Don't be arrogant! There is material that is harder than diamond.

Probably, until now, there are some of us who think that diamond is the hardest material on the earth. Guess what? It is not. Recently, some German scientists have found a new material called Aggregated Carbon Nanorods (ACNR). In their experiment, ACNR could scratch diamond. If it can scratch, it is believed that it can cut the diamond. Of course, they have to do follow-up experiments about it.
After reading this article in www.kompas.com, i suddenly thought of arrogant people. They are who think they are better than others and underestimate others because of that. By metaphore, they think they're like diamond and they're superior. The article actually can make us realize that being arrogant is useless. Why? Because there are always people who are better than you. There is sky above the sky. All you have to do is do your best not be the best. And if you do better than others, do not underestimate them. Coz someday they might do better than you.
Ultimately, we know that God is the Almighty. He should be the One who can be arrogant because of His power. But is God arrogant? A big NO. So, why should human be arrogant?

Gratitude for those who responded my question :)

Hello guys. Thank you for responding my questions. I just wanna say Hello to each of you. Hope the world gets connected easily by this way. I received comments from people all around the world, i.e. Canada, USA, Indonesia, so on and so forth.
The basic idea of this question is that we can learn history from other people without reading boring thick books. Maybe there are some people thinking that it's just my way to get readership. That isn't necessarily wrong but there is a lot more behind it. What can i say? People have different opinion.
Thanks for Mark Thomas who had this idea. Take care, y'all :)

If you could meet any person in history...

Simple question:
If you could meet any person in history, who would it be and why?
Cheers..

Another hero comes along

Few hours ago, one of the best Indonesian boxers, Chrisjon, succesfully retained his title, which is WBA Featherweight world champion. He defeated Tommy Browne in Sydney, Australia. I was wondering whether Chris will get any decent ovation from Indonesian people when he comes back. As I recall, when he got the title, there was no Indonesian news station at all which broadcasted his fight. Hopefully, this time, Indonesian people would respect their heroes more than the other nation do. Bravo, Chrisjon! We're proud of you.
pic: www.dnet.net.id

Saturday a.k.a Sabtu a.k.a Sabado

Oh it's so nice to be on Saturday again. Saturday means chillin' time ;) It also means not doing anything related to study. The sad thing is that i don't have anything exciting to do besides weekly shopping (food shopping :)
So being couch potato is not a bad thing :) I know it sounds lazy but after rough weekdays, I think I deserve some leisure time.
By the way, some time in this week, I read news in the Internet that South Korean researchers successfully cloned a dog. After tadpole, sheep, goat, cow, mice, pig, cat, rabbit, gaur, and now a dog, do you think the researchers will clone human successfully? Next question is whether human cloning is ethical. Some people argue that cloning can be used in efforts of finding cure for rare disease. From the other standpoint, it is unethical because it threatens human individuality, deliberately saddling the clone with the genetic makeup of a person who has already lived (www.nrlc.org/news/2002/NRL03/ex.html). What's your opinion about it?
pic: bioteach.ubc.ca

If you were.....

Maybe you have a thought about this :)

If you were a ruler of a country, what would be the first thing from it you want to change?

If you are confused, you might want to borrow the thinking cap for a while ^_^

pic: www.mysterynet.mb.ca

Half way through

These past four days would probably be the busiest days in Summer. I am taking class on the 4th block of Summer session. It only lasts for 2 weeks. Apparently it's not a 2-weeks-class, instead of 8-days-class. Can you imagine how to finish a class within 8 days? It's not easy for the students as well as the teacher. We have case studies everyday. In the end of the class, there will be group cases and individual cases to be presented infront of class.
Despite the density, this class doesn't have any exams. Yippi !!! Still, I want to finish it as good as I could do. Hang on there, Andhyka. It's 4 days left and you'll be done this summer. Colorado, here I come :)

