Realm of the Lesser Keyboard Soldiers

RANDOM :P

2008-05-04T19:19:00.002+07:00

RANDOM

R icardo
A rticles is
N ot
D umb
O cassionally
M mmmmm.... donuts ( Homer Simpson)
This is so random.

Right now, I don't know what to write for my blog, so I 'm just gonna write a story

TITLE Confession of a psychopath

"My name is Jack ______, I'm a serial killer. Until now, no one realize I'm a psychopath. I blend int the society pretty well. I have a wife name Jannet and a son name Evan. I work in a marketing company, making creative and simple catchy slogans. I have tortured and killed more than...................

OMG... never mind........I will not continue the story because its too disturbing.
So... I'm going to about the movie Iron Man.

Have you watch the movie Iron Man ? That is the best Marvel movie I've wacth so far. The movie is about ..........

Nevermind, I'm just going to write about Random

What is random ? According to dictionary.com , random is without definite aim or purpose. For me, random is saying something that doesn't make any sense or unnecessary facts that is pointless to know. However random facts can be really interesting, random facts such as : Guinea pigs and rabbits can't sweat or Deer can't eat hay. These facts are completely pointless, but you can use this type of facts to make an akward conversation to your friends (ahhaha). However sometimes, if the time is right, by saying random words it can really be hillarious. Professional hillarious people say random words to get attention to their audience. You must really becarefull when using random words or facts to catch people attentions, if the timing is not right, people can accuse you as a freak. :P HAhahahha

THATS ALL FOLKS

RANDOM BLOG about RAndom FACTS :P that teaches about RANDOM THINGs

Ricardo ALidjurnawan AKA InitialR

The Waltz of 2008

2008-02-09T23:51:00.000+07:00

Lord, please forgive my sins for not blogging for an incredibly awful long span of time, and please forgive my teacher's sins for having the feeling of hunting me down and getting these blogs done...

Allright, the first post of 2008 for me. To be frank enough, there has been change in the air. For me, personally, and for the world, too...I think. So let's see the news archives.

YAY.Our 'beloved' Hajj Muhammad Suharto, dead. Woops, bad karma, I just celebrated over someone's death. Allright, then, Lord please forgive his sins (if he has any that can still be forgiven, anyways), yada yada yada. The big question now is about the money. Where da money be hidin', mon? Oh, someone said his sick, pathetic, abused children did. Well, it's now way past the national mourning week and no nothing against him. And we thought that this is a democratic country. Hurrah, my people. Hurrah. And what about the revolutionists that were killed? Was it the fault of he himself or his (insert a paraphernalia of swear words) cronies? The ones that loved to suck the marrow of our national finance? Oh great, now where ARE they? Boy, have we got a lot to catch. It's like hunting for bad-luck bunnies in a forest the size of Texas, with STONES, the rate we're going. Yes, yes, I know, he made good for a young nation like us, but then the idea of a "president-for-life" is just sooo anti-Democracy. Ugh, I hate the stench of hypocrisy everywhere I try to smell some fresh air. And then there's the battle of next year's hot seat of presidency. Whilst I'll be voting elsewhere, I better not say "Oh, dear Son of Mary and Joseph, YOU AGAIN!?" or else my education abroad would be spent in vain.

That's why change is needed. And I am not asking for another Revolution era; that's plan Z on the what-to-do list in national crises. Say, speaking of change, why not someone like Barack Obama? Boy, he'd be the first American president who's not necessarily Caucasian. And then some political analysts talking in my back said that we have to be color-blind (erhm, race-blind) and focus on the ideas that each candidate has to convey to us. The thing is, we've seen countless Caucasians since George Washington, that if the Democrats are gonna win after God knows how many more Super Tuesdays there's going to be, whether it be Hillary or Obama, it's like seeing Bruce Springsteen as Head of Congress, Sylvester Stallone as Secretary of Defense and Paris Hilton replacing Rice. (The UN wanna speak to me? That's hot.) Nevertheless, I am also curious to see what the Republicans want us to see in their showcase. Maybe they've got a better agenda than the Democrats; or maybe a plan for World War 3? Another Orwellian parody? (sorry, Monochromatic Rainbows. And Republican supporters, if you are being explicitly offended by this individual.) I'm being way off the track, I know, but yeah, you never know (airhead accent included-d'oh...).

And so, Valentines day is four days away now, and the girl I gave my Valentine's wish to last is going to leave soon. Honestly, I don't think about it much anymore, I decided to go with plan B and date only once and marriage after that. Meh. But I can survive, thanks to Complacence in Depression's inspiration. Like my friend said, there's still lots of fish in the sea. Sure there is, but me, I'm nowhere near the sea. I'm in the desert. Alone. Waiting for a plane passing by and me crying my SOS out. Come to think of it, I'm as bad as Complacence in Depression when it comes to girls. Well, tough luck for me, I suppose.

One of the reasons I love football.

Song of the day: 'Waltz' by Suneohair

Sore wa warutsu no you da ne fushigisa
Sasayaku you na komorebi no kousaten de
Futari warutsu no you ni ne mawarinagara
Egakidashite yuku mono

...I love this song. If hell could freeze over I want to sing this in PH Idol next year. Another part of the reason is because I miss Mr. Geoff criticizing me for singing like a dog high on drugs and suffering rabies.

Lo and behold, that concludes my start-of-the-year ramblings. I hope this year brings me more change, more materialistic pleasures and more consequences for whatever I have done wrong. Because suffering and rewards are always one body.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana AKA DrVoltsPerSecond

[EXTRA STAGE]A Short, Free-Form Poem

2007-12-10T14:48:00.000+07:00

Right....this is actually my first blog that I made during school with my laptop, and I have 10 minutes before the bell rings and I'm off tutoring 9th graders, so I just wanted to drop by and say hi with a nice little poem that I made impromptu-wise.

A wise eagle soars through the sky of life
He sees what other cannot and observes what others look with a glance
He witnesses the world turning round and round

He is not like the ant
who socializes with every other ant to live
but he takes friendship with his winged kin.
He knows it is not the right place for him

He is not the lion
who preys for his food mercilessly
instead he satisfies his hunger with small animals
He knows it is beyond his eating capabilities

The eagle soars once again
Taking off from a cliff in the tall mountains
He observes what others cannot
Yet he is content with what he have

He lets out a cry of happiness.

Right.....I hope you enjoyed that wee bit of a poem, although it can be elongated and elaborated more professionally. I just really don't have the time because right now it's two minutes before the bell rings and I have to close this laptop as soon as I can.

Cheerio.
Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

Cool Facts that you may not know 2 :P

2007-12-09T23:47:00.000+07:00

Cool facts that you may not know 2

1. Disney Hidden Sexual Message
Do you know that Disney use subliminal hidden sexual message that was included in the movie without our notice? Disney create an sex image or word that is hidden in the movie. Even though we don’t really see the sexual hidden message, but our brain does and causes us to like the movie more. This is one of a media strategy that will rid other cartoon movies competitors. The reason why this strategy is effective is because an uncivilized idea takes our mind easily. Even though the uncivilized image or words shows really small or really quick our brain will record it. Imagine a movie which is intended for young kids to watch, still Disney put hideous image and corrupt our young children’s mind. Movies such as Jessica Rabbit, The Rescuers, Aladdin, The little Mermaid, and The Lion King are the evidence that Disney uses sexual hidden message. In Jessica Rabbit when she fell to the ground her ______ showing for a few seconds ( you will not realize it ), The Rescuers, when the 2 mouse riding the Albatross, a really quick image of a naked woman was shown in the movie at the wall ( Yesterday, I’ve watched it and see it). In Aladdin when he wanted to fly, a small but not clear enough says all teenagers take off your clothes.(I need to repeat it several time to hear it). The little Mermaid, the throne looks like __________.(Inappropriate to say). And the last but not the least in the movie The Lion King, a sexual hidden message appeared when Simba is dreaming about his girl, look at the stars and if you connect it one by one the word SEX will appear. I don’t know why I can research it in the internet but at first it suddenly appeared in my mind. (For more information you can read in this link http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/tcom/faculty/ha/tcom103fall2003/gp13/gp13.pdf)
2. The Human Mind
God is a very creative and unique. He created humans to have a very unique brain and mind. Do you know that our brain read each whole word not per letter, so we can read a word even though the order of the word is a mess. Try to read this : I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
3. Crocodile Tears
The term of Crocodile tears means that a false tears or a false sadness. Have you ever wonder why do we use the term crocodile tears for false tears ? The reason why we use crocodile tears for false tears is because real crocodile really produce tears. However these tears didn’t come out because of sadness but to expel excess of salt in the eyes. That’s why we use the term crocodile tears for false tears. (Personally rather than crocodile tears, I prefer the term Lacoste Tears :P)

Initial R

2013 !

2007-12-09T23:05:00.000+07:00

For this blog, I’m gonna write something that is in my mind lately :P
Sometime, I think the end of the world will happen in 2013. The reason why, I’m not really sure about it, however I found something interesting thing about 2013. All calculations from 2013 will end up with 6, which symbolize imperfect and 666 which represent the devil and human that will later destroy the world. And interestingly this story is in the bible chapter 13 (where the bible in the last sentence of chapter 13 said that “his number is 666” ). Back to the calculation, if we are to calculate 2+1+3 = 6, 2 / 3 / 1 = 0,666, 2 X 3 X 1 = 6, 20 / 13 = 1,5 or 1+5= 6, and other ways to calculate that will end up at least the number 6. I don’t know if this really true or not, and maybe I am paranoid with the number 2013. By the way I type just to check about 666 and 2013, I found out that in 2013 a project called 666 will be celebrated and released (by the way this group hate Christians. You can check it out in this website http://www.the666.com/eng34.htm)

PS: I print screen the information about the project 666 in 2013 since the website has been copyrighted and cannot be highlighted. However it seems that the image cannot be input in this blog.

Initiar R

Cool Facts That you may not know

2007-12-09T23:04:00.000+07:00

Cool Facts that you may not know

The “Little Red Riding Hood” is a fairy tale based on a serial killer
Do you know, that the little red riding hood is a fairy tale based on a serial killer. The story about a little girl that visit her grandma, which later shows that the grandma is a wolf in disguised. The “wolf” in the story is actually a serial killer loves to kill children and mutilated them. The reason why they are called wolf is because the serial killer with such bestial ferocity and cruelty was characterized as a wolf-men.

The famous doll which is idolized by kids (girls) was originated from German as a sex toys.
Do you know, that Barbie toys for kids was a sex toys for adults in German 1959 ? The famous and oldest dolls for girls were actually come from German and also a sex toys. The Barbie dolls were actually named Lili, a toy which was characterized with large breast and sexy clothing and was intended for adults to “play” with it. This “Lili” was actually a symbol of sex and pornography for the men of Germany. <>
Hieronymus Machine
Psionic Heironymus Machine is a simple machine that was acknowledge as the only machine that was operated by psychologically. This machine was created intended to locate any elements by its individual frequency. However the machine, actually has more function than just locating element by its frequency since some people said that this machine is able to ……. (in the Cumberland Valley a scientist from the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau put a photo of an insect infested field into the machine commonly called a "Black Box". Along with it they put a tiny amount of insecticide. Forty-eight hours later, the insects in the infected field, many miles away, were all dead!), (A scientist named George de la Warr, head of a huge of laboratory in Oxford, England put a piece of ordinary photographic film into an opening in the device and after a few minutes, removed a picture of his wife and himself on their wedding day, 30 years before.), and ( Galen Heironymus himself used his psionic device to monitor the life support systems of the Apollo astronauts. He successfully recieved all the correct data, before Nasa did.) Unfortunately the F.D.A declared that this machine is fake and is not capable to things mentioned above. So is the Hieronymus Machine a fake or the scientist cannot accept the way it supposedly work, you decide. <http://www.lifetechnology.org/hieronymus.htm > or < http://www.wdjensen123.com/hieronymus/Report1.htm>

Initial R

IQ Vs EQ

2007-12-09T23:03:00.000+07:00

IQ VS EQ

Which one is more important, IQ or EQ ? IQ is someone’s ability to analyze something and find its solution in a fast speed. Usually people need IQ desperately during their school days. Since usually IQ is related with your scores. High IQ usually has high score and vice versa.
While EQ has something to do with the way we deal with problems. Are we getting more stress or can stay calm to solve it ? Can you communicate fluently and clearly with someone else ? Can you read the surroundings to make wise decisions ? So there are a lot of factors involved in EQ.
The conventional people usually think that IQ is more important than EQ. However survey proven that nowadays highly successful people has both in balance. In fact some people have more EQ than IQ. It means they have more channels to provide for their needs. Unfortunately, many high IQ people work for people with lower IQ.
So for those people who have quite low IQ score, please don’t be discourage. Bloom your personality, empower your friends and use your connections to achieve your goals. And people with high IQ don’t tease peoples with lower IQ, who knows that someday you will work for them. : P

INitial R

Busway : a solution or a new trouble ?

2007-12-09T22:59:00.000+07:00

Sutiyoso, the former governor of DKI Jakarta made one crucial decision in his attempt to solve the traffic problem especially in Jakarta. He traveled to many countries until he decided to make busway as his final decision. His main purpose of his decision is to reduce the transports emission so we can suppress the Global warming and reduce traffic jam.
First, he cleared up trees from the polluted city, Jakarta (wow he’s “smart”). Next, he started to bombard the old roads with cements and PEMBATAS JALAN, can you imagine with the increased number of vehicles, the old roads cannot cope with them anymore, now he took one path way especially just for the bus. It is not solving the problems since now too many vehicles stuck in the left over paths yet there is an empty path in every major road in Jakarta (he should have thought this before).
Now many people must leave home earlier to avoid the worsening traffics. Since in peak hours, people will have to almost park in the street. Imagine the cost factors of time and money. The vehicles will spent more gasoline; imagine its effect to our air condition because of the transports emissions. It is surely a waste of fossil fuels and the major cause of global warming.
Many people now are having health risk since they tend to smoke while waiting to pass through the traffic, further more people are likely to be in stress. Being not patience, more accidents and breaking up the laws are some of physical impact that we can see right away. As for the emotional effect, many families now lose their precious family time together since most of the members are spending more of their time in the street.
Meanwhile, those people who take busway as their transport device, should travel for quite long since the corridor or the route are not quite flexible so if somebody wants to go somewhere, it is possible that he has to travel all around Jakarta just to get his destination point. Well for a point he can have a free ride across Jakarta just for the price of 1 ticket but imagine if that someone is in a hurry.
More, the seating arrangement of the bus for me is not so convenient. There aren’t many seats to sit on. If it is still in the morning I believe many people wouldn’t mind since they’re still fresh but how about after a long day at work and you still have to stand in the bus for quite a while to get to your home?
One more major threat is safety. It is heard that many people lost their belongings in their traveling time such as handphone, wallet, and etc.
So what do you think? Is busway a solution or a new trouble?
In my point of view, you cannot just adapt someone’s system to our problem without compromising our own culture. Different place and different system, this can be analyzed through experts studies in economic and environmental education( “someone” should continue studying !!!!)
In conclusion, our former governor ordered to cut the trees and replace them with cements which will help the Global Warming. Next He causes a lot of cost to a lot of people in time, money and relationship. A “very wise decision” ?

