Wild Horse Milk

Disney on Ice!! =DD

2008-05-18T09:29:00.002+07:00

Not long ago, maybe around 1-2 weeks ago, my family and I, along with my mother's friend's family, went to watch the "Disney on Ice" show. Since I was around 12 years of age, I wanted to watch the show.. But I never really could because normally the show will be held in Singapore or so. One day, I was watching Disney Channel. (Haha.. I know it's childish, but Disney Channel's fun to watch! Haha) Then, there was the commercial of the show, showing when and where the show will be held in different countries. I was kind of happy because I found out that one of the countries that they will be performing at is in Jakarta, Indonesia. :) I told my mom about it and she told me to research on the website, etc. I checked and tried to find information about the show that will be held in Jakarta, but there was no results. So I told my mom that there was no info about it and that maybe its not really going to happen in Jakarta. At first i was upset, but then whatever.

A few weeks passed by, and then my mom asked me whether I wanted to watch the show or not. I was excited and said yes. Apparently, there was not much tickets left, but we still got the good seats anyway. Hehe..

The day all of us went to the show, it was super crowded! Since it was my first time watching this type of show, I was very excited! I felt like I was a 10 year old girl or something. I noticed a couple of things during the show. Even though the place was small, the show was quite satisfying. I think they chose a small place so that everyone can see it better. Other than that, the sound system was good as well, the lighting was perfect and the dancing was awesome. But sadly, the costumes wasn't good enough, although they did some creative techniques. One example is the 101 Dalmation. It's quite hard if they had 101 performers in such a small stage, so one person will have 2 dummies on their right and left which looks like the dogs as well. Other than that, their props was similar to the real cartoons, so it can make me remember the parts that they are performing about.

Some people who have watched this type of show said that it was quite disappointing. But for me, it was good. I enjoyed it, even though I must say that it's more suitable for younger kids. Almost everyone who watched the show had smiles on their faces, even the parents. =) I wouldn't mind watching another 1 next time. Hehe xP

[stePh]

my favourite genre :D

2008-05-12T20:34:00.001+07:00

Today, I’m going to talk about my favorite music genre. I love power metal music since I knew them; well at first I only know progressive metal bands like “Dream Theater”, “Metalicca” and “Megadeth”. Well I liked them since grade 7 until recently; I was kind of bored hearing progressive metal songs. Now I liked power metal and Neo-Classical songs. Well you guys must think that I’m a crazy metal freak geek blah haha. But sadly, yes I am. :(

I liked power metal genre from bands like “Dragonforce” and many more. But, I liked neo-classical genre just recently because of my friend, Yonathan. He told me songs from Yngwie Malmsteen and it is REALLY GOOD. Well, for my ear it is.

After that, I somewhat researched about this genre and see more of the band that is playing neo-classical songs. At the end I accidently see a video clip by Maksim Mrvica called Cubana. It was awesome. At first I’m not interested at all to piano and other girly instruments, but after seeing him play, I suddenly love piano. Dang. This remembered me about a memory in the past when I was kicked out of the piano lesson by my teacher. Hey, I paid the teacher and the teacher kicked me out. That’s mean. Well at that time, I was very happy because I didn’t like piano at all, but now I feel kind of regretful. OK, back to Maksim, the thing I love about him is that he can play a rock-latin-metalish tune out of an acoustic piano. Crazy huh? Even though he looks kind of gay, his songs are awesome.

I think this is all about my strange affection towards metal and neo-classical songs. Sorry about this pointless blog, I just write what inside my heart haha :)

SONGS TO CONSIDER:

-Maksim Mrvica – Cubana

-Dragonforce – Through the Fire and Flames

-Yngwie Malmsteen – Far Beyond the Sun

-Yngwie Malmsteen – Rising Force

-Dream Theater – The Ministry of Lost Souls

NB: to you who are saying metal songs are satanic songs, you are absolutely wrong. There are a lot of Christian metal bands out there. So try these new tunes out :)

Cigarette Advertisements - Thompson 17

2008-05-04T15:26:00.004+07:00

In Indonesia, most of the country’s GDP is contributed by none other than our cigarette industries. Cigarettes have contributed a good feeling for most people, but a severe disease in the long run. The fact that the effects of consuming cigarette are the same on different types of cigarettes brand, so why there are a lot of advertisement about it?

The firms certainly do not gives out any information about what is the product is made of, instead they gives out these images of manly figure, talents and skills, or following “A“paper. They never show the product themselves in the advertisement, only the symbol of it.

Not only the advertisement did not give any image of the product, some of them start to give out somewhat witty looking slogan, which they change every now and then. So I wonder what is the purpose of advertisement?

All I could think of is that they gives out information of the product and persuade the people with any factors necessary. The fact that firms does not give any information about the product, will this course of action is not an effective advertisement?

In economic class the effect of advertisement is to shift the demand to the right, so an effective advertisement could be determined by the magnitude of the shift. The further the shift, the effective it is, so I am really wondering does those cigarette advertisements gives any significant shift for the demand for cigarettes.

So finding out the effectiveness of cigarettes advertisement is one of the optional EE econ questions that I made. If I were to find out this answer using a viable method, I could see that whether firms are really wasting scarce resources to make billboard to advertise their freaking product.

I am really annoyed that when I go around the town I kept seeing these stupid advertisements along the way, and finding out that those freaking advertisement is not affective. On the other hand if it is affective then most people smoke because of it, so both are bad in a way. Freaking cigarettes, serves you right when they government double the tax on you!

TeleVision

2008-05-04T14:20:00.000+07:00

Do media have its advantages? One of the media I’m looking at is TV, including TV series, movies, advertisements, and others. In my opinion, TV (TeleVision) does have the advantages, aside from that, also disadvantages. TV in our life had made a lot of influences, or impacts, and also it’s already taken a huge part in our life. Sometimes, our decisions are based on the advertisements that are shown; whether we’re going to buy that product or the other product. How successful an advertisement can be seen based on the economies of the product. One of the advantages of media is that it entertains us especially with having movies or TV series that we can watch and enjoy. We found our self in front of TV in our spare time. For me, TV do helps me to relax when I’m stress. One thing that makes me relax is that watching TV with snacks.

The disadvantage of TV is that sometimes we watch TV that we forgot our time. We often became obsessed with TV until we forgot what we’re supposed to do. However, it also can ruin our eyes when we watch TV too much. The result is we will soon wear glasses. Furthermore, TV influences us a lot, both in good and bad ways. It often influences little kids and teens more than adults. TV series such as gossip girl, the OC and others, sometimes effects the teens in showing them the perfect and rich life, and letting them know that that life is exist in the world.

TV v.s cinema. Which is better? In my opinion, TV is better, even though some people might think that cinema is way better. TV got its content much more interesting, even though the movies weren’t as new as in cinema. It’s better because I can enjoy my time with having everything I need. For example; like sitting on a comfortable and cozy couch, with drinks and snacks besides. TV also has an easy access to watch. A lot simpler than cinemas because we have to go to the mall buy tickets, sometimes we have to wait and others. That’s why I prefer spending my time watching at home.

-adela

m e d i a

2008-05-04T14:14:00.001+07:00

Hello everyone. It has been a very long time since I visited this blog. I think it was last year, December to be exact. This term English topic is about media, it was fun and interesting actually. It’s a lot better than literature, though.
TV Shows. In the channel called Star World usually provides us with a lot of TV shows to watch. There are a lot of TV series that people are commonly watching. For example; TV series that is popular right now such as gossip girl. Among all those shows, my favorite one is Grey’s Anatomy. I started watching that series after I watched it on TV, one day when I was just kept changing the channel. It was touching, that one specific series. It was about this one patient having a stick on her chest and stuck with the other guy because of train accident. (I heard you’re watching this show, Ms. Jess. You might know the scene! Hehe) it’s very touching, and of course, sad. Because of watching this scene, I became obsessed with this show, so I started buying DVDs of the whole season.
What I like about this TV series is because the drama and the story line. The fact is that this story has two sides; the story in the hospital or their working place and also their everyday life, as in romance and their own and personal life. It’s very interesting because sometimes we can see that their personal life affects their work in the hospital.
Overall, this show somehow had shown to the audiences little sight about doctors. In real life, they have a very tough job, indeed maybe there’s no time for romance, because this is not job an ordinary job.
TV series like this do influences a lot of people. It influences me in my thinking of job of a doctor. I want to be a doctor after watching that series. But only after watching that, because knowing becoming a doctor got a lot of studies and take up a lot of years.
I wonder if the next season already comes out.

-adela

Iron Man!!! x)

2008-05-03T16:36:00.004+07:00

Did anyone watched this movie yet? =D

Before this movie came out, my brother and I watched the trailer in youtube. It was really awesome and the parts that they cut to make up the trailer were cool! After watching the trailer, I couldn't wait until it was out on the theaters.

The day when this movie was officially out in theaters, I went to the mall, along with some of my friends and watched it. Yes, the story is somehow typical "super hero" movies, but the effects that they have used to make this movie is very cool ! In my own opinion, I think that this movie has made it so thrilling by the sounds and effects that they used when the Iron Man was actually doing the stunts. Other than that, the angle when shooting the scenes was very smart, which makes the audience more eager to know what is going to happen next and that I was quite excited when watching this movie the whole way. I personally think that most of the scenes are computerized which means that the actors are probably doing it in a place but then cut them off and used other backgrounds. It's as if the actors are really flying in the sky and all, but they're actually not. Almost everything in the part where he was in the workshop seems like it is edited from the computer, like the machines, etc. The technology and way that they used to make this movie so good is advanced and that it doesn't look cheap, so people focus more on the story rather than the effects they've used. I mean, if the movie is not so good, then the audience would normally tend to focus more on the effects that the producers used and etc.

I've read an article somewhere, that there's this new game called "Grand Theft Auto 4" that came out at the same time as the "Iron Man" movie. The game is very popular, maybe as popular as the "Iron Man" movie, and people starts to think that there will be a decrease in people watching this movie, not because it's not good (it is really good!) but because of the game. People are so interested in that game that some would just not bother to watch the movie anymore.

