Pre Exam Ramblings #1

I really shouldn't write all these when my exam is about to start in less than 48 24 hours... Oh well...

If you're the sort of person who has troubles finding discussion materials, you're in for a treat! We are currently facing two colossal events that most people can relate to: Indonesia Presidential Election and World Cup 2014. You will never run out of topics to talk about! It will be enough until next long holiday, which is Idul Fitri in July, where relatives and extended families normally gather and discuss all ranges of possible topics, from science, business, to numerology (clearly I'm speaking from experience here).

Anyway, this post will not discuss politics (the number of Kompasiana articles posted in Facebook about this topic is too damn high!) nor football (cannot say I'm a fan myself). Let's proceed with something lighter, yes?

Crimea, anyone?

As I promised in my previous post, this time I'll write about the follow up of my 'No Excuse Week'.

In a nutshell, the project was a big success. It was a great week actually. Some of the things that I managed to pull:
- Finally ride my bike along the bike trail nearby my house. I've been meaning to do it since ages ago but kept postponing it.
- Finish my assignments for the week earlier than due date.
- Bought a yearly planner and actually using it for my schedule.
- Auditioned for a theatrical play (and actually got the supporting role for that)

Funny thing happened at that time. The day after I posted the article, just after I finished my lunch in my campus Union House (a place for food stalls + common rooms for clubs + etc), a gym instructor started gathering people for a session of Zumba. I never had a Zumba session before, and it seemed interesting at that moment. And just like that, once the thought of joining them for the session pops in my mind, I realized I cannot back down from it due to my own restriction. Argh, darn it Universe! Why did you bring the class in this exact moment!? So yes, I joined the class, and it was not the end of the story. We did the routines, in front of the watching crowds, and at the end, the instructor asked for 3 volunteers to join him on the platform... Well you can guess the rest of the story. No excuses were made that day, and with that, no regrets.

"No regrets", he said to himself as he performs some weirdly-
choreographed dance moves in front of the watching audience...

Maybe I need to explain a little bit on why I do all of this. By default, I'm someone who doesn't enjoy being under the spotlight. I fear a lot of things: meeting new people, talking in front of the class, having different opinions with others. To have fears is ok, but dictated by it is not. It hinders your growth, and is something that I don't want to ponder in my deathbed. This realization is what drives me to do these sorts of seemingly trivial things.

I was extremely happy with my result, but it's not easy maintaining a state of no excuse for more than a week. I haven't reached that stage yet, and it's fine. Still have 1.5 years to practice it while I'm still in Australia. Who knows what I'll get at the end of this journey? 

Well then, with all that being said, time to go back to my study.
See you next time, folks!

Pain

Have you ever wondered why we can feel pain?

In our body, lies an overarching system called the nervous system. It consists of two parts: central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (sensory, motor neurons, etc). This complex system controls how the body operates: whenever we encounter external stimuli, the sensory neurons throughout our body will send signals to the central nervous system, the central nervous system determines which action the body will take, then it sends another signal to corresponding motor neurons to execute the action. 

Of course it's more complicated than that, but who wants to learn this much in single blog post?

It turns out "pain" is how the brain interprets many of the external stimuli that pose danger to us. Sharp thorns, flaming torch, chilling ice, they all possess harmful quality to humans. Thorns could pierce through our skin, damaging the tissue and exposing it to infectious agent; Pain that we feels when we touch one is the way of our body saying, "Stop whatever you're doing and Ctrl+Z to previous position!" Not only beneficial, this "warning" system is very important for our survival. A person with high tolerance for pain might be stronger, but he will probably hurt himself a lot more in the process. This reason, along with some others, is probably why nervous system become prevalent in most of the multicellular organism. 

Apparently, survival of this plant rooted in humanity's masochistic
tendency to consume substance that triggers pain

The source of pain that we're having don't have to be physical pain, there's also emotional ones. Loosing something so dear to us, such as death of loved ones, can give real emotional pain. Emotional pain is even linked with the physical ones. According to Professor Martin Cowie from Brompton Hospital, "There is an increased risk of dying in the six months after bereavement and it's particularly marked amongst men." Men, do take care of your loved ones if you don't want to die early.

