Tuesday, December 29, 2009

RAIN, love it or hate it?


My geography teacher told me that Indonesia has two seasons, dry and rainy. And now it's rainy season in the country. In Bandung lately, ample of rains fall everyday mainly from midday until early night. Some of us might feel uncomfortable with the wet road or puddle of water everywhere. We always think that it thwarts us to work, study, shop just go somewhere. In other words, we sometimes blame the day why it should be rainy when ahead we have bunch of activities to do. Do we blame God who makes rain for us? Ah...I hope you won't think so even though admitting it is quite right as we often think so, don't we? Well, it is just my presumption anyways, may Allah forgive me :).

Rains aren't just drops of water which fall from the high sky. What we see maybe just that's all, but the process isn't that simple anyways, yet, it is really complicated and sophisticated enough for us to figure all out. I'm going to describe a little here. First, water either from the surface of land (such as ponds, lakes etc) or ocean is evaporated by the sunlight. The evaporated water then flies to higher level and lower temperature, it is higher than the mountain and it often reach the atmosphere of the earth. Water blown by wind then form cloud in the sky – it is being condensed to to be crystals. Since the number of water is getting bigger and its position is also higher, while at the same time the power of wind is getting weaker, so the water then falls to the earth. It then waters ponds, lake, ocean, roof and everything and we know it as rain. Complicated isn't it? Well, even so however, we seldom think that the process is that meticulously calculated. We pretty much think like a kid who knows only the skin of everything, I mean we are rarely think that deep, again, it's my un-based prejudice anyways ^_^. In Al Qur'an surah Annur : 43 and Ar Rum: 48 we can see the explanation about the rain and its process clearly. It is therefore there's no point for not to thank God for the rain He gives, praises to Allah.

When I was a kid, I used to play in the rain as I thought that was damn cool and exciting, I relished that. I usually just ran and sang song or even swam on the pool (it's more apt to be called pond) after I played football with friends of mine. Yes I loved playing football then, it's just after junior high I quited playing it for some reasons which I can't tell you here, not a big deal anyway. Well, my memory about rain is also about Indian movie. On TV I often saw beautiful actress sang and danced with the guy in the rain, it was somehow romantic I would say. I used to loved watching Bollywood movies too, it was because no other programs to watch then ha ha...^_^.

As I lived in the area of mountain ranges, landslide often happened during rainy season. It often blocked people who were going to someplace. Thanks God as it was eventually often solved by people who cared about helping others, government officers also often took part in dealing with this issue by deploying and utilizing heavy equipments on the spot. Regardless to its bad impact, rain in fact always gives us tons of benefits. It grows plantation, waters the rice field, generates turbine, keeps the temperature and humidity and does many things. We can never count Allah's bless from the rain, again, praises to Allah.
Okay, you may say that human can also make rain, we know it as artificial rain. It's being conducted when human want to water the dried land. We make artificial rain by doing some sort of things as we can no longer survive from the drought. In Islam we know the prayer to ask for rain (istisqa). It basically means that we have to ask God when we wish for something, this ritual shows our effort and seriousness of wanting the rain. Human also sometimes do ritual to “block” rain from coming as they have important event such as football match, wedding party etc. I have no idea about this as I never heard it in Islam, I can say that it is just human effort to control rain, not to make it. Frankly I'm not really agree with this as we might ignite Allah's curse by doing so, what do you think? Wallahualam. Still, we can never make any certain whether or not the rain will happen, only God knows.

Last words, let's keep thanking God for anything. It is Allah's right to give or give not us rain. Be sure that the rain happens is in Allah's best decision for all of us. What we need to do is that preparing anything to cope it – bringing umbrella anywhere we go is might better to do. If you are a motorbike driver, please bring rain coat and boat with you as they will be very useful in this rainy season.

Many thanks for reading :)

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Monday, December 28, 2009

Simple yet admirable man near me!

He is neither a president nor a movie star, he is a simple and ordinary man like us - like you, me and all. He is just a man who more or less my contemporary, yes he was born on December 12, 1987 in someplace that I surely don't know. His name is Suhud, his complete name is Ustadz Suhud Al-Hafidz. He is one of Imams at Daarut Tauhiid mosque Bandung. Even though he is still around 23 years old, he can memorize all verses and surah in the Quran. That is why his name added with Al-Hafidz in the end of it. Hafidz refers to his ability in memorizing or remembering the entire surah of Al Quran. That thing totally wows me as I obviously know that he is at my age – we both 23. I pretty much compare myself to him and the answer is always the same, incomparable!

Ustadz Suhud has been able to memorize Al Quran since he was 12 years old. 12 years old ladies and gentlemen, if you ask me what did I do then, I'm ashamed to admit that I just played and played in that age, what about you? Hopefully better than me. Memorizing all verses or contents in the Quran isn't easy, only small percentage of people on this planet can do that. Al Quran consists of 114 surah and around 6.600 verses. It seems definitely impossible for me to know all of those, I'll keep trying and praying though. May my next generation can do that, amiin.

I have known Ustadz Suhud since approximately a year ago. I knew him as for many days in a row he became the Imam (leader prayer) at Daarut Tuahiid mosque. He recites all verses so clearly and firmly that everyone will easily recognize his voice. It is on December 26 at around 6.00 p.m. I coincidentally passed him by when I was about to go to the mosque, so was him. Both of us met in front of Mandiri ATM around Super Mini Market Daarut Tauhiid and I encouraged myself to accost him. Here's the hasty talk between me and ustadz Suhud:

me : Assalamualaikum Ustadz, has magrib prayer been commenced?
Ustadz Suhud : Waalaikum salam, h...I don't think so, it hasn't acually.
me : oh ok, well, ustadz I've bought the muratal CD of yours, I very much like that. It's so nice.
Ustadz Suhud : Alhamdulullah..., may through that CD Allah will grant us his mercy to all of us.
me : Amiin, thank you ustadz.

And we then separately went in to the mosque to perform magrib prayer.
I then realized that why ustadz Suhud said the prayer hadn't started yet as he would definitely become the imam. Yes, he did lead us all then. You know, the prayer won't start before Imam arrives at the mosque, or precisely the Imam won't come late as he will be the leader for us.

I was firstly impressed by his recitation of Al Quran when I heard his voice during isya prayer. I then decided to buy his VCD as apparently there was a record company offered ustadz Suhud to make CD of 30th juz of the Quran. I bought the CD from SMM Daaru Tauhiid for IDR 20,000, or in US dollar it's just about 2,3 bucks. It is way too cheap readers, just buy it and please don't copy from friends of yours or whosoever. You might used pirate Windows, ms Office or MP3 songs. But for this one please buy the original one, don't copy. Buying the original one means you help Ustadz Suhud, help Islam, help the record company and it's exactly a noble thing to do. You may either buy it at the store (such as SMM Daarut Tauhiid) or buy it on-line. Here's the link where you can buy the CD on-line:
http://kiosbarokah.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=298&zenid=33b903bed53ae06d998e3984b225f2f4 or http://www.kiosislami.com/

I do confess that Imam Suhud isn't as popular as Imam of Al Harram or Nabawi mosque. But he indeed can memorize 30 juz of Al Quran and he lives around me. That is why I think he is a great man - a humble and great man who has such awesome achievement that I can hardly attain, memorizing 30 juz Al Quran. I'm hoping I can chase him up someday, it's nearly impossible though. Even so however, let's keep practicing, praying and asking Allah may He grant us much more knowledge and willingness to memorize Al Quran, insya Allah He will make it up for us, amiin ,amiin, amiin.
Thank you for reading ^_^!

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

母の日 (mother's day)


Mother's Day! I don't really know what to do to commemorate it. What I know from friends of mine and my searching on internet is that on December 22 many Indonesians greet their mom and treat her extraordinarily, wow, so nice to do, right? I am sure that every country on earth also has this commemoration because everyone will agree that mom is such an exceptional creature that God has created for all of us.

Treating mom specially on a particular day is a very good thing to do, yet, it'll be better to take care of her equally special every day. It's actually our must as her children to always treat and respect mom whenever it is, it means we should not just treat her well on this mom's day, am I correct?
By this piece of writing I don't mean to teach or tutor anyone about the importance of loving mom since I am not a good son for my mom yet. I am still trying to be more sensitive and caring her much more as I used to be like a winter's day which always turned a cold shoulder to her. I want to make it up though, I promise.

A unique treatment for mom on Mother's day that I've ever heard is that to wash her feet. Yes there is a TV station in Indonesia which pretty much holds this event. This event opens to everyone and I think it's noble thing to do, I like this program so much. It'll at least remind us about how great our mom's merit to all of us is. On this day, many children come to the event and wash the feet of her/his mom before many people and other children who do the same.

