Pettis from Oklahoma City. The other version that I know was performed by none other than Ronan Keating of Irish boyband, Boyzone! I have both versions in my iPod and although Ronan Keating's version was the first one I heard, I hate his version and fell instantly in love with Joose's version later on. My thought on Ronan Keating's version is that, the song sounds weird and the melody in the refrain part is terribly flat. And since I'm a huge fan of soul music, I think that the melody in Joose's version is more harmonious and has more variation. They harmoniously reach a high tune during the refrain part, compared to the flat melody on Ronan Keating's version. Conclusion? Of course, I would expect Elliott to perform Joose's version, converting a country ballad into a soul ballad, his style like he did last week when he performed "I Don't Wanna Be". To my surprise, Elliott's rendition was more like Ronan Keating's version, which made me conclude that Ronan Keating's version was actually the one close to the original version. I wasn't that disappointed though as I think he still did a good job, but I realized from other AI reviews that he looked sorta nervous and looked like he was holding back something (and some people are getting tired of his vibrato, which I think it's what makes him unique compared to other contestants!). Some said it was because he was influenced by Kenny Roger's suggestion, not to show off the power of his voice to impress audience since the song is to make audience cry. Though I agree that that night wasn't his best performance and that he has to do better than that, but to be on the bottom three list at this moment? Not in a million years..... But look at the bright side, he'll come back next week.

Paris Bennet joined the group of the bottom three performers. Yes, all the three soul singers. Somehow it disturbs me that I come up to realize that country music is probably the polar opposite of soul music! America just doesn't seem to like hearing soul singers singing country songs! Anyway, Paris sang "How Do I Live", which was originally performed by either LeAnn Rimes or Trisha Yearwood (Trisha Yearwood's version was for the original soundtrack of the 1997 movie Con Air.). Yes, she did sound like she was struggling with the song, she really showed that country music is not her thing at all! The result, obviously AI judges Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson disliked her performance as Randy Jackson said it was a tough song for her, but surprisingly AI judge Simon Cowell praised her by saying excellent! But still, she had the third lowest vote last night.

Katharine McPhee, woohoo, she was hot that night! I've never heard "Bringing Out the Elvis" by Faith Hill before, but I fall in love with this song because of Katharine! =) I love it when she "screamed" the refrain part and the way she walked on the stage like a supermodel, it was HOT!!! =) Although she's not the best singer in this season's contest, she worked the stage as she owned it, I just love her unique voice and her body language on the stage =) The funny thing is that, although she earned praises from the judges, Simon said the song was peculiar =p I agree, but that's what makes it unique don't you think?

Anyway, a short review on the other stuffs, yes, country music is the safe element for both Bucky Covington and Kellie Pickler. That's why Bucky is not on the bottom three list last night. I think people are getting sick of Kellie Pickler's attitude, her naivety that earlier I found cute until AI host Ryan Seacrest asked her whether it was natural or it was just her "marketing strategy", and she answered it with a calamari story! It sorta turned me off actually, as to me she then looked like another dumb blonde, whether she was faking it or she was behaving naturally (which is sad if it were a natural behaviour cause that would mean she's really dumb! Even the calamari thingy just went too far if it were to be her "marketing strategy".). Chris Daughtry surprisingly sang differently last night, more like in a ballad mode after last week's harsh critic on his heavy-metal's style. Taylor Hicks sang John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Road" and it was a very lame performance. It seemed as if he lost the spirit to sing and was uninterested in performing at all! Ace Young once again showed off his selling point, his "signature" falsetto, which surely saved him from being voted off this week. But please America, why does it have to be Mandisa? Putting her on the bottom three list was already enough to make me chocked my dinner. And Kenny Roger's performance on last night's result show, uhmm, I'm never his fan actually and I think his biggest hit "Lady" is just a so-so song to me. And I think last night, he wasn't "the Gambler" America used to know when he sang his new single "I Can't Unlove You". Just my 2-cent, I think American Idol isn't just a reality-talent show anymore, but is a marketing tool, or a marketing medium, for famous artists or legendary artists to boost their newest hits and the selling of their newest albums. Well, forgive me if I just realized this since I've just watched this show this year now. I heard, and heard, that Prince who reportedly hates American Idol, might surprisingly appear as a guest star and coach the remaining contestants on the future episode. It was said that this is an attempt to boost the selling of his newest album 3121. And BTW, next week's theme is "the QUEEN's songs". Ouh, I hate QUEEN so much! Listening to their songs, especially "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Will Rock You", and "We are the Champions", brings back those dreadful and horrible memories during my time in middle school, around 1991 - 1994 (I won't tell you what happened during these years, just not now =p). Not to mention that sissy, effeminate, lead singer Freddie Mercury! If I were one of this season's remaining contestants, I would be the first one (or probably the only one =p) to stand up and protest the theme! =p I would rather be forced to rap, to sing heavy-metal songs, or to sing dangdut songs (dangdut, pronounced dunk-doot, is the notorious Indonesian music genre that is, unfortunately, considered the most unclassy and hideous genre that ever exists by most Indonesians.) rather than to sing one of QUEEN's songs. Well, anyway, stay tune for more Idol on Fox. Thank you.