Anyway, where am I going with all these? Well, I'm discussing about pain because around this month, 16 years ago, Indonesia faced a very painful chapter in its history: May 1998 Riots. During these times, violent riots broke off in several big cities in Indonesia. Numerous buildings were burned, thousand civilians were killed, hundreds woman (mainly from Indonesian' Chinese ethnic) were raped, while the fully equipped armed and police forces were "unable" to contain the situation. Fast forward 16 years, and here we are: still stuck in square one. No apology from the government for their failure of protecting their citizens, no legal inquiry were made by the Attorney General Office, and still no justice for the victims. I would love to share more, but sadly my knowledge goes only as far as this below clip shows.

Remembering this painful tragedy is not pleasant, even for someone who wasn't affected directly like me. I cannot start to imagine how the survivors would feel, having to continue their lives with that big of emotional burden. How it affects their lives, and their future. 

Maybe it is easier to just forget about all of these things and live like nothing has ever happened. And maybe that's what's happening in our country: people choose to forget bad things that happened in the past. The way some people regard Soeharto era as better than current regime reflects this tendency. But it is important to always remind ourselves about the tragedy, particularly like this one. Remembering our past won't guarantee a better future, but forgetting it will only lead to disasters. If we cannot reverse what had already happened, the least we can do is prevent another tragedy to happen ever again. If we don't remember our own history, then who will?

PS: Reflections for my previous post will have to wait for next time! Stay tune for that :)

Excuse

Hey, long time no see. It took quite a while for me to start writing again in this blog. But hey, I’m back now, so let’s get going.

First of all, summary of my life story so far: I got a scholarship from AusAID last year, I’ve resigned from my lab in Kalbe, I’ve taken the mandatory 6-week English class in IALF Kuningan as part of my scholarship, and BAM! Now I’m Australia, (supposedly) studying for my Master’s degree. I know, those will need at least several posts, but patience my friend. Everything in its due time.

Let's open today's little story with this video. It's a long one, but I think one worth to watch.

The video is quite infuriating. If there's one thing that I learned from the video, it's the fact that the members of our House of Representatives are very good at making excuses. Just look for yourselves, as they maneuvers through the facts that:

• they have a bad attendance level (ranging from 80% to 0% attendance)
• their law completion rate are very bad (from 2010 to 2013, they have 40%, 25%, 43%, and 26% law completion rate).
• the quality of laws that they passed are questionable 

In the video, they would blame the lack of special staff that they have, that attendance list doesn't reflect the actual performance, and that their jobs are "different" compared to normal jobs so normal measurements like attendance list cannot be used. It's funny how they can whine and make excuses when their salaries are as high as 1million IDR per year! Yeah, you basically lost your right to whine when your salary is that high.

It's pretty sad, but you know what's the worse part? That we are not much different from them. We make excuses all the time. I know I did: The traffic was jammed, therefore I'm late. The assignment was too hard, therefore I got bad score. The time wasn't enough, that's why I couldn't finish on time. The classes was boring anyway, might as well just skip it. I got too busy, I don't have time to write anymore.

By making excuses, we are removing ourselves from the burden. And yes, sometimes that's the right thing to do, especially when the problem is actually not you. Bad things do happen all the time, and we have to acknowledge that. But we humans just get so good at making excuses, we use it all the time, even when we're not supposed to.

So, I'm  going to throw this idea to you guys: 

No-Excuse Week 

One whole week, dedicated to having no excuses. 
No more canceling plans because you're lazy, no more being too afraid to do something that you know you wanted to do, no more blaming external factors when you know it's your fault. Just commit to the idea for a week, and check again next week whether you still want to commit to it.

Im doing it myself starting today. Let's see how it goes.
Until then, see ya!

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.” ― Jordan Belfort

Edit:
There is this cool article that I forgot to mention. Read the top answer and get pumped!