Initial R

Canteen food = toilet

2007-12-09T22:58:00.000+07:00

SPH has the worst food on earth with exception of eating real baby soup in China and sand eating people in the desert...
From the article I read about Pangansari Utama, the main supplier of SPH canteen, Pangansari is also supplying to Indonesian airpots which then leads to the food in Indonesian airline which is as TASTY as a piece of paper could get!!
Horrible food are not acceptable for students that have been tortured for hours in classroom, and when the bell rang... We are all hoping to see a quality food like the food at home which has at least proper taste and fulfil our needs of nutritions...
But the expectations are falling apart when I reach the cashier to buy those coupons to be exchanged with those nasi padang in shabby piece of containers. Luckily, there are some changes in the menu for at least once in a century and no single changes or adding in between which is very sad for us...hungry fellow students.
How could we work hard and smart in school with stomach growling for exquisite food...
We are in worse conditions than the kids in Papua Nugini or supersized fats junkfood eating Californians in terms of healthiness...
The pizzas in our canteen is too small and normal while breggfast which has better food than the others has 2 workers to serve twenty thousands hungry students waiting in line starving for their sandwhiches or butter rice.
Pangansari has no taste in their food...They cook rice and fry chickens...That is all what they could do.
While the "Padangs" are favorite, but they seemed to have least innovation in menu and "Mom's Cook" has too much salt used in their food.
We have to be concern in this serious problems...
Because this will also determine our future...

Teleporting Vision

2007-12-09T22:42:00.000+07:00

Everytime I watch Indonesian television channel, I would want to cry...
From some of the countries I've visited in the world, Indonesia has the worst programme on earth. That is why there should be a consideration of making another 'television rating organization', that rates not how much smoking and kissing in movies or soap operas should be banned, but rather to 'how good this movie is', because producers are producing broadcasts that are rubbish and there are "films in between the advertisements". As a consumer, I do not care of how little clothing the girls wear in a movie, but rather to how much does the movies entertain me...
Not only movies and soap operas, but Indo will need to recreate their news, gossips, and other programmes to entertain viewers. Come on! We do not need ROBOTS talking in programmes such as the girly gossip shows or gadgets reviewing programmes. We need JAY LENO, JEREMY CLARKSON and OPRAH in our Indonesian TV channel.
But thanks to the private company that gives us the privilage to watch international channels so we could enjoy REAL entertainment and not robots talking show.
But I think in the future,......ITS GETTING WORSE...The education of the next generation MCs and news broadcasters for example, are not really improving from their granpas and granmas. This is what I saw from the news that some university students broadcasted, they had terrible sense of humor and they seemed to not have any tone or anything else. It was just simply Stephen Hawking with his talking machine.

Why Shakespears are rubbish (for us)

2007-12-09T22:20:00.000+07:00

Why do we need to learn books such as Macbeth for our English class?
This is funny, because we are learning a alienated language to help improve our ENGLISH! But Shakespears do not contribute anything to our knowledge except in communicating with Rosswell's aliens in 50 years time.
We need to study more about "The Great Gatsby", or novels that speaks PROPER English and not such thy and thou Englishted language that is marvelous for OLD people such as the Queen of England and the Pope.
We are 17 and looking forward to the future that speaks a revolutionary English language... Schools will need to reconsider their curriculum in English class. They will need to change those old fashioned old men smoking pipes in IB to a futuristic thinking of young and modern educated to lead the IB...
We as students do not need poetic language, because we are not going to be a poet or writing books about Romeo and Juliet, but we need something different... Something James Bondish style of books which is very cool and does not use slanks but rather a more sophisticated English language.
The school should make a third language class which is "A3 Alien language HL"

Christmas is coming...!!!!

2007-12-09T22:03:00.000+07:00

Thinking about last year's Christmas, it makes me really excited.

Last year, after having a service in my church, me and my friends went to one of empty friend's house and had a party. It was really fun talking about the scary stories with friends late midnight. There were three girls who were easily get scared, so it was much funnier than just, boys sitting down talking about stupid games.

When the girls left at 2 AM, four boys went out for a walk near the big road which is not far away from my friend's house. We talked about the time when we were very small and doing stupid things which was a great hit during that time. The funniest thing that we talked about was playing Pokemon cards with friends when we were third grade. If we think about that time, 'it was as stupid as watching movie alone in the theater.' When one of my friend said that, everyone burst out with a laughter. After nearly a hour of walking around the houses, talking about the past, we came back to my friend's house and watched movie. The movie was very boring and one of my friend fell a sleep and one went home. So my friend and I played computer game until 6 am and came back home for taking a sleep.

For this Christmas, I am hoping to go to the beach with my friends. Maybe five or six friends going to beach for two or three days will be the most exciting to do in my thoughts. When I think of this plan, I'm already excited and ready to prepare for the arrangement.

My second thought is having a party just like last year's, but much bigger than before. More members than last year and more events or games to do during the Christmas eve also makes me so excited.

The problem is that my parents thinks Christmas as a special day only for the religious way. My mom thinks that Christmas should me celebrated in the church and no more than that. How boring is that? After celebrating Jesus's birth in the church, I think we can have some party to celebrate ourselves having fun.

fell in love with billiard...

2007-12-09T21:11:00.001+07:00

First time I played billiard is when I was becoming 10th grade, but I couldn't really enjoy the game itself. There were nine ball game and eight ball game to play. The biggest reason that I couldn't really enjoy the eight ball game is that you need a good skill in order to play eight ball game, but you can use some of luck to play nine ball game. So I prefered more on playing nine ball game. The boom of billiard wasn't really long for the korean people, because the computer game call DOTA was more popular and prefered to play.

Now 11th grade, I went to the billiard place right after the exam we had, and it was fabulous, playing again with a great concentration. My skill has imporved because now I can really concentrate on the angles and power of hitting the white ball. I almost fell in love with the eight ball game after playing for 5 straight days.

On The Matter of Golfing

2007-12-09T20:55:00.001+07:00

Since this is blog posting marathon night, I'll keep my post relatively simple and sweet.

I played golf since....9th grade, I think. I do it every Wednesday in those days, so it's right after school, or I have lunch in Supermall and then go to the golfing course at Bintaro (Mind you, not the full 18-hole course but a training ground for practicing shots). I used to have a trainer who guides on how to do the eloquent and elite sport that is golf. He was very insightful and patient; he knows where did I'm doing it wrong....

...and then he would suggest tips and tricks for me to do it right. One time, When I was swinging the golf stick, it was not the ball that flew, the stick flew from my hand! Good thing it didn't hurt anybody, since there was few people in the court.

Now, evaluating my techniques....
I'm actually more comfortable with drivers since they pack a lot of distance and they're relatively lighter than irons. When I practice using drivers most of the shots I take go long distance, well over 175 meters, but it's rarely dead straight. If it's not curving to the left or right, it can bounce of 5 meters from the pin and leave me spinning with my stick like an idiot. And sometimes in my follow-throughs I spin the stick above my head in a quarter horizontal circular spin, which is called an unorthodox swing, if I can remember....
In irons, however, I have less chances of getting the shots where they are. Sometimes it goes high and far, sometimes it's low, straight and short, probably about 20 meters. But then aside from those shots, I have experienced perfectly good shots which I can be proud of...for 3 minutes or so.
On wedges, I still suck at it, partly because I haven't practiced with it much, and the feeling of the swing is different from irons because reliance on accuracy is vital and less power would be needed. You need skill to chip a ball to the green really close to the golf pin as possible. finally, on putters, I still haven't had the golfer's feeling to adjust my power and swing to chip it in the hole. Maybe there's ore to it than just swinging the putter ever so slightly. Maybe there's more to it than reading the green.

All in all, I'm still amateur in this sport, but I like playing it, and I would strive to be better at it.

Cheerio.
Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

After Exam......

2007-12-09T20:55:00.000+07:00

A week before the exam, most of the students were starting to prepare the exam in depth.
My preparation begun after two days of this, and worked on my weak subjects such as biology, mathematics and economics. Preparing these subjects for four days doing at least 5 hours a day wasn't enough. I thought I could finish studying math and biology but I just couldn't do it. Economics wasn't very bad, but I really messed up biology. During the exam in math section, it wasn't really hard as I exepected, but my score was terrible, so my big disappointment has fulfilled my head.
After the exam, one of my friend told me that she has slept at two or three 'o clock in morning for everyday, studying her exam subjects. Hearing this, I have fallen into a big depression, because if I had prepared that well, spending hours until the morning, I've done much better. I have regreted badly after getting my biology and economics papers back. It was unexpected and I almost felt hopeless, but my (good) friend told me that there would be better chances if I prepare on the subjects by using this bad results.
"Thank you my (GOOD) friend" ^.^

Boring and repeating life...(?)

2007-12-09T20:36:00.000+07:00

Sometimes I think my life is boring and tired because everything just goes by repeating. Especially during the weekdays after coming back from the school, I just take shower and sleep for a while. After short period of sleep, I take lessons and finish my homework doing little chats with my friends. So sometimes I just think about changing my life more exciting and funny after doing my homework, late night. When I see one of my friend who only does his school work and don't go out to meet friends during the weekend, I am really amazed. How that kind of life can be a happy life? My own opinion is that after graduating highschool, university is waiting for me and also family and working waits. So if you cannot enjoy middle school and highschool, when can you enjoy your life? Even my mom says that I'm a foolish boy by thinking this way, I cannot understand who does school work during all the days in weekends.
Everytime I feel this way, I always think that one day should be longer than present. 24 hours is not enough for doing homework, taking lessons and enjoying my life with my own hobby.

my favorite drama series "The Legend"

2007-12-09T20:04:00.000+07:00

My favorite drama series "The Legend" is about the strongest dynasty in Korean history.

This story is basically about one king of the Goguryo dynasty, which was on half of korea (including north and south) and a little up to china's land right now.

Although this drama is exaggerated to fantasy, the main story about the big fighting parts between Baekjae dynasty is truth. This king call Gwang Gae Toe is well known to most of the korean people as the most brilliant conqueror. The greatest war of his army is about taking ten castles in twenty days. His plan was using the fast speed of knights to catch up the messenger between ten castles and not letting the enemies know that they are coming for them.

The drama is showing the love story and great wars of his life, but the love stories are made up in the shape of other dramas.

The other thing that I like in this drama is that actress, which is also main character who loves the king is so pretty. She is acting very well based on the scenes which are very hard to cover with the skill of normal people. Riding horses with shooting arrows, jumping down from the running horses and many more things. So after watching this drama, she became my favorite actress.

World Without Break

2007-12-09T19:46:00.001+07:00

Text messages come in each time I blink my eyes, meetings are happening each day in several different places and even countries. Those crashing stock market of 2027 made the world seemed to be an interpose between crashing and evolving. Each day is a busy day for me as a management consultant where I would find struggled companies trying to stand on themselves, until they would fall back and called me to ‘repair’ the principals and to create new transformation in them. I woke up at 5 this morning to board the chartered plane with the board of directors, destination Maldives, where Berkshire Hathaway. Co. just builds a pampering spa resorts with the most exquisite view I could imagine.
The tires’ squealed, those gave me sign that the plane has arrived. As the stewardess clear the cabin pressure and opened the door, the whole atmosphere changed, from the polluted Jakarta city into a natural but simply cordial environment of beaches. Jeeps fetched directly from the runway and brought us to Club Med. Franchise of resorts which could be found only in paradise. To gather with Stakeholders and managements, we met in seaside café. As the butler delivers the hot espresso, I looked at him into jealousy. He has the best job on earth, serving in a 5 star resort in Maldives, deserted from the city busy experience and a stress free job while he could work in day shift and spends the rest of the day at home.
‘Unexpectedly’, my secretary called and arranged me a meeting 3 hours after I departed from Maldives with the Indonesian Minister of Industry to talk face to face about the future retail market which is getting more aggressive since last year. It affects my schedule basically, the need of people to build their company fast in order to keep the phase of people’s demand in more new products. All these affect my personal life by the way. I come home at midnight and still have a pack of papers to do. When I flash my thought back to those ages when I was still sitting in classroom, doing my writing workshops imagining what I will be in the future, I was telling of how I was going to be a person with great wealth of mental relaxation without any work stress or busy life.
After the meeting with the Minister, I had to depart to Singapore and attend the wedding of Lie Sien Long, Singapore senior prime minister, son’s wedding in 2 hours. It is going to be another boring wedding where I will meet the same person again and again.
When I arrived in the Istana Presiden Singapura, there were a lot of fat corrupted Indonesian businessman and officials attended the wedding. They are government’s enemy but they are my clients. All those bourgeoisie Forbes’ listed people with shining suits and diamonds tried to pursue the government to make “love letters” so they could buy lands in cheap price. Suddenly someone who I have not met for long time was standing in front of me. It was Mr. James, the owner of Wira Medical Center. We had a conversation and I was surprised of how his life was so “chill” and he really enjoyed his work. I was really confounded how my life is amazingly dull.
On my way back to my house, I thought of this busy life, of how success I am in making my self as a dumb workaholic. Giant companies with zero leisure hours are nothing and thousands clients without time to enjoy golfing with friends are mentally bankrupt… At some point, I wish I could be a young boy who is playing with everything he could find. Someone who always has leisure as first thought and also someone who has a lot of dumb fun friends to hang out with, not a Chinese toy making company owner who mind their own business only…All these emotions and thoughts went through my mind on the way back to my house.
But, as I arrived at home and opened the door slowly so I do not wake up anybody at this time, already I heard the best voice of all which gave me a giant relief….
His tiny feet stepped down the stairs and shouted:
” Daddy’s home! Daddy’s home!!!....

The milestones of BEMANI step 3: Dance Dance Revolution

2007-12-09T18:00:00.000+07:00

Come on baby....Let's do the dance...

Everybody loves to dance, don't they? BEMANI's got a game for just that, dancing. Introducing Dance Dance Revolution, the child BEMANI created at the fall of 1998 at the Tokyo
Game Show for that year. It's practically the company's greatest worldwide success because it has over 90 official versions of it and when combined, hosts over 1000 songs, enough to handsomely fill an iPod by a reasonable amount. They have it all over Jakarta's malls, it's one of the more popular games to play to the point that they have their own groups/clans just for it, and so does the rest of the world. They have it on Gameboy, Playstation, Xbox, and now they have it on mobile. Crazy, huh?

The machine consists of two parts, the dancing pad for two and the machine cabinet with the screen. the dancing pad itself has four arrows in an arrow cross formation: up, down, left, and right. In a special version called DDR (the abbreviation) Solo Mix, there's two extra arrows in the top-right and top-left directions, diagonally. Iou press them with your feet if the upcoming arrows at the screen scrolling upwards tells you so, just like other BEMANI games. The arrows represent the general rhythm or beat of a song you choose and you succeed if you time and position your movements correctly. It also has a life bar that decreases as you miss the arrows coming at you, and you can get a game over when it's empty. When you pass the songs the results, score and grade will be shown. The ranking ranges from AAA to an E, generally similar to beatmania. There are modes of play to choose, whether you want to play single or double player, or single player using two pads for one. This mode is for freestyle people who incorporate and choreograph other body movements while playing the game, although they can do that in single player too.

The music is yet again, a completely different universe. The difficulty ratings as per DDR Supernova, the newest version up to date, range from Beginner, Light, Standard, and Heavy, and in some specific songs there is also Challenge added. In some versions (for example DDRMAX), when you pass your last songs at an AA rating on Heavy mode, you have a chance to play an extra song, usually with preset gameplay modifiers that you can't change, and on top on that the song is very hard to pass even without modifiers, coined as boss songs.

So that's that for the basic gameplay. As for the social impacts, it's a phenomena by itself. for example, other than freestyle players who literally dance with their whole body, there also players who better focus in timing and reading the notes and avoid any extraneous movements, and they are called "technical" or "perfect attack" players, as they aim to make each of their steps perfect. Some can even dance facing away from the display. Maybe they have photographic memory.....
And then there are some who play DDR for burning their oh so worrying calories. There are schools who offer DDR machines as exercise beside their weights, and in Norway, DDR has been considered an official sport. There have been players who reported a weight loss of 5-20 kg when they include DDR in their day-to-day lives. There are home versions that include workout mode to measure how many calories have been burned in each song, and the results are recorded like a training program. Sadly our school does not hold true to these beliefs and decided that as good welfare students, we must do away with the original weights and exercise machines already available. But of course, there's always the Supermall nearby so that wouldn't hurt....
Besides that, there are also dozens of websites dedicated to the game. they offer discussion boards and live updates of the latest DDR news, stepcharts of songs and databases of songs and machine locations. There is also a website that is appealing to the "tech" players that offer discussions and strategies on specific timing and techniques on songs, as well as reverse engineering of the grading systems. There is also an open-source software in PC called Stepmania which simulates the machines using the keyboard or the dance pad, and in addition, you can play many other songs not featured in DDR.