Unpopular hero

Have you ever heard this name, Agung Etti Hendrawati? Maybe few of us heard of her but I am sure not too many people know her. She is one of the marvelous athletes that Indonesia ever have. Etti recently just set a new WORLD record of Speed Rock Climbing in Italy in 2005. What made it more astonishing is that the old world record was also HERS.
I know that rock climbing is not a popular sport in Indonesia. Soccer and badminton are the most dominant sport played. Many people are so into those sports. Unfortunately, our national soccer and badminton atlhetes are not in their best form these recent years. That condition creates an image of the fall of Indonesian sports. Eventually it leads to the declining of confidence of the athletes in particular, the nation in general.
Nonetheless, there are still some athletes that makes remarkable achievements. Thus, in lieu of complaining about our soccer national team's weakness, why don't we support or at least pay attention to other athletes, for instance Etti, Chrisjon, so on and so forth?
Personally, I still believe that our national atheletes will again make great achievements. I could be wrong. But if there is no one supports them, how can we expect them to win and make us proud? It won't happen if we always complain about them without any solution. Viva Indonesian athletes...!
pic: www.theage.com.au

One of the historical coins

This coin was very popular in 1995 (if I'm not mistaken). Actually it's just an ordinary coin but rumours about this coin was so incredible. At that time, it was believed that 100 Rupiah coin made in 1991 contained valuable metal. Some people changed it into a ring. Believe it or not, they sold the ring with way up high price (much more than Rp.100). Unbelievable.....
Some of you probably would say I just made the story. Nope, this is true.

This is even cooler....:)

Do you know what the postcard looked like in the late 1800's? The pic above is a postcard sent from Yokohama, Japan to Buitenzorg, Indonesia. Buitenzorg now is called Bogor a.k.a the "Rain City."

Have you ever seen these? (cont'd)

Have you ever seen these?

These are Indonesian Rupiah bills used in 1964. An American, Ronnie Oldham residing in Texas, is the owner of these extraordinary collections. Respectively, they are 25-cent, 10-cent, and 1-cent bills.

Religious Calculator

When I was surfing from blog to blog for getting references, I found this very interesting online quiz. It's called the Religious Calculator. It is trying to find out how your principles fit the religions' tenets. To use it is very easy. Just try to answer 20 questions provided. Here are my results:

1. Islam (100%)
2. Orthodox Judaism (100%)
3. Sikhism (79%)
4. Bahá'í Faith (79%)
5. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (75%)
6. Reform Judaism (74%)
7. Mainline - Conservative Christian Protestant (70%)
8. Jehovah's Witness (70%)
9. Orthodox Quaker (70%)
10.Jainism (62%)
11.Seventh Day Adventist (60%)
12.Eastern Orthodox (58%)
13.Roman Catholic (58%)
14.Liberal Quakers (56%)
15.Hinduism (46%)
16.Unitarian Universalism (46%)
17.Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (44%)
18.Mahayana Buddhism (42%)
19.Scientology (35%)
20.Theravada Buddhism (34%)
21.Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (32%)
22.Neo-Pagan (32%)
23.New Thought (30%)
24.New Age (29%)
25.Secular Humanism (20%)
26.Non-theist (20%)
27.Taoism (16%)

Based on the results above, I have no complaint about the calculator. What about you? Try and find out the truth about you :)

A glimpse about geography

pic: maps.google.com/

God, please make 'em useful (sigh....)

Again and again, our House of Representatives members dissapoint people of Indonesia. They keep making the same mistake every year. Do you know what it is? I bet you already know what I'm talking about. Yes, it is the so-called comparative study a.k.a travelling abroad. This year they go to US, France, and Netherlands. FYI, if they go to Netherlands, they won't see any HoR members there coz they're on recess now. So what's the point of the comparative study? Does it benefit people of Indonesia? If so, why haven't we improved our country? What do they learn from the study actually? Big question mark.
God, please knock at their hearts. I know they're not mean. It's their greed and selfishness which have driven them into ignorant people. Can't they see what's happening now in Indonesia, our beloved country? Fuel crisis, Energy crisis, Avian flu, Poverty, Famine, Low currency exchange rate, so on and so forth. How many problems are we gonna have just to make them realize that something has to be done? Does Indonesia have to be such a very miserable country so that they don't have any money to go abroad?
Please....please......please.....this is not a new story but why do they still do that? They are well-educated people. Make 'em useful, God. Stop them from being waste.
pic: www.tempointeraktif.com