What I did to thank mom or commemorate this day is that just sending mom a text, yeah very simple. I just said “Mom, happy mother's day. Thank you” that's it. I didn't thank her a bit bigger or even call her, just an SMS ladies and gentlemen, ah definitely not a good son. Even so however, I sure my mom still love me, I am sure she even didn't expect anything from me. I know my mom's merit is pure, hope for nothing but Allah's rewards. That is what our mom hopes to all of us too guys. Hence, let's love our mom more. Tons of gratitude should be said and remarked to Allah as He gave us a super mom to always care all of us. Happy mother's day, I love you mom!
Thank you :)

Monday, December 21, 2009

Put your mask down!


A thing that always haunts me when I hear Aa Gym's speech lately is that the importance of being a simple and honest person, it means not to be a liar either to ourselves or to everyone. Yes it does look easy and trivial to be told, yet, it's extremely hard to be implemented. It's really human to want to be someone whom always being paid attention by others – center of attention I would say. Therefore many of us do sort of things to just tell others that we are precious and deserved enough to be respected or praised. I think I am kind of person of what Aa says as hypocrite since I pretty much lie myself and other people too. I do confess it as I think yes definitely I am, I am still trying to diminish that though, insya Allah may Allah show me and you the right path and guide us all in this short and fade life.

Well, we exactly feel happy if we look good and can impress many people. It is therefore we always make ourselves up before other people to look like we are perfect and excellent creature. We do all things to let everyone know about our intelligence, appearance, wealth, position, relations and others. Using expensive gadgets, finest cloth, exclusive watches are the examples of what is so-called pretender, hypocrite or liar for most of us. If we still can use our old phone, why then should we buy new iPhone or Blackberry by installment, using credit card or such? Do we really need this stuff to connect with others? Or it's mere our emotion says so and we just feel so great when we are using that, if it is so, it means we are the victim of technology and smart marketers who indeed really genius in making us to feel proud of consuming their products, I know it as I learned marketing at college :). We also sometimes borrow our friend's watch, cloth or car when we are going to visit wedding just to impress people that we are affluent and able to buy those. Again, we lie ourselves and others by doing so, in fact, we can just go somewhere else by just driving public transportation car and we shouldn't have to use luxurious stuff belongs to others in this case. That's lying ladies and gentlemen!

What I mean by not to be liar here is that we have got to be what we are now, not more or less. We have everything to be equaled with others, therefore there is no reason for us to feel that we are inferior. We've got no reason either to feel that we deserve to get praise or something as basically all things we have are belonged to God and they are all just being entrusted by Allah for temporary. When we look this way, we will realize that we should not have to go boasting by having all those things, yet keep in mind that we should not have to feel inferior either by giving gratitude to God and using our properties wisely.

I know it is so hard to be “straight-forward person”, it means to be a person who doesn't lie herself or himself and others. But when we are successful in being this type of person, we will feel better in this life. This life is just for a moment and we will have eternal life in the hereafter. Therefore we'd better to just live our live in simple way but be gratitude to God for granting this beautiful life. Being simple person doesn't mean that we can't use our money to buy expensive things or spent our time. As Moslem we have to remember that all things should be taken into account in front of Allah someday, every single thing we had in this world. Being simple means we can't be extravagant or wasteful person as we have all things. We should realize that in everything we have, there's portion for those who don't have, those who are poor also have right to get and feel our happiness, wealth and so on.
Come on, our lives are not like Halloween day that always wear mask, put it down now and live our live unpretentiously. It's time to be simple, humble, and plain person, insya Allah I'm struggling this too.
Thank you for reading. Comments are welcome :)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mom & Dad's victory


December 16, 2009 is the last day for me to be a Management student at UPI. Now I'm legally holding the degree of economics (Sarjana Ekonomi/SE). It's hard to believe as I think it was yesterday I sang the anthem of UPI. Yes, every single new student has to sing this anthem when she or he is accepted as freshman at this university. Ah...God pretty much gives me (and I think everybody) a surprise. Time flies so fast that every moment passes like a blown dust.

Way to go for Mom and Dad!
Yes, they have successfully made me become the person with Bachelor degree in economics. Today is my graduation day and I'm totally happy of being the person what I am today. I used to think that grad day means nothing but euphoria. Maybe I was definitely wrong as it actually means a milestone and starting point to to be grateful more and more. It's a starting point to thank God more, to thank parents much more than ever before. I thank God for granting me such a super-carer mom and such a hard-worker dad. I could never pay all merits they have done, thank you Allah, thank your for my parents. Grad day means a lot for my parents as they could see their son wear toga and gather with others in a huge dome place. It tugged my heart. I didn't know that they strongly wanna see me that way, I was totally a fool and stubborn son for knowing not that. Indeed mom and dad, your sacrifices will be paid by Allah.

Nothing but be grateful for everything I have got, for everything I have done within this 4-year education. Thanks for the incredible friends at Management and My English Club Daarut Tauhiid. I can't thank you enough guys. I love you all.

This is might not a good and thought-provoking writing, it fulls of emotion and contains not knowledge. It's mere expression of mine on this exceptional day – my graduation day.
I thank you Allah, I love mom and dad, this day and on are Yours, this guy is Yours too my Lord.

Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Note on Eid Al Adha's day (1430H)


Today is Thursday, November 26, 2009. I am visiting my parents here in Cisewu, a small town located in southern Bandung. It's about 90 km from Bandung and around 105 km from Garut. You may reach this place either through Garut or Pangalengan. Garut is actually our regency, yet most people here prefer to come to Bandung to fulfill all their needs. I do also come to Bandung to study at one of the finest universities there.

Since tomorrow is one of the greatest days for us – Muslims, therefore I am coming back home to celebrate it with my family. Yes, tomorrow is the day of the festival of sacrifice or more popular as “Hari raya Qurban” among Indonesians. This year is quite special for me since one of my family members, my little sister, is going to make sacrifice by slaughtering a goat. She asked my parents to make a sacrifice, as the proof of her earnestness she even donated her saving money from school to buy a 1.1-million sheep. I'm proud of having a smart fifth-grader sister like her.

Well, I don't make a sacrifice this year since last year I did it. In 2008, the price of goat I bought was nine hundred thousand rupiahs, 200 thousands rupiahs much cheaper than it is now which my sister buys. This raising price does make sense to us as the price of all goods including livestock also is increasing as the cause of inflation and scarcity of goat in my town.
Making sacrifice in hard time like these days is sort of a must for those who have. I don't say that parents or family of mine are affluent, but we’ll try to make it yearly, insya Allah. I think it's not a hard thing to buy a sheep for qurban if we have strong passion to make it. There's nothing to do with having money or not. To me, the first most important thing is the intention, just make it beforehand guys. Please do verbalize it long long before you make a sacrifice. Then the second point is then probably about so-called foldable stuff. We can save it if we are really eager to do it. Trust me; it isn't that hard to allocate money for Qurban. You just need to save 3 thousand rupiahs per day and in a year you'll gain more than 1 million and that suffices you to buy a goat.

Sadly to say, people who make Qurban this year seems decreasing in my city, there are fewer people who make it than last year. It happens in almost all part in this regency. It is probably because the difficulties we’ve got as earth quake struck us lately. It makes me sad if that is really the cause for not making qurban. But surprisingly, there’s miracle happened, there’s a company donated some money to make qurban. Yes, we do thank that company for donating a cow to be slaughtered.

The essence of qurban isn’t about how many qurban you make or how big the animal is, though some of us might argue that the bigger animal the better it is. In viewpoint of mine, it comes back to the intention. When we have right intention to have it, then just make it. Don’t wait till you find the best or big animal to be slayed. On this Eid Al Adha day, there were totally 3 cows and around 8 sheep slaughtered at my big mosque. We trusted the committee of the mosque to manage them all. I do confess that there are some inadequacies in managing the animals. First, members of the committee still have inabilities to distribute the flash to the right people who really need it. The second is that they can’t maximize to acquire as many animals as it can. I mean, the committee just waited people to make their sacrifice. They didn’t make any announcement through easy-accessed-media such as brochure, leaflet, bulletin or radio. Maybe I go far comparing the committee to the committees in Bandung such as Rumah Zakat or Daarut Tauhiid ^_^.

After being distributed, the flash or meat is usually processed by people at their house with all family members. I do like making it to be sate – small pieces of meat roasted on skewer. It tastes even more delicious if we eat it with soy sauce and boiled rice (nasi liwet), hm…yummy and luscious. This mouthwatering-dish on Eid Al Adha day seems to be a must-eat meal to make the celebration merrier. You might have your very own dishes, share with me then ^_^.

