Reminiscence of a Journey

On "Being Westernized"

2013-05-27T17:50:00.000-05:00

I woke up at 4.30 today. (Since I slept at 8 last night...)
So, it's pretty awkward to start practicing piano at this hour.

I was brushing my teeth when I just recalled what happened last Monday.
I went to the mall in my neighborhood (believe me, some neighborhoods have more malls than Abilene does)
I just bought fro-yo when I overheard a conversation of 3 middle-aged people (by that, I mean ages when your kids are going to college..or perhaps a little bit older than that).

I can't stop but to be inquisitive about their conversation because one of the guy said, "Oh that kid has lived way too much in the States."

Well, I can't say that the kid this people were talking about changed in a good or not-so-good way.
I mean, maybe the kid really spent too much time partying with other crazy Indonesians over the West Coast. Who knows?

However, it left me a question over "being Westernized."

Here's my question: Why did those people talk about the kid being too Westernized?"
Doesn't it mean that they, in one way or another, disagree with whatever changes that kid brings to his/her own life and their lives?
But changes, changes are never comfortable...although they may bring good aftermaths. I don't know. The old education system has left people to be close-minded...for everyday, they were indoctrinated by their teachers, not being left any space to think whether their teachers were right or not.
Ah, but I guess the purpose of this post is not to judge all these old-timers.
All I want to write is an open question to the way people think here, in these islands.

Things I learned in the States:

1. Words are simply a group of letters. If we don't look at the meanings behind the words, words are meaningless. Words often limit our grasp to the meaning of the words.

2. Don't judge people for you will be judged if you do so. Sometimes things happen not because somebody wants it to happen that way. Sometimes things happen because of the situation that person happens to be in.

3. Thank you, excuse me, and sorry are still the hardest words to be said. Even if they are not, they are merely words. People rarely mean it when they say these words.

4. Attitude. Be nice to people. Every person is equal. (Have we done that? I bet not.There are many people who don't even bother to say thanks to people who checked-out their items in supermarkets.) Appreciate people. Men are mortals after all.

5. Question everything. What I believe should be what I truly believe in. (Which, if we are really able to implement this idea in our lives, there will be less people who believe in religious hoaxes that their religion's elders told them. Just saying, our brains used 25% of our total calories consumption in a day. What's the point of letting that thing hanging on your neck to burn your calories if you don't even try to use it? )

6. Read. Spend time to read books.

7. It's okay to be different. Stop comparing yourself to others. (This includes being different in having certain kinds of hobbies and favorite genres of literature and movies. In other words, it's totally okay not following the strong stream of the mainstream.)

8. Your worth is not measured by your grade or wealth. Being wealthy or smart doesn't make people like you. Not being rich or smart doesn't make people like you either.

9. Honesty is the best policy. Passive-aggressive moves rarely solve any problems. Most people are not sensitive enough to understand things by being given passive-aggressive treatments.

10. Spend time to be with god on a daily basis. It may be hard at first but if we are truly His children, shouldn't we try to have a better relationship with Him? (tbh, I suck at this.)

I don't think any of these points are bad. I do think that a person who assimilates everything in the western culture is truly crazy. However, if those people who live across the ocean from us have good points, there's nothing wrong with assimilating these ideas into our daily lives. Perhaps, those people who think that being westernized is bad...haven't been just. Don't people who call themselves intellectuals have to be just in their mind too?

Seorang terpelajar harus juga belajar berlaku adil sudah sejak dalam pikiran, apalagi dalam perbuatan.
-Bumi Manusia, 77, Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

The Asian Rant over Banana

2013-05-13T00:40:00.002-05:00

About a week ago, one of my good friends in US called me a banana.
Why a banana? Because it's yellow outside and white inside.

Just in case, you never see a banana before:

(note: I'm judging you right now if you never see a banana before.)

Okay. In this blog post...I will solely talk about bananas.

First of all, bananas are first cultivated in South East Asia.
ON YOUR FACE, homie. That statement proves that you can't be yellow outside-white inside when the whole thing is first cultivated in SE Asia. It doesn't make the white part of the banana, the yummy part of it as white/western. It's Asian. It's freaking Asian, inside and outside.

Just kidding.

I just feel that people often forget that Asia is a freaking big continent.
I recently realized that while I call people from SE Asia as those that actually understand me more than other Asians, we don't really have that many similarities.
Well, we were under Japanese occupation years ago, but before I read a book about SE Asia's history during last 2 weeks of school, I definitely won't know that Malaysia used to be part of Siam/Thailand.

I realize something.
I know nothing about other Asians.
Or I should say, I don't know much about other Asians.

Okay, we may have like similarity in Asian cultures: honor, respect, etc., etc.
However, it doesn't mean that each cultures in Asia are exactly the same.

I happen to live in a city called Jakarta which is if you live my life, you'll probably be somewhat westernized.
It's undeniable that my maternal grandpa was born and raised in Xiamen, China.
However, I was born and raised in a society where I was surrounded by Catholics (generally, yeah, in school, church, etc etc) and westernized Chinese (in school, and even church).
In my circle of friends, when I was in junior high school, Zac Efron is so much cooler than...let's say...idk Rain?
Well, that statement is debatable, Rain is so cool, so much cooler than Zac Efron combined with Robert Pattinson. But not as cool as Neil Patrick Harris.
But hey, in the circle of friends I grow up in, I always look up to stuff that accidentally white people like too, mostly the music and the tv shows.

Just because I don't hang out with Asians that much while I'm in US, it doesn't mean that I'm white inside.
Just because I don't generally watch Korean TV shows, it doesn't mean that I have fallen through the ranks of hardcore Asians.
Just because I don't go to ISA chapel, it doesn't mean that I'm not Asian.

