Pompeii ruins, near Naples, Italy, 12 July, 2008

Effects by Poladroid

It was one of what I call “one-hour-TV-shows” that made me searching other TV shows. Several worth mentioning are:

Of course Lost! I’m now literally sitting at the edge of my seat waiting for next season (due on January).

The ever popular Heroes. But now I think the show is going down, the large cast needs more character and a stronger plot but not plot where a turtle is involved, people time travels and change the future every other episode, where an adoptive father of an illegitimate daughter gets partnered with the biological mother and the biological father has a thing with a character that should have been dead but revived only as the third twin. I think I can say that Heroes is a super-heroic version of The Dynasty for the Petrellis.

The Office (US edition), the most recent TV shows that makes me smile and laugh lots of times, embarrassedly alone. It’s funny in a strange way, at least “That’s what she said”.

Prison Break in a nutshell: breaking out of a prison, becoming fugitives and running away to Panama, got busted and breaking out again from (this time) a Panamanian prison, and now doing outsource field work for an FBI agent to find a six-headed monster (probably a data centre). Tips from this show to get a heavier plot (probably will be useful for Heroes, see above): kill some of the sidekicks. Although for the lover of the main character, revive her from the other side, at any cost (a side plot on how she’s still alive after all this time is a bonus).

What do you get when a member of a Miami Metro Police Department, specifically a blood splatter analyst, moonlights as a serial killer hunting bad guys unseen by the law? An interesting plot (it’s from a book) and Dexter.

True Blood. Vampires are now eager to live side-by-side with human, at night anyway, due to recent Japanese invention of “True Blood”, a kind of soft drink that has all of what’s in the human blood. They say those vampires are “going mainstream”. But one is in love with a waiter that apparently can read others’ minds. In Bon Temps, Louisiana, nothing is what it seems to be. Guess what? It’s also from a book! Beware of some rather explicit sexual scenes on this show, though. Probably, this vampire theme is also fuelled by the upcoming, highly anticipated movie “Twilight” (also from a book, popular among the girls). If you haven’t managed to see the trailer of a particular Swedish vampire movie, then you should make some time to do so (again from a book!).

Fringe. Amongst all the show I’ve mentioned, this show is the one that has the most resemblance with The X-Files. “Monster of the week” gets a face lift to “weird events that can be solved by even-weirder experiments of the week”. The larger story arc “do alien exists?” is translated to “mysterious ‘Pattern’ of strange events”.

What’s your favourite TV shows today? I still have more, but I’ll save them for the next post

Money for Application

Several Erasmus Mundus programmes/courses still ask for a mail application rather than only electronically. It means that you have to send your application (completed forms, copies of transcripts, diplomas, and any other documents) to the consortium of the course directly. Some programmes also request confirmation by mail (you sign a form) when you are offered a scholarship. Finally, follow-up registration form such as accommodation application may also have to be sent via mail.

The fee for sending documents to Europe varies to what service you would like to use. Several options including (I’m not promoting anything, price listed according to my or other experiences 1 year ago):

• DHL and the like: around IDR 350,000 per mail (below 0.5 kg), contact DHL for exact fee since I can’t find fee information on their website.
• EMS from our beloved Pos Indonesia: around USD 20.
• Regular post mail: around IDR 50,000 (ever wondered what 50 IDR 1,000 stamps glued to an envelope look like?)

The service reliability for DHL and EMS are pretty good, meaning you can track your mail. It is publicly known that you can’t track regular post mail, so if you’re going to use it, pray hard that your mail reaches its intended destination.

Money for English language test

Get a real English proficiency test. By real I mean official and valid internationally. By that I mean the one that in order to take it, you have to pay quite a large amount of money. In Indonesia, IELTS test costs USD 180 (click on more information) and TOEFL test costs USD 150 (find TOEFL test locations on the available PDF document).

My suggestion is that practice your English and practice specifically for the test you’re going to take (get mock-ups or samples) and then take the test. Probably they also have mechanism to send the result directly to the course consortium directly. I’ll leave the IELTS vs TOEFL choice to you (or probably another post?).

Money for Passport and Visa application

It is implied that you’ve already have your own passport when you’re going to apply for a foreign scholarship. The cost of getting an Indonesian passport is IDR 200,000. Go to the nearest Immigration office.

Meanwhile if you are going to another country, you have to apply for a visa. Getting a scholarship offer may or may not make you entitled for a visa fee waiver. UK visa fee for student is GBP 99 and there is no visa fee waiver for non-Chevening/Fullbright scholarship holders. Some embassies or consulates will waive the visa fee if you can prove that you are awarded a scholarship.

Money for Departure

A one way flight to Europe will set you back around USD 550. As soon as you can set the date of departure go search for a cheap ticket and book. I have a good experience with Emirates and I searched the flight using STAtravel (they have a branch in Jakarta: PT Pacto Holiday Tours).

For the fiscal tax (IDR 1,000,000), there is a procedure for a foreign scholarship holder that can be done. Don’t worry, if you get the scholarship, the procedure will be informed to you. You can read the official information about fiscal tax (in Indonesian only), the information about scholarship holder may be entitled for fiscal tax waiver is on page three (letter p).

Money for Living Expenses

For the first few weeks (may be up to two months!) you will probably have to live on your own. Because the living expense in Europe varies, my best recommendation is to bring as much as you can.

My experience on my expenses (as far as I remember them):

1. I used DHL for sending the application and EMS for confirmation: IDR 550,000
2. I took IELTS, it used to cost AUD 150
3. I got my passport in Bandung: IDR 220,000
4. UK student visa: GBP 99
5. Flight ticket: USD 550
6. For emergency and living expenses for the first month in UK: around GBP 300, living the frugal life!

I need to remind you that other fees exist, not limited to:

1. Transportation from airport (in Europe) to your accommodation.
2. Accommodation fee (agency fee, deposit).
3. Transportation fee for moving around (passport application, visa application, etc)l
4. Things to bring to Europe (decent suitcase, some winter preparation won’t hurt, etc), but keep in mind to bring only essentials.

