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

Historical Holiday: A Candid Experience of One’s Ancestry - China [Part II]

After these tiring days, our large group of thirty individuals was split into two separate destinations; one heading towards Shanghai and another towards Mei Zhou, the land of the Chinese dialects of ‘Khek’. As a prerequisite note, it is known that China is a vast country filled with different dialects, (the majority of dialects known are ‘Khek’ and ‘Hokkian’) just as Indonesia has innumerable tribes, ranging from the Sundanese, Bataknese and others. My mom’s family are ‘Khek’ and we are going to the village of where her grandfather came from. It was a short flight from Beijing to Guang Zhou, there we have to walk (yes, walk) from the airport to the train station through the main road which was approximately 500 meters. In the journey, a person with very similar appearances to a friend walked across, and it was quite hilarious. Skipping to the train station, we took a bus instead and had an eight hour drive to Mei Zhou, a distant town from the main city. We eventually arrived in front of our hotel, possibly the only five star hotel in the isolated little town. Surprisingly, it was 200 yuan (converted to approximately Rp. 240,000) for a presidential suite and for such a luxurious facility. We then had a supper in the market below on the road side. The famous ‘Yam Mie’ (noodles) known as one of the authentic delicacy of the Khek, was served everywhere, even in the late night. Another surprising fact that it was really cheap in comparison to the amount of meal they served. Fifteen portions costs about 40 yuan (Rp. 48,000). This made me deduce of how low their standards of living are, and how could one possibly survive there?

The next morning, we were picked up by our long lost blood family that remained in China. To elaborate, this was the story of my family from the words of my grandmother: My great-grandparents (from my mother’s side) had just given birth to a daughter when an invasion occurred in China. They wanted to flee, but their in-laws restrict them for they assume that they won’t return if they brought their child with them. They left the child in China and bravely ventured out to Indonesia. (This moment of time, the brothers were also brought with them, all except one, who was again restricted to leave. They all went all over Indonesia, some went to Timor, and some went to Pontianak). My great-grandparents again gave birth, this time to a son, my grandfather. After several years, they also adopt some other kids. For the rest of their days, they did not return to China, not to see their daughter, but instead, moved to Jakarta and has settled there after the marriage of my grandfather.

In 1978, there was a medical crisis of grandaunt in China, my grandfather went there for the first time to aid her by bringing her to a doctor, outside the village. It was a horrible journey there, especially in 1978, no actual roads were built around the area of the village, no mechanical engineered vehicle and the largest obstacle, the mountain. And that was the first and last time they saw each other. Now, 29 years later, my grandfather forbade us to visit the village for its troublesome journey. He himself won’t even go to China. Here we are, now, 29 years later, meeting our last blood family existing in China.

The road towards the village certainly is long and the fact that there were no roads back then gave the horrible impression. There was a small long path leading to the front of the village, at the foot of the mountain on the other side. (No wonder, my grandfather said not to go). This particular blood grandaunt strokes my memories of the past of the face of my great-grandmother (her mother). We were greeted with innumerable explosions of firecrackers (a traditional method in alerting people of an occasion) Yes, some tears were shed, and I became known to cousins I never knew existed. Days were spent together in mostly talking and shopping together. Saw pictures and portraits of my grandfather in the room. Their village was particularly intriguing. It is a small land, divided into rooms of family members and the center was a place of praying and the living room. Such isolated location with such primitive lifestyle, no wonder one of the remaining brother (who was not allowed to go out of China last time) said to my mother that she was lucky her grandfather bravely went out of the country at that time. (This again reflected to me, for I might not exist if my mother did not meet my father in America).

Goodbyes were mentioned, and some promised that we would meet again and would visit us in Indonesia. Our vacation continued with another bus journey, this time for about eight hours to the place where the British once ruled, Hong Kong.

Our segregated family members from Shanghai were gathered towards the same hotel in Hong Kong. That next morning, the majority of the family members went to Hong Kong Disneyland, my own family on the other hand didn’t, my father refused for our family have been to Disney World in Florida few months ago. Thus, that following day, I wandered in the streets of Hong Kong. My mom went shopping with her friends as well as my dad followed her around, I eventually followed around with no aim within mind. I tried to find a replacement 5x5 rubik’s cube in Toys R’ Us, but they only sell 3x3; that is just sad…

It was finally time for us to go back to Jakarta. On the other hand, my father went on a different flight, back to China for business and in the Hong Kong airport, we separated. In the airport, I stumbled upon an old friend whom was once enrolled in SPH and we chatted for a while and found out that we are in the same flight back home to Jakarta. In the flight, some more movies were watched, such as ‘License to Wed’ casted Robin Williams and Mandy Moore as well as a fascinating documentary of Chelsea, the soccer team. Other than that, I taught my cousins who bought the 3x3 rubik’s cube until we arrived in Jakarta. That would probably sum up my holidays, my almost two full weeks of holiday.

