Monday, December 17, 2007

Season's Greetings

Happy Holiday guys, eight more days before Christmas and I hope that all of us will experience a memorable event during this holiday.

Regarding 2008 that is very close, I am changing our blog's template into something that is brighter because I am quite bored with the boring dark background!

To my blog-mates, I hope that I could find a better template to replace this default template. But until then, let's use this template!

P.S. (to my blog-mates) You do found out that the Sign In shortcut is not on the upperscreen anymore. To sign in and post blogs, please go to the main page of blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com) Thank you and sorry of the inconvenience.



Sunday, December 9, 2007

Life Without the Ivies?


Today’s the day.

My heart thumped like crazy, making blood rush through my veins. I waited for my mother to sort out the pile of letters which contains various bills, random advertisements, personal letters, and of course, the letter. The letter that’ll determine the rest of my future, my life.

She handed me the white envelope. With trembling hands I ripped the seal and slowly unveiled the folded letter. A few seconds of tense silence passed by; nobody talked, moved, even blinked.

“So, did you get in?” my mother hushed.

“No,” I replied.


As juniors in a fast paced high school program, it would not be long until we have to experience the same incident described in the story above. Around this time next year, all of us would be fluffing away in our college application essays, urging teachers to write recommendation letters (smelling any whiffs of ‘sucking up’, here?), frantically completing UCAS and/or registering for that SAT exam some of us keeps on delaying, or even looking up different universities online for the extreme procrastinators out there. After the college admission appeals are done and over with, what is left to do? The answer is none other than to wait for the reply, of course.

Every person will have different feelings towards these letters. As for me, I would pull strands of my hair out, scream out of fear/ fury/ nervousness/ depression/ excitement before I will have the courage to rip the envelope apart! I will probably be thinking, I have to get into this university – I didn’t spend all that time and efforts on IB and extracurricular activities for nothing! Indeed, it will be such a great shame and disappointment to me and my family if I didn’t go into supposedly good universities, namely those in the Ivy League. My father’s desire is for me to enter Cambridge University. I told him that it is impossible for me to even get considered there – bearing in mind that I failed mathematics last term. Nevertheless, he still wants me to try and get into Cambridge. I’m sure that I’ll get a rejection letter from Cambridge’s dean of admission, as well as other universities parallel to its ranking.

So what to do then, if we get a rejection letter from a university we want to attend so badly? While disappointment and even tears may be inevitable, we should not mourn for so long. The fact is, it is not the end of the world. There are other universities that will provide education just as excellent as that of the universities in the Ivy League and the like. Remember Steven Spielberg? The famous film schools at UCLA and USC rejected him, so he went to California State-Long Beach and made several student films there. I bet UCLA and USC now feels stupid for rejecting Steven Spielberg into their colleges. Think about your own situation. If you are an admirable hard worker who keeps on doing your best in everything, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton will envy the other schools that are going to get you!

I know that the things I’ve said above are definitely easier said than done. I’d still be very depressed and miserable if a college I really wanted to get into rejected me. But hopefully this blog will serve as a reminder that life WILL go on even through its letdowns and we should not beat ourselves up forever for it.
-Agie

Agnes’ Stream of Consciousness II


The idea of doing homework and studying for tests is absurd knowing that there is only a week left before the blissful winter break; seriously, how can anyone concentrate on his or her dreadful school assignments for five days when one of the longest holidays is nearing – it’s disgusting, I must say – my head is throbbing ever so painfully; I think it might explode into bits any time soon, I think it is partly due to the workload I have for the weekend as well as cranking up the volume of the songs I’m listening to, my head hurts, hurts and hurts and all I want to do is to sleep for the following five days and to wake up when the heavenly break begins when I will have the opportunity to meet my sister again who is residing in the States at the moment as well as my grandparents who’ll be coming on Wednesday - wow my house is going to be extremely crowded but I do miss that sometimes – my house gets too lonely with merely my father, mother, and brother; to some people that’s quite a number of people but I guess I am used to a big, extended (and loud) family I know I’ll have a splendid break with them but I am worried how I will manage to get my holiday homework done – particularly the Extended Essay as I am determined to get it pretty much done during the break so I may not have to focus on it once school starts – easier said than done, I know but hopefully I’ll be able to complete it; I am not sure whether I’ll be able to spend time with my friends over the winter break, I am sorry for the people whom I promised to go out and sing karaoke with during the break but that can hold off until once school starts can’t it oh well raindrops keep fallin’ off my head, but that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red, cryin’s not for me, ‘cause I’m never gonna stop the rain by complainin’- if you know me well enough, it is very ironic for me to sing those lyrics as cryin’ is definitely for me – I am the worse crybaby I’ve ever known; it’s not like I can help it so I hope my friends will accept me for the way I am, even though I’m mushy – besides I quote Dr. Seuss that those that mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind speaking about the mind, nah let us not speak about the mind I do not want to ponder again about how complex the mind can be I’ve been so lazy lately in fact, my brain has pretty much shut down ever since the exams were all over; my fingers are starting to ache from all this typing I think I am going to take a nap or read a book called On Beauty by Zadie Smith, so ciao!
-Agie

