Lambrtz’ Blog

This day I had a long chat with my mother. Actually I wanted to do my assignment (despite the procrastination ), and almost said that I was busy just to halt the chat. But suddenly this thought came into my mind.

As merely human being, we all have limited ages (well our technology hasn’t been able to make us live eternally, but if even so, I don’t want to…sorry OOT). That means we only have limited time to physically meet our parents.

And then I thought about my friend here, whose mother has passed away years ago when he was still a kid. Certainly he won’t have the experience like me, chatting with his mother.

And then I thought that my parents had already done many things for me, even supporting me before and after I am in new place. So why not gave a little time for them? Maybe she was worried about me? Maybe she wanted to know many things about this place?

(I remember that there is a book author wrote in his book that he thanked his parents just for the same reason as how he was thankful to Adam and Eve. I forget who. Does that mean he only thanks his parents for giving birth for him? If so, of course I disagree with him. Our parents have supported us in many other ways…although some parents don’t)

I don’t want to lose this chance in vain, so I just continued the chat until it was enough for her.

(Homesick already? Bah…)
(BTW it’s raining outside)
(Short post, get back to work…)

Sabtu kok ngampus…
Pasti ga punya pacar…hahahah

Dah lama gak ngupdate blog…

Pagi…eh…siang ini baca milis beasiswa@yahoogroups, orang-orang masih pada rame membahas kelanjutan seorang mahasiswa ITB yang pingin pindah jurusan karena merasa ga cocok di jurusan yang diambil sekarang….dan pada email yang terbaru, ada orang yang ngasih link ke berita ini.

Dan kalo baca berita di koran online, aku suka baca commentnya, kadang2 suka bikin rusuh

Ini comment yang menarik perhatianku :

"tp kerjanya bukan d indonesia , sayang sekali dia tidak mengabdi pada negaranya"

1. Jika Anda berpikir "dia seharusnya bekerja di Indonesia, apapun kondisinya"….Kalo dia kerja di Indonesia, bisa mencapai prestasi seperti ini juga kah?
2. Jika Anda berpikir "sayang negara tidak bisa mengakomodasinya"…saya setuju….

"Dari sekian anak bangsa yg berprestasi di negara orang, kapan pemerintah bisa merekrut mereka demi kemajuan bangsa"

Pemerintah lagi sibuk ngurusi Pemilu…*oops*

"keren….. pemerintah RI punya fasilitas kaya gini ga ya..?"

Besok, taun kuda nil…hehehe
Eh serius…la observatorium Boscha aja lagi bermasalah….ya semoga ada solusinya…

"Di Indonesia sebenarnya banyak orang jenius..Cuma pemerintah tidak peduli pada pendidikan dan kurang peduli pada prestasi anak bangsanya sendiri.Akibatnya kebanyakan orang Indonesia yang berprestasi justru pindah atau bekerja untuk bangsa lain."

Barangkali demikian…

"jangan kembali ke indonesia bung, nanti malah disuruh ngetik di kantor pemerintah"

Ini yang aku paling suka…hahaha
Ironis…

"bener kata ****, disini ahli roket ada yang jual es krim keliling!"

Haaa…?? *terhenyak, mulut terbuka lebar*

Opini saya….
(ga penting sih, tapi…)
Semakin banyak orang Indonesia yang kerja di luar negeri sebagai peneliti semakin bagus…
Kan artinya penduduk Indonesia semakin dikenal atas kemampuannya dalam penelitian…
Ga penting kerja di mana…aku pikir asal ga ngebom atom Indonesia sih ga masalah

Cuman bisanya kalo gini, ada orang yang bilang "kalo semua orang Indonesia kerja di luar negeri, siapa yang kerja di dalam negeri?"
Masih banyak kok orang yang pingin kerja di dalam…
Aku yakin juga kalo ga semua orang pingin kerja di luar…
IMO bagi tugas lah…ada yang ke luar…ada yang di dalam…
Semuanya bekerja sama untuk memajukan negara kita…

Cuma biasanya kalo gini, ada orang yang bilang mereka tidak nasionalis.
Tapi aku masih bingung, apa bisa diklasifikasikan kerja di luar negeri = tidak nasionalis?

Apakah saya mendukung brain drain..??
Hmmm….bisa dibilang begitu..hehehheh
Asal tidak lupa dengan kampung halaman, aku pikir ga masalah….
La umpama negara kaco, atau lapangan kerjanya kurang, apa ya cocok kalo orang-orang ini tetap bekerja di dalam dan ilmunya mubazir?
Mending kerja di luar negeri, bisa lebih berguna bagi dunia…

Maaf kalo aku berpikir begini.
Harap maklum ya, karena beberapa role modelku : Abdus Salam, Lotfi Zadeh…

Terima kasih buat Mbak Dominic atas infonya…
dan seumpama Mas Johny Setiawan nyasar ke blog ini…well…salam kenal
sesama Overseas Indonesian nih…hehehe…

Hey, why are you procrastinating??
This is one of two graduate students’ biggest enemies!!