Overall, I think this movie is really good, but quite disappointing in some ways because the trailer seems to be better, so it seems like the movie should have more to present, than it had now. (more expectations)

[stePh]

Media

2008-05-03T15:45:00.004+07:00

This term for English class is quite interesting because we are learning about media. Before I studied about media, I never really though in depth what commercials are trying to get from the audience and how information can be passed on through media things like advertisements, movies, songs and even articles. What I found most interesting about this topic is when watching the movie "Super Size Me". It is very crazy how the person actually wanted to do this kind of experiment because he is risking his health. This movie was very unique because it talks about fast foods and how it is not good. They have shown the detailed information by using this kind of way so that the audience will stay interested. Aside from that, there are other interesting activities that were done during this media term which is analyzing some advertisements & cutting and pasting the claims that are used by the advertisements. Honestly, I feel smarter after learning more about the 10 claims and I wouldn't have realized how women are portrayed badly in the media. Now, whenever I see an advertisement, I became a critical thinker because I try to find reasons behind it and what the media wants from the audience, and also how they present it to attract the people's attention.I hope that I get to learn more about media and can analyze things more in depth. I have also listened to lots of songs and read some magazines to the see the advertisements. Not only that it attracts the readers, but also just to know what they're trying to tell the audience is very interesting.

[stePh]

Media?

2008-04-27T16:42:00.001+07:00

Talking about media, people often thing about music and movies the most. I don’t really see TV and watch movies nowadays because of my new interest in cars. Well maybe I haven’t watch TV for years now, I really don’t know how people get any entertainment from those ugly boxes. All the things there are all boring. Ok, back to the topic. Recently, I bought some magazines and newspapers to find a cheap 2^nd car. A printed media sure is a big problem, compared to the electric media such as internet articles and journals, where we can just press Ctrl+F to find things. In this entry I would talk a lot about magazines that I have bought, some of them are Otomotif, Modifikasi and Motor. On those magazines, I find that buying expensive cars is not always good. A person who buys cheap cars can make their car as good as or better than the one that buys expensive cars. From those magazines, we are told on how to modify a car from every aspect such as exterior, interior, audio and many more. Personally, I prefer to modify the car from its exterior, since it would make me to be the center of attention on the streets (hehe).

From my researches through a lot of Medias, I found out that I find electronic media much easier to read and see, but printed media usually contains a lot more information in it. I know more information through the magazines I bought rather than the internet articles. From the magazines, I also see many advertisements; the advertisements there have a lot of elements in it. I guess learning the media chapter is also beneficial to me haha. It does make me to see things differently though, good in a way, bad in a way. Oh well, I guess everything in this world have its pro and cons.

-fred

WoW - Thompson 16

2008-04-27T15:44:00.004+07:00

In the last few terms in the IB program, my grades is in constant acceleration of 1 mark per quarter, but sadly I think its gonna end really, soon. I just hope that this though is not a "self-fulfilling prophecy" type.

In the first term of IB I got the total of 29 out of 42, the second term is 30 out of 42, and the third one, just recently is 31 out of 42. So my total grade is somewhat stably increasing, which is good. All of those time, studying, I also played a game called "DotA" (Defense of the Ancient) a warcraft III custom map, made by IceFrog. But i have played that game since 8th grade, so I'm not really affected it's temptation to play because I already frequently playing it for the last 3 years. Meaning that "DotA" have little affect my study at today's state.

But now, a new breed of game have just come up, available to my hands. My brother, Bram wanted to play a game that he used to play with his friend. Now he is gonna do it again. A game named "WoW" (World of Warcraft). The reason for me not to play this game before (this already been out just few years ago) is because you have to pay it, also with credit card via internet probably. The paying stuff is just troublesome for me, so I can't play it. But now my brother pay everything for the game and now I could play "WoW" when he is not at home.

This new game might heavily affect my current grade to go downward due to the time spent on playing instead of studying. I tried my best for my grade not to fall because of it. My brother Ryan also played "WoW" giving me incentive to play with it even more.

Afraid that this might affect my grade or not, I have made a pack with my brother, Bram that if my grade gonna fall below 30 out of 42, he will change the password and I may not play until I get good grades again. That means one quarter without WoW, I could not afford that. So I just hope that in this term I could study well, with this new game that is available in my hands. Hopefully this does not give very huge impact on my grades.

Sadly after publishing this post, I will play "WoW" once again, since my brother is not at home.

"Resist the corruption within"

back to school

2008-01-15T22:05:00.000+07:00

It's been a week at school, still doing the same thing, IB. But I had a good holiday. It's just alright though, my christmas and my new year were boring, nothing special. I went to China for the holiday with my family, and with tour. I met new friends, and thank God they were all friendly, and some of them were teenagers. In China, Christmas doesn't feel like christmas, and same as new year because in China, they celebrate chinese new year bigger than new year. I stayed for 11 days in China, went from one city, to another cities with airplane, sometimes bus. And everyday, lunch and dinner, we ate chinese food, with the same menu everytime. That sucks a lot. Almost everyone got sick at the end of the trip, including me. It turns out to be quite fun.

For my new year resolutions, I really want to become a better person that can influence other people. I want to focus more to God, that's the important one.

I just realized that Retreat is coming soon! Its one more week till retreat. I hope its going to be awesome because we really need the retreat, at least to relax, as the refreshment of the year. But we gotta prepare for the talent show, which is very lazy, because we don't have to time to prepare.

-del

First week of school... - Post 1 Frederick

2008-01-10T22:08:00.000+07:00

Ok, first blog in this term. 1^st week of school is really hard for me. I slept like in almost all of the subjects. My first sleep in school was at Mr. Graham’s math class. I slept for like a half period. I was so tired that time, I also sleep full period on chapel and the 2 period man or myth biblical studies class. My friend told me that when I was sleeping, Mr. John wakes everyone except me. Then when everybody is awake, he touch my head, play with my ears, pulling my shirt and I was still asleep. Then I don’t know what he does next but everyone was laughing hardly, so I wake up. I noticed that everyone was laughing at me. I don’t know what happened, but it was embarrassing.

Move on, when I was in ITGS class, Pak Ruben told me that we should have go to school at 14^th January since UPH do so. I was really annoyed. I can have another week of sleeping until 1.00 AM if school starts at the 14^th. And tomorrow, 11 January should be a holiday also. Why should we go to school for 1 day and get a break again? Why shouldn’t it be a day off? School sucks.

I’m also currently finding a summer school for me to go with James and Giovanni. We are still finding one and couldn’t find one that is really good. The one that is really good is very expensive. Why would we pay like US$ 12000 for only a 1 month summer school? I could get a super Alienware desktop instead. Or maybe if you want a more academically opportunity cost, I could pay the SPH tuition fee thingy. Well I don’t know what I should talk anymore.

PS: Ms. Jess, can u swear in this blog? Please, just a few words. :D

Ordinatio - XV

2007-12-29T18:26:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-18T01:16:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-18T01:14:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-10T20:05:00.000+07:00

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..

2007-12-09T22:14:00.000+07:00

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..

2007-12-09T22:10:00.001+07:00

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.. =(

2007-12-09T22:10:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-09T21:49:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-08T22:01:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-08T21:23:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-08T21:05:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-08T20:52:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-06T22:12:00.000+07:00

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

2007-12-05T20:39:00.000+07:00

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..

2007-12-02T08:32:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-29T22:53:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-28T21:26:00.000+07:00

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!

2007-11-28T20:47:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-27T20:40:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-26T22:35:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-26T22:21:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-26T21:03:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-24T21:41:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-22T19:28:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-21T20:45:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-19T21:21:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-16T20:24:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-15T19:37:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-12T19:34:00.000+07:00

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

2007-11-04T18:42:00.000+07:00

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

2007-10-31T21:54:00.000+07:00

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

2007-10-30T20:09:00.000+07:00

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…

2007-10-26T22:22:00.000+07:00

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"

2007-10-26T20:44:00.001+07:00

* 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

2007-10-24T22:33:00.000+07:00

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

Unknown Hero - Thompson VI

2007-10-18T00:17:00.000+07:00

If there is such thing as light, I will be the shadow

If the is such thing as dawn, I will be the twilight

If the is such thing as hope, I will be the despair

If there is such thing as success, I will be the failure

If there is such thing as loved, I will be the hated

I will walk the path of darkness

Unappreciated, is what I will be expecting

For they know nothing

For the proof of my existence

Such thing as God existed

I am condemned by fate

How unfortunate, such tragedy

Only one thing I could only do…

Embrace it.

-Thompson

What a GREAT holiday! - Thompson V

2007-10-12T23:28:00.000+07:00

Such a great holiday I'm having right now, I just bought 3 new CDs of ps2 games, I was hoping that those game will kill my time in this holiday, but sadly my yellow, red, white cables of my ps2 (which are for,visual and sound) is broken, so my sound and visual monitor on the TV is fuzzy. To top it of my ps2's lens or the optic thing to read the CD is not working properly, it doesn't read the CD so I can't go inside the game. Sometimes it does even so when the "now loading" screen pops up it loads very long, perhaps it took 30 minutes just to change 1 screen to another.

I took my ps2 to the game store (gamespot and game terminal) which located at Taman anggrek. I ask them if it can be repaired, they said "yes, but it will took a long time" and I ask "why?", they said "Because the engineers at the manufacturers is having their "lebaran."" Wow... I ask them again, when this "lebaran" is finished... and they said it is the 22nd which precisely 10 more days from the day I post this post. 22nd is the day when the holiday is finished, hell, I could not play ps2 in this holiday why because its broken.

Not only just my ps2 is broken, my beloved computer also broken somehow. I started to play warcraft III again, but I got this message when I start the game, "Warcraft III is unable to initialize DirectX." Ow yeah, I run "dxdiag" and did some reading on the help section, search the internet, bla bla bla, trying to find the solution, which it cannot be solved. I found this particular website that really suits my condition for such problem which is in this link (http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/archive/topic/27997-1.html) even though they tried to solve the problem, it is not solved. Actually it is solve when the guy decided to play it using his pc which are working just fine. Me on the other hand still got this freaking problem. A holiday is a time where people spend their time on their self indulgence which in my case I could not spend my time for self indulgence, because of this broken graphic card and ps2.

