I See the Light

It is just seem that I know how will this chapter end. The chapter which was filled by the sacrifice of some wealth and soul (not really literally). So many twists that I am sure God has an unbeatable sense of humor. But it is just a forecast at the moment, we still need to read it thoroughly to really see the light.

Retreat

It is now recess week in NTU, people are preparing their best for their mid-term(s) and assignment(s). And what am I doing here? Some people think that I have that mighty much of free time, it is true in fact. I only do research, and not taking any class. So there will be no examination this semester for me, while my friends who are going to other country are still having classes.

I spend my time socializing with new people, as well as 'old' people. I am trying to look from different point of view that I would have never had the chance to. Well, being a "second-degree" overseas student (going exchange from a university that is not in your country, I just make this definition btw) is kinda weird. You don't really have the chance to grasp a strong foundation. And here I am doing my beset to "redefine" myself.

Actually, those words I said previously was a soft way of excusing myself for being not so productive. I am doing my best to finish my projects, it is hard indeed. And the worst part is that I have not had any accidental bump with a cute girl that lead to a lengthy love story.

Japan (Again)

Hi, currently I am in Japan. Living in Tokyo to be more precise.

As off two weeks, I haven't experienced any monster/alien invasion, almost impossible-accidental bump that leads to a long love story, nor meeting a kappa.

Hope that my life would be getting more and more interesting.

Al

"That's A Great Choice Bro"

This post will mostly be written in Indonesian. Why is that so? Because there would be a great loss of information if the thing I want to write is being translated. For example, look at the title. It is an awful translation of saying "Pilihan yang Tepat Kak". The sentence could only be understood by someone who understands casual Indonesian and goes to certain fast-food pizzeria located around Jakarta (or probably other outlet outside Jakarta?). Without hesitation, I shall start my story in the paragraph below:

Oke, jadi suatu hari yang masih dalam suasana lebaran, saya dan ketiga teman saya (sebut saja Marzanno, Ibrahimovich, dan juga Adhinayakudu - baiklah, nama Adhinayakudu dibikin dengan sangat ngasal) berkumpul di rumah Adhinayakudu. Bingung ingin melakukan apa, akhirnya kami memutuskan untuk makan di luar. Masih bingung ingin makan apa, akhirnya saya teringat sebuah postingan menarik dari ngupingjakarta.blogspot.com yang berbunyi seperti di bawah:

Semua tepaaaat!

Pembeli #1: "Mbak, saya pesan pizza X ya."
Pelayan: (mengacungkan jempol) "Bagus! Pilihan yang tepat sekali, kakak!"
Pembeli #2: "Mbak... kalo saya pizza Y tepat juga gak?"

Restoran di Jakarta, didengar pelanggan lain yang kasihan melihat raut muka si pelayan.

After Ramadhan Post

After having a lengthy vacuum from blogging, I feel obligated to share some non-pointless updates to the reader of this blog (YEEEAAAY!!!!).

About internship :

I finished that one long ago well.. not that long. Just about 19 days ago. I was pretty much gabut, yes doing nothing yet being paid. About the experience itself, I would say nothing much. Most of my jobs were "data entry". Trust me, it is not as cool as it sounds. But most fortunately, I feel that I have awaken my financial awareness. However, I am still totally not sure whether I want to work in that industry later. I don't know. I don't really feel like working soon.

About ramadhan :

I am sure everyone has their own target (or maybe not?), and pretty sure that at least we did something (or again, maybe not?). For me, I did not fulfill the "do" target, but managed to did the "don't" target. How about yourself?

About myself :

A lot happened to me since my last post. Meeting different people, from the :ohgodwhy: kind of friends to enthusiastic juniors. But since it's me, there were great amount of awkwaaaard situation. I fully understand that I am those kind of  "socially awkward" person, and pretty much proud of it.

Speaking of pride, I wish I could be proud of all things that I have done yet be a super humble person. Wish me the best for my personal project.

Unlimited

We start with one basic question, what will you do if you have unlimited wealth? I think that is quite easy to answer. But unlimited wealth is not that 'unlimited', you are still limited by life. So let's move on to the more 'unlimited' (worldly) source which is time. What will you do if you are immortal (assume you are so strong enough that volcano eruption, starvation, and ebola virus won't kill you (or any other cause of death))? I will make the question more specific. Let say that you are immortal, have unlimited time but there are no people in the world but yourself. Adding one more limitation, your start without no man made civilization. No, there is no computer that you are looking at nor even the chair that you are sitting. Can you imagine now? Great, so start thinking read the next paragraph then.

Even though there are some limitations, virtually your source is unlimited. If you persevere enough, you can make a power plant and then computer. But it might take mighty much time, knowing that the whole civilization is represented by just one person. I personally believe that I am not that great to make current civilization, even though I have 100 million years to make all this stuff. What about you?