Those Ol’ Golden Days


When you think about your childhood, what image crops up in your mind? Is it Pokemon, or Sailormoon? Is it Backstreet Boys, or the “Oops I Did It Again” Britney Spears? Regardless of how your childhood came out to be, there are certainly some parts of it that you’ll never be able to forget. I for one have my own shares of terrific and humiliating childhood memoirs that have shaped the way I am right now.

For as long as I can recall, I never really lived the ideal childhood life that most kids had probably gone through. I was quite aberrant and peculiar in nature, and probably still am. To this very day, I find no interest in Playstation, Gameboy devices, or Pokemon cards. I had 72 Barbie dolls shared with my sister, their luscious polyester hair I snipped delightfully with a small pair of scissors. Everywhere I go, I refused to wear anything but my striking red sneakers, and later during fourth grade, my worn out blue headband with stars comprised of colorful stitches. I was a walking stick during those years – I found those chunks of beef very gag material, thus wouldn’t swallow it no matter how many times I chew. I remember my favorite dish was plain rice mixed with ketchup. My mother got so anxious about my health that she brought me to a doctor who prescribed me some pills to increase my appetite. From then on, my eating problem was quite the opposite.

One of the things I hated the most during my childhood days was the haircuts my mother gave me. She figured she would be able to experiment on me, and thought that I wouldn’t object. Well of course I didn’t object back then – I had no idea how horrible those haircuts turned out to be until after I saw those years later in photographs! She made me look like a guyL. It was very tragic. No matter how many times I told her these days that that look isn’t appealing, she is still convinced otherwise. Practical, she said. Well, I wished I was cute instead of practical. Oh well, I still love her anywayJ.

Amidst all the terrifyingly humiliating memories that I acquired from my childhood era, through it, sprinkles of happiness also cropped up, lightening the old days. I loved it when my dad picked me up and began to throw me up the air – and catching me in his arms again, of course. Even though I didn’t play those electronic games and gadgets, I still found an immensely pleasurable activity to pass time: reading. Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl seriously brightened up my childhood days; their books are utterly scrumdiddlyumptious! I remember reading one book from the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton each day during the winter break in third grade. Reading is love. I regret neglecting literary and intellectual books during middle school and freshman year; as a result, my English competency and skills had stagnated for a while. Picking up the pieces now is rather difficult, as I sadly have no more time to read for pleasure.

It is quite surreal to know that our childhood days has passed, knowing that we have to go through IB and its demanding requirements. Before we know it, we’ll be off to different universities worldwide, creating a new chapter in our lives. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t hold our childhood memoirs dear in our hearts, nor does it prohibits us to become childlike.
-Agie

F.R.I.E.N.D.S: Fake, Rotten, Immature, Egregious, Nefarious, Depraved, Shocking


Most peers at this age consider friendship to be one of the most valuable factors in our lives. Phrases regarding the significance of friendship such as “Best Friends Forever” are drilled into our minds, creating the perception in our minds that friendship ought to be priceless and close to our hearts. While those descriptions mentioned earlier on are indeed true, I noticed that people have failed to apply those ideas into practice. Instead, I find the deprivation of genuine friendship and backstabbing to increase among the social clichés in this school.

Picture a pair of friends who are supposedly close with each other. Their facebook profiles are swarmed with each other’s wall posts, gifts, and tagged pictures. Their comments to each other comprised of the BFF abbreviation with endless xoxo’s. In another scene, a group of people decided to hate one of the friends mentioned above. The other friend of the mentioned pair associates with them frequently. Whenever the group slanders the particular person, the other pal would join in the conversation.

Although I made that seemingly exaggerated story up, the similar problem is ever present in our school society. I don’t know how many times I have heard people casually talking bad about a certain person to other people – even though they were ostensibly best friends. To make it worse, no signs of guilt were shed throughout this twisted, sad activity. From the way I see it, everyone has accepted this as a means of socializing – not only do they think it is acceptable, they also presume that they can trust other people not to spread the horrible truth of their fickleness. Little do they know that secrets are unfortunately meant to be broken in high school. Soon enough, the targeted victim would know about the backstabbing deeds his or her friend had done and would ask the same thing I had proposed earlier on: where did all sincere friendships go?

