because i think so

Let's IELTS! Episode: IELTS Semi-Intensive Prep Placement Test at IALF Surabaya

2015-02-15T03:44:00.000+07:00

I’m tagging this post with IELTS preparation course, IALF IELTS Prep Semi-Intensive Course etc, so I guess if at some point you manage to get here it means that you (YES, YOU!) are personally looking for that particular information. Plus, I expect that you are at the least already familiar with IELTS so I wouldn’t spend too much effort here to explain what is IELTS, why do you need it and so on, and so on. Let’s continue!

Long story short, I need to obtain the IELTS score for academic purposes. I’m not that confident with my English skill, plus the test itself is a bit pricy (that would be the same amount of my monthly salary—sniff!) and I have this thought if I took the test without proper preparation which resulted on my failure to attain the desired score, it would be such a waste of money. I have to achieve at least 7.0, which is pretty high, so my logic tells me that it’s okay to spend 1.5 month of my wage for the sake of IELTS preparation course to accomplish the designated IELTS band. This leads me to the IELTS preparation course placement test on IALF Surabaya.

Why choosing IALF Surabaya? Simply because I live in the City of Heroes—lame translation is lame, sorry. IALF is also a certified IELTS test centre and I’m quite familiar with the place because I’d done some English competition there when I was in senior high school (which is around 9 years ago—gawd, I’m old…). Some bloggers too noted that IALF is the best place for IELTS preparation course. To me personally, I don’t even have any second option on where should I take the preparation course other than IALF.

I was too busy with my work to get any information on how to join the course. Luckily I have this cool friend who also needs IELTS score and have this same plan to join the course, who willingly help me gather all the info regarding the prep course application. I already browse the IALF’s page on IELTS preparation course and already had this 5 weeks intensive course to join in my mind. As stated on the web, those who want to join the class need to meet the criteria which are… at least scored 5.0 on writing & speaking skill. This, brethrens and sisters, got me nervous, because I write scrappily and speak even messier. Nonetheless, we—my cool friend and me—decided to keep on going with the process and she signed me up for the placement test on Wednesday (11/02/15) at 4pm and Thursday (12/02/15) at 3.30 pm.

Now, about the placement test; it’s like a mock IELTS test. So if you are planning to take the same class that I’d be joining (the IELTS Prep Semi-Intensive course, IPSI for short), you’d be taking this placement test. I read at some blog posts that they only did, like, 50 basic grammar questions for 45 minutes and they were done. No, you’re not going to have that kind of test. I already told you that the course needs you to get 5.0 minimum on speaking and writing, right? That’s why you need to perform the IELTS like test to know your score.

I could’ve done the placement test in a day had I’m free in the morning. But since I’m busy working, they offered the two day schedule because apparently the assessors were also busy. Ha. I actually had about 5 days to prepare myself for the placement test, but maybe nargles were behind my hazy mind that I didn’t do anything at all before the test day.

On Wednesday, I came at around 3.30, fill in the personal information form in the front office—the staff was really nice and helpful, paid Rp 200.000 for the placement fee at the cashier, then waited till it’s time to do the test. Apparently beside my cool friend and me, there was another young man taking the test. Then the officer told us to get ready for the listening test. We were told not to bring anything but the stationeries, and were asked to leave our luggage in the front office for him to keep. I only took my mechanical pencil and one eraser inside the test room at that time.

I must admit that I’m kind of anxious because it has been a long time since I had any kind of classroom setting test. The medium sized classroom—although seriously cozy with posters on its walls, seemed empty and intimidating with only the three of us, facing question booklet & answer sheets. The officer then told us about the test time, did volume check and left us be to do the listening section.

When we’re done with the listening section, he transported us to another empty classroom for reading & writing section. It seemed like they needed the previous classroom for a lesson that evening. I proceeded with reading section that left my head burned, while my cool friend did the writing section first. It started raining really heavily in the middle of my writing section. I was tired with the reading the texts, freezing and a bit hungry too. My concentration kind of dropped during that moment. When my turn to do the writing section came, I hardly have any idea to write the essay at all. I had to stop and think for a while, fishing for ideas. Luckily I manage to finish the task by the time I had to submit it. Some useful tips: make sure your tummy is full before taking the test.

The next day—the speaking test day, during my working hour, I barely function normally. I kept on thinking on my lame essay and my tendency to lisp during English conversation. I was afraid of failing because if I score lower than 5, I had to take the Study Preparation course before I could take the IELTS prep course. This means more money to spend and longer preparation time before I could take the IELTS.

I arrived at around 3.15pm on Thursday. This time I didn’t need to fill anything, I only had to wait for my turn to do the speaking section. My cool friend, because she came earlier, got the first turn to do the speaking test. I tried to calm my nerve by reading some magazines in the comfy waiting room. When my cool friend came 20 minutes later with undistinguishable facial expression, I could only inhaling as much air into my lungs and face the assessor—he was a British man—with a stiff smile.

During the speaking section, we sat face to face in the medium size class. He asked my name, noted that I had an unusually long name, asked me to spell my name so he could wrote it in a small card, then asked me several personal basic information (such as address, birthday, workplace info) as he filled some kind of bio data form. He also asked me why I need to take IELTS, why I chose IALF, whether I was familiar with it or not and my future plan. He asked me about my hobby too and I manage to bring Harry Potter into the conversation. Before he concluded the test, he asked permission to read my essay that I wrote the previous day and he corrected my essay directly, even gave me some inputs.

Fortunately the speaking section went smoothly. It was just like some regular chit-chat between me and my expatriate colleague, maybe even better. By the time he finished giving me suggestion about the essay, he told me that he’d be telling me the result for the placement test. And I couldn’t be more relieved when he said that I, kind of, passed the placement test. The small card where he wrote my name earlier, turns out was the result card. There were columns in there where he put ticks that showed my English level. I was amazed that I got a pretty high level—remember I was so nervous about failing the placement test because of my writing & speaking? I guess I’m not that bad, eh?

But I have my reason as why I was afraid to fail the placement test. Actually I had taken another IELTS placement test in SUN Education office around 2 years ago. It was pretty much the same mock test but with more advanced speaking & writing section. I say more advanced because SUN really asked me to write opinions and made reports based on tables and graphs just like the real IELTS test. They even had 3 sections of speaking where I had to introduce myself, state some opinions about some trivial themes and discussing my opinions with the assessor. Comparing to SUN’s mock IELTS, IALF’s short essay and relaxing talk seemed a bit tamer. Plus, based on SUN’s placement test, I only got 5.0 as the grand total, with 4.0 in speaking and writing. That would put me in intermediate level on IALF’s scale; one level lower than my up-to-date placement result. I’m not sure whether I’m really improving a lot during 2 years time or whether SUN’s mock test predicts my future IELTS score better. Hopefully I really do improve and that my future IELTS score would be as good as my placement result.

Back to business. So, I got my result, my assessor sent me to the front office, the officer re-informed me about my score and telling me that I could take the intended IPSI course. The placement test result can be used up to 3 months from the test date, should you want to postpone joining the prep class. I finished up the payment for the course that day, got my picture taken for student ID, and was informed that the ID could be taken the next day, plus now I’m allowed to use the library and study center.

I’d be joining my course (well not so) soon! Hopefully I provide helpful enough information for you who want to take the course. Good luck!

Tips TPA PPDB 2013

2013-06-18T19:14:00.000+07:00

Buat yang tanggal 22 dan 23 Juni 2013 ini mau ikutan Tes Potensi Akademik untuk penerimaan siswa baru SMP-SMA Surabaya, here are some useful tips.