I think, it's very superficial to determine the "Asianness" of a person just based on their behavior. (Well, didn't I just invent a new word there?)

And besides, my major happens to be an awkward major.
Piano performance.
The sole sophomore (well, junior now) piano performance major.
One of the only two Asians in the music department.
SJ, another piano performance major, is from China...butttt he has two majors, okay?
He doesn't hang out in the building that much.
And we have a number of half Asians...but they're practically white, outside and inside.

So, here I am, stuck with this kind of situation: growing up with people who love whiteness and hanging out with mostly white people.

But hey, if you know only know what my white friends often say to me: "You're so Asian."

May 12.

2013-05-12T00:21:00.003-05:00

May 12-13 were not the greatest days in Indonesia.
For others, May 12 may just be a simple mother's day.
For me, it was something else.
For some others whose children/parents/friends/relatives did not come back on that day, it was something else.

It was May 12, 1998 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
It was two days before my birthday.
I was almost 5 when I first saw an empty bullet shell.
There were people running at the road by my house.
All of my neighbors were outside, ready to defend our houses.

I don't remember much of it, but I can't forget the empty bullet shell.
My parents told me that I asked them to get me a birthday cake even though there were riots all over the place.
Sorry ma and pa.
What can you do when you're 5?

I was 5, I didn't know what happened at those days.

But at least, I know about this much:
Suddenly the roads I usually walked by are full of buildings with broken windows.
I heard gunshots everywhere.
We didn't have to go to school (yay!).
After years, I learned that it was a horrible day.
Some college students had a demonstration and were shot by the army.
After a while, we had a new president. By a while, I meant 32 years.
My teachers at high school talked a little bit about how they had to protect the students at school, about how people living around the school helped them in protecting the students, about how they had to secretly send the students home and the students had to hid under the seats of their cars.
I learned that it was a traumatic day for some people: some people lost their loved ones who were just hanging out inside a mall, which was set into fire, and died.
Some others got raped, tortured and killed.
Being a Chinese on that day didn't help at all; we were the main victims.
It was as if we did something wrong, while in fact, most of us were suffering from the economic depression just like most of our fellow countrymen.
People sold their belongings and flied to Singapore/other neighboring countries, fleeing the terror.
People in the uniformed service are not the heroes. They are not people who I can look up to. People in the uniformed service are those who planned this crap and pulled strings behind their backs.
In the end, up to this day, 15 years after the riot, there are still so many people missing, while nobody knows whether they are dead or alive.

At least, I know this much.

At least, I know that the price of the democracy is never, never cheap.

If we can finally live in a somewhat democratic country, (cough cough) compared to our neighbor there by Borneo and Malaya, it's achieved through many sacrifices: those who never come home on May 12-14.

Never forget the price of democracy.
Melawan lupa.

further references...err, I can't recommend anything better than google.
But, to start, try wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1998_riots_of_Indonesia

Rollerblading Can be Pretty Deep Too Dude.

2013-05-10T09:47:00.002-05:00

It's late at night and I should be sleeping right now.
I have my exam tomorrow - which I simply need to make 58 in the exam to get an A in the class.
Don't ask how.

But, I really feel the need to write this.
Mostly for myself.
Cause I'm quite self-centered.

I went rollerblading couple days ago.
For the third time in my life.

My first time, I actually went ice skating.
Fell at the back of my head.
Went to the infirmary.
They gave me tylenol/panadol.
I passed out for an hour or two.

My second time, which is actually last year, was actually not an easy skating day.
I was scared of even trying to skate.
Of course, if you have a bad memory of going to the infirmary and having half of your high school classes worrying about your fall, you may have this same problem as mine.
But, I did it. I prevailed. I had fun. It was a rollerskate, so it was so much easier than doing ice skating.

This year, I went with the rollerblade (because they don't have rollerskates).
It was horrible.
The bruises are horrible.
They are purple, swollen and awful.

But, that's not the point of this blog post.
I think it's important for me to learn to remember that whenever I fell while skating, I stood up.
I reminded myself that learning to skate is nothing compared to what I've been through.
The pain will eventually go away (which is true, until I had to go to mass and kneel and it hurt like crazy)

It's not the falls that hurt.
It's the probability of being hurt by not trying that probably will hurt me the most.
Being an onlooker and just looking at how people try and fall hurt me more than this ridiculously big bruise.

Which I can somewhat connect to my major.

Rejection hurts. They always hurt.
Losing competitions, getting rejected, they all hurt.
Waking up in the morning and realizing that all your pieces that you prepare for the final round that you don't make won't be played hurt. (It actually hurt so much that I just cried)
Reading your rejection letters from various universities hurt.
They sure hurt me deeply.
(Like at one point, I couldn't even practice for two weeks)

But that shouldn't stop me (or you) from even trying.
I think that the choice not to do it at all will hurt me more than trying and falling.
Saying no and regretting later are way more painful than trying and falling miserably.
The feeling of being haunted by your conscience because you are not courageous to even try, I believe, hurts more than the actual failure.

All I know is that I'm proud of my bruises.
(I'm really sorry for people who have to listen to my prideful story of how I got my bruises)

I'm proud of'em because I know that I tried. I fell miserably and numerous times in the progress, but I tried.
I didn't just sit back and watch others skate, wishing that I could skate too.
I stood up after I fell and that matters to me.

That's probably why I kept all those admission rejection letters on my piano back at home.
That's probably why I kept all those jury comments on all those competitions that I didn't win or even make to the final round.

