Ordinatio - XV

I remembered that in the last 2 weeks of school Ibu Monica, Ibu Kristianti, Ibu Antonia, and Ibu Elyse already mentioned that my hair was long, long enough to break the school's rule about boys having long hair. I bargained with them so that I would not be cut for holidays are near. I succeeded keeping my hair even though they rejected my bargain, they were just too kind.

A day from today my hair would be cut, but I am curious about the school's regulation why does boys are not permitted to have long hair? Every regulation and rule must have a reason why they are made, and on what purpose does this regulation is made? I will ask of the person who are in charge of making this rule to have a discussion with me, if I find the reason of this regulation is sharp, I would oblige to the regulation, and if not I would fight for it.

This regulation could be interpret in other word in a government language which is ban boys with long hairs. As I learned about ban in economic is banning is a blunt strategy, Mr Eric gives the class an image of a ban is same like there is a cancer on your hand and the easiest way to eliminate it is just to cut of your hand. It makes your cancer goes away, so does the benefit of having a hand. Therefore of course an alternative way to cure cancer is chemotherapy, which is sharper by eliminating only the cancer, with your hand still attach.

I would assume possible reasons why the regulation have made tis rule, perhaps their objective is to look neat. By having the students look neat, the school's good image is kept. I would say perhaps the majority of boys that have long hair are messy and perhaps look like pengamen or gangsters. In this reason I would say that for a sharper solution why not just ban messy hair instead of long hair? For long hairs could be neat, we could tied our hairs if we want to.

I would also assume that a cultural thing, this reason is a tricky one for it's assume that the majority of people is not comfortable of seeing boys with long hair. One way is that I have to make a poll that is this assumption really true. Also if they mentioned Indonesian culture, I have not seen and Indonesian culture that should have short hair, instead why not see our Chinese culture instead they have long hairs until it's braided.

Another assumption is that they would say that long hair would interrupt our studies having our hair blocked our ear and eyes. This is not true, in fact girls with long hair usually have their ears covered by their hair, are they interrupt by it? I guess not for many girls have long hair still achieve high marks. If they the school still persist we could tie our hair or use hair band would be a sharper solution instead of banning the long hair itself.

By the start of the school I would want to search who is in charge of the school rule, the first one would ask is of course Mr Chris, may this troublesome curiosity would be put to rest real soon.

Genius - Thompson XIV

Tuesday, 18^th of December 2007

My previous thought is are proved when I watch my brilliant brain in National Geographic channel where they are discussing a kid who is a prodigy of playing a piano.

My ambition rises to make a genius or a prodigy when I would have a child.

The formula of genius is an early education and do an activity that they enjoy and willing that sits in hours and hours.

For genius are relative to the surrounding where a genius already spent their time early on education while other spends their time on other activities that do not gave them benefit to academic skill or externalities on academic.

I myself sometimes considered as a gaming prodigy as for half truth jokes in my social life. I remembered that in my child days I would spent hours and hours on video games. Reading faqs and walk through secret and forgot all about time have spent on it. (I have read many rpg faqs&secrets, a lot about ragnarok online, and about dota)

But realizing that I have spent my time doing those, I could see in the future that by having a game prodigy do not have a great future nor have a great present time as your parents would get mad at you. Therefore I would say it is not beneficial.

Now I am no longer good at games, I just now some theories that I have read but in practice, my reflexes and precision of timing have dulled. I have spent less time in video games compare to my schoolmate who does addicted to play games.

I have a friend called Jesse Thomas Lybianto, he said to me that his early childhood life is reading books. I looked at his present time now that he could write essay and writing very neatly and nice, which compared to me, I am not good for in my childhood time I seldom to read at all.

I want to create a genius and if possible made a genius out of myself.

What is a genius anyway?

I would say they are relatively smart at something on a major scale of people of their age.

Perhaps if a so called genius at something is to be compared to people who spent the same amount of time of that certain activity that they do, are their skills are the same?

Narrowing it down, genius is produced by genes, time spent on that activity, amount of concentration or passion on that activity, and an positive externalities on other activity that would benefit the activity of their genius skill, which have greater amount relative to the normal major scale of their age.

The difference between talent and genius is that talent have no factor of relativity of age comparison.

I must say that in the previous though of mine, I am confused in the difference between genius and talent. Diligence could produce talent, but it does not made them sound smart for their activities they are doing are taken into account in the eyes of people, while genius sometimes people do not take into account the time their spending on the activity their doing or other activity that gives positive externality on it. I must say that do not read much on the previous though for it is relatively inaccurate and imprecise to this though.

Jesse Thomas Lybianto... lucky bastard...

Talent - Thompson XIII

Sunday, 9^th of December 2007

In my school days in SPH in art class they would say “talented!” to tell the people who are smart. Yefta started that. Even such word is supposed to be a joke, I indulge myself with dilemma. So what is the difference between talent and diligent (rajin).

After several dilemma I have reached a conclusion

Here is my definition of talent and diligent

Diligent: Something that a person do repeatedly and taken into account of their activity therefore their skill are polished of doing that activity. A direct purposed skill

Talent : Talent's skill is produced because either gene or externalities that do on their daily bases of activity. An indirect purposed skill produced

People are amazed that we could do something that are relatively good skill from them. Sometimes the do not take account the time we take to do that skill, therefore they do not take account of our diligence.

Most people are amazed if we had talent. For they do not take account on our certain activity that we had which make impacts on the certain skill that they are amazed. Also, because of the talent that we had, we are not tying as much from others therefore we amazed people because we do some skill that are good because we looked as if we are not trying.

Colloseum

Even though its Christmas time and writting about Christmas related topics are more relevant, but I think this particular aspect of a lot of students should be discussed further. From time to time, since its old location inside Supermal, it has been a popular place for students to spend most of their time outside school. I was also a frequent customer of that game center.
My first visit was in early grade 6. Hendru, who was already a daily member of Colloseum, persuaded me to come and try internet cafe at Karawaci. I was ecstatic about it. We played counter-strike and warcraft that time. I wasn't really any good in playing those games, but after a few rounds, I was really addicted to it. A few weeks later, Hendru invited me to come and play again. Since I didn't have a lot of homeworks, I accepted it. Again, it was such a pleasurable time. The frequency of my visit to Colloseum increased from what was once a month into twice a week. This habit was then brought until grade 8. That was the year where I spent most time in that game center. My friends were Denny ( who has moved to SIS ) and Hendru. They were two game addicts, and I was also a fanatic. We spent a lot of afterschools in Colloseum, and when it is 4.30, we raced to find ojek to send us back to school to catch our late bus.
Now that I am in grade 11, the frequency decreased again. Even though I played less often, but the desire of playing is still very high. i am always waiting for moments like early releases and last day before holiday and invited everyone to play at Colloseum, which is now located in Benton Junction. Of course, I am easily tempted and on saturdays, I often skipped KYSL ( Karawaci Youth Soccer League ) and played with my best friend, Sadrakh, at Colloseum.
It is very hard to resist the temptation of playing, especially computer games with friends, but since IB is a very critical time of my study life, I am trying very hard to change the habit.

James A2 HL

i MISS basketball..

On Saturday, I had a basketball tournament to attend to along with some of my basketball team + coaches. I had to wake up at 6 in the morning to get ready because we had to meet up at school by 06.45. Because I was quite lazy since it’s early in the morning, I was kind of late. So I didn’t come to school since some of them left already. So, I picked up Adela and Jacqueline came as well. We leave Lippo Karawaci at 07.00 A.M. and arrive there at around 8.20-ish. Since our game didn’t start until 8.30 or 8.45, we sat there and watch the games that started before. I was really excited because I haven’t played real basketball for quite some time since the season is over. I love basketball and that’s why I always try to do my best in it! When I knew that the game was going to be a 30 minute game, I thought that it wasn’t going to be that fun because normally it’s a 40 minute game. But after the 1^st two out of 5 games, it was quite tiring and my mind changed. I never felt as tired before when playing basketball. Yes, I did play a lot, but I knew that it wasn’t the thing that made me tired. I think the fact that the gap between each game for resting is not too long yet not too short, which made me feel more tired. It’s actually more tiring to play half-half than to play full game and then done. After the third game, I felt so tired. I had a migraine and I felt like I want to barf. Everybody was eating their lunch except for me. My appetite was gone. So when everyone ate, I slept on the floor. Since it’s indoor, it’s not that dirty. I slept for 30 minutes or so. When I woke up, I still had that migraine. Then I drank some water and a drink called mizone. Not long after that, I didn’t feel dizzy anymore and I felt energetic. I played well and was happy. On the finals, I played not as long as before, because the coaches can see that I started felling exhausted again but I was satisfied with everything.