Thus because of frustration, I remembered that I have a blog to write upon which I have no topic to write, concluding that i write this blog with frustration because my time in this holiday i could not use it fully for my self indulgence. I could see myself that I turn into a hedonist in a holiday. Tomorrow, a guy name "Victor" who usually repairs my internet connectivity going to my house, hope that he could repair this directX problem in my computer, if not, I probably experiencing the best holiday in my life.

-Thompson

The Game of Love. - Frederick

2007-10-07T08:38:00.000+07:00

People play games for many reasons, but increasing numbers are finding that they are a great way to size up potential partners. These days, in a lot of online games, we can see many people who fall in love, online. We can see that even though they haven’t seen each other yet, they can still fall in love. Strange huh?

Hundreds people, or maybe thousands of them can say that they found their soul mate from Prontera (a city in the game Ragnarok Online). Some of them may also marry their couple because of the game. Seeing other player as avatars or characters may not stop them for loving other people. Seeing their characters with cute headgears may also lead the people to be attracted.

For a while, this issue was taboo. Couples won’t tell that they met online and finally become married. Now? It’s just another style of a lifestyle.

The advantages of dating from an online game will be that the couple has the same interests and hobbies.

But, for sure, that’s where the advantages end. We can’t see anything for real. Photos can’t tell anything, it can be just a hoax. You can’t know their real name for sure, or even real gender. Conversations in game are very limited.

Maybe you think this issue as creativity, or maybe a frustration. Are they winners or losers? They can be very good at game and have nothing in the real world. I am sure that they are real heroes in the real world but are nothing in the game. Game masters are like God. They can’t be killed. Or if they can, they can kill you back in just a snap of time.

I have one friend. Well, she is my best friend. But then after leaving SPH, we contacted each other with online games. Sow, as I enter IB, I can’t play that much again. When I met her again, she said that she already have a lover from online game. She never know the person well, they just contacted each other. They even never see the real photo of the person. But they dated. Gross.

In conclusion, online games are very good for socializing. I got many friends from online games too. But in my opinion, dating in an online game is just wrong. Why don’t people choose to date a person they know well? Uhh, sick.

Resource: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6976167.stm

-Frederick

"A Door To Light"

2007-10-05T20:06:00.000+07:00

Another story i made =P hope you guys enjoyed it. x)

A Door to Light

Samantha was 11, when her father died. It broke her heart to not see him again when she normally does because she was just so close to him. She never smiled. Her face was empty. It was tough! When you look into her eyes, it’s as if it’s hollow. Her mom was very sad and very hurt as well. Because of that, she became very quite and self centered, since there was no one that tries to cheer her up.

Three years later, Samantha’s mom married another man who was someone that was not who she expected to be. Her step dad on the other hand, doesn’t really care about her. He married her only because he loves her, not because of Samantha. Samantha is a very shy girl.

“Daddy…” she said to her step father with all the courage that’s left.

But then, her step father wasn’t too happy about it.

“I’m not your daddy.” He replied.

From that day on, Samantha never became close to her father. She’s trying, but every time she remembered about it, she can’t do anything. All she did was backing off. Sometimes, Samantha would struggle to get through each day. Because she felt embarrassed with that event, she tries to put her life back together by studying and talking to people.

Growing up was tough for Samantha. She comes from a broken family and eventually reached a point where she couldn’t stand to stay at home sometimes. There were times that she stayed at her friend’s house and there were times where no one seems to know where she is. It’s like as if she has been swallowed by this world or something. It was hard for her when staying at a friend’s house because she felt jealous with the happy families their friends have, and that she shouldn’t be bothering them.

Most of the time, Samantha would feel that no one seems to care about her. Because of that, she would try on some new things. One of them was smoking and drugs. As we all know, drugs can be very addictive. Because Samantha didn’t have any money, she would steal her friends’ things and trade them to some drug dealer for some drugs. You don’t think of it as stealing when it happens like that. But it was, of course. Samantha was 13, but looked somehow older. She started to realize that if her friends found out about this, they wouldn’t be very forgiving; especially, when it’s for something bad.

There was a lot Samantha had to learn, like with the drug dealers. You have to ask to see their money before you exchange things with them. You have to lay down the law. You have to make sure that the drug dealer comes alone. The first time she met a drug dealer and just assumed the guy would pay her, but after I gave the thing that they wanted first, the drug dealer kicked me out of the car and called me a loser. There was nothing I could do.

It didn’t get any better. In fact, Samantha’s attitude got a lot worse. She just can’t stop. It’s so addictive that when she doesn’t do drugs in a day, she would try to kill herself! It was just the worst feeling she ever had.

Samantha tried to stop stealing. She swore she wouldn’t do it again, but she really needed the money or something expensive to get herself some more drugs. She tried stopping herself but it just kept going and going. Her life was basically messed up.

One night, Samantha had a dream. Her dream was about herself getting really sick because of drugs.

“Why have you become like this? Your life was good, but you’re the one who’s making everything so complicated.” Jesus came and talked to her.

The dream was just too weird. It was basically warning her to stop doing drugs or else her life would be some kind of rubbish. When she woke up, she was crying. She felt so stupid with what she has done to herself. Then, she prayed to God and asked Him to change her life so that she can be a better person in the future.

Now, Samantha is around 18 years old. She stopped at the age of 17. She became a very diligent student and trying to fix all the mistakes she had done in the past. She thanked God that the drug habit that she had didn’t lead her to prostitution. Basically, she is trying to recover what drugs almost stole from Samantha - her future.

-stePh-

Facebook

2007-10-03T21:14:00.001+07:00

Facebook
The theory of evolution might be wrong or no one just wanted to believe that their ancestors are some wild apes, but this doesn’t cover the fact that humans become more creative and intelligent as time passes. Since the first information database, writing on stones, human has never stopped to try developing new inventions that can help preserve and publish information. From writing on piles of stones, animal and leaf were then used; lastly, papers were invented by the Egyptians, though some speculation claims that it was the Chinese, but more importantly, it has been a media for storing information. Even though intelligence increases and more inventions came in the history of mankind, but what doesn’t change is the importance of information to human. Since the enlightenment era, the precursor of human’s desire to learn, books have been increasingly demanded by people. These compilations of papers were considered as one of the best inventions of all time. In 1988, the first 36 kb/sec internet was introduced along with the World Wide Web, or better known as WWW or website. From that point in time, this world wide information sharing media has grown rapidly into a trend among many groups of people.
The first few websites that were available in the early internet were a blast to everyone as it contains a lot of virtual information, meaning no more huge library of thick and dusty books. Also, since the e-mail was invented, internet has been more and more used as a mean of global communication media. From then on, the worlds of internet change from being only a massive virtual storage into a media for people to connect with others across the globe. Friendster, MySpace, BlogSpot, and MSN Messenger have been the recent booming sites that offer everyone to publicly speak their mind in the internet.
Facebook is the latest hype of this category. This website offers users to have an account and profile that allows other users to add them as their virtual friend and communicate through a system called “wall”. This site is very unique because it is also preinstalled with some fascinating features. One of them is the photo feature, where one can a friend can “tag” someone in a picture so their name will be on the site and it’s directly connected to the tagged person’s profile. Another unique feature of this site is the application feature, where one can install many interesting and fun applications such as private quiz, quotes, graffiti, fantasy football manager, until something like chocolate fantasy. This website also offers a gift shop and everything in it cost $1. Even though the gifts are virtual, but many still buy it to send to their friends.
From time to time, human constantly changes. Their way of thinking keeps “evolving” to the next level. Communication and information also keeps moving forward, and the result is the internet. It used to be a tool for people to connect around the globe, but now it turns into a lifestyle. We can just hope this trend will lead to a brighter future for humankind.

James A2 HL

death.

2007-10-03T18:31:00.000+07:00

Black represents hell, death, mystery, while white represents Heaven, new beginning, and holiness. Death; a very simple word with a huge range of meaning, leaves some people with a lot of questions about it. I once attended this funeral, which made me to question about death itself. Sometimes I was over thinking about death and it made me scared, and uncomfortable about my life. I did ask a lot of people about it including my parents, and my youth leader. They did answer, but it’s just not complete enough, as if there is something missing. Each religion has different views of death, and each of them supports and strengthens the term of ‘death’ to us. None of them gives the perfect meaning of death.

Death is a mystery that we can’t explain with words, unless we do experience death itself.

Some question came up to my mind:

What will happen next? What do we do in life after death?

But the biggest question in life is that are we going to upside or downward, Heaven or Hell? It’s depends on our actions and faith on Earth. Do we have faith on Jesus? Do we believe in God?

I received an email, and it’s about death. It explains death in a very good way.

There was a patient talking to the doctor, the doctor was about to go somewhere else.

“Doctor, I’m afraid to die. Tell me what is going to happen over the other side of life.”

Calmly, the doctor answered,” I don’t know”

“How come you don’t know? You’re a Christians. And you don’t know what happens after death?”

The doctor was holding the door handle; over to the other side, they hear the sound of scratches and cries. He opens the door and eventually, there is a dog directly coming in and jump towards him enthusiastically.

He looked at the patient, and said, “Did you see my dog? He never been here before, and he don’t know what is inside this room. He simply doesn’t know anything; the only thing he knows is that his master is in the room and when the door is opened, he entered enthusiastically.
I just know little things about death, but I know one thing perfectly right, that is, I know that God is in there, and that’s enough.”
After I read this email, I remember one thing that God is always there besides us and I came up with a conclusion that I doesn't have to worry about death because as long God is besides me, I'm safe.

[adela]

School. - Frederick

2007-09-30T12:39:00.000+07:00

Sorry for this late post. My Internet can’t access www.blogger.com for some stupid reasons. I want to write about school today. School is like a must for all of us, but what makes me think is that people who is very successful always said that they are the bad ones in school and they try hard and blah blah blah and they got famous. Darn. Getting rich without school is like not fair, we got the super annoying part of being in school and it doesn’t guarantee you to be rich.