Life goes on, it gets so heavy.

I am still spending my vacation with some internship. I have more works to do now, even though it is not as regular as what I expected. I managed to read so many (random) Wikipedia articles, and it is really fun indeed. I wouldn't say that I got knowledge from those articles, but having any additional information is always good (except for things that we classify as 'too much information', e.g : how many times does *insertanynamehere* go to toilet for a day and so on). And the best thing is that today is 25 June! Well, you know some company prefer this date over the beginning of the month.

Enough with that, I shall tell you the main story now. What is the morale value that I get from internship? Now I understand that every single person tried their best to stay alive. Probably not everyone, but I think generally human being will do anything to stay alive. I am not talking the extreme context like what we saw in SAW (yes, that freaky movie), but more to the hardships that everyone do for their living.

It is kind of mundane, going to work everyday at 7:30 AM with millions other people in this tiny land (Singapore) hopping onto train just to get to office. Men wearing well ironed shirts and trousers plus loafers. And women wearing more variety of clothing that is somewhat still considered to be 'formal' enough. Arriving the Central Business District, everyone rush to the exit and dozens of people are waiting for us - yes, as in the commuter. Holding hundreds of brochure, standing beside piles of free newspaper, and trying to give us anything they hold, one by one. Sometimes we need them, but most of the time we pretend that they don't exist. Taking the escalator up, more people are waiting for us, with brochures defnitely. There are also people doing fund raising for something I don't know what. One big guy was walking around selling some souvenirs to raise fund for his relative (probably) who is suffering a serious (again, probably. I did not see the his notice board clearly) disease. Even more surprising, there are people who beg for money. Yes, like what we usually see in Indonesia and in other developing country. But this is in Singapore, a country with virtually zero percent of poverty. Well, nowadays people tend to measure economic power from spending instead of income.

I don't know how should I react. I feel sad yet I am sure that I can not help every single of them. Nor that I feel bad for not helping them because of all the limitation. And it is not any random people responsibility. I don't think being lazy is the sole reason of poverty. What I am sure is that, everyone should and are doing their best in life. See you next post, Insya Allah..

Hi, Welcome to the Real World I

It is summer now. And typically, summer is associated with things like going to beach, stay over at friend's, backpacking, and so on. However, that is not the case for Asian students who is living not so far away from the equator that makes beaches nonsense. Having inspired by my fellow Singaporean friends (and some kiasu Indonesian friends), I decided to take a summer internship in a banking and finance sector (yes, my major is pure physics where you learn how to get 3/2 in the kinetic theory of gases). Internship is actually compulsory for some majors like engineering or business, and not for me. However, I feel the urge of exploring new knowledge apart of the thing that I am used to.

So far, one week has passed and things went pretty much plain except for some data entry projects (like typing  tons of information from a magazine to excel file). But that is not the main point of the story, I learned how life works in a different way. For example, I always thought that finance and banking are the most boring job that exists in the world but actually they are really interesting (since I have not met the electrodynamics of finance anyway). I feel like my 'financial consciousness' has finally awaken from an uber long hibernation. And reading corporate finance textbook plus random wikipedia article for 8 hours is also very interesting (including history of Myanmar, biography of Dalai Lama or even sophisticated philosophy related article). And my conclusion is, money is important (you don't say), but reading wikipedia article is much more interesting.

Starkov dan Blukupu

Every ending is a beginning for another chapter, even in this mundane life. My second summer vacation (in university life) will need to be postponed soon because of internship. I will be working in the research division of a finance related company (wish me luck for this). What I am really happy is that I managed to meet so many friends during this vacation. Well, they said that silaturahmi is a great virtue. So  instead of doing nothing, I think this is one of the best think that I can do. Furthermore, meeting old friends is very relieving in many ways. It should be putted on my to do list from from now then.

I will also have an important thing to do this weekend, wish me another great luck for this.

Yes, Starko and Blukupu are cat names. My friend gave it to his cat. Strange one isn't it?

Revoir

Daridulu pasti pernah dapat pertanyaan ini walau sekali, "Siapa idola kalian?" Saya yang beragama Islam, begitu juga  dengan kebanyakan teman-teman saya di Indonesia pasti pernah (dan seharusnya) menjawab Rasulullah sebagai idolanya. Tapi jujur saja saat saya bilang tokoh islami (siapa pun, baik anggota khulafaur rasyidin maupun great Muslim scholars manapun), saya tidak benar-benar merasa dari lubuk hati yang terdalam bahwa mereka mempunyai kualitas luar biasa yang saya familiar dengannya. Bukannya mereka kurang keren bagi saya, tapi saya kurang paham (sejauh ini) dan itu terasa betul karena kekurang dekatan saya dengan mereka (yang physically memang jauh).