Breaking My Habit, Day+15: Does School Kill Creativity?

A quick update on my personal life: I've resigned from my position in KalGen, had a week break of any activity, then started my 6-week English preparation class in IALF, Kuningan. It's part of the Australian Development Scholarship scheme that I'm participating in, and this is the second week of my study there. So far it's been great experience, I think I'll write about it next time. 

So, back to the top, where does the quote came from?
It belongs to Sir Ken Robinson, an British prominent figure in education. Below is his TED talk video back in 2006. It's about 20 minutes, but it will definitely worth your time!

In the video, Ken Robinson argues about the importance of creativity, how our school system is killing it, and why it is important to change this.

Some other highlights from his talk:
- We stigmatize 'being wrong' to such extent that it hinders our creativity, especially when we become adult. 

- There are many sides to intelligence, but sadly the school system only recognizes one type and downplays the rest.

- At its current state, the 'real' output of our education system is college professors. There is nothing wrong with college professors, only that we mustn't forget that there are many other equally important jobs out there, the kind which had been neglected by our system.

He tells a bunch of good stories along the way, just watch it yourself!

"If a man speaks his mind in the forest and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?" Sir Ken Robinson 

Breaking My Habit, Day+14: Test of Character

Ok, my whole habit has been officially destroyed with that trip to Lombok.. Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?

Abraham Lincoln, the great president of United States who abolish slavery (and vampires, apparently).

Reading this quote, it would be easy picturing man of powers (our leaders) who more often than not failed to meet our expectations of how a leaders should behave. The notion of leaders that fail to deliver are so abundant in our daily conversations, these kind of news become such a great reliever.

But pointing fingers are always easy, isn't it? Just as it is so easy for us to give advices to our friends but not to ourselves, it is also very easy to judge others but forget about ourselves. In this realization, let's ask our own, how did I fare when I'm in the position of power?

I'm pretty sure most of you will replied, 'I haven't got that much power, so how should I know?' Indeed, I also thought the same way, at first. So far, I've never been in position where I have great power, at least not large enough to affect my character.

It's ok, bottom dwellers

Eventually, I came to this realization. No matter what is our position in our company / family / organization, each and everyone of us have the ultimate say in terms of one thing: how we manage our time.

Time, just like money, is power. It's one of the few things in life where everybody got a fair share: every person, be it a king or peasant, has the same 24 hours each day, no more and no less.  
The question left is, how good have we been in using this power? 

I failed miserably in this test. No blog posts for weeks, low productivity at the office.. Well I'll stop before further embarrassing myself. 

As for you guys, please judge yourself, and let me know how it goes. I'll close with this quote from my Mom, just to make sure all of you can share my guilt ;)

Those who waste their time will in turn get wasted by their time - Norma Liesje Tanoko

Breaking My Habit, Day+12: Snooze!

My laptop charger broke last week and it led me to a full week of no laptop. Thanks to this, I was forced to write only on my 3.5" cellphone, which, frankly, was good to take short notes but not so much for a complete one. I also tried to write at the office, but I found it to be too distracting, so I gave it up. Thus, no single post in this blog for a week (well, almost 2 weeks actually).

I found the break to be a much needed refreshment, like a snooze in the morning. Lately I've been spreading myself too thin, juggling between work / friends / families / other stuffs. Focusing on this single project, no matter what positive effect it created, had also taken its toll (less time for friends / families / rest to name a few). 

Next thing you know, you sleep for like an hour

At the end, I decided to just post here weekly instead of the usual daily. There are so many things to do out there, it's time for more exploration! 

I'll see you guys, next week! :)

Breaking My Habit, Day+11: Best Ages to be Alive!

Several days ago, my friend and I were discussing about our lives. One of the things that we agreed on was that 20s is definitely the best ages to be alive! I'll explain the reason why, but before that, let's take a look at this picture below.

The picture differentiates people into three types: young, adult, and old. Most of the time, the descriptions are correct: young people usually don't have a steady supply of income, they can only rely on their parents for money. Adult ones, probably just finished their study, are occupied with their first jobs, and are running out of time. Old people, having retired from their jobs, are (supposedly) having a lot of time and money, but not the energy.