What matters me on the day of Eid Al Adha is that the view I saw on telly. It didn’t really a problem nearby my hometown though. I saw marching-people who really wanted to get the flash of meat until sacrificing their lives in rushing to get qurban’s meat. It happened in big cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya and others. Thanks God since we never experienced that here in the town of mine. It is because the number of so-called underprivileged people not that big than it is in big cities. To deal with this peculiar issue, we need to learn from the past experiences and try to refine the methods of distributing the flash. I’m very much sure that if the committee of qurban and government work hard to fine solution, the case will be solved then. Using coupon is might a better choice for distributing the meat.
Well, there are always plus and minus in everything around us. I do know that Eid Al Adha does have them too. It’s all our duty to make the celebration better. May we can contribute to improve our Eid in the future. Thank you

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The death

Dear all,
I don’t mean to wow anyone by putting the topic above. But this is very true that we all will die and it means, we’ll be no more here, in the place where we love the most – the world. Yeah, we live just once and many people just say “roll the dice and enjoy your life”. Well, for some reasons this statement can be true. But, have we ever thought that after the life we live now, there will be an eternal life and that won’t end, guaranteed. Enjoying life means not spending and wasting our time buy doing such extravagant things, that’s what I’ve got on mind of mine, period!

Death is something that most people afraid of, so am I. No one knows for sure when she or he will die. No one wants to die, Steve Jobs has ever said, “The one who wishes to enter heaven doesn’t want to die to go there”. God has made death a mystery that can never be cracked by even super intelligent people or advanced technologies. Death is an incurable disease and unsolvable puzzle for every human and maybe for angel, Satan, jinn and everything. But for sure only Allah knows it.

A thing that shocked me when I was a child is that the term of NDE (Near Death Experience), in Indonesian it means “Mati suri”. According to Wikipedia, a near-death experience (NDE), refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light, which some people interpret as a deity. What I knew about NDE then was, someone who experienced the death then he or she revives or gets up to the earth, wow…such an astonishing thing. That really confiscated my attention since all kid is usually interested in thing seemed unreasonable or odd. Experts or researchers who pay attention to NDE or death itself are plenty. They pretty much do research to unveil the secret behind it. My religion teacher once told me that many of them even spend up to millions of dollars just to see the spirit goes from the body by devising expending stuff in the research.

The movie which shows us about the death is also excessive. Since I’m not a movie-aholic, I just give Final destination as the example. I have ever watched this movie and I think I don’t want to watch the next ones ^_^.
As Moslems, we are highly suggested to be remembering the death on every single day we have. We’ll always be in the right path since we’ll remember that we are here just for awhile. Life in this world is just a moment therefore we’ve gotta use our time wisely. I want myself to implement this too, but I haven’t been able to do so, at least I’ll try.

By remembering that today is the last day we have might make us more careful in living our life. We’ll be more wary when we’re about to make mistake or make sin to anyone. Besides, we’ll be more motivated to do the best and give the extraordinary one in every single effort we do. This is what I hope and everyone does too, right? Well, let’s keep making good deeds and improving our piety to God since we don’t know when will die, but remember, we will be getting old and we will disappear from this world - WE WILL DIE!
Thank you ladies and gentlemen,
Gie

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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Writing tips from novice!

I used to hate writing something about my feeling since I thought it was not really a man to share my feeling I have on my mind to other people. But lately I realized that it is a good way to improve skill of mine especially in the field of writing. In simply, writing means materializing ideas on mind onto piece of paper or by typing those in computer. The later is now more popular among us as almost everyone has computer, isn’t it?


For many people, sharing ideas by writing those in English can be so hard that they usually just prefer speak to write those out. To me, writing is like easier said than done, even until this moment. Sometimes I feel that my knowledge on how to make a good writing is not sufficient yet. This is what haunting everybody too, I guess. So, many of them just do nothing but condemning circumstances where they are – without any start to type. It is the worst ladies and gentlemen, nothing can suffice your mind’s needs nevertheless you just start writing.

Speaking words is not easy to do either as we have got to make impression that we are capable enough in conveying the message we are going to say. In some cases, it will be better for us if we just write those instead of to speak those out loudly. For example, we’d better ask our lecture about materials we don’t understand through an email instead of to ask him or her directly by phone. If calling is your opinion, I think you should also consider her or his availability since most of them are might busy people taking care of many privacy and college businesses. I do always feel anxious when I am about to call my lecture if I have question. But for me, writing an email often worked out. I pretty much managed by doing that.

To write good article or opinion, you should first start making good intention. And of course a good understanding of English should be put into account, yet, if you don’t think you are not capable enough to write yet, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. As a saying says, ”Don’t be afraid of making mistakes while you are studying any subject since there’s nothing can be learned from being perfect”. In other words, just type your ideas as soon as those appear on your mind. You can type those either in your computer or write those on notebook of yours.

The second point you need to pay attention is developing your writing. Try to find as many sources as possible in supporting the fact for your writing; Wikipedia and Google are the best friends which will help you earnestly in giving anything you are looking for. But be little bit picky in citing or taking any sources, you must at least compare an idea with another from different source. It’ll help you in case someone asks for more than source and that is better for sure.

Third point is letting your imagination fly into the space. Let it go like river flows; don’t make any boundaries as they will just make your idea crippling and stunted. The wilder you think, the better it’ll be. There’s nothing to do with any boundaries since your first aim is basically to produce writing.

Penultimate point, ask or consult someone who knows more about the topic you wrote. Ask him or her to correct if there is mistake or something that’s been changed or updated. Make sure you listen up and write what he or she says. It will be very helpful for you in producing the upcoming writing.

Last but not least, make a blog. Yes, please make a blog of yours as the media for you to express anything you have on your mind or to do anything you wish. There are many blogs you can use such as blogspot (www.blogspot.com) I use here, or wordpress (www.wordpress.com) is also a good site for you. Or maybe any site that provides free blog. By writing on blog, you can brush up your writing skill and sharpen your knowledge in topic you are interested. It’s easy and free to make a blog, but you need to update it regularly – once a week or once a month. It is better if you can update it every day, unluckily I can’t.

Well, what I wrote above just some sort of tips for those who have not started making any writing or anyone who wishes to improve his or her writing skill. It is also aimed to me myself so that I can produce better writing. My writing isn’t good either but I’ll try to learn make it better. That is what learning is all about – never ending improvement! Thanks for reading.


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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

MOON

Hi all, do you see any special thing with the word I wrote above? Or...maybe you think it is just a piece word composed by four letters - M, double O and N? Well, whatsoever you may say, one thing for sure, now at this moment I’m eager to share with you and the world's citizen about a piece of this word. A moment ago an inspiration just flashed on my mind and I thought it would be great if I materialize it in what is so called writing, on a blog though.

Tonight at 8.20 p.m. (Nov 2, 2009) is nothing but extraordinary for me. I start typing and gazing the moon miles away there from my dorm, as you know I live in the city of Bandung where the sky is much brighter than in Jakarta (our capital). Gazing the night sky has apparently become my just-unveiled-hobby since my partaking of astronomy course at the University of Arizona in 2008. It is definitely true that I am writing this article under the glow of the moon, what an awesome night. Ups…a plane has just passed right under the moon, it even makes tonight more stunning, subhanallah. Well, let me talk first about the moon’s appearance I am staring tonight. From dorm of mine I see it yellowish. It is because my sight is sort of hindered by cloud or fog. It looks beautiful though as God has created it in the perfect shape and of course with its meticulous calculation beyond our thinking. We can never gauge God's perfect creation, period!

As it has been fully known that the moon is the one and only satellite that our earth has. Earth is different from any other planets in our solar system as it only has one satellite. Mars for example has 2 satellites and Jupiter has even 16 which pretty much orbit and revolve around them. Io, Europa, and Callisto are three most familiar Jupiter's satellites I know. Moon in this case also does the same. It never goes away so that the earth will be always “followed” by moon. Moon is much smaller that the earth and what I’ve known that it was formed from the earth long time ago. It is proven by similar material found on the earth's surface and the moon's. Yeah, professor Don who taught us astronomy explained us that there is theory which says so, unfortunately I forgot that.

Someday I've ever thought what will happen if our earth doesn't have moon. Can anyone answer it? What I know is that the moon has many functions and benefits for us – the earth citizen. For one, moon causes tide at seashore. Korean people have been using wave for generating electricity and it helps so much to be less dependent on fossil fuels which are scarce today. Although not all countries uses it, I think Korean people do a very good job and we need to take lesson from them. Secondly, many farmers in many countries use moon's appearance to calculate and determine their harvest or planting time. It's been prevailed even since long time ago. Thirdly, our Islamic calendar uses moon as its calculation system. Our calendar system is very much based on the moon's appearance. It is used to date special occasion such as Eid al Fitr, Ramadan, Islamic new year etc. Therefore it is a great bless from Allah that our Earth has moon. Moon is not an accessory like what we have in our room, it is not just such-a-sheep person who always follows someone for no reason. Instead, it is a thing that benefits a thing it is following. We can learn from the moon, can't we?