They're all battle scars, proves that I, at least, tried.

ps. This is actually what gives me inspiration to write this blog post:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/apr/26/james-rhodes-blog-find-what-you-love

My Plea as a Fellow Follower of The Way

2013-04-19T22:34:00.002-05:00

As much as I love Jesus, I do despise a good number of Christians.

Here's the problem that we have with our religion: we judge people, we tell them that what they did was wrong, and so on and so on.

I'm tired of having an aunt who judged me for playing with pokemon.
Right.
I'm tired of being judged for things I used to do (and stopped to do).

How long do you think people can handle judgmental opinions?
This is what makes Christians regarded as hypocrites.
We judge people way too much.

What people need are (most often) not other lectures regarding faith.
People have had enough of pastors talking about how you should do this and that.

What people (like me) need is a person who will listen to the stories that I have (psych term: active listening) and walk together with them. freaking. walk. together.

If we're saying that our God is a living God, then we need to bring him into our daily lives.
If we're saying that our God is a merciful God, then we need to be merciful to others.
If we're saying that our God is a God that loves everybody, then we need to love people unconditionally.

Unconditional love is what people need to heal themselves, not another lecture of how sinful a person is.

I know that I sound angry. Well, I am.

Anyway, I believe that everybody is struggling with their own faith.
I am struggling yet I want to grow deeper to God.

All I simply want is people who are just simply happy to listen to my stories and questions regarding faith...not another person telling me what is wrong, especially when the person studies the Bible literally. (And I happen to be blessed to know these two kinds of people)

So, this is what I ask of you. A favor that I'm asking.

Please let me walk in this own path of faith that I'm struggling with.
I don't need to be reminded about my struggle.
I feel and think about it every day.

All I need is people who want to walk beside me...not yelling at me from behind.

If you want to stay behind, I don't mind. Just stop yelling out loud with your hoarse voice.
I want to move forward with my faith.

I do not want to have a blind faith. I want to have a faith of the living God.

Mu Phi Epsilon: The Pledge Recital

2013-04-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

Mu Phi Epsilon.Is a professional music fraternity. Or, at least that's what Wikipedia said: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_Phi_Epsilon

So, hmm, here's what happened yesterday during the pledge recital.
Enjoy.

Is this some sort of sexual abuse?

Faith: Through My -6.75 Diopter Lens, Part One

2013-04-11T23:08:00.002-05:00

I had a very good conversation with one of my friends.
Yeah, I'm one of those people who think while they talk.
So, my ideas become solid as I talk about them.

Here's what I figured out as I talked endlessly for a while:

On Faith

Faith is like knowing that there is something good at the end of the race.
Although you know not what this good thing is, you keep on running with this good thing as a motivation.

It's like, you work really hard before summer starts. You work hard, you study hard, you workout hard.
Yet, you don't know what you're going to do doing summer - well, except if you're one of those people who already planned out what you're going to do doing summer, from May til August.
But yeah, faith is like knowing that there is something good, who knows what that is, yet you keep on thinking about it and imagining yourself having it.

On Relationship with God

My relationship with God is like my relationship with my parents.
They existed before I exist.
They were born before I was born

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life,and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. John 1: 1-5

They know everything about me: where I was born, my first word that I uttered as a baby, the first time I walked, etc. Yet, I know nothing about theirs - well, at least I don't. I don't know if you do. Maybe you do.

As we grow older, we get curious. We want to know more about our parents: to dig deeper in our relationship with them.
(I do want to know them more. I want to listen to their stories, to learn from their experiences. You may not; I do.)

On Instinct and Knowledge

Growing closer to God is like trying to not just follow my instinct, but actually know more about the teachings.

In this aspect, I can't separate my piano stuff with this issue.

I had a talk with my teacher during my lesson. Well, I always talk to her during the lesson. That's normal. However, lately our talk has been somewhat deeper than it used to be.
*slapping my own face*
Back to topic.

I always thought before that doing music shouldn't rely on instinct alone.
Which is true.
It is indeed true.
However, I tend to forget that instinct matters.
All these silly classes that I take in college don't actually matter that much.
All information I gained in music classes should be used to help me getting better at interpreting the music.
(and of those terms I learned in class? I can always look them up on Google)

Making music is so much fun then just knowing all these theories. Making music gets better when we apply all these things into our own way of learning music.
It is so much easier to understand the music when we have the tools to understand where the music is going, where the climaxes are, what to do with each phrases, how to play it stylistically, etc, etc.

Everybody knows about God (or to be safe, most people know about God).
It's like an instinct that we're born with.
Yet, not everybody knows about the teachings of the Church.
By knowing these teachings, we (or at least, I) can finally know better about God: we will actually be able to define the things we know about faith and take the faith to a whole deeper level!

Instinct will always work, but with knowledge, it goes beyond of what we can imagine.

I added Jacob's Dream pic because I wrote this stuff there. hooray!

Virtual Recital

2013-03-29T11:39:00.001-05:00

I'm bored. So, I figured out that I will do something fun.

Here's the recording of my sophomore recital plus the program notes.

Partita No.1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825 - J.S Bach

I. Prelude

II. Allemande

III. Courante

IV. Sarabande

V. Menuet I&II

VI. Gigue
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685. By the
time his partita was published in 1726, Bach had already established his
reputation as a virtuoso keyboard player. Serving as the cantor at St.
Thomas Church and also as director of music in Leipzig, Bach was busy
writing cantatas weekly. He was also able to write a few works in addition
to these. Bach intended the first partita as keyboard practice, as
demonstrated by his choice of publishing under the title of Clavier- Übung.