While true friendship might be scarce, we should not let the ongoing problem to thrive and deteriorate whatever friendship morals we have left. I know from personal experiences that it is difficult to defend the person whom other people outwardly mock about in my presence. I also underwent a period of time when I didn’t understand the real meaning of friendship – frankly speaking, I too was a hypocrite, following the distorted trend of judging and criticizing people who were supposed to be my own friends. However, I’ve learnt to realize that although there is a great deal of peer pressure, there’s nothing worse than not standing up for whom you love. I think the act of defending a friend whom you hold dear to your heart is admirable, even more so if you have to give up your social status or a group of friends to hold firm into your beliefs.

In by saying the aforementioned opinions, I did not say that this task is easy to tackle. We can’t help but to fall short of our convictions – even I struggle with this problem everyday – for we are not perfect. There are also some divisive issues that lie within the friendship morals; to what extent should we defend our friends? Should we ferociously defend them to the point of death, or can keeping our mouths merely shut be seen as an acceptable way of defending our friends? After all, other people also have the same amount of rights to speak their opinions. Perhaps I’ll talk about this in my next blog – in the mean time, discussions and comments are welcomed for this issue.

-Agie

A Simple Stress Reliever: Stream of Consciousness!


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Bahasa of the Day

Sendawa - [verb] - burp (usually used for babies who burped when we pat their back)

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Time flies very fast during weekends as it is night already and I haven't done anything useful. All I did are just watching television, chatting, playing games, finalizing English script and researching EE stuff. Argh EE, come to think of it I kind of regret to choose biology as my EE topic since I think my idea is not concrete enough to produce a high quality essay, and actually I am still doubting what my research question is! I am so dead. Oh no someone is interrupting me in MSN. Anyways, yesterday has been a wonderful day since me and my friends went on Bakti Sosial activity where we were doing some painting, cleaning, and decorating - it was memorable indeed. The school is very small like a quarter of Miss Jessica's room is equivalent to one class. The sun's intensity tanned us yesterday but it was good to have a sun bathe once in a while, especially in this IB life where sunlight is scarce to our youthful life. Some people and I were in charge in decorating and although the result is not as gallant as we are all expected, it still looked nice and we looked it with satisfaction since we made them for 3 hours nonstop. We returned to school at one o'clock where most of us decided to go and have lunch at Dragone, the most pitiful and the most stingy restaurant I have ever seen. To know what happened just take a quick glance to Jesse's Stream of Consciousness and also my previous blog entitled "Economical Stinginess" and you should have been agreed with me once you have read it. Ah yes, speaking of food, I just realized that I have never eaten any croissant in my whole life. Since I was little I always picture croissant as this super hard tasteless bread when I looked at the pictures, but just a week ago I saw this anime about a talented bread-maker and he showed the inside of a croissant which has countless tasty layer and it is crunchy too! I want to buy one but I did not have the time to go to the mall, pity me. Ahhh, my curtain is falling down again what's wrong with it! It has been months since my curtain keeps falling down every 1 hours even though I have glued it with super glue; total annoyance. Aside from the sudden desire to eat croissant, now I also have this sudden demand to swim ever since I saw the Sea Games swimming competition that is held in Thailand. I really love swimming and I have swum since TK but then schoolworks consumed most of my time to swim since I entered grade 10. I am thinking to go swimming at school after the holiday but then again I do not want to swim alone. I asked my friends but they don't want to swim with reason that they are too lazy to change into swimsuits and some also said no because they are embarrassed as well. What's wrong with people nowadays? Seriously, I often see a lot of people who are degrading and generalizing swimming as a sport that only show off people loves to do it since they can show their muscle and stuff. I hate it when people said this, just because the majority of their community prefers swimming they don't have the authority to make such idiotic generalization regarding this sport, same goes to rock climbing. Do they realize that swimming yields multifarious benefits? They simultaneously raises our endurance, builds and tones muscles, cures bone problems, and relieves our stress too! Okay, it is decided that I will and I must swim next week! I love my dad because even when he is thousands kilometers away from me, he always contacted and informed me whenever he found a badminton tournament on TV, just like what he did yesterday with the Sea Games. Yesterday badminton match was okay, but today's match is uber tense (haha i remembered Gary and his habit to say 'uber cool'). The shuttlecock was smacked so fast and was returned so beautifully by each players that it stunned me momentarily. Most of all, during that tense moment the players can receive the shuttlecock with style: hitting it from their back as if they are dancing. Now I am truly addicted with badminton and swimming, and I hope this is not just a momentary interest. Today was also a strange day as I randomly asked my best friend about how did we meet and become friend since we barely talk for months when we first become classmates. I am utterly forgot that we talked because he asked me what gift should he gave to my other friend for the "Secret Santa" activity that we once had during grade 8. Until now I still think that meeting is a destiny somehow because there I was questioning why he talked to me, and 30 minutes later we became friends. What was more, we end up in the same class again when we sat in grade 9 - our friendship grows ever since, especially when we also realized that we have the same hobby: playing badminton. It is funny actually when just now we were both arguing about those silly days and we ended up with uncertain information about that history. I am utterly thankful to have him as a part of my life's history. As what I often said within my written works that reminiscing the past is something that can make you smile every time you recall it pieces by pieces. As the majority already knows, I am a boy who loves to imagine and to daydream strange things which usually in form of twisted past events ("if..."). Several minutes ago I chatted with Jesse as we talked about blogs and realized that up to this point we actually already have 61 blogs that are written by 4 different authors but then we were bewildered as most of us have not reached the 12-blogs requirement. While discussing about this pointless issue, we also discussed that our essays can actually be posted as an example of an opposing writing style: factual and emotional. Turns out that our style is blatantly recognized only through a quick glance: Jesse's essay contains facts, theories, logical thoughts, and not forgetting a broad range of mathematical and scientific terms, while my essay is filled with analogies, emotional vocabularies, alliterative phrases, colorful fonts, and numerous adjective which usually considered as verbiage by most invigilators. If more evidence is needed to believe this information just take a quick look to our blogs and see it with your own eyes. We both have the imbalance within our writings, but if those styles satisfy our heart we should keep it up since that what makes our writings unique and give a personal satisfaction whenever we reread it. Who knows what will happened when make an essay together? That would be funny to be imagined about. Up to this point, this Stream of Consciousness is already 1200 words long and it is 10:19 PM already. I think I would better watch a concert on TV because I was afraid that if this gibberish "mind projection" of mine never ends Miss Jessica would reached her boiling point and reduce my grade. I WANT TO EAT CROISSANT AND GO SWIMMING...


