I'm moving...

To all readers (this means I'm talking to myself basically)

I've moved my blog to http://reza.ferrydiansyah.com and it's going to stay there until I can't afford to renew the domain ferrydiansyah.com :)

Go Steelers

Steelers won the superbowl.. GO STEELERS

It was against Seattle, a pretty good team. Personally I didn't think it was that good of a game. Too many mistakes. Not enough dominance. No sacks by the usually blitzing steelers. I guess that was because both sides matched evenly.

One of the things I hate about the game. Too many disputable penalty calls ( I would say 3) against the Seattle Seahawks. In a way that was regretable because there will always be that doubt about the legality of the Steeler's win.

But the Steelers won. Yeah. They did it in style too. Throwing a couple of trick plays, including one that ended in a touchdown. A trick play in football is like a slam dunk in basketball, it's fun, and it gets the emotions up.

Enough about the steelers, let's talk about the Seahawks. They were graceful losers. Even though some calls didn't go that way, they didn't say they were cheated. They did not blame the referees. They blamed themselves for not rising up to the challenge, for not beating adversity, for making mistakes. They also praised the Steelers.

Of course, the fact that commenting on refereeing carries a big fine probably encourages them to keep their mouth shut.

Nevertheless, this is one missing element in many Indonesian people lives. When they lose or something bad happens, they blame something else. They blame the referee, they blame the government, they blame the westerners, and of course they blame the zionism conspiracy.

Indonesians are not capable of self blame. That it's my fault, and I should've tried harder.

To teach this, I think we should start with sports league in children. Teach children to shake hands with the opponent after every game, win or lose. Start teaching sportivity, respect for authority figure, respect for the opponent, and hard work. More importantly, fine those coaches that blames referee and starts fights.

I hate chemistry

I was swimming today when I realized how much I hated chemistry in high school.

The fact is, when I'm swimming (and running, cycling, eating, even talking) my mind will sometimes start wandering about. I may start thinking philosophically about the basic existence of humanity. On the other hand I may think about trivial things like what I am going to have for lunch after I swim, and whether whatever I would eat would be too fattening. This thinking keeps me off boredom and asking myself why am I exercising (I hate exercising, but it's good for me.. go figure ...)

Anyway today I was thinking about swimming. Specifically, I was asking myself what kind of strokes would propel me forward the fastest. My reasoning is that the faster I swim, the faster I would get out of there (I swim a fixed number of laps). Once again.. I hate exercising :)

Anyway, I started thinking about it in a high school physics sort of way. I took into account Newton's law which basically says that if apples started falling in the swimming pool, I would move faster. Actually the Newton's law I was talking about was that the action reaction part. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That's why after I swim (action..) burning fat.. I love to eat a lot of fatty food (reaction).

Okay.. back to the story.. thinking about modelling the swimming strokes. I realized that this is how I should've learned physics in high school. Give me a problem, and tell me to explain it using physics law. Instead of memorizing formulas and problems and their solution, this would enable me to understand more of the physics. The teachers would be helping me in solving the problem, instead of standing at the blackboard being ignored by the students. One serious flaw would be how to find an interesting problem for problems such as quantum computing or Einstein's law of relativity.

It was about this time that my brain switched gears and I realized how much my high school education sucks (not that my college education was any better). The focus on the education in Indonesia unfortunately is memorizing and using what we have to be able to pass tomorrow's test.

Furthermore I thought of how much I hated chemistry. Well I don't despise it, I can do it pretty much (okay I got a C in college chemistry). I only felt that I didn't learn as much. I learnt the molecular structure for ethanol, methanol and so on. Unfortunately none of that is any use. I still can't work out why ethanol and methanol are different. I can't still understand why some substance exists as solids and others as gas and others as liquids at a certain temperature. I still can't understand why when two substances are mixed they turn red, purple or green, or maybe even a rainbow color (I was forced to memorize... and I didn't, which is probably why I never got a good score).

The results of my thinking:
- organized education is evil and pretty much useless.....
- learning should be exploratory (not an original thought, I should add, a lot of people have advocated this) instead of rote learning
- I never did find out the most efficient way to swim

The Tube...

Hmm.. the tube, the popular name for the television (do TVs still use those tubes nowadays?). Anyway, there's been a lot of discussion on television shows in Indonesia, basically they stink. A lot of them tells the story of super rich super handsome guys whose only problem are super rich super beautiful girls. You're damn right I'm jealous of those guys :P.

A worse television idea is "Ari mencari PRT".. roughly translates too "Ari looking for a housemaid". The Housemaid will be paid 10.000.000 rupiah a month ($1200, which is a lot in Indonesia). Like the apprentice I guess, without Donald Trump, or any of the educational content the apprentice has.