Of course the description are not always true. For instance, not every adult can get a decent job that pays well; some are stuck in a job that drains all of their energy but doesn't pay that much. Also, not everybody can retire with loads of money; some haven't acquired enough during their younger days and are still 'forced' to work even when they're supposed to retire. Yes, shit does happen. 

So, what does this have to do with my notion that 20s are the best ages to be alive?

It has to do with the fact that the balance of these three components are the key to your overall happiness. Problems start to arise when one of them are not sufficient enough: not enough money, time, or energy.

The biggest benefit for us 20s is the combinations of traits. Our energy is still overflowing just like the younger ones, but unlike them, we already had a steady supply of money. We are not too burdened with responsibilities like kids or family, and we can still experiment with our career (which is hard to do if you're already in your 30s or 40s). We have some experience with life, but not too much that it made us cynical (like some old people would become).

The biggest challenge (not the only, mind you) we will be facing in our 20s is the time management! If only you could manage your time well, balancing between your work and other stuffs, you can do whatever it is that you wanted to do in your spare time. Combined with your limited-but-still-enough supply of money, that's really a sweet spot to hit on!

Breaking My Habit, Day+10: Glitch

Something really weird happened to me yesterday. 

Below, is screenshot taken from my friend's cellphone, when she messaged me in LINE.

So far so good

And here, is the screenshot taken from my own cellphone.

Wow, that escalate quickly!

Yeah, somehow, a glitch occurred in my cellphone and caused it to display the mature ads instead of the sticker... I have no explanation for this..

Breaking My Habit, Day+9: Fasting

Ramadan, the holy month.

Starting tomorrow, Moslems in the world would start the fasting tradition for one full month. The goal was to subdue our desire / lust for one month and (hopefully) in the process, making us a better person.

My mom always tell me that when you suppress something inside yourself (your feelings / urges / etc), there will be a huge retaliation afterwards. Just like when you inflate a balloon, it can stretch to a certain degree, holding all the air inside. But, if you keep inflating it beyond limit, the balloon will explode, releasing all of the air at once.

The same thing happens when we're fasting. After being committed not to eat for the entire day, we often have our 'revenge' in the afternoon by eating more than needed. It also happens in the Lebaran day, when we eat and eat and eat, despite our battle against our desire for a whole month.

Eating more than we need is not good, it just shows how greed we actually are. I don't think that's the purpose of this whole fasting tradition, is it?

So, happy fasting everyone! Let's try to become a better person by constantly reminding ourselves that anything that is too much is not good. Cheers!

Breaking My Habit, Day+6 +7 +8: Jakarta Startup Weekend July 2013

Jakarta Startup Weekend July 2013 is finally over!

I mentioned about this event several weeks ago, but if you haven't read it, here's the summary:

The concept for the event is quite simple. In 54 hours, participants are required to form teams and develop an IT-related startup idea. They will need to refine those ideas, validate it with potential customers, find the business model, and most importantly, make the simple prototype for it (either a mobile app or website). At the end of the 3rd day, each team will need to present their ideas in front of several judges, who will then select top 3 teams based on their business model, customer validation, and execution (technical and design-wise). 

I have no idea what are those judging criterias...

Anyway, the participants are categorized into 3 types: a designer, developer, and non-technical. A designer designs, developer writes the codes, and non-technical person is usually the businessman type, the ones with the most experience when dealing with business aspects of a product. I picked the non-technical role, as I am not a designer nor developer. Well, I'm not really a businessman, but I think that's the closest thing I can manage to be.

The event took place in @america, Pacific Place (1st day) and Prasetiya Mulya Business School Cilandak (2nd and 3rd day). 

Prasetiya Mulya Business School

The class where the event took place

Nice spot for hanging around

A lot of cool ideas were pitched in the event. After carefully selecting the ideas, I decided to join 'Sekolah Pengembangan Diri' team. Our team's idea is to create a platform where trainers (motivational trainers, etc) could post their content and the viewers (people who needs access to those content) can get it for free. The leader of our team was actually a trainer himself, and he showed his crowd-grabbing skills in his final pitch!