Guys…tomorrow I’m moving to Singapore, to study at Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

I have to thank the following people. I can’t proceed to NTU and Singapore without their helps.

1. Users Forum TE UGM, especially Mr Prapto who inspired me to go abroad via graduate study.

2. Mr Abdi Pratama and Ms Sari Widiastuti. Their experiences in taking student exchange programmes really motivated me to take graduate study.

3. Members of beasiswa@yahoogroups mailing list, especially the moderators, Mr Yansen Darmaputra for the information that time, and Mr Anggiet Arifianto for his scholarship application suggestions.

4. Mr Lukito Edi Nugroho, Mr Adhi Soesanto, Mr Rudy Hartanto for their recommendation letters.

5. Mr Henry Johan, who will be my supervisor at Nanyang Technological University.

6. Tomoyuki Nishita-sensei, who introduced me to Mr Henry Johan.

7. Mr Andi Widyo Cahyono and Mr Bimo Sunarfrihantono, fellow alma mater of both Electrical Engineering UGM and Nanyang Technological University.

8. Mr Luhur Arief Bima and Mr Rendy Ruvindy, fellow Tjah JB, whom I could rely on so much when it comes to translation and letter-writing etiquette problems.

9. Fellow current and ex-scholarship hunters from TE 03 : Andi Hakim Kusuma (the first successful hunter), David Firnando Silalahi, Dhomas Hatta Fudholi, Sunu Wibirama, Fikri Waskito, Waskito Adi, Roni Irnawan, Ahmad Munasir Raf’ie Pratama, Beni Suranto.

10. Administrative staffs in universities, master programmes, and scholarship organizer institutions to which I applied.

11. My family, thanks or your morale and financial support.

Well…see you in Singapore!

Eight years ago. My cousin had a Slipknot cassette, and he often played it. I used to really hate Corey’s growled vocal. It was quite disturbing.
Two years ago. I was changing the TV channel when I suddenly saw Slipknot’s live concert. After watching the show for awhile, I felt that the vocal was no longer unfamiliar, although I still didn’t like their music (and I don’t).
Now. I regularly listen to metal bands that make use of unordinary vocal style like Cradle of Filth and Children of Bodom.
What have happened to my ears?

PS : I prefer high-pitched scream and shriek used in bands mentioned above to death growl used in bamds like Sepultura and Napalm Death.
PS 2 : I am currently listening to Santa Monica

Akhir-akhir ini lagi sebel…

Lihat Rian majang fotonya pas dia berdiri di deket Menara Petronas jadi gambar YM…
Lihat Irfan majang fotonya pas dia berdiri di deket Merlion jadi gambar YM (asli apa editan?)…
Lihat Bima majang fotonya di Belanda jadi gambar YM (betulkah?)…
Lihat Sunu majang logonya KMITL jadi gambar YM (dan asal comment-nya dia pun dari domain yang belakangnya .ac.th!)…
Lihat Dafferianto majang fotonya di Eropa di blog…
Lihat Lesnanto pake account email dgn domain fmi.com…

Awas kalian!!!
Walaupun domain ntu.edu.sg sepertinya sebentar lagi sudah bisa dipakai, tapi…
Nanti aku bakal foto di rumahnya Kurt Cobain!
Nanti aku bakal foto di kuburannya Jimi Hendrix!
Nanti aku bakal foto di kuburannya Isaac Newton!
Nanti aku bakal foto di kuburannya Galileo Galilei!
Nanti aku bakal foto di tengah George W Bush sama Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yang lagi salaman!! (emang mungkin ya? )

Damailah bumiku…

(Tapi sepertinya aku ga bakal lihat fotonya Joe duduk di kursi pengantin dengan Dian Sastrowardoyo ataupun Zaskia Mecca, apalagi maen sepakbola di Anfield dalam rangka Premiere League )

UPDATE 20 JUNI 2008 : Ternyata Irfan itu foto di deket Merlion versi Surabaya!! Ah sial ketipu…

UPDATE 10 JULI 2008 : Tambah satu lagi…Suci Karunia Prilistya aka Icus yang masang fotonya di Korea buat jadi gambar YM

Malam ini aku eyel2an sama adikku masalah matematika. Ceritanya, adikku ada tugas matematika, salah satunya tentang mencari sudut antara 2 bidang dalam sebuah limas segitiga yang 2 dari 4 sisinya adalah segitiga siku-siku. Eyel2an dimulai ketika pada salah satu langkah adikku lebih memilih pake aturan sinus, sedangkan aku Teorema Pythagoras. Kami sama-sama merasa nyaman dengan cara masing-masing, dan menganggap cara yang lain susah. Akhirnya kami setuju untuk tidak setuju. Toh hasil akhirnya sama saja.