Artist of the Day : Naoki Maeda

One is a DDR novice when one has not recognized the fame of Naoki Maeda in DDR. He is the single most influential artist for DDr with over 30 pseudonyms to phenominize himself. He also has a much hidden identity because little is known about him and his personal life; there are very few photos of him and his information (that's what I sometimes hate about really good artists who deliberately conceal themselves). Some of his pseudonyms are simply the beats per minute (BPM), or speed of that particular song. He also collaborates with other people, usually as vocals, and he is also producer and composer for the band BeForU, who also makes songs for the DDR series. One time he collaborated with DJ TAKA, who makes songs mainly for beatmania, to make the song titled "Kakumei", which means revolution, which is based on Chopin's Revolutionary Etude.....Opus 10 No.12 in C minor, as far as I can remember...

Other than that, his songs are largely instrumental.

One of his major artworks are the PARANOiA series, in which he uses the speed of the song as his pseudonym; from 180, 190, 200, 270, and 290. Another song series worth nothing are the MAX series, which he created as super fast boss songs at 300 BPM, namely, MAX 300, MAXX UNLIMITED, and The Legend of MAX.

There is also one more MAX song titled "MAX. (period)" by 2MB, another mysterious artist, but just as cool as Naoki (He remixes some of Naoki's songs, mind you). It appeared on the home version of DDR Extreme. Theories suggest that it had a period because of the following reasons:

(by the way I adapted this info from various sources)
-First, let's analyze the picture above. There is a dance pad in the background, and there seems like some sort of stains of blood. It can probably mean one can and will pay with blood to pass this song on Heavy mode. It can also appear as a dancepad with sign of wearing out and decay, signifying the milestones of DDR overall these years since 1998. the home dance pad is also to signify that this song is ONLY for home version of DDR EXTREME (darn, I lost the disc...where can it be?)

-And then there's someone who says "Why do you need...? KONAMI original songs..." in the song, my source say that true DDR players can answer that, and my answer is that there are too many licensed songs from artists outside the BEMANI circle the more versions of DDR are being made, and the real feeling of the original DDR is gradually losing, just in order to attract or entice other people to play DDR with the songs they know. That is probably the reason why you need songs original and genuine from KONAMI.

-Halfway around the song, the video shows the original (1st mix) version of DDR, showing its final stage. Final stage reminds me of final song....for DDR.... and it selects PARANOiA, the song that started it all...and there's a clock ticking....maybe showing how time has passed by...

-and then there's pictures of the producers making songs, I think that's a tribute to all the hard work those people have put in since the beginning of the series..

-In the end someone says "Thank you for playing" and they have always said that when you completed 3 songs successfully in every single DDR mix. Maybe they're telling us that this is really goodbye....

But then, despite all the analysis, DDR still lives on. Maybe it was just to get the attention of true DDR players. I myself have been a good devout player, although my skills say otherwise.

By the way 2 MB is the maximum amount of disk space for any given DDR song in the arcade or home version...

That ends the milestones of BEMANI....for now, I repeat, FOR NOW. There are still other machines I have not discussed yet, and I shall find a time for that later.
Oh yeah, forgot a funny picture.

Cheerio.
Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

Day of the year

2007-12-05T22:42:00.000+07:00

This world of sin and blood, will turn into a paradise of peace and tranquilty for a day in a year. The two faced mankind will evolve to angels and smiles are going to decorate face of the earth and make this rotten giant ball a better place to live...just for a day...
Those egoitic, selfish and greedy humans will show their heavenly side of their hearts to others. There will be no terror or horror in the mind of this people...
Ego, selfishness and greediness will become helping hands, blessing acts, and sharing of their happiness to others while some of them just lie around their couch and enjoys the time in front of the warm fire while enjoying their time with loved ones.
Some will bow their heads and have a chat with god, which most of them only doing this once a year...
Wheter in a hot tropical weather or covered by the snow, everyone will have their heart set on peace mode..Even the "talking glass" broadcast their theme of the day for hours...
Family will come together and spend their day playing board games and enjoying their special meal made by their special mum...
Newspapers that usually is full of blood and gore, will tell readers that the corrupted government officials are donating some of their corrupted cash to the charity and also open their houses for the poor...

The next day everything turns 180 degree... War starts to erupt again, robbing, fighting and blood will be spilled. The "talking glass" seemed like breaking apart with those guns fired and bombs exploded that caused loud noises...Churches will be empty and 'red places' will have a flood of "hungry" sinners...

While the children are hoping for the best gift from santa... A giant ball full of smile and peace that everything inside it will come together as a mankind not of different species that fights to survive...
A gift that they could only get in "Christmas Time"

Why do uncivilized ideas can take over your mind easily ?

2007-12-03T21:28:00.000+07:00

Why do uncivilized ideas can take over your mind easily ?
There are many natural factors in this world that influence human behaviors. Human’s basic instinct is to survive. We can do almost anything to hold on to our own survival and our personal interests. If we don’t have high standard of morality, we tend to be selfish. The selfishness can direct us only to meet our own pleasure.
It is undeniable that in every human being there is a spot of evil. If we live in a violent environment, we will witness a lot of uncivilized things all around us. At first, perhaps we will not approve of these things yet if it is becoming a culture or a habit, we will be influenced and start to believe that it is the normal way of life.
Do you know that children in the age of 1-6 years old will copy everything that they see ? Imagine if they keep on seeing uncivilized things. It will become their natural response of their lives. That is why family models play a major role of shaping humanity. There are a lot of cases where the son of the murderer will continue the footstep of their parents. It also happens for child abuse. If a child was abused, the chances of becoming an abuser are higher than those who have normal lives.
The other factor is the booming of modern technology such as the easy use of computer, internet, and television. Television is the most influential media for youngsters. The programs broadcast on tv usually interesting, colorful, and unforgettable. Nowadays there are a lot of programs for children that are full of violence and the producers really wrap the program with fabulous show that brainwashed the youngsters that it is ok to be rude, to cheat, or to hurt people because that’s what on TV. The problem is the producers never show the consequences, example blood or people died or get sick because of their actions since the character will come up just fine, like nothing happened.
Next is the psychological effect. People tend to memorize things that are quite frightening, traumatic, brutal, and inappropriate things. For some people, they will try to avoid seeing these things but the others keep on wanting to know out of their curiosity. And as we know, adrenaline takes a major role on this part. The more you are excited, the tenser you are. People are craving for this kind of sensational. That’s why people like to watch horror movie, violence scenes, or any traumatic events just to satisfy their needs of adrenaline. And that’s why uncivilized things can take over your minds easily.

Evolution of Success

2007-12-03T19:43:00.001+07:00

From my point of view,
Education is important, we all know that. But education from 7am in the midts of the morning to 3pm in the afternoon is something useless.
Lifestyle is defined by trend, and trend is a silhouette of time.
As time goes trend changes...
A century ago, success was defined by rank in military castes in Western countries and in China, the more kids you have, the better you are as a person.
Thousands years ago a man could be seen successful if he could win a fight against a wild animal or could be said that the stronger you are the more successful you are in life.
40 years ago, "cool" people could be seen wearing a huge John Lennon's glasses and a funny looking hippie jeans. But as time goes, people wearing such thing will be considered as "mental illness" or "a sad young age".
School is major as people could show off their "degree" to show people that they could count more numbers than their friends who do not go to school or universities.
University is more like a trend than an everlasting significant procedure to a person's life unlike eating or breathing...
Imagine hundreds years from now, success could be defined by something different...something cooler and more boisterous than ever. For example of how many dogs you have or something that we now could not define. Only time can.

A Lonely Traffic Jam

2007-12-03T19:33:00.000+07:00

43 trillion Rupiah is burnt each year in the midst of the smokey traffic jam in Jakarta. Money that big is not spent in gasoline only, but counting the negative externalities that caused by the queing cars that moves inch by inch every hour and the canceled business deals that caused billions of rupiah.
If...the government could decrease the amount of money lost in the traffic, it could be used to subsidize the rocketing price of petrol, feed the poor, or even build a new road system that reduces traffic!
Money is not the main focus on this problem of traffic jam, but time..which is really scarce in Jakarta. Imagine a father that wants to spend time with his family but the time is gone missing eaten by the traffic, where he could just wait in the car drooling on the satay along side of the road while he could have a family dinner and spend his time with his family watching television or playing games with his kids.
This is a critics that goes not to the new Jakarta governor, but this is exclusively pointed to his predecessor..

[PREMIUM ENCORE STAGE] We Ride! We Roll! Physics GoKarting Leisure

2007-11-12T18:05:00.000+07:00

Whoop dee dooo, my first P.E.S. entry. This tag means that it's either an ungraded post or can be substituted as a normal blog entry. In this case, It's a substitute for the blog entry I didn't make 2 weeks ago. ;p Anyways, here's the topic of the day:

I was pretty convinced. Rather, enticed. This applies to the inevitable love I now have to Lady Physics. Actually, I was forced to love the subject because if I don't, I fail. As simple as that. But no matter, I have an adequate interest in the subject itself, which suffices satisfactorily. In fact, Mr. John E. put a quote from Michael Faraday on last year's yearbook, "Physics is the queen of all physics, the rest is just stamp collecting." Well, personally, this statement is further justified by the fact that last Thursday my Physics class, SLs and HLs (SL and HL are as though normal words to say by IB-depraved students, it seems), went on a happy little excursion to the GoKarting site just outside Karawaci, near the toll road entrance. Now, I would probably say something along the lines of "Stick THAT up yours, lame Biology and Chemistry half-wits!" but then it would be derogatory and ill-mannered, so I'd humbly skip that phase and continue on.

I was at Ibu Virna's class, killing time away at lunchtime, munching at my lunch which I forgot what it was anymore, and then Moo (fellow blogger at Longing Silence) came up to me and showed me some pretty interesting videos, something about Hamlet and The Godfather in one minute, and I believe those who made it didn't really covered it up completely in exactly one minute. Anyways, it was 12:40, and I had to rendezvous with my class 10 minutes after that because we have to depart straight away.

When we had arrived there, and settled ourselves, we had to do some calculations first (of course, it was still class time) including measuring the whole length of the track, and then working out the distance of a curve of the track that we are going to investigate on (since we are dealing with circular motion), and finally, the mass of the gokart vehicle and ourselves, which were also relevant. And finally, it was time to choose who races in which race. I was in the first race, and my partner only need to record the time required for me to pass through that curve I recently measured.

With no further ado, it was racing time. Sadly, I was behind all the other contestants for that race, mostly because the engine failed to keep consistently running, but then I zoomed off after the crew took care of it. I was only once familiar to go-karting, therefore I was a little bit disoriented at the first lap, but then my intuitive aptitude made me enjoy the rest of my laps. It's a good adrenalin rush exercise, and the thrill was what made me motivated to beat the others even though my hands were feeling a bit funny because of the steering wheel. Holding it was a bit regretful, either I applied too much force, or controlling it takes a lot of force. Either way, my hands got a bit shaky in the end; I wasn't able to write properly, and the was a sudden rush of cold blood here and there. Nevertheless, the race was done, I felt really good, and the data was collected.

I watched my other classmates race against each other. The funniest among them was Steven; he was a little ambitious, shall we say, to outrace the others, and so whenever he turned at a corner, he was always as if he was about to slip, pushing it a little, but then he almost always regained his control and gassed away without any hesitance. Not only the students tested their driving and racing skills, the teachers also showed off their competence despite the age barrier. If I were to say who was the overall best between Mr John and Mr Graham, I would rather lean to voting Mr. John because he has more power compared to Mr Graham, although he himself is very skilled at manipulating curves to his advantage. In total, we had 6 races, the last one was with a bit of hurry, because we were running out of schedule and at that rate, we were never going to make it back to school on time. And sadly, that was true because on the way to school, there was a slight traffic congestion and it was austerely annoying. Arriving safely, however, is more important than that. At the end, there were some questions to do, which until today I still have a hard time figuring it out. Pray tell, other lazy Physics students like me will also face the same problem. But there's strength in numbers, also knowledge. We might learn more when we cooperate. Heck, we might even make our own syndicate of Physics knowledge.

Ah, there goes my incessant, unreliable and worthless rambling for the things I had to make up since two weeks ago. The end.

Cheerio.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga P. A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

Undang- Undang Militer Indonesia (Indonesian Military Enforcement)- Is the Indonesian Government out of their minds?!?

2007-11-07T00:25:00.000+07:00

A couple of days ago, news was circulating about a new law that was taken into consideration. The Indonesian government intended to put a law that enforced military enrollment from the age of 18-45. What appeared strange was that the law didn’t state that all must participate in the new law. On the other hand it did write about only some parties that the government choose must enroll in. Basically, the people from the age 18-45 men/female must enroll in the military if the government chooses him/her. To take into consideration, Indonesia is well- known for its corruption. Moreover if this law comes into place, the government may generate more revenue from the corrupted money several people are keen to pay at the cost of not registering for the military. In my opinion, if Indonesia started to distribute this law the government’s main aim is for the Chinese-Indonesian population living in Indonesia. Generically Chinese-Indonesian is wealthier than the national population, which the government may take into consideration. If this outbreak actually did happen, you can bet that the remaining population of around 10% Chinese-Indonesian living in Indonesia would decline immensely. Our best hope, being Chinese-Indonesian is for the government to reconsider distributing the law or to create the law to be more practical for everyone.

By: Nicholas Sudharta (Administrator)

The indonesian busway, are they really neccessary?

2007-11-06T23:56:00.000+07:00

At the start of 2005-2006 periods, the government introduced the “busway” system to the Indonesian public with the hope of reducing traffic congestion. The Indonesian government originally contemplates the idea from London’s similar type of busway. Yet in reality, the busway has created even more traffic, not to mention the amount of money, and more importantly time lost in the catastrophe. A couple of days ago our economics teacher started to share with us about an article he read in Kompas. What was amazing was that, from a national survey they discovered that from traffic alone, Indonesia has lost 46 trillion rupiah each year! Not to mention the amount of time lost in the process. A typical example can be seen in the average person working in the city. A normal employee working in Jakarta would travel around 0-2 hours a day with the exception of no traffic. Imagine with the new enforcement of the busway opening in different locations in the city. Traffic would not only increase severely, people would waste hours and hours of valuable time in the car. My question is: the government has the power to take in account to reduce traffic by subsidizing for the busway, but at what cost? Has the government thought of the consequence of even higher amounts of traffic congestion happening? Is this form of alternate transportation really effective towards the people? In my opinion, the busway in the long run may be effective. Hence, I strongly believe that the government should abolish the busway system and use the money to increase other forms of alternate transportation.

By: Nicholas Sudharta (Administrator)

PH Cup and my GRADES!!!

2007-11-04T20:05:00.000+07:00

The big disappointment came after the second game that SPH B team had on Friday.
We prepared for long period of time practicing our drills and strategies every afterschool. The result was a big lost of two games which gave us a big sadness of exiting the cup with no wins this season. The first game of PH cup on thursday was fun like the game on the friday, but we had too many mistakes on the shots.

Although we lost two games and quitted the season, I have learned many things and got many advantages during this basketball season. I learned how to play basketball as a team, not as individuals and cooperate things with friends. The biggest of all is that I lost 8 kilograms during the practices I had for basketball season.

After the last game, I couldn't think of anything because of the disappointment I had and couldn't concentrate on the coach's last comments. But all I remember is that he is expecting me to join basketball team next year too.