1. Don’t panic.

UNAS udah lewat, ini cuman selangkah lebih dekat menuju SMP/SMA impian.

2. Persiapkan diri sebaik mungkin.

Dengan cara apa? Beli buku tes TPA sebanyak mungkin? Latihan soal TPA siang-malam-tiada lelah-tiada henti? Ikut les TPA? Well, itu persiapan yang baik sih. Tapi TPA itu banyak banget macamnya dan kemungkinan besar apa yang disediakan buku-buku persiapan TPA dan disajikan dalam kursus tidak mencakup apa yang akan diujikan pada hari tes nanti. Jadi apa persiapannya?

a. Sehari sebelum tes, istirahat yang cukup—jangan tidur terlalu malam jadi bisa bangun pagi dan nggak ngantuk waktu pengerjaan tes J

b. Sarapan sebelum berangkat. Nggak asik kan kalo waktu ngerjain tes perut keroncongan?

c. Siapkan alat tulis. Yang diperlukan dalam tes cuman pensil 2B seperti yang teman-teman pake waktu UNAS plus penghapusnya. Nggak usah bawa penggaris berlubang untuk menghitamkan karena nggak akan dibutuhkan J

d. Siapkan juga kartu tes dan kartu UNASnya untuk dibawa pas hari-H ya. Kalau kartu UNAS udah nggak memungkinkan untuk dibawa, bisa bawa kartu identitas yang ada foto diri, seperti Kartu Pelajar atau SKHU.

e. Boleh bawa clipboard untuk alas menulis? Boleh, bawa aja kalo memang suka nulis pake alas J

f. Survey tempat tes. Pastikan teman-teman tahu dimana lokasi tes teman-teman biar nggak kesasar di hari-H.

3. Datang tepat waktu.

Pastikan teman-teman bangun pagi, jadi bisa mempersiapkan diri di sekolah lokasi TPA. Karena kalau telat, nggak akan dapat tambahan waktu pengerjaan tes.

4. Konsentrasi.

TPA punya beberapa model soal yang instruksi dan cara pengerjaannya berbeda-beda. Tester yang mengetes pasti akan memberikan instruksi pengerjaannya. Nah, cukup dengarkan baik-baik dengan penuh konsentrasi setiap instruksi yang diberikan. Kalau ada instruksi yang kurang jelas, segera tanyakan karena bertanya saat tes sudah berlangsung akan merugikan teman-teman sendiri. Kenapa? Karena nggak ada waktu tambahan pengerjaan dan waktu mengerjakan teman-teman terpotong cuma untuk tanya.

5. Time management.

Setiap kelompok soal punya waktu pengerjaan yang berbeda-beda. Perhatikan waktu tester bilang “mulai” dan “berhenti”. Jangan mulai sebelum ada aba-aba dan segera letakkan alat tulis kalau disuruh berhenti. Ingat, nggak ada waktu tambahan. Jadi seandainya di kelompok soal 1 teman-teman belum selesai, sementara sudah waktunya mengerjakan kelompok soal berikutnya, mau nggak mau ya kamu harus berhenti ngerjain kelompok soal 1 dan beralih ke kelompok soal 2. Jadi perhatikan baik-baik waktunya ya.

6. Kerjakan semaksimal mungkin.

Oke, ada batasan waktu. Tapi sekali lagi nggak usah panik. Kerjakan sebisanya dan semaksimal mungkin. Kalau ada soal yang sekiranya susah, lompati aja dulu. Tapi jangan sekali-kali mengerjakan kelompok soal lain sebelum ada aba-aba ya!

7. Berdoa

You only need to do your best, God will do the rest. Percaya deh kalo kita udah berusaha, pasti dapat hasil yang baik J

So, are you ready for TPA, arek-arek Suroboyo?

The Spilled Milk

2013-02-03T04:11:00.000+07:00

A short update before continuing my next ASEAN YEP related post.

Actually it has been a busy holiday. I really got things to do that keeps me moving around and had little time to do anything else. ~~Chatting on facebook and video calling with overseas friend is not included in the anything else category.~~ Here I’m just going to tell you that I feel like my time is running out. I’m on my 4^th year, the year for thesis & graduation. I really don’t have any other subject I need to take this semester because I have taken all my classes. That way next semester I only need to take 6 credits for thesis.

Thing is, after ASEAN YEP I realize how I have wasted my four year in university without doing anything noteworthy. I met a lot of great people who spent their college life around the globe during the ASEAN YEP. While me? I’m keeping myself rotten in my den. Well yeah, Prague in 2010 & Bangkok last January experiences were something real worthy. But, where have I been when the chances are widely open? Now I only have some months left before fleeing my save haven into the wilderness out there. Somehow I feel I’m not ready for the post-college life. I’m not even sure what to do next. Looking for jobs as an unqualified (soon to be) bachelor? Pursuing a master degree scholarship with my not-so-fair GPA?

Right now I’m crying over spilled milk. I really wish I still get chances to get other exchange grant before letting my status as an undergraduate student go.

ASEAN YEP Diaries #1

2013-01-23T09:00:00.000+07:00

I know it has been a long time since my last post. I didn't even do some new-year related post. How are you guys doing? Is there anyone who still read my blog out there? No matter what, I hope you have an incredible time, because I do. I get this special chance to meet a lot of new friends who are now become my family in this event I recently joined; the first ASEAN Youth Exchange Program (ASEAN YEP) on January 10^th to 20^th in Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

From my perspective, ASEAN YEP is a program to strengthen the bond between Southeast Asian youths by exchanging each nation’s culture, preparing these youths for the 2015 ‘ASEAN Economic Community’ as well as promoting the ASEAN Way—in which I would explain later, and let them build a bond for the future of ASEAN. It is an intensive 10 days program consisted of lecturers, group discussion, excursion study and cultural visit. All of the participants also encouraged to perform their national culture. It was the most memorable 10 days I have experienced all my life. No exaggeration.

There are 8 countries participated in the YEP; Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Delegations from each country were representatives from the ASEAN University Network (AUN) member. The exchange was particularly for the AUN members only. Fortunately, my university is the member of AUN, so I could join this program.

I will share my YEP memories on some parts:

1. Introductory part,

Which is this part when I give a brief explanation about YEP

2. Lessons from Lectures

About something noteworthy from the classes, and

3. Thailand Sight Seeing

In which I would tell you about my adventures around Siam District, Silom, Petchaburi Province, Asiatique and The Grand Palace

The story of how I get to Bangkok will be a start. Enjoy J

Departing to Bangkok

I didn't have much time to prepare myself for the selection. One day I received a text, telling me that I was invited to this exchange socialization event where the next day I was interviewed and shortly after that informed that I was accepted for the program and had to prepare everything I needed to go abroad; passport, photos, etc. Everything was so fast during this preparation weeks.

Some weeks before the departure, I met my fellow delegates from each faculty of my university. Our university delegations are Agni, Caesar, Cintia, Destra, Febby, Iyus, Jojo, Ratu, Rosa, Tanti, Tesa, Vania, Jesica, We had only 3 meetings to prepare everything for the cultural night and done the rest by Blackberry Messenger. Thank God for technology.

at Don Mueang Airport

We went to Bangkok on January 10^th by Air Asia, the best low cost airlines—so they said. It takes about 4 hours to get to Bangkok. And since it is a low cost flight, we didn't get the meal for free. I was surprised that the price of half portion of meal I usually consume is two times more expensive. That time I had no idea about pre-book meal which cost cheaper. But I rarely fly, so I give a try for that costly food instead.