Seperti eyel2an agama (atau apa ajalah) yang semua / salah satu partisipannya (saling) mengkafirkan ya

Theme song hari ini adalah The Beatles - Yer Blues.

But I am of the universe…
…..
I feel suicidal, just like Dylan’s Mr Jones…

PS: Aku sebenernya ga begitu suka lagu blues sih. Adikku lebih suka. Tapi hari ini tahu2 pingin nyanyi sambil teriak2, dan tiba2 terlintas lagu ini. Lirik dicari, tab dicari, file Guitar Pro didownload (gitaris cupu yg bisanya cari tab ), gitar diambil, nyanyi lagi…

Feel so suicidal, even hate my rock and roll…

What a weird weekend…

1. Happy Saturday

• I went to Adi Sucipto Airport to accompany Wanda depart to Jakarta. She is working in Schlumberger, the training will be in Abu Dhabi, and the placement will be in China. Ah…worldwide adventurer…I wonder when I can be like her, travelling to many countries…
• I and the remaining friends had a breakfast.
• I rehearsed with my friends, playing music from 80s…you know, the kind of Skid Row, Bon Jovi…because we lost our vocalists (some are already working, the rest is seeking (desperately :p) for a job), I became the lead vocalist. The members of the band said that my voice is good for singing those songs…gosh, I hope they REALLY know my voice’s characteristic! I think I’m better at singing 60s and 90s rock songs…and pop, of course . Please don’t give me high-pitched or full of growl songs!! I lost my voice shortly afterward…but only for a few hours.
• After rehearsing, I ate Acehnese food for the first time.
• At night, I applied for student dorm at Nanyang Technological University online.

2. Emotionally-mixed Sunday : Sad, Weird, Nostalgic

• Morning, my cell phone rang loudly. Lukman sent me a message that Cosmas’ mother had passed away…the requiem would be in 12, and the burial would be in 14. Rest in peace, mam…
• I wanted to take my mother to local market, but I got tire leak on my motorcycle…
• I took my motorcycle to nearby tire plugger, and then saw a mentally sick person…what was he doing? Praying? Meditating? Practicing Kungfu? (here in Indonesia you can sometimes find mentally sick people wandering on the road)
• I accidentally put the motorcycle’s kickstand on my foot….Ouuccchhhhhh!!!!
• I attended requiem for Cosmas’ mother
• Things get happier…I had lunch with several friends…
• At night, I had a nostalgic event : I had a chat with the 1st
• Finally, I wrote this post.

Note : I have to state that beside the university rank systems’ website, Wikipedia is used as the main source of information, so some may doubt the validity of the information. I use it since I don’t know any scientific sources. I don’t have any experiences with universities stated below, nor even have contact with people affiliated with these universities. I haven’t found forums and blogs that discuss about "underrated" universities in international scope yet. Many are only about universities in specific countries (I found USA, UK, and Phillipines). Many others analyze university rankings and are not specifically about these "underrated" universities.

When I applied for graduate study, I heavily relied on universities’ ranking systems, especially Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s and Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan’s (no, I don’t count the THES-QS’) (shame on me!). I often underestimated universities outside that rank. However lately I found that choosing university can not be done only by taking into account such rank systems. There are many "underrated" universities, that do not present in the list or ranked low (and this description applies each time I write the word "underrated" in this post). Below are in my opinion some of those :

1. Tilburg University. My friend who is studying in Netherland said that the Economy-related programmes are highly selective and entering those programmes will be as hard as Oxbridge.

2. Some former parts of University of Paris. How can parts of such a legendary university disappear from that list? Is it because of they are not focusing in natural science (I am referring to the kinds of Paris I)? Or it has been represented by other universities such as Paris VI, 11, etc?

3. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Referred as "MIT of Russia", it is one of highly-appreciated Russian university in the former USSR area, but less known abroad. I, myself, have just found out this university only from School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (in which I will study shortly ) since they have an agreement in a double degree program. Probably due to their unusual educational and research system (see Wikipedia), they fail in the university rankings.

4. Gakushuin University. Being relatively "unknown" in international community, this university remains an elite university in Japan (I get this information only from a short article in Wikipedia, so if I am being eirrelevant, please correct me. However, why would Japan’s members of royal family apply to this university if it is only of middle or even low quality and reputation?)

5. Warwick University. As a top-tier university in UK, it ranked quite low in ranking systems. I think its rank should be higher…

6. French "Grande école"s. Probably since ecoles are only focused on certain (sub)field of study and theirs staffs are also affiliated with other institutions such as nearby universities, the number of published papers and staffs are not counted as done and worked within these ecoles. People who are not familiar with French education system (such as me) may not recognize them as good places to study (I read about this somewhere several months ago, but I can’t find this article anymore).