-Donny-

Jesse's Stream of Conciousness


Sitting in a rolling chair in front of my laptop, it has been approximately twenty-five minutes since I posted the previous blog concerning the “Soul Entering the Body” I kept on thinking what topic to propose as my twelfth blog because I was unsure whether the two post of my holiday in China was considered to be two blogs or one. I was hungry and seek any food to consume in the refrigerator located in the next room. I drank orange juice and ate Pepperidge’s cookies as I returned when the song in the computer changed to Dream Theater’s ‘Stream of Consciousness’. I thought of the fact that this might be a sign from the higher beings because the song list was set as random and seems as fate has chosen this particular song. Now as I am typing this, I am thinking about the ways of how your life gets directed through omens such as this just now. This reminded me of the story written by Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist” concerning a shepherd boy who has used omens into following his recurrent dreams and finally found the treasure in a place least expected. It must be nice to have a life as the shepherd boy, living off the main city, away from anguish education system such as the International Baccalaureate, to have a life of real adventure. My adventure seems to homework one after another but nonetheless, it is the notorious IB. To think about it, we have finished approximately ¼ of IB, equivalent to ½ of eleventh grade. Talking about fractions and equivalences, I have not finished my math homework concerning partial fractions and old man Pak Wiryanto would be very much irate as usual if he finds any of the students not doing their homework. He will continue his lecture concerning his belief that students in Mathematics Higher Level should do their homework and become a consequent student or else they should just drop to Standards. My mom just gave me bananas to eat so I shall pause before I continue. Now as I continue, my mind is thinking of something to write. But seems that I have again experienced a “Writer’s Block” that has always occurred to me in any writing assignments especially the introduction. Yes, it has been a custom that it is quite difficult for me to write a catchy introduction even if I have brainstormed all the points needed for the body. I think this is because of my slightly melancholic personality in wanting things to be perfect, and I do want a perfect introduction. My temperament is a Phlegmatic-Melancholic, with 60% phlegmatic, 25% melancholic, and the rest being choleric and sanguine. This resulted was taken after a long test in a particular website. I have not done tests from websites recently, due to the busyness of life. I usually like to take them to find out more of myself and what I might be capable of in their perspective. Talking bout the busyness of life, I also have not gone to the theaters to watch a particular movie for a long time. The last time I watch a movie was recalled to be in September as I watched Ratatouille with a friend. Yesterday was also a busy day as I volunteered to do service on a school called Bakti Sosial and it felt nice doing some decorations and painting. I remember the fact that the noodles nearby was nice and it felt better than waiting for the food in Benton Junction’s ‘Dragone’, more like “Drag On” because they seem to purposely cook slow for those who ordered an “All you can Eat”, they should put a sign “All you can Wait” too! I cannot seem to wait for the holiday break for some of the guys have agreed to do sleepovers again in few different places. It has been like a tradition for those who are not going anywhere for the break as we enjoy the days together doing weird activities and watching stupid movies. Those nights were always crazy as we fight for beds and crying out our discomfort of sleeping in squeezed situations. My dad just entered asking if I wanted to go out to eat together with the family, for once he seem to notice my busyness as he usually just forces my brother and I to go out regardless of what we are doing. I replied no and thus became home alone. Yes, I like being in solitude for some reason. Maybe because with my family, I find them to constantly be disturbing the things I am doing, yes, even when I need some sleep. Speaking of which, I find that sometimes I have trouble sleeping these days, maybe because I slept my long sleep in the nap time and inversely, have my nap in the long sleeping hours. I still have physics to be done after this, an extrapolation of data concerning the “Absolute Zero” temperature where the data seems to be just all wrong since Mr. John did the experiment himself. Now we have more things to say concerning the error of experiment. This reminds me of the experiment we did in the chemistry lab where we place specific metals in a flame and it produces a certain color. Sodium and Calcium produces bright orange and Lithium and Strontium produces bright crimson red. The coolest was Copper and Potassium as they produced green and white flame. Through logic, I thought of the fact that these were how fireworks were created and it was true as mentioned by Ibu Mona. Speaking of chemistry, it was such an agony to see that most of the chemistry students failed the exam in addition to the fact that the average of Mr. Owen’s students was lower than ours. That is just sad…