Dear Laptop....

2006-04-03T12:17:00.000-04:00

To my dear laptop...

You've been a great company for these (almost) past 3 years...

I remember the first day you arrived at my apartment, August 2003...

You sang me my favorite mp3s...

You showed me my favorite clips...

You entertained me whenever I was bored...

You helped me get those As or A-s...

You were the reason I got 2 B-s (PC games =p)...

You helped me communicate with my loved ones...

Now you're just a piece of crap...

No power, broken motherboard, frozen and locked hard drive...

I apologize my love, but I gotta replace you for the sake of my sanity...

[my laptop is officialy broken now.....=( It started two weeks ago when all of the sudden, my laptop continued to shut down by itself. The battery was running critically low, no electric to power this gadget. I thought the problem was the AC adapter, like a loose chord or something. I patiently held and shook the chord everytime I turned my laptop on (at first, it only took like 10 seconds to shake the chord and get the power to the laptop. After a couple of days, it took me 5 minutes to shake the chord and reshake the chord every 10 minutes and so on.). One day, last Friday, I thought that it would be better to buy a new AC adapter (I was running out of patience to shake the chord for 5 minutes every 15 minutes or so.). There went my $78 for a piece of new 70 Watt, Targus AC Adapter. The damn thing kept on loosing power even with the new AC adapter. Called the Dell Service Support (my laptop is Dell Inspiron, but I forgot the exact series. Guess I never paid that particular attention to my dear laptop, didn't I? =p), and the diagnosis was to replace the laptop's motherboard which could cost me somewhere around $500! *sigh*

The day after that, Saturday, I needed to entertain myself after a long day of wushu practice and the Indonesian fashion-show cherry-blossom festival rehearsal. Got home at 5:00 PM with an empty stomach, then grabbed myself some McDonalds' and turned my laptop on. This thing now showed blue screen everytime I turned it on, even when I tried to switch it to Window's Safe Mode. Got some emergency here, I rushed to Fairfax's Microcenter, a digital and computer shop like CompUSA but much cheaper, with my laptop in the bag around 6:00 PM. Paid $85 for diagnostic fee *double sigh*, and waited for like 2 hours! The technician (oddly enough, looks like the blonde version of Maroon5's Adam Levine?!?) finally gave up and I got 80% refund (somewhere around $60 to $70 refund) and was suggested to buy a new laptop. The motherboard is broken and the hard drive is locked up, even scan disk can't seem to work. Luckily I bought a Seagate 120 GB External Hard Drive and moved all my important data (except my MBA courses data. St. Louis' peeps, to whoever has my MBA courses CD, can you please send to my current home address a copy of the CD containing my MBA courses data? Thanks, I really appreciate it.), mp3 files, and clips to that external hard drive, one year ago. A pretty good investment don't you think? But still, I have to prepare myself to spend somewhere between $700 and $1,500 *triple sigh*]

Parody version of Engelbert Humperdinck's "There Goes My Everything"

There goes my reason for living,

There goes the one of my dreams,

There goes my only possession,

There goes my sweet laptop.

Intermezzo 8: Get To Know Yourself Better

2006-03-30T11:26:00.000-05:00

I got this quiz from a link in a friend's blog (xanga). The only thing that really makes me astonished and speechless is the "The right job for you:" part. On one hand I do really wanna finish my Ph.D. and become a successful and well-respected M.I.S. scholar/researcher. On the other hand, deep in my heart, I always want to be able to produce my own album, but I never have the chance to get exposed to the world of showbiz. I want to be able to sing the poems that I created all a long and record them in my own album. But, *sigh*, this one is just a dream. Well, anyway, this is the result of the quiz. Click this bold word for link to the quiz's website.

Get to know yourself better

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education:

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

American Idol 5: Our McFever Almost Gone?!?

2006-03-30T08:54:00.000-05:00

This week's shows have been quite a shock to me. AI judge Randy Jackson suddenly became as critical as Simon Cowell. Almost all the contestants lost their wow-factor that night. While the theme of that night was "the music of the 21st century", all the contestants picked songs that did not show-off their vocal abilities. This is odd, since this is our era, and their era. However, only two stood up brilliantly, of course, Paris Bennet and Elliott Yamin. And surprise, surprise, one of the bottom three performers last night was Katharine McPhee!