Overall, I was very happy that I got a chance to play a lot. I played longer than I thought and did quite well. Other than that, I felt that I have improved so much, which made me feel that all my hard work really paid off. During the tournament as well, the SPH girls and boys both won 1^st place. Adela also got a trophy for herself as the MVP player (girl) out of all the girls in the whole tournament! *Wow* haha.. I also met an ex-PE teacher from SPH, which was Mr. Rusty. Some of the girls talked with him and just update each other with stuff. We really missed him and we were happy to see him again after a long time. We had a fun time hanging out with him.

Aside from all that, there was this one weird, but also a nice girl that was also part of the tournament from another school. When SPH girls was starting to stretch and warm up, and that the game before was just done, a girl was passing by beside me. I was looking at the front so I didn’t know who was walking near me and stuff like that since I was trying to concentrate on the next game. Since I didn’t know anyone in particular there, I didn’t really care who was around there. But then, when that girl passed by me, she said good luck to me. At first I felt confused because I thought that she said it to the wrong person, but I said thanks anyway. I could only see her back and that her hair was tied ponytail with a purple hair tie. So like whatever… I didn’t really care. After we got the trophy, the team got separated and went back home. Some of my friends and I went to Citos. We ate there and hang around for a while. It was kind of awkward because we were wearing our jerseys and that a lot of people were looking at us, but we didn’t really care because we were hungry. After dinner, we were waiting for the car to come. I was looking around, and I saw this girl carrying her little brother. She was walking and I was standing. I looked at her and she did too. Then, she smiled at me. I felt weird because I didn’t even know anyone there except for my friends. I thought it was my other friend that likes to hang out in Citos, so I smiled back. We waved our hands at each other and she waled into Citos while me and my friends were outside. Then when I saw her back, it was that girl that said good luck to me during the tournament. It was quite weird because not only did I not know the girl, but also the fact that I met her again and she remembered me. It might not sound weird for the readers, but it is weird to me. I don’t know the girl, but she just acts friendly to me in a way. =S *random, but I just got to write it*

[stePh]

A tiring weekend..

On Friday, not only did I have basketball for my PE class, but I also had after school volleyball. When I got home, I was quite tired. What made me even more tired was when some of my friends, which are Gaby, Ika, and Maral came over to my house. They came over to my house because they wanted to take pictures on my backyard for Gaby’s art project. Ika and Maral came also to help Gaby take pictures and tell her where a good place will be, etc. At first, I wanted to go to the deeper concert, but I was too tired. *sorry Gray*

Today, which is Sunday, was quite a tiring day for me because of the basketball tournament yesterday. But I was really excited! Tomorrow is Zoe’s birthday =) Because she wanted to celebrate her sweet 16^th party and that she wanted it to be just a small gathering, she invited her close friends for lunch (buffet) in the Marriot Hotel. There were around 11 people that came. The guys had to wear long sleeve shirts and jeans, and the girls had to wear girly clothes or dresses. At first I was confused of what to wear, since the theme is summer. But after searching everywhere in my closet, I found the perfect outfit.

So basically, everyone who lives in Lippo Karawaci meets up at her house and went to Jakarta together. On the way to go there, everything felt kind of awkward because I wasn’t really close with some people. But when we arrived there, all of us had a lot of fun. The guys that were invited ate A LOT of food. I would never expect them to eat that much. The girls on the other hand, ate a lot too, but if we compare it to how much the guys ate, the girls ate nothing. We ate and talk all the way. I find it very fun! Other than that, there was this trio singers that goes around the place to sing song if requested. Kendal requested them to sing the happy birthday song to Zoe and Zoe’s face was quite red. Zoe also got a cake from the Marriot Hotel. =) The cake was delicious. Hehe.. The singers also sang some other old songs that were actually quite nice to hear. After quite a while, everyone was full and tired. So, all of us decided to go home. Some people went home separately.

During our way home, it was really fun! Since there was a little bit of traffic going on, some of the girls in the car (not mentioning any names ;]) went crazy. They played the ‘sweet and sour game’. Basically, they open the windows on their cars and say hi to everyone that passes by the car. If they say hi back, the girls have to say sweet and if the people in the other cars didn’t say hi back, then the girls have to say sour. Overall it was really funny to see the reactions of different people. The funniest part was when there are these 2 guys that the girls said hi to. Then they waved back and ask for the girls’ phone number. Since they were having fun, they took a clean piece of paper, scrunch it up and threw it to them. After the guys caught the scrunched paper, they close the window door and went to a separate way. All the people in the car had so much fun and laughed a lot! All in all, this weekend was the best one I’ve had for so long because I was too busy doing school work and other things. Not only did I play basketball, but also had so much fun catching up with the others. =)

[stePh]

hate math.. grades falling.. =(

This week was one of the slowest weeks I have ever felt. It was just like any other ordinary weeks, although something was different about it. I felt that time didn’t went as fast as it did before. Other than that, the fact that next week is the last week of school before Christmas holiday starts made me feel so excited yet so busy with the homework that keeps on piling up. *urgh* I thought that it was going to be a little bit easy going since it’s ALMOST holiday, but no, I was wrong. Since it’s almost the holidays, I started to become lazier and lazier when it comes to doing all the school works. I mean, everyone is probably already caught up thinking about the holidays that they are lazy to do their work. The mood for holiday is ON and the mood for school is OFF already. Haha.. Need the holidays so badly to refresh my mind!! But even so, I’m still thinking about SATs and stuff. I might have to do it during the holiday in December because my parents told me to do it as fast as I can. Does anyone know when the perfect timing is to take SATs? L I feel so annoyed with SATs. I mean it doesn’t really accurately tells other people whether a person is smart or dumb with the grades that we got for SAT! I personally think that being smart in SAT doesn’t mean that we can be smart in doing things in university or some place else. Don’t you agree?

Aside from the fact that I am annoyed with SATs, I also have to think about other things before the holiday starts. One of them would be my math test and another would be my school grades. What a nightmare! Even though I studied so hard for my math test, I always fail. I know that math needs a lot of practice and I do practice, not a lot but not too little as well. It’s annoying how people could get good grades without studying hard. Maybe they’re born smart already. Some others are probably born less smart so they are the ones who have to work hard to get a good grade. But whatever.. I can’t be bothered enough talking about smart or dumb people.

For this upcoming math test, I really have to work hard so that I can get a good grade. I will try my best and try to achieve an acceptable grade. I know I can do it! J I felt mentally down knowing that my grades are falling. I am the kind of person that’s better in doing work rather than doing exams because the aura when doing exams is so tense that I would forget some of the things I’ve learned even though I knew that I could answer the questions in the exam. For now, I know that I’m failing 2 of my subjects already, which are biology and math. I feel frustrated and disappointed. But I know life doesn’t stop here, so I just have to study even harder! I really hope that my grades from other subjects would be good and even improving because I know that I have studied hard enough.

[stePh]

End of Year

I can still remember the new year celebration early January this year. I was sitting on the church's bench, beside my friends, Ricky and Ricco. The preacher was our very own Ev. Amat, not the tallest but still a very good preacher. Christmas decorations were still hanging on the windows and stage. I was happy back then, there were no burdens whatsoever about going into a fresh new year. I didn't have to think about school, homeworks, future, life, etc. In a blink of an eye, here we are, last month of 2007. Many things certainly happened, though not many may be important, but there are always things to be reflected, especially coming in the end of the year.
Early this year, I was still in grade 10. Every morning, after going out from the bus, I went straight down the ramp, beside the male toilet, is my homeroom. The teacher was Mr.Mark, he was probably the most annoying yet caring teacher that have ever taught me. Everybody knows, especially the boys, how hard he tried to be the favorites among students. I was a very lazy student back then. Homeworks never bothered me, tests were easy, and it was MYP. Seniors said MYP and IB are two different world, but I didn't even care. Time passes by and Pre-IB came. It was a pivot in my study experiences. I have never been so nervous about school before, and since I moved in SPH, getting good grades were never a problem, until I experience IB. I also get to know different people and made some new very close friends, like Donny, Jason, and Andreas. We share the same double science classes. These science courses are killers, but with them in the class, I can enjoy studying. Teachers have also evolved from giving free 7's to hard 4's. In the course of summer holiday, I also went to a summer school program at Yale University. It was a very pleasing international experience because I can blend in people. Usually, I felt superior in my own country, but there, I am just another human being which made it a good way to change my way of thinking. After holiday was over, came real IB. The first few months were really tough because I have to try putting myself in a very different style of studying. My grades were not really satisfying in term 1, but both Mom and Dad have been very supporting and they said its really okay to not get decent grades in term 1, but they want me to promise them to get better grades next time.
Now, its the end of the year, and I am still struggling with my studies, but there are certainly many things that have change me during the course of this year. I am really glad I have made it through the year and I want to thank God for guiding me all this time.