What is Erasmus Mundus?

In a nut shell, it is a mobility education scheme funded by European Commission (EC) and implemented by consortia of several European universities. Let me say that in another way: two or more European universities work together (in a consortium) establishing a master degree programme/course, the approved ones get funded by EC. If you enrol in one of these programme you will study in, at least, two universities (in different European countries), hence the word “mobility”.

More information can be found in these websites:

• Official page for Erasmus Mundus by EC (don’t forget its awesome FAQ)
• The official list of all master courses under Erasmus Mundus scheme by EC (it has links to official websites, you can also filter based on field of study)
• Website of Erasmus Mundus Student and Alumni Association (they have put up a fabulous PDF Erasmus Mundus Student’s Handbook)
• Erasmus Mundus information by Delegation of EC to Indonesia (they have a combined PDF description of each programme)

The bottom lines:

• Study in at least two universities in different European countries
• If you are awarded the scholarship, it will (theoretically, unless you are a very-big-spender) cover all the expenses: tuition fee, living cost, mobility/transportation expenses, medical insurance (the scholarship is around € 21,000 per annum, including tuition fee, and it may increase in the coming years)
• Application is submitted directly to a consortium (i.e. to the master course you are interested in), you don’t apply to any other organisation
• Recent regulation limits you to apply to a maximum of 3 master courses each year
• You can enrol as a self-funded student (more expensive tuition fee for non-European citizen) as long as your application is accepted

Who is European Commission?

According to European Union website, European Commission is the executive body of EU. It has the right to propose legislation and ensures that EU policies are properly implemented. You can learn more about European Union at a glance, or visit the official website of the European Commission. The EC has a delegation to Indonesia and Brunei, based on Jakarta (Firefox on Mac OS X has problem in viewing the site).

For me, the most important thing is that the EC pays my scholarship.

Why study in Europe?

These websites try to answer the benefits of studying in Europe:

• The aptly-named Study in Europe website
• European High Education Fair (Jakarta, 1-2 November 2008) also has a page on why study in Europe

For me, it’s the opportunity to experience a very heterogeneous continent, while getting a master degree, free! (with the scholarship of course).

What is MSc NeBCC?

NeBCC stands for Network and e-Business Centred Computing. It is an Erasmus Mundus master course held by a joint consortium among the University of Reading, UK, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (that’s Greek for Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) Greece, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (and that’s Spanish for Carlos III University of Madrid), Spain, and the (silent partner, probably not taking active role in this consortium?) Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Find out more at the official website of MSc Network and e-Business Centred Computing. It is an 18 months intensive course (including 3 months-or-so breaks/vacations). Students will study at all three universities (UoR, AUTh, UC3M).

As the name suggests, the course comprises of subjects/modules about network and e-business technologies. Have a look on brief descriptions of each modules at the aforementioned official page. I will tell more about MSc NeBCC in the next post.

Important dates for 2009/2010 class:

• Application process open: 15 October 2008, application is processed online
• Deadline for application for scholarships: 31 January 2009
• Deadline for submission for self funding students: 30 June 2009

Who is Erasmus? And what about Mundus?

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch humanist and theologician, while Mundus is a Latin word for “world”.

Who is IndoEM?

IndoEM is a community of Erasmus Mundus awardees from Indonesia. If you have been awarded an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, you will be invited to join IndoEM. We have tried to put up a website indoem.info, to communicate with Indonesians interested in Erasmus Mundus. Not a very successful website, it’s getting revamped soon.

Yansen, an alumni of EMCL (European Master of Computational Logic), an active member of IndoEM, have also put up another (relatively more successful) website about Erasmus Mundus, emundus.wordpress.com.

That’s it for now, and it’s not so short after all After visiting sites linked above, if you still have relevant questions, shout out at the comment section.

As I wrote in the previous entry, I’ve spent most of my summer break traveling. To travel is really not my high-point, as in I have never travelled much before, but nonetheless I enjoyed my 7 countries and 17 (I think, I’ve lost count) cities travel.

My friend, who is an avid traveller said that traveling is his passion because he needs the “constant change”. I’ve certainly changed quite a bit of my daily life (and the mystery is that did I gain or lose weight?) for these couple of months, but now it is time to yet settle again and focus on my thesis.

For a gimmick, I’ve taken this picture as a souvenir on my travel. Can you guess where it’s taken? Clue: from this angle, it’s not leaning that much.

I will go for a trip and it is very unlikely that I will have the chance to post here. I will do so if I can, but in the mean time, until next time! (unintentional rhyme)

OK, here we go:

Bazaar Indonesia @ Madrid

Luthfi and I made kolak to be sold in the bazaar. I joined the PPI-Spanyol booth and managed to sell some of the goods (mainly clothes, small purses, etc) using my broken-Spanish. Some of my classmates came to the bazaar (thank you guys!) and most importantly I had fun!

It’s Summer Time

In Madrid and Spain in general, the temperature rises to 30 degrees centigrade on average. Meaning: v e r y h o t! Also means: open that window wide while you sleep at night. At summer, the sun sets at around 10 PM and rises at around 6 PM. Must adapt.

School’s Over (but Thesis/Dissertation/Project is here to stay)

All of the taught part of my program, Erasmus Mundus MSc NeBCC, has been, er…, taught and I must say that the results are not too dissapointing :p I think I’m not one of the top students in the class, but anyway, I passed almost all of the modules (just waiting for one more result to be announced).

I will do my project at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, España, starting from October (but my supervisor insisted that I should start this summer). The project will be about BPEL and web wrappers. I hope I can post about it later.