Consisting of six movements, this partita begins with a calming Prelude that
shows the listener the mood of the entire suite. It is soon followed by the
graceful yet energetic Allemande. Starting in the major key, the Allemande
travels to the minor key in the second half of the movement. Written in the
rhythm of three against four, the Courante serves as a fast dance that
precedes the Sarabande, a much slower dance. The Sarabande, with its
steady pulse, shows Bach’s remarkable ability to produce lovely melody in
his compositions. The first Menuet, written in a steady tempo, has large
leaps in melodic line, while the second Menuet, with a more conjunct line,
has a relaxed tempo, and thus serves as a contrasting section between the
first Menuet and its repetition. The Gigue, the last dance of the suite, has
brilliant color to it. Written with two lines of melody and a moving
harmony, the Gigue serves as a splendid ending to the whole partita.

Piano Sonata No.2 in D Minor, Op. 14 - Sergey Prokofiev

I. Allegro, ma non troppo

II. Scherzo: Allegro marcato

III. Andante

IV. Vivace

Sergey Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka, Russia in 1891. Beginning his
studies at age three, he studied privately with Glière before eventually
entering the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1904. His composition was
regarded as impossibly dissonant and avant-garde by the critics of his time,
but now he is seen as one of the major Russian composers in 20th century.
This composition was written in 1912, three years after he graduated from
St Petersburg Conservatory. It shows his originality in style and harmony,
making him stand out as one of the prominent Russian composers of the
20th century.

The sonata opens with a dashing first movement in the key of D minor. The
first movement starts with the first theme, which has a two-against-three
rhythmic pattern, followed by the second theme with its sweet yet strange
melody and atmosphere. The first movement is written in a version of
sonata-allegro form that differs greatly from the typical sonata-allegro form.
Prokofiev employs many different approaches in his development section:
he used a different melody from the first and second theme. The second
movement, written in the key of A minor, is quite short and requires
dexterity and precision from the performer to grasp the spirit of the
movement. It starts with an agitating atmosphere and moves to a relaxed,
dream-like atmosphere before eventually going back to the first mood. The
third movement, written in the key of G-sharp minor, has a very dense
texture. Prokofiev employed several layers in this particular movement,
making it an interesting movement between the second and fourth
movements. In this movement, the left hand plays a stagnant harmony,
working as a solemn funeral march under the long-phrased melody, written
in the highest layer. This is soon followed by a fast moving, descending
melody, filled with chromaticism. The fourth movement, the finale of the
sonata, starts with showy passages. Prokofiev demonstrated his creativity
here by improvising on themes throughout the movement. In the middle of
this movement, Prokofiev reminds us of the sweet second theme from the
first movement before eventually returning to the “ordered chaos.”

Preludes, Premier Livre - Claude Debussy

VIII. La Fille aux cheveux de lin: Tres calme et doucement expressif
Debussy ranks among the most influential composers at the turn of the
century, and his works forged a path for future composers. Born in St.
Germain-en-Laye, France, in 1862, Debussy entered the Paris Conservatory
at age ten, taking lessons in piano, composition, and music theory. His
name rose to prominence in 1894 after the publication of his Prélude à
l'après-midi d'un faune., when traditionalists criticized his music for its lack
of form, melody, and forward motion. His Préludes, written in 1910, serve as a good example of his
symbolism, a term he preferred to “Impressionism.” After listening to a
Javanese gamelan in 1889, he incorporated some elements of music
from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia. La Fille aux cheveux de lin,
translated as “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,” shows Debussy’s ability
to make sweet melody in a very flexible pacing.

my recital is coming up and i'm just here writing on blogger

2013-03-02T23:11:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm having my recital soon and yeah, I'm not actually super nervous or anything...
annnnddd...guess what, that was definitely a lie.

On Thursday, I was terribly nervous, up to the point where Dr. B has to informed the other piano majors about how stressed I am and how they need to encourage me.
Cool story, bro.

This includes her having to manage my illogical whines during the lesson, which, I believe, is included in her job's description. Well, if it's not, then she's definitely doing a charity act towards Michelle.

So, instead of practicing after having a lesson with her, I took a nap for 3 hours.
A good piano major, I have been.

Well, I slept at 1 o'clock the night before-well, actually on the same day-because I was studying for my intro to psych exam, which actually was not that amazingly hard.
I told myself that I could enjoy being in sophomore slump, but that didn't happen.
I overstudied stuff, again.

Anyway, today, I woke up early. I woke up at 6.40 or something like that...and went back to sleep. I finally woke up at 9.30-ish.

That's not the most important part. Michelle, control yourself and stop spilling unnecessary stuff.

The point that I tried to write here is that...
I realized that actually that recital is not that crazy.
It is crazy.
Stop blabbering.
Blah

Rephrase.

Okay, so this recital is not the end of the journey.
True statement.
It is something that exists as a benchmark. It's somewhat a celebration of whatever I have accomplished in two years since I graduated from high school.
--I don't actually feel like I accomplished anything sometimes.
It is a checkpoint in my journey.
Well, I read my old journal from high school - freshman year and I realized that...man, I have walked a long, long journey.
I just couldn't stop myself from smiling. Yeah, it was awkward. I was walking to the practice room from my dorm. People might judge me because of that.
Back to the topic, I just suddenly realized that my rep won't be perfect by the day I have my recital.
In fact, it may never be perfect.
There is always room for improvement. I will play better in the future-next month, next year, and so on.

