DaNte's Post

DaNte's Post

30-11-2007 ... again

Well, this is the actual post for today... The previous one was the post for last week. Since I am such a sedulous student of A2 HL English class, I want to finish my blog ASAP! By the way, Happy birthday Ms. Jessica! By the time I post this blog, it should be 1st of December already.

Erratic Picture of the Day
Auspicious Quote of the Day

"reality overshadows belief, yet belief fabricates miracles"

ME! uahahahahaa

Word of the Day

Well... I'll be giving a new one...

Eviternity (n) - eternal existence

Topic of the Day... well, again

Friendships

What is friendship? Is it just an insignificant and useless relationship? or does it play a very important role in our lives? Friends does play a very significant part in our lives. Even with all the wealth and knowledge you have, without friends it all means nothing. Without friends, you cannot share your pain, joy or anything. Friends keeps you company at all times, no matter you are enjoying your life, or when you are at the deepest sorrow of your life. They are there for you. Friendship does not always be a very happy topic. It could be very hurtful and sad. I would like to share certain experiences relating to friendship to all of you.
I have abandoned a friend of mine once. He was a close friend of mine from my old school. We were really close, and I liked him as a friend. He was a hyper and crazy person. We had a lot of fun time together, until one day I have to move to another school. The unbelievable thing is, I was very inconsiderate and I just left without even telling him anything! I didn't have his phone number, and it was a school holiday. We didn't have any contact after I moved to SPH, and I think I saw him one time, when I picked up my brother from school. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to recognize me (due to the 360 degrees transformation from the dorky me to the hot and handsome me) or he just doesn't want to see me.
I have been left by a friend once. We were really close during grade 9, and then something lugubrious happened. I liked the girl that he used to like, and we had a mutual relationship. We became further and further away, eventually during the holidays, we didn't really talk at all. Somehow we became closer in grade 10, and then another thing occurred again, which caused us to part ways. Our relationship didn't recover very well after that event. Fortunately, we are quite alright now. I think of him as a very special friend, and I really want to be close to him again.
But, I do have a joyful moment with friends. I have a very close and special friend of mine since grade 8. We knew each other when we were in grade 7, and we were in the same class. I became interested in getting to know her and we became close soon afterwards. She was always there, and every time I have something in my mind, I usually tell her right away. I was happy to be her friend, and we are still close up until now. We share each other's feelings and thoughts, and we often talk about it.
I have friends who are very funny and entertaining. They are in my English class! :D Although they may not be as close as my friend as depicted above, but we are quite close. They always support me, and we have a lot of fun times together. Most of the time we do peripheral and stupid things. We laugh a lot, and we get excited doing things together a lot. They are my sports friends as well, because I play a lot of sports with them. We share similar characteristics and interests.
Despite the sadness and troubles of having friends, we should connect ourselves with a lot of people. We should be amiable, flexible and convivial at all times so we can easily relate with other people. The more friends you have, the more powerful and influential you become. However, you should choose your friends carefully. Do not befriend people who will exacerbate you.

Joke of the Day

Quite A Development

When I had a job at the photo-developing counter of a pharmacy, the film was sometimes developed incorrectly. If this occurred, we did not charge our customers. On one occasion, a man came to pick up his pictures, which were marked $0.00, indicating that not a single one of them had turned out right. The customer asked to see the photos, and when I noticed the odd splotches of color all over the pictures, I apologized profusely. "Oh, no, these are fine," he said happily. "I'm a microbiologist, and these are my bacteria cultures."

DaNte

DaNte's Post

DaNte's Post

30-11-2007

From now on, I will post my blog entries as 'DaNte's Post' only, since I tend to forget or procrastinate my Friday blogs... *smile* Anyways, it is couple more days before holiday! Woo hoo! But sadly, some of us aren't satisfied of our exam results. But do not worry! Keep on fighting and study hard, for it is only the first exams! Let us begin our post

Erratic Picture of the Day


Auspicious Quote of the Day

"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."