"Tak kenal maka tak sayang"

Begitu kata peribahasa. Menurut saya itu you don't say sekali sih, gimana juga caranya sayang sesuatu yang kita tidak kenal. Mungkin sejauh ini orangtua saya lebih masuk akal untuk jadi idola saya. Ya, mereka memang tidak menyebarkan agama Islam dengan luar biasa ke seluruh penjuru dunia. Tapi saya tahu betul betapa peran mereka berefek banyak bagi saya dan menurut saya itu keren. Atau ambil kasus ekstrim, Lady Gaga, yang walaupun ditentang banyak orang masih dapat dukungan dari banyak orang dan kreatifitasnya dalam mengenakan kostum daging (walaupun loyalitas fansnya tidak ada apa-apanya dibandingkan loyalitas sahabat terhadap Rasulullah, dan kostum daging yang.. kreatif sih, tapi err..)

Liburan ini menyadarkan saya, saat saya diberikan waktu senggang yang luar biasa banyak untuk apa saya pergunakan? Saya memang mengisi waktu untuk beberapa projek pribadi, silaturahmi (baca : main ke sana dan kemari), maupun main game bagus dan menamatkan komik bagus (saya merasa komik/anime/game bagus bukan penyia-nyiaan waktu :v). Tapi tentu saja, banyak waktu yang terbuang untuk sekedar malas bergerak dan berpikir abstrak entah kenapa. Dari situ saya berkesimpulan, alangkah luar biasanya hidup saya apabila setiap momen yang saya jalani dilakukan dengan sepenuh hati dan bermanfaat (be it kayang di depan gajah). Dan dari situ saya menemukan, cuma Rasulullah (dan mungkin beberapa sahabat-sahabat dan orang hebat lainnya) yang menggunakan waktunya sebaik yang saya deskripsikan. Hidup saya sampah? Tidak juga, hanya saja masih bisa ditingkatkan efisiensinya dengan jauh lebih baik. Carpe diem.

Sekumpulan makhluk yang menjalani hidupnya dengan sia-sia di lembah sia-sia yang menceritakan cerita tentang anak-anak yang sia-sia dan diulang selama dua kali hanya karena ada kata "lagi-lagi.." Sungguh sia-sia. (Tentu saja kalimat ini nonsense) (courtesy teletubbieskorea.blogspot -__-)

Not Useless

According to older comic theory (probably around 25 years ago), the main difference between american comics and japanese comics (representing two largest comic industries in the world) is the panel distributions. We can clearly see that every panel has its own function, be it to deliver action-to-action, subject-to-subject, or any other scene. American comics are mostly comprises of  'action' scene, and not surprisingly the same thing also applies for japanese comics. However, japanese comics serves a greater percentage of 'situation' panel. Yes, those unrelated panels that only show sun ray, cloud, cicadas, and crowd of people. Those panels aren't useless, they are meant to make the reader understand the feel of the situation better.

So does every moment in our life.

That's it.

Angel Beats!

Setelah sekian abad (tentu saja berlebihan) tidak menamatkan satu seri anime, akhirnya saya berhasil untuk menamatkan satu. Dulu, nonton Busou Renkin cuma 18 episode karena dvd nya memang baru keluar seperti itu, lalu Kanon (2006) 10 episode, Heroic Age 7 episode, dan terakhir darker than black 7 episode. Eh, pernah juga saat masih freshie berusaha menonton Rozen Maiden 8 episode kayaknya, atau 6? Pretty much otaku? Probably, mungkin bagi kalangan teman-teman "standar" saya iya tapi tidak bagi teman-teman tidak "standar". Dan akhirnya, di exam period kali ini saya sukses mencapai dua accomplishment, menamatkan main Super Mario World dan menonton Angel Beats Sampai Tamat. Pesan moralnya?

Ya, dari bermain Super Mario World (via VisualBoyAdvance) saya belajar untuk memfungsikan save state sebaik-baiknya. Mungkin kesannya tidak penting, tapi esensinya adalah untuk menge-save setiap progress yang kita dapat. Ga deng, terdengar serius tapi lebih untuk mencari excuse. Tapi kalau sudah mulai main game sekali saat exam period harus ditamatkan, agar nantinya tidak ada alasan untuk procrastinate lebih lanjut. Satu quote berharga dari Mario.