Arrival

We arrived at about 8 pm which means we were late for the 7 pm welcoming dinner. But the staff kindly escorted us to Mak Yah, a halal Muslim Restaurant—because many of us are Islam. After filling our belly, we went to Asia Hotel Bangkok, a four-star hotel that will be our home for the next 9 days. This is when we learnt the fact that we will be sleeping with roommate from another country. We weren't anticipating this and quite anxious that we wouldn't be able to keep up with our roommate. But our anxiety was pointless for we had fun with our roommate. Mine is Faikum Srihakam, a cute Thai student from Khon Khaen University. We had a good time even thought Fai’s English was quite limited.

Solidarity Groups

We were asked by the staff to be punctually ready at the hotel lobby on 8 am for leaving to the campus where they held the lectures. The program was opened by formal forewords and Thailand cultural performance. After the opening ceremony, we were separated into solidarity groups or SGs. There are 6 SGs; group A-F. Each group consisted of every country member. For the rest 9 days, we have to stick with our SG.

Great times with Diversitwo

I was on group B, the second group. We called ourselves Diversitwo. Liw from Thai is our leader. Liane from The Philippines is our assistant leader. Those who are in this SG are Avasbek and Fatin (Brunei Darussalam), Phea (Cambodia), me, Aryo, Dary, Icha and Jojo (Indonesia), Aling (Laos), Marco (The Philippines), Am, Nan, Num, Pleng, Satory and Yong (Thailand) and Thao (Vietnam). Yes, Indonesia was the second country with the most delegates, while Myanmar was the least because they only sent 3 students. The grouping was fun. We were asked to introduce ourselves before making group rule & group cheer. In no time we became really attached with each other.

to be continued…

Saya (TIDAK) Benci Pak Ino!

2012-12-07T00:42:00.000+07:00

On December 4th, one of my Industry and Organisation lecturer, the most respected one, passed away. This is a blog post I made to honor him. Post is written in Bahasa.

“Saya benci Pak Ino!”

Mungkin bukan awal yang manis bagi sebuah obituari, namun jika saya boleh jujur, kesan itulah yang saya dapatkan setelah interaksi pertama saya dengan beliau di suatu perkuliahan.

Dan mungkin saya punya beberapa alasan untuk tidak menyukai beliau.

Pak Ino kerap memanggil saya “Ndut”—well saya memang gendut sih.

Beliau pernah menolak mentah-mentah untuk menjawab pertanyaan saya seputar PIO di luar kelas. Dan gara-gara itu saya malu bukan main sampai nangis.

Di suatu perkuliahan, Pak Ino pernah mengata-ngatai almamater saya yang berlokasi dekat kuburan cina sebagai SMA yang seram sehingga membuat saya yang berbadan besar ini juga tampak menyeramkan.

Pak Ino juga pernah mengancam akan melempar saya dengan sandal karena saya terlalu banyak bertanya pada beliau di suatu perkuliahan.

“Kamu minta saya jelaskan lagi? Tak lempar pakai sandal!”

Di perkuliahan terakhir yang beliau ajar, Pak Ino masih sempat menyepak kaki saya ketika tidak bisa memecahkan masalah sepele tentang validitas dan reliabilitas.

Cruel? A bully? Hateable? Tidak juga. Sebab semua 'kejahatan' itu dilakukan Pak Ino demi kebaikan. A greater good.

Karena berbagai ucapan beliau malah membuat saya melakukan banyak refleksi diri. Ungkapan bernada satire yang sering Pak Ino lontarkan berkali-kali membuat saya tertohok dan malu pada diri sendiri. Cukup banyak pembelajaran saya peroleh dari beliau.

Saya belajar untuk belajar dengan benar. Beberapa kali Pak Ino menyindir kami para mahasiswa sebagai calon Sarjana Power Point, yang jarang membaca buku, yang memang kenyataannya seperti itu. Saya—sebelum ditampar telak dengan pernyataan itu—memang kolektor sejati materi kuliah yang terangkum dalam power point; kaum yang jarang menyentuh buku apalagi membacanya dengan nggetu. Karena beliaulah sekarang saya lebih bersemangat untuk bertekun membaca kitab-kitab ilmu berbahasa asing.

Saya belajar untuk benar-benar memahami materi dan tidak menerapkan auto-delete-mode dalam pembelajaran.

Saya belajar bahwa teori itu penting, penting sekali dan akan mempermudah praktek. Tanpa teori, kita cuma sekumpulan domba tak bergembala yang dilepas di padang tanpa tau arah.

Saya belajar bahwa orang yang belajar psikologi (dianggap) memiliki kekuatan super. Saya mengikuti kuliah Psikodiagnostik dengan asal-asalan; asal lulus. Tapi saya ingat ucapan keras Pak Ino pada kuliah Asas-asas Manajemen tentang beratnya titel Sarjana Psikologi—maupun mahasiswa psikologi—karena sebagian besar orang masih menganggap psikolog sebagai cenayang dan penentu nasib orang lewat berbagai skor asesmen psikologi. Psikolog dianggap orang dengan kekuatan super, yang ucapannya bisa memutus hidup seseorang.

Beliau bercerita tentang hasil psikotesnya yang dibawah rata-rata. He told us he was a debil. (Really, sir?) Seandainya orang tua beliau saat itu benar-benar percaya pada hasil psikotesnya, seharusnya beliau tidak akan pernah mengenyam ilmu sampai Amerika—karena hanya anak ber-IQ jongkok.

“Berapa banyak itu orang tua percaya anaknya goblok akhirnya pasrah atau marah-marah? Berapa banyak orang gak bisa kerja karena IQ dari hasil psikotes nya rendah? Makanya saya nggak mau itu ngetes-ngetes. Saya cuma bisa menyarankan. Apa orang ini diterima kerja di perusahaan atau jabatan tertentu atau tidak disarankan.”

Wasn't his excact words tho, but that's what he said. As he told us this story, I scribed my note with Uncle Ben’s quote “with great power, comes great responsibility.” And I agreed with Pak Ino about this.

Ucapan ini begitu mengena bagi saya yang juga bekerja sebagai tenaga serabutan untuk suatu lembaga psikologi yang sering memberikan psikotes ke sekolah-sekolah. Setiap kali akan melakukan skoring terhadap psikotes anak-anak SMA ini, saya ingat bahwa saya punya tanggung jawab yang besar untuk menentukan ‘nasib’ si anak ini. Sebisa mungkin saya lakukan skoring dengan hati-hati dan teliti.

Saya belajar untuk tidak cuma jadi kembang ban. Di suatu perkuliahan saya pernah bertanya pada beliau, “Kalau semester ini kita bacaannya buku-buku manejemen gini Pak, terus apa bedanya dong kami anak PIO sama anak Manajemen?” Beliau menjawab,

“Tidak ada! Kalian ini kan cuma kembang ban; onok gak popo, gak onok yo gak popo. Makanya kalian harus belajar supaya bisa jadi lebih dari mereka yang sama-sama belajar organisasi dan manajemen!”

Jawaban Pak Ino terkait kembang ban ini memang ucapan standarnya. Namun kali itu, saya yang sudah mengambil beberapa mata kuliah peminatan PIO benar-benar merasa terusik dan berkali-kali membuat saya bertanya, “Lapo aku biyen njupuk peminatan PIO lek pas kerjo mek dadi kembang ban?” Tapi pada akhirnya saya sadar, ucapan itu adalah cambuk bagi kami—bagi saya—untuk menjadi sosok yang lebih dari sekadar kembang ban yang harus terus belajar supaya memiliki nilai tambah, agar nantinya tidak akan jadi kuli di negeri sendiri.