Living in an apartment can be annoying sometimes

New neighbors just came in today. They live upstairs. Boy, there are so much noise they make. I know that moving stuffs isn't a simple thing to do. But please! They keep walking and the floor is squeaking all day long. I cannot take a nap peacefully. Even I don't think I will sleep tight tonight. Maybe you will say, "why don't you help them?" My answer to that will be "Na a. Not tonight :)"
By the way, I got not-too-good news tonight. It's personal problem. One thing that I hate is that I can't do nothing to help solving the problem. It's beyond my control. All I can do is sending my prayer. May it'll be over soon......

Final.....final.....final

Final....final....final.... wish me luck, guys. Thank you very much. God bless you all.....
pic: www.math.niu.edu

Idle hands are devil's playground

What a shocking quote, isn't it? I just heard about it today. When I worked in my office today, I met Ms. Anne Lech and Ms. Nancy Hardee. We talked about this busy summer class. Finally we ended up with that quote. After thinking about it, it does make sense. If someone does not have anything to do, he or she tends to get bored. In boredom, people can do something that they never do. It tends to be negative though. So, maybe that's where the quote comes from. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
pic: schools.sd68.bc.ca

Every cloud has a silver lining (Quote of the week)

Every cloud has a silver lining means that you should never feel hopeless because difficult times always lead to better days. Difficult times are like dark clouds that pass overhead and block the sun. When we look more closely at the edges of every cloud we can see the sun shining there like a silver lining. Every cloud has a silver lining means that the sun shining at the edges of every cloud reminds us that every difficult situation has a bright side.
Source: www.goenglish.com
pic: www.cs.utah.edu

Why does time fly so fast?

Sometimes we never realize that time flies so fast. Just like me today. I woke up this morning and read my mails. Few minutes later, I made breakfast and took a shower. It was really refreshing. Taking shower in weekends is so different from in weekdays. On weekdays, I usually do it only within 10 minutes. Indonesian people call it "Duck or chicken shower." LOL. Don't blame me for not having more time. Weekdays are busy days.
After taking shower, I got some work to do related to my job. Then, I watched TV. Soon, I just realized that I did not do many things today and it's already 4 pm.
Oh well, I'd better start thinking what I'm gonna do later. Otherwise, today will just go like that.
pic: reslife.missouri.edu

Quibbling over semantics

Meeting different people with different backgrounds like culture, language, etc., is interesting. When people communicate, they will talk in their own way. At certain points, there must be some differences that they cannot cope with. One of the them is language difference. For example, "mangkuk" means bowl and "cincin" means ring in Indonesian (Bahasa). Meanwhile, in Japan, if you say those two words, people will think that you do not speak politely. Apparently, the first word means female genital and the latter means male genital. LOL!
More example, "ayan" means epilepsy. In India, it is a name. What a difference! Last example is OK. If I'm not mistaken, OK in Bahasa means good. After living in the States for 7 months, I just noticed that OK means so-so.
Above all, the differences, particularly, make the world more colorful and more interesting :)
pic: www.krysstal.com

No Homework ^_^

Whew! Knowing my mid-term grade really cheers up my day. Can't stop smiling today, weird huh ;) My grade was not the highest in class but it was still above average. The average was 8.2 if I'm not mistaken. What makes today more beautiful is no homework. It's a relief. That doesn't mean I don't have to study, though. Studying is a must otherwise I'll be sorry for myself. It's not because I am dilligent but I have so much reading material.
Anyways, I found e-book of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night. I don't know whether it's fake or real. Big deal! No matter what, I'm definitely gonna read it. At least, it helps me improving my reading skills, which I lack of. In 2003, I also received e-book of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. After reading some chapters, it turned out to be fake. I hope it won't happen again with this new e-book.
Can't wait to read it soon. Ciao ^_^
pic: www.nbp.org