My dad said, he only got until bachelor degree and that’s his entire thing to work. For the old days I think that is possible, but why is he still rich today? Isn’t it many people there who got PhDs? He said to me that the one that he better than the other people is his experience. So if I got his experience, why would I need to go to school? There are a lot of PhD people that stays at home doing nothing. No one wants to hire them.

I really hate learning things, that’s why I take all logic subjects without the memorizing subject at all. And yes, why should we take science if we don’t need them? Isn’t it better if we can choose triple humanities for better knowledge in university later? You need to get 20 credits at all. And most of them are from the subject you are choosing right? Why would you need biology, chemistry and physics if you want to be a stockbroker? It just doesn’t make sense.

Oh, I really abhor school right now; I don’t know what to say anymore. Look, the more you learn, the more you forget. So why learn? Another one is practice makes perfect, but no one’s perfect except God, so why practice?

Again, sorry for the late post Miss Jessica!

-Frederick

short story entitled "Playing Doubles"

2007-09-30T08:27:00.000+07:00

Another short story i made =P this one i made it real fast, so sorry if its not that good. hehe. sorry i was late due to internet problems . =)

Playing Doubles

In an international school, there were two female students that have been friends for a very long time and liked to share things with each other. These two girls were Cherry and Pauline. One day, a couple of new students came to their school. These guys’ names were Calvin and Dave.

Calvin was the type of guy that Cherry liked. Secretly, she had feelings for him. Pauline didn’t know that Cherry liked Calvin, but even so, she could guess from the first time she saw him because of the way that Cherry talked with Calvin; it was just so different. Dave and Calvin became best friends. They always studied together at school. If Calvin happened to choose to move to another school, Dave would follow him for sure. Calvin also secretly liked Cherry. She was very simple and fun to hang out with.

The thing that shocked Dave was that he was also crazy in love with Cherry, leading him to try to become close with her at such a fast pace; making his feelings extremely obvious. Because of that, Calvin backed off for a while because he just didn’t have the guts to try to become close with Cherry. But since Cherry didn’t like Dave, she made it straight to the point and completely clear that she didn’t like him. Cherry rejected Dave in a soft way by saying that they could only be friends because it was just impossible for them to be anything more.

After that event, Pauline secretly began to have a crush on Dave and then encouraged Cherry to get closer with Calvin. Cherry slowly but surely became closer to him, which she found to be quite difficult because she was very shy. Calvin obviously didn’t reject her closeness. He was happy with all of the care that Cherry was giving him.

At first, Dave who was crazy in love with Cherry couldn’t accept that Cherry was getting closer with Calvin. Dave got really mad with his best friend and thought that he was being betrayed. Their friendship became so messed up because of anger, jealousy, and heartbreak. Finally, Dave accepted Pauline’s love. Their friendship developed into a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Unfortunately, Cherry’s and Pauline’s friendship became distracted as well as Dave’s and Calvin’s.

Pauline was the type of girl that is full of ego. Basically, everything that was hers couldn’t be taken away from her. Nobody could get close to the things and people that were hers. One day, the teacher divided students into partners. By the time Cherry was partnered up, it happened to be with Dave. While they were doing their project, Pauline became so jealous of Cherry. They looked so happy together, as if they really enjoyed being in a group together. She went up to Cherry and they almost had a fight. Finally, Dave came and stopped them. Annoyed he was at Pauline that they almost broke up. Pauline apologized to Cherry and Dave’s relationship with Pauline worked out smoothly.

After that event happened, Dave and Pauline planned to try to bring Cherry and Calvin together as boyfriend and girlfriend. Their plan worked and finally Cherry and Calvin began an amazing relationship. They looked perfect together and everything was in harmony. A lot of people from the school were jealous of them. Pauline and Cherry’s friendship as well as Dave and Calvin’s friendship became better and better. Double dating became one of their favorite activities.

-stePh-

my week

2007-09-26T22:40:00.000+07:00

At last, there is a week to relax, after all the previous weeks that simply had tortured my life, and I felt like a major nerd. The two previous weeks had been very busy, LOTS of homework and tests. I had 2-3 hours sleep every day of that week and of course with the addition of basketball after school practice that made me really tired. But the only thing that made me wanting to go to school is because of that basketball practice, even though it’s tiring and sometime making me pissed. So far, this week had been good, at least better than the previous weeks; with little homework and so far, there is no test.

There are always problems in our life, either in school, friendship, family, relationship, and others. I’ve been through my hard moments in life where there are problems just keep coming up. When I have ended this problem, somehow, there are others problems keep appearing in my life. The hardest of all, when it comes to friendship problems. My friends are one of the important people in my life (after God and family). These days, I’ve been experiencing friendship problems and one of the problems ended so badly that I lost this one special best friend just because of my decision that I chose. It was an EXTREMELY hard decision to make, to pick between my friend and this thing I really love. I decided to not choose my friend because of this particular reason.

Lately, I feel that I’m not being me, as if like there’s another person in me. I have been in a bad mood all the time, I’ve been pissed to something that is not worth it, I’ve been complaining here and there, and just not being what God wants me to do. I really want to be better in everything. I want not to be selfish, not to be a complainer, to respect others, and mostly, to be PATIENCE. I want to CHANGE my attitudes, to be a better person and glorify God in everything that I do.

Everything changing, even though there are problems keep showing up, I know that there are my friends; a shoulder to lean on. I had this one really great AWESOME best friend; he is like a real brother to me. He keep supporting me and being there every time I need him. I thank God for having a friend like him and I truly cherished spending time with my friend. I appreciate my circle of friends that God had given to me. Friends that keep me alive, keep supporting me, and to just being honest.

I want to end today’s post by saying a BIG thanks to all of my BEST FRIENDS. THANK YOU.

[adela 11]

Busway

2007-09-26T21:32:00.000+07:00

Busway

Once my father's business friend came and stayed over at our house. He is a very intelligent and critical man. After dinner, we talked about many issues that happened in Indonesia, particularly Jakarta. One of the topic was on the chaotic traffic at Jakarta. After several hours of interesting conversation, I realized that we all came to one voice; Jakarta's traffic is a huge mess and a responsive solution from the local government should be done quickly.

A couple months later, Jakarta's mayor, Sutiyoso, relish the potential solution to Jakarta's traffic chaos. Not long after that, many red lanes and white aluminum bus stations are built around streets of Jakarta. It was the first official mass transportation in that metropolitan city besides all the unofficial ones such as angkot, bajaj, and metromini. TransJakarta is meant to replace all those other alternative mass transportation as they tend to go against the traffic rule, taking a whole lane just to wait for a passenger to hop in, and added to traffic congestion. Busway, another name for TransJakarta, has grown more and more popular because they have better cared buses, affordable fares, traffic free lanes, and most of all it potentially reduces the demand for alternative transportations and have potential to reduce traffic congestion.

As time goes by, busway's demand has increased dramatically, but it doesn't reduce traffic jam as it is meant to do. Many places in Jakarta, such as Roxy and Grogol still has a lot of cars stuck in traffic even though there are TransJakarta stations nearby. Worse than that, local officials forced their way for Busway in unnescessary places such as Pluit and Pondok Indah recently. Citizens have protested because they don't need the busway as they all can afford cars. Additionally, places like Pluit and Kelapa Gading have barely enough roads for cars to pass in its own complex, by intergrating busway in these places, the lanes are reduced a lot and it causes more traffic jam.

Despite its boasting potential of helping Jakarta's traffic, I think that TransJakarta has not work as it is meant to work. Though not reaching its maximum benefit, local government should not force their system in places where it is not needed just to make more money.

James A2 HL English

short story entitled "Making Choices"

2007-09-21T18:29:00.000+07:00

*i made another story. =) but since i didn't have much time, i made it short. enjoy reading it x)

Making Choices

Hannah was an ordinary girl. Her face wasn’t much to look at, mainly because it was the complete opposite of proportional; basically, she was not wanted or liked by her friends; especially guys. A lot of guys could only look at her as a friend, nothing more than that. But behind her ‘not so pretty face’, she was actually a very smart, kind-hearted and cheerful—although pessimistic—person. A lot of her friends liked talking and sharing secrets with her because she’s a fun person and she had the skills to solve unique problems and various other things.

One day, a new student showed up at her school, his name was Donny, and he was a foreigner. His face was very handsome and his body was looking fine! Almost every girl in the school was crazy about him. There was something special about Donny, more than any other guy. Somehow, he could attract everybody’s attention simply by standing there; doing nothing at all. Basically, every girl was attracted to him. No questions asked.

The next semester, another guy came into the school; his name was Rico. He is also very handsome and very nice! From that day on, Donny and Rico were continuously competing with each other without even realizing it.

Before Rico came to that school, no one knew why, but Donny liked to ask questions about subjects and homework to Hannah. Not long after that, they became really close. Surprisingly, Hannah and Donny were seated quite close to one another. When Rico came to the school, Hannah was the only person kind enough to greet him and show him around the school; which was how their friendship started. Hannah was a fun girl as said before; but still, she had a fair few characteristics that were pretty much below average.

Hannah was confused because the fact was that she liked Donny and Rico. After school, Rico asked Hannah if she’d like to walk home together, because there was a group project that they had to finish together. However, during their group project, Rico told Hannah that he liked her. She was so shocked because she never thought that he would like her. She wondered why this was happening to her but she couldn’t say anything. She just stood there and kept quiet.

The next day, the air was filled with gossip about Donny asking Hannah to be his girlfriend; this only created more confusion. Why everything was suddenly focused on me? Are they serious or are they just joking? Those questions kept on hanging in her mind. In a split second, everything had changed. All the girls in the school acted so cold and continued to pull various evil faces at Hannah. Hannah became so stressed out because there were two popular guys that liked her.

Hannah became so awkward that she couldn’t even concentrate on her work. She failed her exams and basically everything was just out of place. Because of all the stress that she had had to deal with, she went to the top of the school at the last day of the semester. She tried to jump off the building, but Donny spotted her and pulled her down.

Then they talked with each other, and finally Hannah was calmed. Donny; being the Christian that he was, encouraged Hannah to take better care of herself, and rather than having those stupid thoughts; she should just ask for guidance from the Lord. From that day on, Hannah prayed to God everyday so that her mind wouldn’t be filled with such crazy things. She went on to date Donny, and as for the others, they came to realize that it was all okay; even Rico fell for another girl.