Paris Bennet, uhmm, I kinda agree with Simon on her stage act (Simon Cowell said that Paris is just a little girl pretending to be Beyonce.). But overall, her performance was fabulous. She sang Beyonce's "Work It Out" without any flaw, and to all of you novice or amateur performers (that includes me of course =p), do take note on how to move or shake your body while singing difficult notes without loosing your breath. I tried this once when I performed Alicia Keys' "Diary" and I learned that doing Michael Jackson's spin and moonwalk in the middle of singing can be tough! Although I got praised from the crowd (of course, some of them are my close friends), I was not satisfied at all with my performance. But I admire Paris for being able to control her vocal while shaking her butt like Beyonce =p

Elliott Yamin's stage act was goofy! =p The way he bounced, trying to be black, ooouuhh gawd, not in a million years!!! =p He looked like a seventh-grader trying to bounce himself in a prom party =p Not to mention his outfit =p But I do admire how he could turn a country-ballad Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be" into an R&B song (despite the fact that I don't like this song, even in any kind of version.), sorta like his version. I can see his confindence grows stronger on every performance. He started to express himself, that he owns the stage, not the other way around. Compare this to his earlier performances, in which he looked awfully nervous and shy (but at least he wasn't trembling like me whenever I was about to perform =p). That's why, I agree with all the AI judges' comments, even Simon said it was fantastic =) And Mandisa, I think she did okay. She sang a gospel song, Mary Mary's "Wanna Praise You". Once again, she showed off her vocal, but I just can't understand why Simon disliked her performance.

My apology to all Ace Young's fans, but I think he has gotta be in the bottom three list and I was right. First of all, I don't like the song that he picked, "Drops of Jupiter". Second, he sang it terribly, especially during the "ehehe..ehehe..ehehe.." part, which was repeated couple of times. It sounded horribly funny, I couldn't help myself from not laughing or giggling while working in my office yesterday (I had to muffle my mouth =p). The third flaw, he thought showing off the scar on his chest during the lyric that mentioned about scar was sexy, but to me, that was hideous! Judge Paula Abdul was asking how he got the scar, hoping that the scar would be caused by something tragic or dramatic like the theme of the song. It turned out to be a basketball play accident! I got completely turned off when he showed his scar and couldn't help myself from laughing everytime I remember that ridiculous "ehehe..ehehe..ehehe.." thingy (he got the guts to sing that part! Even Sekar, one of Ace's fans, was laughing during that part and thought it was ridiculous.) Well, Bucky Covington, uhmm, I think he did better yesterday, but his vocal got drowned by the background music, so I couldn't hear his pronunciation clearly.

Lisa Tucker, tsk..tsk..tsk..., two weeks in a row in the bottom three list, and she got the guts to sing a song by the past winner of AI, Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You". I actually didn't watch her performance though, as she was put as the first performer that night. I was late cause I was practicing wushu and the cab arrived late. But from most of the AI news that I read, many reviewers said that she "successfully" ruined the song. All the judges agreed that she had made a bad choice of song. And after two weeks being in the bottom three, I was right, she has to go home. Bye-bye Lisa, I did enjoy your performance though. And, hee..hee..hee...., Taylor Hicks, this time he tried hard to stand still while performing. Like always, his souly voice was so soothing, but his effort to stand still made him looked like he was constipated =p

Now this is a shock! I love the way Katharine McPhee sang Christina Aguilera's "The Voice Within" and all the AI judges thought that she did a good job too! And then how come she ended up in the bottom three list last night? Come on peeps (especially those of you who live in the U.S.), help me vote for her, do you wanna recover from the McFever too soon? Or you just can't stand from "suffering" (enjoying) the McFever no more? Just because the previous performers did awful, that doesn't mean that the latter ones would do the same thing! All the reviews that I read showed a sign of shocked too, and the audience on the stage was also on shock. This is what happened if you don't dial her number! A Tylenol or Advil won't kill her, but not dialing her number will surely do! Well, at least there was a little entertainment last night. I enjoyed Shakira's and Wyclef Jean's performance, singing their new hit "Hips Don't Lie". Anyway, I will post a new review below once I get the theme for next week's show. Keep on voting your idol peeps!

STOP PRESS (March 31, 2006): The next week's theme is "country music". If I were the contestant, I would personally pick B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head" (B.J. Thomas also sang the theme song of the 1980s' famous sitcom "Growing Pains" starring Kirk Cameron and later on would introduce Leonardo DiCaprio.). But again, I can't seem to suggest any of those country songs to each of those contestants cause country music isn't actually my thing.