There were some disadvantages I had during the basketball season too. The time wasn't really enough to rest and do homework after I get back to my home. It's rather you rest or do your homework, you cannon do both in a day. So I had many problems on my report card that made me to think serious about this issue. I had two fails and overall was terrible for the first quarter of this IB school year. My job to do after the basketball season is raising my grades up to 5~6. Otherwise, my dad will ground me for sure, which will really be really annoying to sneak out on the weekends to play with my friends. So my goal is to be more aggressive on the studies and prepare a test at least 3~5 days before.

Band...!!!

2007-11-04T18:57:00.000+07:00

Before I start writing this blog, I want to make sure that this blog is for October 26th.

This day, my friend told me that there's a festival in his church after two weeks. So he wanted to make band for that festival to play some gosphel songs. I was picked as a bass guitarist for the band and told me that he will be giving the songs on Sunday. When I first heard this news, I was so excited that almost flew up into the sky! but I couldn't show this kind of reaction to my friends, so that my friend would think that I'm an experienced bass guitarist. But actually, I never been playing in a band like a big festival and that's why it got me more excited about.

The first band practice was on Wednesday and I had only one day to practice before this meeting and furthermore, my bass guitar lesson teacher was out to Bali so that I had to get help from my friend's guitar teacher. The practice was terrible that day because nobody have practiced enough to play together, but it was fun little though because I had a chance to go out to Jakarta during the weekdays.

After this experience on Wednesday, I have found out that playing easy song on the band is much harder than playing alone in my room figuring out the hard songs. I have decided to practice much harder to become a good bass player.

BEMANI milestones, step 2: GuitarFeaks & drummania

2007-11-01T20:17:00.000+07:00

Ah, yes, the pinnacle of arcade gaming....a timeless hobby that never got me bored...and the epitome of entertainment....allow me to introduce BEMANI's twin children, the GuitarFreaks and DrumMania series. This is another type of music simulating games BEMANI added to its arsenal not long after beatmania was released in 1997. This time, it's simulating a drum and guitars.
Frankly speaking, GuitarFreaks was born earlier, around spring of 1998, if I'm not mistaken. There is still a copy of the machine left at one of the malls in Jakarta, as far as I could remember. There were only as many as around 10-12 songs at first, completely original from artists that would make BEMANI's exclusive line-up for this series. And shortly after that on the same year, the second mix, GuitarFreaks 2nd Mix, was born, and along came its other twin, the first drummania series. They're relatively cheap, so they can be found in arcades of middle to lower class malls, since those in big malls (like in Karawaci Supermall) upgraded them from 1st to 3rd mix and jumped to 10th mix, so the rest of the machines either got sold or simply transferred somewhere else.
Before I say anything else, let's examine how they are played.

Perfect! Now, if you refer back to the first picture that shows both of the consoles, I'll elaborate on Drummania, which is the left one in the picture and the left picture just on top of this paragraph. Now, there are 6 columns for different pads to drum on. Starting from the leftmost, the hi-hat, snare drum, bass drum (only a foot pedal), a hi and lo tom, and a cymbal. An animation video will play to the right, depending on what song you choose, similar to beatmania. See those tabs, blue for cymbal and pink with foot for bass? all you have to do is to time your drumming so that when you hit it, it will be hit close to the bold yellow line, which marks if you have missed the timing to hit the correct pad or not. The same goes for each of the other columns there. The drumming tablature will scroll vertically, and to pass a song, you have to get the red bar on the very left end full, and once it's gone, it's game over. In other words, you will have to time your drumming in order to get a good song running. There's a beginner course for beginners, obviously, a standard mode to play any 3 songs you like, and an expert mode that lets you play one packet of four songs, usually themed, continuously with little time to rest.
Now the guitarfreaks machine is a bit different, if not almost different.
A close-up look of the home version of the guitar controller (it's basically the same) shows that there are three buttons: red, blue, and green, and some sort of picking thingamajigger at the body of the guitar. If you refer back to the above picture in the right, there's a tablature similar to drummania, theres a bar for the three buttons and another one for a Wailing Bonus column. when either three of the first tabs appear and start scrolling vertically upwards (not downwards unlike Drummania)you have to hold the button corresponding it and then pick the strum when it reaches the yellow bar (better yet, right before it hits the yellow bar.) It's similar to drummania and beatmania, you have to do it in order to get a proper song running and not a musical fiasco which results in a game over.
Both have the same performance grading systems at the end ranging from a godly SS to a lousy E. So far , there have been 14 releases for Drummania and 15 from Guitarfreaks because it came out first, and the latest one is called version V4, the V signifying 5 years of their existence on the arcade market.

One of the unique features of this duo is the ability to to a jam session with 3 players, 2 on guitar and one on drums, via what is called Session Linking, so you can play songs together with friends and either ace together or fail together, which is obviously much more fun doing. there will be a separate combo display for a each machine and also a combined combo for both. Perhaps that band Muse could order those machines specially designed for them, since they're only 3 personnel in the band.....

There are also settings that you can choose from, altering the speed of the scrolling like beatmania, make it partially hidden, set the position of the combo display, or even omit the bass drum, hi-hat or cymbal part and let you focus on other parts of the set. Personally I'd set the scrolling speed to 3.5x faster, set the combo display in the right, overlapping the movie display, and omit the drums (yes, I'm a loser, but thanks to that I can pass the hard songs reasonably)

The music itself is like beatmania, a whole different dimension. the scoring system also varies through the times, from a star rating of 1 to 9 to a rating of 10 to 99. The songs have three difficulties: BASIC, ADVANCED, and EXTREME, with the latter being the hardest. There are exclusive artists who make songs especially for this series, although they have songs for other machines as well, and there are also licensed songs from outside artists, like, say, Earth, Wind and Fire, Sum 41, Deep Purple, KISS, Black Sabbath, and The Dillinger Escape Plan, among the some to name. There's even an artist by the name of ASMAT who offers what I coin the phrase "Indian Rock" genred songs. Pretty darn crazy, those Japanese.

Artist of the day: Hirofumi Sasaki (佐々木博史)

Ah, my hero. He, in my opinion, makes both the hardest and coolest songs I've ever seen in the entire Drummania/Guitarfreaks series. Starting with "The Least 100sec", which has an EXTREME rating of 99, the highest of its kind and still retains its glory even today. It's coined as the hardest song ever in the series because of its merciless drum tabs that keep on rolling and don't give you even one full second to rest and also a ridiculously nauseous drum solo halfway, a common trap for failing the songs. And yes, the song DOES go for exactly 100 seconds. There is also a long version of it, called The Least 33sec, which also goes for exactly 333 seconds, 5 minutes and 33 seconds. Ironically, the song has also been acclaimed to have one of THE lamest video accompanying the song even till today, featuring near monochromatic images of wire-design churches, 3D square grids and random numbers. They've revised it to make it look less pitiful in version V4, and although it still looks lame, I'd have to say it gotta be the trademark of the song.
Other songs from his creation are Children's Sketchbook, which is a rock version of "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desire", which is not quite as hard as The Least 100sec but it features tricky cymbals, annoying snare rolls and crossovers (constantly move your right hand to hit the hi-hat and cymbals while hitting the snares with the left hand, the right hand crosses over the left). There's also Tamayura, with even more annoying snare rolls, crossovers, and incessant hi-tom rolls. After that there's Concertino in Blue, which is more fun to play but still challenging in the hi-hats and cymbals, and Timepiece Phase II, his last song to date in the series, with simple but constant drum rolls and crossovers, an one thing to note is that the music arrangement is such a way that he makes it the grand finale of his songs. Maybe to signal his farewell to his fellow fans, but I'm still convinced that he'll return to make a song for the series once more.

There's still another milestone of BEMANI, coming right after this.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

The Milestones of BEMANI, Step 1:beatmania

2007-10-29T19:16:00.000+07:00

Partly because I have run out of ideas on what to write for my blog, and furthermore my entry is way out of schedule, which I also regret, I decided to talk about one of my favorite things; that is, arcade games. Especially, those games that are under the BEMANI umbrella. but before I begin my further rambling, I'll introduce BEMANI first.

Before that was KONAMI. It is currently one of the top gaming companies that exist today. Their range of products is apparently enormous; anime merchandise, trading cards, action figures, coin arcades and various other video games. we now narrow the scope to one of its branches, which is none other than BEMANI, specializing in coin-operated music simulation games. Originally, it was named "Games and Music Division", but then it changed its name as an accolade to its first and most successful game, beatmania (yes, without a capital B).

According to Wikipedia, BEMANI has continuously released new versions of several different games. Using the coined term "mix", different mixes have different songs, settings, play modes, and graphics. Usually this comes in a rather fixed format, which is [game] [No.]th Mix, for example, beatmania 6th Mix. There is one exception for one of the games, namely, "Pop'n music 1" and onwards. Each game has its own unique hardware (one good reason why they are ridiculously expensive), and each of them has its own form of control. A fair amount of songs from one of their games are occasionally transplanted into another (for example, a song in beatmania can appear in pop'n music).

Since there are about 4 main games that they continuously produce with different mixes, I'll split them into four; this one is, obviously, beatmania, their most successful product in the coin arcade games market. Its first release was around 1997, and is partly responsible for the booming of music simulation games similar to this in 1998. Since it was so successful, it has 'evolved' into 2 versions, beatmania IIDX (DX standing for Deluxe, pronounced two dee-ecks) and beatmania III (three).

The rules are ultimately simple. There is 5 piano-resembling keys arranged like one (two black keys in the top and three white ones in the bottom), and a scratching disk at the left side for player one and in the right for player 2. In beatmania IIDX it is changed to seven keys, thus making it a wee bit harder, and also some effector keys acting along the lines of equalizers. in beatmania III, however, the 5 keys are back and a versatile foot pedal. when you insert the coins and press Start, you choose the play mode (for beginners, regulars and experts), and you select the song. When it is set, you get a screen of something like this :

Those tabs and keys correspond to the controller which is something like this:

White tabs for the white keys, blue ones for the black, and there are wide red tabs not shown in the picture for the scratching disk. Basically, when any cascading tabs approach or meet the big red line below, you have to press the corresponding key (for example, tab for leftmost white key reaches reline, press it) in order to get a preset sound which recomposes the song properly, if the whole 'stage' is played flawlessly, it produces a proper song. On the contrary, if played with notes missing or not hit at the right time, all you get is a fiasco. There is a passing range shown in form of a horizontal bar below the bars, and the objective is to keep the bar on the red region in order to pass the song and advance to the next stage. If the song ends and the bar is in the blue region, you fail the song and you have to insert another coin if you want to continue. The stage may end prematurely if the bar is completely depleted. Sounds easy enough? Not quite.

There are 3 levels of difficulty for each song (This varies in each of the 3 versions), NORMAL, HYPER, or ANOTHER, all in a scale of 1 to 12, from easiest to hardest. The harder it gets, the more skill and accuracy needed to correctly press the keys and 'scratch' the disk in order to pass the stage and get a flawless song. There are speed modifiers, from 0.5x to 5.0x at 0.5 intervals, changing the rate of scrolling of the notes falling down and increases the gap between the notes but not necessarily accelerating the sound, according to the song's BPM (beats per minute). Other core gameplay modifiers (because they've lots of them) are HIDDEN, when the notes disappear halfway at the end but you still have to press them, SUDDEN, when the notes are only visible halfway at the end, in contrary to HIDDEN, RANDOM, where notes for keys are assigned to other keys, MIRROR , where the note layout for the songs is flipped (rightmost key becomes leftmost key, doesn't affect scratches), and Auto Scratch, where the notes for the turntable do not require user input (automatically counted). The scoring, or how well you succeeded, is based on rankings ranging from C to AAA.
There are different mixes for each version, and there are different songs, graphics, layout, new game plays, etc. The first beatmania goes until 6th mix + CORE REMIX; the IIDX series, on the other hands, uses 'style' at the end (Beatmana IIDX 9th style), probably because it would sound peculiar if they used 'mix', and it is still continuous, the most recent being beatmania IIDX 14- GOLD (they stopped using 'nth style' since IIDX 11 - RED onwards). beatmania III, on the other hand, is relatively short-lived and stops at 'the final' mix. It had a 3.5 inch floppy drive to save records of scores. There are also home versions, which hold up to 90 songs. The arcade ones can hold up to 400 songs due to running it on a hard drive instead of a DVD.

The songs itself are an integral part of beatmania as do all consoles under the BEMANI umbrella. there are artists who compose songs exclusively for BEMANI, but there are other licensed tracks from other popular artists as well. Each mix will have relatively have 40 new songs (!) with some revival songs from previous mixes, and also what they termed "boss songs" or 'extra stage' songs, only playable when meeting certain requirements in clearing stages that differ at several intervals of mixes (for example, one mix requires the user to play, say, a level 6, 7, and 8 song respectively with a ranking of A or higher to unlock the boss songs). Generally, the artists uses pseudonyms/aliases for their songs, the ones they use frequently and sometimes special ones for certain songs. One more thing,each song has a genre and some of them have special genres, which will be come apparent in my Songs of the Day review.

Sadly, they very, VERY RARELY appear in Indonesia. One reason is because it is ridiculously, INSANELY expensive. For example, buying a beatmania IIDX 9th style cabinet alone costs around $12500! Imagine IIDX 14 - GOLD, it might be up to $20000 (200 million rupiah!) or even more! The most updated one I can find is beatmania 5th mix in Bali. There was a beatmania IIDX (1st mix) in Daan Mogot, Jakarta once, but it's long broken. So consequently, I have to go to Japan itself to get myself updated. In any case, it's a fine game to any of you who enjoy music and arcade games, but this is only the beginning; there are still more games to come and I will review them eventually.

S O N G S O F T H E D A Y : [CARDINAL GATE]

The CARDINAL GATE is a group of boss songs with a difficulty of 11 out of 12. The artists are based from the Four Gods that rules the four directions (north, east, west, and south) in chinese mythology. This can be found in beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD, and is the first time in any mixes a boss song appears in for of a group. The songs from the ' four gods' are:

1. Ganymede by 玄武 (Genbu)

The slowest of the quartet (72-82 BPM), and the most sensible song (in terms of how the song sounds like), it features a green mechanical turtle in a snowy plain on the video. Personally my favorite song out of the four, the real artist's name is Jun Wakita, who happens to be my favorite artists of all time for beatmania. The genre is Esoteric Slowcore, which makes sense once you hear the song.

2. CONTRACT by 朱雀 (Suzaku)
The second slowest at 180 BPM, and the third most sensible song, the video features an armored girl enveloped in fire, and my wild guess is that the animal accompanying her is a vermilion phoenix are some other type of bird. The artist's real name is Yoshitaka Nishimura, which I am not in full favor of his songs. The genre is Sublime Techno, which is not so understandable to me, but it's techno, for sure.

3. 華蝶風雪 (pronounced 'Kachoufuusetsu' )by 白虎 (Byakko)
The fastest of the four at 199 BPM, and the second most sensible song, the video shows a white haired guy in black (with chest open) bearing a big scythe riding a white striped tiger. The artists real name is Tatsuya Shimizu, a newcomer to the BEMANI artists family, he does reasonably good songs which made him quickly popular. The genre is Asian Mixture, as the song has traditional Japanese instruments such as the shamisen, koto, and the Japanese flute which I forgot the name.

4. waxing and wanding by 青龍 (Seiryu)
The third fastest at 191 BPM, this is in my opinion the most insensible song of the four, heavily caused by some high-pitched rambling-of-sorts throughout the song. The video shows a blond princess with a blue-eyes azure dragon. My wild but plausible guess for the real artist is Ryutaro Nakahara, which I am flabbergasted at because he doesn't make songs like this type for all I know. The genre is Dance Speed. I get the 'speed' because its reasonably fast, but the 'dance' part, I'm not that convinced.

So that's it for beatmania and the Cardinal Gate. There are hundreds of other songs, but I just spent two hours writing this blog and I wouldn't care less about them. Next up is step 2: Guitar Freaks & Drummania, soon in a blog entry near you.