Any criticisms and suggestions?

Wew…I’m becoming older and older. I remember chasing a cat in the backyard of my house. It seems like yesterday, but it was about 17 years ago. And now many of my friends and seniors are already married : Deri, Nico, Mastris, Nathalie, so on. Many others already either planned or set their wedding : Ilma, Giri….Who wants to be the next? Ryan? Fikri? Rico? Tepe? Andri? Desi? Adin? I guess it’s not going to be me…

I am afraid to have an established life, with permanent salary, house, a family. It makes me feel old! Well, I think it’s just me. The idea (of having established life) must not be that horrible, and after all I have to face it. Nevertheless, although my physical body is aging, I will try to keep my idealism "forever young", until my soul is separated with my body and travels to hyperplane afterlife. If someday I lose my idealism, I think I better die…no, I won’t kill myself…for now

Finally, a short goodbye message (for today).

PS:I have an idea. When I surrender to The Reaper, and if I still have some power remains, I am going to shout "Going to the afterlife!!" spiritfully.

Saya menulis hal ini bukan berarti sudah expert, tapi ya karena memang komennya yang aneh (maling ga boleh teriak maling kah? maling ga boleh ngingetin orang lain untuk ga boleh nyuri kah? analogi yang ga begitu pas kayanya, saya kan bukan maling )…dan bukan maksud saya untuk merendahkan. Saya cuma pingin "menampar" supaya ybs sadar dan melakukan tindakan yang lebih baik (seperti tamparan Hyuuga kepada Shingo di film Captain Tsubasa).

Kenapa kok waktu liat postingan di beberapa blog, terutama yg berkaitan dgn beasiswa dan pekerjaan, banyak komen aneh yang tanya tetek bengek aplikasi, minta dikirim ke email, dsb? Contohnya :

"saya tertarik dengan beasiswa bahasa
tolong info jelas di email pada : ******
thnks"

"Permisi-permisi, aq juga minta tolong donk buat low cpns 2007 untuk jurusan **** di ****, ato kab/kodya ****.. Klo ada kirim ke email aq yawh..di ****.. Sekalian ama waktu pelaksanaaaannya,syarat, tempatnya… thanks banget yawah…( yang Lengkap pokoknya )mksh"
keren banget…pake bahasa gaul, minta info lengkap dikirim via email….

"saya mahasiswa ****… saya ingin sekali melanjutkan S2 saya di *****..apa saya bisa mendapatkan beasiswa full gratis? sebab orang tua saya tidak mampu utk membiayai saya.. saya ingin melanjutkan ke ******.. bagaimana ya pak caranya??
lah, sama mas / mbak, banyak orang Indonesia yang juga tidak mampu membiayai sendiri kuliahnya, tapi berhasil dapet beasiswa…

"Kalo da info ’bout beasiswa ke **** secara rinci hubungi aq yaw"
puiiih…bahasa gaul + campur2!!! gimana ya kalo empunya blog ternyata bapak2/ibu2?

Lha daripada tanya website tersebut, yang notabene hanya menginformasikan, mbok tanya sama universitas / institusi / pemberi beasiswa / perusahaan yang Anda lamar / daftar?
Lha pada mikir ga ya, kalo semua ngasih komen minta dikirimi email, gimana si empunya blog harus ndata satu2 email yang ingin dikirimi?
Lha saya malah pernah lihat orang yang ngirim surat lamaran lewat komentar di sebuah blog. Maaf ya Bu/Pak, tapi bagaimana mungkin saya ga tertawa…
Lha saya juga pernah lihat orang2 protes di sebuah blog, padahal blog tersebut hanya MENGINFORMASIKAN keterlambatan pemrosesan rekrutmen pegawai sebuah institusi pemerintah, dan TIDAK MEWAKILI institusi itu sendiri!

Mau lihat contohnya? Silakan kunjungi ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, ini, …
Banyak kan?

ckckckck…
Sementara mereka membuang waktu dengan bertanya pada orang yang salah (dan dengan cara yang kurang tepat pula), 2 orang temen saya, Hatta dan Sunu, pagi ini berangkat ke Thailand untuk melanjutkan studi di KMITL…

Walaupun bukan tentang beasiswa / pekerjaan, saya dulu juga pernah satu kali seperti itu. Untungnya cepet sadar bahwa itu ga baik. Sampai sekarang masih ga enak sama yang punya blog…

*masih menunggu pengumuman yang ga kunjung dikeluarin*

NB : buat yang saya kirimi trackback tapi ga kenal saya atau saya tidak kenal, salam kenal ya…