Well, in this dimly moonlight, I concur that this moment is such an awesome time to contemplate and reflect anything in my life either my past or my future. The moon I am seeing now shows me the might of God who thoroughly creates and takes care of the entire universe. Every single of us does have problems or hurdles in this life, but we can't just give up. We have God and He will always show us the way if we ask Him for help. Let's ask for God's help by reading, contemplating and understanding this universe.
Only God knows, Allah is great..., thank You Allah for such a superb and wonderful moon :)

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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Volunteering

 


Doing sort of fun activity is always wanted by everyone, do you? I love that. Well, here’s the picture when I did kind of volunteering activity at COMMUNITY FOOD BANK Tucson. Of course I had fun time there, though at the end I was little tired. Here’s the piece of story:

One day at around 8 a.m. in the morning I and 13 friends of mine headed the place (foodbank) and we served there as volunteers for about 5 hours. As that day was in Ramadan, it felt quite hard for me to work with insufficient carbohydrate and fresh water in my body. This activity was compulsory for all of us (grantees of IELSP) as it was the part of our scholarship program. We were provided van to go there but no food. There were tons of food at Food bank but we couldn’t eat any. You know what? Certainly the food wasn’t for all of us, but for all community members who live in the city in case the emergency thing happens. Yep, that place is belonged to the government of USA (Arizona State) to provide food for people.

In case calamity happens in the city and the people get lost of everything, they still can access food and drink as Food bank will provide them. The catastrophe includes flood, earthquake, fire, pandemic disease etc. By collecting and storing food at food bank, the government can easily distribute to the victims as all is well-managed.

I think that serving for community is sort of fun and challenging for most people in the USA, so it makes sense if Food bank is always open for anyone who intends to serve as a volunteer. The volunteer will not get any payment for his/her work as it is counted as volunteering. I did love my activity there as it meant so much for me - I could help and give something for Tucsonians. I knew that opening and lifting boxes, arranging cans, sorting the food and doing anything were quite tiresome, yet, what I done then was exceptionally awesome. That was my first time serving for community overseas. Everyone was happy to help, so was I.

There are several requirements for you who want to serve at food bank. First, you have to be in a fit condition, unless you’ll get sick afterward. Secondly, you have to register yourself first as it makes the committee easier to make the schedule and everything. Third you have to wear nice and suit outfit, I mean please wear any dress you think it fits you during your work. I highly suggest everyone to wear nice shoes and T shirt as you’ll feel lighter to move around. Fourth, bring some food and drinks for you (don’t steal or eat any food from food bank, you’ll be fined). Oh yap, you may eat and get food in particular room near foodbank, the food is free but the stock is limited, so be swiftly to grab some.

Readers, I am not sure about what’s so called foodbank also exists in this country. But there must be at least one, I would say so. Yeah, it is probably the duty of social department to make it. But thing I wonder the most is that the activity of serving as what I’ve done there in Tucson. It seems to be really interesting if department of social also facilitates people who want to serve at food bank (Indonesian version). Yeah, people can fill their days by doing noble thing to serve others. Besides, people can also donate their money to buy food for the community.
The last, I enjoyed my short journey during my 2-month program in the USA. I could know and understand this world better, I could know what American government does to its citizen, I could know how care the government is to its people. I loved my volunteering!

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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Cijanggel, my second time there!

 

This is so nice shot I've got in my hard drive that I want to share you guys. On September 27, 2009 I and some friends of mine went to Cijanggel in accordance to do survey for our English Club's outing, so this first trip is kind of preparation for our really outing a week later.

This place name is quite puzzling me sometimes, it is either Cijangel or Cijanggel. Well, whatsoever, the place is my cup of tea anyways. Cijanggel is probably taken from Sundanese name but unfortunately I’ve got no idea what it is exactly. Or, it is probably sort of a fusion name between Sundanese and English; “Ci” in Sundanse means water and it is usually put as prefix, while Janggel is derived from English name which means forest. Jungle is spoken “Janggel” in Sundanese and Indonesian, make sense right? Kidding :).

Cijanggel (or Cijangel) is located about 10 Km from my lodging house and it can be reached for about 40 minutes by car. I live at Setiabudhi street behind Ledeng station (pretty odd to call it station though) and in this trip I with my friends took angkot (public transporter) that we’ve had booked before. Each of us spent 11.000 rupiahs (US 1.2$) for commuting, way to cheap if it’s compared to the fare in US or Europe.

When we I arrived there, the weather was quite mild and luckily I brought jacket with me, my friends did too. Despite its chilly weather, Cijanggel has pretty stunning scenery either day or night. We only stayed there till noon but the weather remained so nice.

After doing meeting for arranging the outing agendas, we snapped some pictures as we didn’t want to miss this natural beauty. It’s a most for us to record every single occasion wherever we go. One thing for sure, our hard drive is getting stock up with tons of photos.
We arranged the meeting at Villa which belongs to a well-known Islamic figure in Indonesia Aa Gym (Abdullah Gymnasiar) and near the villa there’s mosque where we did also shot some pictures inside. The mountain you see here is Burangrang Mountain. Burangrang is believed as the mother of Tangkubar Perahu Mountain as it is placed closely to it. If you know the legend or Sangkuriang and Dayang Sumbi, you must have known the story about that. I’ll tell you later if you haven’t known it.

Enjoying the exquisiteness of nature doesn’t always mean costly and far. We, Indonesians have bunch of extremely beautiful places we can go to; every province has a lot for sure. This place I mentioned here is just one of the attractive places in Bandung (West Java) and you may visit other sites such as Pangalengan, Ciwidey, Tangkuban Perahu etc. Really, let’s keep loving Indonesia!
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

La Salsa 2008

 

Oh my God, that time was the very first time in my life went to the very fabulous Mexican restaurant, the name is La Salsa. I and some friends of mine had dinner there, though most of the the tastes were little bit unfamiliar, I liked the dishes very much. La Salsa restaurant is located at Boulevard avenue near University of Arizona campus.
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Here I was eating sort of nice pieces of food but I did not know the name. I ordered this item as it had rice mixed with other ingredients.


The menu listed in the picture (behind) could be seen right when we got into the restaurant. I paid around 8 bucks for wonderful food and coke. I've got a huge eagerness to come back there again someday.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Trip to Pangandaran Beach

On Thursday September 24, 2009 I and my family went on vacation to Pangandaran beach. We actually headed there a day before and arrived at the rented-house at 11 p.m. We rent a house for all family members (24 persons) at the price of 400.000 rupiahs per night, a fair price for 3-bedroom house as at that time being was in Eid Al Fitr holidays. We didn’t choose hotel because obviously it was much more costly and rather hard to find the unoccupied one. My father planned this journey for me his son who had never been to Pangandaran before. As I’ve graduated from university lately and the Eid Al Fitr came, we decided to go there.

The route we chose then was the new one. People who went to Pangandaran long time ago used Cisewu – Garut –Tasik – Ciamis – Pangandaran route and it took about 12 hours. But we took it shorter as the new way was established in 2006. We took the route of Cisewu – Ranca Buaya – Pameungpeuk – Cipatujah – Pangandaran and it took only 8 hours, much better wasn’t it? Besides, the scenery was pretty awesome so we were very much glad taking that road. We could see jungle and rubber tree as well as river and ocean along the way.

Since then was in Lebaran break, the beach was fully crowded by the visitors both domestic and foreigners. The coast of Pangandaran is quite popular in Java island since it has beautiful scenery. Ship transported I went to several spots there and thanks God I didn’t feel seasick although that was the first time boating. Pasir Putih beach (white sand) was the first destination and need to pay 12.500 rupiahs per person to be transported by boat. Only 5 of us went to Pasir Putih beach as the rests were quite afraid of being on a ship, and it’s needed to say that the wave then was quite high up to 1,5 meter. At Pasir Putih, we could do snorkeling and see stunning reef with its fish and sea plantation, since anything should be rented and I had no preparation to dive, I didn’t do that. Instead I and all headed to Hutan Cagar Alam (preserved forest). At the gate, forest police stood up and sold the ticket for entering the forest, we paid 2000 rupiahs per person, pretty cheap right. Along the forest we saw teak tree, rattan and another species of plant.

Aside of those, there were also shoal of apes playing from tree to tree. Oh yeah we aren’t at all allowed to disturb anything there, it means we can never cut the tree, kill the animal as this is counted as crime. Having walked around the forest we went into the cave namely Lanang cave. This cave was used as one of the locations in Misteri Gunung Merapi TV serial. That’s why Lanang cave is more popular as the cave of Mak Lampir. Again, we groped the pocket as we need to pay 1000 rupiahs for sanitary and lighting fare, no matter though. I saw also the some deers which were kind to us. We can feed them by peanut of something, but be sure not to bother them while they were resting or having sexual intercourse, I would say that will make them mad at us, perhaps. Well, if we go there with the kids, they also may try flying fox and some adventurous game around the cave, it is worth to try but I don’t know how much it costs.
Having tried and explore almost all sites, I phoned the ship driver to ship us back to the meeting point with the rest of our family. Again, I sailed on a boat and it was fascinating, really fascinating!!!
Voila! We backed at the house and some of our family had bought some cloths with Pangandaran written on those. As I did want that too, I bought short pants for about 20.000 rupiahs, hm…worth it.
It was 11 a.m we drove back home to Cisewu. On the way home, my dad offered me to pay a visit to Grand Canyon site; wow…I of course accepted that offer since I very much wanted to know the Indonesian GC. Yeah, it took 1 hour to reach GC and you know what, it was written on the welcoming board that the place’s name was Green Canyon, not Grand Canyon; haha….quite funny as I really expected to know Indonesian GC, hm…my dad seemed apparently wrong hearing the name, it was fine though as the scenery was pretty good and it probably same as GC in Arizona. It’s called Green canyon as the river’s water is green. Many people visited this place as they also had passionate like me - wanted to visit Indonesian Grand Canyon ^_^.