Historical Holiday: A Candid Experience of One’s Ancestry - China [Part I]

As the Lebaran holiday approaches, a dinner with the big family with relatives from my father’s side was held in a usual authentic Chinese restaurant where “Big Daddy” (Grandfather) announced that he wanted his grandchildren to go witness the improvement of his village in China. One of my uncles then added the fact that in majority of the grandchildren have not been to the eminent Great Wall of China whilst giving a weird statement saying that one is not truly Chinese until they have been to the Great Wall. Thus, it was then decided that there will be a trip around China for the holidays which consists fifteen of my relatives.

We left on the tenth in the morning where the flight was delayed due to mental difficulties of the cooperation of the airport staffs in handling the immigration. Our group was the last to enter the aircraft with passengers staring at us, yet we could not care less for it was not our fault the immigration was done in such dull manners. Approximately four hours later, we landed in Hong Kong to transit for three hours before continuing to Fu Zhou, the city where my grandfather (of my father’s side) grew up.

We arrived at the airport at night when we saw that our grandfather picked us up using a huge bus. Two hours later, we arrived at a tall house isolated from the city. It was located in some rural area where not many houses were built. This is the new improved house of my grandfather. We then settled in our provided bedrooms, I shared a room with my other cousins prior to playing cards throughout the night. Towards the next few days, we were shown the construction of his deed in improving his village, the schools he established and his factory where he produce different kinds and sizes of pipes and different thickness of tires built in layers to be inserted within the pipe. Additionally, we were also told the intriguing structure of homes in surrounding areas, my grandma’s house particularly: The tall structure of the house was specifically made for the next generations. For example: the first floor is for the grandparents, the second floor has three rooms for the first son and his wife, the second son and his wife and the third son and his wife, as the third floor might have several rooms for several grandsons and their wives.

The next city to visit is Beijing, the capital city of China. As you readers may recall, it is where the World Olympics will be held in 2008, in their currently constructed stadium known as the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and the ‘Water Cube’. In a private tour, we ventured upon many historical heritages protected by the country and the world as well: The Summer Palace, the Underground Palace, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall of China. Here we inherited immense knowledge concerning many dynasties of China and how each of them fell within time, the symbolism Chinese used in objects correlating to their beliefs. These attractions were very much fascinating as much as it was very much exhausting. Walking around hundreds and hundreds of hectares everyday causes one to be physically weary and the fact that it is a Chinese tour, the history was informed with the Chinese language, thus, causing mental weariness of translating for the sake of comprehension. Additionally, we walked for five towers through the Great Wall of China which can be converted to approximately four kilometers in average (please note that it is not a walk on a flat surface such as the mall, it is a constantly changing gradient of surface). By the end of the tour, a sad moment occurred. My beloved 5x5 rubik’s cube was lost in the tour bus due to the mistake of our tour leader exchanging buses. (It was supposedly be a private tour bus, but somehow a miscommunication occurred) Now, my rubik’s cube would most likely by in the hands of a dim-witted Beijing child, never to be solved again…

News During the Break

This term break feels like the most enjoyable holiday out of all the other holiday. After suffering the painful introduction of IB, its devious assignments, we actually have a break!!! Even with the holiday homeworks, most of us just don't care it anymore for in the end most of us has managed to condensed the 2 weeks homework into a 2 days work. Several just ignore it and didn't do it. Haha

Yet, even if we have a happy time, the world is still revolving and so does the news that keeps revolving around tragedies articles such as death...

So here I was, embarking to Singapore along with my parents and other relatives. I was so bored to death in the plane because I didn't feel like reading the novel that I brought on that day. Without further thinking, I asked the stewardess for the newspapers she was distributing. I read and skipped articles and I found quite many interesting news. One news was regarding a house that is built in form of a humongous toilet bowl in the middle of a tranquil garden. The reason of this architectural model is because the owner of the house was born in a toilet! Subsequently, he is also wanted to raise the awareness of clean toilets! However, only a couple pages from this extravagant event lies the news that is filled with tragedy. The word that means "the shooting of teachers and teenagers which ended with the killer committing suicide." In other words: the 2nd Virginia Tech incident.

The unfortunate event took place in SuccessTech Academy, Cleveland, Chicago, and it was done by a 14-year-old boy Asa Coon. His intention to kill is due to his suspension 2 days before the bloodbath. At the day of the shooting, Coon suddenly entered the hallway and fired several rounds; causing (at least) 2 teachers and 2 students to be injured. These 2 teachers are the teachers who are involved in his earlier suspension regarding his in-school fight. Luckily, the principal announced a "code blue" signal immediately; alerting all people in the school to hide and to lock classes. As the result, they are saved indeed.