Burton Hills

Word of the Day

Premonition (n) - A strong feeling that something is going to happen

Topic of the Day

A Stress Relief

Every single one of us has our own ways of escaping the reality to drift in our own dimension. Each of our own ways are unique, no matter what form they are in. Some watches movies, some sings, and there are comprehensive ways people express their thoughts and emotions. I would like to share how I escape reality!

My best escape from reality is the computer world. Actually... almost 70% of my time is taken by the computer world (yes, I am sad T_T) but there's just lots of things (mostly useless things) that will occupy you and will not get you bored. Computer games are mostly my greatest escape from reality. To me, computer games just absorb me into a whole new and different world. It makes me forget thoughts and forlorn emotions. My favorite computer games are Warcraft and probably GameBoy emulators :D. You might think I am a dork for this, but it is just how I relieve stress. However, computer games may make me sentimental as well. If the enemies are aggravating, the computer's running slow, I may get cranky and release my anger to the people around me. It is nice to forget things but being too much into your own world will make you excessively emotional and rude.

Another escape of reality is watching TV or movie! Movies are a powerful tool to influence the minds of many. They can be very alluring and influential. My most favorite TV show of all times is HEROES!!! WHOO HOO! *Ahem* it makes me forget everything, and often makes me dreaming of what powers would I want. Yes, yes I know I am really childish, but I just wish that I have an extraordinary power. It will make our life much easier, unless of course, a villain is seeking to cut your head and take out your brain for self lucrative.

Another escape mechanism of mine is to play sports! I love sports, especially basketball. They are the most exhilarating and entertaining sport I've ever played. Playing basketball with friends just makes me forget about everything else. When playing basketball, you just try your best to excel and score the most. When you focus, you just forget about everything else. A substitute (yes, its an economic term) for basketball is probably soccer, or well, any kinds of sport! That is why sports are very exciting especially with the company of your friends.

I think that is all my escape mechanism. It is very crucial that every single individual choose their escape mechanism. It will help them relieve stress and flee from the troubles of the world! Woo hoo!

Joke of the Day

Farm Yard Follies

There was this zebra who had lived her entire life in a zoo and was getting on a bit so the zoo keeper decided as a treat that she could spend her final years in bliss on a farm.

The zebra was so excited, she got to see this huge space with green grass and hill and trees and all these strange animals. She saw a big fat weird looking brown thing and ran up to it very excited, "Hi, I'm a zebra. What are you?"

"I'm a cow."

"Right, right. What do you do?"

"I make milk for the farmer."

"Cool." The zebra then saw this funny looking little white thing and ran over to it. "Hi, I'm a zebra. What are you?"

"I'm a chicken."

"Oh, right. What do you do?"

"I make eggs for the farmer."

"Right, great, see ya round." Then the zebra saw this very handsome beast that looked almost exactly like her without the stripes. She ran over to it and said, "Hi, I'm a zebra. What are you?"

"I am a stallion," said the horse.

"Wow," said the zebra. "What do you do?"

"Take off your pajamas, darling, and I'll show you."

Fridays with DaNte 4th post 2nd term

Fridays with DaNte

16-11-2007

This week is… uhh… 2 weeks before exams… T_T HOW EXCRUCIATING! We must study… study… and study! Good bye social life, good bye PlayStation 2, and good bye Dota… boohoo…

Erratic Picture of the Day

Auspicious Quote of the Day

"Dreams will only exist as a dream unless you wake up and make it happen"

Edward Budiman

My own quote, hehehe.