DaNte's Post



DaNte's Post

9-12-2007


1 week before the holiday! Joy to all SPH students for the Christmas holiday is imminent! However, we still have the EE Working Bibliography and for Math HL students, we will have a test on Thursday. Hence we should finish strong and then we can go crazy or just sleep during the holidays!

Erratic Picture of the Day

Auspicious Quote of the Day

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."

Napoleon Bonaparte

Word of the Day

Aficionado (n) – A person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about an activity or subject

Topic of the Day

Love

"I love you, James," said the girl with sparkling, watery eyes.

"Oh Naomi, I love you too! It's been too long that I haven't seen you," James said both joyfully and sadly. They hugged tightly, and it seems that no force in this world may separate the two destined lovers. They look deeply into each other's eyes and their face came closer and closer in slow motion. Their lips touched each other, and passionately they kissed each other. They were together in their own world, ignoring every single movement, noise, and existence in this world. Nothing matters but to have each other for the rest of their lives.

Unfortunately...

These kind of love stories only exist in movies, or romantic
novels. Very scantily we see this kind of story in real life. Hollywood directors and novel writers always imbue stories with lies and fake stories that can rarely come true. The truth is, most love hurts. MOST, I say, because the so-called 'true love' in movies does come true in real life. But for the most part, love hurts. Believe me, it hurts a lot.

I apologize for my cynical and dour point of view, but I only want to express my thoughts. From my personal experience, I believe love hurts, even when you think optimistically but in the end, it will just crush you and throw you to into the deepest oblivion in your life. I have been in love a few times, and sometimes I just wonder, maybe if it is better not to feel love or even any emotion at all? Is it really worth it? In the end, you will just get hurt. It hurts when you try your best but in the end the person you love the most betrays you, it hurts when he/she does not appreciate for all your efforts in satisfying them, it hurts when they became selfish and never think about your needs, and it hurts to let them go. So, is it really worth it?

Love, which every movie and novel depicted as the best experience that a human could ever have, actually causes destruction and hatred. Love can be despicable and pernicious to everyone. Let us take an example from Troy. Two warriors fell in love with the same girl caused their countries to incinerate in the flames of war. Another exemplar we can take is the novel 'The Great Gatsby'. The protagonist, Jay Gatsby fell in love with Daisy Buchanan. He did his best and gave everything for her but in the end, he died and his 'true love' left him to be with another man.

I had experience this painful love as well. I did my best to make the girl happy, but it seems that everything I do never satisfies her. She kept on demanding more, without regards to my needs or wants. It seems that she only took advantage of me. I had also loved a girl once, who in the end betrayed me and thought that I was nothing in her eyes. It hurts, really, when the girl you love just left you like that without even a single 'thank you' or even showing gratitude.

But why do we love? Why do we keep on insisting loving the opposite sex even we know that someday we will going to be hurt? Love drugs people and indulges them in a fictional world of idiotic optimism and in the end love will overdose them and kill them slowly, and excruciatingly. But even so, people keep on loving. Loving someone makes you care for he/she and makes you want to be with the person you love all the time. To be honest with you, I personally feel the same way too. Even after I got hurt a few times, I still want to love someone. When you get close and spend time with the person you like/love, you just feel really happy. It seems that nothing makes you happier or satisfies you but to see the person you love happy or spend time with him/her. You feel joyful when the person you love replies your love. You dare and willing to go to great extents just to see your love happy and smile at you.

Apologetically I say that I am truly sorry for my pessimistic way of delineating love. But, I urge you dear viewers to stay strong in your love. Never give up. Heartbreaks are only there to make you stronger and persevere in your love. Do not give up in loving, for the Bible say "And now there is three: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of all is love," (I forgot the Bible verse). So love everyone, despite the pains and troubles, for it will someday benefit you.