Pak Ino membuat saya bertanya pada diri sendiri, “Ngapain aja aku selama kuliah ini?” Tujuh semester dengan sisa enam bulanan untuk menggarap skripsi dan saya merasa saya belum layak lulus ataupun menyandang gelar sarjana. Membaca tagar #InoYuwono di linikala dan mengingat-ingat kembali perkataan beliau di berbagai perkuliahan membuat saya merasa tertampar berkali-kali.

"Semester berapa kamu? Berapa banyak buku yang sudah kamu baca? Shame on you!"

Teringat minimnya jumlah buku terkait perkuliahan dan psikologi yang pernah saya baca—yang sangat sedikit jumlahnya.

Teringat KHS yang walau dihiasi beberapa huruf yang mengimplikasikan nilai bagus rasanya lebih layak untuk disebut KHS Ajur bin Bosok.

"Berapa nilai Statistik kamu? Berapa sih IPmu? Nilai A kalian itu Ajur, B-nya Bosok!"

Terbersit rasa takut menjadi TKI (Tenaga Kuli Indonesia) di negara sendiri karena minimnya kualitas diri.

"Ya seperti ini kondisi work-force di Indonesia. Kalo kalian males kalian bisa jadi TKI di negara sendiri. Tenaga Kuli Indonesia!"

Dan rasa malu luar biasa karena merasa hebat jadi mahasiswa psikologi yang dibekali teori-teori motivasi dan kepribadian tapi tidak bisa mengaplikasikannya dengan tepat.

"Jam saya ini Rolex. Kenapa saya pakai? Kata kamu tadi apa? Maslow? Aktualisasi diri? Self-esteem? Self-confidence? Mbelgedes semuanya! Saya pakai jam ini karena saya mau kok!" Kata bapak sambil teratawa culas. "Kenapa tidak tanya langsung ke saya alasannya apa? Main analisa tok sembarangan pakai teori."

Ah… Shame on me. Really, shame on me, Sir. Saya layak mendapat statement itu dari beliau.

Saya merasa selama kuliah saya tidak menggunakan waktu saya dengan baik dan sudah waktunya bagi saya untuk memanfaatkan waktu yang sempit ini untuk jadi mahasiswa calon sarjana yang baik.

Dan sayapun lupa kenapa di awal perkuliahan dulu saya membenci Pak Ino. Terlalu banyak pelajaran dan bekal hidup yang beliau berikan. Terlampau banyak bekal positif beliau berikan lewat ucapan kejamnya. Beliau tidak layak dibenci. Somehow he made us love him, and he did it in his own way by making us hating him.

Saya akan merindukan Bapak dan segala sindiran yang membuka cakrawala yang Bapak lontarkan.

Although you are now gone, parts of you still lives with us, Pak. May God rests your soul!

Dari mahasiswa yang mungkin tidak ia ingat,

Ernestine.

The Story of Hipster Jesus, Colostomy and Positive Psychology

2012-05-07T08:50:00.000+07:00

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its.
-Matthew 6:34

The verse above matched with a ‘Gestalt principle of now’ in which the only real thing is what happen right here, right now. Tomorrow as future, is something which not exist yet, so you don't have to worry about it. Don’t you think He’s awesome? Hipster Jesus talks about Gestalt before it was cool!

But I’m not gonna talk about Gestalt right now. I’m going to share something that could be explained by the verse.

Last year on June, my dad had a big operation around his abdomen to fix his intestine. Because of the operation, he had a hole in his stomach as rectal replacement called colostomy. This week he had to be operated once more to normalize his excretion system so he could poop normally.

This is what happened to your intestine and excretion system when you get a colostomy

I remember how wrecked I was during my dad’s hospitalization day. I couldn’t think straight, hardly focused on everything I was doing because my thoughts keep coming back to my sick dad. He was in a great pain and need a lot of adjustment after the operation. I mean, there’s a hole in his stomach. That condition must be so inconvenient.

I was stuck in a gloomy mood for the rest of hospitalization weeks. I faked my mood and wore the-so-called persona so I looked happy at the surface just because I don’t want others noticed how ruined I was.

And when his time to be hospitalized came, my mind involuntarily rewinded the black days of my dad’s pain and suffering and how it affected my life. It only takes a short time for me to be gloom again even before the operation and the post-operation experience started. I couldn’t help myself imagine being gloomy again for the rest of this week and maybe the following weeks ahead. I was filled with thoughts that the operation would ruin my activity all over again while I’m in my busiest point; loads of assignment, choir rehearsal for a concert in September, quizzes and presentation. I think, I’m gonna blow.

But then a best friend of mine, Grace, told me that I have to stay positive. Grace and I happened to be positive psychology believer. But the thoughts of the tiresome post-operation experience in the past blocked my positive view.

She reminds me about the self-fulfilling prophecy; that everything happened in our mind could be true if we keep thinking about it over and over again. The operation hasn’t even started yet but I already have a list of bad experience ahead. Well, I don’t want that suffering weeks repeated all over again, obviously.

So I guess I will try to let it flow, not thinking too much about tomorrow that’s not exist yet… and keep praying to gain the power so I could face the coming weeks, taking care of my dad joyfully and keep focus on my activities.

Now = experience = awareness = reality. The past is no more and the future not yet.
-Perls on Gestalt Therapy Now

Please pray for my father’s operation. And pray for me too so I could be stronger than before.

Have a nice day!

Assignment: PMDO

2012-05-06T22:55:00.000+07:00

Here’s an intermezzo—my so called paper for my Pengelolaan Manusia Dalam Organisasi (Human Resource Management) class. We were told to write about knowledge management on PLN or Perusahaan Listrik Negara, a state-owned electricity company and upload the finished work on our social media.

So, here you go my lovely lecturers, my paper about knowledge management., special English edition! This one is the lighter version of my paper. Please forgive the non-formalities I use here.

nb. Note sure if my lecturer really gonna read this. Haha!

Dahlan Iskan Fights PLN’s Arch Enemies with Knowledge Management

[edited from source]

If you are an Indonesian like me, you’d probably know who Dahlan Iskan is. He is the owner of the well-known newspaper Jawa Pos—which recently awarded the best newspaper of 2011, formerly CEO of Indonesia’s National Electricity Company (PLN) and now the Minister of State Owned Enterprises (BUMN). We know Dahlan as a charismatic man who likes to dress casually—kinda like Indonesian version of Sir Richard Branson—with unique hobbies like walking from his house to the office.

Dahlan Iskan is a literally down to earth man. He went from one remote spot to the other so he really experiences the electricity problems in this country. He keeps the journal of his official travel in a page of PLN’s website called CEO Notes. In the CEO Notes, Dahlan Iskan shares his thoughts, ideas and PLN’s development plans. With journalism background in his hand, he analyzes the problems and tries to solve it.

This process of knowledge sharing Dahlan Iskan did through his writings is known as knowledge management. Knowledge management, according to my Human Resource Management text book, is

‘any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance learning and performance in organizations’ (Scarborough et al, 1999).’

One point to be recognized is the ‘organizational part’ from the definition. Anything that knowledge management do is done for the sake of organizational goal. And Dahlan Iskan did it in the right way; through his system, he defeated PLN’s arch enemies. Dahlan Iskan referred chronic problems that happen in PLN as ‘arch enemies’. He has five categories for the arch enemies; electricity crisis, the long waiting list for electricity request, electricity transformator (the so called trafo in Bahasa) problems, feeders’ disturbance and fuel dissipation. He shares how he fix this issues through the knowledge management. By this, people, especially those who works in PLN knows ho to deal with the annoying electricity management problems.