Word of the Day

Dreamscape (n) – A scene with the strangeness or mystery characteristic of dreams

Topic of the Day

My Personal Awesome Laudable Stream of Consciousness

Today is Friday and what I do in Fridays is take a rest but then there’s so much things that I want to do such as playing computer games, hang out with friends, play basketball and a whole lot more however my time is all taken by my girlfriend (:P kidding) in the next room, I wonder if the people next class are doing a tedious project or work because we are doing something really arbitrary and aberrant so its really unfortunate for them if they are doing something boring like math classes that I just took before this lesson with Pak Wir who taught math for around 40 years or so until present time where technology have almost dominated the world and people keep on utilizing these technologies in order to make life easier unlike Indonesians do, they just keep living in monochrome and the governments are a bunch of selfish idiots who always corrupt the country’s money and never care for the rising issues in Indonesia such as the Busway project which caused an even slower and aggravating traffic jams in Jakarta and problems for us good citizens of Indonesia but not all citizens are good because some are ugly and annoying like James who’s sitting in front of me right now, I don’t like him because he annoys the *@!#*$(#@#%^! Out of me but I am only kidding by the way, James is a nice friend and he’s very laid back and loud as well, very loud just like Meta who’s being excessively loquacious and she is very confident, in my opinion, sadly for James he was being verbally-harassed by Meta, she made a big scene in our English session right now and she is disrupting any stream of consciousness because of her extreme and perturbing voice that insistently attack my ears, okay enough erratic babble about Meta, I want to watch Heroes Season 2 and when I go home I will watch that season right away because I just downloaded it.

The Stream still continues, but before you fall asleep I should stop it :D

Joke of the Day

Your mom is so stupid that she tells YOU your momma jokes.

… no comment… haha

DaNte

Violence at Schools - [ 4th blog in term 2]

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Bahasa Indonesia of the Day:

Palsu or Tiruan - [adj] - Fake, Counterfeit
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Violence within the education institute is always attracting anger. This because education's real purpose - to equipped people with smart common-sense and judgment, as well as polite and civilized behavior - has been tainted and "reversed." Thus, educations that give birth to aggressive characteristic are considered as a betrayal upon the educational purpose.

However, violence within the educational world not just recently happened but it has long been an inseparable part. Maybe this issue is not really portrayed within our school's community, but if we broaden our view to other schools in Jakarta alone we can identify variety of these sadistic cases among the students. Based on newspaper articles that I have recently read, these brutalities is unlike the normal teen fight such as backstabbing or outcasting people - they have turned into bloodshed battlefields amongst peer. Maltreatment done by seniors and gangster fights are just what we called as "basic and common" examples regarding to student's death. Broaden our view again; we can see the worse scenario such as the Virginia Tech incident that receives the world's pity. Are these the kind of future that we have dreamed for our generation's education? This continuous chain of violence through time is actually indicating us that actually violence has become a tradition that is globally preserved, grown, and solidified. This world where we lived in is having a deformation into primitive epoch; more primitive than the stone age itself.

Most of the gangsters in Jakarta schools are publicly exposed due to the coincidence where the victim's parents informed the school. But the violence within many other school remains unveiled and unnoticed because the solidarity between gangster members is very tight to make them open their mouth.

As we can hypothesize, these over-adolescent infractions are mostly due to peer pressure, envy, or grudge. Yet, the schools will never know the whole picture or the core of this hostility which befall upon their students. Moreover, some schools are blinded with material gains that they could not care less to observe their student's activity or by pretending as if they don't know it's happening, while some are just being overprotective and fanatical in creating a secure second-home for their students, which not only worsen the student's psychological mind map, but it also give limitation to their youthful age that should be filled with momentous happy moments - the golden year of their (or should I say our) life. Perfect schools are scarce these days. It means that revenges and brutalities in form of bullying or intimidation from the seniors to their junior are standing still as perennial customs.

In addition, these noted incidences are only from the media and this is a lot. Imagine the unpublished cases! These are just small tides from a big tsunami that is called student's violence. If only there are honest witnesses from related students, the number and type of violence will be utterly shocking.