Joke of the Day


Yo momma so stupid she sits on the TV, and watches the couc
h!

DaNte



The Moment 'Soul' Intertwines with the Human Body


The Moment ‘Soul’ Intertwines with the Human Body 09-12-2007

Question of Thought: When does the soul enter within the reproduction stage that distinguished the being to become living human and not just mere organisms?

It is always amazed when a new baby was given birth and became a new member of the society. Especially when the baby, in reality, was initially a sperm and an egg meeting each other going through mitosis and meiosis stages of cells before it became “human”. Macroscopically, we are actually just cells built up upon each other with an exceptional addition of a soul. But where does that ‘Soul’ come from? The answer can simply be ‘God’ for those believers of an Ultimate Creator. But the question is, “When does the soul enter the human body?” Before we continue, the paragraphs below will describe the things that make up an actual human.

It has been stated by many that the composition of a living human consisted of three fixations: the body, the mind and the soul. Each fixation corresponds in a contribution to have the whole human being to function. Theoretically, without the three following fixations to be present in one being, it is not a human living being.

The body, can be analogized as a container in which makes us tangible and encompass a physical appealing attribute. The body organs such as the lungs, the stomach, the kidney, the sensory nerves, the bones aids us through the way we are created to work and be alive, such that the heart helps the body to regulate the blood circulation, the lung regulates the breathing cycle, the stomach takes up the nutrients for our body’s growth and protection and other organs have its uses as well. Simply, the human body consisted of organs, blood and muscle tissues.

The mind can be analogized as the computer. It sends signals to the human body as well as it records the experience one has endeavored. The mind plays an important role to an individual because of the fact that the mind one that controls the body as well as it acts to protect the body. It gives signals when things are too hot for the body to handle or in general, the pain. It contains memories of the experiences the body has endeavored, the logic to comprehend our world, the creativity to enhance it, and many more things. As referring to the saying that ‘pain makes you know that you’re alive’ corresponds to the fact that without the mind, the human is not alive.

The soul (or the spirit) is in the other hand, a complex entity that maybe our brains cannot grasp its actual description. It is something that cannot be created artificially by humans. The soul is actually the conscious that causes the mind to act or inevitably, the individual persona within each being. To refer to the verse from James in the Bible, “As the body without the spirit, is dead…” theoretically, it is not dead. The mind functions and the body functions, it is physically alive, but it lacks the spirit, or the soul, the conscious in being aware that it is alive. There is a specific term for this case: undead; which literally means ‘not dead’ but also ‘not alive’ in its ordinary way.

To come back to our focus question: “When does the soul enter the human body?” a known aphorism which states that abortion is manslaughter can be discussed. Nine months has been calculated to be the time range in which the collection of cells becomes a human being as they say abortion is murder to human life. In six weeks, a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, which means that the baby is physically alive and growing. Therefore, before six weeks, maybe the soul has entered the cells. From this, we cannot actually pinpoint the precision of time in which the soul or the spirit came down from heaven. We can assume it is already bestowed when the sperm meets the egg three minutes after the intercourse. But to actually prove the enter of the soul would probably need a paranormal in sensing spirits or in the long run, wait for a better technology to do so. Nonetheless, though this question of thought cannot be specifically answered, it can be a good thing to think and consider about for a soul has to come in the reproduction stage sometime.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Economical Stinginess - [5th Blog in term 2]


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Bahasa of the Day

Cendekia - [adj] - Sharp, Intellectual, Sharpwitted

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To gain revenue from one's business is, obviously, the main goal in most profitable companies. These companies have their own way to establish their companies' efficiency and efficacy of their offered goods/services upon their customers. Yet, only some that make the right economical choice which can penetrate through customers' heart and get their attention to buy their products; leading them to fame and glory. As the demand for those companies increases (more famous), their owners should be happy because they can easily increase the price of their product and people will still buy it. Nevertheless, they should jump from their chair if their companies are rated by the society as the number one choice, where they will buy the products even in any price: total richness indeed.

When a company is utterly demanded by the majority for their astonishing quality, obviously the company would try its best to maintain this quality or even to improve it. This maintenance would eventually take this company to a whole new level of business where the company's name is printed all over the billboards of the world, along with franchises that yields more revenue. However, in this yin-yang universe, there is always a stain which infuriates someone. In this imperfect world, there is just a company that is doltish enough to scathe its customer right when fortune is bestowed upon it. A company that is widely recognized by Lippo Karawaci's denizens as "Dragone."

Briefly, Dragone is a Japanese restaurant with assortment of superb cuisines that can be purchased in moderate price. This has become the economical and main reason why it becomes a lovable restaurant in the eyes of most people. Another reason that contributes to their lasting prominence is because they provide Japanese foods - a type of food that is adored by most people in present generation, especially by citizens in metropolitan cities such as Jakarta.