Let’s get back to the CEO Notes. Dahlan Iskan also uses his page as a medium for human resource development. According to Dahlan Iskan, PLN have a great quality of human resource; smart people who are able to identify the longing problems and got ideas to solve it but have no way to realize the ideas. Through his system of knowledge management, Dahlan Iskan gave a place for them to apprehend the initiatives. Not only the internet (using PLN’s website for learning media), PLN also uses the intranet called kmdev to enhance the organizational learning.

What Dahlan Iskan did by documenting his thoughts trough writings is called the codification strategy. As I have written previously, the knowledge management is all about getting the organizational goal. So, by this strategy, Dahlan Iskan enables the organization member to access his knowledge easily. And oh, there are two types of knowledge; tacit and explicit knowledge. As long as the knowledge is in your mind, it’s a tacit knowledge. When you objectify your thoughts through any media (symbol, written, diagram etc.), it’s no longer tacit—it’s now an explicit knowledge.

Dahlan Iskan not only shares his knowledge by codification strategy but also through face-to-face interaction. He gives lectures and speak in seminars to improve PLN’s employee knowledge. This face-to-face method is called personalization strategy.

By knowledge management and sharing of knowledge through various media, Dahlan Iskan has done many positive changes; not only for the PLN, but also those who are inspired by his actions.

REFERENCE

Armstrong, M. (2010). Armstrong's Essential: Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page.

May the Flower be With You

2012-05-05T00:36:00.000+07:00

Because it's May and May 4th is the Annual Star Wars Day.

So, why not?

[edited from source]

Friday Top Five: Favorite Fall Out Boy Songs

2012-04-13T15:00:00.002+07:00

[edited from source]

The first Fall Out Boy song I have ever heard was “Dance Dance”. I fell in love to the music and the beat—it always successfully brings my mood up again every time I listen to the song. Since then I tracked every Fall Out Boy songs and albums. And they really fit my music style. Their songs are full of youth spirit; loud yet dynamic music. Maybe they've got weird lyrics (and much too long song title) but it contained deep meanings.

Too bad they decided to decompress—referring to what Pete Went’z said instead of hiatus. I’ve been missing the band for a long time and could only satisfy my yearnings by listening to their songs on my player. So, here’s my Fall Out Boy five favorite song from each of their album. It’s a hard choice anyway, for I really like their songs and every song is my favorite—no exaggeration.

Friday Five: Favorite Fall Out Boy Songs by Ernestine Oktaviana on Grooveshark

Paska Viesta!

2012-04-10T15:17:00.000+07:00

A bit late to share about Easter, eh? But my Easter holiday was fun. I spent the Holy Week serving Maundy Thursday, Easter Vigili and Easter Sunday Mass.

I spent the easter eve by having a late dinner with the altar boys—some boys (plus a girl) night out, eh?
...and going to the cinema with fellow altar servers on Sunday, watching The Raid for the second time. Yay!!! nb. Thanks for Sandy for treating all of us.

The Holy Week was so hectic that costs my health. I got a quite severe flu since Sunday evening. But I ain't even regret it because I had an extraordinary week.

The Awesomeness of Being an Sixth Semester Undergraduate Student

2012-04-06T19:00:00.003+07:00

Might wonder why I disappear from the blogworld? It’s because I’m not really good at managing my time. Some people would easily spare their time for blogging. But I find it hard to share anything while my mind works busily around my academic live.

It’s the fifth week of my sixth semester. It has been awesome. I take some Industry-Organizational Psych class which subjects are very interesting. In every meeting, we discuss about organizational behavior, career, competence at work and people in organization. I also take Counseling class, where I learn the basic of being a counselor (although I don’t consider being a counselor in the future).

The most important class I take is the Research Methodology class. Here, I prepare myself to write the so-called thesis. Dear Lord, my scholarly life is at stake in this class. Because the final project for this subject is a thesis proposal. I really hope I could finish a fix thesis proposal at the end of this semester and started doing my thesis next semester. Wish me luck!

Because I want to be really serious on doing my Research Methodology assignments, a lot of my time ~~wasted~~ being used for journal hunting and literature searching. I still surf the web every day—I even spend more online time than usual for this purpose. ~~(Even though I spend 1/8 of the browsing time scrolling down the 9gag hot page).~~ Two times a week, every Research Methodology class member has to upload their research progress at our campus web called the Psyche. This is why I'm getting very busy; because I have to do loads of research.

Psyche is awesome. I think your college or university must be having this kind of site too. Some of my friends assumed that our campus is the only institution which have this kind of interactive site. Well, they could be wrong. I believe that out there, sites like Psyche are plenty.

Tagged with “Psychology Classroom Hybrid Education”, Psyche offers a lot of useful feature like study material download, class online forum where you can discuss academic-related-talks in the site and project (assignment) submission. We even do our quiz online here in Psyche. It also provides academic information and announcements like scholarship or student exchange offers. Of course, it can only be accessed by Unair’s Psychology students. But here’s some sneak peak;

the Psyche dashboard

Recently my campus Information System Department developed Psyche into some kind of local social-network. We could send message to the lecturers or fellow students. We even can chat the like the Facebook-way chat. It also have a profile page, a dashboard and wall.

the lesson page

Here's my Organizational Behavior lesson page. The lecturers of this subject likes to uploads a lot of learning supplement like articles, journals or text books.

The Psyche web is only faculty or so-called-local-level site. For the university or the bigger scoop level, there's UACC or Universitas Airlangga Cyber Campus. UACC controls every academic activity like your academic schedule, academic calendar, attendance record, grade book, study plan for particular semester (I don't know what it is called in English, but here we called it "Kartu Rencana Studi"), achievement record (like when you win something) and many more...

Oh, the other awesome thing about Psyche is the text notification service. As I said before, we submitted our assignment through the web. Every time the project deadline gets closer, Psyche will intensively text you about the approaching deadline. Not only texting about deadlines, every time a lecture (or anyone) posts in the forum, Psyche will generously tell you through text. Once, I received about 50 texts notification in a day from Psyche because a class forum gets so active. (un)Fortunately, this service cannot be disabled.

My college friends even joking about Psyche who sends message to someone a lot more than boyfriends (or girlfriends... or someone who have a crush on another) do.

What about your academic life? Is it as awesome as mine? Or do you have a similar campus site like I do?

Working Is...

2012-04-05T05:13:00.000+07:00

As an Industry-Organization Psych student, I learn many things about human in organization—specifically in the work setting. I learn about forces that push you to do your best effort while working, skills required to do a job superbly, managing yourself and others, how to be a leader and a manager—and the differences between them, developing yourself and others around you, managing your career, and many thing else.

It gives me a lot to think on. I never really work before—though I have done some freelance job—but in class, I learn about the ‘theories of doing things right while working’. All those theories and realities of work tell me that the working-life could be… harsh. I find out the most important thing for you to survive at work is your skill. What I learn in school this whole time can be easily set aside. Well yeah, knowledge is important but without knowing how to realize it, your knowledge means nothing. Values you hold and the right attitude are vital; it helps you to behave properly in various conditions.

*sigh* Could I really endure my future work life? Do I have proper skill, competencies and capabilities needed to do my work? Can I earn proper wages with my abilities I have now?

Have you ever wondered about those things too? After a long contemplation in classes I attended, working for me now, seems to be more than earn money for life. Working is more likely studying in some organization (or company) and you get paid for doing it. By setting this mindset (of get paid for studying) while doing your job, hopefully you wouldn’t be burdened with the tasks.