Surely we can talk and relate these school's aggression enjoyably and in a wider spectrum; our community. Look at the bigger "model" of these bloodshed battlefield throughout history: Poso, May Riot, and Bali Bombing. Not to mention the social conflicts within a smaller scale that often producing excess death. These are our true faces, and it is the bitterest truth of all that we are actually (I just heard this from TV) Lupus est homo homini - one human becomes another wolf for the others. Don't we dare to think that these bigger conflicts doesn't have any correlation to what happened in schools these days. As I said before, it is a sign of educational deformation!

Basically, Indonesia's society is actually a "mother" who give birth to multifarious communities with various necessities (gangster, false teachings, communist, etc). This school's violence is not something that stand on its own. It is created from societies who DO take care of this violence.

On contrary, violence is not something that we cannot separated from the school's community for it only grows in fields where they are given a space to grow and blossom. Emphatic schools which declare wars and consistent observations will not provide space for the harmful flower to blossom.

The easiest solution for this problem is to give punishments to the doers. Yet, this is a very blunt solution since the punished ones will plant more grudge and will present worse brutalities right after they have been set free - it would become an endless cycle. Moreover, sometimes the students did this because of their unfortunate backgrounds, overrated peer pressure, or because they couldn't bear the injustice that befalls upon their life. For example: ignored by the majorities, become the teacher's bias victim, pranked continuously, etc. Our country do need to reevaluate these negative externalities, and repair the damage that has spread even to the mind of the youth.

We must believe, especially within the education world, that to prevent is the best option. True educators should also be able to straighten student's destructive behaviors into constructive ones. Maybe school gangsters cannot be eliminated, but their potential to gather for their multifarious needs can be guided and eventually transformed into a community of activities and creativities for social needs and benefits.

Because of this, the world of education must also have the best ability to maintain justice and regulations through good exemplars. This have to be the uppermost commitment.

This goes for Indonesia's society as a whole as well, with hope to abolish all external issues that only worsen our country: domestically and internationally.

Interhouse Soccer Tournament !! - Tense Soccer, Intense Sunlight - [3rd Blog in Term 2]

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Bahasa Indonesia of the Day:

Kabur - [verb] - Fade, Blur
Kabur - [noun] - Escape, Fled
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Yesterday was very loud and lively. It began with assortment of deafening cheers (and growls) that filled the gym with enthusiastic moods, proceeded with wild soccer kicking and goaling, and ended with our feet that can barely walk but with smiles that never fade. It is a good refreshment and relaxation in this painful IB world.

As Krakatau as I can be, the day from my perspective was wonderful even though all I do is just watching, cheering, and wandering in the field. Summarizing yesterday, the krakataunians (that's what we call it) from grade 11/12 was beaten real bad and did not win any single game. The game was real tense though because we made quite a lot of goal attempts that, unfortunately, missed by small inches. But as bright and hot as the sun, our cheering was never ending and WE WON THE SPIRIT COMPETITION!! We also took the 1st place in the Junior School, and 2nd in Senior School (Poor Reds; miscounted and have to hold the 4th place. Sorry Miss Jess haha). Yellow is so winning this year trophy.

Out of all the events held yesterday, I really enjoy watching the small tots played the soccer ball quizzically. Some of them are actually good!! especially the goal keeper of Krakatau who caught every single ball that was launched by the opponents. The water balloon war in the grade 11/12 field is also memorable: some of us managed to make Mr.Sam and some of the players wet! All is tense, all is fun...just for that day.

Pitifully, the side effects of the 5-hour event were seen today to both students and teacher; pain ones and strange ones. Firstly, the majority of people suffer sunburns in variety of levels - from red patches until full skin pigmentation - which make most of them vulnerable to be poked. Secondly, both players and supporters' energy are completely drained and all of us are tired as if we suffered Monday fever. I can see myself and my classmates were in almost-sleep condition in every classes (some of us did sleep heavily like fainted people). The teachers were also in a lazy mood today, and turns out that they're more tired than we are because right after the tournament, they have teacher's chapel and filling thick questionnaire papers. Thirdly, players are suffering physical illnesses such as sprains and blisters, and most of them are felt by the players this morning.