We arrived home in Cisewu at 7 p.m. I directly went bed and performed isya prayer beforehand. Hm…what an exhausting journey, it was full of fun though. Thanks God.

Eid Al Fitr in my town

Today (September 20, 2009) is Eid Al Fitr day and we Moslems in Indonesia are celebrating the feast of fast - breaking. Eid Al Fitr marks the end of Ramadan fasting. Fasting in Ramadan is conducted by every Moslem during this holy month according to the Islamic rule for 29 or 30 days depending on the moon’s emergence (hilal). Islamic calendar and astronomy take part in determining this precise time. On Eid Al Fitr day, Moslems in the USA and Europe usually say “Eid Mubarak” but here in Indonesia we prefer to say “Minal Aidin walfaidzin”, even so however, the meaning is pretty same which actually ask and give forgiveness to each other.

This Eid Al Fitr is really special for me since I did it at the soccer field in my village. Yeah, at 6.00 a.m on Sunday I went there with some of my family members by foot. Driving car or motorbike is not needed as the place is near to our house. For the very first time ever here in Cisewu, I did Shalat Eid Al Fitr at a wide open area (a soccer field). I also did it at park when I was in Tucson last year, but this year in Cisewu I and all Moslems conducted this big event at soccer field - not in a mosque. This is of course for several reasons; first, two weeks ago we experienced alarming earth quake therefore DKM (the committee of Mosque) announced that Lemah Luhur soccer field is a lot better and saver for us to gather. Secondly, by herding at the soccer field we can gather in the bigger quantity and this is better than in separated mosque, we used to do it at our very near mosque so the jamaah (people) was spotted in the divided places. In the other words, we’ll be more united by gathering that way and I frankly liked this idea, many thanks to the DKM of Al-Hasanah Cisewu. The atmosphere at the soccer field was totally different from somewhere else since we could feel fresh air, beautiful scenery of Gedogan mount and a more euphoric situation.

The speech person then was Pak Masrudin – a well-known figure in my Village. He delivered the speech hilariously and interestingly. Yeah, he tried to bring us the audiences into a very different state after having fasting and earth quake. He spoke in a stylish way with “Murwakanti way” I don’t know what murwakanti is in English, yet, it’s sort of literature stuff such as in making the poet with all “a” or “i” or anything at the end of row of its stanza. Do you know it in English? Share me then.

From the speech I could get the point that we were really urged to unite and help one another as we’ve had calamity recently. We need to work together in building our wretched big Mosque and help to each other in repairing the damaged houses. The Eid Al Fitr is the right time to tighten up our tie as well as to give more to the less lucky people. He also insisted on the affluent people to donate more dough for building the mosque and helping others as they are granted much more money by Allah. It’s also said that the government should be more concerned in developing the sub district after it’s been stricken by the earth quake.

The Imam was Pak Salim, he is the most recognized Islamic figure as he is pretty aged. As always, he chanted the Quran versed perfectly and sharply. After performing the prayer and hearing the speech, we shook hand to each other and then went home by choosing different way. It’s highly recommended to walk on the different path as we’ll meet more people, it means we’ll forgive and ask for forgiveness with more people and this is valued much better according to our belief – our prophet said so in a hadith exactly.

Having done those things, at my grand ma’s house we did sungkeman. This is the tradition in which the younger people (all the offspring of my grand ma) sit before my grand ma to ask for prayer and forgiveness, all were coming then. After that, we ate Ketupat (rice wrapped by coconut leaf) with Opor (chicken curry) and of course the cracker was finely served as it gave more appetite in eating.

By and large, the Eid I had then was totally impressive and remarkable. I liked the atmosphere, the speech person as well as its speech, the food and I liked everything then. Eid in Cisewu is comparable to the Eid I had in Tucson last year, both are out of the ordinary. Minal aidin walfaidzin ^_^.

Mudik – passion of home travelers

Hello there!
Mudik which simply means going home is very much familiar to all Indonesian Moslems. At least once in a year many of us do it as it has undoubtedly become our tradition at the end of beloved Ramadan. People who wander either to work or study in somewhere else can never wait to have it for celebrating The Eid Al Fitr with their families, relatives and friends – the workers usually take a furlough while the students always get the break from the school or university. If I have a chance to do it which is often the case, I pretty much go home every year, but last year I couldn’t do it since then I was in the USA to study English at the University of Arizona. What a luck that this year I went home and gathered with families at my village. My birth-place isn’t really far from the place where I wandered, yet it’s always fun to flock with families on the big day such as Eid Al Fitr therefore I decided to go home. Yeah, I went to Cisewu obviously, it is located in the southern Bandung but still the part of Garut regency, West Java.
In the view point of mine, mudik isn’t exclusively belonged to Indonesians, but people in Moslem majority countries such as Brunei, Malaysia or somewhere else in this world will have this tradition as well. For sure, here in this country is always merrier since we’re the biggest Moslem country and I assume that around 100 million people do mudik yearly. This heritable tradition has become our legacy and will definitely last forever so long Indonesia is a Moslems majority country, I hope so.

People may do mudik by driving private car, by bus, by train, by riding motorbike, by ferry or plane. Since buying the airplane ticket is rather expensive so it’s done just by some people who can afford the fare. Most prefer to drive motorbike or private car since it’s a lot cheaper, more efficient and speedier.

Mudik generally has both good and bad impact for us. There are sort of things such traffic jam, car accident, derailed train and crimes happened during mudik (it’s estimated around 1200 people passed away this year). The jam for example will be definitely more extreme during mudik as we’ve gotta wait for hours just for reaching a quite nearby destination. Nagreg, Pantura and Karawang are examples of the hot spots where jam last longer than it does in other places. Mudik and balik (commuting) usually last up to 14 days (7 days before and 7 days after the Eid). The good thing which is resulted from mudik is that for one, economy growth. Everyone usually spends more money during Mudik, all in all it boosts national expenditure and at the same time generates our economy in macro scale to be “healthier”. Secondly, mudik will make ourselves feel better since the togetherness with family will give us calmness, new spirit, new hope, new idea and new anything to face the harder life ahead. Third, mudik can be a milestone for government to always revise and improve its quality in serving the public. Government is strongly demanded to work hard in controlling land, air as well as naval transportation. The jam and accident will be no longer existed if government has good system to manage it.

As it does give benefit to our Indonesia, doing mudik really needs extraordinary preparation. First, we have to make sure that we got the ticket in a timely manner if we plan to go by public transportation, if we plan go by our own car we must check and make sure that the car or motorbike is in a good condition. Secondly, the left - house or apartment of ours should be cleaned up and set properly (turn the TV off please), don’t miss to bring the keys along the excursion. We’d better tell someone whom we believe to take care of our home while we’re not at home - a good guard or trusted neighbor can be reliable (be picky is much better in this matter). Third, prepare the small money and gifts for the families at our village; this is quite important as they always expect us to give them, at least that what I experienced ^_^. Well, happy Eid Al Fitr to all of you then.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Trembled West Java

Few days ago at around 2 pm in the afternoon, we West Java island inhabitants were shocked by 7.3 in Richter scale earth quake. It made us all panic and somewhat perplexed since we were actually rare to have this pretty big tremor, besides we were doing fasting since that day still in the Ramadan month; we started fasting on August 20 and will last for 30 days.

The damages were emerged in some cities in this province; they were Cianjur, Tasikmalaya, Garut, Bandung etc. The worst happened in Tasikmalaya as the epicenter was quite nearby that city - about 140 km southern Tasikmalaya, it was also said that 70 people were passed away. In Bandung, my campus (Indonesia University of Education) had even more breaks in some buildings compared to other campuses – they were Islamic Center (mosque), library, social & economics faculty, while faculty of language and art had the worst one. One billion rupiah was reported as the financial loss caused by this occurrence.

