tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77152082024-03-08T13:53:55.409-05:00Opinions revolving aroundthe problems, grievances, and solutions to life in Indonesia.Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1184376202375185882007-01-24T09:14:00.000-05:002007-01-24T09:16:16.040-05:00

To all readers (this means I'm talking to myself basically)I've moved my blog to http://reza.ferrydiansyah.com and it's going to stay there until I can't afford to renew the domain ferrydiansyah.com :)

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1139242086024745682006-02-06T10:41:00.000-05:002006-02-06T11:08:06.136-05:00

Steelers won the superbowl.. GO STEELERSIt was against Seattle, a pretty good team. Personally I didn't think it was that good of a game. Too many mistakes. Not enough dominance. No sacks by the usually blitzing steelers. I guess that was because both sides matched evenly.One of the things I hate about the game. Too many disputable penalty calls ( I would say 3) against the Seattle Seahawks. In a

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1122589625278698272005-07-28T18:30:00.000-04:002005-07-28T18:29:22.800-04:00

I was swimming today when I realized how much I hated chemistry in high school.The fact is, when I'm swimming (and running, cycling, eating, even talking) my mind will sometimes start wandering about. I may start thinking philosophically about the basic existence of humanity. On the other hand I may think about trivial things like what I am going to have for lunch after I swim, and whether

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1118885547347466082005-06-15T21:25:00.000-04:002005-06-15T21:32:27.353-04:00

Hmm.. the tube, the popular name for the television (do TVs still use those tubes nowadays?). Anyway, there's been a lot of discussion on television shows in Indonesia, basically they stink. A lot of them tells the story of super rich super handsome guys whose only problem are super rich super beautiful girls. You're damn right I'm jealous of those guys :P. A worse television idea is "Ari mencari

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1118320388840614662005-06-09T08:25:00.000-04:002005-06-09T08:33:08.846-04:00

A friend sent me a story from one of the newspaper in Indonesia (it's in Indonesian).It's basically about a 'pemulung', which means someones who goes through trash for a living, whose 3 1/2 years old child has died due to diarrhea (cholera? dehydration?). He doesn't have money rent an ambulance or car to take his daughter to bury her. So he took the body by the train. The person works for Rp.

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1116207564329293332005-05-15T21:25:00.000-04:002005-05-15T21:39:24.336-04:00

My roommate graduated today. I could have graduated last week, but I couldn't be bothered to register for the graduation ceremony :D. Anyway, I was asked to be a photographer, meaning follow him around and take pictures of him with various persons.It was fun seeing how the graduation process at CMU is, and how different it is to the graduation in Indonesia. The photo below shows one main

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1116206537547642032005-05-15T21:22:00.000-04:002005-05-15T21:22:17.590-04:00

Graduation Ceremony at Carnegie Mellon University 

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1116074827781571592005-05-14T08:26:00.000-04:002005-05-14T08:47:07.786-04:00

You know you are an indonesian when somebody criticizes you and you call them petty, jealous and a know it all.I've seen it happen mostly with, sadly the more intelligent part of our population. Whenever a critique comes a person's way, that person is likely to say those three things about the critic. They don't really care about what is being said. In some cases the criticism is unfair, granted,

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1111096910132080702005-03-17T15:47:00.000-05:002005-03-17T17:03:16.096-05:00

I had a brainstorm today while in the bus on how to fight corruption in Indonesia. I call my idea, fighting corruption with guilt. We give people fliers (or magnets, or whatever) to people who have a big chance to be corrupt.Example :We can also send them to immediate family. For example give fliers to children "Ask your father about corruption...".How is this going to stop corruption? Well..

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1108673078002734512005-02-17T15:28:00.000-05:002005-02-17T15:44:38.006-05:00

As a lecturer... I've been taught not to ridicule any question. In class whenever you're asked a question, you should answer it to the best of your ability with a smile, even if you have just explained the answer 5 minutes ago.Sure some students don't understand what you are trying to teach. Hey that's what teachers are for. I mean in a classroom setting, if students asks about the subject you're

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1108433306913218312005-02-14T21:02:00.000-05:002005-02-14T21:08:26.916-05:00

The forbes 2000 lists for 2004 is out. 7 Indonesian companies are included in the list. Very dissapointing. Out of the seven, three of them are banks (mandiri, bca, bni). The other two are cigarettes (sampoerna and gudang garam), then the monopolistic telkom, and astra.Apart from astra, none of them are really internationally acclaimed. Most of them I believe profit from the fact that Indonesia

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1104538566527811072004-12-31T18:58:00.000-05:002004-12-31T19:16:06.526-05:00

The death toll of the Indonesian Tsunami is officially at 150,000 people. Indonesia's victim is 80,000. The world has recognized the severity of this tragedy and has come to aid the various countries affected. Personally, I've been touched with letters sent to me by my colleagues here in the US who ask about the well being of my family. They have all said how horrible this tragedy is, and their

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1104281476342694802004-12-28T19:47:00.000-05:002004-12-28T19:51:16.343-05:00

The death counts to the disaster has reached 52000. It's still expected to rise. Wow. 52000. In Indonesia the GAM rebel (Free aceh movement) and the Indonesian government have declared a truce for now. An officer for the Indonesian Police uttered words that I think is most appropriate for this situation "we're all crying together".