Last but not least (I make a special paragraph just to tell this one), yesterday's intense sunlight have caused certain people to suffer jet lag and personality alteration! This is the weirdest sunlight effect that I have ever witnessed in my life. This effect was clearly presented through a certain teacher that taught me early in the morning: Initially, his physical appearance was painted with blushing red, his face expression was showing an obvious sign of tiredness, and most of all his personality during lesson is the most noticeable of all. He usually taught us enjoyably educational with his clever case exemplars and he always answered his student's question seriously. Today however, he taught us normally but he became cheesy and cheesier as time went on: he answered questions with cheesy jokes and slipped some quick but numerous intermission of his cheesy jokes during his explanation of certain theories; creating laughter that is mixed with fear, fear that this particular teacher was suffering an emotional breakdown. When we asked him why he did those jokes, he answered youthfully (see, he even act more youthful than usual): "I can't stop myself from doing that."

But still, even though he was cheesy we still love him and he is still our best economic teacher ever! (now you know who is this anonymous teacher).

All in all, the soccer tournament was very enjoyable and it has established tighter bonds between each others, especially between members of the same house team. Yes it has shown wild and gruesome effects to all people, but its presence has created another page of memories in our high school life; the golden year of our life. Come to think of it, it is these kinds of sceneries and unexpected moments with your close ones and the people around you that make this life reaches its completion.

p.s...KRAKATAU ROCKS !!!

Say Hello to Volleyball - [2nd Blog in term 2]

Minor Announcement!!!~
The beginning of term 2 and the blog seems to become duller and duller by day. Bloggers started to slack a little bit during their shifts (including me who still owe 2 blogs). This is utterly sad yet unavoidable.

Starting from this blog, inspired from Dante, I want to add a "word of the day" section in each of my blogs in the future. But mine would be Indonesian vocabularies. I know maybe this decision is equivalent to desperate attempts to make the blog less boring to be written or to be read, but who knows that these vocabularies will help some of us such as the expatriate audiences as well as those Indonesians who are struggling in their Bahasa class (you know who you are). You will never know when the smallest thing you see is the key to survive one of your biggest moment in life.

I will try to include various words (verb, adjective, adverb) and also some Indonesian phrase or idiom. I hope I can give the most precise definition of the words later on.

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Bahasa Indonesia of the day:

Jenaka - [ adj ] - Funny, Quizzical

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In this life, there are just things that you just cannot avoid them from encountering with you whenever and wherever you are. Just like mosquitoes who always chase and bite you whenever you hanged out with your friends in Indonesia, or like the haunting curiosity of your math result whenever you just submit your test paper to your teacher. This is both annoying and relieving. It is annoying because you just get bugged with the same thing (or person) with the same nuisance condition. It can be relieving because if you certainly know that you can ace the test, then you can hum joyfully while waiting for the test to be graded - it's a problem free! And you know what? I am suffering with this mandatory event.

Firstly, we say goodbye and congrats to the basketball season & teams who have done well in the tournaments, and say hello to volleyball season. So here I was 2 days ago, changing into my PE uniform and waiting in Gym 1 after school - It has been so long that I wanted to learn to play volleyball, ever since the Interhouse Volleyball Competition (which was won by Krakatau yay!) - holding volleyball and ready to try to do a service. All of the participants are waiting for Pak Ricky to come but after 10 minutes we didn't see him anywhere; all we can see is just Bu Riri and the girls team, and Mr.Owen who was stretching in his red jersey. I asked him what is he doing here, but I didn't receive his reply clearly. It was a very awkward scenery.

Five minutes later, Mr.Owen suddenly told us to move to the other side of the gym (where the badminton nets usually set). All of us startled and slowly realized that he is our volleyball teacher!!! Turns out that he will help Pak Ricky in this season. He is the encounter that I could not avoid in my IB life...