He really looks like Ryan Higa 

Too bad our team did not win the game, but winning was never on my check list in the first place (the winner definitely deserve their winning). My intention was to have fun, meet new people, and learn new stuffs. In those aspects, I have no complaints.

Some of the things that I learned in these past 3 days:

- How a startup company is made. Start with your idea, 'match' it with what the customer needs (validation), refine the idea when needed, find the appropriate business model and revenue stream, create the financial model, then execute the plan and see what happens. Check out these series of video if you wanted to know more.

- Idea is not everything. A good idea does not guarantee a successful company. A normal idea with good execution is better than good idea with poor execution.

- Release early, release often. The kind of strategy that was used by Natali Ardianto, CTO of Tiket.com, when developing his booking company. The idea is not to spend too much time polishing the product (long development time) and instead release it early, polishing the product along the way using customers' feedback.

- Monetization is important for all kinds of businesses. You're creating a company, not a charity foundation. 

- Be not afraid of failures. It's part of being successful. They even say that "Your first startup is going to fail" to emphasize that it is perfectly fine to fail on your attempts, as long as you get back right on your feet. 

In all, meeting a lot of great people from different background and listening to the coaches criticizing your ideas are really humbling experience. It puts your mind in the right perspective, that there are still soo many things each of us could learn, potentials we haven't tapped.

Thanks Grupara for holding this event, I'll see you with my own idea next time!

Got this book from good guy Amazon Web Services. Thanks guys!

Breaking My Habit, Day+5: Shave For Hope 2013

Several weeks ago, I got this message in my handphone:

"Dear Friends, Please turn ur profile pic into the Burning Candle of HOPE as on my profile. Then ask everyone on your BBM to do the same for 24 hrs for ALL Cancer Patients. Also we wish everyone to take 1 minute to bring all Cancer patients before The Almighty in prayer. Every flame represents a prayer said for a cancer patient."

I've always been at doubt about this kind of message. I feel that if you ONLY change your profile picture, pray for the cancer patient, then stop at that, you're helping nobody (well, except maybe some encouragement for those patients who did see your profile picture). I know, it doesn't cost me anything to do this, but I don't see the benefits, either (pardon me for being skeptical). That is why I didn't bother changing my profile pictures or broadcasting the message. 

Similarly toned stories could be taken from Facebook. I'm pretty sure you've encountered pictures which stated that for every like / share that the picture get, something good will happen (X will donate Y to Z, e.g: Facebook will donate $1 to kids in Africa). This one is different than the first story as it actually dupes the reader into clicking the 'like' / 'share' button (not really harmful, just makes me want to say "Owh.." and pat you on the back). 

Good Guy  Facebook, donating for every share

The over-abundance of these kind of pictures even gave birth to this cute little internet meme..

Even the African kids are judging you

.. and even a campaign from the Unicef about making the actual, monetary donation.

Yeah, the world doesn't run on likes.

If you are interested in actually helping other people, but don't have that much money to spare, let's go together to Shave for Hope 2013. For every person who shaved their heads, funds will be raised (by the sponsors) for Yayasan Pita Kuning Anak Indonesia, a foundation that specifically helps children with cancer.

It doesn't take much out of you (except your hair) but it will really make a difference. The event will be held on Gandaria City Mall, Sunday September 15, 2013. This time, let's be bald for a good reason. See you there!

P.S: 
As I will be too busy from tomorrow 'til Sunday for Jakarta Startup Weekend, blog posts for those 3 days will be combined in 1 giant post next week. Stay tuned!

Breaking My Habit, Day+4: Worry

Worrying does not solve anything.

Few years ago, my college friend taught me that worrying over anything was basically stupid. 

Consider this scenario. You're stuck inside your car in a traffic jam. You're going to watch a show that starts at 7 o'clock, while now it's already 6. You're still 5 km away from your destination, but the traffic moves slower than your walking speed. 