-stePh-

extraordinary sport

2007-09-21T00:54:00.000+07:00

When we feel passionate about something, we automatically feel happy, joy, cheerful, whatever, you can name it. Suddenly, there’s a smile, taking over the other emotions in yourself. That’s actually how I felt when I’m passionate about basketball. Basketball itself has made me into a better person both, in getting my body in shape, and also to build a better attitude and character. Also, it made me to appreciate the gift that God had given to me, and to enjoy playing for God’s glory. I realize that not everyone receives this gift, talent, of playing basketball.

Basketball expands my thoughts, experiences, and put some important values to my life. It turns my life brighter, although sometimes it also made my life a little miserable. At some point, it made me be happy, but sometimes it made me sad or pissed off, but neither way, I ALWAYS enjoy playing basketball. Even sometimes, it really wipes my pain away, and it is also a stress reliever for me.

From this gift that I got, I’d shared it with everyone else around me. I joined Karawaci Youth Sports League for this year, and the previous year, where we had to coach the little kids for 10 weeks. And by just doing that, I felt that I can be a better person who can influence somebody’s life. We’re not just teaching them basketball skills, but also manners, attitudes, and building a good character.

This year’s current basketball team is different than the previous. We’re just starting a season, and now we’re half way through. I really learnt a lot of things from this basketball team, both in skills, and valuable lesson in life. We have a new coach, and I think that’s what made this year’s basketball team to be different.

At the start of the season, there was a problem with jersey’s number. We know that Asian cultures especially Indonesia is different than the other cultures. Asian treats jersey’s number as one of the important things in basketball. But another coach wouldn’t let us choose our own jersey number because she thinks that it wasn’t a big deal, but for me it was. So I got #14, the number that I’m not even expecting it to get. I was so angry, and pissed. Eventually, He taught me to be patience, and try to forgive people. And I started to accept things the way they are, to look on the bright side by having the #14. This was just a small problem that I encountered.

The second valuable thing, yet IMPORTANT, that I got was about FRIENDSHIP. Basketball is all about friendship. In this sport, we build friendship to create teamwork and that what makes us a team. Well, I learnt that those who called as FRIENDS always support each other, in good and in bad times. BEST FRIENDS also wants each other to be happy. Moreover, BEST FRIENDS have to understand each other, and respect the decision that our friends take. The second I realize these things, I began to appreciate my team even more. This is the MOST valuable lessons to me, and my coach and friends opened my eyes and made me realize of these.

There were times when I felt lonely, and from that, I learnt to be STRONG by knowing that our GOD is always there for us. This is NOT just an ordinary sport, but an EXTRAORDINARY one for me.

P.S: Sorry I was late. Internet problems.
-del #14

Music = Joy of Living a Life :) - Frederick

2007-09-19T15:35:00.000+07:00

This is my blog since I can’t write it on Thursday. So I write it now before it’s too late. *aaa*

Here it goes…

Today, I want to talk about music. Hearing music is kind of my daily activity. Personally, the type of music I like for this current time is instrumental rock, latin jazz, latin traditional and jazz traditional. I want to talk about my all-time favorite band, Dream Theater.

In my life, I think this is the only band that amazes me with their music composition. They have one song that is like 25 minutes length; we can assume that a 25-minutes-song will be very boring right? Well, this band that gives out their song “A Change of Seasons” breaks that assumption. This song is very cool and it is not boring. It is a medley of five or more songs and all of them are great.

I think this band is awesome since most of their songs are featuring a mood. The song “Hollow Years” give the sorrow feeling and at the refrain the song starts to be more into the feeling. The song “I Walk Beside You” is much more cooler. The beat on that song makes my heart pounding. I think almost all of their songs are good. Really good.

As we know, music makes the world go round. I personally think this statement is true because without music I don’t think I can concentrate on doing my work and be relaxed. Doesn’t believe me? I write this ‘amazing-fabulous-miraculous-sparkling’ blog while I am hearing music. Dream Theater music actually. Seriously, try it guys. :)

-Frederick

James' Post

2007-09-18T20:26:00.000+07:00

Sorry, James couldn't post because of his Internet.

He will post his blog tomorrow.

Sorry for this inconvenient post.

-Frederick

True Freedom - Thompson IV

2007-09-17T19:54:00.000+07:00

What is true freedom? That is the question I pondered when I just did my Bahasa Indonesia essay. We all know about freedom is; people who studies history knows what freedom is... freedom usually was put to the term when a country gain independence from a conqueror. Freedom also put in many different things like Freedom to speech, freedom to choose. So the basic thing is that using the word freedom is meant that we are free on a certain something that are constraining us.

I have heard a term which when one desire nothing one gains true freedom. I think it is the Buddhist term for enlightenment. Personally, I think people misunderstand this as a true freedom. I read a book once about some story of Buddhist monks, one of them said that "Our mind and soul are just like the mirror, we have to clean it everyday in order to make it clean" here it stated that to make it clean, what it meant is clean from the dust that attach to the mirror which is in this metaphor is the evil in the world . A smarter monk argued that "If our mind and soul are pure there are is actually nothing, therefore no dust or impurities are attach to us" from this argue the monks decided to take the idea of the smarter monk. This means in my theory is that having no desire is not true freedom, they just free from desire, they have nothing that constraining them. What they have is emptiness and nothingness not a true freedom, in my opinion though.

Another type of freedom are the freedom from fate. We born as human, either a woman or a man. We can call that fate, but nonetheless we are not able to free from that fate, does true freedom also included this freedom of fate? We born to live as humans why not animals? we don't have the power to do so thats why we call it fate.

I read some people about True Freedom in a Christianity point of view that "True Freedom is not the freedom to sin but the freedom from the power of sin" quiet an offset what the True Freedom that I have in mind. Even if we are free from the power of sin we are not free from the power of fate isn't it?

What I had in mind about this "True Freedom" is that not a single soul can achieve this True Freedom. True Freedom is obtained by God and God himself. Even if we died we did not gain any "True Freedom". We do not gain the freedom to manipulate time and space or to create a world out of physical reality. Only God is the only one that can do such things. Any comments about this opinion?

-Thompson-

a short story entitled "A Second Chance at Life"

2007-09-14T19:39:00.000+07:00

*just a random story I wrote. It's based on a true story. Sorry if it's boring or if the grammar is really bad. enjoy reading it ! xD

A Second Chance at Life

Susan came from a bad family background. Her dad died when she was young and her mother had remarried. She was unloved and that was probably why she likes going out during the night to party and participate in bad and dangerous things. Luke, on the other hand, came from a good background, and a much respected family. His childhood was pleasant and memorable, and he was brought up by great parents and brothers. He got the chance to do all kinds of crazy, outgoing stuff without his parents knowing; probably because he was a trusted young boy.

Susan was around 16 years old when she became pregnant to her boyfriend, Luke. The two of them weren’t surprised about this news, but both of their families were shocked; especially Luke’s family. Who would’ve thought that Luke would fall in love with a nightlife girl and have a baby before marriage?

Keeping the baby was an instantaneous decision; they were so young, but they thought they were meant to be. Other than that, both of them felt prepared to accept the role as parents. Susan didn’t want to have an abortion because she thought that the key to keeping her relationship with Luke alive was the baby. In a way, she also wanted the baby because she didn’t have the heart to have an abortion, and she didn’t see the point in killing an innocent child. After all, the baby was also a part of her flesh and blood, for goodness sake; basically, there was no way she was getting rid of it.

They were so excited that they bought so many things for the baby. Everyone around them saw them as the perfect couple even though their parents never agreed.

Susan got pregnant without telling Luke’s family and her family. Because Luke came from a very good background, his parents were really upset when they found out about the whole thing. So, Luke’s parents came to a conclusion that Luke had to take responsibility for the baby, even though his parents wished that they could just turn back time and prevent this baby from ever being conceived – it was the right thing their son should have done.

Both families finally had a small gathering between them and a couple of others; this was to keep the marriage quiet because they didn’t want anyone else to know about it. During the pregnancy, Susan always went to Luke’s house to spend the night.

Afterwards, the baby was born and he was the healthiest baby that they had ever seen! They were overjoyed. But the problems had just started. After they got out of the hospital, Susan decided to live in Luke’s house permanently.

Every morning, babies have to be taken out to the sun because it improves their skin. But Susan never did that because she wasn’t responsible enough to do it. Basically, the one who took care of the baby was either her mother in law or her maid. Every night she would hang around with Luke and their other friends; they’d do things such as clubbing, racing cars and all of those crazy and dangerous things! Everything was just too over the top!

One day, she was racing the car with a friend before she lost control. She yelled to give signals of help… But no one understood them. They all thought that it was some random thing that she was saying. BANG! She hit her head on the steering wheel. Blood started spilling everywhere and her friends started freaking out. Luckily, she was saved because her friends were fast enough to get her to the hospital and the doctors worked really hard to save her.

When she was still unconscious, she had a dream that made her realize that what she had done and that the person she had become was someone that was not satisfied with what she had. When she opened her eyes and saw Luke in front of her and the people that cared for her; the ones that were with her the whole time, she thanked God for it. From then on, she realized that her life was filled with amazing blessings… especially her baby, who should be taken care of very well because he was a true blessing from God.

She promised God to spend more time with Him and start from the beginning to have a better life in return for saving her life. She thanked him for giving her a second chance to fix all of the mistakes that she had made in the past.

-stePh-

Laptops Anyone? - Frederick

2007-09-13T17:56:00.000+07:00

As we know, laptop these days are very good and catchy. Me myself want a laptop for my study since I don’t have one. When I browse in the Internet, I found a very cool looking laptop. That laptop is the Alienware. Alienware is the best gaming laptop out there. It has the specification just like a desktop. Which is amazing.

At first I asked my parents if I could buy that shiny-black-onyx laptop. This laptop’s main material is not made of steel. It is made of lithium metal that is lighter and environmentally friendly. This laptop is like a dream item for me, because the price is not cheap. Alas, I should find another substitute for this laptop.