Sport and Cultural Events in Spain

This summer, there are quite a bunch of events in Spain:

• Spain won the Eurocup 2008
• San Fermin festival starts at Pamplona (the one you can run for your life before a horde of bulls running after you)
• Rock in Rio Madrid festival, boasting famous artists like Alanis Morisette, Neil Young, Shakira, Lenny Kravitz, and Spain’s very own, El Canto del Loco
• and, the most shocking of all, Madrid Orgullo ‘08, a very-very large Gay Pride.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately for the last thing on the list), I missed them all. At Eurocup final match, I was studying for the next day’s exam. But I was able to hear from my room, the crowd cheered as the Spanish team scored the only goal and after the won the match. As for San Fermin, I didn’t manage to make it because it is not exactly close to Madrid, and did’t have enough time. Rock in Rio is far too expensive for me, I watched some of its highlights at TV though, Shakira was incredible! And as for the Pride, just browsed in the local news (do you know that Madrid is supposed to be the gay capital of Europe, what a world we live in).

That’s it! Sorry haven’t had the chance to upload pictures though.

If you are somewhere near Madrid this weekend, you are invited to Bazar Benéfico Indonesia 2008. You are free to invite more people and we’ll be delighted to have you all to discover a bit Indonesia this weekend. You can see this event in Bazar Benéfico Indonesia 2008 Facebook event page (you don’t have to have Facebook account to view the page).

If you need a map from the nearest Metro (Arturo Soria, Line 4), you can view it in Google map.

Charity Bazaar 2008

31st May - 1st June 2008
Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 - 20:00

C/ Agastia n°65, 28043 Madrid (Metro: Arturo Soria)

Free Entrance

Traditional Dances, Typical Indonesian Food, Arts Flea Market, Lottery
and much more

We’re expecting you and your friends!

Organized by Republic of Indonesia - Tél 91 413 0294

Disclaimer: I made the (non-official) poster, grabbing photos from Flickr without really paying attention to the license of the photos. Sorry if you (the photographer) read this.

I’ve seen the movie when I was still in Reading. A cool movie, not too good, but OK. I don’t usually follow this viral marketing thingy, but the idea is great. Please help me to determine what my final dæmon would be like by clicking on the animation above and participate in a simple 5 questions questionnaire.

If you are reading this from RSS reader or aggregator site and can’t see any flash animation above, go directly to my Dæmon’s page, Eumelia.

You’ll have the chance to have one of them yourself, after you do the questionnaire.

Got this from sandclow.

• Language
• Tools
• Communication (and Team Work)

Language

We use English to communicate as all of us are required to be able to use English. In a team in which not every member use English as their primary language, this can pose difficulties. To really express what you mean can be quite difficult. And also, several members, in the middle of a discussion, can suddenly speak their other language, their mother language for example, to each other and then, in some occasions, laugh or continue as if there was nothing happen. They happen usually because some people in the team come from the same country/area or just happen to speak the same non-English language. These events happen to me sometimes, and I find it quite rude actually. I bet this is how it feels when, in Indonesia, some people in a discussion, were joking using Javanese (my traditional language) when not everyone understand it.

Tools

Well, this is probably because I use a Mac. Yes, seriously. I use different tools (ie: word processor, development tools, etc) than the others (I only saw one girl back in Reading in my class who also uses Mac, and she was not in NeBCC programme) and it somehow promote several problems in several of my group assignments.

In my first group assignment, I was quite unsatisfied with the formatting style of the final document (ie: the bullets and numbering, font size, headings and subheadings, indentation, etc) because all of us use different styles and, probably makes things worse, I use different tools that was not completely compatible with others’ tool. And of course the one who merged it can not be blamed because the problem was not caused by him/her. And no, I don’t want the final document to be flashy with beautiful fonts and flashy colours or all that, but I just want it to have consistent style, and unfortunately it’s hard to do when we use different tools.

This problem repeated when in my second group assignment, in which I had the job to merge (merely because I finished my part last), and had a little time to do that. The formatting of the document went haywire and it was frustrating to even make indentation and numbering consistent. In my third and fourth group assignment, I also became the one who merged the final document. Sometime I just had to leave several parts not exactly as I wanted them to be (I could be too picky, you know).

In development tools part, well let’s just say that because everyone in the NeBCC class but me uses Microsoft Windows (although several have multiple-boot systems, usually with Ubuntu), I had to try harder to find several tools that unfortunately difficult to find in Mac world. I’ll tell you more about this later (no promise though :p). In the up side, I don’t have to install anything to compile C code and execute the binaries or do an XML transformation using XSL with xsltproc tool.

Communication (and Team Work)

Still related to first part, but this is more than what language we use. Some people can be really angry when they were interrupted, even when they are telling the exactly wrong thing (not their fault though, their opinion should still be acknowledged and heard). Some people can be so bossy and telling everyone else to do as they wish (my guilty conscience tells me that I do this some time). Some people can be so agnostic and, especially in a big team, “choose” to do nothing. It’s also hard when the team had an agreement and suddenly the agreement was broken and the team still quarrelled when they were supposed to prepare their final presentation. Team work can also be quite difficult when the work flows are coming from only from one member because he/she had “explored everything” related to the assignment, and felt that his/her way is the best way. Similarly, it’s tough when a member did most of the job his/herself, for example because he/she managed to spare a lot more time (significantly) to do the assignment compared to other members. Yes, the last thing is quite an irony, because all of us have 24 hours in a day.

This post is not meant to provide any solution, but rather just to show what might happen in an international group. It’s true, however, that to some extent, these issues happen in non-international groups. But I would argue that the intensity in an international group is higher.

Cheer on Losties!
‘Nuff said!

I spent two weekends watching two concerts and went to a museum in Madrid. The concerts were held by Escuela Municipal de Música Pablo Casals, a municipal music school in Leganés, while the museum is one of the biggest and most important museum in Spain, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. The first concert was a percussion concert, the second was a flute concert, and in the museum, there was an exposition of Pablo Picasso which showed joint collection of Museo Reina Sofía and Museé National Picasso, Paris. I didn’t have to pay anything to enjoy the concerts and Picasso’s artworks, they are “gratis” (Ha! A Spanish and Indonesian word at the same time).

Being concerts from a local school mean that most of the spectators were also locals, families of the performing students or teachers. When I came to the concerts, the hall of the school and a public municipal hall were full of people, they were “sold-out” concerts. The performances were also great, they held the percussion concert to give honor to a percussion teacher who just recently passed away, while the flute concert was held in collaboration with another public musical school of another city.