So, here's my deal to myself, to that person who's so hard on herself sometimes.
I'm going to enjoy this ride.
While it lasts, I'm going to ride on the tide. I'm going to have fun.
It is undeniable that I will perform better in the future.
But hey, this is the best that I can give right now.
And... this is not about the praises, whatsoever.
"...For [praises] will be short-lived and won't equal to our labor..."
I'm going to be there to celebrate the beauty of life, to touch the souls, to make life somehow better.
Cause, this is the job of the musicians.
"...Music is what makes us humans."

So, y'all better come.
Cause people back home ain't gonna come.
My family here is my friends here.
:)

San Antonio and Beyond

2013-03-02T21:55:00.000-06:00

On Texas Indepence Day, one should post pictures about San Antonio's Riverwalk, The Alamo and stuff.

ACU's A Capella Tour: San Antonio and beyond - with beyond, I actually don't remember the other town we went to. Austin? Well, Austin is awkward. That's probably why I can't remember its name.

The awkward pose with the mariachi band

The person behind Lydia? Yeah, I enjoy looking at him.

Parenting at its finest

Your Texas History 101: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alamo

When Things Go Wrong: Perkedel and Stuff

2013-03-02T21:36:00.002-06:00

There is a day, a day when Michelle shines like a star.
But it's not at that particular day when Michelle tried to cook perkedel.

Lesson I learned: palm oil is not an ingredient that you can easily substitute with veggie oil.

Michelle's Guide to the Imperfect Perkedel

What is perkedel?
Perkedel is basically a deep fried potato patty.

Why did Michelle fail at making this? Good question. Outstanding for you, Troll for Michelle.

Step One: cut those potatoes. Why? Well, just because. You don't actually have to cut them.

Second step: Boil them til they're soft, super soft, just like your blanket.

Step Three: do this.

Step Four:mash them. It's a good way to relieve stress. Potatoes won't complain to you when you hurt them. Even more, they don't go to the same school as yours, they won't tell any of your friends about your violent behavior. In the same time, you need to put the right amount of eggs. Michelle failed that. She didn't use enough eggs.

Step Five: Deep Fried them with palm oil. Yes, this is wrong. This is a picture of Michelle before burning the patties and almost set her friends' fire alarm off. This is a picture of Michelle just frying them with veggie oil.

Step Six: make yourself feeling better by making stir-fry spinach. It works. Your American friends will encourage you and lift your spirit up by saying that your stir-fry spinach is wonderful.

Step Seven: Cry before you go to bed for failing to make perkedel, one of the easiest Indonesian dishes ever. But life must go on, so use the leftover from that mashed potatoes layover to make a curry soup. It's the college life kid; you have to improvise.

Well, if you want to do your research...here's a good link: http://indonesiaeats.com/potato-perkedel-patties-frikadeller-frikadel/

Brought to you by Michelle, not-the-best-Indonesian-cook-around.

Dumb Ways to Die

2013-01-24T23:14:00.000-06:00

Internet has many corners my friends.

Deep in the deep corners of the internet lie the dark side.

Don't go there...even though they have cookies.

I stumbled into one of these deep dark corners...
and found this vid.

Enjoy...cheers!

The List of What-I-better-eat-during-summer-2013

2013-01-24T22:59:00.001-06:00

I will have three months.

In three months, I will eat a lot.

Yes, a lot I will eat.

1. dimsum
as normal as it may seem, it is important.

2. bakmi asoei
yes, eating noodles right after going to church.

3. gado-gado

4. batagor+siomay

5. rawon

6. soto cirebon

7. bakut

8. lomie karet

9. perkedel

10. tahu+tempe

11. ikan tim buatan emak

12. ikan panggang-harus dipanggang coy

13. kepiting SOKA WOOHOO

14. lamien

15. nasi campur

16. nasi hainam Singapur

17. opor ayam

18. kari ayam

19. SUSHI TEI YAOWOH

20. SATE BABI YAOWOH MAHADAHSYAT

21. semur

22. SEKBA YAOWOH TOLONG YANG INI GAK TAHAN LAGI DITAHAN SELAMA 4 BULAN

23. swike..

24. kodok goreng tepung + mentega

25. INDOMIE YES

26. miswa + angciu

the revolutionary 2013 resolution list

2013-01-24T22:12:00.000-06:00

My name is Michelle.
Plenty people call me mj or other derivatives of it: mije, emje, meje, michjo, mekje, and the list goes on.
Many others call me by my first name, including those who have known me since God-knows-how-long.

Here is my 2013 resolution list...one that I made sometimes during the middle of third week of January.
I'm not so bright sometimes.

1. Be discipline-vague? that's the point.

2. Climb a tree. *insert check mark here*

note: don't judge the height of the climb. As Armstrong said "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," man this thing may be small to you, but there are more people in the human race that actually fulfill their destiny: climbing a tree. next!

3. learn to drive
I'm 19 and I can't drive. I never actually graduate from high school phase.

4. obtaining a driver license
I always told my mom that I was going to learn how to drive...during every major breaks throughout my high school career.

ALL LIES.

5. going somewhere outside Texas
Co-lo-ra-do?

6. going to Six Flags
because an awesome half-interracial friend of mine pointed at the list in my black book and said that she wanted to take me there...on my BIRTHDAY.

7. going to Mangga Besar/ Pasar Baru/ PRJ

8. do a headstand successfully.
Why, you said? well, because when I was in third grade, I had to do this in my PE class and I failed. End of story.

9. getting better at drawing - vague? vague is fun. It's similar to vogue.

10. going to Kota Tua

11. going to DUFAN *insert excited remarks here...not as excited as Six Flags tho'*

12. going to Ragunan
Why? Because I am almost 20 years old and I never go to Ragunan. I kinda suck.