In the car, several thoughts are coming to your mind. You are now worried that you're not gonna arrive on time. You will miss the show, and your money, and your time spent on the traffic for nothing. 

If only you bring your bike

At this point, actually there are two possibilities. Either you arrive on time, or you don't. 

If you ended up arrive on time, that means all your worrying before was for nothing. You arrived on time because the traffic was getting cleared, not because of the worry. Being worried just ruins your night a little bit.

And if you ended up not arriving on time, was being worried helped you in any way? Did it reimburse your show / money / time? Still no! You missed the show, lost your money, and wasted your time. All that the worry did was adding an extra burden to your mind, ruining your mood, and probably adding one or two strands of silver hair to your head. 

So no, worrying does not help, at all. If you ever feel worried about anything, do something about it. If you can't do anything about it, then don't sweat it. Trying to control things that you cannot control, that's what makes your life miserable! 

That's all for today, see you tomorrow!

Breaking My Habit, Day+3: Superstition

With all the science training that they've taken, you'd think that scientists are the least superstitious people on the planet, right?

Wrong.

It's funny, but due to the nature of our experiments (deals with invisible stuffs / dependent on organisms / easily contaminated / etc), sometimes determining the cause of our failure was not that straight forward. And when the logical reasons cannot explain our problems, we often look for the 'otherworldly' reasons.
Did I tie my hair correctly? Have I changed my lab coat recently? Was this a punishment because I did something? Yeah, those kinds of stuffs. 

One of the most common procedure in molecular biology lab is DNA extraction. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, are basically small molecules that act as blueprints for our body (well, not just us, but every living things actually). The molecule was normally dissolved in water and too small for our eyes to see. In conventional DNA extraction, at one point we will need to precipitate the DNA and compacted it into small pellets. 

Even when you can't see the pellets, it's actually possible that the DNA were there and you just can't see it because it's too small. But still, if you've repeated this step over and over, even a slight setback would hurt your confidence, and maybe get you a wee bit more religious. "Oh God please please please let me have those darn pellets!"

DNA Pellets, making scientists more religious since 1960s

Being superstitious is definitely happening not just to me, but is shared by biology students all over the globe. I remember reading this article about PCR troubleshooting method (PCR is one of the most common skills for a biology student). The list was really exhaustive, it even mention things like 'bad karma hypothesis' and suggest making a good deeds to solve it! The author must've gotten pretty desperate getting the PCR product! :)

For me, I think this kind of superstition is just a learning phase. Deep down, we knew that our superstition are not rational and more likely to be wrong, but for now, we'll stick to it rather than getting confused in the unknowns. Human brain loves to connect the patterns, and any kinds of 'reason' is probably easier for our brains to handle. I believe that as we continue to study further, we'll know better, and eventually we'll outgrew the phase. Well I hope, at least.

But enough talking for now, I need to get my beauty sleep for my
DNA extraction tomorrow ;) See ya!

Breaking My Habit, Day+2: Weekend as Usual

Hi, how's your weekend?

I spend my weekend at home as usual. This week all of my families were out of town, so my Mom asked me specifically not to go anywhere and stay at home. It's funny, normally I'm fine just stay at home doing nothing, but because my mom asked me not to go anywhere, suddenly I have this urge to just go somewhere else. Haha, really funny, brain.

One of these days, I'll get an intervention for making too many custom-made memes.

So.. that's it?
Hahaha, yeah, that's it for today. See you tomorrow, folks! :p

#sloth #lazybrain 

Breaking My Habit, Day+1: Continue?

Hey, it's been 2 weeks since I finished my little project. Today I feel like sharing, so, here we go!

Wonder what I've been doing these past two weeks?

Eating lots of snacks and playing lots of games!

"Can I get one more of that chicken wing? One more bucket I mean."

Well, I guess it comes as a no brainer for you guys, but I for one thought that maybe I would be able restrain myself more and probably hold back a bit on the light bites.

