Disney on Ice!! =DD

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genius - Thompson XIV

Tuesday, 18^th of December 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is a genius anyway?

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

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

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

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

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

Jesse Thomas Lybianto... lucky bastard...

Talent - Thompson XIII

Sunday, 9^th of December 2007

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

After several dilemma I have reached a conclusion

Here is my definition of talent and diligent

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

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

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

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

Colloseum

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

James A2 HL

i MISS basketball..

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

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

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

[stePh]

A tiring weekend..

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

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

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

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

[stePh]

hate math.. grades falling.. =(

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

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

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

[stePh]

End of Year

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

James A2 HL

prayer and AIS tournament

PRAYER

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

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

AIS Tournament

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

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

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

ADELA