13. going to Monas
Why? Because I never go there either. I really suck

14. going to Museum Gajah+Fatahillah
same as above

15. kayang at Bundaran HI
define kayang?

16. get back to high school with best buddies and eat in Kantin 14!
--> according to Stella Marcelina Budi Naba!

and the list will continue...

to continue...this list will be.

ps. all these destinations can be searched in google, y'kno. Well, because if you're not from Indonesia, you probably don't' know some of these places...except six flags.

pps. http://funkndefiance.tumblr.com/ --> I can promote my cousin's stuffs right....ehhhh...

Thanksgiving

2012-12-25T23:58:00.002-06:00

Short. Interesting. Important break of the year. KAPOW!

12/25/12

2012-12-25T23:49:00.000-06:00

It's Christmas day.

It means I have a week before the beginning of a new year.

I guess, I learned a lot this year.
I always know that I am not an easy person.
Many people used to dislike me...and I guess up until now some people still do, which...I do not really mind-meeting a person, starting a friendship and the progresses after that, they're just basically taking risks.
I understand stuffs more clearly now-it's inevitable that there are some questions I'm just unable to answer. But hey, I'm still here, I'm still trying to stick with this path I chose to walk on.

I think, being exiled from my family, my circle of friends and my culture...just help me to know who I actually am. There's no pressure from the society to act like the society wants me to do so. My childhood came back to me in fragments...like short scenes of a movie, an epoch. I never experienced it back in high school. I guess, I suppressed my emotion a lot...after all, every time I let it burst, bad things happened, kinda. It's interesting that my childhood memory is coming back at me. Maybe, it's because everything seems to be in a slower pace in Abilene, in college. In Jakarta, everything is so fast paced, kinda.

I will protect this stillness, this peacefulness I have in my life.
I believe I'm tired of drama.

The clarity of mind- that is what my teacher used to tell me to have in order to be able to play the music splendidly; that is what I'm going to protect.

Off...to the zoo we go!

2012-12-25T23:27:00.002-06:00

The emergency break that I took...on weekend.

Off to Abilene Zoo, we went!

Fishes...can be disgusting.

HEDWIG, Y U NO SEND MY HOGWARTS LETTER?

Behind the bars.

NATS at UNT

2012-12-25T23:02:00.001-06:00

went to UNT for NATS.

Cheers.

December 4, 2012

2012-12-04T21:57:00.003-06:00

I have to make sure that this wonderful facebook status of Dayna Coppedge vanished into the darkness of the night.

23rd Psalm for Students
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not flunk
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break
He restores my faith in study guides

He leads me to better study habits
For my grades' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades
I will not have a nervous breakdown
For thou art with me
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me
Thou givest me the answer in moments of blankness
Thou anointest my head with understanding
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize.
Surely passing grades and flying colours shall follow me
All the days of my examinations
And I shall not have to dwell in this exam hall forever.

Bahasa Indonesia 101, part 2.

2012-10-13T15:25:00.002-05:00

I have to do my math homework...but it's Saturday; I want to do nothing.
So, I log on to my blog instead. Sure, no big deal, rite?

One thing that I realize from writing my first post is that... people have to learn how we pronounce the tinee beeniee littlee syllables.

Well, in my last post, I wrote about how Indonesians pronounce the vocals: a,e,i,o,u.

So, it's about the time I tell you how to pronounce the consonants.

b- bhe
c- che
d- dhe
f- f (yes, it's completely similar)
g- ghe
h- hah
j- jay
k- kha
l- l (yep, no big deal)
m- m
n- n
o- o
p- phe
q- khi
r- errrrrrr (front e, roll your tongue, yesss, roll it fast, faster, FASTER. MUAHAHAHHAA)
s - esssssssss
t- te (open e/front e)
v- vhe
w- whe
x- ex
y- yhe
z- zhet

thus...
ba- bha/ be- bhe/ bi- bee/ bo- boh/ bu- boo
ca- cha/ ce- che/ ci- chee/ co- cho/ cu- coo
da- dha/ de- dhe/ di- dee/ do- doh/ du- doo
fa- fa / fe- fhe/ fi- fee/ fo- foh/ fu- foo
and so on...

Now, here is something weird about Bahasa:
the four random digraphs: ng, ny, kh, sy.
ng- eng
ny- nye
kh- khe
sy- sya

well, I definitely can't give equivalent sound produced for these four random digraphs in English pronunciation. I kinda can't think of a way.

hey, since these stuffs above are straight up boring, let's just dully memorize some stuffs without having to know how to pronounce it correctly!

I love Indonesia - Saya cinta Indonesia. (sha-yha chin-tha in-do-neh-see-ah)
The beaches are awesome - Pantainya mengagumkan. (phan-thai-nyah meng-nga-goom-khan)
How much does this cost? - Berapakah harganya/biayanya? (bhe-rha-pah-kah har-gha-nyah/ bee-ah-yah-nyah?)
Where is the nearest hotel? - Di manakah hotel terdekat? (dee-mah-nah-kah ho-tel ther-dhe-khat?)
Where is the nearest police station? - Di manakah pos polisi terdekat? (dee-mah-nah-kah pos pho-lee-see ther-dhe-khat?)
What is this? - Ini apa? (ee-nee ah-pha?)
We don't serve pork. We only serve chicken and beef. - Kami tidak menyajikan daging babi. Kami hanya menyajikan daging ayam dan sapi. (kha-mee tee-dhak mhe-nyah-gee-khan dha-ghing bha-bee. kha-mee hah-nyah mhe-nyah-gee-khan dha-ghing ah-yham dunn sha-pee)

This is kinda important.
In many languages, there are silent 'h' and super-strong 'h'.
Indonesians love strong 'h'.
So, h - the alphabet- is pronounced as just as h in help, but with super strong breathy h.
But well, it is kinda silent at the end of the word. Di manakah, for example, isn't pronounced with strong h; It kinda has silent h.