James A2 HL

prayer and AIS tournament

PRAYER

What we really do when we pray? Or maybe the question that is needed to be ask is that, do you pray? When we pray, we talk to God in our heart asking for what we really want and sometimes we forgot to give thanks to the Lord. But gratitude is the most important thing for me when praying because we must be. Sometimes, we are not getting what we want, because God will give what we need. Humans think very short and not deep, that when God doesn’t answer our prayers, that means He got something better for us. But as humans, we sometimes think that God doesn’t answers prayers. Sometimes when we are having problems, we turn up to God, asking for a way, but when we don’t have any problems we ignore God. For me, I just have to keep reminding my self that I can’t live alone, I can’t do it alone, I can’t go through my day without Him. And He’s the reason I live now.

To pray for me is always been a time when I have a moment just for God. Prayer always been something I rely on in my life. I usually pray at night where I sit on my bed, reflect upon the day I’ve gone through and just talk to God; my best friend. After praying, I really feel a lot better. So guys, pray a lot. It will make you to feel better even though you don’t have any problems.

AIS Tournament

Today, there’s AIS (Australian International School) one day basketball tournament in Ragunan. It is a one day tournament, and there are just 5 schools competing with each other in this tournament. Our both boys and girls SPH joined this tournament and end up in a very satisfying result. Both of our teams got 1st place.

What made today different than the other basketball games is that we feel the togetherness in our team, after 2-3 weeks not playing basketball because our season has ended. We got one whole day to spend time with our teammates and all the games had been very fun. We are still taking it seriously though, but still laughter is needed in the game. Also, it’s because it is my last basketball tournament with my best friend. So I got to spend time with her and make the most of it. Another reason is that because our old coach, Mr. Rusty was there with his own team and we got a chance to just talk and chat with him. A lot of stories to tell, and I just missed him being coached by him.

It’s been a very tired day. We played the total of 5 games in one day and we won all of it.

ADELA

Stream of Ambition III - Thomson XII

A patriotic ambition this one,
this particular ambition is the weakest among other 2 which the first is the strongest.

The ambition that I have is that to make Indonesia someday to be a close competitive country such as U.S.A and UK in their development of country.

It is still remained a dream...
For I find most people in Indonesia have a subjective mind
a mind that thinks about one's satisfaction or benefit instead of a whole bunch of people...
Disappointed I am about this fact, but if I have the power to move Indonesia upwards on it's economy I would gladly to do so...

This ambition however could be achieved if I have a group of people that dedicated to do this...
but before thinking somethings like that, I must focus my way to gain power, the power to move people's heart & mind. To be become an Influential person to Indonesia...

In my current state of mind, I would say that when I am finished with my education I would go back to Indonesia and help the country to be a fully develop country.

May this ambition may still be burning throughout the cross of time...
for my mind still wagers that is it beneficial to sacrifice my will of life to help the majority of people in Indonesia, even though perhaps those people them selves are unaware or do not care to help themselves or to moves themselves to make a better Indonesia...

For the last 3 post that I made, as readers you would find my words and sentence are all jumbled up. For it is the abstractness of my mind, a weak of language... I hope these ideas are not to be misinterpreted.

May our good intention desires are to be fulfilled with the equal amount of struggle till the our heart stops to beat...

adieu...

Stream of Ambition II - Thompson XI

Besides find an "Absolute Truth" an objective thinking,
I have another Ambition, which also relates to the "truth"

In my biblical study class, which is cover to cover,
a class that studies somewhat close to Theory of Knowledge class,
Mr Brian who teach us this.

In his presentation, it would seem that people in this world have increased the numbers of liars.
The decrease of human integrity.

Cheaters in test, corruption in politics, all are liars, they do not value the truth or being truth.
Or the importance of being candid.

My mind goes more importance especially of our beloved country Indonesia, which are full of corruption.

The cycle of security and hacking are endless...
Technology or methods have been made to see whether people are telling the truth or not or whether student cheated on a test or not, etc.
Security is getting tighter, some people try to hack their way through that security.

Since the core of the problem is that why do people cheat anyway? so they got to pass on a certain thing the easy way.

Therefore I would say the problem is that people do not value the truth much,
I have a strange characteristic that I would say the truth what happened even though it might hurt myself or others until a certain extent, but of course that extent is relatively higher than other people that I observed around of me.

Therefore another goal or I would say another One of my ambition is that to increase the value of "truth" in the minds of people. But a great obstacle on that goal is... How?

How to make people value more about the truth?
A question that need a high degree of creativity...
I just hope that either me or anyone would find that answer...

Stream Of Ambition I - Thompson X

Due to the near due date for the need of the 12th post of each individual's post on this particular blog spot, I would cancel out my course of philosophical and psychological thoughts for it took a long time process to reach some conclusion on that topic.

Instead of being in Dilemma, because of thinking a broad topic I would just spurt out my ambition which usually I rarely tell.

Because of the knowledge about the truth that I have found.
An individual who found an absolute truth will somewhat gain immortality to the history of mankind.

An example are Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, etc
Those people have found a truth in this particular dimension, which could not be opposed or contradicted.
Therefore they have found a "Law" in this dimension.
Their founding and ideas remained in the history of mankind.
Therefore they gain a somewhat Immortality.

If this "Absolute Truth" is limited in this dimension,
The probability of people getting to achieve the "Immortality" will decrease overtime.

This is One of my ambition, To achieve that type of Immortality.
Which in this case, the competition is gonna be very hard, and the probability of achieving it is very low.

-Thompson

Respecting life, and giving our all

Have you ever think about your own life? What you did in your life, what you want to do in your life, or what is the purpose of your life? That life is short, and there’s an END in life. Life is not forever, because before you know it, it’s gone. Every single day, different things occur in our life, we live our day to day lives unaware of the things to come. We make plans and arrangement in our life, but we never really know if we will live to see these plans realized. I notice that many of us take for granted the time that we have now to live, thinking that we always have next time to do it, or to do it later. Make the most of it now. Not just because there won’t always be a “later” or “next time”, but because there is so much we can do in our life right now. In life, we are creating experience, and enrich the memories with others.

God gave you life to be lived, so why we waste it? Know that the Lord created us for a purpose, and believe that He’s going to give the best. The purpose should be served now, not tomorrow or later. Anything in your life is worth doing well, even if the task it too big, not too big, or too insignificant, but we should give our all in everything we do. Because what I think is that this is one of the way how we give back to God. No matter how difficult or tedious the task is, we should put all of my efforts into it because it could benefit someone, and it could be the last we’ll ever do.

We could take the example from the activities that we do, for example; in school. When we study and go to school, it is not just for us, it could help others; our friends more effectively. When someone asks you to serve God, in youth group, or in church, be available and ready all the time. When we pray and worship, think as there’s no tomorrow, and do that with all your heart, mind and soul.


“…if the of the house knew that the thief would come by night around the certain hour, he would stay awake to prevent his house to be broken into…” (Mt 24:43)

“Stay awake, then, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” (Mt. 24:42)


There’s a highly respected teacher was once asked by his students how he wanted to be remembered, He answered,

“a rolled up tube of toothpaste”

Why a rolled up tube of toothpaste? Because he wanted to be remembered as someone that spent his life living out his purpose, as someone who gave his all to the Lord, someone who lived his life to the full; the life that the Lord died to give him.

This story somehow has touched my heart. From the symbol in this story, which is the rolled up toothpaste represents live that is fully lived. And I think that, by using that symbol, it supports this whole thing into a piece of work that we could be understood better.