After roaming from floor to floor shooting, when he reached the 4th floor, Coon went into a classroom and shoot himself with his .38 and .22-calibre guns. Investigators had deduced that the reason Coon committed a suicide because he realize that the police had surrounded the building and he has no way out.

However, after all investigations police still don't know exactly what is the motive of this shooting. Asa Coon records told us that he is an infamous delinquent in his school who once was put in a juvenile delinquent center and used to be suspended for attempting to harm other student physically.

How about our perspective? Can we also deduce that this is mainly a just-for-fun activity for him because he is a brutal delinquent? Or maybe because of today's teenager problem - peer pressure? After all, a student heard that Coon bellowed "Shut up, shut up, I hate this school" while he's shooting all over the hallway.

You see guys, our world is worsening by night and tragedies' origins are beginning to vary: from adults to teenagers who just have their puberty. Children's naughtiness is not all about breaking porcelain or throwing toys anymore, it is now all about killing! It gets into my mind that the more modern and innovative our world be, our way of living becomes stupider. From my perception, in developed countries like USA, parents sometimes scold their children without thinking the proper usage of words: they slander, slap, and sometimes spit.

Moreover, our educational that constantly blossoms and gain more versatile knowledge plus the advance (and sometimes overrated) establishment of school rules equals students whose patience have reached their limit due to the stress of many factors such as the rules that sometimes nonsense, become paranoia, and cannot suppressed their devilish plan of killing and torturing people. Nonetheless, peer pressure that becomes common in every teenager's school life, plays a role as a catalyze in the breakdown of teenagers' good mind set.

I hope that teachers and counselors will detect this notorious issue and the affected students, and know the action that should be taken. They should know the nature & characteristic of those students and choose the appropriate action that the students actually want you to do but they cannot say it out loud because maybe he will be bullied or pranked if other students know about it.

The way-of-thinking development of young teenagers are mostly affected by their teachers, since they spent 2/3 of their day in school.

Good teacher or bad teacher? that is the question!

*just a fun fact: why does this shooting-and-suicide incidents always occur to schools that has the word Tech on their name?

Fridays with DaNte

Fridays with DaNte 26 - October - 2007

School! We are back to school... YAYYYY!!! I am so excited... NOT! It was a very quick holiday, and it went really fast. I wished it was longer... but I had a pretty good holiday anyway. Anyways, back to the reality! The first week of the holiday was well... quite hectic. I had to finish homeworks that were supposed to be done during the holiday. I had minimum amount of sleep, and mostly all because of HOMEWORKS!!! WHOO! And I didn't procrastinate... *smile* hey why is my nose growing longer? Anyways... let us begin then.

Erratic Picture of the Day




Auspicious Quote

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain." Anonymous

Word of the Day

Impoverished - very poor

Core Topic of the Day

Since no one wants to continue the chain story... I'll just write a topic of my own then.

Joy to Jakarta, for a path extension of its most infamous public transportation, Busway! The Busway now has a more diverse route all over Jakarta, including the West side. Soon a single lane 'CREATED' by the government will be available exclusively for the Busway. There are more ways to travel around Jakarta, at a cheaper price! This Busway will surely have positive impacts, and will completely obliterate our most aggravating problem in Jakarta, traffic jam! Traveling time will never feel more expedite than ever before, and you will enjoy your trip everywhere in Jakarta. Busway, the best public transportation in Jakarta, is committed in creating a more convenient way of traveling.

Well, anyone who actually believes such an anti-thesis of reality is basically, sorry to say this, stupid. In reality, the recent construction of Busway lanes have created myriads of traffic problems everywhere in Jakarta. The Busway lane took one lane in the road. For instance, if a the road has 3 lanes for every transportation, the Busway lane took one. Imagine this, for a 3 lane road there's almost always traffic jams. What will happen with 2?! Every single day I have to endure the pain of traffic jams during school trip departures and returns. Today, on a Saturday, trips actually take twice longer, even more. My usual 10 minutes trip to a lesson had changed into a tedious, resentful 30 minutes trip. The usual time taken for me to travel from my house to the Taman Anggrek Mall was around 30 minutes, but now it morphed into a ludicrous and useless 1 hour 20 minutes (approximately) trip. The Busway lanes are open for everyone, but its barely useful. The lane was higher than the road, hence people cannot directly go into the lane. Does Busway actually have a significant role in our society? I guess not.

The governments of Indonesia have a very myopic view of this situation. The new government, Fauzi Bowo, mentioned that "I haven't come up with an instant solution for this problem," in Kompas, last week. "Busway is created to reduce the amount of traffic," Fauzi mentioned (as far as I remember). What happened in reality was the opposite of what was planned. The traffic went rambunctious as days pass. This stipulates the first failure of Fauzi Bowo to handle a crisis in our city. Through inductive logic, we can simply jump into a conclusion; All Jakarta governments are the same, egoistic and brainless money-stealer. But, keep in mind that I might be wrong, for I am not a trustworthy primary source of political information.