The admission to a museum in Spain mostly is free on weekends (for Museo Reina Sofía, it’s free on Saturday afternoon and Sunday), and tourists and locals do make use of this policy. There were lots and lots of people: young and old, boys and girls, men and women, families and singles, international tourists and locals, all of them visit the museum. I almost felt overwhelmed by the number of people visited the Picasso’s exposition.

At the back of the programme sheets given to spectators in the concerts, there was a logo of Ayuntamiento de Leganés, Delegación de Cultura, while on the museum’s brochures there was a logo of Gobierno de España, Ministerio de Cultura. What does this tell us? At least for me, it shows that Spanish have access to public spaces where they can meet their fellow Spanish and, at the same time, enjoy art and culture. It also shows that Spanish government do something that ensure people in their area have access to cultural events.

Can we make this in Indonesia? As a country rich with different cultures, I think the government should do something like this as well. They should provide us with a “public room” to held cultural events, and make sure that most of us (if not all), have access to experience that.

One of the main hurdles for a “Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa Kesenian” (Art and Cultural Students’ Activities Unit) in ITB, to do a cultural event, is the fund. They have to raise the money themselves to do a show. They have to seek for themselves a place to do rehearsals. They sell tickets for their show because they needed the money, there’s no (or very little) fund from the campus. I’m not ignoring the assistance of ITB (if any is given), but I think the campus can do more. ITB, as a public university, is changing to “privatised-public university”, a step that is hated by many but also defended by others. Hey, if you are a member of these students’ activities units, tell us your story (and probably correct me if I’m wrong) in the comment.

I went to college and worked in Bandung, a prominent Sundanese city in West Java. I lived there for almost 6 years and I have never visited the Bandung Geological Museum, one of the most important museums in the city. This is mainly because I have the impression that local museums in Indonesia are old and forgotten buildings with unmaintained collections. And generally, that is the case. Only recently, there have been some interests by locals to visit museums and it probably forced the government to renovate several of these museums.

Am I the only one who is hoping that I can also enjoy free cultural weekends in Indonesia?

*) Image for Picasso’s painting is shamelessly taken from Musée National Picasso, Paris’ site.

I arrived at Madrid, Spain, safely yesterday, and currently I’m staying at Luthfi Darmawan’s place. He was my senior in my undergrad years.

Today, I’m going to Leganés, to see my campus, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and to search for a room nearby. Hopefully I can have a room today. If not, I’ll still stay in Luthfi’s place.

Adios!

• I haven’t submitted one assignment (from Reading!) yet
• I still haven’t secured any accommodation in Madrid, Spain, yet
• Probably I will experience excess baggage for the first time, ie: I think my luggage is overweight!

But before I go to Madrid, Spain, to continue this journey, my next stop will be Rome, Italy. I will spend several days there to relax (and to finish my assignment!)

So, see you when I see you.
Yia sas!

Here, in Thessaloniki, I also experienced the effects of the strike. The garbage collectors stopped working at least for two weeks. Garbage litter-ally (pun intended) piled up everywhere, making me remember about the garbage problem Bandung had last year. Also, we had several blackouts, allegedly connected with the strike. I don’t often use bus, but my friends said that buses were scarce, even one of them had to walk to campus for the first time. The students’ cafeteria closed one day and the other day they are serving the food while they were having electricity blackout. We had an unplanned semi-buffet for that day. Usually, we were given a tray with all the food in it over a window, like a (parking) ticket booth. But then, they arranged the food in an empty space of the cafeteria and we were given an empty tray so that we can take the dishes we want.

After the parliament still decided to pass the law, it seems that the workers started to work again. Yesterday, most of the piling garbage were collected, and since Friday we haven’t had any electricity blackout. I hope that everything will return back to normal. It’s my final week in Thessaloniki and it’s also my exam week. Wish me luck!

• Environmental pollution
• Genetic manipulation
• Accumulating excessive wealth
• Inflicting poverty
• Drug trafficking and consumption
• Morally debatable experiments
• Violation of fundamental rights of human nature

The original seven deadly sins are:

• Pride
• Envy
• Gluttony
• Lust
• Anger
• Greed
• Sloth

It can be seen that the new list try to target more specifically on what human can do only recently, where technology and money drive most of the human life.

Recently, a BBC report also mentioned about “progressive” muslim women in America. The report certainly put emphasises on how Muslim women in the states try to do more active role in practising Islam in their daily lives. But it also described the practises of putting the five prayers as secondary priority (while “remembering” God everyday gets higher priority), translating Quran (Islam’s Holy Book) in an unusual way, and allowing women to lead prayers, as “progressive Islam.” I certainly don’t have any problem with Muslim women to have a bigger and more active roles in the society, but the tendency of the news that somehow called, what I think, more observant Muslims as “traditionalists” make me a little bit uncomfortable.

I’ll admit and really stress that I’m not that religious, but this journey made me feel that I have to hold on to something in order not to lose my identity. I found that one of the things to hold on to, is my religion.

I don’t want to put my religious practise at the centre stage. What I want to do is ask these questions:

• Do you think religions need to be “modernised”?
• Don’t they have some general values that always be relevant?
• Should we behave in such a way to be not considered as old-fashioned/fundamentalists/traditionalists including changing the way we practise our religions?

To end this post I’m going to tell you that in the last several weeks, my door was knocked several times by young Greek man and woman. My conversations with them, which lasted around 15 minutes, are probably the longest ones I have with any Greek. They gave me pamphlets about their believes. They are Jehovah Witness’ Christians, and we’re discussing about religions at the footstep of my door. The guy invited me to have a coffee with him tomorrow at noon.

Meet Shrek and, ehm, his girlfriend.