In conclusion, I restate that God gave His life to give you, your life. Live life to the fullest, even if problems are appearing, just remember to pray and ask God to show us the way to solve it, how to give our all. And at the end of our days, we’ll have pure peace after knowing that the life we are given, we lived it to the full.

. -adela A2HL

CHRISTMAS SEASON

December; a month of joy, where we can reflect the love of our GOD, where we can reflect the year we’ve have been through and start planning for next year. A month of remembrance of our savior’s birth, where we could spend time together with our loved ones. Christmas songs started being played, Christmas trees are being set up, along with Christmas decorations everywhere. Some people are preparing for Christmas party, or even Christmas celebrations at church.

It is a time where we reflect upon our life in the present year. What are some of the things we did? What needs to be improving for the coming year? Also, to reflect the goals that needs to be set in our life for the success in our physical life, also spiritual life.

When I think of December or Christmas, I imagine me sitting in a couch with my family, cousins, and even my best friends, talking with each other with the fire burning in the fire place and us holding a cup of hot Milo. Looking at the window, snow is falling to the ground. Every year, I wanted to have Christmas in that situation.

My favorite Christmas album this year would be Dave Koz’s Christmas. You guys should try to hear it; especially the song called Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It gives me warm feelings, and just put me in the mood of Christmas.

I felt that time went by so fast. That’s why I am enjoying every moment each day, no matter what happen on that day. Right now, I’m so glad that we’re entering December, because it means that holiday is near.
-adela 11IB HLA2

a relaxing weekend..

Finally!!!! exams are over! I'm happy about the fact that it's over, but I'm totally upset that 2 of my subjects are failing, which are biology and math. *urgh* It's like, even though I studied hard and feel that I did the test well, i didn't. Dang!! I wish I have a time machine so I can go back and study even harder. I did slack off when studying biology, but i didn't slack off when studying math. Personally, i don't like people that says they can't do it, but in the end got good grades because what they say is just crap or just people who doesn't study as hard but still get better grades. How weird is that? I know that some people are more stupid than others, but it's just unfair. Haha... So anyways, after exams were over, me and my friends hang out in Benton Junction to celebrate it, because we were so exhausted! :(

On Friday, me and my basketball team had a small party to celebrate our season. We ate in Dragone and had a lot of fun laughing and telling jokes to each other. But since some people are going to MYC and also had some other plans, the dinner party didn't last long. Some of my friends and I went to the mall for a while to buy ice creams and DVDs. It was really fun because we were kind of running around the mall as well, like some psycho or something! Overall, it was a fun night! Oh yeah, volleyball practice was fun. I laugh a lot with my friends and improved on my skills... but my hand got bruises, which is painful... =S

On Saturday, i stayed at home watching TV, eat, sleep, and did some homework. It was kind of boring at first because a few weekends before, all i did was study and had plans going to places, but it was alright after all getting to lay back and just relax. I was planning to watch a movie but my friends couldn't come over, so i finally stayed at home. Other than that, i went to school as well to watch the junior school peha cup for soccer since my youngest brother is playing too. It was really cute to see the junior school students play because they're so small and that the ball is big. There was also this one kid that fell "accidentally" because he was fighting to get the ball and just laying on the grass and act as if he was injured. But when the ball came back to him, he stand up straight away as if he wasn't even hurt! I never expected such drama from the grade 1-2 students! =D Some students from other schools were also really good. It was really nerve wrecking when I watched them do penalty kicks. I thought that it was going to be lame or something, but it actually made me more excited when watching it, because their shots were really good x)

Basically, my weekend turned out to be alright. It was quite boring but then there's always something that i have to do or i can do to cover up time. I also had more time watching TV and order some food from the mall =).

[stePh]

Vita - Thompson IX

The Soul Eater Rune

As for those who knows several Latin words, vita means life, which I would discuss in this post. Those who read this post I would advise do not be assumed that its gonna be another writing about life of certain person, which they used to put about their story and how life that revolves around that person. It is a writing about the general thing about life, a simple question like "what is life?" or perhaps the most famous is "what is the meaning of life?"

I read a book about the History of Philosophy one day at the library, I was glazing through until I stumble across an interesting quote, "Life is an eternal struggle caused by desire" which the quote is in the Buddhism section. I think about it for awhile and it is true. That quote is the answer of "what is life?". Therefore the meaning of life is... The struggle and competition to fill one's desire. Notice I put competition on it, for sometimes one's desire conflict another one's desire.

The theory of human trinity that I synthesize myself and fit the word "desire" into this quote, which is the soul. After several thoughts I concluded that every living things have a desire. Like for the desire to eat in order to live. Our body nerves gives signal that we are hungry we must eat, we have been trained like that from baby, we cry when were are hungry. Therefore it becomes a habit, when we are hungry we eat.

I told this theory one my little brother one day and he declines the theory. What you need is not what you desire. So... something like food is something you need not desire, need and desire is a different thing he said. I though this in several hours to concluded that what we need depends on our desire. Here is why.

Have you ever wondered why we eat? Is eating something we need or desire? Firstly If in our soul desire to live, therefore we need to eat, but if our soul desire death would eating be necessary? No. But the problem is, not all people have ever realized why we eat anyway, because the desire of food or perhaps to live is inside our subconsciousnesses which in my previous post that I have stated. Therefore I would say that even though what we need and what our desire is not the same but they are proportional to each other. For what we need is depends on what we desire.

We already talked about "desire" in the "Life is an eternal struggle caused by desire" now it is about the struggle, in order to satisfy our desire we need to do something in order to get it. We want food, we make one ourself or just buy them. We want money we do many methods to gain money, we want love, we find them, or make em.

But what if an event of a person that his or her desire is being fulfilled without the proper amount of struggle? There would be an imbalance event in their life, In order not to be affected by this his/her body of emotion and mind must be strong. For example, a guy who won a million dollar lottery ticket, which money is what he desire, the struggle however is very minuscule that obtain the money, he could spends all of it or do whatever they want, but I have heard that those people who won this kinds of thing usually suicide when the money is all spent. Without a strong mind and the body of emotion, struggle with little amount to fill desire might be hazardous.

As we all know, our newer generation now feels that almost everything is instant, compare to our old generation, therefore we could say that technology gives us less struggle to fill our desire. This way our new generation have become a habit of a state of mind. That way usually new generation wants thing faster perhaps.

But at the end, in order to be happy; that is if you want your life to be happy. We have to have a proper amount of struggle to achieve our desire that our mind know of. Without that proper amount of struggle we could never feel content.

On the next post I will talk about happiness, which usually people would say that their purpose of life is to be happy.

FOOLS

Love makes people do stupid and sometimes crazy things. Sometimes love is scary. Look at the person falling in love. They can do anything for the person they love. You can laugh at how stupid and ridiculous they are; singing loud a love song, smile and laugh uncontrollably, writing long letters, giggling, spends 3 hours on the phone, phone bill increases drastically, saying all those sweet sayings, and other more. But when love hits you, you are the one doing these stuff, and maybe worse. You are willing to do anything for the person you love, and you don’t care when people are laughing at how stupid you are spending that much money.
But these things are proof and honor the one you love. You proof to the one you love that you love the person. These fools things that you did may convinced them that you really do love them. Also, may honor them when they find out that you are willing to look like a fool to let them know you love them. At the end, the truth is that no matter how people make fun of you, how foolish you look, when you’re in love, you going to feel better than anyone else in the world.

“When you are Loved, and when you love someone, you “live””

One of the examples of a FOOL is CHRIST. Christ was willing to be the FOOL. What made Him a FOOL? First, He loves people who hated Him. Secondly, He loves us; people who sinned and only want to love them. Thirdly, it is a foolish for Jesus to suffered and died on the cross, only to show how big His love to us. Jesus does not just love greatly, but He is the BESTEST example of what Love should be. His foolish Love conquered His death, and OUR death. How amazing His love is, that right now you could feel his unconditional love.

So what are we waiting for? It is our turn to love Jesus back even if it means we might look foolish. But to compare with Jesus, we owe Him our lives. So why can’t we love Him back? We must be willing to be Fool for Christ. Sometimes, we, as a teenager thinks serving in a church or being part of a youth group look foolish to other people around us. Even when we worship, sometimes we’re thinking that we look foolish, or sometimes we’re not fully giving our all to Him because we think that they might think we’re a fool. When we worship, we are giving back our life to Him, we want to show Jesus our love for Him too. How? Every word that we said, or sing, we try to understand so that we can sing with conviction. The main reason we are singing is to worship Him from our heart.