But no. I held nothing back, I eat and eat and eat.
The fact that there are lots of snacks at the office did not help at all.

Also, my life got a little boring. Before, I always try to find ideas on what to write for this blog. It drives me crazy sometimes, but to be honest, I enjoy the whole process: from finding the idea to write it down. It's like when you got tired from going to the gym, but you actually 'enjoy' that feeling of pain. Now, nothing drives me to do all that. These ideas came from time to time, but because nothing 'forces' me to put on the hard work and actually starts writing it, nothing will ever be done.

So, this experience serves as a reminder for me. I learn three things at least:

1. Old habits die hard, and just because I can restrain myself for 40 days, doesn't mean the habits will be gone after that.

2. Freedom is not always a good thing. You will need maturity to go with it. In my case, I need some boundaries so I can move to the right direction. I began to think this is the reason why religions sometimes gave a lot of rules, because frankly, human are a mess to begin with. 

3. Ideas are not everything. A hefty amount of work is still needed for the ideas to flourish. 

So, having learnt this, I decided to continue on this little project. Now, my target is 50-days of writing daily, not having snacks in between meals, and no games (all kinds of games) during the weekdays. The last thing I need right now is feeling exhausted at the office due to lack of sleep.

We'll see how far I could go this time. Enjoy the weekends and see you tomorrow!

P.S: this event will commence next week! Go register NOW!

Pandji Pragiwaksono: Book Review

"What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere."

- Inception, 2010

The quote is appropriate when we're reviewing these three books:

NASIONAL.IS.ME, Merdeka Dalam Bercanda, Berani Mengubah.

Although each book is unique in itself, all three of them are filled with one basic idea:  that every person is responsible to make the change that he wants to see in the society. To fully appreciate the beauty of these three books, it's important that we grasp this basic idea first. 

NASIONAL.IS.ME is where everything begins, the prima causa for the rest of our story. In this almost autobiographic book, Pandji invited us to his own world. He shared his reasons for being optimistic in our nation's future. By following his journey from childhood throughout college, his experience travelling across Indonesia, and even his not-so-mainstream hip hop career *wink wink*, we will learn so much about our diverse country, and even more about the author. 

His optimism in Indonesia is not a blind one, he just sees what most of us cannot. For someone who lives in Jakarta through his whole life and rarely travels to other parts of Indonesia (like me), the book is an eye-opener. It presents a new feeling of restlessness: I'm now infected with his idea that the future of our nation lies in our hands, not in some people we called 'governments'. 

Pandji's second book, Merdeka Dalam Bercanda, is a documentary on the stand up comedy movement in Indonesia. Not everybody is fond of stand up comedy, but I think his arguments on why Indonesia needs this type of comedy is valid. As a country that has plethora of problems, we all could use some good laugh. And some critical thinking won't hurt, either.

The reason why stand up got its hype right now is because the passion of the people who introduced it, and Pandji was one of them. If you don't understand why people from stand up community reveres Pandji so much even though he bombs a lot (kidding!), you might want to check out this book.

The third and the final book, Berani Mengubah, is a call to arms from Pandji to all of his readers. If NASIONAL.IS.ME was meant to trigger our passion, this book provides guidelines for us to translate this newly-found passion into actions. 

The book provides list of things that everyone can take to help our struggling nation, one small step at a time. The list is quite exhaustive, but the point is clear. If we want to improve Indonesia, we can first start by improving ourselves. 

By upgrading our knowledge in economics, politics, and even history, we will be better equipped for making choices. Choices that might affect our future, and the future of our nation. Knowledge is power, and its importance cannot be more stressed enough in this era of information.

I hope the review doesn't bore you. I realize it might sound too good to be true. Perhaps I'm just having a low standards in literature, that's true. But even then, I can still feel the passion and the honesty in all of Pandji's books, something that's quite rare to find these days.

Pandji, if you're reading this, I'd like to say happy birthday to you! Keep infecting our youngsters with your passion. Long live!

Breaking My Habit, Day 40: Part 2/2 Fin

Hmm, what to say?