The carnival week has just started here in Greece. People wear masks or costumes and celebrate. On Thursday afternoon, they have what is called Tsiknopempti (Τσικνοπέμπτης, literally Burnt Thursday, it is Greek equivalent of Fat Tuesday) where people had massive barbecue to prepare for the carnival. Unfortunately, I don’t have any picture for the barbecue. The word Carnival itself has Latin origin which means saying good bye to meat (carni = meat, vale = good bye; remember carnivore?).

The origin of Greek carnival tradition can also be traced back to Ancient Greek tradition. They said that it was for honouring the God of Wine, Dionysus. That’s why the Greek Orthodox church, the majority, seemed not too happy with the celebration. Nonetheless, old and young people were celebrating on Thursday night. The carnival is also related to Easter and one of my professors said that for forty days before Easter the Greek (at least the religious ones) fast by not eating meat or drinking alcohol.

In Thessaloniki, they held a live performance stage in Aristotle Square. They put lots of light decoration. I went there with MF (India, but he stayed in New Zealand for quite a while). We met lots of people wearing costumes like it was Halloween. Finally, we met several other classmates: MDM (Argentina), JJP (Guatemala), SEK (Ethiopia, but he lived and worked in Canada), CAB (Ecuador), DP (Russia), AJGM (Honduras), LGK (Cameroon). I also met their friends: Claudia (Germany), Hazel (? Sieru’s friend), and two other guys living with C and D (I forgot their name). Having snatched a golden wig, I think I could be the Evil Good Twin of Carlos Valderrama. Don’t you think so?

I wonder what’s the food on the cafeteria will be like when the fasting period starts.

So, starting from now, we can enjoy posts from:

• Ahmad Fikri Adriansyah - Al-Fikr’s Heart Expression - Having trades with God : no loss, no bankruptcy, no tricks, no manipulation, but only the true joy…
• I Nyoman Winardi Ribeka - My Thoughts - My Daily Life and Random Thought About My Beloved Bali
• Imam Prakoso - blue moon

And, last but definitely not least, warm welcome to: Ridho “Akihiro” Akhiro - steps of an akihiro, who has just arrived at Melbourne, Australia, to start his master degree at the University of Melbourne.

TODO:

• Update Wordpress, I’m now too lazy to update to newest Wordpress 2.3.3.
• New heads for new authors. While I’m at it, use the (currently empty) head page.
• Fill in that empty bubble in the title of the site (any suggestion?). That is, decide on the title of the site to replace the generic “if01 aggregator).

Keep on posting guys (and girls)!

PS: If you are a member of if01 and would like to be part of this site, please contact raizamn[at]gmail·com

I even made my own personal record. I made a 3-paged paper in only around 8 hours! I had two weeks to finish that assignment and I did it on the last day. This semester, I have two group assignments so far and I became the bottleneck in both. Another group assignment is due in the middle of next month. My individual assignment will due in next week. I will have another class (and most likely another assignment) next week. I still have to think about what to do for dissertation (6-month-project master thesis), and where I will actually do it. Reading or Madrid are more interesting than Thessaloniki. But for Reading, it’s quite hard to find a professor to become a supervisor since most of their expertise are network (due to the name of the course) and I’m quite new in this network thingy.

And I’m now watching the new series Knight Rider. So far it’s cool enough even it’s quite bland. I can almost taste the smell of Smallville (in the season four or five, where everything feels like it is repeated over and over again). The acting is mediocre, but the familiar revamped bum-bada-bada-bum theme sound is nostalgic and refreshing at the same time. The new series predominantly feature more candy eye in terms of special effect to show-off the new KITT (rebranded as Knight Industries Three Thousand). The bullet-proof feature and the ability to switch appearance (color and model morphing plus the famous license plate switch–now morph) boasted by the car now look more realistic and the car itself does look cool and modern (it’s a new Ford Mustang).

There are subtleties that the show is more directed at a liberal-minded audience. Firstly, the main protagonist (the son of the original Michael Knight) is first depicted as losing faith in monogamous relationship (and shown to prefer threesome) although he had deep connection with the daughter of KITT’s creator. Second, the main female FBI agent is hinted to be a homosexual (or is it just me?). And lastly, the show had a premiere on the Playboy mansion. But worry not, no vulgar or explicit scenes shown on the 80 minutes pilot episode. Moreover, I believe that these sexual hints are not to be emphasised more on the next episodes. If you are going to watch this episode, watch out for a very special cameo near the end!

Now Boost me!

Today, (Wednesday, 13/02/2008), Greece is on general strike. The strike will last for the whole day, crippling the whole nation, as buses, trains, and airplanes were shut down. Schools are closed and hospitals are only dealing with emergency cases. Almost all public services, even news agencies join the strike. From the news, I know that the workers are demanding a better pension in their retirement system.

The effect of this strike for me is quite significant as the secretary of the programme who is responsible for the lecture room we use did not come to work today (I don’t know if she joins the strike or not), forcing us to move to the opposite room. This room has no projector and the lecturer has only his powerpoint slide. So we copied his slides and viewed his slides on our laptops while he explained quickly (and later more quickly since someone realised that electric socket is limited and apparently few laptops will last for more than one hour - gasp!)

Another major impact we felt was we have no free lunch(!) I told you before that Greek students have free lunch and dinner on weekdays. But after class, we found that the cafeteria was closed, most likely due to the strike. We walked for quite awhile to reach some shops where some of us bought burgers and I bought spinach pies (typical Greek pie, usually eaten for breakfast).

It turned out there are still buses operate in Thessaloniki, but only very few. Someone told us that probably only 5% of buses operate throughout the day. I don’t know yet if supermarkets are closed due to this strike (but I don’t think so), I have enough food for dinner. It’s not much, but I’ll survive.

It turned out that he is a Moroccan. When we exchanged few words, I kept using “Ne” (Ναι), which is “yes” in Greek, instead of “Oui”. (Sigh) I must practice my French again.

Basically, we agreed that living in Greece is very difficult mainly because of the language. I told him that I am an Indonesian student and just arrived one month ago. He told me that he came to the cafeteria because the food is free (they don’t even check who you are, I can see a lot of people who I think most definitely not student). We talked for just a brief moment.

