I want to purge this account. *sigh*

What do you do when you're heartbroken?

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You take online quizzes! Right! That's what you do.

My Political Views
I am a left moderate social libertarian
Left: 3.21, Libertarian: 2.92

Political Spectrum Quiz


Foreign Policy:

On the left side are pacifists and anti-war activists. On the right side are those who want a strong military that intervenes around the world. You scored: -8.06

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -8.06

Political Spectrum Quiz


Culture:

Where are you in the culture war? On the liberal side, or the conservative side? This scale may apply more to the US than other countries. You scored: -4.7

My Culture War Stance
Score: -4.7

Political Spectrum Quiz

Sebelum mulai baca, mari gw kasih tau poin-poin yang bikin marah.

1. Waktu dia sebut-sebut prestasi Indonesia, mari saya ingatkan, data prestasi Tim Olimpiade Fisika Indonesia (TOFI) di olimpiade, medali di IPhO selama ini (18 tahun) adalah 20 emas, 18 perak, 25 perunggu dan 15 honourable mention. Prestasi di APhO selama 11 tahun: 22 emas, 13 perak, 18 perunggu dan 21 honourable mention.

2. Tim Pembina terbaik yang dimiliki TOFI adalah alumninya sendiri, orang-orang yang pernah ikut Olimpiade sebelumnya dan tahu betul sistemnya. Plus, biasanya mereka masih muda, tau cara komunikasi dengan sesama orang muda. Karena mereka dibimbing oleh Surya Institute, kayaknya Diknas terus sentimen, dan milih dosen-dosen PTN yang konon terjemahan soal Olimpiadenya aja dipertanyakan. (Dan soal-soal latihannya... put it this way, gw aja ketawa.) Dosen ini jadi koordinator, dan lambat-laun jadi pembina. Lihat aja nanti.

3.“Seluruh rangkaian kegiatan olimpiade internasional bidang fisika bukan program TOFI, ini adalah program pemerintah dalam hal ini Direktorat Pembinaan SMA. Diknas juga tidak mengadakan kerjasama dengan lembaga atau yayasan lain yang mengatasnamakan Diknas, kita tidak ada MoU dengan lembaga tersebut. Namun jika kerjasama dengan perguruan tinggi negeri memang dilakukan." He said. Hahaha, kita semua juga tahu bahwa kerjaan berat sebelumnya dikerjakan Surya Institute. Sekarang begitu Indonesia punya nama di Olimpiade, terus Diknas mau ambil semuanya.
Herein lies the difficulty of having a gentlemen's agreement, when only one side is gentlemanly. I'll tell you what it's like, it's like Disney mau bikin Toy Story 3 tanpa melibatkan orang-orang Pixar.

4. One that hits home with me, tentang beasiswa. Pantesan gw nggak dapet apa-apa, rupanya nggak di-endorse Dik n Ass. Jadi, kalo mau beasiswa, ikut Diknas aja, jangan ikut yang lain-lain, kamu hanya diakui cerdas kalo ikut Diknas, yang nggak sama Diknas berarti nggak cerdas. Alumni TOFI yang sebelum pengambil-alihan ini juga jadi nggak dapet deh.

Btw, Mukhlis ini orang yang mengepalai panitia ICYS 2010 di Bali, yang bikin gw depresi dua minggu dikelilingi yes-men dan superficial people.

( Peran Kemendiknas di Ajang Olimpiade Internasional oleh Dr. Mukhlis Catio M,Ed )

Between 2006-2007 I asked my mom to send me copies of the latest shonen magz and shonen star, for every month that I can't buy them myself. She did send me one copy of shonen magz, some time mid-year, and that's it. Maybe it was too much for her to go through my collection and see the ones I already have, she didn't realize that it's a monthly thing. My energy was spent trying to understand and be understood in that new language, so I never did get around to tell her this fact.

Circumstances introduced me to the wonderful world of scanlations and downloaded translated mangas. It was so great! I could read Fruits Basket, Beck, Kungfu Boy, everything, every day until my eyes are sore (and in the case of Fruits Basket, to the end of the series). My favourites were VNmanga and One Manga. One of the first things I did in Jakarta was, I went to Gramedia and got so disappointed that in my excitement I've over-read, and I'd have to wait many many months until the chapters I haven't read were published here. But it's okay. I also felt betrayed because apparently the amateur translations were mostly better than the ones done by Indonesian professionals. Especially the editing.

Now VNmanga is not around anymore, and OneManga is closing. The times are a-changing. Not for the better, at least for me.

I found my 2006 notebook. It was a lovely one, Cathy Jordan East's Blue Diary. If I had known it would be so nice, would've bought five or six at once. Like Hemingway with his Moleskine.

Read some of the notes, damn embarassing. I actually used words like "fuck" very deliberately then. Saying it is one thing, having it written down is another. Harr harr harr.

Toshiba L645, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Because of the name.

I'm your friend who judges a book by its title. Nook, I like. Kindle, superb. Vivaz, Zylo, Spiro, Satio, Aino, Naite, I can stomach. Apple itself is a friendy, non-threatening name, back when people were scared of being eaten alive by an IBM giant calculator. But iPad? Excuse me.

That, and because for now, file sharing is not yet made easy by the whole Apple experience. I like my food to come in my plate already bite-sized.