Oh, and while I'm writing this, I research on the internet and find something quite useful.
ch is pronounced in the similar manner as ch in cheap.
ng is pronounced in the similar manner as ng in sing.

Writing this tires me up, just saying.
It's just as tiring as trying to making me pronouncing 'th' in the right manner.

ps. this happens to be my 100th post. Cheers!

further references:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/indonesian.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/indonesian.php
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/teague/phrase.html

Bahasa Indonesia 101: For Dummies (and non-dummies)

2012-10-10T20:23:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking about this post for months. I'm just...lazy, I guess to type this, but here we go...

Bahasa Indonesia 101 for dummies (and not-dummies).

Bahasa Indonesia is the way we, Indonesians, name our language.
I generally believe that the term 'Indonesian Language' is incorrect in the sense that Germans don't call their language German, they call it Deutsch. Nah, that's a weird reason, but really, what I mean is that we, Indonesians, shall name our own language in the way we call it.

Oh, and anyway, calling Bahasa Indonesia as Indonesian language ain't cool.
Although, if you translate 'Bahasa Indonesia' to English, it basically means Indonesian language.

Well, let's cut the crap and get into the business.

Surviving Jakarta. How?

First of all, Indonesians have different way to pronounce 'a'. Yes, the letter 'A'. We don't pronounce a as ae, but instead, a, just as a in father. Make sense? I hope so. If not, check it out in wiki, amigos. click here for aaaaaahh

Hello - Halo (hah-low)
I am an American - Saya orang Amerika. (Sah-yah oh-rung Ah-mer-ree-kah). mer as in merry.
I am lost - Saya tersesat (Sah-yah thur-seh-shat).
-thur as in Arthur, seh- close e, instead of seh sounds in say
I love you - Aku cinta kamu (Ah-koo chin-tah kaa-moo)

Do you speak English? - Apa kamu bisa berbicara dalam Bahasa Inggris? (Ah-pah kah-moo bee-sah bear-bee-cha-ra duh-lum bah-hah-sah eeng-greece)

Crap, I just wrote 5 sentences and I'm tired.
Btw, remember, we pronounce the a as 'a' instead of ae. y'kno just making sure you got that by now.
Oh, and 'i' is just like e. So, 'ri' is pronounced as 'ree'.
Hmm, another vocal...hmm...e? e is pretty similar to the way Americans pronounce 'a'.
(Yes, I know it's not easy, bear with it.)
O is just similar to the way you pronounce 'o' in English, but you don't have the long 'w' feeling after it. So, instead of pronouncing o as 'ow', Indonesians pronounce it as 'oh' instead. Got it? Cool beans.
Next vowel, the letter 'u'. Okay, this may be tricky, but we pronounce it as 'oo'. So, 'pu' is somewhat similar to poo. Got that? Cool.

Alright. Greetings?
Good morning - Selamat pagi.
Good afternoon - Selamat sore.
Now, it's tricky. Indonesians usually think of morning as 6-10 am. 11-3pm is not simply considered as morning/afternoon, it's called 'siang' (see-ung). 4-6 pm is considered as afternoon. 7-y'kno midnight and such is considered as 'malam' (mah-lahm) or evening.
So, good evening is 'selamat malam.'

Alright, I'm tired. I'll end here.
I may post more later...or maybe not.

Feel free to tell me how to make this pronunciation stuffs easier for y'all.
I know, it's hard. Bear with it.
Y'all make hard stuffs to y'kno...like 'th', for example.
This doesn't give you an excuse to ask me how I pronounce father in the class, mmkay?

ps. This will make you feel smart --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language

part two: http://michellejosephine.blogspot.com/2012/10/bahasa-indonesia-101-part-2.html

meet

2012-10-03T20:43:00.002-05:00

to meet is to say good bye.

to meet is to be prepared that one day I will be standing by this person's coffin...or vice versa.

to meet is to hurt, to laugh, to love, to hate, to say hello and to say good bye...and to ask for forgiveness.

to meet is to take a risk to know someone deeper, to share secrets, to share joys, to share sorrows and to say goodbye when they die.

to meet is to gamble of what will happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next year, or 10 minutes later.

why excessive make up, why?

2012-09-18T18:09:00.001-05:00

This may not be my first post about makeup, but really I just thought about it and...-yes, I don't regularly wear makeup on- I do not quite understand why people wear makeup on.

To begin with, I want to clarify that these people I really want to talk about are not people who wear light makeup on with quite great reasons: "to make me look a little bit older...", "I look so pale without makeup, people just keep on asking me whether I'm okay or not", "Oh, I don't like seeing my face so oily."

I really want to talk about some people who wear excessive makeup - which people may have different standards for themselves-...and who may have the 30-minutes wearing make up on session each morning.

Some of American habits just don't make sense to me. Some people start wearing make up on when they're still in middle school. I am not saying that it is wrong; it is just something that I will gladly say "no comprendo, mi amiga". Why do people as young as 13 years old eager to go to school with make up on? I'm not saying that the kids are wrong - I mean, 13 years old don't think like I do; they wanna look cool; they're trying to find their identities. However, why do a 13 years old think that wearing makeup on makes her look cooler?