What amazes me is that, minutes before I finished my dinner and spoke to the Moroccan in French (and mistakenly used a Greek word), I listened to a learning Spanish podcast (from CoffeeBreakSpanish) taught in English with a heavy Scottish accent. So how’s that for an international environment?

(And I can still remember my IELTS teacher told me that I am too old to learn a new language)

So, looking forward to having your comments

The first group assignment I had was back at Reading and the assignment was about to design a Virtual Organisation which offers network security services, for Network Computing module. I have to tell you that in Reading, our NeBCC class was combined with University of Reading’s own master class (not related to Erasmus Mundus scheme) called MSc Network Centred Computing (NCC). This master programme is also an international class like NeBCC. Moreover, I don’t recall that there were English student at all. I know some Pakistanis and Indians, one Chinese (but have already stayed and studied in England for around 4 years), one Sri Lankan, two French guys, one Spanish, and two Germans. The French and the Spanish (it’s Isart, one of my unit-mate) are on Erasmus scheme (different from Erasmus Mundus). Anyways, our group comprised of five people from these countries:

• Pakistan
• Guatemala
• India (1 guy and 1 girl)
• Indonesia (this is me)

There are three persons from South Asia (India and Pakistan share borders), one from Central America and another one from South East Asia. If we measure the area covered by our countries, then it would be a quite vast area.

The second group assignment was formed here in Thessaloniki, the assignment was to do a little bit research on OWL and Protégé in Ontology Development, for Data Bases and Data Mining module. Our group members were from these countries:

• Vietnam
• Taiwan
• Indonesia

Now, the area of a triangle made by our countries would be a relatively-small one since our countries are all in the region of East/South-East Asia.

The next assignment was still for Data Bases and Data Mining module. This time, we will use Weka or RapidMiner to finish ACM KDD Cup 1999: …learn[ing] a predictive model (i.e. a classifier) capable of distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate connections in a computer network. The result may be use to build a Network Intrusion Detection system. You can have a look at the description of the task. Our previous group decided to stay as one group and later “recruited” another member, resulting in this list of countries of the members:

• Vietnam
• Taiwan
• Indonesia
• Bangladesh

With an addition of a Bangladeshi, the area covered by our countries expands significantly, but still, it is not that wide. Now, we are still struggling to finish the assignment as the deadline is on the 22nd of February. So far, no significant problem, and I hope it will stay that way.

Here is the visualisation of the areas of country origin of assignment groups I am/was in: (The first group is the blue area, the second is the red area, beneath the third, which is the green area. Jakarta, Indonesia is pointed with a purple pin.)

View Larger Map

Up to now, my conclusion is that, most of us still “flock” towards our own “kind,” which promotes smaller area of the “triangle.”

Indo-EM-ers, have you ever measured the area of this kind of triangles? (or quadruples, or quintuple, or any other polygons for that matter) What do you think of it?

If you read this non-exhaustive list of blog posts, you may find that Indonesian bloggers have mixed views about the former president. Some say that he did good at the time of his ruling so now he must be at least respected (e.g: he is not a dictator), or more, pardoned. While others, hope that he would be tried for many still unsolved cases. The posts on this list are mainly in Indonesian, and are in no particular order:

• Adinoto: Pak Harto Dan Kualitas Mental Pemimpin Negeri Ini
• Masim Vavai Sugianto: Polemik Seputar Pak Harto
• Indra Pramana: Pak Harto Tidak Mendapatkan Penghargaan Yang Layak Dia Dapatkan
• Fitrasani: Jadilah Pahlawan
• Arif Widianto: Menunggu Kematian Lord Voldemort
• Boy Avianto: Amnesiac
• Yusril Ihza Mahendra: Ajakan Pak Amien Memaafkan dan Status Hukum Mantan Presiden Soeharto

I personally like Seno’s article, considering the time it was written, it feels that it’s very current and I think it summed up the negative sentiment on Soeharto recently. I also like the opinion of Adinoto, in which he opposed to use the word dictator for Soeharto (suggesting the word to be used to describe George W. Bush, Jr.), and said (mixed with Indonesian) Tanpa jasa seorang Pak Harto we’re nothing than a deep shit… Meanwhile, Boy Avianto reminded Indonesian to forgive, but definitely not to forget.

Soeharto is declared dead earlier today at 1.10 PM Jakarta local time (GMT+7) after being treated for several weeks in Pertamina Hospital, Jakarta. Here is the list news articles (written in obituary style) so far, released by distinguished news centres:

• Antara, Indonesia’s National News Agency: Obituary : Former president Soeharto passes away
• The New York Times: Suharto, Former Indonesian Dictator, Dies at 86
• Yahoo News (from Associated Press): Former Indonesian dictator Suharto dies
• Reuters: Indonesia’s former president Suharto dead

As for me, I don’t really know him, I only see him as the smiling picture on the wall of my primary school classrooms. Farewell Pak Harto. For the rest of us, let this be a reminder that we all will die. (Sounds so gloomy, eh?)

I just want to tell that I’m missing home very much. Back when I was still in Bandung, studying and after that, working, I had the chance to go home at least once in a year, and I often take that opportunities for granted. But now, I’ve only been abroad for just less than four months, I’m missing my home very much.

I’ve mentioned that to keep my sanity, I became a member of Reading Film Theatre (RFT). RFT is a community whose (I think) sole activity is to held movie screenings in The University of Reading about twice or thrice a week, at term time. The Mastercard commercial I showed you, was played several times at the beginning of a movie, along a bunch of other commercials. I went to watch the movies alone since no one I know was interested enough in “wasting” £3.50 for a movie.

I am not ashamed when I say I cried silently when I first saw the ad. I cried silently when I saw the ad the second times. I cried silently everytime I watched that commercial, played in a dark theatre, with no one sitting next to me. I felt that I’m not home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not celebrating Christmas, I’m a Muslim. But the people’s smile, hugs, laughters, joy, showed in the commercial when they finally meet and greet the ones they were waiting for at the airport, the happiness of the people who finally come home, they really hit me. Not to mention the song, Come Home by Findlay Brown (live) (the full video of the song), it’s perfect for the atmosphere.