Everything we do to serve GOD, although we may look foolish to others, but definitely not to CHRIST. Don’t let others influence you just because they think you look like a fool, but prove to them that you are willing to do anything for the LORD.

-del

EXAMS!

As everyone has noticed, many IB students have suffered from many exams symptoms, especially lack of sleeping and extreme frustration. Even though this exam may not be as hard as those that seniors are working on really hard, but we as grade 11s had just experienced our first actual tough test.
The first day was probably the worst of the three. Early in the morning, frustration can really be felt from outside classes. Some students were studying their subjects, some are very relaxed, while some were just apathetic about the exams. After homeroom session, everyone were released and head toward examination room. Seniors were already there and certainly have less tension than us. Bahasa Indonesia started our examination marathon. It was not as tough as everyone think it would be, but still, there are 5 more exams to go. The next was economics test, which i considered to be one of the the hardest besides chemistry and biology. It requires us to be detailed, which is one of the things i always lack in writting. I wasn't in the group 4 humanities, so the third and probably a very tiring for the first day.
The second day was better, we were all adapted to the examination situation. We were not as tensed as the day before. Even though it was biology, but we were all more relaxed. I guess everyone had enough time to review from the weeks before. The test was really hard though, but it was still reasonable. Then i had english test, which is another writting test. I don't think i did well in this particular test because i was really tired of reviewing bio that i can't even differ Macbeth and Gatsby, but i managed to get through it.
Well, tomorrow would be the last day for exams, i really hope i can get through chemistry and math.

James A2 HL

End of Exam Week – Frederick

I’m satisfied, tomorrow is like the last day of the exam. And I only got math left. Today, I studied at Gio’s house directly after school to about 8 am. Actually, we didn’t study, haha. On our way to Gio’s house, we stopped to drop Thompson that wants to go to his home. But his little brother left him at the school, so he should ask his friends to drop him. When we arrived to some place, Thompson said that he wanted to be dropped here, so we dropped him there. We thought that his home is close to that place, but guess what? He ran. He crosses like 3 roads only for 30 seconds. Gosh, he was like the fastest person that crosses 3 roads I’ve ever seen. It’s Jakarta, lots of car, but he still managed to cross the road with that speed of Thompson (referring to speed of light, haha).

In Gio’s home, we actually didn’t study at all. Me, James and Gio are like haha haha. After James goes home, Jason came. He was like showing off his piano skills. Blargh. We spent like 4 hours for nothing; we didn’t even do 1 single question. I’m really gonna fail tomorrow.

In this exam week, the subjects that I’m sure that I will fail is ITGS (for sure, maybe a 0. I can’t answer a single question.), Physics (not sure, hopefully a 3 or a 4.), English (hopefully not, but I think I missed some points. Damn.) and maybe Math for tomorrow. I might fail. I mean, we got the formula booklet and we can use calculator. The common sense is that we shouldn’t fail since we got like everything. But I think I’m going to fail it anyways.

In conclusion, I’m quite satisfied about the finish of the exam week. But I’m not that satisfied with my exam results. I hope at least Miss Jess will have mercy on me.

PS: MISS JESS, IF YOU READ THIS, PLEASE DO HAVE MERCY WHEN MARKING MY EXAM. TEE-HEE.

-Frederick

Youth camp

Last weekend, I just had a youth camp with my youth at church organization called YFC (Youth For Christ). It was a BLAST! AWESOME! and was a SUCCESS! I was part of the team who organizes the youth camp, and I learned a lot of things through this. One month for preparation for me is not enough. Especially, the service team are made up of people in Pluit and Karawaci. And we found that its hard to conduct a meeting for the youth camp since the places are far from each other. At first, I thought that the youth camp was not going to happen because just 2 weeks before the camp, we don't have the exact place for the youth camp, and no promotion as well. I was freaking out, but I was wondering that the others were not freaking out. Well, 1 and a half weeks before the camp, we held a meeting for the youth camp preparation, like promoting it to everyone, held a fund raising, checking the venue again, and made schedule. The day before the youth camp, people from Karawaci held a brief meeting about tomorrow's planning, and we found out that there was a problem of the transportation. I was really angry at that time, but I knew that I have to be patience. I asked GOD to guide me, and to just bless the Youth Camp so that everything would work smoothly. And you know what? GOD love us so much that he not just make the youth camp happens, but also giving so many participants. I was really amazed of His love.

During the youth camp, I found out that we had to pay extra money, and I was really pissed again, because we have no more money. But I overcame it just with prayer. The first night of the youth camp, I had to prepare a presentation for talk 1, for the next morning. I was really nervous because it was my first time giving a talk. I kept thinking that I'm ready, but then I'm not. That feelings goes on and off till the minute before my talk. Actually, for me to stand in front of a lot of people, and giving a talk or session is one of my fear in my life. As I was being introduced by my friends (MC), I decided to just let go of my fear; I walked there, still nervous though. Then I started to talk about GOD's Love and His plan for us. When I greet the participants, they all reacted quitly, not replying. At that moment, I told myself, "I just failed". But I kept talking, connecting my talk to the power point presentation, I still tried to interact with them, and just talk all the way. At the end of my talk, they started to interact more, started to "laugh" when they suppose to laugh, and I just felt really happy. After I gave my talk, I went out of the chapel, and I opened my arms wide, I was reliefed! I thank God for that opportunities. After giving talk, I just felt that I just overcome my fear. (well not all of them, but most of them)
Later on that day, we were having a one on one conversation with the participants. We were suppose to be a place for them to tell everything about their problems, difficulties in their life, and other more. I gave them some advices, and I couldn't believe that I said things like that. Some of the things I said, it never really think about it, and never came across my mind. But it was unbelievable, that I said things like that without really thinking about what I gotta say. Also, as I was praying for the at the pray over, I also felt things like that. It was all God's Love, His grace, and I was touched!

It is my priviledge to serve Him, one of the way is through this! His Love made all things possible.

-del

Our volleyball season is at last starts, as basketball season has ended. With our coach Ibu Riri and assistant coach, Marlon, they’re having tryouts for the first two weeks for the people who are interested to join. They will make two teams for this year’s volleyball season. Several of my friends who never join the volley team, joined this year’s team to gain experience and also for CAS points. Well, for me it doesn’t matter if I’m going to have CAS points or not. For the first day of tryout, there are not as much of people as I expected because some of them don’t bring clothes for practicing. But the list of people who are going to join the team reaches until 30 people. We have to compete with each other in fighting for the spot in the team. For the second day of the tryout, there are a lot of girls practicing. It is really a huge amount of girls, all from 10- 12 grade, but mostly grade 11. Most of the girls were in the team last year. I miss playing volley with them and now it’s time to enjoy my time with them.

I made the volleyball team. I was so happy because we could have our ‘dream team’ in volleyball. Other than that, I can’t wait to join the soccer tournament next week on December 1 at Global Jaya and also AIS basketball tournament for the following week. I also really miss soccer. Soccer for me is just a game for fun with my friends, and every time we played soccer, we laughed so hard. No matter what the score is, we are going to have fun!!!!!

I still have time writing this blog, even though I have to study. Tomorow I got 3 subjects exam. 2 more days till the end of the exam. Then I'm free!!! Well, not that free. But at least, I'm out of exam! :)

-del

1st Day of Exams. – Frederick

1^st day of the week, 1^st day of the exams, 3 exams in a row. What a day. On this day, I feel bad. Think of it, I got 3 exams in this day, 2 of them are the one that you should memorize. I’m bad at memorizing. People says that Monday is the worst day of the week. People also said that the 1^st day of an exam is very annoying. And everyone knows that having 3 exams in a row is a hell on earth. How about having all of them in the same day? Blarrrghhh.

I’m sick of exams already. I can’t do the ITGS exam today. I was all blank. i can’t answer a single question, it was so hard. I don’t know if it’s because of the bahasa and economics exam. But I really can’t recall anything from my study. I abhor this day. I really do.

Now that tomorrow I have physics and English exam. I don’t think I could write many things in this blog. Physics is also a subject that I don’t like. Why would I take this subject? Aaaarrgh.

I am really not into the mood of writing blogs today, but I know that I have not written them on last week so I think I should write it now. I am so pissedddddddd!!!!!!