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1104156141805826792004-12-27T08:35:00.000-05:002004-12-27T09:02:21.806-05:00

An 8.9 earthquake hit near sumatra sunday morning. Then the tsunamis hit, India, Sri Lanka, The loss of lives kept growing. Started at 3300, then 11000, today it's 21000. Condolences to all that have been hit. It is truly a sad day. The Indonesian government has declared a national mourning period. The MUI (Islamic Ulama Council) has also said that they are concerned. Concerned or 'prihatin' is

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1104069885296340252004-12-26T08:49:00.000-05:002004-12-28T21:40:33.663-05:00

I just watched spiderman yesterday. Spiderman 1 mind you, not spiderman 2. Yeah I know, it's a bit out of date. Nice movie. The premise is what transpires in every teenage boy dreams. You know, boy is in love with girls, boy gets some kind of special power, then girl falls in love with him suddenly (too conveniently I might add). Yes... boys do dream up of such things :). My favourite quote (and

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1094660103961353722004-12-22T13:30:00.000-05:002004-12-31T07:48:39.510-05:00

I've been playing games a lot these last few weeks. I used to play an MMORPG game, in which I would spend 1-3 hours everyday playing the game. A little more on the weekend (about 5 hours more each day :) ). I know a lot of people that are addicted to games (am I? I wonder...). I'm defining addiction here is when you have to play and forego many of the normal daily activities, such as showering,

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1103139756806961052004-12-15T14:13:00.000-05:002004-12-15T14:42:36.806-05:00

A lot of students that I know would like to study in the United States. Unfortunately due to economic constraints they cannot. What they do (which I do too) is to try and beg for scholarships. Unfortunately not many scholarship are offered for international students studying in the United States. The problem is that there isn't that much information about studies in the united states in general.

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1102440623168963292004-12-07T12:27:00.000-05:002004-12-07T12:30:23.166-05:00

It's winter here in the US. Blustery wind, falling snow, overheated heaters. Not a good combination. Anyway, winter is the time for my annual cough. I'm not sure why, but every winter I start coughing bad. The solution? Cough drops (candy) or warm tea ($1.70 for a small cup at starbucks). I miss cheap indonesian tea. Maybe I should get mom to send me a box of tea. I like malaysian tea too, and

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1098377269138286282004-10-21T13:42:00.000-04:002004-10-21T12:47:49.136-04:00

I talked to an Iranian acquaintance yesterday. He told me that there was news about Susilo (the Iranians call him Susili due to the lack of the letter 'o') on Iranian television. He told me he was amazed that the Indonesian presidents gets many facilities including a house (I assume the presidential palace), swimming pool, and bodyguards. The television states that the country spends 2 million

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1098285806022441112004-10-20T11:11:00.000-04:002004-10-20T11:24:53.386-04:00

I asked for a copy of my grade transcript from the University of Pittsburgh (where I'm currently studying) yesterday. An official transcript. Okay, so back in Indonesia, I would have to send in a request (putting my name on a book). Then wait three days for it to be printed (10 copies, each copy about 4 pages). I'm not sure what kind of printer they used back in Indonesia, but it took that long

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1096919971376119542004-10-04T15:58:00.000-04:002004-10-04T23:37:28.586-04:00

Was reading the news in yahoo.com, read one of the mandatory iraq news (mandatory meaning there seems to be one everyday). Found a link to this site. Take a look at it, tt's much better than my blog :) Girl Blog from Iraq Talking of Iraq. The US presidential debate was about 4 days ago. One of the most divisive factors in the US presidential race is the stance on Iraq. Was there WMD (well I

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1094660285043642692004-09-08T15:15:00.000-04:002004-09-08T15:16:31.150-04:00

Kept reading about the russian hostage tragedy. I can't help feel saddened by what happenned. There is no justifiable reason for killing, or even attempting to kill civilians. This goes for every one on this planet. From the so called 'muslim' terrorist, to the so called 'heroes of justice' US Army. Violence only begets violence. Once any kind of violence starts, it is revenge.. revenge...

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1094311031386556772004-09-04T10:51:00.000-04:002004-09-04T13:46:43.100-04:00

When talking to most (not all, just most) Indonesian students taking their graduate degrees overseas, you can't help to be optimistic about Indonesia's future. These people talk about creating a better Indonesia in which everyone will prosper (which incidentally is part of the opening of Indonesia's constitution). Whether through social changes, process changes, or through technological changes

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1094308143242804192004-09-04T10:21:00.000-04:002004-09-04T10:50:59.043-04:00

344 killed in russia, 155 of them children after a hostage standoff that lasted for three whole days. A tragic waste of lives. Condolences to the russian families that lost their loved ones. Terrorism must stop. No more attacks against civilians. The end does not justify the means.

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7715208.post-1093786312328933022004-08-29T09:27:00.000-04:002004-09-04T10:51:21.830-04:00

I've changed the design a little. Bad news: it now looks even more like a text book , but it is wider than the old version and it's not so centered. If you have a wide screen (I use a resolution of 1400 by 1050) you will see a lot of unused space at the right. If you have a small screen (say of 640 or 800) you will probably need to scroll to the right to see the whole width of the page. Comments

Rezahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17506148235717788027noreply@blogger.com0