I think that the home I’m missing is not the actual building, it’s the atmosphere of being with people closest to me, people that I know and love, my family.

So, here is to you, Ibu (Batu, Jawa Timur), Mas (Jakarta), dan Bapak (Cinagara, Jawa Barat): I really really miss you all. Despite that I know that you all are always here with me, I’m still missing you.

Okay, it’s a lame try to attract more visitors. Does it work? Please comment after you have read the whole post The mutilation involved a slaughtered chicken (it’s halal, thank you, imported from France, or is it Denmark?) and I was the mutilator. Or you could say that I tried to be a butcher.

Last Saturday I had a walkabout in the city. Just going to the seaside and enjoying the sun and the not-so-cold breeze while savoring my “brilliant” accomplishment in a certain assignment. Remembering the fact that I was told that there is a butcher near Aristotle Square that sells halal chicken, I went to look for it. After a few misturn here and there, I finally went into a butcher shop knowing that nobody inside talks English. So, I just ask for a “Dani kotopulo” (dani for Danish? and kotopulo is chicken in Greek and written as κοτοπουλο). The butcher showed me a packed-frozen-whole chicken. Frantically, I searched a halal label, because the butcher insisted me (using Greek language of course) to buy that chicken, he was ready to pack it. I found the halal label and paid €3.25 for the whole chicken. I went home happy since I feel that I was going to eat chicken after a week with veggies and canned fishes.

And then it strucked me. I don’t know ANYthing on cutting a whole chicken. NOTHING. So, I just left the chicken in the freezer for the night.

Today, I had the guts to do some butchery. It’s also because I don’t have anything else to eat. So, I took the chicken out of the freezer and open the plastic package. To defrost it, I just put it in a pan full of water and leave it for an hour or so. After it’s thawed, I took the only knife I have, a small knife (a steak knife), and started to work my way through.

I only look for the identifiable, edible parts of the chicken, namely: the wings, the tighs (lower and upper), and the breasts. I was reluctant to find anything more inside the chicken, fearing that I am going to find something nasty. With such small knife, I really had a hard time, first to identify those edible parts, and then to separate them with the main body. But after an hour or so, I finally did it, I brutally mutilated the chicken and collected those edible parts. Can you name the parts of the chicken in the picture?

One last thing, I am still keeping the chicken’s body, if anyone could suggest anything to do with it. Hey, I paid for it and the main body still weighs more than the other parts combined. Please, suggest something through the comment form below.

The assignment was to build a network-connect four game with Java. What? That’s not so hard isn’t it? It is not supposed to be too hard. But try to do it with such pressure in just a few days. In a new, unfamiliar, environment. Without previous experience of network programming (OK, had one back then in my second or third year of university, that’s four or five years ago, after that: nothing, zip, nada). Of course, my work is far from perfect, but I am at least relieved, because yesterday I still haven’t done the networking part (with all of the sockets and threads). I swear by the downloadable Java tutorial and Java documentations in Windows Help format (Java API in CHM file) and Parallels Desktop (why there’s still no CHM reader for Mac OS X that can open 50MB-or-so-file easily?)

Hi, my name is Raiza.
And I am a deadliner, still.
And definitely a novice programmer, darn it.

(Check out the picture, the deadline was at 10 PM GMT [since the assignment was given in Reading], which is an assumption because the teacher only told us that the deadline is at 10 PM, and I submitted my work at around 11 PM local Greek time)

Thank you for everyone who have given me support, you know who you are. I still remember my brother’s words, “Don’t give up.” And according to Bayu, when the deadline is approaching, everything becomes “much clearer.”

I am writing this from a lavish Internet cafe (very comfortable chair!) down at Egnatia street since I can’t get access to the Internet from my studio. After spending two nights here, first few impressions of this city are: vandalism, big (wild?) dogs, and small studio. More details and other first impressions after the jump.

Vandalism. You can find walls with spray paint all over it everywhere. Even church’s and university’s walls are not safe from naughty hands with spray paint. Please don’t imagine beautiful graffiti with unique images, not even creative type font like “Boedoet”. Here, what you can find are similar to “Pribumi” letters in front of houses and stores back when Indonesia was in chaos. I heard that last year, for the whole term (that’s a semester to you Indonesian students), university is closed because the students’ union had a strike protesting something (I couldn’t remember what). Probably these paints are related to that? I went pass through the university building and I found a building which the main wall (facing the main street) has spray paint all over it.

Tattoos, lingeries and DVD. There are a lot of shops that offer tattoos and small stores that offer lingeries, all of which are within walking distance from where I live. I am not a pervert that stares at mannequins wearing transparent undergarment. But after a walk to the town centre and went past through at least five of them, I became just a little bit distracted. DVD rentals also seem to be everywhere. I think that young adult Thessalonikians (I just made up that word) love to have tattoos on their body, interested in sexy lingeries, and often watch Star Wars marathon?

Big (wild?) dogs. There are dogs with no tags wandering around the pedestrian walk. They are big dogs, whose height is almost half of my own height. I have to admit that they are a bit scary.

Small studio. A studio is a room in which a bathroom (toilet and shower facilities) and a kitchen are practically in the same room as the bedroom. My studio has a 90cm x 200cm bathroom, in which to reach the shower part you have to literally jump over the toilet seat. The kitchen is in a cupboard. That’s right, imagine a cupboard where you can open the door and inside you find an electric stove and a wash basin. My studio is on the 4th floor (Greek as English count the ground floor as 0th floor), and I have a balcony that faces the back of the building. Birds’ excrements are all over a corner of my balcony With my laptop, I can detect there are secured wireless Internet signals, so I hope it’s possible to get Internet access from my room. I should discuss this with the University personnel (it’s actually a private accommodation, but arranged by the University). But overall it’s an OK studio.

Not so friendly weather. I imagine that when I’m going to southern Europe (check the map below), I can get a friendlier weather than that of England. But it turns out that here, it’s a bit colder and it sprinkles most of the time. Well, it’s winter, hopefully it will get better with time.