I am looking for a mobile workstation, but not going to Singapore anytime soon.
http://www.wayangtimes.com/delayed-to-may-2010-for-ipad-in-singapore-and-non-usa-international-markets.html

Barusan gw bikin nasi goreng pake kelapa parut sisa topping kue putu. Ternyata enak. Tadinya mau pake bumbu kari instan Jepang juga, tapi kayaknya kelapa lebih sejoli dengan rasa kari India. Pernah suatu masa beberapa bulan yang lalu, gw jadi sangat tertarik dengan kari. Di Onemanga hanya ada dua judul yang temanya Cooking: Yakitate Japan (yang lama-lama jadi malesin karena terlalu fantastis, hahaha, Sensei Dave/Debu gw masih bisa terima, Kawachi berubah jadi daruma, wtf?) dan Addicted to Curry. Jadilah gw baca Addicted to Curry, berchapter-chapter, sampe cape sendiri. Yakitate terlalu fantastis, Addicted to Curry terlalu banyak fanservice! Agh! Sebelumnya gw pikir gw cukup toleran dengan fanservice, tapi kalo tiap chapter dan ceweknya bego yang ada gw jadi kesel.

Anyway, yaaa barusan gw makan nasi goreng pake kelapa parut yang nggak dipakein kari instan Jepang. Titik.

Daaan, menghapus 1722 emails dari Facebook di inbox Yahoo sungguh bukan pekerjaan mudah dengan koneksi lambat, huhu. Harusnya dari dulu gw kerjain. Ini email-email 2009 dan 2008, karena 2010 akhirnya gw empet dan matiin fungsi email otomatis. Itu juga harusnya udah dari dulu.

Satu hal lain yang pengen gw lakukan dari dulu adalah belajar nari. As in ballroom dance, atau apa aja yang berpartner. Waktu kecil gw belajar balet, satu kelas ada dua guru, tapi suatu hari satu guru gw cuti hamil dan yang satu lagi entah ke mana. Selama satu bulan. Akhirnya gw keluar karena orangtua gw kesel satu bulan bayar angin. Terus pas SD pernah juga belajar "tari daerah", tapi sebagaimana les macem ini biasanya, sebenernya yang diajarin adalah tari kontemporer dengan feel daerah tertentu. Not so cool, dan bukan sesuatu yang terlalu menarik untuk dibanggakan. Gedean dikit lagi gw belajar musik dan terdampar di dunia ini. Tapi gw masih pengen belajar nari. Kayaknya asik, kenal badan sendiri, dan penari yang gw kenal cakep semua.

Di pesta manado gw ikut nari sih, poco poco, sajojo, line dance standar yang menurut oom gw militeristik, hahaha. Semua orang gerakannya sama. Dan disko, tapi siapa sih yang nggak? Pernah juga sebelum pernikahan sodara, kami sekeluarga dikasih pendidikan singkat tari-tari sosial, tapi sama aja, line dance. Di Brazil, waktu ikut tur sebulan penuh ke Nordeste, kita dapet les singkat Forro. Terus besoknya pergi ke satu Forro club where I danced my dance for a lifetime. Gw dapet partner dancer club itu, dan dia sangat penuh trik dan beat dan asli asyik banget. Itu pertama kali gw dilempar ke udara dengan penuh keyakinan akan ditangkap lagi dan waktu gw diswing ke atas keringet gw actually jatuh ke lantai, juga pertama kali buat gw.

Sekarang gw punya banyak waktu, di luar latihan piano dan magang yang mulai bulan depan, buat ambil kelas tari. Thing is, kalo tempat les musik gw tau, tari? Gw lagi tanya Mbah Gugel sambil berharap ada tempat les yang isinya anak muda, please please please.

I miss writing in LJ! Changed my layout, thinking if it wasn't so somber I'd perhaps use it more, but this one's still a miss. It's time to make my own layout again, perhaps ^_~

So last week I was in Bali, as a Liaison Officer in the International Conference of Young Scientists. As a participant in 2005 and 2008, I begged to be involved in the committee when I knew Indonesia would be playing host this year. But damn was it a fiasco! I didn't know it was Diknas running the show. My alarm first went off in a meeting in Jakarta. The director of whatever-division-it-was said that as L.O.s we need to be able to warm up to the participants because they would all be nerds and geeks with minimum social skills. Okay, not in so many words, but in that tone. Ha...

To look at the bright side (as my mom always insists on) I met many weird and wonderful friends in the conference. Smart-asses fun-loving people, the best kind. A boy asked me, as we were standing on a beach, what causes low tide and high tide. It's influence by the moon's gravity, I said. You know what he said? Yes, I know that, I just wanted to hear it from you. &%@$#%!
And last night I had a chat with another guy, a programmer, to whom I explained the idea of Google-stalking a person through real names and online nicknames. "I'm a programmer, I know what it means to-google." I know you know. It was hard to believe. He told me he's never done it before.

Oh I miss hanging around them! So much that for a couple of days, the only writer I could stomach was Jeanette Winterson, for her poetics and sort of disjointed imagery. Now I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk, after hearing more horror stories about how the Diknas people as organizers *shivers* Chuck Palahniuk is especially good when you're angry. The way he doesn't hold back on the rough stuff. Yum.

I'm reading The Life of Pi after this. No spoiler please.