Cheerio.
Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

Anime Review: The Law of Ueki

2007-10-23T20:45:00.000+07:00

Captivating...moving... magnum opus (masterpiece)… is a few words that would describe the anime (Japanese cartoon version) “The Law of Ueki” created by the very talents of Tsubasa Fukuchi and the scintillating tunes (opening 2nd theme in particular) of Kumi Koda. The Japanese animation production started in April 4, 2005 and ended in March 27, 2006. It all started with the main character of the anime named “Ueki”. Ueki is just your average middle- senior school student in your everyday society. He meets with Kobasen, a heavenly being (creatures similar to humans, with special powers beyond those of a mere human) that helps him to change as the story progress. The story proceeds with Ueki meeting his “god candidate” and receiving a special power of turning garbage into trees. Ueki then joins a competition where people with special gifts would compete in a tournament. The winner would claim a “blank talent” or in other words to obtain any skill he/she wishes. The “god candidate” will then be promoted as God himself. However, Ueki didn’t realize the mess he gets himself into. As the story persists, he meets with his future rival called Robert Haydn. An 8th grade heavenly being as well, with an intact hatred towards mankind in general. Robert is powerful enough to be feared by all the rest of the contestants. Ueki eventually lost the fight and was helped by Kobasen. Kobasen helped Ueki at the cost of disobeying “God’s laws” and was summoned into hell. Before he left, Kobasen reminded Ueki to stay strong, and to always remember to hold on to morals in life, explicitly to upheld justice towards the world. Kobasen’s message becomes the backbone of the entire anime, as Justice is the main force behind Ueki’s actions. Long story short, Ueki obtains new friends that help him in the tournament, and more importantly sharing the same optimistic idea of changing the world significantly. (Spoilers end here)…

In my opinion, The Law of Ueki is an incomparable masterpiece of anime. This anime is not only entertaining yet it also gives priceless lessons to be learnt. From the upholding message of Justice, to the idea of never giving up, to persevere in the tightest situations, to always keeping a “no one gets left behind” mindset in battles, Ueki’s never ending thought of “sacrifice” for his friends becomes his motivation in his battles. Personally, my favorite message is the belief in a hope or an idealistic idea of the future and not the past, in which we can do anything we set our minds to. How ever high that idea or goal may be, the sky’s the limit.

9.5/10 (52 anime episodes in total)

By: Nicholas Sudharta (Administrator)

[EXTRA STAGE] The Legend of CASIOPEA

2007-10-22T17:04:00.001+07:00

Introducing my new way of blogging; that is, [Extra Stage] and [Premium Encore Stage] blog entries. An entry with the [Extra Stage] tag before its title means that it is not to be graded and I did it out of my excess writing passion. Entries with [Premium Encore Stage] tags serve as 'emergency provisions', where it can be used as a substitute should I fail to meet my weekly entry because of other reasons. Having that said, here goes.

At 9th grade I remember realizing that I had a liking for jazz. It turned out that I pretty much hear music of any genre as long as I like it. Then I started looking through my father's CD albums, and some of them were fusion jazz, some oldies, and disco (He was a pretty good disco jockey in his youth, I can say that). And then my father showed me his top favorites: two CD albums of a Japanese band called CASIOPEA. I have heard of the name before, because in earlier years when I was still in the Limewire fervor I came across one of their songs called "Eccentric Games", which was apparently the live version with a band named T-Square. Anyways, now I have come to adore this band just like my father did when he attended their concert in Jakarta almost 20 years ago.

Here they are. Starting from the left, is Minoru Mukaiyama, the keyboardist who seems to savor every song he plays live on stage with passion. He frequently plays with two keyboards, but he prefers having 3 around him. the next one is Akira Jimbo on the drums; he was a former member but left to pursue solo careers in the 1980's. He then joined the team again as an associate member to keep the band spirit alive and well. I'd personally say he's one of the top fusion jazz drummers I've ever seen. Next is the band leader, Issei Noro, the guitarist, whose passion remains blazing until last year, when he decided to freeze all band activity because he needed to take a break. Well, more than 20 years of band history must be tiring for him, I'd admit it. His style of playing is a bit old school in terms of guitar position, but his way of composing music is one of a kind. Lastly, there's Yoshihiro Naruse, the bassist, which is renowned as a master slapper (meaning he 'slaps' the strings with his thumb to create a unique and catchy sound, which is quite advanced as I would deduce it). although I think they are well in their 40's (not sure for Akira), they're still restless playing their own music because they know they love and and their fans do so too, including me. Now I have problems ordering their concert DVD because it's over 600,000 rupiah excluding shipping costs, which is a pain since firstly I haven't had the prerogative and freedom for online shopping yet and secondly, I don't make my own money yet.

My personal favorites from this band include:

ASAYAKE

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um4aR6xmdM8]
The title meaning "sunrise", it lives up to its name as a song greeting something new like the sunrise in the morning. It's their signature piece and Issei has a signature move for it too. It's the part where he raises his fist three times after playing a certain tune; he's been doing that ever since the song was first used on stage. And since the band teamed up with T-Square, another great Japanese fusion jazz band, the sax adds to the greatness of the song at full. It's sometimes played as a closing song, holding on the the 'save the best for last' principle.

Misty Lady

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHiSWq9hxL0]
The above link was when they toured in South Korea, around 1996. I consider this to be their best version of the song. Originally it had that smoky feeling, added with their unique upbeat rhythm to make a decent song that stands out. In this clip you can see Issei still had long hair and hasn't grown a beard and mustache yet, and frankly speaking, Yoshihiro still had that mushroom-shaped haircut.

Looking Up

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FtjUMwKfI]
One of their intro songs when they teamed up with T-Square at one of the last concerts, I love this song particularly because of the catchy tunes and major keys and this song is the best example of Casiopea's uniqueness; they rarely make sad songs. The farthest they can go is just relaxing songs, but they still maintain its unique tune and distinct play style.

The Soundgraphy
I don't really have much to say because they sadly didn't play this song in any of their concerts, but it's still one of my most favored songs. They still have that positive beat, sort of vigorous and alive, which is not found in most of the run-off-the-mill smooth jazz releases found in America, and they aren't subject to the pressures American jazz players feel, so the consistency of their music is distinct and fresh.

Well, that's it for my first [Extra Stage] entry. All in all, I continue to search for their music scattered everywhere on Limewire and legally in stores, because I want to experience fully the band that takes fusion jazz on to a different plane.

From the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

Living a Life Leaving a Legacy and Lasting Memories

2007-10-21T15:15:00.000+07:00

Finally the picture application works again, it wasn't working on 11 AM, which irritated me briefly.

Yesterday night, I was going with my parents to a friend of theirs in Pondok Indah. I had wanted to stay, but then the new maid hasn't arrived yet, or to put it better, hasn't been found yet (the recent one will never come back), so I reluctantly went with them. Initially their business was to clarify some catering affairs for a company gathering due next week, so it was obvious they would make verifications and final adjustments and whatnot. I thought that the meeting would be short and I'll come home early and start writing on this blog. A while later, when my parents were discussing with the lady her husband came and greeted us. Sometime later we were prompted to dinner with them. At first we hesitated and took away the offer, but then they said that hospitalities like these should be accepted without reluctance. I thought, "Well, at least it's better than having headaches about where to eat after this," so us three enjoyed dinner at their place.
At the dinner table I listened about various things, but mostly it was all pretty much related to religion, such as fanatics and sects and all (The husband explained this all to us, by the way). After that I listened about various religious leaders (namely, kiai in Indonesian terms) spread across Indonesia and people in Yemen. Firstly, the religious leaders in Indonesia, Muslim leaders, that is, since their spiritual 'power' is advanced enough, one can speak to a crowd without even moving his jaw, and so his students beside him would have to interpret his seemingly telepathic speech to the rest of the crowd. He said the the leader was slightly above 200 years old although I have doubts about that only slightly. And then he talked about another leader in Central Java who's very short but his voice can be heard vividly almost 2km away from him without using a microphone or any kind of sound amplification devices.
A while later came the main topic, there and this blog. It was about a man who wouldn't take answers for granted and leave it like that; he would even ask my father for 3 years finding what is God, and take it further from there. He was a man who divided part of his wage with people who work for him or know him who needed more than they got. He was a man who had a dream, a vision about all of his and her wife's family doing a pilgrimage together to the holy lands of Mecca and Medina, and he even had the funds ready. He was a man who built a mosque and also a boarding school for orphaned children, yet he was killed tragically; his car was smashed by a train and died on the way to the hospital. It was 3 years ago.
That man was my uncle, my dad's eldest brother.
The way he died itself was enigmatic on its own. The night before his death, my dad was supposed to lead the evening prayers for his side of the family after breaking the fast (it was the month of Ramadan at the time), but instead he did it for my mother's family. And so when he got there, he was extremely furious at him. The strange thing is, for as long as my mother had been married with my father, she had never experienced my uncle getting furious to my dad like that, and even his wife doesn't know why. After a while, he informs to my uncle for his departure home, and he said to be in his house again the next day at 3 PM. When we hit the wheels and not far from their house his wife phoned my mother, vehemently apologizing us body and soul for my uncle's mysterious temper. Even she doesn't know why, and she said sorry once again.
The next day, it was well around 2 past 30 PM. My father was taking a bath. The phone rang, and I was the closest one to answer it. It was from my aunt; my dad's older sister. She prompted for my father very urgently. Half-finished bathing, he came out, puzzled.

"Pak Adhi meninggal!! Cepat ke sana!!!"

After an incredulous "APA!? (WHAT !?)" he finished his bath in a flash and called other relatives and colleagues immediately (A cousin recalls feeling numb on their knees when hearing the news). We all dressed in black and flashed to the nearest mortuary. Actually, except me. I , still naive and quite nebulous, instead went to a birthday party of my friend's over at Shangri-La hotel, which easily became one of my greatest regrets now. After I broke my fasting there, I told my friend that I have to go see my deceased uncle. He was surprised and after a talk, he told me that next time, family comes first. I heeded his saying until today. I finally made it to his house and both my uncle and his wife had very clean and peaceful faces. Only during their burial did I cried, having realized all that he did for me me all these years. (my aunt who called almost went hysteric and wanted to be

What was strange about this death for me was that he told my father to come to his house at three and then died around that timespan. the night before, he was furious and even his wife didn't know why. It was as if he knew his death was coming, and that his temper to my father was some sort of a farewell last speech, something to remember about after his death. My uncle lived a very strong religious foundation. It is said that those like him and greater can sense their death coming their way. Having testifying this, I have to second that notion. I would have to classify it as premonition. Three years later, people still talk about his deeds and his humble and selfless character. His life makes me feel proud about having an uncle like him. Now, I still wish he was still here when Lebaran came.
Things would have been very much different when he's still around.
You can tune a guitar, but can you tune a fish?

I will not be posting a Song of the Day today. Instead, I will introduce something else interesting. Tomorrow. I promise. I have homework. Which sucks. But hey, no pain no gain.

Cheerio.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

The Controversial World of Choice

2007-10-04T22:27:00.000+07:00

In this world of technological advantages, the improved human life and less time needed to cook a bowl of soup, we all face one problem. One big problem that really waste our time and energy. A problem that causes the mandkind to suffer from confusion which sometimes can lead to brain damage or mental illness.
This useless and very irritating problem is called choosing a gadget.
There are millions of range of choices when we are goin to buy anything. There are 3 types of ipods with uncountable number of colors, a whole world choices of handphone with all those crappy systems which we do not use anyway, and even a catalouge of toilet paper types and colors! Why waste time in choosing what kind of toilet paper to use or different types of gadgets. They are just unbelievably the same!! People might waste half of their lifes in making choices and decisions, in choosing the right clothes to wear and what kind of rice to buy.
What was simple in the past became very sophisticated and complicated until you need a consultant to choose which underwear suits you the most. The world is becoming more complex rather than simpler and efficient. We could see the example in a handphone, where there are trillions of functions in it, like all those GPRS,3G and blah blah... All I need is buttons with numbers ranging from 0-9. A huge dial and end call button with one round black spot that named ON/OFF. I don't need all those crappy camera or mp3, because we use digital camera that has better quality and we carry ipods everywhere.
A single thing which was meant to have one function, is becoming one multitasking gadget and in the future, we could have a talking tissue paper robot with LCD screen.
Adidas invented a pair of shoe called Adidas 1 which has chip in it and you could choose the softness of the soles when you press a button which is located on top of the shoe. This is rubbish, one hundred percent rubbish...I don't care where am I stepping at, as long as the shoe protect me from nails and dog poo. The best shoe in the world is a sole sticked below the body of the shoe with traditional tailor on it, not a terminator kind of shoes which could fire laser guns and nuclear bombs.

The message to gadget developers is:
make things as simple as the stone age!

Sweet and Sour

2007-10-04T20:51:00.000+07:00

Being supressed like a dumb mouse trapped in the sticky stuff, residents are being fooled by those loaded and glamorous military officers with 2 kilograms of blood diamonds and gold chains around their neck and feet, just like a...pimp.
Is military socialist a good way to treat a country with hungry men digging in the rubbish bin trying to find the caviar and Mexican truffles which is the left over from the Leutenant's mansion?
Militaries with canons, bazookas and nuclear bombs with mass killing gas in it and plague do not fight with people who has fork on their hands and stomach full of air due to the lack of rice or smoke beef which is finished because the fat blobby generals consumed it all..
Last month, a military general was seen at his daughter's wedding in a 5 star hotel in Yangon, while Myanmar's residents do not get enough rice to keep their stomach full each day, according to Jakarta Post...What the counry is now doing is exactly what they did twenty years ago, where a reform happened but the military closed all communication and way to socialize with other country, and after they gradually open out, another reform happened just days ago which then will make us buy new world map that has no Burma inside, completey expunged.
But twenty years again, when I grow mustache and have medical check up each day, we will see a new country that is lead by the Generals, leutenant and Captain's children.
While their stomach grow bigger and bigger and so the bank account in Credit Suisse, when we turn the TV on to CNN, we see more people trying to refute. but in a snap of a finger, gone forever...just like some of the men wearing orange clothing with bald head that tried to "critics" the military government of Burma or Myanmar (whatever you think is appopriate to this "country")

What I am saying is very clear.
For high ranking bureau: Oil as main natural resource + absolute power for military = yacht in French Riviera
For residents of Burma: Oil as main natural resource + absolute power for military = I eat 100 years old of beef that i found in the trash can

Why did the high ranking general in burma make money from suffering?

If I am in the position of the general, I would do these too...