I talked over this to one of my friends and she asked me back, "Do you want to see your professor going to the class wearing sweatpants?"
Obviously, my Asian mindset does not want to see that...but in my opinion- hey, it's my opinion, it can be different from yours, just a small reminder- dressing up and wearing makeup on is not an all-in-one-package. Back in high school, I didn't mind having my teachers not putting excessive makeup on- they still wear nice outfit though. Some of them didn't bother to wear makeup on, and oh dear Lord, I didn't mind at all. They taught the subjects well to the students, with or without makeup on.

I am just wondering why do people spend 30 minutes- or less, if they're pros in makeup- each morning before classes.
As for myself, I prefer to use that 30 minutes to eat Annie's omelet in the Bean, ponder at the nature and walk leisurely to my class.

Oh, and -don't forget this- to save couple bucks from buying new makeup kits every now and then- which, yes, I can use to eat my Chinese food or buy cute outfits or, ultimately, travel cool places in the States.

ps. your opinion may differ from me. It's okay. Chill. I don't judge people with excessive make up. Oh wait, I do actually.

pps. there are always 'accepted excuses' for heavy makeup!

rediscovering stuffs, reliving memories

2012-09-16T16:20:00.003-05:00

People often say that pictures can tell thousand words.

Thank you naba, clara, olin, bene, cello, sekong, micel, cupid, karel, wiju, joni, wea, lidi. :)

the long boring crap you don't really wanna read about math and I

2012-09-16T01:47:00.000-05:00

I like math.
Ever since my teacher taught me about this magical secret back in elementary school, I fell in love with it.
Well, I don't love it as much as I love music tho'...but really, I do love math.

Why did I wanna make this blog post?
...

Oh yes, I am taking pre-calculus this semester.
Not as fancy as calculus is...but it's still fun...
(and the pre-cal's homework is not as time consuming as the calculus' homework...or so I think, at least.)

Well, pre-cal is not super hard or anything.
It's just nostalgic.

There is no way I can stop smiling whenever my professor -he's a funny old guy, btw- showed us about trigonometry or logarithm stuffs.
For me, these bring out the memory of high school.
Logarithm...I did a lot of stuffs with'em...way...way...harder than the problems that the prof gave me.
Back in the first year of senior high, I really wanted to get into this 'science' class.
I knew at that time that I was going to take piano as my major...I was just...too proud to take 'social' class. So, I spent hours...and hours...going to math tutoring stuffs to make sure I'll get 70 or higher in my math class. Those are hours...I could have spent practicing piano. I don't really regret it tho'. It helps me a lot through college stuffs. I take less time to finish my homework...just because I'm kinda fluent with math...I guess.

Anyway, whenever he wrote logarithm stuffs on the board, my mind would wander to the good ole time.
My math teacher back in high school was old...kinda as old as my prof is.
She would sit on her throne, there, right next to the blackboard after explaining stuffs on the board.
She would help those smart kids with their math assignments...while my friends and I, obviously, didn't do our assignments...Instead, we would play UNO...well or capsa -kinda similar to poker, but not really-on the floor at the back of the classroom... Heck yeah, high school was fun. I still got 80s in her class...(hey 80s are good, y'kno, Asians don't normally have 100/100 in their high school report card, just sayin'.)

But yes, I couldn't stop smilin' whenever he explained about all these logarithmic stuffs.
It's just way too nostalgic.

Trigonometry?
It's even more nostalgic.

I even brought my own math notes from my high school era.
Yeah, I'm just too lazy to read Sullivan's Pre-Cal textbook- it looks like a huge King James Version Bible.

Trigonometry is nostalgic in the sense that I was so freakin' lazy during my second year of high school.
I was a hardworking student back in the first semester...but second semester? PFFFFT. I threw all of these away for piano. I don't regret it at all. I still understand about Indonesian-level science high school stuffs- which includes relativism in Physics, organic chem, craps (oh yes, I don't understand biology) in Bio and integral/differential in Math.
It's kinda similar to freshman's science classes: general chemistry/calculus 1...and co.

Back to trigonometry. Yeah, I was so lazy that I just -most of the time- copied my friends' homework before the school started...and memorized the patterns before the test started. I meant...life was so good back in high school! I didn't have to do my homework and I was still happy with my test results. Now, I have to do all my homework by myself. Life sucks.

Second year of high school; Twas kinda full of drama, but it was actually awesome. I met my best buddies...right after half of my class started talking back to me. No complaint tho'. I just have limited ability to understand people's feelings...and I'm super sarcastic...esp. when I'm annoyed...so, yeah, things happened.

But lots of good stuffs happened during that year: the boys playing baseball with paper-ball in the class, for example...or me sleeping in the class during religion and civic classes.

Senior year was the bomb. I didn't care about my grades. I went to school, mostly sleep-deprived from staying up late practicing piano (and browsing internet, of course.) I would just sleep in certain classes- civic, religion, English. I would just go straight to the mall, hanging out with my buddies, right after school...til 5-ish and went home with my mom. I would just wait for her in her office...and sleep in the car...got back home and practice. In the class, when it was boring, I would just take out my piano score and study the score while the teacher talked some random stuffs in front of the class. I would just sleep during religion class...heck yeah, because I dislike the teacher.

I wish I were in high school. Life was easier. There was no dramatic death. There was no need for me to maintain my GPA. Copying friend's homework is legal -not really, but all your teachers know that you copied your friends', d'oh. I have sufficient money to be spent anytime I want to- I worked back in my second-third year of high school. I had best buddies that were not occupied with their boyfriends.

Math. I wish I could take calculus, just for fun, just for recalling good ole moments of high school.