Why doesn’t school give 1 exam per day? Why don’t they be smarter in making decisions? I really feel like swearing all over my blog now. It would be really nice if I move next year. IB is just a pain in the ass. No good things about it, it can’t even guarantee you to a desired university.

Oaisgoiasngnagposjapogdsasoasonsgao;gsdo;no;igsiongsdiongdsinosgdoingdsoingdsoingdsoingsdoingsdingsdnigsdniogsdinooingsans;odigna;oend;bidP)(*#^T% P(@#*%@){%*@#)+%( _%C#&*@&%_&NV#)CMlUHNV(*Y#@(*XU(#@*M.

BLARGH! EXAMS!

*Sorry for this bad post. But I really want to say this kind of things.

-Frederick

A Microscopic look upon the Soul - Thompson VIII

The soul, the entity that exist and it's sole purpose is only to desire, to manipulate our mind and body to fulfill it's desire to satisfaction. Upon looking more closer upon the soul, I have founded that there are many types of desire, and some of the even contradicts themselves. Yet even though I only have found some of them, I would try my best describe those using my limited English writing skill.

I have noticed that there are a desire to satisfy oneself, either it is satisfaction in the mind or the body, a simple desire. But there is something else, some desire is the desire to be accepted in the community on what our action do. An example is given in a cartoon called "I am weasel", I would change I.R. baboon into a human being. So there is a weird person that from a kid he always want to try dancing nakedly in a popcorn machine, but of course he doesn't dare to do such thing, for the embarrassment that if people see him did that is too much. So the desire to be accepted to be seen as a normal human is greater than the desire to dance nakedly in a popcorn machine. This however deep inside the desire is unfulfilled. The action of the person would be either fulfill it in a certain way or using his mind to manipulated his soul (desire) to be gone.

As I have found this analysis I found that Sigmund Freud's theory is all the focus upon the soul, his ID, ego and super ego. In above example is how ID and Super ego contradicts. As I read again about Sigmund Freud, i would say his theory fits to the term soul, and sometimes our desire is uncontrolled or unnoticeable to our consciousness. For some of us, we never though or ask to ourselves "Why I desire such thing?" These kinds of question will make your ID float to our conscious side.

Upon seeing this in microscopic scale, it is still vague and undetermined how much variety our desire have, the closest is Sigmund Freud's theory. I would say no more, we shall continue next upon our topic about life, and believe me it is not any cliche, that talks about life, for the question of "What is the meaning of life" is already answered... long long loooooong time ago.

-Thompson

Gunbound

I am not really sure what was the first online game that first came to Indonesia, but Nexia and Gunbound was definitely the biggest boom back in 1999. It was a simple 2D Role Playing Game (RPG), with graphic of gigantic pixels, yet it was very very popular back then. This phenomenon has continued on until now, with games such as Warcraft, Counter-Strike, Gunbound, World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online, and many more, the online gaming trend seem to be increasingly popular throughout time.
Personally, I am a big gaming fan, especially online or LAN games. Of course, many adults think that this is a "not-so-smart" choice to spend time. Economically, playing online or LAN games is a waste of time, but judging it from the pleasure gained by it, it definitely can be very entertaining.
One of the game that I played was Gunbound, an insanely addictive mini game. Reflecting back to the years I played this game, it really sound ridiculous. The game mechanism ressembles Worm. A 2D battle between characters with special weapon choices. All the players have to do is move to the right or left, and shoot their weapons. The more advanced Gunbound-er ( a term called for Gunbound players) will consider looking at the wind direction to get a better and deadlier shot to the opponents. Winning games and success on performing difficult shots gives more gold for players to buy avatar, items that boost both character's effectiveness in the game and get the players pride in style. Other than golds, winning games also gives the player experience points, when accumulated, bring the character to higher level ranking. Being in the highest possible position is always a player's dream and ambition.
This game is still popular among both male and female gamers, but many has gone to more recent games such as Ragnarok Online and Audition. Although many games have gone bankrupt, but Gunbound is still a game that everyone loves to play because of its simplicity. Moreover, it is also a game everyone should try.

James A2HL

Interhouse Soccer Tournament

Eversince the first interhouse soccer tournament was held 2 years ago, everyone in the school have been very enthusiastically waiting for this event. Last wednesday, it was again battles between BROMO, Merapi, Krakatau, and Kintamani for the top position, but this time, more PAG volunteers and spirit were shown.
Early in the morning, colorful flags and banners were already hanging at canteen 2, creatively decorated and it really showed both individual and team spirit. Every house team had their own special 'weapons' for the rally, but Krakatau was perhaps the most dominant and outrageous of the four. They brought in some workers to help pump hundreds of yellow baloons to fill their house team's area. While Bromo brought in a lot of trumpets, noisemakers, and some posters that the helpful and faithful blues members made the day before at Marshall's house. Merapi placed some green galons and some other little green props. Kintamani was technically the least 'colorful' of all on that day, but, their cheers beat everyone else in gym 2.
After a dance performance by some students and cheers performed by each house teams, everyone proceeds to the green field, but some of the house representatives and caring students stayed in to clean up their own mess from the explosive rally they had. This really showed maturity from a lot of students.
House teams were all competing to win and score for their house team and grab the illustrous cup. Winning was everything on that day, each house team did their very best to cheer and play for their team. The most dominant team on the day was perhaps Bromo, winning almost in every grade level. At least in senior side, Bromo won against Merapi 4-0, Krakatau 3-0, and drawn with their arc rival, Kintamani 1-1. Even though Bromo was a strong side supported by some very skillful girls such as Adela, Christi, and Grace, Kintamani managed to give them a very hard time. They even scored first, a surprising goal by Anandita, but Bromo hit back an equalizing goal by Narendra. The day proceeded very smoothly, and many PAG sold their products to support the day. In the end of the tournament, Bromo was announced to be the winner of the cup, while Krakatau was awarded as the team with the most spirit on the day.
Even though almost everyone had fun on that day, the most important thing was that many members of the house team showed great leadership and cooperation to help their team in and out of the field.

James A2HL

Adam and Eve. - Frederick

In this blog, I would like to share my thoughts about Adam and Eve. As you guys know (or we should know) we are in a Christian school and Christianity teaches us that Adam and Eve are the first creations of God. Actually, in this blog I would like to see that in a different perspective. Not focused only to the Christian point of view.

If Adam and Eve were real, that means that we are their sons and daughters. Incest is actually a sin right? Why would God allow Adam and Eve to do sexual intercourse? This is the first point that I think this story is a myth.

Second thing, if they were real, why is there races in the world. If we are their sons and daughters, why don’t we look similar? And if we are actually a looooong distance sibling (is that word exist? Ha-ha) why don’t we have the similar thinking thingy just like people who is born from a same womb.

There’s a lot of question already. “The Bible is conclusive. If you believe the Bible you must recognize that Adam and Eve were the first human beings and that they gave birth to the first human babies simply because the Bible clearly and emphatically teaches it. Evolutionists and others who deny parts of the Bible say that Adam was not a real person but simply represents mankind. But Ge. 5:5 says that Adam lived 930 years and then Adam died! If Adam only represented mankind, what happened to mankind after Adam died?” (http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/apologetics/adameve.html)

I think that is somewhat a good article, I personally believe that the Darwin’s theory is correct. People do evolve. But don’t get that point wrong, my personal thoughts don’t say that we evolve from monkey. We evolve from the some homo-blahblah thing which was the imperfect human to the quite perfect human. Maybe were not the perfect one yet, we evolve. :D

My point is that, maybe Adam and Eve was only a myth to tell us humans that God is very strong and can do all things in a single click. Adam symbolizes that God that is a super-duper perfect being wants to create and raise Adam which is a homo-blahblah (imperfect human). God also gives Adam a partner, Eve. However, I still don’t think Adam and Eve story is a true story, only a symbolization made by the Old Testament people to tell how great our God is. I’m a Catholic (I don’t offend God) and I’m only telling this based on my imperfect logic. No offense though.

-Frederick

Human Trinity - Thompson VII

A theory that I made myself, inspired by the picture at the wall of ancient Ishibal at Full Metal Alchemist's story, That inside of human lies a body, mind, and soul. The story tells some theory how the body, mind and soul works, like examples that the body would reject every soul except it's original, and How the soul & body thinks is through the mind.