(image courtesy from inintendo.net)

"What doesn't kill you, makes you smaller"

-Mario-

Lanjut deh, berikutnya Angel Beats. Terlalu spoiler kalau diceritakan secara lengkap, tapi mungkin ringkasnya bahwa bagi remaja (youth maksudnya) yang meninggal dengan penyesalan dalam hidupnya akan dibawa ke sebuah alam yang berbentuk seperti sekolah (ya, sekolah normal) untuk mereka menemukan kebahagiaannya masing-masing sampai penyesalannya terpuaskan. Saya seorang muslim, jadi tentu saja konsep kehidupan setelah mati yang saya percayai tidak seperti itu. However, seandainya dunia after life seperti yang dibayangkan oleh Angel Beats! pertanyaannya adalah apakah kita akan terbawa ke dunia itu apabila kita meninggal sekarang? Saya rasa hidup manusia yang terbaik adalah yang dijalani tanpa penyesalan (ini murni jawaban duniawi saya), karena after life yang saya percaya tidak necessarily senyaman dan sedamai yang Angel Beats! ceritakan. Sekalipun after life a la Angel Beats! terjadi, tetap saja kayaknya menyakitkan (walau membahagiakan) utnuk hidup di dunia semi eternal untuk mencari kebahagiaan. Intinya apabila anda orang yang agak anti anime tapi punya waktu untuk nonton american TV Series, ***** you (isi dengan kata umpatan yang anda rasa paling pantas)! Banyak entertainment dan juga value yang bisa diambil, kenapa kalian meremehkan anime dan manga awuakuawkauwk (ini cuma bercanda, yang penting ditonton).

(image courtesy from wikipedia.org)

"That's right. Our weakness is that we're stupid"

-Yuri-

arutaki.

Halo semua, kali ini saya akan menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Saya akan mengumumkan tentang projek rahasia saya yang terbaru. Projeknya sendiri masih rahasia (terus kenapa diumumin -___-), cuma minta doa agar diberikan yang terbaik. Terimakasih banyak.

Sincerely,

Al Atiqi

Cutting the Edge

Do you know that life will be much simpler if we become ignorant? Yes. Ignore all the problems around you, or you can even ignore those problems that you face yourself. But that is definitely not the correct way of living our live (at least in my opinion). You need to be aware of what is happening around you and what you are doing.

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I don't know, I am just tired.

This is not the most galau post that I can make anyway, but it is pretty much galau indeed. And yes, sometimes running away works. And I hope this is pretty much the correct time. So non-mainstream isn't it? No.

Silver Spoon

During Victorian era, there were no passport nor driving license. Quite a "you don't say" statement isn't it? Okay, too much 9gag but story shall go on. So you must be wondering what kind of identity do they have? In fact social status and identity was very important back then, and you can definitely see those aristocrats in their expensive coat while the slaves wore their worn out clothes. So does look represent one's status? Pretty much, but what about middle income craftsmen whose hands looks more like a hand of slave and they do not have those expensive clothes either? They bring a silver spoon. In the spoon the family emblem is engraved, unlike slaves who does not have family emblem.

So what is moral of the story? Nothing. I just recommend you guys to read a manga called silver spoon. It is very good indeed.

By the way, looking at my old post and then..

Things are Gonna Get Messy

As mentioned in the title bar, a lot of things are gonna get messy. Firstly, I am currently taking a module named "Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos". By looking at the title, you know what is going to be messy right? My grade -__- , well still hasn't sure about that but if I do not put an extra care to it it will be indeed very messy. Another  thing is my room. Speechless, I just find my comfort place in such place. As long as I know where are the things that I need, no problem then.

Okay, I wrote just for the sake of writing. It feels more like a personal blog now isn't it?

It's Not the Time Matters

Ever since walking on this earth, (most likely) human being has been exposed with rain. I expected that Adam and Eve was sent to any arbitrary place on earth, not a rainless deserts like Sahara or Gobi. And with rain, they need some mechanism of shelter. They stay on a cave, then build a roof, then used something to cover their top when walking outside home, and finally they invented a brilliant thing called umbrella. As time goes by, the umbrella that was made of wood and leaf changes into metal and plastic. Look at the two picture below,

.

The top picture shows the evolution of the lower picture. Courtesy of random googled pictures by the way :p The technology is about 1000 or more years difference, yet they still look pretty much the same with the same imperfection - still not be able to protect you from the rain perfectly. Compare to communication device nowadays, it was invented less than 200 years ago. And it looks totally different right now, with much more extended function.

We may need the communication systems to evolve and we might not need the umbrella to evolve, because we are simply satisfied with umbrella. Enough whit this chit-chat, I want to tell you that sometimes things don't change. It might not be precise as we found that umbrella actually changes in shape, but not function. Interesting isn't it? Thanks to some friends who accompanied me to eat some pancake some years ago. It was nice, with some awkward flavor. While no one thinking how to make umbrella be more interesting currently, there must be someone who is thinking to make innovation for cellular phone systems right now in this earth. While some things don't change significantly, there are things that changes rapidly that you don't even realize that it has changed.