A show I've been watching is Scrubs. It's a bit like Ally mcBeal for doctors, with the comedy and the drama. I was looking for a light comedy. Instead I found a wonderful drama about doctors and the problem that they face. It's very very humane, unlike Ally mcBeal which had absurd characters (not that I'm complaining, Ally is very funny too). The writing, the characters, absolutely brilliant....

Why isn't there a show like that in Indonesia? Is it too smart :)?

How can we be happy?

A friend sent me a story from one of the newspaper in Indonesia (it's in Indonesian).

It's basically about a 'pemulung', which means someones who goes through trash for a living, whose 3 1/2 years old child has died due to diarrhea (cholera? dehydration?). He doesn't have money rent an ambulance or car to take his daughter to bury her. So he took the body by the train. The person works for Rp. 10.000,- a day (Approximately $1.25).

When a big diaaster like a tsunami occurs. Our hearts are opened and we give generously. We must not forget however, that everyday small disasters, disasters of poverty occur every single day. How can we work, play, eat, knowing that someone and their children tragically can not even get a decent's day meal?

Graduation Ceremony

My roommate graduated today. I could have graduated last week, but I couldn't be bothered to register for the graduation ceremony :D. Anyway, I was asked to be a photographer, meaning follow him around and take pictures of him with various persons.

It was fun seeing how the graduation process at CMU is, and how different it is to the graduation in Indonesia. The photo below shows one main difference. It is outdoors. Which is cool. Of course you can't really do that in Indonesia due to the unpredictable weather and all.

Another good thing is that you don't need an invitation to come. Of course, if that were implemented in Indonesia, there won't be any room. Indonesian are family oriented, and when somobeody graduates, he takes the extended families... sometimes he even takes the whole village to see him graduate.

Third thing is that there are two pretty short ceremonies instead of one long boring one. In the commencement, the chancellor presides over the whole university's graduates and basically tells them that they graduate. They don't call them one by one and shake their hands like in Indonesia. The diploma ceremony (and calling by name) is done individually for each school (indonesian: fakultas).

I don't see why this cannot be done in Indonesia actually. One reason I've heard is that students feel it is their right to shake hands with the chancellor. Because they feel that this is how they are respected as graduates. They want the pictures :). Although I don't see why this cannot be done with the dean? The people being shown the picture isn't going to know whether the person shaking your hands is the chancellor, the dean, or even someone you just pulled of the street. As long as they're wearing a gown, and you write on the bottom, graduation of so and so.. date so and so.. You're safe.

The best thing about this graduation is the commencement speeches. In Indonesia, I don't remember what the speech is about. I think (CMIIW) it was more of a scientific speech. While here, it was a spirited speech, designed to rouse passion. The speakers (plural, since in total there were about 6 different speakers, three for the university's ceremony and three for the school's ceremony) spoke about being the best graduates (Indonesian people are probably too modest to use these kind of words), about being public servant that is moving the community forward, never listen to people who tell you that you can not, and always and always be... agent of change.

Graduation Ceremony at Carnegie Mellon University 

You know you're indonesian when...

You know you are an indonesian when somebody criticizes you and you call them petty, jealous and a know it all.

I've seen it happen mostly with, sadly the more intelligent part of our population. Whenever a critique comes a person's way, that person is likely to say those three things about the critic. They don't really care about what is being said. In some cases the criticism is unfair, granted, but then the person criticized will wave away all other criticism from the critic even if the criticism is good.

Fighting Corruption...

I had a brainstorm today while in the bus on how to fight corruption in Indonesia. I call my idea, fighting corruption with guilt. We give people fliers (or magnets, or whatever) to people who have a big chance to be corrupt.

Example :



We can also send them to immediate family. For example give fliers to children "Ask your father about corruption...".

How is this going to stop corruption? Well.. hopefully we make them feel guilty enough to stop... :)

Stupid questions, do they exist?

As a lecturer... I've been taught not to ridicule any question. In class whenever you're asked a question, you should answer it to the best of your ability with a smile, even if you have just explained the answer 5 minutes ago.

Sure some students don't understand what you are trying to teach. Hey that's what teachers are for. I mean in a classroom setting, if students asks about the subject you're teaching then that's fine. Ask away.

What about stupid questions? Well according to this article.. there are. I wholeheartedly agree (and admit that I've asked some stupid questions in my younger days). Basically questions are stupid if they are not specific enough ("please give me advice"). Another type of question that gets on my nerves are questions that lack background knowledge. Questions that require me to do a lot of readings and research (unless once again in a class setting, in which case it's my job to find out). Questions that can be answered yourself by a little bit of research.