In other countries, such as Singapore and England, they charge people who enters a certain zone in a rush-hour. This system reduced traffic up to 30%, so efficient that they are expanding the zone in the near future, as I heard from Eric McSylar (not the real name). I've also heard that Indonesian governments or political characters have traveled to a variety of foreign countries. Why cant the Indonesian government apply foreign country's laws and policies for the benefit of their home country? Is applying a rule so arduous that even political authorities cannot spend time to think and create a lucrative policy? The governments cannot even solve the simpler problem of Jakarta. In the toll road cashier gate, there are often traffic jams, as you all may know. Why? For %#@!'s sake it's a friggin TOLL ROAD! It's not supposed to have ANY traffic jam (sorry for the sudden burst of emotion). Malaysia, one of Indonesia's closer neighbor have applied the 'Touch 'n Go' system in their toll roads. The system works like this: you drive, you put up your card within the range of the card detector, and you leave. You don't even have to open your window to detect your card. Why can't the government create such a useful system instead of putting big ugly orange buses that takes a whole lane?

We cannot know for sure what the Indonesian government might be thinking. Maybe they have a grand plan for the Busway, or maybe they do not want to deal with us. I believe our city does not need any more public transportation, since there are throngs of public transportation. It's even better if the government substitute the public transportation with brand new ones. If the governments does not make any improvements, we will soon see the deterioration of this beloved country of ours. I do hope the brainless and inconsiderate governments somehow open this website and read what is written here. Sorry if this post is similar to that of Gary's or anyone else's! I just have to write my thoughts and ideas about this crisis somehow.

Joke of the Day

For weeks a six-year old lad kept telling his first-grade teacher about the baby brother or sister that was expected at his house. One day the mother allowed the boy to feel the movements of the unborn child. The six-year old was obviously impressed, but made no comment. Furthermore, he stopped telling his teacher about the impending event. The teacher finally sat the boy on her lap and said, "Tommy, whatever has become of that baby brother or sister you were expecting at home?" Tommy burst into tears and confessed, "I think Mommy ate it!"

The Time Traveler's Wife Review

After weeks of neglecting my dutiful task to read for pleasure (note the paradox), I finally finished reading a book which I borrowed from the library. It’s called The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger. It tells an unusual tale of a couple whose love endures and conquers over time as one of the partners is an involuntary time traveler. You might think, same old, same old. Many books and movies have dealt with the same theme of the “victory of love over time”, but in my opinion, none of them has made this topic as brilliant, exciting, and insightful as this book has done.

One of the most intriguing things about this book is that it leaves the readers a sense there is more to love than love itself. Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire have the most extraordinary relationship ever as Henry’s uncontrollable time traveling bars them from having a typical romance. This caused problems that challenge the strength of their love for each other, one of which being fear of the known – and the unknown, for that matter. I do not wish to spoil the story of the book, but there are many scenes which describes how Claire, as a child and teenager, already knows that Henry is her future husband due to the fact that he frequently goes time traveling to Claire’s youthful epoch. Along with many other scenes, this book demonstrates how love prevails over factors that seem to be beyond of our grasps - factors such as age, death, and time. Such idea gives readers a new perception on love which is different from that of what they normally perceive. However, as imaginative and enchanting as the story might be, I believe this book also handles love realistically. The author did not attempt to avoid conflicts that may arise from relationships; in fact, Henry and Claire’s relationship contains flaws that are far from the concept of perfect love. There is a time when one of them cheats on the other; there are times when dishonesty and hidden secrets are discovered from each other. Nonetheless, they struggle and persevere to overcome their faults, which develop their love and further emphasize the mentioned theme above.

Although this is a fictional tale (as I am sure none of you are able to time travel), the foundation regarding love remains universal for all of us. What we can relate to and learn from this book is that we should try our best to love everyone unconditionally, looking past their differences, weaknesses, and faults, and to help improve them through the means of supporting their virtues and strengths. It is hard, and sometimes it feels impossible to do so. But imagine a world without a single shred of love; can anyone survive in such a world? For those love skeptics out there that doubt the book and my opinion of it, yes, I agree that love is not as triumphant or glorious as it sounds like in most stories, but each and every one of us should strive anyway to love other people with our utmost efforts.

Thus I encourage you all to read this book, particularly girls who are usually interested in romantic novels. For those of you who are wondering the style of which the book is written in, all I can say is that it is beautifully written, with flowing, poignant words that will really set your imagination working wonderfully. Trust my words for it. =)

~Agie