Many things we can take as lesson from this, first, we need to make better building since it seems that Indonesian contractor companies don’t really pay attention to the earth quake, at least I assume that. The snatched buildings at my campus are all the example of this. Yeah, the broken buildings were all the new ones, only 1-2 years old, while on the other hand the JICA building which was constructed by Japanese developer in 2002 just fine. I don’t intentionally wanna say that all building constructors in this country are bad; at least two constructors (I won’t mention here) that built some buildings at my university are might be quite okay to be called so. Therefore it’s wiser to be stricter in allowing a company to build the building after winning the tender. The next lesson is that, we need to learn to mitigate and socialize what to do in the midst of earth quake to the public since many people just frightened, screamed and did nothing but panic, indeed we can manage that and I suppose there won’t be many victims. Government, universities NGOs and all those who care about humanity need to realize this program since such trembling can’t be predicted, it can happen everywhere, whenever it wants. The last, we (especially Moslems) must aware how small we are, we can never measure God’s might since we’re too fool and too weak to know those all. We just know miniscule thing in everything. Hence, let’s keep on striving to be closer to God, do good deeds just for the sake of Him, Wallahuallam.
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Cum Laude (thanks for everything)



According to Wikipedia, Cum Laude means with praise; an honor added to a diploma or degree for work above average. Well, actually I don’t really concern about the term as well as its explanation. But on August 26, outspokenly I heard that term and it was aimed to me and some friends. Yeah, on that day was my great day since the “Sidang” was held, in English it probably means the presentation of our final paper at college in front of the tester who are pretty much the lectures from our faculty. Therefore “Cum Laude” stole my attention quite a lot then.

Normally, Sidang lasts for about 1 hour or maybe more, but then I only had it just for about 45 minutes. Well, let me explain how it went then.
First of all we (the participants of Sidang) were all gathered in C room to kick off the sidang itself. We were all then 29 persons from squad of 2005 and 2004. The first Dean Assistant of FPEB then opened up the sidang and gave us little bit explanation about it. We all then praised and prayed God as wanted to do it well. Subsequently, we waited the calling to be questioned and tested by three lectures. What a lucky person, I got the first call and without any more thought I headed down the C room where 2 lectures were waiting for me there. The first lecture was Pak Disman (the first dean assistant of FPEB) and the second one was Pak Askolani (the lecture who taught human resource management), the third tester hadn’t come yet then, therefore I had to wait him a bit later, it was fine anyways.
Yeah, at 7.45 am exactly I started explaining before them about the paper I wrote, I only had 7 minutes to present it all but I guess I talked more than 15 minutes then, hehe…the lectures were not aware obviously. They then gave suggestion and asked me several questions and, but thanks God I could answer all those and satisfied them (maybe ^_^). The kindness of two lectures made me quite comfortable talking in front of them, there wasn’t any offensive or unpleasant saying then. It is because we were doing fasting I guess haha…
The second round of my sidang was at 1 pm and the tester was Pak Ikin, he was an accounting lecture who taught us many things about finance and accounting. I liked his subject though I pretty much got B, hoho…He just asked me several simple things and I was able to answer pleasingly (maybe again ^_^).
In simply, I would say that my sidang was really something. I didn’t face any significance hurdle as I’d prepared for it quite long – six months.
So you, who soon will have sidang, I really suggest you to master your paper and prepare anything well. Besides, give as much charity as to the poor and help your friends to ease their problems, then Allah will also ease yours.
Thank you so much
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Monday, August 10, 2009

BURNED HUT

Yesterday (August 9, 2009), when I was on foot going down Central 7 building to attend My English Club activity, I saw a peculiar thing where the traffic around Pesantren Daarut Tauhiid and MQ guess house was quite at a dead set. I gazed for a while to the smoky haze nearby MQ guess house and I found a burned hut. It was exactly a small restaurant namely "Warung Tegal Bahari" where I usually have lunch there. There were quite a few people seeing and trying to fight off the fire by tossing buckets of water and using firing extinguishing equipment. They tried their best even though there was not any fire brigade alongside.

This once in a while-incident struck me since that was the second time in my life witnessing the burned building. A friend of mine told me that; at least one victim was brought to the nearest sickbay to be hospitalized. The person whose skin was detached and burned must be the one who always served and ask me "What do you want to eat? What portion of rice? And so on. I didn't want to imagine that it has happened anyway. In other hand, I feel so deep condole for that person who had a piteous accident. I would not probably be served by that person anymore who used to serve me and others for having meal, at least until he recovered then, hope you’ll be getting better soon man!

The cause of that fire can't be verified clearly, yet, it presumably was caused by the leak of gas stove pipe and it then stimulated by the flaming regular stove to cause a real fire. Apparently the restaurant’s employees used two kinds of stove to cook and warm up the food - gas and kerosene. In this kind of circumstance they should have realized and acted carefully since the LPG stove can be simply burned. Things must be taken into account regarding to this mishap are; first be sure to check the gas doesn’t leak and the pipe connected securely. Secondly, don’t place the two stoves (kerosene and gas) adjacently. Thirdly, prepare fire extinguishing equipment in our house or building, it can be either the liquid or the flour one. Fourthly, save the Fire fighter department number in our phonebook, please make it as the dial fast number so if the incident happened we can make a call by simply pressing the set number.

The lesson I could note from that mournful accident is that, I should be more careful in using or operating any device at my home, either electronic tools or others. Pray for the victims guys :)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Workshop Wirausaha Muda Mandiri (Mandiri Youngster Entrepreneurs Workshop)

Bismillah,
Today, Thursday Aug 6, 2009 I’m attending one day workshop on how to become an entrepreneur namely “Workshop Wirausaha Muda Mandiri”. This event is held by Padjadjaran University and fully supported by the largest national bank in Indonesia, I’m sure everyone knows it, Bank Mandiri (recently changed into just “mandiri” as it won’t operate only in banking). In this lunch break I type the things out which come up in mind of mine about what I’m having and feeling about today’s event.

Well, we are from 19 campuses in West Java province and each campus delegates 25 persons. Every single of us is cordially invited by mandiri to join in this short yet momentous workshop, in hoping we will be able to dig up as many inspirations as in running our own business. Essentially, we are here since we’re supposed to be entrepreneurs who’ll make up and build Indonesia to be better than ever. Yeah this is very true guys by becoming an entrepreneur we’ll be able to develop this nation into the outstanding one that it might be equal to United States, United Kingdom, Japan or whatever you may say, or maybe go beyond them all. Dede Yusuf, the vice governor of West Java province mentioned earlier in his opening speech that we only need two percents of our citizen to be entrepreneur and the result will amaze us all, in calculation we need 4 million Indonesians as entrepreneurs then we’ll become a flourishing or prosperous nation, sadly to say that untill this very second we haven’t reached that number yet.

This workshop is quite similar to the workshop I attended few months ago which was supported by Telkomsel (the biggest GSM provider in the country), still in the same place - Padjadjaran University. But now, the event is more challenging and interesting since we’ll be here till 6 p.m from 8 a.m, after that we’re also highly recommended to see music concert, and SAMSON will be entertaining us then, hm…it’s nearly a backbreaking day for me, yet, all in all I love it.

As mentioned above, now is lunch break time and we’re supposed to have buffet lunch at the outside (we can bring it inside if we wish). But, “luckily” I won’t do that as I am fasting right now, yeah Monday and Thursday are the days for Moslems to have additional fasting, this is really good to do that we’ll be getting closer to God (insya Allah). I used to do this non-compulsory fasting regularly and now I’m trying to get used to it again. It’s a piece of cake thing if we’ve got a huge passion, pure intention and kind friends or angelic mom who’s gonna wake us up at the dawn ^_^.

It’s sort of shocking me that we are also provided Jacket, workshop kit, full meals and transportation fare worth 50.000 IDR, only a stupendous bank can only give us all these. Besides, Mandiri granted scholarship to ITB, UNPAD, UNPAS, ITT TELKOM totally 1 billion (if I’m not wrong).
Another outstanding thing in this seminar is that, we’re fed tremendous materials about business motivation, creativity, business opportunity, success story etc. There are 4 speakers – Fransiscus (from Indofood), Vicky Sianipar (musician), Perry Tristianto (king of Distro in Bandung) and the last is Kafi Kurnia (an inspiring motivator). I LOVE them all since I could attain many things, not just bunch theories but also practical tips as well as precious experiences they have.

To sum it up, I like today’s workshop since I get many things, oh ya this is comptely free if we sign up earlier to our faculty, thanks to Devi, a friend of mine who texted and registered my name as participant. See you around.

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Friday, July 31, 2009

Please, don’t be a Windows addict!

This is the very first time for me to write something for my Blog using Ubuntu instead of Windows on my laptop. Ubuntu is one of the Linux distributors which is used by most Linux users (Linux comes on varied types/distributors). In fact I'm not an advance in open source (such as Ubuntu), but I am not a totally dummy either on it, just a mediocre I would say. I've ever used Linux OS when I was a sophomore, back then I used Ubuntu 7.10, PC Linux and Blank-on 2.0. The latter was the version of Linux made and developed by Indonesian Linux lovers. At that time I was consistently used Linux for all my computing works - doing college tasks, making organization proposals, watching DVDs and so on.

Since the computer of mine was stolen, I had not been able to use Linux for months; instead, I used XP for all my works then. And luckily this time I am able to use Linux again, though I don't use it all time, maybe just 15 % of my computing activities, it is better that nothing, isn't it?