I browsed the Internet. When I look at Sony Vaio’s website, I see another cool looking ultra-portable laptop that is only 11.1” inch. This laptop is also good since the specification of this laptop is also good. Well not as good as the Alienware, but it is quite good. After drooling so much, I was frightened by its price. It says that it is about US$4000 for this ultra-portable laptop. I think I should find another one. But when I want to browse to other websites, I saw the advertisement of a cheap Sony Vaio laptop. It is only about US$3000 and with the quality above the US$4000 one. I checked, how can this happen?

After I checked why, I found out that it is only because of the size. This US$3000 one is 13”. Gosh… the difference is only 1.9”. Is it really worth to pay US$1000 more for a 1.9” smaller size? I guess not. So yes, I post this blog to let you all know how much is the difference in price of a smaller size laptop with less memory and stuffs. I tell you, it’s not worth it. J

-Frederick

life..

2007-09-12T22:41:00.000+07:00

Life in IB had been very busy, especially this week. As if like this week is the climax out of the past 2 months. I am becoming a temporary nerd this week. There was a biology test today, and the day before I was studying extremely hard. Moreover, there is a Business test tomorrow, and math test the day after tomorrow. Thank God, the biology test was over, I was so happy, but at the same time, I realize that I still got 2 tests to go for THIS week. Just after school, I went to study business together with Jacqueline Utomo, Tara and Shelly at coffee bean. It really helps a lot in studying for the test tomorrow as we were discussing about the case study and all of the information that was being given by the teacher. Today I was plain stressed out because a lot of things, including all those problems in my life, but mainly, because of the test tomorrow. I know I can’t afford failure as the result of the test because if I fail, I’ll fail business for my term one. I didn’t want that to happen.

Today I also had math tutor with my teacher in my house. She was shocked after seeing the result of my previous math test. Then, she made me do a lot of math questions. I was so tired until I fell asleep that time, with my head on the book, still holding the pencil. My teacher woke me up then, and I was so embarrassed.

Besides studying, my days are filled up with basketball! Even though sometimes, I got frustrated and pissed, but I don’t know why, I’m still joining every practice. Actually, joining the basketball team is what makes me love school! Especially if there is a game right after school. Playing basketball makes my study time lesser, and also my rest time. But I simply don’t care, as long I’ll do my BEST in everything and work hard on it everyday.

All of the stress, I’ve been going through, thank GOD, my friends are always there for me. I’m so grateful having friends like them; they are there in all of situations. And because of them, even though I’m having a difficult time, but at the same time, I can also enjoy my teenage life with them by my side. (:

Now, it’s exactly 10: 43 pm. I am writing this blog with my half eyes only. I have to get enough sleep, but I got to study for business test tomorrow. There’s something just came across to my mind. You know what, Thank God; we don’t have homework for English. Thank you Ms. Jess!!!!

Sorry, this time going to be a short blog from me. I apologize, Miss Jess! I’ll write much longer next week. I promise =)

Adela R

What Mobile Phones have Become

2007-09-11T19:28:00.000+07:00

I am 16 years old this year and i can still remember clearly what the Motorola my dad owns about twelve years ago look like. It was black, with the conventional 12 buttons keypad under the ridiculously huge flip. The black and white screen could only project 5 x 20 pixels supported by dim yellow LED with a "Pro-XL" plus small battery and signal indicator on top of it. The insanely huge and heavy black plastic case with the addition of a weak 2 hour talk-time li-ion battery made the early model of mobile phone look unproportional, not to mention the shame of having a huge bulge on the pants. Nevertheless, my whole family would boast on how they can make a call from anywhere anytime and the fact that they could send messages ( unlike pagers ) and receive them in one "small" handheld. If I look back at what we had years ago, I can not but be marveled by the advancement of mobile phone technology in the last 10 years.
Compared to the early huge and hulking phones, we can be proud by the drastic evolution of mobile phones in the last decade. Nowadays, 2 phones can be placed in the pocket and still be confidently walking on streets. Screen technology has developed from 2 color into 6 million colors, battery life multiplied its lifetime into 5 hours with the size shrunk into a fraction of its early model. Organizers, calendar, radio, video players, games and even applications such as bible can be inserted into the small hand held gadget. Cameras and video recorder are now an integral part of the phone since the invention of digital cameras and camcorders, and these image capturing phones are not jsut ordinary ones, they can take still images like standard digital cameras. As mobile phones shrink in size and increase in its usage, its price also fluctuate to both low and high end prices. Many giant phone producers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson have created a lot of very affordable phones and the community seem to respond very well to the decreasing price. Now, more people from more economic backgrounds can afford to buy a phone, unlike what happened a decade ago where phones have the same price as a motorcycle. These money-friendly phones also have all the standard requirement such as messaging, calling, and contacts. While on the other end of the innovation, high end phones that cost a ton of money are also created. The difference is that they have way more features in it. Some of the more expensive phones would have very sharp cameras, large memories, huge display, wireless connection ( bluetooth, infrared, etc ), and music players intergrated in it. These few features have been the most demanded and innovated technology in the phone development and companies are racing to improve on these few areas. These expensive phones could only be bought by fortunate people, but now middle class citizens can also own a phone with music players and cameras in it. While on the extreme, some models are just indulging the consumers with its elegant design and ridiculous materials with nearly unimaginable prices such as Vertu and some Nokia, LG, and Motorola models. Interestingly, some still manage to buy it.
Looking at these facts, we can see that the development of hand phones have been rapid. With the decreasing costs of service providers, hand phone have become a trend rather than communication media. Yes, modern trend is what mobile phones have become.

James A2 SL

Language Problem - Thompson III

2007-09-10T19:02:00.000+07:00

Language, the tool of communication between one thing to another. Language are useful to communicate your share of idea to another one. Without language there will no community. This tool is very significant for humans and several animals used it too.

I realized that I have a problem in my language. Whether in Bahasa Indonesia nor in English. I started to realize this when I came to SPH which my grade for English and Bahasa Indonesia is very low.

My frustration is that I could not write very well... Grammars, sentence structure, etc. This weakness will drag me down, especially for my academic scores. Most subject are really required to have a good language, in order to have a good mark. This happened because teachers check to know our understanding of our subject... which is using language, if we could not express it good, the teacher would not understand thus assuming that we do not understand the subject it clearly.

As you can see, I have a major language problem, when you are reading this post, you would probably see many errors in this writing perhaps even this sentence might have error(s) in it. This problem is one of the top priority that needed to be fix! I could not stand it when I tried to share my though and ideas where I could not communicate clearly that people do not understand me.

Thus by writing this blog, I hope that i could improve my writing in this English language where most humans uses.

You know what, math is the most common language that human used, not English and I'm not good at them both...

I just hope that this problem will fix A.S.A.P
I'll pray to God for it.

This is an old post that I forgot to put my name on it, sorry

-Thompson

school sucks ! !

2007-09-07T19:10:00.000+07:00

In my 2nd entry, I chose to talk about school. I know it's probably a boring subject, but yea, I 'm not even sure myself why i chose this topic. In fact, maybe it's because a lot of tests and work coming up. I've got economics test and TOK essay next week, and another economics test, math test, biology test and biology practical. Other than that, there's still other tons of things that i have to do, aside from school work. Basically, in the next two weeks, i can't seem to enjoy school anymore. It's like living in the worst place that i could've think of. Just imagine... my birthday is coming up soon, and that school is killing me softly with all the homeworks that's piling up! Dang! I officially hate school right now! Not really, but kind of. =P

Other than school homeworks that's piling up, I am annoyed with other things. Like how the basketball game today is canceled (even though its going to be changed to Monday), and the fact that some people (not mentioning any names) can't just appreciate what others do. I mean, when those 'others' are trying so hard to get better when doing something, in a way they just don't get noticed. But when the good ones do better, they're noticed. How unfair is that? Even though some people might not be as good as some others, but at least they tried (maybe even harder) !! I get so angry when people just can't appreciate what others do. =(

Overall, i hope that in the next two weeks, at least there's not going to be as much homework as i have right now. =) I also hope that we can win the friendly game on Monday and Tuesday. My feelings are so messy right now, so i think i have to stop the blog now. I know I'm not suppose to act like that, but I'm just so confused with the things that is happening around me right now that i don't even know what else to write when there is a lot of things that i can share with you guys.

-S-

FastNet. Good or Bad? - Frederick

2007-09-06T07:31:00.001+07:00

As we know, lately there is a super fast Internet that you can get with only small amount of money. The Internet provider is called first media, and it is the one that we usually call with the term kabelvision. First media releases this service of Internet with a very low price and with the quality that is above the standard of Indonesian Internet. No, I should say waaaaaay above the standard. This Internet is called the FastNet.

You may wonder about the title and what I just say. It looks very different. Well, it is. In that first paragraph I only tell you what is my positive comment about it. Monday, 2 September 2007, 16:14. I told my dad to change my Internet from Telkom Speedy to this FastNet service. My dad has not told the customer service after I told that. Yet. Still on the same day, on 21:00 sharp my Internet went off. I asked by friend, Edward, he says that he has the same problem with me. I thought it was just a usual power off. Then I choose the option ‘wait’.

Tuesday, 3 September 2007. For one day my Internet was not active. I start panicking a little since Thursday is the time that I should write my blog. What if the Internet still off and I could not post my blog entry? Miss Jess would be mad at me for sure. I called my dad’s computer technician; he tried his best during that day to fix this problem. He said that he never seen this problem before. 4 hours until 22.45 he tried his best. And at the end we gave up. I asked my friend Edward again, he said that his Internet also has not up yet. Then I choose the option ‘wait’ again.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007. I tried to call the customer service of this first media company. I asked about many things and all of the questions are referred to this FastNet Internet. I started wondering, why would he refer me to this FastNet thingy? I just asked him about the power-off. That’s all. 16:07, I pissed off. Finally I cannot choose another option other than to switch to this FastNet media. When I check this Internet service in my hand phone, I found out that the kabelvision group makes this Internet service, which is the provider of FastNet. I am so pissed at them. Before I went to sleep I asked Edward again, he said that his Internet have not up yet also. I have no choice left. I waited again.