What is Success ? ( In my perspective)

2007-10-03T19:08:00.001+07:00

What is success? (In my perspective)

For me, success is divided into 5 parts. They are success in family, in career, in social life, in health, and in morality. My life wouldn’t be complete if I cannot fulfill these 5 areas of my life. Yet different people have different perspective, but mine should be like this.
Now I’m going to explain everything from my point of view. First, what does success in family mean? Success in family means that you have people who love you and be loved by you. Usually the circle of family consists of the closest people around you, such as your parents and siblings. Living peacefully with them means you talk, you communicate, and they respond to you. Time is the key factor here. If a family can spend some time together just to interact among themselves, the problems that they are facing will seem to be light enough to bare. Laughter and hugs would be the best remedy of all tiring day. You don’t have to spend and plan particular event just to show that you care. A simple dinner can have it all.
Then, as I’m a young man that has a lot of dreams and accomplishment to achieve, I believe that I have to strive and work hard to prove my existence. Especially in business, I see that people who are rich have all the respects and power in their hands even though not everybody likes them. Well, for start, I need to have good grades to be successful in my studies so I can earn as much knowledge as I could. Hopefully with all this knowledge, I could establish and expand my own business and be recognized by people.
Next, success in social life means that you have friends that you can count on especially when you are in trouble. Nowadays I see a lot of people try to be friends with people who are popular but that are not what I want. I need to have friends who truly know me, my strengths and weakness yet they still accept me for who I am. Those kind of friends are difficult to find but should be kept when you have them. I believe if you have friends that support you, you will be able to develop your potential to the best that you can. They will remind you if you are wrong and support you when you are in need. That’s why I called it success in social life.
Health, health may not be everything but without health we cannot do anything. For me health is very important. It helps me to do everything from studying, having fun, and doing other activities to achieve my dreams. Imagine if you are sick, you cannot perform to your maximum potential. Not to mention the pain and the expense that you should spent to be healthy. I think even though you have all the money in this world, it would be useless if you cannot enjoy it for you are sick and cannot leave your bed.
Even though I’m still young, but I want to make sure that I am successful now and then. Well morality or religion is one way to have the guarantee. Without good moral people can be very selfish and evil. They only think about themselves and their needs. Usually these kinds of people will do everything to achieve their goals. In the other hand, I believe that I should live good conscience. It will bring me peace so I can prepare my next move without feeling guilty.
I hope I can achieve all of this success. As I grow older perhaps these definitions will change but for now this success are my goals to achieve in life.
Initial R
Ricardo Alidjurnawan

Infinite Realms of Imagination Part 1: Video Games

2007-09-30T22:02:00.000+07:00

Foreword: I just don't get the Chinese government. The idea of not responding seriously to the situation in Myanmar/Burma is almost apathetically airheaded. I mean, frankly I do have some Chinese blood, and it makes me question if us Chinese people just don't really care less about the things around us, or if we're really use our "friendship" for something that only benefits us. I'm not negatively stereotyping here, but it makes me think, and this thinking is like a slandering toxic (scratching my head at the same time).

Well, I do believe I'm sort of beyond schedule of my posting time, which is Wednesday, roundabout 3 days ago, and in that timespan I've been collecting heart to write my blog entry for this week as soon as I can, but I am just too unwilling to do so. In which it is a bad habit for IB. Go ahead, Miss J. Hate me. Kill me.
Anyways. Back to the topic.

I just can't help it--I was born to love video games. I'm not really who I am now if it hadn't influenced me since I first got my hands on a laptop-toy-of-sorts when I was around 1st grade that taught me this English I use to write my blog now. I am not an fourth-generation gamer or below, but I live around the end of that era: say, SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System,), Sega Saturn, Super Famicom, Neo Geo, to name a few. Ah, yes, how I remember vividly the glorious olden days of 16 to 32-bits of moving graphics that paved the prestige of video gaming to what we now call as the seventh generation of video game consoles, our time; the time of the over-expensive and slightly over-futuristic Playstation 3, in which I first heard of 5 years ago talking about it in Chapel time, the time of Nintendo Wii in which reality gaming is just taking another baby-step and we say adieu to Virtual Boy and its monochromatic spectrum that now bores me to death in just a matter of seconds, and of course the time of XBox 360 which is undoubtedly far more attractive and cheaper (Amen to that, Gary?) than its over-futuristic competitor who apparently set the wrong marketing strategy despite its torture to the R&D department.
Right now, I possess in my vicinity consoles of only as far as the sixth generation , which are Playstation 2, Xbox, and Gameboy Advance, as well as the tip of the seventh, namely the Nintendo DS, and a Wii is expected to storm my house sometime near. The irony of being a well-bred, experienced gamer having a slow progress in generation upgrading is so thick you can cut it with a knife. But nevertheless, I do admit that I played most of the games, seen what they look like, played what they offer, and heard what they sing. I know my first PlayStation 2 game, and now I compare to a game that was just released a month ago as a closing goodbye to the sixth generation, and I have seen much improvement, and such an improvement it was.
I look back to my early years. I have an SNES at my disposal. I played the titles that made Nintendo one mega-gaming company of its own today--Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Mario, Street Fighter, to name among a few--my power adapter once got burned because of playing too much (evidence for constantly wearing my glasses all these years). And then I think of Gameboy, which was in the form of a purple, semi-transparent Game Boy Color I got from my uncle at the end of 1999 in France where I also celebrated the eve of 2000 near the Eiffel Towel. I played Super Mario Bros. and Mario Golf like there was no other console more advanced than that. And now, when I look at my ebony black Nintendo DS, I realized that my journey of gaming has gone so far into this. And those flashbacks stir around your brain and you remember the good days of playing various games, how you missed some, how you wish it would never exist again, how you would die to have one more chance playing it again for the sake of nostalgia, I began to value and cherish some of those moments.
It is absolutely surprising. Within a timespan of less than 30 years , the video gaming industry has rapidly evolved like bacteria, from the monochromatic Pong to the groundbreaking Mario Bros. (originally Jumpman) and finally to the ethereal Final Fantasy series, you may as well guess what's next in the next 5 years. Perhaps there may be a PS4 coming up in just three years. perhaps the long-sought prophecy of holographic gaming may just come true when I'm Head of Department somewhere, someday.

The world of video gaming is constantly changing and improving as humans continue to solve the unsolvable and think the unthinkable. It may improve for the greater and latter good, but it may as well destroy. As long as it will continue, so will I constantly grip my hand firm on the progress of this outspoken phenomena bordering unholy in its presence to the world. On a more cynical side, more of my precious time which may be used for (seemingly and pretentiously) valuable academic and scholastic activities will be wasted as an opportunity cost (taking into account that I'm not an Economics student) of my eternal interests, this among one of them. But as someone once said, grades are of no eternal value.

......Hey, what about the mystery of permanent records then?

Song of the Day - "La Mer" by Coba

Literally translated as "the sea", and is an opening song for a video came called Suikoden IV, I fell in love with this song as soon as my eardrums finished hearing this amazing song. Although video game music experts say it is a first-class effort in trying to live up to its predecessor song, "Transcending Love" in Suikoden III, by all means was this song worth hearing. What makes the song have its own "wow" factor was the accordion, which greatly enhanced the feeling of the vastness of the open ocean, backed up by good acoustics that had great harmony with the accordion.
This is yet another instrumental, so perhaps I'll do a song with lyrics on my next post, just for the sake of being more lengthy.

The frog agrees.
Cheerio.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A DrVoltsPerSecond

Friends.....

2007-09-30T11:01:00.000+07:00

If I think of friends, I become so happy and excited...

When I was in the state, my friends were almost all Korean, so even if I log into my Msn Messenger, all I can meet are the korean friends, but I have one thai friend who is really kind.

The problem that I had with my friend is that when I get a new friend, I just wants to be closer too fast. So many of my other friends adviced me not to hurried on the people.

Best friend...

In our life, anyone must have best friend. The best friend is the person who cares for you and hangout almost everytime. I once had a best friend who is living in Jakarta right now. He lived in the same apartment when I was in the elementary school, and we used to hangout almost everyday for playing soccer in the tennis court. But now, he is living far away from my house, so that we cannot meet even once in a week. Would the friendship last forever? or would it be ended so easily if there's a big problem between two person?

haha

2007-09-25T22:46:00.000+07:00

Ok, this may sound kind of corny to some of you, but I don't really care! :)... some math equations anyone?

Donut + the= Do The Nut

Jefferey + Nickname + Pak Purba= Jeremy (haha, for those of you in math sl would probably get it!)

Yoga + sports= Yoga (hahahahha, get it? it's like the same name all over again!)

WOW= and no, it's not World of Warcraft, it's just WOW.

TOKx2= anyone there?

Circle K= it's not the American based grocery shop, but circle potassium..wahhaha just kidding.

Your + Wasting + Your + Life + Reading + This= YourWastingYourLifeReadingThis

Hey just updated my jokes again ^ ^:

Reflex: no it's not that instantaneous reaction from that body, it's just re- flex( get it? like you ask someone to flex their muscles...haha)

WarIII= it's not the third war, it's just WarIII the file. (warcraft players might perceive this joke well, or not...hahaha)

Quoted from Gamma (or someone else):
What do you call a person who is able to speak two languages?- bilingual
What do you call a person who is able to speak three languages?- trilingual
What do you call a person who is able to speak only ONE language?- American

Comment= haha sorry if the joke is kind of offensive, it is a joke by the way. Nothing more nothing less.

Ever wondered how the hair gel line "Gatsby" go it's name?
Answer: First ask the company, Second if that doesn't work, read the book "The Great Gatsby" and Thirdly if that doesn't work, go and as Fitzgerald once your dead..haha just kidding.

Question: How do you find the meaning of life?
Answer: meaning of life= chemical element called "IdK"?
To find the complete element, you need to add the equation "on'tNOW"
IdK + on'tNOW -> Idon'tKNOW
meaning of life= Idon'tKNOW
(haha, just kidding for chemistry students, out there o_O)

Thanks for reading this! All Jokes are customized and copyrighted from the author.

Car FREE day?

2007-09-23T21:57:00.000+07:00

If you heard the news, Saturday 22 Sept was initialled to be a car free day in Sudirman and Thamrin. The protocol roads in Jakarta. Jakarta's governor office planned to have this "car free day" because the air that we breathe in Jakarta is dangerously polluted by cars who emitted Carbon Dioxide into the air. Governor Sutiyoso was said to have this "idea" of having car free day. But several sources analyzed that this act was to save the name of a person who is going to be ex-governor soon.
The attempt to make Sudirman a car free day turned into a farce Saturday where some areas nearby got the effect of traffic jam, caused by the reduced amount of road spaces for the cars. I was stuck in the car for almost two hours with friends behind Plaza Indonesia. The average speed was 1 milimeter per hour!!! I was frustrated and kind of depressed of how the government's solution to a problem is bigger than the problem itself. I blamed the Roadway policeman of course their incompetence to solve traffic due to the poor coordination as said by Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The traffic ruined the plan for the day. We could not catch the movie and we wasted lots and lots of time sitting down in the car while watching the car move by inches in hours. While the traffic got worse, we planned to just walk to Plaza Indonesia because we were only 50 meters away and it took a century to cover that distance!
Jakarta is already packed with cars and motorcycles. The "Car Free Day" did not help anything except contributing to the use of more gasoline which can cause the price float and citizens suffer more. Imagine how many business deal were canceled and contributed to the decreasing amount of investation in Jakarta. Zillions of money was wasted just for that "Car Free Day". The government must realize that they have to solve internal economic crisis first. With all the money that came in from business deal and less subsidy for fuels, capitals that the government have could be used to solve the air problem in Jakarta.

Time makes you crazy!!!

2007-09-22T22:57:00.000+07:00

When you think the life is easy, then something bad happens.

When you think the life is hard, then everything will become better, because if you think that way, you will try harder to live an easy life.

I think in order to live peaceful life is that you manage the time correctly.

This week, my management of time was terrible. Monday and Tuesday, I was sick, so that I couldn't go to school and stayed home, doing nothing. The problem came from the time that I wasted during my illness time.

Tuesday, I missed the math class, and when I go to the math class on friday, we had test. The test was horrible and I just don't want to think about the score that will result.

That was not all...

On the weekend Saturday, I went to church and planned to pick my friends up at Lippo Karawaci, because we had to go watch Rock n Dance Festival in JIKS(Jakarta International Korean School).

My planned time was two thirty leaving the church and arriving in Lippo Karawaci at three 'o clock, but the traffic jam made me almost out of mind making my friends angry at me.

I think managing your time is really important in your life...

"Guys, take your time wisely and carefully~"

Oh, by the way, I started off to JIKS at four 'o clock from my church in Senayan. It took two hours going to Taman Mini from Senayan!

That's not all, being late thirty minutes made me to use 80 thousand rupiah for make my friends to forget my time managing mistake.

A Medley of Ideas and Thoughts

2007-09-19T17:06:00.000+07:00

Since so many things had happened in just a short time, I think it'd be better if I elaborate the ideas and thoughts that linger still in my brain in here.

The first thing that came to my mind is my Nintendo DS (Double Screen). It's tar black, it's shaped like a wide rectangular prism with chamfered edges similar that of an iPod or a Macbook, and it plays games on two screens with a touch screen on the bottom, in which I can do innumerable actions using a stylus, depending on what type of game I'm playing. Currently I have a game where you operate people as a surgeon, a modern Nintendo version of Tetris, a game with a wide collection of silly mini-games incorporated in to it, and a dog-adopting simulation game, called Nintendogs. well, I wouldn't talk much about this so I'll keep it laconic. Earlier at 5 am I finally have permission from my brother to bring it to school because I haven't played it since Monday due to work that keeps on stacking and ostensibly ceaseless. I played it in the car, and I also played it before homeroom time. It's the newest array of gaming gear I have in my shortly decaying arsenal of game gadgets, being the ever-striving video game addict I always was.

The second thing that happened today was a university fair. This time they have representatives of universities across the Land of Uncle Sam, America. They didn't have representatives from prestigious and sought-after universities along the lines of Berkeley and Stanford and Harved and Yale, perhaps universities that are slightly inferior to them. Well I wouldn't mind because personally I have a rather thin academic financial pocket, and on top of that, my uncle highly recommended me to do my undergraduate studies in UI, University of Indonesia, and then I may then study abroad, with the exception if I successfully obtain a scholarship, so I may as well be a wee bit more focused and serious as I strive through the academic "Cave of Trials" that is the International Baccalaureate. There were some pretty fancy brochures that was as informative as it is aesthetically appealing. I am to do a major on business because I have an interest specifically in the gaming business. Rather, my passion, but not really my vocation yet.

Another idea I came across today in Biblical Studies was the idea that if all the universal constants of the scientific world were deviated by just an infinitesimal fraction of a decimal, it would be impossible for planets to form and universes expand. It has been discovered that all those constants and numbers are somewhat 'fine-tuned', as if they all combine together to create a perfect orchestra of life as we see it now. Astrophysicists and other scientific thinkers have mostly come to the same conclusion that there must be divine intervention in which the universe was created, one that made the Big Bang happen, although most of them are still either atheists or agnostics.

The third thing I came across was of feeling and emotion, which I studied in TOK. We delved into the topic by experimenting on how would it be if people were emotionless. It seems that all people do have emotion, it's just that occasionally they don't want to show it because of a fair number of reasons. There are words for different types of feelings; but then, there are feelings that you just can't put into words. Exhibit A: in a golf course, say, hole 5, you strike the ball with your wood and the divot is detached. Somewhere along the motion of the projectile, that is, the golf ball, ignoring almost all rules of projectile motion, A bird, say, a crow, happens to get it in its mouth in midair. Now the first thing you do is to shout and chase after that bird, but then it lowers down and drops the ball; and so the ball rolls inside the green and the bird just helped you to score a hole in one. Now try to figure out what kind of emotion/feeling would result at an aftermath.

The last idea I wish to dilate is of the different religions of this world. For example, take the more common ones; Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Shintoism or even Scientology. I once had a thought that resurfaced just today: the what-ifs of the awaited and so-called "Last Day." What if the Islam version was true? What if the Christian version was come true (hence the very offensive phrase of "Judgement Day is coming, look busy")? What if the Hindu or Buddhit version was true and really going to happen? People could debate on this single topic that can be expanded and narrowed infinite times in an uncountable number of years, but the always simple solution is to stick to what we truly believe and have faith in.

I am very sorry for the fact that I cannot review on anything for this week; I have a rather big physics lab report and it's due tomorrow (*snorts on my never-receding procrastinating habit) so enjoy some more pictures while you're at it.

....aaaaand I'm all finished for this week, I do hope that I'll get to talk more, if there is less work next week.

Cheerio.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. DrVoltsPerSecond

What a girl wants from a boy?