Using free OS like Ubuntu is kinda hard thing to do for most people as we have to learn it from the firs early. I'm quite sure that the first computer which is introduced to you was Windows, am I correct? At least that what I experienced long time ago. Windows is the commonest and friendliest OS ever for every single person on this planet, that's undeniable I’m sure. The company, Microsoft has an exceptional marketing strategy so that Windows can be sold worldwide. Not just marketing strategy anyways, Product Development and other Departments which could make Windows suitable for all the works we need are also awesome. Microsoft can beat all its competitors such as Apple, IBM and Redhat (not a wholly free Linux distributor, especially for corporate). I'm talking the truth that Windows XP is the most suitable OS ever, regardless to its weakness of being vulnerable and can be easily infected by viruses; anyways I still use it frequently. Don’t ask me about Vista, I’m totally gut full of it (sorry there Vista users ^^).

I've also got a plan to learn another operating system such as Macintosh since I love something new and different. Mac pretty much looks cool and stylish since the interface is exactly user-friendly. Besides, it also has bunch of wonderful software that Windows doesn't. Mac is also more resistant from viruses, trojan and such. A thing matters me is that its expensive price that it is out of my budget line, obviously. Mac is not sold separately, it means we've gotta buy Mac OS along with the computers, they are iBook, Macbook, iMac etc.

If you ask me what side am I on, for sure I'd love all those three operating systems – Windows XP, Linux and Mac. For now, I can't get rid of Windows since all software I need for my study, work and organizations can only work on Windows platform, viruses? No worries, I can chase them away by using daily-updated PCMAV or SMADAV. I can't solely use Linux since knowledge and facility (such as internet connection) of mine are still lack; I'll make my dial up modem not only work on Windows then, insya Allah. I can't use Mac since it's unaffordable and unfriendly in pricing, but I would be able to grab it someday. Hm...the best thing to do right now is that, use Windows for my work but also try to minimize using Windows for kind of easy work such as typing on word processing, instead I'll use Ubuntu for it. While doing those things, I'll save money for buying a real Mac and switch to it right away ^_^.

Using Windows all time is valued less good as we won’t get knowledge about other things, furthermore when we use the non-genuine one it’ll just make us more and more rely on it. Hence, think about using other operating systems such as Mac or any variants of Linux. I’m really sure we’ll get many things by doing so. Our dependence on Windows is just narrowing our mind and knowledge. Hm… sorry if you find this writing somewhat subjective, this is mere my personal opinion based on experiences of mine. Thank you :)

Thursday, July 9, 2009

The wonderful June


Bismillah…!
What a radical experience I had on the last two weeks of this June. While I was focusing on my final paper, I had to do two big things ahead. The first one is that I became a tour leader for about twenty Singaporeans who were visiting Indonesia for seven days. The second one is that I became the surveyor of creative industries in Garut. Yet, I won’t explain the latter since I haven’t finished this project guys, maybe later.

Well, through a friend of mine that is one of Daarul Jannah Cottage’s staffs. I got an offer to be a tour leader for Singaporeans. He asked me to do that since he thought that I have a sufficient skill to speak English and guide the tourists along their excursion. The tourists just needed to be guided in Jakarta, Puncak and Bandung. I’ve already known that English which Singaporeans used was “Singlish” it meant Singapore English, and it really helped me then.

For one case it is maybe true that I am able to speak English since I go back with it for years, but did I have ability in leading or guiding a tour? Haha…that one is questionable. Nonetheless, I tried my best in guiding them since I wanted to show them what Indonesia really is, you know guys that between Indonesia and Singapore there’s a pretty big gap especially in Economy. But we do have sort of good things and they don’t. Obviously, they only have small area so they should go abroad to feel and know a new nature like mountains, lakes, craters etc, we shouldn’t have to guys, our archipelago is widely spread and extremely rich, I’m sure you haven’t explored all of them, have you? I want to do it someday.

Things I had just known about Singaporeans by then were quite plentiful. For one, since the majority isn’t Islam, at every mall in Singapore we can never find mosque or even small praying room, so we need to head off the mosque out there or maybe go to our home to perform shalat. They were quite excited to know that here in BIP (Bandung Indah Plaza) there was a tiny praying room, though it was in the ground floor.
I was pretty shocked to know that all Singaporean men, without exception must take NS (National Service) when they finish their high school or diploma. It means they must join kind of military school which for sure lasts for two years. We don’t have that, right! So, the key point is that they love their country so much since they only have small area and they will always defense it from any threats. Have we ever thought about that?

The next one I want to share with you guys is that, Singaporeans whom I guided were all great, they were really kind and friendly. I was so glad to talk and chat with them; therefore I’ve got a plan to visit them someday.

So sad I can’t explain all things here since I’m still focusing on my final paper now. I wrote this as a break from a totally dazing work doing my paper, see you soon, insya Allah!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Counting down Ramadan!


Does anyone realize that Ramadan is getting closer? Yeah exactly, it is less than 100 days from now. Okay, first of all I’ll explain you what Ramadan really is. Ramadan is the ninth month of Islamic lunar-based calendar which is of course different from the commonest calendar we use today (Gregorian calendar). We, Moslems do fasting during that month for about 30 or 29 days depends on the moon’s emergence, since different place has different view of the moon, so we have different numbers of the days for fasting. Guys, fasting means we don’t drink and eat anything during the daytime, starts from the dawn (before sunrise) until the sun sets (dusk).

As I’m one of billion Moslems in this world, I do believe that Ramadan is much better than 1000 months; this is what we believe anyway. So, what does it mean actually? In simply we can say that if we do goodness within the period of a thousand year, it is equal with the righteousness we do in just one month (Ramadan), what a far-out month, all praises are Allah’s.

In Ramadan, aside from not eating and drinking, we should also control our rage to other people; we can’t at all express our fury like we usually do in other months, though getting angry in any month is valued as bad deed. Having sexual relationship between husband and wife during the day is also prohibited since it can abrogate the fasting, they still can do that in the night anyways. One purpose of doing fasting in Ramadan is that to strengthen our patience as well as to sharpen our empathy to the poor.

For the very first time in my life, I had different and unusual Ramadan last year. I did fast in Tucson Arizona since at that time I was studying at University of Arizona. The weather was pretty hot in summer and it made me quite dazed for the first two weeks, though afterward it was getting better since the season turned into autumn.

The hardest thing I faced when experienced two months fasting in US was not about the weather or food; I pretty much could deal with that. It was about the schedule of my program that made me somewhat frustrated. I could only go to bed after 11 pm since the tasks were always hard and plentiful, moreover I must have woken up at 3 am to prepare for my sahoor, what a short sleep then. I always asked myself and complained about the circumstance I had then, but then I knew that my whining did not make any sense at all. I must thank God since I got the huge bounty to be a grantee to study at the UofA, thank you Allah.

One more, the unforgettable experience when I did fasting in Tucson was that the “iftar” time. Yeah, iftar means the break time. I had fast break (iftar) at 7 pm and I always did that with friends of mine at Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT). ICT fully supported the jamaah or Moslems who did fasting by providing halal food such as beef, chicken, vegetable and rice. And you know what? Those foods were all completely free, it means we could eat as much foods as we want, but of course I didn’t do that. I just ate the food I needed, not what I wanted.

After having iftar, we usually went back to apartment to do our homework from CESL (Center for English as Second Language). Since the tasks were always hard, I didn’t do taraweeh (night praying) at mosque. I did that at my room with friends of mine, but most of the time I did that alone.

Yeah, more or less I’ll be missing that moment this year since I’m gonna be doing fasting in my city again. I’m thankful for anything, wherever I do fasting I’ll always feel the same; I am weak and I need God’s help to live my life, Insya Allah. May I can do fasting this year (2009), amiiin.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

My juniors, way to go!


Few days ago on June 6, 2009 precisely, I attended seminar namely “Seminar Ekonomi Syariah”. It was carried out by SCIEmics UPI. SCIEmics is one of my ex-organizations at campus. I was pretty delighted to join the seminar since one member of its committees invited me and my friend cordially through text messaging, she asked us to participate at their event. Moreover, both me and my friend shouldn’t have to pay for the ticket at all, it was completely free (just for senior, ha…lol).
Okay first of all, I’m gonna tell you what SCIEmics exactly is. SCIEmics stands for Study Community of Islamic Economics, do you think this is an abbreviation? Hm…whatever you may say. Anyway, this organization is established to improve the students (especially those who major Economics) with the Islamic economics knowledge which is really urgent for us Moslems to learn.
SCIEmis was firstly just kind of division of FSM (Forum Silaturrahim Muslim) which concerned about Sharia economics comprised of Islamic Banking, BMT, Insurance sharia and other studies. I initiated the name of SCIEmics itself, it used to be called “Divisi ekonomi Syariah”, but one day in the very last minute of students plenary, I suggested altering that name with the new, fresh, marketable, and more educated one, yeah SCIEmics was chosen then. The members finally approved it without any considerable objection.