Finally, until today, my Internet is still not working. I should make this blog entry in my Microsoft word and post it later in the library. I think the one who causes other Internet to stop working is from the modem itself. Oh, I abhor them. To the one that make this happen, please think again for what you are doing. Many students suffer about this issue. I just want to tell this for a critique. Not as an offensive statement to all of their staffs. So, I guess I can put this into my blog since it should be a good critique to the people there. Last words: FastNet, Good or Bad? J

PS: THIS IS ONLY SOMETHING THAT’S ON MY MIND. IT IS NOT THE TRUTH BECAUSE I HAVE NOT PROVEN THIS STATEMENTS. WELL, MAYBE IT IS A TRUTH, BUT I WOULD NOT SAY THAT THIS COMPANY IS FILLED WITH BAD PEOPLE. MAYBE IT IS ONLY ME WHO FILLED IN ANGER AND CONCLUDED ALL THINGS FASTLY. AGAIN, SORRY FOR ALL THE CRITIQUES I HAVE MADE.

-Frederick

a hero who serves God

2007-09-05T22:16:00.000+07:00

In the dictionary, hero means a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. That’s true. Sometimes we see heroes in TV series, or movies; simply like Batman, Superman, etc. Of course we know who our everlasting hero is: Jesus. But do you ever consider yourself as a hero? Do you notice a hero in your society? My perspective for a hero is “an ordinary person doing extraordinary things.” Everyone can be a hero to others; they can do things that influence other people’s lives. Sometimes we didn’t recognize our self as a hero, and sometimes we didn’t recognize the hero right next to us. To be honest, I sometimes do consider myself as a hero, also a villain at a same time. How to be a hero? It’s simple. You can take a look situation around you and analyze yourself what to do. Don’t limit yourself in doing extraordinary things, because even though there are problems, you know God will help you. Do your part, and God will do the rest.

One of the things to be a hero is helping the poor. I experienced being a hero one day. I joined a youth group called Youth For Christ (YFC) which taught me this thing: to be a hero. We were having this concert called GK concert (Gerakan Kepedulian) that the purpose was to support and helped one of the poor sites in Indonesia which was Dumpit (located near Tangerang). As a youth, we support the concert by doing some dance performances that takes 7 weeks of practicing. For me, that’s a hard work, to get to the place for practicing, keeping up with my school works, and to perform in front of lots of people. But it is my privilege to served God by this. During those 7 weeks, I experienced LOVE by reaching out to the teenagers from the Dumpit site and Joglo site that was called SIGA (Serving In God’s Army). I found out that they also love dancing and they were all talented people. I cherished my days with a lot of happiness, smile, laughter, and joy. We hang out with the SIGA and I felt as if I am a hero to them. We dance with them, chat; share stories, even play with them made us felt that we are one. To see them smile and laugh, gave me the feeling of heroism and what I hope is that the smile on their faces never fades away. Just after the concert, the feelings of overwhelmed joy and pride of serving God by doing this. Serving is really a privilege, and faith without service is a dead faith.

This year of 2007, there was YFC concert that was being held this August. It’s a concert for the young generation to get to know God and to worship Him. Again, the youth performed some dances to support the concert, created a worship team; and made this concert happened. And I felt the same way as before, and also experienced FRIENDSHIP; got a lot of new friends. I really love to continue serving HIM through much other stuff and also to continue being a HERO, not a villain.

-adela.rinadi

SPH Basketball Boys

2007-09-04T20:09:00.000+07:00

In the recent years, our school has gradually improved. Several changes have been made to the school facilities. Computer labs have gone through screen changes and hardware evolutions, while the library was intergrated with wireless internet, and of course the classes which get flooded including the auditoriums are all fixed and improved with new floors.
These may already seem a lot but the sports department have the most significant changes in the recent years from my point of view. Improvements ranging from personel to facilities and to programs have evolved to a higher standard. Since Coach Jason joined us again in our big SPH family, now in the PE department, and Pak Andi with his new role in teaching seniors, SPH basketball teams have also undergo a lot of changes.
The selection of the team has been raised to a different standard. Individual skills and physical condition stayed as one of the most important aspect in the selection, but beside that; personal engagement, school works, discipline, commitment and teamwork have been included in the selection criteria. Many new faces have been enthusiastically joining the try-out; though not everyone "survived" the hard competition and practices during the selection, but those who have been chosen to be in the team were proven to have strong character and physical condition. Practices have also undergo a lot of changes. Lunch time work out sessions are now a part of the commitment each players have to fulfill. Weight lifting room has grew more usefull not just for the team but also for the other students. It helps the players to gain more strength so they can have more physical presence in a game. New strategies such as basic offence, heat press, diamond press break, etc have also been intergrated in the team's plan. These tactics have been proven effective and brought the team to the SPH SMP cup trophy.
Each year, the number and the quality of players increased. Seniors players have improved and helped freshmens to play the game. They have developed not just basketball skills but also leadership and initiative both on and off court. New comers also proved their value in the team and those who worked their butt off showed significant improvements and got a place in the first team as the season went on. This have proved that each year, the Eagles basketball team are always going in higher level, both physically and mentally.
In conclusion, Eagles Sporting team have improved a lot in these few years. They have developed strong characteristics and skills. I am just hoping to see more of the strong-willed people to play better and improve each pracitce.

James A2 SL

Upsss... - Thompson II

2007-09-04T19:17:00.000+07:00

Ups, I forgot to write my schedule blog Monday... Uhm...
Uhm... Just recently I just left badminton activity, I have been doing playing badminton for a year.
I find myself badminton is full of competition and many people joined it. It is so many that we have to take turns to play.

I still remembered that the badminton supervisor told me that "your grips is a tennis grip". I know that I have a tennis grip because when I was 5 I started to play tennis with my mom. I played tennis for 3 years, at the age of 8 I stop playing it, the reason is unclear, I could not recall the reason why I stop playing it.

After that, I rarely do any sports at all... I probably play soccer but only occasionally. When I'm grade 10 I started to play badminton, even though I'm not good at it I still plays though. I don't play badminton outside school though. Those who are very good at it probably did play outside from school. Which I can't really do.

After 8 years of absence playing tennis, I started to play again in SPH. I saw a lot of opportunity there... If it is tennis I could play outside school, and my mom still plays tennis. I saw a greater opportunity there, also there are few people that actually plays tennis at SPH, so I could fully utilize my time rather than just sits and queue for other people to finish playing. I hope i could fully utilize this opportunity.

I don't really know what future holds but... I know that "the most dependable thing about the future is its uncertainty" -FFIX.

-Thompson

Basketball Friendly Game

2007-08-31T21:44:00.000+07:00

Today, everything went so slow for me. I had double Biology period (which was totally boring!!) first thing in the morning and had to end the day with a math period. It doesn't sound interesting at all, does it?! *puke* Somehow, today felt like a week.. probably because I couldn't wait for the basketball friendly game after school. All I could think about was mainly that. So, finally, when the day has ended, I felt so happy and relieved, knowing that today is Friday! =)

During after school, I was really excited with the whole thing going on. But when the opponents came, they didn't seem as hard as the other schools that we've played against with before. Team B were playing for the first minutes, followed by team A that was playing for the next 20 minutes. Because the team and I knew that we can beat our opponents, we were slacking off. Since I personally thought that we're going to win the game, everybody took it very easy and the whole team played really bad. We didn't work as hard and put less effort to it, which made our game looks so messy and made most of our shots missed.

When we started winning, our coach told us to put less pressure to them by using less plays. Other than that, because we weren't taking it seriously, we had to play against them without dribbling the ball at all, just passing. It was a bit tricky because we were used to dribbling the ball, but then again, we learned more on passing and calling each others name when we needed help.

After 20 minutes, team B took a rest. Since team A is somehow better than team B (in my opinion only), our coach told them to only pass the ball for the whole 20 minutes and that those passes have to be 5 times before someone can shoot the ball. As I watched them play, honestly, I felt a bit jealous knowing that they have better chances in winning the game easier than us, and so on. But i didn't really think about that as much. What i was thinking about, (after team B has finished playing) was that somehow, we play better when playing against with a harder team. Maybe it's all because we felt more challenged, which made us definitely put more effort and be serious about it. Even though we might lose in playing a game against the harder teams, but we actually play better and that in a way, we improve; even just for a tiny bit.

The game has finally ended. We won! *yay* After playing the game, we had around 20 minutes before practice time ended. So, our coach decided to make us play against each other, team A vs team B. At first we were winning, but then obviously, the A team catch up. Even though we lost, we had fun (well, at least i did.) After 15 minutes of playing, our coach ended the practice by making us run a 'sweet sixteen'. Basically, we had to run 16 times, back and forth, from 1 side line to the other side line. I was tired, but overall it came out as an interesting practice. I wish that we had more, longer games, but i suppose that it would be impossible for that to happen. But, who knows... Right?!

-stePh

Physics and Math - Frederick

2007-08-30T11:43:00.000+07:00

Physics and Math… That sounds very smart doesn't it? Today I want to tell my story about physics and math. For me, both of the subject is actually fun, you don’t need to study and try to memorize all the things onto your brain. But today I will tell you what my first impression on IB Physics and Math is. Guess what? I have the same teacher for both of those subjects. It is good if you get good teacher for both of it actually. But guess what? I got the teacher that I could hardly understand.

Math is actually easier than physics, it doesn’t need to understand the words and formulas that physics student usually remember and understand. We only need a small amount of our logic and apply that to the situations. Every math class, I always learn all the things by my own book. I rarely hear what my teacher said. But yes, math is easier for me. I can like learn by myself and never fail the tests.

In the other hand, physics is like hell on earth. We should hear what our teacher has said and learn those ‘godly’ formulas and theories. In physics, I tried to hear my teacher’s explanation, but it’s just hard. Somewhat, the words never stuck in my head.

Newton’s laws of motion… I hate them. Einstein “e=mc^2”… I hate it too. What came into my head is that, why would all of the philosophers make those rules that makes our study difficult. I hate them. Einstein and Newton sucks. And one more that I don’t understand is that why should we study how to calculate velocity and acceleration? Even drivers who drive car that have the term “speed” in their car doesn’t need how to calculate the force and stuffs to have the desired speed. Oh man, what a waste!