2007-09-18T20:36:00.000+07:00

What a girl wants from a boy?
This is only my assumption and analysis from books and people’s characteristics. This could be true but it also could be wrong.
There are 5 things that girls want from boys, which are security, praise, to be given protection and understanding. But we need to be less excessive from these 5 factors.
Girls/woman want:
They want to have security from their loved ones since every girl/woman/wife needs to feel safe materially and mentally. And there are 2 different types of girls, the 1st type of girl is the girl that looks for and obtain security from themselves. The second type of girl is the one that who gains security from their boyfriend. But beware, to never say to a girl that she is materialistic. Everyone knows that it is hard to refuse an offer from a rich person. The presents and nice surprises, that cannot be imagined, this will make girls feel spoiled and cared from their boyfriends. But you must not only rely on material to give girls security, but you also need to gain her trust by not flirting with other girls.
They also want attention and care but still needs privacy. Give your girl attention, discover small things that she likes and dislikes. By taking an initiative when she is thirsty give her water, when she is cold give her your jacket, and when she is feeling down you are there for her. For boys that have never date a girl before, you need to be careful since too much attention can make people think that you are a stalker. (It’s nice to take care of your girl friend but not her whole life, its not like you are going to marry her)
They also want to be praised but do not want to be fooled. Since girls wants to be acknowledged by their boyfriends they also desire attention from their boyfriends, but you must know, a girl does not want too much attention, this could cause her to feel that they don't have any privacy and space. Also, girls tend to like to be praise of her talent, smartness, and personality.
They want protection from their loved ones. Even though that girl is the toughest Thai boxer, she still needs a man to protect her and give her comfort. Things like going home alone or alone in the streets; they want to be accompanied by men. But beware not to be overprotective since girls don’t like to be overprotected. They want to be understood, so we need to understand how girls think and feel about things. Why woman tend to overreact to a problem? It is because girls are not like us (man) who rather finish the problem than to forget. And ETC ETC I have lots of homework so I end it here

~Initial R~

Busiest Friday

2007-09-15T22:55:00.000+07:00

WoW.~ This friday was a busy day...

First, I want to say I'm really sorry that I couldn't make a blog on my day, which is friday. This friday, afterschool I straightly went to home for taking shower and getting ready for my church. I couldn't even join the basketball team practice which finishes at 5 pm. After getting changed and picking up the people, I arrived at church on dinner time. Before I eat dinner, Our chapel band practiced for one and a half hour.

The church ended at 9pm and arrived at my house at 10pm. If that was all for the day, I could have been much happier because after writing my blog, I can sleep and get rest. But I had to go out to meet someone about the problem that my friend had. After everything had finished, my friday was all gone, and it was saturday. (soooo sad)

Saturday morning I woke up at 10am with my aching body. My body was full of pain and sore(I don't know why...). After having a breakfast with an instand korean noodle, I have thought about the week I had...

Ibu Vio's Economic's test, Business test and the worst, MATH TEST RESULT!!!...

For a while, I was daydreaming, and my brother shook me off when he wants me to bring some drinks. Bringing cup of juice to my brother, I figured out that my tests made me feel so pressured and having not enough sleep during the weekdays gave me a really painful morning on Saturday with aching body, including bad flu.

Good thing that I got better with flu medicine that I had after the lunch. When my mom came back from the church, she told me to be careful from the flu, because I usually sleep with A.C on in my bedroom. I usually thought that flu is the most common and weakiest illness, but now I think flu is also strong and hard to get rid off. "Guys~ don't ever underestimate the power of flu! just don't be too close with the A.C~!"

The Holy Month of Ramadhan, or Lunch Time = Study Period

2007-09-13T16:49:00.001+07:00

I'm terribly sorry I didn't had the chance to write a blog entry yesterday, it's just that the internet was painfully slow at less than a horrid 1kbps connection, which deranged my literary vigor. It's blatantly improved now, but I still can't download much, which is still a pain for a person who relies mostly on Internet downloads. Usually I can go up to 50 kbps on downloading, which was namely my 'old golden days'. Nevertheless, here's today's unnecessary ramblings.

Well, strangely, in the Islamic month of Ramadhan, I feel strangely less cynical and objective about things. Of course, the sounds of my rumbling stomach continue to growl as these buttons on the keyboard are transferred as ASCII letters on the computer screen in the usual split second speed. I am also slowly adapting to the way how the 24 hours of my day is spent during this month. For example, I now have to get up and 3 o'clock and eat before the fasting time begins, which is at 4 past a couple of minutes. And then if I have no academic chores, I sleep until 5 o'clock, where I would then take a shower and wait for my driver to pick me up.

"Nawaitu samaghodin 'anandhaii fardushahri ramadhanna hadi'its hanatis himanan wa hisaban lilahita'ala"

I would say that the most challenging hours in my fasting periods are the school hours. (Boy, I wish they'd set aside a day or two on the first days of fasting, that would be really helpful, but who gives, it can't be helped, it's a Christian school) This is obvious because everywhere between break time or lunch time or after school people always had something to eat or drink. It's not of a huge problem for me because I have mastered the art of resisting gastronomic as well as quenching temptations in the course of my school life here in SPH as the years go by. Of course there are other daily temptations that continue to bother me frequently than usual, such as a man's daily temptation from the opposite sex (yes, guys, we all experience it), or the temptation to get emotionally unstable with all sorts of vexation whether it was deliberately conducted or not.
However, there is an immeasurable benefit in these fasting periods. One of them is that break times and lunch times are automatically metamorphosed into study periods. Although the opportunity cost is that there are people surrounding you who are currently aiming to fill their stomach, I find no difficulty to avoid such distractions.
But then, the most aggravating times are P.E. periods. Even though I already have permission for activity dispensations throughout the fasting period, it will still be a bit laborious and tiring. and the day gets even more challenging if there are tests to be done (I have business and math test tomorrow...whoop-dee-doo.) and lab experiments to be conducted. I wouldn't complain on them, but it's a 'nice' addition to all the stuff I have to overcome daily. You ultimately have a differentiating feeling between working with your stomach satisfied and working with your stomach playing a hunger dirge ceaselessly.
Even so, the sound of the end of school bell ringing doesn't make a huge difference. Of course I rejoice because school's over, but it also means that I have to do my homework straight away, because I have to go to sleep earlier than usual in order to be prepared for the next day. And then when most of it is done, or when it is all done, I go internet surfing or play games to patiently wait for the sound of the 6 o'clock prayer call to bespeak through the loudspeakers of mosques everywhere around Jakarta.

"Allahuma lakasumtu wabika amantu wa'alaa ridzika aftortu birohmatika yaa arhaman rohimin"

Usually I drink a warm glass of tea along with 3 dates along with 'kolak', a popular fasting dessert consisting of palm sugar, coconut milk and pandanus leaves as well as 'kolang-kaling', a delicacy made from the seeds of sugar palm trees. My mother usually adds bananas to the mix to enhance the unique sweetness. After that, I proceed to my evening prayers, and after that, our family sometimes recite a portion of the Koran together. After that, either I picked up where I left off and then eat, or vice versa. I usually sleep at 8 or half past 8, depending on how much academic burden I have.

Going out of the personal, subjective context of Ramadhan, it is basically a time for Muslims to reflect on their relationship to God, and how much of their godly character have they implemented into their daily lives, and most importantly, to reflect that they are all servants of the Almighty.

Song of the Day: 'Amber' by 311

Whoa, amber is the color of your energy
whoa, shades of gold displayed naturally
you ought to know what brings me here
you glide through my head blind to fear
and I know why

This is the kind of song that is best heard when you need to take a break, or to chill and cool down, or simply when you have nothing better to do. The whole song goes at a relaxing but not a slow pace and is lead by an acoustic guitar throughout the whole duration. Occasionally it takes time to understand the meaning behind most of 311's lyrics, since their alternative rock genre tends to lean to a fusion of rap and mainstream rock. Even so, they're not leaning into hardcore or metal either, so it wouldn't make you dizzy hearing it. Overall, this song relaxes most of the tension of the day, and you don't get bored of hearing multiple times.

So then, this is my first post in the month of Ramadhan. Nothing outstanding about that, though, I go through it just like a normal day, although I have violated the posting schedule due to technical difficulties, but setting it aside, I hope I can survive till the Idul Fitri holiday....

Cheerio.

Regards from the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. DrVoltsPerSecond

Miscellaneous Jokes

2007-09-11T13:37:00.000+07:00

Hey, hope you enjoyed some of theese jokes as much as I do!~

Blogtarded- a retarded self absorbed brat that does nothing but spend hours and hours blogging(we're not naming any names, Yoga! ^^)

whatareyoutalkingabout?idontunderstand- huh?

Bromo- Baru homo!

IngLish- Indonesian English (get it?, like SingLish)

DOTA- .A (hahaha, .A get it?)

Social Hypocrite- a sociable person that does the opposite of what they say (third fingered anyone lately Bush?)

The How,What and Why about psychos

2007-09-10T20:23:00.000+07:00

Today, I've decided to talk about Psychos. Firstly there are two different type of psychos. The first type is Psychopath, psychopath are people that aren't really insane since they know what is wrong and what is right. Usually psychopaths are people that is handsome/pretty, smart, rational, creative,and they seem so normal. But eventually Psychopath have a disturbed personalities. They have no emotion towards love,caring,and feeling sorry for anyone but himself. Thats why they are so selfish,egoist, and evil. There's nothing matter to them but their own need and wants. Causing them to torture, rape, murder since they doesn't care to the people they torture. Psychopaths are people that is cold-blooded monster who hide their evil hearts and pretend to be normal.
The 2nd type of psychos is Psychotic, psychotic suffer a mental disorder causing them to create their own world. They suffer from hallucination and delusion- they hear voices, see vision and have confuse reality with imagination. Unlike psychopath, psychotic appear strange, insane and retarded. Usually psychotic suffer schizophrenic ( mental retardation causing them to create hallucination).
The reason why psychos torture and murders peoples is cause by many reasons.Usually there are 3 average reason why they like torturing. Firstly is because they like to fantasize dreams of torture. For them torture is like having sex, many of them masturbated after they torture and kill the victims. 2ndly it is because they have a hunger to experience everything, especially killing. And when they have torture or kill someone they become addicted. 3rdly they wanted to create books about types of torture and their feelings about killing.
How to know if someone is a psycho ?
- Most are males ( especially the tall ones)
- Has a really high IQ
- Despite their intellegence, they do poorly in school academics
- Come from deeply troubled families
- family history of criminal behaviors
- Suffer sexual abusement when they are still childrens
- an antisocial
- interest in fetishim and violent ponography
Thats all, but not all of psycho have these characteristic. These are only the general characteristic. Wow, it all matches with my characteristic. AHahaha I'm joking.

And.......... for the how section, I'm just going leave it blank since its too cruel and disturbing for anyone to read it.

By the way Yoga, I keep my blog simple but interesting. Eventhough its not really long it's interesting.

A ceaseless Saturday morning

2007-09-08T17:27:00.000+07:00

My handphone, my alarm. Sluggish me woke up with heavy eye and walk down to the bathroom...and 'accidentally' went back to my room and plummet down on the bed again. My bolster was the best thing to have at that time.. She was very mushy and cold which made me continue the superflous Saturday morning. I did not sleep, but i a indiscernable plan for the day inside my head. I stared at my watch which was placed just beside my bed and saw the small needle pointed at number nine. I was supposed to go Sadrakh's house and played table tennis with some of my friends. But the borne of my room which was snug as a bug derange me to a lazy young man.
Until my parents woke me up at 10, i stood up and went out to puff the fresh air. I found a bowl of noodle on top of the dining table which caught both my eyes and my nose. Smell of the 'foglio' above the noodle killed my almost dead brain. I frolicly jumped to the chair and finished that bowl instantly. After that, i showered and then wore a white blue shirt and noir surfing pants.
Just before I passed Lippo Karawaci sign, a text message flew to my handphone. My lesson teacher asked me where i was because he was already waiting in my house. I disremember that i had changed my lesson day to Saturday. I turn the steering wheel instantly and hurried back to my house which should be about twenty minutes. I was nebulous and thinking how stupid I was to forget the lesson. I saw my teacher waiting in the living room and i had my lesson just fifteen minutes because he had to go to a meeting or something.
Before i reached the door of my car, the to-do list in my handphone reminded me to make this blog which was delayed since Thursday due to the internet failure in my house. I jumped up to the stairs and into my room. There was a white box but kind of round edges thing called macbook. I opened it and made this blog.

Friday, basketball...

2007-09-07T20:55:00.000+07:00

Today morning was a really hard time for me like other days, because everytime I wake up in the morning, I feel like not going to school or not joining afterschool sports team(which is basketball team).

Yesterday I studied for today's math test and made me really tired to wake up early in the morning. First I slept for two hours so I can resist my sleep without coffee until late night. Only that if i didn't get tired too much from the basketball practice on Thursday, I could have studied more, but it was my own choice to join basketball team.

Now it's today morning, arrived at school deciding whether do the after school practice or not, and I chose not to join after the second period which was Mr. Owen's class.

After lunch time, we had sports today and from that period, I felt really wanting to basketball even my feet was really hurt because tomorrow is Saturday and I can get rest during the weekend.

Today we had game for basketball with other school(don't know the name) and firstly, the A team played(which was seniors and all the elite players). My team was watching that game for almost a hour and it was making me really tired, but though it was really fun watching the good players flying back and forth(they were really fast) winning the opponets easily.

Afterward, our turn came to play with the same people. First, our starting members played them very nice and the first half was finished by winning about 5 ~10 more points than them.

The second half wasn't really good for our team. We lost a lot of points and they closed up the points and before three minutes to the ending, my team went in to play the game. The opponet wasn't making a big difference, but we were doing not good. So we were losing when Andrew got the last two freethrows to catch up the score 15 to 15. But he made the first one and misses the last one, so we lost the game by one point. It was really close game but no regret, because we tried our best and Andrew did a fantastic job even he missed the last shot.

Of Memes and Men: Stupefying Internet Phenomenon

2007-09-05T17:51:00.000+07:00

To avoid furthers protests: I HEREBY DECLARE I AM WRITING THE MOST INCESSANT, UNNECESSARY AND SUPERFLUOUS RUBBISH IN EVERY BLOG ENTRY OF MINE, among the others.

Well, before I start off my usual incessant weekly ramblings, let me share a definition of a word (well, it's an English blog, and we're all learning something new everyday, it wouldn't hurt):

Meme (noun): A cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation).

In other words, it is the culture counterpart for genes. For example, imitating Michael Jackson's dance on his music video "Thriller" (I remember one person, fairly corpulent, in American Idol auditions sang this song with shrill cacophony). In today's underground Internet ideology, memes spread rather perniciously like a fast reacting virus.

Star Wars Boy, The Bus Uncle, Chuck Norris "divinity", the "O RLY?" owl, babies, cats, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us", Leroy Jenkins, is but a short list of the occasionally unutterable deviations of the memes that has been contagiously disseminating in the past few years. Sometimes I wonder in slight terror on how humans have gone far, manipulating their own technologies into such an inconceivable sense.

Still don't get it? Pictures are sometimes worth more than a thousand words.

For those of you who don't get the meaning of the eBay picture, it basically says that on the website where you usually sell things to other people through auctioning, it's easy to trick people by saying that he sells a PSP, when in reality, in the box it contains a 1990's Game Boy. And it IS cheaper for a reason. The other three are probably self-explanatory.

While it is slowly harmful for other people who hasn't delved the underground Internet community, which I strongly advise for all of you not to get involved with, it is still quite an amusement for people who understand the meaning of these deviations. After all, it is not for the light-hearted. For all I know, such communities that I speak of are sometimes excessively intolerant to what they call "noobs", or people who are new to this kind of environment and demands questions to others. And then the next day someone anonymous from that community happens to hack you computer it and crashes the next time you turn the power on. sometimes you have to be careful and considerately vigilant in the Internet, because sometimes you may never know who you're interacting with over the telephone lines that connect the humongous entity of people known as the International Network, or Internet for short.