FYI - All Time USA Box Office

source : www.imdb.com

Sunday isn't a weekend

Most of people don't like Monday, but not me. I don't like Sunday because Sunday is the end of weekend. Many homeworks and readings wait for me on Sunday. This Sunday, I have one case study to finish, one chapter and three articles to read, and one article to work on. What a day! Maybe I won't have any leisure time today.
OK there's no more time for complaints. Keep the spirit!

pic: www.toothpastefordinner.com

Par of the course (Quote of the Week)

"Things don't always work out as we want in life, and that's just par for the course; we do our best and go on. We should not get too bothered when things happen that are par for the course, because they are regular parts of life."

source: www.goenglish.com

Willy Wonka

Oh my God! I can't believe that I just spent $4.75 for watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (C&CF). It was crappy movie. Indeed, it is a movie for children but I've seen many other movies for children that were much better than C&CF. Good visual effects? Yes, I have to admit that it has good visual effect. Soundtrack? Hmm, it's quite funny. The rest? In general, the movie dissapointed me. The story was too simple. Some parts were not logical. For example, when their children encountered problems, the parents did nothing. They just looked at their terrified children from a distance without taking any action. I wonder which parents will do that. Some people admired Johnny Depp. What about him? He really looked weird and creepy.
I wish I watched War of the World, instead of C&CF. Since my friends wanted to watch C&CF, i had to go with them. Well, let bygones be bygones.
pic: pub.tv2.no

Being different -> not a new thing, just a contemplation

Talking about diversity is always interesting. A friend of mine, Rodney, visited my house today. He had to do some interview for his mid-term exam. The topic was Diversity. He found out that I was one of the best source to dig some information about it. Basically, we discussed about how diversity affects my life in the States.

The interview lead me to something, "being different." In this case, different and unique can be used interchangeably. Some people think that it is OK to be different from others. Other people think the opposite way. They said that we have to blend into the community and not be different. If i have to choose one of the opinion, I'd rather agree with the first opinion. Nonetheless, being different is not as easy as it is said. Not all people take difference in their life. There is always prejudice out there. If you decide to be different, you have to be ready to be judged. That's the risk.

What about the difference that you get since you were born? For example, difference of race. It often leads to racism. People are judged by their race. Race is associated by personal traits. It also happens backhome. Ethnicity becomes the base to judge someone's personality. We often hear about Slow Javanese, Materialistic Sundanese, Stingy Minangkabau, Rude Batak, Arrogant Lampungese, Minahasa party animals, Harsh Madurese, Mystical Dayak, and a bunch of ridiculous things like those.

I have no clue who started the notions and when they were started. What I know the best is that those are not true. One cannot be judged by one's race or ethnicity. "We are unique and so everybody is." Thus, it is better not to generalize people. To be frank, it is not an easy thing to do. I also did that before I went to the States. Here some people do judge me before they know me well. Being judged is not comfortable. Nevertheless, there are also many people who accept me just the way I am. I really appreciate that.

Thus, don't judge people from the way the differ. Difference makes the world more colorful. The more colorful the world is, the more exciting the life is. This is only contemplation for me, hopefully for you, too.
pic: (L-R> Andhyka, Lok, Lisa, Wang)

...you pray to God for her or him more than for yourself

Mary Linn Performing Art Center once again was filled with people tonite. They watched "Diary of Mad Black Woman." Why were there so many people? Coz it's free :) Thanks to Northwest, I can enjoy free movie every Tuesday.