Happened to me once, when I did my job as a tester whose job is to administrate some psychological tests and score it. It was exhausting. That time, I had to handle a class of 20 naughty Senior High schoolers outside town—2 hours from Surabaya. The deadline for the test scoring was so short that I did it in a rush. Yeah, you guessed right, I wasn’t paid quite properly.

But then I think again. I learn a lot that time. I learn how to conduct myself and control my emotion in front of those badly behaved students. I learn to work under pressure. The paid means nothing compared with what I learned through working.

What about you guys? Have you anything to share about working?

Looking Through My Eyes: THE RAID

2012-04-05T04:13:00.000+07:00

[source]

I started April by watching Indonesia's Box Office Action Movie; The Raid.

There are lots of brutal fighting scenes, gun shots, some explosions and blood; lots of blood. Lots of dead bodies victim of the battle. Oh yes, this movie is full of violence (even a girl like me not even feeling sorry for watching so much blood spilled over many times in this movie).

The Raid offers something different like I've never feel before while watching other action movies. Watching The Raid is like riding a roller coaster for approximately 100 minutes.It started smoothly (sweet and sentimental—kind of romantic, if I may say) until then you have to hold your breath. Next thing, you will find yourself gasping in awe, clinching your fists and feels the adrenaline rushing from the first 10 minutes until the end.

The fighting choreography is superb; they use pencak silat (Indonesian martial art) almost in every fist-to-fist scene. Its special effects are awesome—the wounds and the bloods look pretty real (Indonesian usually sucks at faking blood). The dark ambiance of the scenes blended with the score really helps to build the tension.

Actually, the plot of this movie is quite simple; the police versus the bad guys, although it also have a background story of brothers rivalry. It also simply sets in a soppy apartment building. And if you like conversational-based movie, you won't find too many dialogues here. But once they say their lines—beside cursing, it's something strong and meaningful. Despite the simplicity, they packed every detail perfectly you don’t have to think too much about the story; you just watch and enjoy it flows. But still, I noted some moral value from this movie about friendship, loyalty and brotherhood.

Oh, by the way, the lead actor, Iko Uwais, is cute. And Doni Alamsyah, one of the supporting actors, is cool as always.

Iko Uwais

So, if you want to see some real action with some real blood spilling moments, The Raid should sit on the top of your “Must See” list.

I Wish I Could Sing This To You

2012-04-03T05:05:00.000+07:00

Been trapped in this feeling—you know what I mean, for a long time. Recently I found this song way too late, because you could consider this song to be out of date (huh?).

If I had a chance, I will sing this song to you.
Or maybe, instead of looking for a chance, I have to make the chance myself and sing this song to him...

Sorry for the melodrama moment.

Story of a Pottermore Beta Tester

2012-04-02T03:52:00.000+07:00

So... I've been ranting about Pottermore, now that I've got my welcome e-mail I have already live my life as a Hogwarts' First Year Student.

If you asked me what Pottermore is, my answer would be: "A site where you can really experience what it feels like to be a witch/wizard who went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly". You can experience reading the Harry Potter book in a whole new way.

If you are interested, you can continue reading about my experience as Pottermore Beta User.

note:

This post is image heavy and contains spoiler for Pottermore which will be opened to all in October.

Images are belong to Sonny Pottermore and JK. Rowling. I own nothing.

About a month ago, Pottermore announces about The Magic Quill Challenge to give a million early access to the developing site. The lucky one million would be a beta tester who can give their feedback so the site can be opened to all in its best condition. So I joined the challenge, got in on the second day and waited for weeks to access the site.

To activate your account, you'll need the welcome e-mail. Once it arrives you'll be able to explore the site. It will link you to the so-called magical gateaway. You can see that in the top of the gate there are locked icon. It would be unlocked as you go trough each chapter.

Magical Gateway

After you entered the gate, you'll arrived at the Privet Drive, that's where the Dursley lives. It's where the journey begin, as written in the book. By this, you are experiencing the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone book. You can see the nice artwork of the Privet Drive. Since the site is flash-based, you can explore the picture. You might be surprised what you can find by clicking on objects. You can zoom in and out so you can see things closer. And it's also animated. Some objects can move when you pointed your cursor on it.

You can also get additional info written by Jo Rowling, which not in the book. It's fun to know some facts about Privet Drive or the Durslyes.

Privet Drive

The next moment is the arrival of Dumbledore. You'll get some additional info here about the magical world. And if you moving on the next moment, you'll see Hagrid arriving on the flying motorbike, carrying baby Harry.

Chapter 1 Preview

If you carry on, you'll be on Privet Drive Number Four, see Harry's room (the cupboard under the stairs), joining Harry's trip in the zoo, running away to the hut on the rock until you meet Hagrid who will give you the welcome mail from Hogwarts.

Chapter 2 and 3 Preview

After reading your Hogwarts welcome letter, your journey as a witch/wizard will begin. Once you get your shopping list you can start getting things you need. For a start you'll be given 500 Galleons. Then. you'll be able to explore Diagon Alley, checking your Galleon balance at Gringotts Bank, buying your school needs; books, cauldrons, potion ingredients, pets (a cat or an owl or a toad) and the most imporant of all: your wand. Some question will be asked before you get your wand. Say, the wand matches your personality, so nobody would have the exact same wood wand and core.

Diagon Alley Preview

Oh, by the way for my wand, I got 14 1/2 inch Quite Bendy Acacia with Unicorn core.

Now that you're a wizard with a wand, you'll be ready to go to Hogwarts by the famous Hogwarts Express. But, you should find the Platform 9 3/4 first. In this chapter there are some objects you could start collecting like Prefect Badges and Chocolate Frog Cards. There are a lot more to find so make sure you explore every corner with your eagle eye.

The Hogwarts Express

Finally you'll arrive at Hogwarts where you'll be sorted into your house by the Sorting Hat. You'll be given some question to decide which house you'd be in. If you ever taken some sorting hat quizzes online, this official Jo Rowling's Soting Hat won't give you those cheesy question like other sorting hat quizzes. The questions are rather explicit, so there's no chance if you want to cheat to be put in your desired house. Plus, everyone would given different sets of question.

I was given 8 question before the Sorting Hay puts me in Ravenclaw.

Shortly after being sorted, you can read the Welcome Message from your House Prefect which contains some background of your houses. Unfortunately if you're sorted in Gryffindor you wont read much because everything about Gryffindor had all been told in the books.

Sorting Ceremony

You can enter your common room where you can meet your fellow same-house friend, interacting with them through the comment box and spreading the house pride.

The house system works like those we've known in books and movies. There are competitions where you can gain house points. The house with the most house point will win the House Cup. Until now, the only way you can earn house point is by brewing potions and Wizard Duel. You could have your house point taken from you if you lost in a duel or making mistakes while brewing your potion.

Now that you're officially a wizard with a house, you can enter the "real wizarding life". You can go tho the Great Hall and meeting all Hogwarts students, brew potions and cast spells, exploring classes and libraries, joining Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Gryffindor's common room, going to Hagrid's hut, entering the forbidden forrest, catching the snitch, going to the the Christmas Feast, see the Mirror of Erised, going to the Hospital Wing and so on...

I rated 7 over 10 for Pottermore. I love the artworks, the new information Jo Rowling wrote about the objects and characters, my wand, the Sorting Ceremony, collectible objects, potion brewing and I LOVE MY HOUSE. I finally know that I belong to the Smart Ravenclaws. Haha. Oh, and this House Pride thing, its very intense. Everyone tries their best to make their house get the most house point.