I guess there's something special about the last day of your anything (your project, your school, etc). And 'being the last' was not it.

The project was started on a whim. I just started this blog, and I don't know what to write. I have this doubt in my mind whether I can commit on writing consistently, so I need something that can 'force' me to write. Thus, the project.

Several things that I pick up along the way:

• Not playing games or even eating snacks are not the hardest part. Finding the will (and the topic) to write everyday, now that is hard.

• Creating your own content and having your friends read your writings, is a satisfying experience.

• It's hard to maintain the quality of your writings if you're not on your best condition. 

• Having a daily deadline pushes you to be more creative in the process. 

• The process is more important than the results. I know I know, cliche, but doesn't mean it's not true.

• Trying something new is, indeed, fun.

In all, I'm really glad that I get to finish this project. I don't have an uncontrollable craving for snacks nor flash games, and I got into this habit of writing daily. After this, I might not post everyday, but I will still write everyday nonetheless. Stay tuned for another projects and see you soon! 

Girl-chu, Kopiah-chu, Poni-chu, Steve Jobbs-chu, Surf-chu, Ninja-chu,
Blindfold-chu,  Mugger-chu, Go home pika-chu!

P.S:
Too much time at the office can get you this

Breaking My Habit, Day 40: Part 1/2

"Everything that has a beginning, has an end."

Today marks the 40th day of my small project. There are so many things that I wanted to write in this one post, but I simply cannot do it at this time (my plane is leaving in 3 hours and I'm still in my bedroom!). 

Therefore, the whole summarizing things will be done on the next part. In this part, I just want to say thanks for all of the readers who keep on visiting this blog during the course of this small project. Having my writings read by you guys has been an honor, much thanks for that!

Cliche but I like it

Breaking My Habit, Day 39: Awkward

Considering yesterday I didn't write much, today I'll write 2 stories for you guys. Here goes!


Story 1: Daily Commuter

I commute using buses on daily basis. When the bus stops, it's quite often that I see a passenger who doesn't intend to alight but stands near the exit, blocking everyone else who wanted to get out of the bus. It's really really annoying, especially if you are the one who's being blocked. It slows down everyone

Even more annoying is when the said person is fat, or at least bigger than 50% width of the exit. Come on lady, some of us need to pass through here! >:(

Story 2: Awkward

Awkward moments can come anytime. 

Yesterday our team was having RNA isolation kit suppliers demoing their reagents at our lab (for those who are unfamiliar with lab, omit the words 'RNA isolation'). Our lab already use another brand of RNA isolation kit, so to benchmark their kit, they asked us to use our kits in parallel to theirs, isolating RNA from the same samples. We don't have any problems with that, so ok, let's isolate the RNAs together.

Fast forward 1.5 hours, and our work was done.
The next step was to count our RNA concentration using Nano Drop (higher concentration means the kit works better). At this point, I realize something. What if our kit works better than their kit? Wouldn't it be weird for us? Because I don't mind if their kit works better than ours, that's the whole point of doing these comparison anyway.

As I thinking of that, the results came out. As I feared, our result were better than theirs. 

If you're having problems grasping why this situation is problematic, imagine this. The suppliers came to our lab to give demo of their kit. They're trying do impress us, so at the end of the day they can say: "See, our kit works better than yours. Why don't we move over there and negotiate the price?" 

But when that goal is not fulfilled, everyone feels weird. They feel weird because they cannot boast about their kit, and we feel weird because we kinda feel sorry for them. Yep, awkward indeed.

Breaking My Habit, Day 38: All-nighter

Hei, how are you guys doing?

Today I'm going to pull an all-nighter, something that I haven't done for several years now(I'm pretty sure last time I did it was during my final years in uni). I hope I can finish it quicker, I don't think I can last without sleep :s

Well, because I cannot share more of my thoughts for today, allow me to share this link instead. The website's called Duolingo, and it's a perfect way for you to learn a new language without paying any money. Yep, it's totally free. Go check it out, and let me know how it goes.

Until then, see you later!