I personally love Dragone for the reasons listed above. In fact, it is the most visited restaurant by me: since two years ago, I always go there with my friends every Friday. We even know the workers there very well and sometimes we joke around together. We all put our heart upon this restaurant, until that exasperating day...

Just one year ago, this restaurant make a choice that it should have been regretted by them. It was minimizing their foods' portion, and this is obviously detected by ANY customers who often eat here. For example: their Tori Karage and Calamari portion which is very delicious and fulfilling becomes countable and doesn't make your hunger better. This diminishing strategy continues as they slowly make avaricious and unsatisfactory changes to their spices and sauces: they remove the wasabis that are used to be on each tables. This is still acceptable to one's logical reasoning, but they also remove the white sauce that comes with Tori Karage or Calamari; the sauce that is always finished by customers every time it is served to them. How come they remove something that pleases the customer?

My friends and I are okay with this condition and still eat at Dragone often, since we can just ask for the sauce whenever they didn't serve it along with Tori Karage or Calamari (cuisines that we seldom ordered now). Yet, the most irritating choice that makes all the anger in my life focused on this restaurant is their stingy services that becomes stingier over time. This is clearly observed, especially when we ordered "All you can eat" menu.

Their stingy service strategy is like this: whenever we ordered "All you can eat," they (the workers) will serve our orders after we have waited for so long. When we are not having "All you can eat" they usually serve these orders only 5 minutes after we have ordered! They also make the foods that we ordered very slow, where in the beginning sushis are served within quite a long time gap. Imagine that we have to wait for about half an hour just to have our Ramens and Udons. The workers are sometimes acting as if they are forgetful by asking us: "what cuisines that haven't come out?"

I am very positive that their strategy is to make the customers full by giving periods where they need to wait for the food - this way the customers stomach will become full quicker than usual. Furthermore, during "all you can eat" the portion of the main courses are diminished by almost half: Ramen and Udons that are usually filled almost the whole bowl is now served where we can see a tall white space between the top of the bowl to the surface of the soup. Meats such as teriyaki also minimized until they are just as long as my pencil. As for the boiling point, sometimes after we have waited for SO LONG (1 hour or so)for just one meal, one of the worker will say: "sorry, we are out of stock." Are they acting stupid or what? They should have told the customers several minutes after they have ordered!

These behaviors are classified as a misuse of demand. Since Dragone have attracted a lot of people and make them eat there most of the time, it tries to gain more revenue but using less supply. It is a very selfish choice since these choices are intended to benefit only the producer while it decreases the consumers satisfaction. Yet, we cannot blame the restaurant for these reasons since it is business and the reality where money is the goal of everybody.

I personally think that if this "trickery" continues, there will be a time where the economics of Dragone will tremble and plummeting. Maybe it won't go bankrupt, but the demand for it will so low that the income made are very less due to conversion from famous into a notorious restaurant.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

The Probable Modern Day "Tower of Babel"


The Probable Modern Day “Tower of Babel”

Everyone knows the story of “The Tower of Babel” from the Bible when humans endeavor a challenge in making a tower that would reach the heavens and take upon God themselves. God punishes them by varying the single language spoken to numerous languages causing them to be confused and thus, the tower was not completed, causing them to be scattered around the world. The term ‘Tower of Babel’ is usually depicted as an image when we want to be God and in the article below might be some evidence to see that we are getting closer and closer to that; in any case with good intentions.

Skin-aging was considered a common threat to those who wanted to be physically appealing because we grow older and nothing can be done as we are governed by time. Science then came along making lotions and other substances than could replenish the dead skin cells making them newer. Now, through an advanced study in bioengineering, they finally succeeded in a reversal of aging.

As accordance to World Science, scientists report this to be the very first successful reversal of aging, yet only on one organ: the skin. Though it was only tested upon a mouse, the researcher’s said:

It’s un­clear, they said, whether these results can hold up for long time periods, and how one might apply the find­ings to hu­man­s. Yet the work is sig­nif­i­cant in that it shows a pro­found “rejuvenation” is at least partly pos­si­ble in prin­ci­ple.”

Further explanation was given that the experimented mouse went through its lifespan and aged normally, but when the cream was added to a patch of skin, there was a striking outcome in two weeks, where it is reported that the gene activation profile and tissue characteristics of the aged skin reverted to those of young animals.