However unrelated to those actual theory from the story, I frequently think in dilemma about this topic and try to make my own theory to fit in this realistic world. I recalled the term "Tormented soul" and what is actually meant. If a person is being tortured in any equipments that you could find in torture chamber, it only gives the feeling of pain that the body feels. Does tormenting our body with exquisite pain gives the term "tormented soul?"

Once again I recall the story of Jesus that He was also been tormented but I do not think that his soul is disturbed by any kind of body tormenting. Then there must be something what souls do, and how to fit the term of "tormented soul"

As I ponder upon this, something like an uttermost flash came into my mind what the soul actually do. I could not say that how I could came up with such thing, but it fits what the soul works perfectly. I was enlighted by the knowledge that what the soul works is simply to desire.

It fits perfeclt to the term of "tormented soul" for a person when his/her desire is not fullfilled he/she will expirience torment, of course that as humans we could see in a short run and long run, that is what our mind work. The desire that can be fullfilled within time range, our soul perhaps do not feel much of a torment, but when our mind is in despair knowing that our probability of obtaining that desire is 0% then he/she will be expirience torment.

This theory is almost the same as what I have learned from TOK class, where they talked about emotion and logic, but however people who do not have desire do not have emotion. Therefore it is incomplete. The term emotion in TOK class, I would say fits perfectly to the term of "body" plus the additional of physical features that our body really works, and logic is obviously is the "mind"

I also came to realise that these trinity would effect each other, what our knowledge in our mind might effect what we desire and how our body acts. Our body might effect how we think and what we desire, and our soul (desire) can effect how our body and mind works.

An example how mind effects our soul: if I am a guy who likes to eat Big Mac frequently, one of my senses which is the tongue which can be put in the term of body, gives me utter most pleasure from eating Big Mac, therefore my soul desires it. But if I have the knowledge that eating Big Mac might gives me a great probability of giving me a heart attack, my desire for Big Mac probably reduced significantly.

From this "Human Trinity" I would it is how a person have their personal identification or I could say it simply that these features are what made a human is differ from another.

I would say no more, I shall continue on this philosophy and psicology conquest on the next blog, "A microscopic look to the soul"

-Thompson

What’s on November?. - Frederick

In November there are various things ranged from the bad things to the good things. The good things are my birthday, the slow jazz concert at Benton junction, True Worshippers concert, the start of the volleyball season, etc. there are a lot of happiness when we see those things. But there are also bad things happening on this month. First of all, exam is coming. Then my ITGS paper one is also due on this month. There is so much work in this month.

The slow jazz concert thingy has already been written in the blog before this. In my birthday, it was not very amazing but it does make me happy though. I was confused what to ask for in my birthday, and then at the end, I ask my parents for a bass guitar. I cannot play it though. I just bought it because it is cool and maybe I would like to learn it for CAS. IB is so hard and stressful; I already have my whole month planned for the academics. It sucks. Either tests or due dates, it both sucks. IB somewhat make me hard to have extra time for my bass lesson.

True Worshippers concert is also awesome. They play praise and worship songs that pumped my adrenaline. The volleyball season has started too; I joined it for CAS, but as time go on it become more fun. I will try my best to not be kicked out of the team ha-ha. It is kind of hard though. People that joined are very good compared to me.

Enough for the good things, let’s go on the bad things. Exam! Exam is coming soon. 3 days of internal bleeding. And the worst thing is that, after we finished the exam, we go on the normal school schedule. What a school! They are just too crazy, do they think learning that bunch of books are easy? In the other hand, I got my paper one ITGS due on this week. It was a project similar to the personal project we did at grade 10. I am glad it is finished though.

All in all, this week surely have their awesome part. But I think this week is a hell on earth. All the happiness I have gotten suddenly turned into nothing with a strong blow from a monster named “Exam”. This exam monster has split their body to 6 pieces with names of subjects on each of them. Please help me kill this monster. *sob*

-Frederick

Benton Junction Slow Jazz Festival. - Frederick

Ah, what a relief ‘tis festival hath cometh to an end. Ha-ha, Shakespearean. Ok, basically this day I was playing for all the things. I was playing for the jazz band, jazz guitar and the soloist (teacher’s band) section. This is actually all of them. I played nonstop from the beginning of the event until the end, even the teachers have some part that they don’t play…

This is the first time I played in an open road like Benton junction. I have performed many times ago, but it is only at the café and stuff. So it is not that crowded. Man, SPH teachers, my friends and my family come here to watch me play too. I’m really nervous when I play, seriously. Pak Harif said that all the things are good, but we did all of them different from what we practice at lunchtimes. Sorry, Pak Harif. :D

After the event, I ate at Benton Junction with my friends. That was one crazy night. We went to a Chinese restaurant (non-halal one.) and guess what; we saw a group of Muslim people wearing jilbab eating there. Whoa. This restaurant must be good if we see that they want to sacrifice their god for it ha-ha. But at the end, it was not good at all. Screw them.

When we went home, we saw a band playing after us. They were great, very great. They played the music “watermelon man” which we should play in jazz guitar. But it is very difficult so we cancel it and change to a different song. But overall, this day was awesome. Even though I have to play from start to end, I get to see this really cool band and see the little ‘entertainment’ of Muslim people eating non-halal food. Haha. Funny.

-Frederick

PEHA CUP

Hei everyone!! Sorry I didn't get the chance to write my blog yesterday because I forgot and that I was home late since peha cup was going on. So anyways, peha cup has been going for a couple of days already. After the peha coaches for the girls team had split the SPH team into two, I was in team B. At first i was really upset because I have worked hard. But then again, after thinking about it, I finally realized that if I'm in team A, I would be a bench-warmer or something. haha.. But if I'm in team B, I'll be a starter and play a lot in the games. I am somehow glad that I'm in team B because by playing a lot, I can improve a lot. So yea...

When peha cup started, team B got the harder pool compared to team A. At first I wanted to give up because I knew there's a very slight chance that we can win the games and get out of our pool. But when the game started, I believe in my teammates and didn't give up at all. Instead, I chose to keep on telling myself that even though we don't have a high chance to win, we will try our best no matter what the outcome is. During the first game, we played against the hardest team in the cup. I was okay even though we lost by far because there was still another chance the next day to win a game. On the second game, we didn't lost by a lot and somehow it felt so bad not to be part of the peha cup anymore. It seems to me that there will be no more basketball. Some of my teammates including myself cried because we were so upset. But we finally got over it because we knew that we've tried our best already! Our coaches also supported us and help us this far! Thanks to them, the team members in both teams have improved a lot! Sometimes, i envy seeing team A play basketball because they won both of their games. But i should be happy for them because they can get out of the pool and keep playing. I promised myself that next year, I will work even harder to become a better player. =)

For the SPH teams that are still in the cup, which are SPH A boys and girls & SPH C boys.. wish you guys all the best so you guys can win the cup this year x) I've learned some things during the whole basketball season. Aside from the skills they have taught me, I also learned teamwork and never giving up no matter how hard the situation is! Sorry I can't write much at the moment, because i still have other homeworks to catch up !! hehe.. cyaaaaa..

[stePh]

poem poem poem. - Frederick

whoa.. Miss Jess praised me for that last poem! :D
that really makes me want to make more hee hee...

Thoughts
By: Frederick Solichin

I thought…

I’m alone

I’m not loved

I lost her…

Her smile

Her love

One day I cried

When I predict my future

Hate my heart that is broken

My love,

My never ending love…

I predict…

That we are together

Smiling, being happy

But...

Tell you what?

You're holding

Another guy’s arms…

thanks.

-Frederick

Holiday Trip

Their infamous war and triumphant victory against USA in world war II, or perhaps their steady information growth might be the only reason people around the world take notice of this country. Although its a part of ASEAN, not many of us cared about our neighboring country, Vietnam. On the Lebaran holiday in the past few weeks, my family went there for vacation.

Of course, before we even went to the airport, I had already protested and endlessly complained about our holiday destination. I couldn't really see what could be so special about this country, moreover, we only went to the capital city which i presumed was quite boring. After arriving at the Ho Chi Minch city, we went straight to our first hotel which was quite nice. Its called Equatorial hotel, a five star resort in the heart of the city. We checked in and settled in a room, big enough to fit all 4 of us with 2 bathrooms, tv, cooler, and lots of complimentary items.