In conclusion, what I think about physics and math are terrible. Hello, it’s more comfortable to study English and economics. Math and physics also make us to be blah. So yes, no need to type that long for the conclusion, they’re just hard. Why would my dream job want math and physics for their perquisites? *sobs*

-Frederick

English Premier League Now and Then

2007-08-29T21:32:00.000+07:00

Football has been the most popular sport played in United Kingdom, in fact more than 5 leagues exist so far. Like any other football country such as Italy, Spain,etc, England also have their evolving main league,Barclays or English Premier League (EPL). Similar to human evolution, which changes slowly both physically and the way they approach things, English Premier League has also changed dramatically on the way the "beautiful game" is played and the way teams approaches through hard competitive seasons.

The English First Division Football, English Premier League (Barclays), also known as FA cup League back then, was not founded until 1990 after the incident in Heysel. That was the year where the English was introduced to a football league and it grew rapidly. The FA Premier League was on of the most attended sporting league beside Spanish La Liga and Italy Serie-A. Though the path has not been smooth for the English league, but great football clubs have emerged from their comfort zone, from playing a local town to town match, to the prestigious European Champions League. The English football back then was not as hectic and serious as it is right now. In 1991-1992, there were only 11 foreigh players registered in the league, but as the league changes its approach to the game and capacity of playing, it reaches to a 45% foreign players playing in the league. Of course, with different talented players who magically changed the playing style of different teams, more English are interested to watch this sport. In fact, according to Wikipedia, EPL's revenue has reached the first position after Italian Serie-A with approximately 1.4 billion pounds. Playing style has also changed from the slow and steady game in Ian Rush golden times, to fast and pacy game like it is right now. Although there are changes in approach and pace, but the signature English Football moves are always their deadly quick passes and ball exchanges. One of the factors is of course the steady growth of technology in boots, balls, pitch, and stadium. Players have also contributed in the evolution of the league.

Talents like Gianfranco Zola, Michael Owen, Alan Sherer, and Andy Cole who played cool and slow passing game has gradually increase the intensity and speed of the game to the level like Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas, and Steven Gerrard nowadays. With new talents coming in, teams have also been more aggressive to sign new players. It was a little move like Roy Keane from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United, a great midfielder who turned Manchester United from just a football club to a multi champion both in England and Europe, inspired many other teams to increase and spend their transfer budget. Names like Roy Keane and Rio Ferdinand were just small players who turned out to be superstar, but nowadays, with the increasing number of millionaire and football fanatics, transfer budgets have increased to unimaginable numbers like Chelsea FC which spent 30 million pounds for the golden boots winner Andriy Shevchenko, another 20 more million for Floren Malouda and Claudio Pizzaro this season. Following them is Liverpool with 20+ million pounds on Fernando Torres and the underdog Newcastle which spent 20+ millions also on big players like Luque, Duff, Owen, etc. With big names signed, clubs are hoping to gain more wins in the league. This huge change in the player market has raised many questions on the number of domestic talents and crazy transfers which triggers many fans to ask," Now, will the teams be more money oriented than game oriented?" But with big names moving in English teams, number of football fanatics have increased dramatically and reached to the point where it is just 1 place behind the rich La Liga Spanish leage which is the number 1 football leage in the world.

In conclusion, as season changes, stadium buildings, technology, playing styles, talents, have been increasing in number and quality which raises the excitement of the game but also the money factor which raises many speculations on the future of the league.

-James

basketball.

2007-08-29T20:05:00.000+07:00

SPH v.s SMU 3 : 14-50

Yes, that was our final score for the girl’s team on last Monday. It’s so embarrassing. But for me, the game turned out to be quite FUN. There was a fight at almost the end of the game. It's not that big though, but still, it made me laugh all the way even though we were losing. At the early minutes of the first quarter, our team already got team fouls. And my first foul was so hard and tough. I slapped one of the SMU 3's girls, ACCIDENTALLY, and there was my hand mark on her hand. Then, when I tried to block the tallest girl on the other team, I ACCIDENTALLY slapped her face, twice. I was suprised the referee didn't call on me. She was really mad at me, but I didn't really care. At almost the end of the third quarter, Vania almost have a fight with one of the girl. But then the referee holds them and I saw Vania's hand ready to punch her face. At the end, Grace got fouled out, I got 4 fouls, and the rest of the team got 2-3 fouls.

There was also a fight between the referee and the other team’s coach. It was all started with a foul. The other coach didn’t agree on the call. So he started to complain. What I saw was that the referee gave them two technical fouls. Then, I started smiling, and laughing. The whole audience around the court cheering for us, maybe because they have pity for us.

The Ipeka Tomank’s court was so slippery, and the backboard was terrible that’s why we didn’t play good in our game. The court was surrounded by fence. So the basketball court is in the middle of the building with the canteen on the other side of the building, and classes across the other side. Thank God we played at 5 pm, because playing at 2pm on that court was so hot that I’m hot. (Doesn’t make sense, just kidding) After playing at that time, my skin became a lot darker, and I regret it for not using the sunblock.

The reasons we lost is that the SMU 3 consists of big players, way taller than the tallest girl in our team. And the players pretty buff too, they played like monsters that likes to eat balls. Seriously, when ever we had the ball in our hand, they always grab it, like grabbing it from a little kid. I admit it that their skill and endurance is better than our team, especially me. That’s why we have to work hard to immprove along the seasons.

The boys varsity team lost on their second game againts PSKD and the boys JV team lost on their first game againts SMUK 4, just like the girls team B that lost on their first game againts SMU 3 (AGAIN).

We are hoping to beat them in PH cup that will takes place on the beginning of November. So people mark your calendar and don’t go anywhere that time, and watch us.

GO SPH!!!!

By the way, I apologize if it’s boring.

-del

Jesus' Report Card

2007-08-27T23:13:00.000+07:00

Hey guys, I just find this thing on my email and for me this is very funny. I know this post is not related one thing to our English class at school. But Miss. Jessica told us to post whenever we feel like it. So, yea, here it goes:

Interm Report
Student: J. CHRIST  Form: III  Term: 1

SUBJECT	GRADE	TEACHERS COMMENT
Religion	D	To the question "Who made the world?" persisted in answering 'My dad'. Claims bible originated from the same source.
English	D+	Tends to speak and write in archaic forms and uses outmoded figures of speech.
History	A	Excellent pupil of ancient and Religious History.
Geography	C-	Assignment on 'Hot, dry lands' was excellent, but shows little interest in the rest. In geology, keeps talking about the Rock of Ages instead of the ages of Rock.
Social Studies	B+	Shows keen interest in social issues.
Mathematics	E	Lacks basics. Keeps muttering about 'Three in one' and 'I and the father are one'.
General Science	D	Lacks disipline - eg, when asked to repeat the experiment for making hydrogen, claims he knew a better way.
Graphic Communication	D	Prefers to draw with a stick in the sand to pencil and paper.
Consumer Education	C+	Interesting ideas about alternative life style: Something about living like sparrows and lilies of the fields...too impractical.
Art Craft	B	Obviously has imagination and creativity, a good potter - likes working with dirt and water.
Material Studies	A	Excellent in woodwork section. Obviously receives help and stimulation at home.
Music/Drama	B+	A keen member of the school choir. On occasions can be frighteningly dramatic.
Community Living	A	Keen and interested in all aspects of community.
Physical Education	D-	A trouble maker - eg during the learn-to-swim campaign insisted on trying to walk across the pool.
Health Classes	A	Shows a remarkable aptitude for first aid and knowledge of the body.
Home Ecconomics	A+	This kid really knows how to stretch a loaf of bread and a fish!

CLASS TEACHERS COMMENT: This boy has a very unhealthy tendency to form gangs. He has organized twelve of his friends into a gang and is seen constantly in the company of the children of publicans and sinners. He needs to be more selective in his choice of friends. Also, he should learn to keep his hair at a tidy length and not wear sandals with the school uniform.

NB: My writing day should be Thursday. So read Thompson's first for the Monday one guys. =)

-Frederick

Sigmund Freud -Thompson I

2007-08-27T23:06:00.000+07:00

Today, in Bahasa Indonesia class
I read about Sigmund Freud and his theory

Sigmund Freud, The father of psychoanalysis...
where he born and when; i don't really care about it
His proof of existence is on his contribution to humanity

I just learned a little bit about his "Theories of Personalities"
which consist of Id, Ego and Super Ego

I will just write this briefly that

Id is the urge to have pleasure, Desire. Pleasure Principle
Super Ego is conscience, the value of moral. Reality Principle
Ego is the one that balance both Id and Super Ego

Id and Super Ego usually contradicts each other

We could not get all our desire to be fulfilled. but at least some of it have to be fulfilled.
If they are not fulfilled, it still desires it, its not gone. If the desire is something that contradicts the morality and ethics of that time. The Super Ego will tell that it is not good to do such thing.

an example is that in the past, people shouldn't have sexual intercourse if not married, a person probably desires lust of sexual intercourse (Id) but he/she can't because they are not married (Super Ego). What will happen next is either he/she can maintain his/her lust or not (Ego).

If he/she could not maintain between super ego and id he/she will have a conflict within themselves. If id is out of control then he/she will made their desire fulfilled they would have a sexual intercourse with someone in this case. If super ego can suppress id, they did not do it, but the desire still there.

That pretty much covers what I learned from the article about Sigmund Freud's theory.
Personally I think it is interesting.

I've even made a mathematical equation for Happiness or Sad, I will put it some other time or next week its already 11:58 and I'm tired... also I have the Great Gatsby chapter 7 to read.
over and out

-Thompson

Daily Poster

2007-08-27T22:50:00.000+07:00

Monday: Thompson
Tuesday: James
Wednesday: Adela
Thursday: Frederick
Friday: Stephanie

Introduction

2007-08-27T16:57:00.001+07:00

hi, welcome to our blog. in this blog, the one who will take place are James, Thompson, Adela, Stephanie and me, Frederick.

have a good time here.

-Frederick