Actually, Pottermore is a bit beyond my expectation. I was expecting some SIMS-y interactive game. Not every part of Hogwarts can be explored, not every room can be entered. There are a lot of things that can be improved like the communicating system since there's no chat room, forums or messaging system. The comments also not real-time based. It takes a few minutes before your comment published. There is also comments moderation which wont allowed you type names, country (I can't type Indonesia) or numbers. Notifications are sucks because it's not easily deleted. It took 80-100 minutes to brew a potion and it was boring as hell to do so. Although they have cut the brewing period, it still took a quite long time and I still got bored waiting it to brew perfectly.

In the old regulation, the reward point given just seemed to be unfair, like you earn the same house point for each potion you brew. No matter how hard the potion you make or how long it takes to brew, you will only earn 5 points. Now, the point awarded depends on how difficult the potion you have made.

There are many glitches Pottermore developer should fix before it opens to all. Last time, we can even cheat to make the potion brew faster. It can be done by turning your PC time faster. Another trick is by failing your potion because each time you fail you earn 1 house point. Seemingly, losing your potion is a fastest way to gain a lot of house points.Fortunately this glitches had been fixed and you can cheat no more.

But I think that's the point of a Beta User. We are here to see whether something needs to be fixed or not, giving feedbacks so the developers know about the glitches and so on.

I believe by the time Pottermore open for public, it will be a lot more better than now.

For those who still waiting for Pottermore to be publicly open, be patient my fellow non-muggle buddies! We'll soon be united under the Hogwarts' roof. Now if you excuse me, I will continue brewing my potion.

Welcome March

2012-03-01T19:58:00.000+07:00

Ah, finally March arrived. Do you know that March is one of my favorite month?

New semester has begun and so far it seems like it's gonna be a lot of fun. Tiring, hectic, full of quizzes and assignments semester but fun. I will have a lot of organizational researches and visits to some companies. Meeting a lot of new people in the company sounds so challenging and thrilling to me!

I hope I could stay living in the way of positive mind and seeing everything as an exciting challenge so I could fight hard for my goals this semester.

Wishing you all a good day!

Friday Top Five: Favorite Love Songs

2012-02-17T22:06:00.000+07:00

Friday Five Love Songs by Ernestine Oktaviana on Grooveshark

Here you go, this week's Friday Top Five. Today I'm sharing my favorite love songs. I guess I'm still caught in Valentine mode.

1. Looking Through the Eyes of Love

“Please don’t let this feeling end, it might not come again, and I want to remember”

The first time I heard this song is on my choir rehearsal for a friend’s wedding long time ago. I was appointed to sing the female solo part at the rehearsal—replacing a friend who usually sings the solo parts.

I think this song would make a great wedding song (pointing out to the lyrics I put up there); marriage as one moment everyone always want to remember. Sweet, isn’t it?

2. I Finally Found Someone

“I finally found someone

Someone to share my life

I finally found the one, to be with every night

‘Cause whatever I do

It’s just got to be you

My life has just begun

I finally found someone”

Same with the first song on my list; every time my choir had a wedding service, this song would be sung in duet. This would be sung after the groom opens the bride’s veil. I think, on my wedding, I would want this song played J

3. Best in Me

“Cause you bring out the best in me, like no one else can do. That’s why I’m by your side, that’s why I love you”

Blue used to be my favorite boyband. This song, since the first time I heard this, really catches my ear. It is simple and just to the point.

4. Because You Live

“Because you live and breathe

Because you make me believe in myself when nobody else can help

Because you live, girl

My world has twice as many stars in the sky”

Imagine a boy sings this song for you. And I would want a boy sing this for me, for I really think that it sounds very romantic.

5. Never be the Same

“I'll never be the same

I'm caught inside the memories, the promises

are yesterdays and I belong to you.

I just can't walk away

'cause after loving you

I can never be the same”

Just listen to the whole song and the lyric. For me, there’s a story lies behind the song—obviously about how your love ones can change you, how different life would be without them.

Delirious

2012-02-12T21:13:00.000+07:00

I was the one who presents the subject of delirious in my Abnormal Psychology Class. It’s kinda funny how I finally experience being delirious.

The last two day—yes, this very weekend, I spent my long hours in my bed for I had this high fever. Apparently, the fever had disrupted my mind. I had this serial dreams. I called it so because the dream starts at the exact point when I woke up. And sometimes I found it hard to discriminate dreams among reality.

Imagine Michael Fassbender's face
in Benedict Cumberbacth's body

I was in some journey of villain-chasing in the Victorian Era. I saw horses and hansom everywhere. Everyone speaks in lovely British accent. Everywhere I go someone would bow and address, “Ma’am” to me. In my pocket I would find a revolver I could use to defend myself from my enemy. Some dream, eh? Maybe, the adventurous dream was the side-effect of my recent habit; reading “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes” plus watching a lot of James Bond movies in the national television channel every night before I sleep.

The weirdest part of all was the appearance of Sherlock Holmes in my dream. This Sherlock had the look of Benedict Cumberbatch, with his curls and dark hair and slender figure. Not weird? Here’s what makes it weird; this Sherlock has the face of Michael Fassbender.

Every once in a while I was awake and felt like surrounded by a lot of people although I was alone in my room. Everything seemed cloudy yet so bright. Meh, I hardly can describe my state of delirious.

When I finally woke up in the morning with a better condition, I felt really tired. And I haven’t got any weirder dream since then.

Have you got any weirder delirious experience?

Friday Top Five: Favorite Old School Cartoon Show

2012-02-10T21:40:00.000+07:00

Because I think Friday is suitable for some Friday Top Five. I will start from five, for I like small number. So here come your this week's Friday Five.

1. The Wild Thornberries

I remember my jealousy to Eliza Thornberry. That time I thought she was so lucky; having ability to talk to animals, doesn’t go to school and always travelling around the world with her family in their van.

I didn’t think much of the moral value back then. But now I see that it is a great cartoon. It tells us that family is the most important thing in the world—even the most annoying sibling. ~~For my little brother used to be so annoying.~~

2. Hey Arnold!

To be honest, the only thing that attract me to keep watching Hey Arnold! was Helga’s unhealthy obsession to this ball-headed guy, Arnold. Curiosity never escaped me every time I watch each episode, asking myself “what would Helga make today?”. For Helga can be highly creative on expressing her secret love to Arnold.

But the friendship between the children in the neighborhood and the conflicts that happened between them also interesting. In my opinion, the characters in the series can be a good example for a personality study. Arnold's assertiveness, Gerard's street smart, Helga's bossiness... Well, you name it.

3. Chuck Jones’ Tom and Jerry

It has to be Chuck Jones’ version! Not that the other version sucks, but I like it best because for me this version got the best picture. Tom and Jerry are somewhat cuter here. And the music, man, this is what I called psychedelic. It has got jazz, boogie-woogie, ballad, opera (remember when Tom singing Figaro?), waltz and many more in it. The synchronization between the music and the film is perfect even though they used a real orchestra for the score. And the sound effects are just perfectly sync with every moment. This version is just epic.

4. Chibi Maruko-Chan

This is a anime, very old one, adapted from a manga with the same title. Telling stories of Momoko Sakura (the very own writer of this comic) in her childhood back in year 1974. I found this manga amusing. Momoko—was called Maruko-chan while she was just a kid—did so many stupidities, which are so funny. But in the end she always learns something from her mistake. It’s a warm hearted cartoon, and sometimes very touching.

5. Digimon

I used to be so obsessed with this anime that I create my own version of Digimon—some kind of Fanfiction I manually wrote while I was bored in class. It was called Magic Land. ~~Oh dear Lord how can I still remember about this?~~

I know some of you would prefer Pokèmon rather than Digimon. But the friendship value and the absence of Team Rocket from Digimon wins my heart.