Since morning, his presence never subsides until the clock reaches 5 o'clock. When I go to school by bus, around 6:40, I always saw him with his son walking to the school. 20 minutes later, I go to his class (he's my homeroom teacher). Then almost everyday I have him again as my chemistry teacher, and during Thursdays I have double period of him after lunch (making it a 4 non-stop periods). Not forgetting that whenever I go to my locker (which is almost everytime) I always see him as well. And now, he is my volleyball teacher too! This should be a quality time indeed.

I must say that Mr.Owen is good in volleyball and he is very humorous as well. His presence as my volleyball teacher relieved me quite a bit because we meet very frequently; making us quite close. Thus, he knows my capability and personality, and he can understand if I was making mistakes. Nevertheless, I won't be shy to ask his assistance (since I'm a novice in this sports and there are lots of skills that I need to learn). I'm not comparing him and Pak Ricky, because I like both of them and both of them have the humorous personality and qualitative teachings. It is great to have both of them as volleyball teachers.

Just as a brief story, we (the volleyball participants) have had lessons for 2 days and they are filled with unusual drill as well, especially during the 2nd day. In the first day, we just refresh and perfecting our passing skills and test our capability by having a game. The second day, we have speed and technique drill; normal stuffs. However, we are also taught how to receive the ball my diving! We have to literally throw our self to the floor as if we're diving and stand up swiftly. We have to do this repetitively across the gym and trust me, it is a pain near our stomach area. I even get a bruise and a papercut. Overall, they are very interesting days!

-I'm starting to like volleyball, even though I still suck at it

Hence, It can be deduced that:

My Homeroom Teacher = My Chemistry Teacher = My Volleyball Teacher

DaNte's Post - 3rd for 2nd Term

Fridays withDaNte!
11-11-2007

Another arduous week in my IB life! I failed a friggin' math test and I'm having another one next week. So please, everyone! Pray for my test scores! Help! Anyways... basketball season has ended as well, so its not a physically-tiring week but more of a mentally-tiring week. Let's begin our post.

Erratic Picture of the Day



Auspicious Quote

"You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity."

Thomas Wolfe

Word of the Day

Defame - damage the good reputation of...

Topic of the Day

To Treat a Girl - Part 2

As you all know in Term 1, I posted a blog which talked about tips to treat girls. I am going to continue it!

Girls, girls, girls. It is usually what us hormone-filled male teenagers think about. We think about girls with pretty and cute faces, minimal clothes, big melons, maybe money? and so much more aspects about girls. But do we treat them nicely? Do we treat them they way we're supposed to treat them? Do we actually know what they really want?

Girls demands time. There is nothing that could erase that fact. NOTHING AT ALL. Girls wants a lot of your time. Phone calls, hang outs, company, dates and such. A girl feels special if boys spend a lot of time for her, no doubt about that. However, too much time spent, say 23 hours a day, with her may think you're a compulsive maniac who doesn't have a social life at all. Spending time with her alone will not make her entirely special, however. You should also spend time to work on her birthday gifts, spend time preparing for Valentine's Day and spend time bringing her books to her locker. So, girls basically require a lot of time to satisfy them.

Girls demand attention. Time alone is not a pure satisfactory. Attention is the pair of time. If you spend time with her on a date, but you kept looking at other girls, obviously your girl will hang you or kick you in the nuts. I think this is more important than time. Without attention, your relationship will last ephemerally. Again, girls feel special when boys pay extra attention to them. Girls will feel special when boys say "Hey, I like your new earring," even though it is not so visible. It means that you pays attention to her. Girls wants you to pay very specific attention to her!

Girls wants affection. Most girls wants you to hug, hold hands, kiss, cuddle, or whatsoever. Some may like to do so in public, some in private. No matter what, they still wants you to get touchy to her. However, there are some areas that girls don't want you to touch, and you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some girls like suprise attacks as well. When they least expect it, kiss her. She'll be very happy.

Well, I think that's all you need to know for now. I hope this can be useful for all of you.