Such finding within newer technology surely is beneficial to the human race and especially to those whom wanted such smooth skin as babies. Though it might not apply towards internal organs yet (the kidney, the liver, the lungs, and the heart) it might possibly be done in the future. Now, with this new product, we are able to physically appear younger than we are in more of an extent than with the usage of present time products. Do keep in mind, that through these bioengineering courses, though it “aids” the human society, it also leads us to become closer to being God; literally. Suppose in the long run, these finding finally are able to keep the body organs young, yes we can live longer and probably be immortal to an extent. *Assuming no side effects occur* But think about it, these bioengineering technologies does neglect the destined fate from God. An exemplary model would be those who are armless and legless, they are initially destined by God to be as follows, but due to technology, they can still have an artificial limb. Furthermore, research shows that they are able to detect feeling by manipulating the sensory nerves through temperature and other variables, causing a goal to be made be scientists: making artificial limbs that could ‘feel’.
*Please refer to: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/071126_prosthetic.htm

The same concept applies to the human organ, where we say destined to die at a certain point of our lives due to the incapability of the human body to function anymore, we can grow or “rejuvenate” a new organ; both artificially and naturally (if one were to think about it) Thus causing us to neglect our fate.

What can we expect to happen next within the more advanced findings? How would God punish us nearing his affinity? The enigma remains.

First reversal of aging in an organ claimed: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/071128_skin-aging.htm



P.S. : *again* Today is Miss Jessica's Birthday!!! Though she's 27 years old, and her body organs are probably 27 years old too, her soul is still 7 --" May your immaturity always remains and may you become more blonde, more happy and more generous in giving grades (thus a win-win solution - you being happy, and I being happy too =) hehe ) Have a blessed 27th year...

Living Up to Our Parents' Expectations


Living Up to Our Parents Expectations 01-12-2007

We are literally made through the love of our parents and ever since the day we are born, we have been treated as an object beyond preciousness. As we grow from an incomprehensible infant to a wandering toddler, we abide ourselves to our parents and became dependent towards them. It then became an obligation for us to respect them and obey them. Parents generally have an expectation for us to achieve to be “successful” in their own various definitions. The predicament that always occurs is that we failed to be on that spotlight.

Firstly, let us point out that we are biologically from our parents and that they have the power to reign upon our lives; literally. We are their projects in life. Like us doing homework and projects, we want it to be the best as it can be; they also want to form us to be the best as we can be. But being children of the younger generation, we tend to be more spoiled than our parents due to innovative facilities. We have game consoles, internet games, malls and so many more things we are able to do besides homework. Not to mention the fact that standards are getting higher as the human mind is more developed, we as children of the younger generation tends to get lazier and spoiled.

Some parents are just stubborn in not wanting to accept the reality that their child is incapable of doing some things, causing them to forcefully drive their child to work even harder through numerous tuitions thus causing the poor child to suffer. A commonplace exemplary of this issue is given by Pak Wir. He mentioned that in national schools, children would eventually be required to choose to major in science or humanities and being in Indonesia, a bias approach transpires in being a science student. They consider those who took science to be a regular challenged student as those who take humanities to be shameful beings. With that, parents are somewhat ashamed in having a child with a humanities tendency. Pak Wir correlated this issue towards Mathematics HL where he mentioned that we should not take Higher Level Mathematics to provide the happiness for our parents as we suffer going through the subject and if we just cannot cope with the studies, just remark our parents saying that we are incapable and drop to Math Standards. We reflect our parents pride and parents have sometimes abused it in trying to make us even better than who we really are.

We surely do not want our parents to be ashamed of their child, nor do we want to suffer in doing things we are incapable of. Therefore, a balance is needed. This article has a bias approach in a perspective to those who consider themselves trying to live up your parents’ expectations. But we also have issues where we go beyond what our parents expects us. There are cases where parents are considerate enough in persuading their child to drop subjects they cannot cope with and let the children choose easier subjects for a better lifestyle; no stress.

In my case, I was brought up in a family with very melancholic parents. Not melancholic in a way that they are sad, tearful beings, but perfectionists. Since I was a cute young boy, I was exceptionally always forced by my father to do better in my school than I was capable of. In comparison to him, I was not much of a success. Last time I came across his university grades as I was cleaning up things in the storage room, yes, it’s a craze where he got all A’s except for English (Yes, his English is quite weak for his first language is actually Chinese, then Indonesian then English). But what really infuriates me is the fact that he wanted me to be much better than him. He wanted me to achieve great grades, be able to speak, read and write Chinese properly and of course, wanted me to be more successful. But it is just too much, won’t one think so?

In the end, we should remind our parents that we are also imperfect beings that cannot accomplish everything that parents dreamed of and apologize. They also should be considerate in knowing that there are some things in life that no matter our children go through, there is a limit in their capability and should also be grateful for other things.



P.S. : Today is Ms. Jessica's Birthday!!! Being 27 and still a jolly immature child at heart :) Let a new resolution be achieved, grow closer with God, and be more generous in giving grades. May you have a wonderful 27th year.