How about you? What's your favorite old school cartoon show?

New Blog Title: A bit about b.i.t.s.

2012-02-10T13:07:00.003+07:00

I've decided to do something more about this blog, like putting more effort to keep its existence through the net. I might do regular post on particular day (something like Movie Monday or so). I will post something which represent me, my thoughts and my feelings. That way, I think, renaming my blog with more representable title is a good start.

Readers, please welcome, "b.i.t.s." aka "because I think so"! Formerly known as "Story of My Li(f)e".

b.i.t.s. is on third page if you search for it :p

As an acronym for "because I think so", b.i.t.s. will tell you about anything I ever think of, anything that crossed my mind. I can tell you about things I like, books I have read, music I find interesting, review of some movies and my daily life.

And I will tell you the reason why I think so. That's the way I share my thoughts; through my point of view.

Hopefully you will enjoy :)

Story of a Student with a Bad Luck

2012-02-05T21:43:00.000+07:00

What occurred to your mind when you hear the word disappointed? For me, it is simply a mismatch between what I expect and the reality.

Maybe you ever noticed my ‘5th semester affirmation’, in the sidebar (though it is now deleted). This is where the disappointment came from, because my 5^th semester GPA is far below my expectation.

The disappointing report card

The thing is, I put a lot of effort for this semester’s assignment. I had travel to other city only to gather data for my research, hardly sleep enough; causing me some metabolite problem—made me gain almost 10 kg in 3 month...

I did try confirming the grade to my lectures—for I think that the score I got wasn't fair at all, compared to my hard working. But seemingly they had wrapped the grade, left me disappointed.

And my dear readers, I am sorry for complaining a lot.

I grieved for days because of this. I used to be quite bright. Getting low grade this semester kind of blew me. It ruined my plan. I couldn’t apply for scholarship—because it requires at least 3 on the GPA. I had to retake the failed subject, such a waste of time. It means I wouldn’t be able to graduate on schedule.

The worst is not that I disappointed myself, but also my parents. I’m ashamed. I know that they put a lot of hope on me, but what did I give to them? A low grade? Meh!

Then I brace myself to tell my dad about my grade.

But, he wasn’t angry. At all. Like my failure wasn’t a big thing. He told me that it was okay I didn’t get ‘income’ from this semester’s grants; I still could write short stories, get it published and received honorarium from that (oh yeah, I got my story published on a magazine last November) or earning some bucks from my freelance job as psycho-tester. ~~He even mocked the lectures with me, LOL.~~

Here’s what he said about my grade

"Leave the bad grades behind and live more optimistically next semester."

Isn’t he the coolest dad ever?

My Mom too, is supporting enough. She knows how hard I work for last semester's assignment. For her, my low grade was just some bad luck. Well, true enough.

Yeah, grieving over the wrapped score won’t change anything. Keeping angry to my lecturers won’t do me any good. I will retake my failed classes, trying to get a better score and stop complaining about my disappointment.

Wishing you all a good—non-disappointing day!

This is Love, February!

2012-02-02T21:14:00.000+07:00

Welcome February!

As we know, this is the month when we celebrate Valentine's Day. I'm quite in the mood for love. So here you go, one of my favorite love songs: This is Love by The Script. You might want to pay attention to the lyrics cause it has a very deep meaning :)

It's the Melody that Catches My Ears

2012-01-26T00:02:00.000+07:00

I used to have this argument about songs; which one is the most important, music or lyric? Back then I argued that lyric is the most important part of the song. For me, then, even if the music was so cool but the lyric contained nothing; the song was not worth listening.

Until I found this EP called You Are Here / Vous Êtes Ici. It was released by Simple Plan’s guitarist Sébastien Lefebvre. This album somehow totally changes my opinion towards music-lyric things. The music, which is dominated by acoustic guitar plays, is far different from Simple Plan’s punk-rock style. Listening to this album somewhat brings me a heartwarming moment. One song I really like from the EP is called "Comatose" (video attached). But this time, I only listen to the music—without meaning to say that the lyric is crappy. It’s just that this time, it is the melody that really catches my ears. For one time I don’t care at all about the lyrics (for I have no idea about what the songs are saying even though I have played it over and over again).

I guess the reason a song has both music and lyric is to complete each other. I will never argue about the importance of lyric anymore.

Greetings, 2012! A Great Start for a (Hopefully) Great Year.

2012-01-24T18:50:00.000+07:00

Hello world, I'm back. How's everybody doing while I'm awhile?

So far, 2012 have been a nice companion though the New Year gift I received—the two week in a row exam, wasn't really sweet. Beside, spending New Year's eve by working on the your parent's restaurant surely was not the greatest way to spent the turn of the year.

But, an excellent start in the beginning of this year surely could be a good sign for a great year—well; I hope so, for I started 2012 with a big smile and excitement of an unexpected fortune.

Let me tell you that I have never dream of coming to a concert in which my favorite band performs. For I live far from the capital city—and the concerts usually takes place in the capital. The price I have to pay to see the concert (including the charge for general admission and the accommodation) might cost my whole year grant. So, I dare not to think of coming and see my favorite bands like Panic at the Disco and Simple Plan (both was held in 2008) performing in Jakarta.

Yet we never know where fate might lead us.

Last Wednesday (18/01/2012), fate was kind enough to let me see Simple Plan Get Your Heart On! Indonesia Tour 2012 from the Festival A class—it was in right in front of the stage! Never occurred to my mind that Simple Plan with Pierre on vocal, Seb on guitar and backing vocal, David on bass and backing vocal, Jeff on lead guitar and Chuck on drum, the band I adore since I was a Junior High dork—will ever come and held a concert in the city where I live; Surabaya.

Although the effort that grant me the ticket was full of drama, every pain was paid by their great performance. I remember spent almost two sleepless weeks last October working on my side-job, travelling from one corner of my city to the other, putting on my headphone to do the job till I got some ear infection from over-working while that time I still had a lot of assignments only to fight for the ticket concert.

This was my first concert I ever attended and it was amazing. It’s hard to describe the feeling that surrounds me during the concert. Seemed like I was in a state of trance; I forget the stressful exam week, the problems I had—those sourness and bitterness in my life vapors as I held my hand out to reach the bands, screamed the songs at the top of my lungs and jumped with the beat.

The concert's ambiance was great. It was full of energy and risen up audience's spirit. Supported by great sound and lighting, Simple Plan performed perfectly. Pierre and David really was communicative. Pierre even threw some Indonesian/Surabayan puns like "Wani piro?" (I might freely translated it as you dare me?) and "Piye kabare Suroboyo (how are you Surabaya)?"

the girls I went to the concert with
(me, Dece, Grace & Beta)

The funny thing is I develop this Post Concert Syndrome after the concert is done. It’s some kind of over-excitement even depression that stays with me for the next three days. I caught myself smiling or giggling uncontrollably remembering how awesome the show was— even the worse, I could scream in frustration thinking why the concert had to be over. For days I spent my day texting the girls I went to the concert with, only discussing how great the performance, Pierre and Seb's handsomeness, the pervert act David made during the show, how mature and cool Jeff is and how out of reach was Chuck because he was seated in the very edge of the stage.

Shortly, the concert was one best thing ever happened in my life. And I can’t wait to have other extraordinary experience for 2012 has just begun.

So, 2012, let's be friend! I'll be waiting for the surprises you have prepared for me XD

2011-10-13T22:01:00.002+07:00