Okay, that’s about it. I still have to struggle with my Java assignment as I am still way behind. The deadline is at the end of next week! Wish me luck.

One more thing, this Arch of Galerius is actually close to where I live. This great picture is not mine, and is courtesy of robwallace. Also check out the mark on the map below.

View Larger Map

Moving is usually something that I am reluctant to do, but for this programme I should move often and quickly. I will certainly miss Q Unit people (the ones that are not in my class, and they include you too, Katiuscia), KampoengReading, and Reading itself. Hopefully I will return.

On a sidenote, I broke my glasses while sleeping in Gatwick Airport. I brought spare glasses but I think I should find the replacement in Greece, soon.

That’s it for now, I am signing off, see you in GMT+2 time zone.

Update: Some of pictures are now available, if you want more, please comment

• Bus ticket to Reading Station from Whiteknights bus stop: £1.50
• 5 days return ticket Reading-London-Reading (with Young Person Railcard): £13.80
• 2 1-day travelcards (off peak, with Young Person Railcard): £9.60
• 1 night for 4 bed en-suite room (2 bunk beds) at Piccadilly Backpacker Hostel: £28
• London souvenirs (I shouldn’t tell this, but…): £5.98 in total
• Admission ticket for London Walks: Jack The Ripper Haunts (student price): £5
• Bus ticket to Sports Park, The University of Reading from Reading Station: £1.50

• Had a walkabout without any particular destination in London, but here are the places I went to: Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, China Town(? the road signs even have chinese writings on them), London Tower, Tower Bridge (I overheard a lot of French people, and the zebra cross signs have french version). I walked for about 14 hours. I still can feel my sore feet. And like Green Day, I Walked Alone
• Took a lot of pictures (about 400 500 300 of them).
• Took narcissistic pictures at Tower Bridge.
• Learned all the history of Jack The Ripper: the places, the story, the prostitutes who became the victims, the suspects and the theories (someone from the Royal family? an American doctor? a painter? a butcher?), and lastly the pub (no, I didn’t go in there). I learned all this while walking in the city of London. Most memorable place: a dark narrow alley (only half meter wide), smelly (urine smell), with light rain and noises made by drunks or new year party goers, the walk guide telling the story about Jack The Ripper like there’s no tomorrow, and all of us listened intently.
• Joined thousands and thousands of people (tall people, that is) trying to see the fireworks display at London Eye, the so-called the best fireworks on the planet.
• Was hazed by drunks (my cap was nicked off of my head) while on the way to see the fireworks.
• Could only see a glimpse of the fireworks display, due to light rain causing heavy smoke during the show.
• Watched a lot and I mean a lot of people, couples, friends, families, kissing each other. Yup, lips kissing for the couples. And no, I was not involved in any of that.
• Was offered a glass of champagne after midnight by a couple, “because you are alone”, they said. But of course, I refused politely.
• Had my picture taken by two lovely ladies, shaky picture with London eye as the background, and I was screaming “Happy New Year!”.
• Being literally dragged and squeezed along the “stream of thousands of people” going the wrong way, while I was trying to go back to the hostel.
• Spending the night in the hostel room with a Macedonian who snores loudly while he was sleeping.
• During this trip, all I eat was: two apples, four self made toasts (two with microwaved cheese and chicken burgers, the other two with Cadbury’s chocolate spread), and a handful of choco-chips. I also brought two bottles of water with me.

Well, all of them, for me: priceless.

Happy New Year 2008! (pictures will be available soon)

• I went for a trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury’s Cathedral.
• I also joined another trip to London: I visited National Gallery, passed Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, The Parliament Building, River Thames, London Eye, and lastly visited Natural History Museum.
• Those trips are arranged by International Focus.
• I watched a half-hour fireworks display to commemorate Guy Fawkes night. (remember the film V for Vendetta?) To reach the place, I had to walk for about an hour and made more than several wrong turns.
• To keep my sanity, I registered as a member of Reading Film Theatre. They show award-winning films on Palmer Building’s Theatre Room (one of buildings in which I had my classes.) With these membership, I got a reduced ticket price and I watched:
  1. Half Nelson (Young Hercules no more! for Ryan Gosling)
  2. The Night of The Sunflowers (very good Spanish movie!)
  3. Conversations with Other Women (split screen like you’ve never seen before)
  4. La Vie en Rose
  5. Water
• I got my Greek visa (yay!). In the process, I visited Indonesian Embassy and had a little walk around London.
• I had a very high fever, a sore throat, I am still coughing every now and then.
• I cook! (and I took some pictures of the food I cooked) Also, I cooked Soto Ayam for a not so fancy dinner for most of my unit-mates (who live in the same unit/corridor as me, we share the kitchen and the bathroom).
• My unit-mates (long live Q Unit Childs Hall Autumn 2007!) are:
  • PH (England)
  • EW(England)
  • SC (England)
  • ICG (Spain)
  • FS (Italy)
  • PS (Czech Republic)
  • MDM (Argentina)
  • AJMG (Honduras)
  • ARB (Pakistan)
  • Lastly, there are D and D (both from England), but I didn’t know them that well.
  • Quite an international unit eh?
• I miss my family like crazy. Luckily, my mother learned to use Yahoo! Messenger and also Skype! My brother even bought her a web camera so that I can take a look at the new arrangement of my house.
• Thanks to Pak Lexy and his wife, Mbak Lea, I visited Cambridge and Windsor Castle, and also met other Indonesians living in Reading and surrounding area. Whenever you visit Reading please keep in mind that there’s an Indonesian community called KampoengReading.
• I miss her everyday.
• Oh yea, I also studied and had (well, actually still have) a lot of assignments.

What a recap eh? Probably this recap is incomplete, but I hope it gives you the picture of what I have done in UK in these three months. Do post comment and request which event you would like me to tell you in more detail.

Now? I feel lonely, most of my unit-mates have left for their Christmas (and New Year) holiday. There are