Well, jump into the very earlier topic, yeah the seminar above was initially aimed for economics teachers at senior high school, but, there were also students from some universities in Bandung such as Ekuitas, UIN, Unpad and of course UPI. We had one day workshop with some speakers who fully grasp Islamic Economics; they were Pak Agustianto from IAEI and Pak “forget the name” from Tasikmalaya. According to the speakers, we should nurture our upcoming generation with understandings of integrated sharia, one of them is Islamic Economics. Economy is one of fundamental and important fields in our life so we should recognize which economy is good or bad. What we’re having right now in this country is probably more capitalistic instead of Islamic, you can see it from the banking system, insurance, lease or else in here, riba and interest are still thriving. These acts are often unfair to customer.

From the seminar, it is very true that we should at least implement sharia by doing very simple thing in life, for instance by saving, crediting, paying bill etc at Sharia bank. Students at college can also disseminate and learn sharia Economics by making community like SCEIemics or anything.
I am sure that all participants of that seminar must have gotten something to share and to talk to the people around them; hopefully it can be applied in their life as well. Thanks to my Junior at SCIEmics, I am absolutely proud of you guys, you made a huge step forward. Keep Learning and making good deeds!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Blessing in Disguise

In the name of Allah, the most gracious the most merciful.
I'm not the one who knows a lot about tenet of my religion, but I'm not the one who knows nothing either about it, I'm not an egg-head or an airhead, so what am I? I'm just an ordinary one who knows a little about anything, I know less about more, I'm a "fox" obviously, that's more apt for me to be called anyways.
Readers, here I'd like to share with you guys about Blessing in disguise. We may find the miracle in our life right after we encounter such a difficult circumstance. Yeah, how could it be? Well, I've experienced many unpredicted moments that dealt with it.

Okay here's one example:
This day (May 28) was a quite frustrating for me. Today was the dateline for my paper and I should have handed it to my lecturer before noon. What mattered me was that, I had not finished doing that, moreover last night I could only stay up to 11 pm, it is my habit that I can barely keep my eyes open until midnight, I should have gone to bed after 10 pm.

So right after performing Fajr prayer (about 4.34 a.m.), I did my paper until about 10 am. I did my best to finish that and it was finally done luckily, "well, it's time to print it out" I said. What a bad happening, one of my friends asked me to fix his computer and he was headed off my dorm then, well, I couldn't do anything but accept his appeal. "Ok" I said. While waiting him arrive at my place, I started printing my paper one by one. After having some pages printed, the next pages went into a trouble, the black dots appeared on some pages, fuih.....it tugged me then, "why are there many unwanted things happened to mo today?" hm...I tried to take a breath and think. Yeah, think and think why does God grant bunch of hurdles to me today. Well, I then finally realized that what had happened to me just know was in "God's hand", I mean God had already stated those sort of things on my book of destiny.

After handing over my paper to the lecture of mine, I unintentionally met my aunt on my way home. Waah, that was such a good coincident since I've never met her for quite a while. "Thanks God" I said. We then had a brief talk on the way, she and I talked in Sundanese since she's a good Sundanese teacher. I admire her for her skill for Sundanese, moreover for her ability in English, she's good in English as well. When we were about to split, she shed me a piece of paper, what was that? Yeah it was money, she gave me IDR 50.000. Wahh.....I thanked God for that, you know that amount of money is totally worth it for me, a college student, for you as well right? ha...

So that's it my story for today, I hope I can always share my exceptional experiences with you all, thank so much!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Japanese & Sundanese (on my mind)


The reason why I dead love learning Japanese is that, Japanese language is really amazing in the view of mine. When the first time I knew and studied it at high school, it was love at the first sight I may say, Japanese was exceptionally cool, hm….I exaggerated that right? he…he…

Here's the story;
A friend of mine lent me her Japanese book and she was my real competitor in some lessons obviously, especially in English and Math. To be honest, that book wasn't really good, yet, wasn't bad either, medieval. She let me read and copy it. Having studied that for several weeks, I could then speak "watashi wa….", "douzo yotoshiku…"etc. I learned Japanese by using self-study method or "autodidact", I got no teacher or instructor then, just book and my classmate, just two of us, and we sometimes studied together during the class break.

Unfortunately I stopped learning Japanese in the last semester of my high school since I must have focused on my graduation and national exam then, in a word, "quitted".
And now in this last semester of my college, I've fallen in love with Japanese for the second time, having forgotten it for years and years, I've finally found the soul of learning Japanese, I'd love it again.
I've got a superb community here, it's near to my campus, and the people are great, we learn together to improve our skill and enhance our knowledge about Japanese. Hm…it is so nice and auspicious to gather with all of them, yet recently I could not go there since I've got many things to do.
Well, the main point I want to talk to you guys now is that, Japanese and Sundanese have some similarities; at least in my opinion. Okay, for one, these languages have degree of politeness; either in Japanese or Sundanese we should smartly use particular words when we speak to particular people; we use polite phrases or words when we speak to our parents, teachers or the elder ones. But we can use slang or causal phrase when we talk to our colleagues or friends.
The second, Japanese and Sundanese have complex writing systems that distinguish them from others. Japanese uses Kana and Kanji, Sundanese uses traditional Sanskrit (if I'm not wrong). These are the true identities of them but it's so unlucky for Sundanese language, the native people of it are rarely use the language now, only small percentage of Sundanese people who're familiar with their writing system, they can no longer recognize the basic writing or Sudanese (including me), I'll keep learning though (insha Allah).
The third, I've got a thought and sense that they are romantic languages. There's big possibility that Sundanese person as well as Japanese are so romantic in making relationship, hm…it's so subjective anyways, but, I'm pretty much sure that this is true. I'm gonna prove it someday, he…he…
Well, the conclusion is that, the more we learn other languages - Japanese, Chinese, German, Spanish, Russian, or anything, the more we should love our own languages, God has created all of languages so that we can know one another. Let's start loving our mother language, hirup urang sunda euy!!!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

TIPS TO SUCCEED AT UNIVERSITY

Okay, this time I'm gonna talk about the tips on how to succeed at the university. Actually, these are not the tips I do to be successful student at college since obviously, I don't deserve to be called so, at least not yet ^_^.
Well, I think these tips are really important for students at college in order to get good result, either grade or others, especially for them who are freshmen or sophomore. I got these tips from the dairy planner book of University of Arizona when I was staying there, these are really useful.
The first is Time Management; we all know that there are 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and 168 hours per week. Then the point is that, we should be able to decide on how each of those will be spent, in other words; we should be more concerned and be a bit picky in doing something. If something doesn’t need to be done, we should not do that. But if something is really important, then we must do that seriously.

The second is, go to class stay awake and take notes (record the speech if you need). In class, we should be actively involved in any discussion or sharing; it will enhance our knowledge as well as improve our confidence.

The third is, participate in any communities. There are many organizations or communities we can involve with, just pick one or some. Getting involved in organizations will make us become more adept people, it means our emotional intelligent will be improved as well. Just do it, I am sure it'll work and will be beneficial for you.

Next is stay healthy. Get sleep, eat healthy food and take exercise (doing sport). All of these will contribute to ourselves since we’ll gain more power and energy to do our assignments. If we do that regularly and proportionally, we’ll be more alert in doing all the school activities. Do jogging at least once a week.

The fifth is, do homework right when the lecturer gives it to us. We mustn’t procrastinate it since there will be other tasks afterward. The faster we do it, the better it will be.

And the sixth ask and meet our adviser or academic teacher to help us find the right way in learning, even if we’ve got some troubles in anything, just try to consult those to them. They will help you out.

Ultimately the 7th, this is the most important, pray to God, just ask for help and aid to Him. Fundamentally, anything what we do must be based on His rules, we Moslems of course must take Quran as our first guidance. Let's make as many good deeds as we can.
That's all, I am sure we'll be successful someday, insha Allah. Keep learning, thank you.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

“Eat Pray Love”


This book is written by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was firstly impressed by this book when someone suggested me to read it. I don’t know her name, yet, she were successful in convincing me to buy and recite it. Besides, I really like the title and cover which are very unique in my view. I met her (the one who suggested me) when I went back home from United States. She and her husband are American and they were in an arranged-vacation to Thailand then. I had a brief talk with her when we waited the flight at Narita Airport Japan, our next destination then was Bangkok. She talked to me enthusiastically since she knew that I am an Indonesian, and in that book, Indonesia is mentioned a lot as it is the third county which is visited by Elizabeth Gilbert. Ok, the story of that book is about the experiences of the author in pursuing the happiness, therefore she went traveling around the world, not around the globe actually, yeah, she (Elizabeth Gilbert) only visited three countries; there are Italy, India, and Indonesia. Do you want to know the full story of it? Just head off down the nearest bookstore or find it at library, I am very much sure you can find it. It is a nice book, really. Move on and get it!