One question in particular that I've been asked that comes to my mind (if you are the person who asked this question.. take note :) ) is "What is the newest wireless services in America". I should have told him to look for it himself.

Maybe teachers shouldn't say in class that "there are no stupid questions". Or maybe limit the scope "There are no stupid questions in this class.. outside this class however, if I think your question is stupid I will say so."

The Forbes 2000

The forbes 2000 lists for 2004 is out. 7 Indonesian companies are included in the list. Very dissapointing. Out of the seven, three of them are banks (mandiri, bca, bni). The other two are cigarettes (sampoerna and gudang garam), then the monopolistic telkom, and astra.

Apart from astra, none of them are really internationally acclaimed. Most of them I believe profit from the fact that Indonesia is a large country with a large population.

Another interesting aspect. The normal profit range is 10% of sales. Except telkom which has 40% profit compared to sales. :)...

Help is on the way

The death toll of the Indonesian Tsunami is officially at 150,000 people. Indonesia's victim is 80,000. The world has recognized the severity of this tragedy and has come to aid the various countries affected.

Personally, I've been touched with letters sent to me by my colleagues here in the US who ask about the well being of my family. They have all said how horrible this tragedy is, and their concern shows how much these people care.

Stories of donation keeps coming in. Today it was announced at the mosque where I pray that a special box is created to handle donations for these tsunami victims. It seems that everybody put money into the box.

Countries are lining up to help. The US has said it will send 350 million dollars, the european union, britain, france, japan, united arab emirates has also sent aid.

Story also abounds, about common ordinary people helping. A group of people are mobilizing from Java, doing all they can do to help. We hear donation tins being filled all around Indonesia, and even here in the United States. Every city looks to have a fund raising activity. Everyone is doing all they can.

This human tragedy has touched everyone's soul. No matter the race, religion, nationality, political preference, or residence status. For one moment in time we're all the same... small weak humans, living in an unpredictable world. It's a shame it took 150,000 people's lives to remind us of the need for this unity.

Update - Tsunami

The death counts to the disaster has reached 52000. It's still expected to rise. Wow. 52000.

In Indonesia the GAM rebel (Free aceh movement) and the Indonesian government have declared a truce for now.

An officer for the Indonesian Police uttered words that I think is most appropriate for this situation "we're all crying together".

8.9

An 8.9 earthquake hit near sumatra sunday morning. Then the tsunamis hit, India, Sri Lanka, The loss of lives kept growing. Started at 3300, then 11000, today it's 21000. Condolences to all that have been hit. It is truly a sad day.

The Indonesian government has declared a national mourning period. The MUI (Islamic Ulama Council) has also said that they are concerned. Concerned or 'prihatin' is an Indonesian word usually used by politicians to make a statement without actually doing anything useful). In this case however the MUI has opened an account to help the region.

The lack of a tsunami warning system was touted as a factor in the large number of deaths. I'm not sure whether a warning system would have helped Indonesia, seeing as it was so close to the epicenter of the quake. A person with the Indonesian geological system claimed it was too expensive however.

I'm not quite sure about the extent of damage to the sumatra region. I have only heard it from the news. I know (from reading the news) that many of the damages to the region was caused by the earthquakes and not the tsunamis itself. As for the Tsunamis, I'm not sure how deep inland they came.

Anyway on to the recovery process. Help is coming, both from overseas, and also from inside the country. Hopefully the help will be given to those who need it and not corrupted by those in power. If all goes well, the help will be organized and we will be able to quickly rebuild.

Hopefully plans will be created to create a warning system for natural disasters in Indonesia (Indonesia is very susceptible to natural disasters). Warning systems should be created to detect earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcano eruptions.

There is a lot of work ahead of us.

Spiderman.. spiderman

I just watched spiderman yesterday. Spiderman 1 mind you, not spiderman 2. Yeah I know, it's a bit out of date. Nice movie. The premise is what transpires in every teenage boy dreams. You know, boy is in love with girls, boy gets some kind of special power, then girl falls in love with him suddenly (too conveniently I might add). Yes... boys do dream up of such things :).

My favourite quote (and one that I plan to use whenever somebody asks me for a quote :) ) from the movie is:

"With great power, comes great responsibility"

We may not have the power of spiderman. However, we've all been blessed with something special. It may be intellect, diplomacy skills, or even good looks. Our skills and traits are our power, and we are responsible in using that power wisely to fix this world and all its faults.

By the way.. isn't kirsten dunst hot?