Juxtaposing a person's image and incorporates them with a satirically humerus (erhm, humorous) sentences is the cream of the crop of these phenomenon. It sometimes aims to ridicule a certain event in a movie or sometimes in everyday life, and when you introspect these at one length of time, you began to ponder upon the bare naked nature of humans. One of our sins is to degrade somebody in any sort of way that is pleasurable and somewhat hedonistic (I jokingly refer myself as one who takes pleasure in degrading myself). And yet we ceaselessly deny this fault of ours, thus making us hypocrites of our own words.

So remember kids, reflect on how you use the Internet. Don't end up like me. If you know what I mean.

Oh yeah, Garfield is also starting to be one of the victims of underground Internet memes. Don't know how it started, though.

Song of the Day: Piano Concerto No. 1 "ANTI-ARES" (Originally ピアノ協奏曲第1番"蠍火")
Artist: Virkato Wakhaminov (a Russian pseudonym for someone anonymous) Genre: Classical Dirge
[www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze55fm7pzZ4]

This song is AMAZING. It ultimately defines the solemnity of melancholy and lugubriousness (interested, WWJessicaD?) yet the magnitude of the feeling is almost heartbreaking and goes at a surprisingly fluctuating pace. You can assume that the piano notes are performed by a usual pianist, but in truth, it's computer-generated, because I doubt that Mozart or Bach or Chopin would play this piece effortlessly. It does incorporate an orchestra to accompany the piano; though, I doubt they use real people to record that as well. Anyways, it starts off by playing the both the lowest and highest notes of the 8-octave piano keyboard. It went on a quiet, steady pace, and it accelerated slightly before going slow again for quite a while. And then it suddenly starts to go fast and the tone becomes dramatic and tragic to the point that you'll think the tension is climaxing, but then it slows down for one last time before it makes its grand, cataclysmic finale, which is instantaneously followed by a period of silence, and followed by the piano's last solemn notes in pianissimo assai.

(....Wouldn't you believe that there is actually a musical term called pianissississississimo (pppppp)?)

....I watched The Gods Must Be Crazy on TOK class. It was kinda sad at first but I knew it was going to get sillier, if we had the chance to watch the sequel.

Until next time, stay tuned. Cheerio.

From the schizophrenically psychotic retard,
Yoga Pradana A.K.A. Dr VoltsPerSecond

How to become a perfect liar

2007-09-04T22:43:00.000+07:00

I know I'm supposed to post about something I've experienced or telling something interesting about my life. But since my life is not interesting to be shared, I will post about the how,what,where,when in life.
Today I'm going to teach you,the readers about how to become a perfect liar. The first step that you need to take is when you decided to lie at someone, you need to act natural and relax. Because if you're nervous and too stiff, you will cause doubt/ suspicious to the person you're lying to. 2nd keep focus and look at the person's eye, to earn that person's trust. 3rdly don't be defensive, act normal. When the person doubt that your saying the truth and ask you questions to see that you're lying, act normal and answer the question short and simple. And try not to delay some time when you are answering his questions. 4thly, when the person you're lying to is still asking question, don't change the topic of the conversation quickly it will create more suspicious to that person.
These are the 4 steps to create a perfect lie, but don't ever use this 4 steps to fool me, because I can still know you're lying eventhough you use this 4 steps. But the only person in SPH that I cannot see if he's lying or he's telling the truth is Adrian, because he has a poker face ( a term for someone that is hard to read his/her emotion and reaction)

Natural Disasters, A Sign From Above Or Unexplainable Calamity?~ (4-09-2007)

2007-09-04T19:22:00.000+07:00

Natural disasters transpire often these days, don’t you think? There are countless types of natural disasters; none has enticed my attention more than hurricane disasters. It all started today, when I was watching CNN. The channel mostly reported about a new hurricane approaching the southern South American region. In a couple hours, they predict “Hurricane Felix” would obliterate most of the South American region beach coastline. Their reports were very concise and straightforward, CNN in addition reported a link to past hurricanes in the South American region ten years ago called “Hurricane Mitz” (forgive me if I misspell the word). Commencing after the disturbing report I thought to myself, “Natural disasters occur sporadically in our day and time, is this maybe a sign from above? Then again, it could just be my feeling”. I decided to post this blog as a reminder to myself and all you readers out there to think about: Life is too fragile to waste. There are some things we can’t change or do anything about, but all we can do is pray and hope for the best. We all live in a time where modernization and globalization has generated countless of advancements and setbacks as well. Our era of life is whirling at a snail's pace for the worse; from the depravity of the world, the rise of global warming, or even the frequent acts of terrorism. I can’t help to think, (and this may sound a bit cliché) “How are we children of the Lord and the future leaders of Indonesia and the world able to change ourselves and those around us little by little for a better future?”

[please post your rational and LOGICAL answers below these comments if you may, this is open comment session]

By: Nicholas Sudharta
Administrator (Nicholas)

Late Friday...~ (31/08/2007)

2007-09-03T19:25:00.000+07:00

My friday is a day that i can get some rest from the school stuffs and have fun

Firstly, my blogging day has passed because when i was trying to make my blog on friday, i had some problems about stupid account(just didn't let me to write a blog).

My Friday begins........(Dairy version)

I started with waking up late this day and it was really tired unlike the other usual days. By not eating breakfast(missed -_-) i arrived into a class by two minutes before the bell ring. The first thing i did during the devotion time was pulling out my bagpack on to my desk and lay my face there for sleep. After 3~5minutes i got caught by Mr. Eric(so sad) but worse, subject that i prefer not to have on friday morning was waiting for me, which was BIOLOGY with MR. OWEN. It was double period with Mr. Owen and we had lab this day(thank GOD). Usually, if we have double period with Mr. Owen, then it is really hard to learn actual biology from him, because all he did was reading a textbook and answering the questions. He doesn't really teach i think but hope not that he doesn't let us to have another test just by reading a textbook and answering the questions. After the breaktime, all i could remember was my English class, because i had a difficult time writing a letter to Tom(character in "The Great Gatsby"). The last two period was the best of all, because we had sports and study periods(only for Korean A1 students). I had a friendly game after school for basketball team but our team played against another team of our school. It wasn't really bad competing against my school, because i made two free throws that really made me excited.

After coming back to my house, the second part of my friday had begun. I called for friends to go out and play pools that day after having that tiring basketball game. When i played pool, it wasn't really fun because my leg felt really bad while i was walking around that day. So i came back around 8~9 and slept until 11pm(that's the time that i was trying to make a blog)

This friday wasn't really bad except that i couldn't make a blog on time. It was really enjoyable and interesting day that i wanted to have it again next week(which is this week.-_-).

Lastly, i will not forget to write blog on my day next time, i'm really sorry my group members please forgive me hahaha ^^v

By: Jae
JaY-O

Another Thursday..~ (8/30/07)

2007-08-30T22:11:00.000+07:00

This is a perfectly normal Thursday..people still sleep in class during the devotion time with Mr. Owen...yes,,my favorite teacher. (in ur dreams)...i came to school with a feeling of boredom and lazyness inside my heart and my brain. Not a great start for the day by the way...Just after I woke up, i already got cranky to my maid. i scold her for not doing my clothes properly..my breakfast was not really prepared and my bag was a mess... And then another bad luck came to my side. My new driver forgot to bring the parking sticker which must be brought to the car if you want to get inside the school..so after driving for 10 minutes (almost going to the tollway), we had to turn back and took the parking sticker...what a disaster..
I had history in the morning and there was a debate about "who got the most benefit from the emancipation of the serfs, the nobles or the serfs themselves." i was in the side which said, "the noble were affected badly after the emancipation." We were only given 20 minutes to discuss and my group was not really ready to speak when Ms. Judy stopped the 'talking' time. Our team kept repeating the same thing again and again, which was NOT a great thing for debate. I was kind of frustrated and also felt the guiltiness because i did not speak well during my time to raise my point. But luckly, Agnes ( i think) saved our butt. She did have a great point by saying that the military was benefited from the emancipation of the serfs. But then Indra who was the next speaker did not use that heartbreaking point to the opposite team!! argh..

So i think we lost the debate.. but i will crush them next time..hahaha

The rest of the day was quite "a day", i had my guitar lesson, skipped my chinese lesson and went to Fredrick's house for chapel band practice and blah..

By: Andrew Yumitek
yumiteknology

Wednesday...Smoothly Sways Away~ ( 8/29/07)

2007-08-29T15:37:00.000+07:00

....Occasionally, I will post a random picture such as the one above in my official daily blog. So don't be surprised.

Usually, when blogging, I always have something of my knowledge that I can share, but since there's none today, I give you, the reader, a prerogative to get an insight of what happened today in my eyes.

Today is my mother's birthday! the moment after I woke up, before taking a shower, I congratulated her and wished her everything one would say when usually congratulating a person's birthday. I was still a bit sleepy, so then I subconsciously took a bath without getting shampoo on my toothbrush. after that it's the usual routine, the morning prayer and breakfast, and then wait for my driver to pick me up for school.

Nothing new happened in the way...

I was surprised to see that 5 minutes before the bell, less than half of the class was present. There were quite a number of people absent today, I wonder why.Today was quite different, because homeroom time ends in 7:20 and not 7:05, because there was that launching of the new school theme for this year. That means there's no Bahasa Indonesia and ITGS today...Whoop-dee-doo!

The actual event was a bit interesting, because the guest speaker was the son of a man who had traveled across the world carrying a cross, and he was doing the same thing. He had quite an interesting story with him, I must say.

Next is....Biblical Studies class. I don't know why, I always experience recurring oscitancy, although I have a sound interest on the topic, which was the Great Debate (between science and religion and how they seem to oppose each other but actually not), but then I survived, thanks to a good cup of instant noodles. Usually I'll fetch something at the canteen, but I want to reserve my allowance for a couple of weeks now, so I eat something I bought from home except lunch.

And then it was Physics. Mr Graham had a frankly esoteric gonnegtion (as Meyer Wolfshiem said it) between Newton's third law of motion with an assonating sentence of "the cat sat on the mat". It's for humor's sake, of course, but it's a bit corny, if I must say.

Finally it was TOK. Still discussing about the empirical way of judging statements, we talked about things such as a person seeing sounds and hearing colors, autism and how they have a sense that overrides another, and such other extrasensory abilities each person has. Me, I feel like something is pressuring me from the back if I'm sitting alone, occasionally. but not now, I suppose.

The school bell rang, and off I go to the mall, which is almost a tradition every Wednesday, which may change as the months go by. I went to the food court and helped myself to some chicken teriyaki over at the Shokuyoku Teppanyaki stall. It was one of the alternatives beside fast food stalls, to cover up that rather unhealthy breakfast. I didn't rally finished it, there was still some meat and vegetables left, maybe because I put a bit of soup to my rice to make it finish quicker. I also happen to meet one of my homeroom mate there, but he didn't notice me as he was strolling, so I kind of ignored him, hehehe. Nevertheless, I played some arcade games at AMAZONE (the one in the immediate left after entering the main gate) for a short while, and then I at last venture to my humble abode. What a day.

Chuck Norris' first job was as a paperboy. There were no survivors.

Song of the Day: Maze of the Dark by Matsuoka Yuki, Watanabe Akeno, Shiratori Yuri

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. The singers are Japanese voice casters, all of them with lovely voices, and this was one of their songs for one of my favorite Japanese animations. It's subtly metal-genred with a gothic melody, and goes about3 minutes. They even have a remix of it, which sounds like an orchestraic dirge, but still really good to hear. The song elicits their vocal potentials. Yuki (A Japanese name has its given name last and the surname goes first) has a rather feminine alto voice, while Akeno, who has a good deal of voice range, switches between high and low pitches while maintaining her tonic accent, while Yuri has an initial soft, soothing voice that adds to the wonderful harmony the three produce. One of my all-time favorites, I must say.

Well, finally, that's that for my first blog entry. I do find it immoderately exuberant, but what can I say, I love writing (*Ingratiation alert*).

From the schizophrenically psychotic retard
By: Yoga Pradana
DrVoltsPerSecond

Blackout Situations & What To Do In One.~ (28-08-2007)

2007-08-28T23:21:00.000+07:00

A blackout is that random time of the day where electricity is not available to a residence or particular place. It's that devastating situation that may randomly appear on a short time period, or a long time period. Blackouts are becoming more sporadic in Karawaci. I myself living in Karawaci have recently experienced numerous blackout situations. Right before writing this blog I decided to myself to help you readers out there to have an insight into What To Do In A Blackout Situation:

1. Never scream in a panic tone or cry like a baby. (Crying may actually make the baby cry!)
2.Always think optimistic. (Hey, it's only a few hours doing nothing, right?)
3.Make the best of any situation. (Reading and writing doesn't look so good.)
4.Think of the solution, not the problem! (I wonder who's responsible for this?)
5.Find any source of light to help guide you around. (Car lights may be a good source.)
6.Cherish the times you have with those around you. (Talking to the wall is considered.)
7.Find an alternative place to go to. (Make sure the destination isn't colored black.)
8.Try and sleep to pass the time. (Even if that means sleeping for 10 seconds.) 9.Open www.stopthisisavirus.blogspot.com and read the blog titled: "Blackout Situations & What To Do In One.~ (28-08-2007)
10.Repeat and do questions 1-8 over again. (Try and read all this BEFORE the actual blackout.)

By: Nicholas Sudharta
Administrator (Nicholas)

How can you ALMOST tell if someone is lying ?~ (28-08-2007)

2007-08-27T18:03:00.000+07:00

How can you ALMOST tell if someone is lying? Scientifically we can't prove if someone is lying however the signs below mostly works in most occasions.

Pay attention to their body language or movement.
Usually when people are lying their eyes cannot stay focus.
They also cannot look straight to the eyes of the other person.
Their appearance may seem nervous, from gestures such as scratching their body parts, or not standing still Most importantly they act out gestures that does not match with what they are saying.

Focus on to their physical appearance and their emotional behavior.
Usually liars will act defensive and sensitive.
They don’t like when people question their statements, even if the questions are appropriate. They usually delay their time to respond and normally their responses are unclear.
By changing the topic of the conversation as quickly as possible, "liars" are able to stop questions concerning their lies.

By: Ricardo Alidjurnawan
Initial R

Study Period, A Time To Chill and Hangout.~ (27-08-2007)

2007-08-27T14:48:00.000+07:00

Study Period. It's that time of the day where students are given the time to study. A time where students are able to study individually or perhaps as a group. However you can't always believe "what meets the eye". Meaning that in any ups, there are downs. While study period maybe a time of leisure studying, students may indeed misuse the time, and just, may write a blog or two.

Whew.~ (27-08-2007)

2007-08-27T12:57:00.000+07:00

It all started a couple days before while I was browsing and scrolling the web. After minutes of browsing, I sought the urge to open blogspot. I rolled my hand to the mouse, and typed in http://www.blogspot.com/. When the website "finally" opened, I couldn't access the account! Confused and panicking, I constantly tried entering different usernames and passwords. Hoping that anyone of them may come through. However after intense hours flew by not one was able to access my blog account. Not losing hope I tried again at lunch time the next day. Luckily, fate was on my side. As I clicked "forget your password" again, this time the username was sent back to my email. I waited, and waited, with anxiety pumping throughout my whole body like that of a thermometer ready to burst. Finally, I opened the email and to my relief I was able access my blog account once more. I learnt from that day on, to always, and underline always have a backup plan in any situation. Reliefed from all the pressure, I sighed to myself "Whew".

Realm of the Lesser Keyboard Soldiers Distribution!~ (24-08-2007)

2007-08-24T11:10:00.001+07:00

Our Realm of the Lesser Keyboard Soldiers Distribution schedule:
Monday- Ricardo
Tuesday- Nicholas
Wednesday- Yoga
Thursday-Andrew
Friday- Jae

Our First Blog!~ (24-8-2007)

2007-08-24T10:58:00.000+07:00

Today was a day of firsts for us. It was the first day that Ricardo, Andrew, Nicholas, Jae, and Yoga first made our first blog entry.