After a few minutes in the room, we decided to went downtown to see what this city can offer. My dad told the cab to just circle around the city while we enjoy the sightseeing. The first thing that would most probably be quickly noticed is the number of motorcyclist. Compared to Jakarta where traffic is more dominated by cars, Ho Chi Minh city is dominated by motorcycles, not only that there are loads of motors, but they are also reckless and honks in every turn. Traffic was no much different with Jakarta except that there were no traffic light in the city. The setting of the city and the people's face looked very familiar those you can see in Jakarta. Even though, tall buildings are a lot less and perhaps people look in a darker shade, the city itself feels very familiar. We were dropped in one of the largest mall, one of the main project Ho Chi Minh government is trying to expand on. Its diamond mall ( or something, i forgot ^^), inside was no different to Supermal. We walked around and tried to find McDonald, we were going to save up our appetite of Vietnamese cuisine for tomorrow. After walking around, and of course the ladies were window shopping and stopped every 5 minutes, we couldn't find any McDonald, which later in our trip that we relized McDonald is a scarce resource here. Tired of searching, we went to their rival, KFC. After we were all well fed by the greasy chicken and fattening coke, going back to our hotel and take a long rest was the best idea.

Early next day, we were up and eagerly walked down to the restaurant to try some of the special Vietnamese breakfast. Their food were really good, less fried and grease. We also tried their special beef noodle, Pho. Its unique in the way its cooked. The beef, beansprout, and everything else were raw and placed on the raw noodle, then the cook pour in some sort of fragrant soup on it. The beef were quickly cooked. What made this Pho more special is that they put mint leaf and some special black soy sauce on it that added the aroma and taste of it. After we indulged in the breakfast, we set off to go to the city's most famous war museum gallery. When we first arrived in front of the gate, all of us thought it was a bad idea, but we went in anyways because there were nothing to lose and all places were expected to boring except the few other malls that we didn't go to. In the not-so-big frontyard of the building are some of the old war machines such as US tank, bombers, bazooka, and humvees. That was not the attraction of the museum though. The real deal was the photo gallery where they showed the absolute cruelty of war. Most of the pictures were taken by a famous photographer from life magazine ( again i forgot the name). After scanning quickly at the photo gallery, we went outside to the souvenir shop just beside it while my dad was still captivated by the somewhat inhumane pictures. Then when he was finished looking, we went inside the small museum building. It was still renovated and looked very dull but after looking around it and examine some of the sickest and yet sad objects, we were stunned. What the great war has produced were only sadness and sorrow everywhere, there were some unborn babies that were affected by the orange bomb and were kept sealed in jars of formaline, a picture of a soldier's body part thrown in all directions shot by a grenade launcher that will only explode when it hits a body, many pictures of children begging for mercy so that their parents can be released from death, and a lot of children born with horendous mental and physical parts missing from their body. After looking at those sad objects, we realized that war could bring nothing but sadness. Our day was occupied with the trip to the museum and new hotel, which were more like a service apartment. It was Caravelle service apartment. The place was really nice with everything more luxurious than our own house. We stayed and ate instant noodle because we were too tired to go anywhere else. The next day we flew back to Singapore to do some more shopping.

Looking back to the trip to Vietnam, despite the very little amount of places we visited, the trip was very educational. We learnt a lot of things we didn't know about Vietnam and also some moral about wars.

James A2 HL

PH cup is coming…

Next week, from November 1- 9, is our PH cup basketball tournament. I’m so excited for it, especially for the opening ceremony, I got to skip double period of biology. But when Ph cup ends, our basketball season also ends which going to make me sad. Next week, is the last week for our basketball practices, and after that, we have PH cup directly. Looking back throughout the seasons, I realized that things change.

My basketball team has been just like my own family (some of them though). Every year, I joined basketball, but this year, I learned a lot of things from my teammates and best friends, and coach Marlon. We worked hard for the last three months. Even though I sometimes didn’t really connect with some of them, but I tried hard for us to be one as a team. At first, I thought that this year’s basketball season will be very fun because my best friends also joining. There are ups and downs through out the whole seasons, but mostly I was pissed during practices. For the last week of the season, I feel that I really want to enjoy, and do my best in each games, and practices. For the first time I enjoyed playing in the friendly games, and I felt really good.

I was wondering if SPH would have a chance in PH cup tournament. It’s been 3-4 years that SPH didn’t achieve a thing in PH cup. I hope that this season can end up in a good way.

short story entitled "Susan's Story"

* i made this story, hope you guys enjoy reading it. xox

The Power of Love

There lived a family who has a beautiful daughter. She was probably the prettiest girl in town. That girl’s name was Anna.

Anna fell in love with a young man whose background wasn’t known well. All the people in her family didn’t agree with the relationship that she had with the guy. They gave reasons why they didn’t agree on their relationship, like how his background is not even known. But even so, Anna still insists to be with the guy. Because of the pressure that she got from her family, Anna often fights with her boyfriend but at the same time, really loved him.

“How much do you love me?” she kept on asking him. The guy wasn’t that smart in talking, which made Anna angry.

All the comments from Anna’s parents made her even more angry and upset. Her boyfriend was always the one who gets all the whines from her. The guy didn’t stop her from the shouting, the whining, etc. All he did was be quite.

After quite a while, the guy graduated from university. He was planning to continue his masters degree overseas.

” I don’t know how to say this in sweet words, but I know that I love you. If you agree, I will take care of you for the rest of your life. I will try my best to assure your family so that they will agree on our relationship. Will you marry me?” he proposed to her.

Anna agreed straight away. After her family saw all the hard work that the guy did, they finally approved them. Before the guy left, they had an engagement first. Anna still lives in her town and works so hard, while the guy continued his masters degree in LA. They hang on to their far distance relationship by letters and phonecalls. Sometimes, there were problems going here and there, but they never give up facing those hard situations.

However, on one unfortunate day, Anna got hit by a car which made her unconcious. She saw her parents the moment she opened her eyes. She felt relieved because she was so lucky that she was still alive. Looking at her parents’ tears, she tried to cheer them up. However, she figured one unfortunate thing carried from the accident; she was mute. According to the doctors, the accident had injured her brain, creating Anna’s current situation to continue for the rest of her life. Listening to her parents trying to cheer her up, she couldn’t say a word. Anna fainted.

The whole day, Anna could only cry and mute herself. When she is finally allowed to go out from the hospital, she saw her house just like when before she got this accident. Nothing really changed. Only if the phone rings, she was down and felt upset. The phone ringing was probably her biggest nightmare. She could never tell her boyfriend about this bad news that has happened to her. So, she wrote a letter to him, telling him that she doesnt want to wait any longer. Their relationship was basically over. Anna even gave her engagement ring back to him. Getting phonecalls and letters from the guy, she could only drop a tear and ask herself, ”What is actually happening?”

Anna’s father couldnt bear looking at his daughter suffer, and decided to move, hoping that she can forget everything and live happily.

Moving to a new place, Anna started learning sign language. She tried to forget about her ex-boyfriend. Her friend came to meet her and told her one evening that her ex-boyfriend came back and has been searching for Anna since. She told her friend to not tell him where she is and asked the guy to forget about her. After more than a year, there was no news from him until one particular day, her friend came to tell Anna that he is going to get married and invited her to atend the wedding service. Anna opened the invitation with a broken heart, and found her name on the invitation. Before she got the chance to ask her friend, suddenly the guy was standing in front of her. With sign language, he told her... ”I’ve spent more than a year studying sign language, so that I can tell you that I havent forgotten our promise. Give me a chance, let me be your voice. ”I L O V E Y O U” Looking at that signal language, and the engagement ring that she gave back to him a long time ago, Anna finally smiled.

Lesson: Treat every love as if it’s your last love... and you will learn how to give... Treat every single day as your last day... and you will learn how to appreciate... Never give up!

[stePh]

My Untitled Feelings :D - Frederick

I was confused for my blog this week, so I decided to make a poem for the blog. I haven’t decide the title though.

So, here it goes, enjoy…

_________________________

These beautiful days
Turned into nightmare
Why do you hurt me?

Broken…
That’s what I feel now

Empty…
That’s my feeling now

Gone…
All that memories

Are you really my true love?
I still love you
Even though you’re with him
Should I be patient?

Isn’t this enough?

Bored…
Is that what you’re feeling?

Love…
Gives me tears and laughter

I like you
Just the way you are
I love you
In all my life

_________________________

I hope that’s good enough. Haha.

-Frederick