Joke of the Day


A man entered a restaurant and sat at the only open table. As he sat down, he knocked the spoon off the table with his elbow. A nearby waiter reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a clean spoon, and set it on the man's table. The diner was impressed. "Do all the waiters carry spoons in their pockets?"

The waiter replied, "Yes. Ever since we had that efficiency expert out here; he determined that 17.8% of our diners knock their spoons off their tables. By carrying clean spoons, we save trips to the kitchen."

The diner ate his meal. As he was paying the waiter, he commented, "Forgive the intrusion, but do you know that you have a string hanging from your fly?"

The waiter replied, "Yes, we all do. Seems that the same efficiency expert determined that we spend too much time washing our hands after using the men's room. So, the other end of that string is tied to my dick. When I need to go, I simply pull the string to pull it out, I go, and return to work. Having never touched myself, there is no need to wash my hands. Saves a lot of time."

"Wait a minute," said the diner. "How do you get your ying yang back in your pants?"

"Well, I don't know about the other guys, but I use the spoon."

The Raging Ascension of Technology

We inhabit in a world where science seems to dominate our surroundings, environment, lifestyle and everything that relates to the tangible natural world. Individuals these days indulge themselves in the uses handphones, television, computers, internet and many more electronics in all sorts of mechanical connectivity. From the beginning of time, man has acquired knowledge in maneuvering their surroundings for the better comfort through the principles of science. This form of science is the called ‘technology’ where literally, it meant “the study of skill”.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) is known to be the man who stubbornly flied a kite in the midst of a thunderstorm. This is in fact, to determine whether electricity can be used as a form of energy and can be stored elsewhere. He can probably be considered the first spark of mankind in the very first form of electronics. (A pun is used where Benjamin is referred to be ‘the spark’ as the topic correlates to electricity)

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) is known to be the next step in technology as he was known to be the man who invented the light bulb after innumerable failures he encountered in attempt to construct a single durable light stored between glass figures. If one takes time to consider, without his perseverance in trying to create a single light bulb, our current world would not contain objects such as the computer, the television, digital cameras, and surely many more. A correction, without his perseverance, the objects of our current will be delayed in the coming of time – it would not be forever non-existent in the face of humanity.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), though has lived in the same time frame similar to Thomas Alva Edison, has contributed to the world through its first connectivity of a wired machinery – the telephone. Yes, again it took hard efforts and perseverance in trying to accomplish this invention for he did not succeed in the first trial. But after numerous attempts, he is finally able to transmit voice through wire. In the end, this founding aided the use of wires in electronics to transfer electricity as well as the commonly used handphone.

These people have contributed their lives in making the world a better place through the use of technology. Furthermore, there are more people who attempted to help the rise of technology, such people known as Bill Gates might be known to be the person who changed the world. Each technology being marginally better than the ones before are the general and possibly the only thing that had happen to technology in the past century. Temporarily, the exceeding growth of technology still remains and has reached a very surprising stage: Nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence

The basic definition of ‘nanotechnology’ is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. In its original sense, ‘nanotechnology’ refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. (CRN)

K. Eric Dexler was the man who popularized the word ‘nanotechnology’ in the 1980s as he was talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, - a few nanometers wide motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller than a cell. Today, the uses of nanotechnology improved exponentially to the extent where mostly everything is engineered by these setups. An exemplary would be innovated laptops where the hard drives, internal memories and circuits are configured with advanced nanotechnologies in which causes complications for those who manually hack computers. Even so, with the aid of nanotechnologies, bigger storage becomes smaller and smaller. A ‘nanotechnolized’ hard drive is at the size of a thumb or even smaller. Through this invention, more innovative inventions can be made.

The use of nanotechnology does not only imply on external electronics specifically, it also aids those within the fields of bioengineering where small robots are inserted to the body to fix internal biological problems. Problems such as diffusing a virus and such are also one of the capabilities of nanotechnologies.