Anyways, there were good lines in that movie that I won't forget. They are about the symptoms of loving somebody. One of the symptom is that you cannot think anything except your love when you're not with her or him. The other symptom, which I like the most, is that you pray to God for her or him more than for yourself.
pic: www.postsmile.com

Cloudy night

I'm not sick but I'm not feeling well, either.
Don't know what happens with me tonight.
It seems that I don't feel like doing anything tonight.
Hope it is over soon.
pic: www.thealbumonline.co.uk

Great Ad

pic: www.erinhoops.ca

Legally Blonde

It was not an outstanding movie, I agree. Despite of the quality, I like that movie. The reason is the moral lesson of it. It tells us about the struggle of a girl, who is underestimated (people think that she is not smart enough). Even when she enters Harvard Law School, people still underestimate her. She proves that being blonde is not necessarily being stupid. Eventually, after her struggle, she becomes the representative of graduatees for delivering speech in the graduation day.
The movie wants to show people that nothing is impossible. As long as people dream, struggle, keep being persistent, and say prayer, they can achieve their goals. It's tough but it's possible. I like possibility :)
pic: www.patriciaezzell.com

Fried rice tragedy ;)

Full ! That's all I can say for now. Couple hours ago, I cooked fried rice, as usual the experimental fried rice. As you might think, yup the result was not perfect :) It was because the rice was too soft to fry. In addition, the seasoning I used didn't taste good. Actually, that was a special fried rice seasoning. So, it should taste good. Unfortunately, it was not. Nevertheless, no matter what the fried rice tasted, it gave the same result. I am full.
Allah the Great, hope You always bless my girlfriend and my family. Give them your mercy. There is no one else I can pray to besides You, the Almighty. Amin ya robbal 'alamin.
pic: www.coles.com.au

Bye bye free swimming

A friend of mine, L (he forced me to mention his name :), just told me that Northwest swimming pool is closed for maintenance until Fall semester. What a bad news! I can't swim for free 'til September. It kinda ruins my health program (is there any? nope LOL).

Class starts getting harder these days. Sometimes, I just can't understand what to do with my homework. Challenge! Yup, living and studying in States are full of challenges. Can't avoid those. Just face them. No pain, no gain. No free lunch. Boy, I wish those sayings were wrong.

I want to send my condolences for the victim of London blast. Wondering about who did those bombing makes me sick. Moreover, reading news about attitude of our House of Representatives members worsens it. What the xxxx are they thinking? After raising their lumpsum, now they went abroad for the so-called "Comparative study"? Those people are really ridiculous.

Oops, my tummy makes some weird sound. It's time to eat.
pic: www.whitworth.edu

Vacation....Bali....T_T

This afternoon, my family will go to Bali, the paradise island of Indonesia. I really want to go because I never go to there before. Well, actually, I did in 1986. Who will remember the trip in the age of 4 (even less)? So it didn't count.
Anyways, have fun, pa, ma, dik. Don't forget to buy something for me :p Take care......
pic: www.pbs.org

Wishing I can hold the world as I hold this 'lil guitar (pic by L)

Back to class

Today I started my 2nd graduate class, Managerial Accounting. From its name, this course seemed fun (LOL, i guess many people will disagree with me). I found that this class was very active. When the lecturer asked questions, some people raised their hands right away. This is the class I prefer to be in. It will encourage us to enrich our knowledge about the subject so we can participate in class better.

Nonetheless, this course has many assignments for us to finish. Hmm I have to cancel my plan to go to the free movie. The Performing Art Center plays "Guess Who" tonight. It should be a funny movie. I can't go there because I've got homework to do and articles to read. Kinda dissapointing but 1st thing 1st.

Above all, I am happy because some people send me songs that I've been searching for last couple months. Thank you, guys...
pic: www.tla1.com

ID 4 strikes back

4th of July,
Hmmh it is indeed a very memorable day for the Americans. They commemorate their 229th independence day. One of the most important thing in celebrating ID are fireworks.
Anyways, there was a firework show in Mozingo Lake, the pearl of Northwest Missouri, as the press claimed. The fireworks were very beautiful. They burst in air continuously. Despite their beauty, I still felt some things were missing. What is it? Yup, togetherness. It would be wonderful evening if I could spend the night with my family and my girlfriend. I miss them so much.
I am looking forward to their coming here.
Lastly, Happy Independence Day, Americans.
pic: www.kinopolis.de

Preambule

Assalamu'alaikum
This is my 1st blogger. Hope words and words can fill this page so that everybody, particularly me, can enjoy this blogger (hopefully :)

Smiling in a cold afternoon (pic by Wang Ke)