Nonetheless, technology itself will never stop to improve as they will keep on rising to a new level after achieving something. Deductively, nanotechnology, the current extent of technology will not remain as so for many new things will come through more findings of new technologies, for that itself is the cycle of technology – keeps getting better and better.

Fridays with DaNte - 2nd post of 2nd term

Fridays with DaNte
02-11-2007

We just received our report card! Not everyone got decent grades, but it's alright! It's only the first term! *quoting Ms. Jessica* This week was also the starting of the SPH Cup Tournament, however we lost the tournament. Twice. Sob!!! We played against PSKD (last year's PH Cup champion) and Kanisius (this year's SMAK1 Cup champion). They were tough opponents, but we managed to not let ourselves lose easily. We did our best anyway, and there's a lot of things we should improve. Let us begin our Friday night then!

Erratic Picture of the Day
I made this picture... Very picturesque, right?

Auspicious Quotes
"It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them."

Mark Twain

Word of the Day

Vigilant (adj) - keeping careful watch

Topic of the Day

Purgatory: Fact or Myth?

Recently, my mom just attended a church seminar about the spirits that dwell in this world. We only see these kind of spirits in the horror movies, horror series or whatsoever but believe it or not, they exist. Personally, though, I don't really believe it, but this topic intrigues me. However not all of these spirits are evil. Some spirits just mingle out and about in this world, waiting for someone to pray to God to give these individual spirits mercy and grace. By the way, I do not mean to be bias to certain culture or religion, I am writing this on sheer interest, and I would like to share this with you all. So what exactly is purgatory?

The Catholics believe imperfectly purified spirits, or spirits who does not repent fully, will be purged in purgatory. God pardoned their minor sins, but they still have to pay for the cost. As I read from a website, it was mentioned that God did not see sins equally, and God will not punish people equally as people who committed a more nefarious sin. The scripture stated that "it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). They will be cleansed and punished for their sins in a purifying conflagration. The process of purgatory will completely pay off their sins and this will allow them to receive God's promise of eternal life. Most people believe that the purgatory is a fiery place, but this fact is still unconfirmed.

The process of purgatory does not only depend on the sins of the spirits though. It was believed that people have to pray and ask for God's mercy to release them from this purification. By praying for them, they may finally rest peacefully for eternity. Hence the Catholic church often have a so-called "Spirit Mass" or "Misa Arwah" in Indonesian. The mass prayed for the spirits of the dead so they can be released from purgatory and reconcile with the Creator once again. That is why most people will attend this mass to pray for their dead relatives or ancestors.

The term 'purgatory' does not appear in the Bible, however that doesn't mean it does not exist entirely. The term incarnation and trinity does not appear in the Bible as well, but many doctrines taught in it. It was mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3:15 that "He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire". This cannot mean that spirits 'he' or whoever 'he' is, will go to hell, since no one will be salvaged there; it also cannot mean heaven, since there are no sufferings in heaven. In the book of Maccabees, which had been cut by Protestants, it was mentioned that "In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin" (2 Macc. 12:43–45). Prayers are not required for those in heaven, and prayers will not help those in hell. This leads into a probability of some people is in a temporary unknown condition. From this verse it was said that prayers for the dead were approved as well. This statement could somehow confirm the existence of the purgatory in our lives.

I would like to remind you all that I only write this only for sheer interest and knowledge, not as a taunt or to raise any controversy, nor a mockery to any religion. I myself is still dubious about the existence of purgatory itself, and I am not trying to convince you all that purgatory does exist. But, we all know that God will forgive our sins and He will always accept us no matter what. Therefore we should reconcile and be a compliant follower of Him so we will be saved through his grace. After all, it is a much safer way than being burned in purgatory anyway.

Joke of the Day

A gentleman entered a busy florist shop that displayed a large sign that read, "Say It With Flowers." "Wrap up one rose," he told the florist. "Only one?" the florist asked. "Just one," the customer replied. "I'm a man of few words."

DaNte