the city is suffering

gee,

If you had already read my previous posts before, you might have known that I once written something entitled the city has changed which basically tells that how Bandung is different from years ago, which again -in my opinion- is a deterioration instead of a development for the city itself.

Well, it appears that there are those who had the same opinion as me for today I read the newspaper that expose such news. As I read the morning newspaper, it was told that Bandung had actually becoming a worst city than ever before. The development that has been done these years didn't make Bandung as a better place for the people. Instead, it created more and more problems such as garbage, traffic jams, flood, pollution, etc. It was said that Bandung used to have a maximum temperature of 27 degrees Celcius yet now it has reached the level of 34 degrees. Theres's been said also that Bandung is currently lacking city-trees in number of around 650.000! No wonder it's so hot nowadays in this chilly-used-to-be city, and it seems that it was not just me who felt that way. The fact said so, by the way.

It seemed that the money which was supposed to be allocated for developing the city's environmental supporters had been used to pay the local bureaucrats. They said that in order to eliminate corruption, the increase in public servant's prosperity was needed. Well, what's the point on increasing the salary of those city administrators if the people who actually paying for them couldn't get the benefit?

Oy, you supposed to be public servants. You serve public needs. Not the other way around!

project: machine elements

phew,

This semester will turned out to be quite busying. As of this semester, unlike any other semesters before, I took extra credits. In the previous ones, I usually took 18 (the package) but as of this one I took 20 since I had several subjects that's needed to be retaken. Not to mention that the current semester will have two lab works plus one project.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Project. It's not ordinary project or assignment. It's a project that is done the whole semester. The subject is the Machine Elements Project for one credit only. But as you know, for real, it consumed more than just one credit. I took this project under the guide of Mr. Ignatius Pulung Nurprasetio and teamed up with two of my friends, Anda and Yudhi.

Mr. Pulung told us to make an analysis and synthesis of a rotary shaft. Since Yudhi was kind of interested in anything connected to automotive, he gave us the idea to take the topic of a motorcycle's camshaft.

At first, I didn't even know what a camshaft is. I never really liked automotives that much. But I thought that this might be a good media for me to learn, so I agreed with him. And there we were, deciding on taking the topic of a camshaft. Things that we needed to analyze according to Mr. Pulung were the camshaft itself, bearings, gears, chains, tensioners, etc.

In the first week, we go on a hunt of how to obtain the object we wanted to analyze, so we went to engineering market known as Jatayu. I passed there several times when I want to go back to Bandung from Cimahi, but I never actually visited the place. It was the first time for me. And yes, the market sells all kinds of engineering materials, from automotives to electrical generators. A real heaven for engineers. Anyway, after asking around and talking with the sellers, we finally got what we want: a camshaft for Rp.25000, a gear for Rp.5000 and a piece of bolt for Rp.500.

september graduation

whoa,

I wouldn't have thought...but what do you know...next Saturday is already another graduation will be held. Well, as far as I know, this term of graduation should be held at around October. But I guess since early October of 2005 will be mostly occupied with fasting-month for those who are muslims, then they move the graduation day earlier in September.

Yes, indeed. It's like only been a week I felt since the last graduation. The posting about it is still here. It's two or three posts behind, I guess. It's so near because I missed the month August with no post at all. Yet, as I said. It felt like it's only weeks instead of months since the last graduation.

Anyway, the next graduation won't be taken care by students of 2003. It will be handled by the new members of 2004. So it made the last graduation party my last one as the committee. This time, I shall only be a spectator, one of the crowds who watch only. Gladly, with that status makes me able to move freely to see things, not bounded by the responsibility to watch over those seniors who'd just been graduated.

I hope there would be good things happen. I know what to do, and I shall do it. Last time I wasn't able to do it since I was compelled to stay at my post. But now, I shall search...and I shall engage. No matter what. This may be my last chance.

No more pending o'peacemaker.

my way in English

okay,

I wanted to write the following entry because I visited Oskar's blog and found out that he wrote something about writing in English.

Well, firstly I'd like to explain as of why I wrote most of my entries in my blog using the language English. Of course, since English is currently the international language, so it may be fun to actually write in it. Imagine the possibility of people from around the world came and read your entry in the blog, they interested in it, and eventually might become a friend of mine -or yours, that is-. Also, it is quite common for people who uses internet that they should understand English since most of the information stored in the net are prepared in English. One more thing is that I write easier using English language. I know this might sounds a little bit funny knowing my mother tounge is actually Indonesian. But I just don't know. Ideas and thoughts flow easier when I write (or speak, in certain cases) in this western language. I wrote my Book of Journal, Book of Ideas, and Letters of Record, all of them in English. I felt uneasy when I tried to write (or tell) something in my own native language. Does that mean I am not a good civilian?

Those were several reasons why I had to assume that people who visited my blog and read my posts would already understand the language. This is where it gets quite tricky. If I write in English, I had to sacrifice those who couldn't understand it. I tried not to. That's why I also -sometimes- wrote my posts using Indonesian. You can find them, but not many.

As I read in Oskar's blog, there were quite some people who protested (in form of comments) him since they couldn't understand what he was saying. Well, I got them too. A friend of mine told me already that he couldn't understand what I was writing in my blog and he felt a little bit annoyed. Some people actually complained to me and some others over-complimented me that I was an English expert. Well, thank you, but not at all. I also made mistakes. I am not that expert. Sometimes I still jumbled my sentences and used the wrong grammar or structures. But it is not the grammar that matters, it is your way of writing (and speaking) it. As Oskar already wrote in his blog, that, it's not in the proper or correct grammar nor structures. As long as people can grasp the main idea of what you're trying to say, then it doesn't matter anymore. It is, after all, the main purpose of language itself: communication. Even if you're a language expert yet if you can't communicate your idea well enough, then it would be a waste. Once again, there's no reason to be afraid of practicing your English (including other foreign languages).

Most people are afraid of using or practicing languages since they see to those who're already fluent. Somehow, it made certain people to go downhearted and eventually stop practicing their language skills. As I said before, there's no need to be afraid. There's no reason to feel that way. Nowadays you can find English in almost every aspect of our lives. Television, newspapers, radio, books, and even in day to day life. Once, when I was in my campus, I overheard two students talking in English. Their grammar/structures or even accent was not very good, but at least they were trying and I was so itchy to get into the conversation yet I ended up just listening to them. One of my friend, from Meteorology and Geophysics, doesn't speak English very well. His pronounciation and vocabulary selection aren't very good at all. Sometimes he needed at least one minute to think about the word he wanted to say, yet he kept trying and I actually understood what he was talking about since he also used gestures while speaking.

What did I do or where did I learn to reach this level? That is the most frequently asked question to me by my friends as they wanted to know the effective way to practice their English.

Well, I couldn't say anything, the most effective practice is to practice, I guess. I mean, OK, I did have several courses but I believe most people were also did. Plus, most of the basics for English language were already taught to us from junior high school (maybe) until most of our senior high school. It's all in there and it's all given to you. All you need to do next, is to practice with it.

As of my experience in English language, it go way back to when I was a little kid. I think it was in my early childhood when the only television existed was TVRI. Back then, there were some television programs using English, especially cartoons (kids like cartoon, yes). The next level there was RCTI which presented a kid educational program called Sesame Street. But hey, as of now, there are also numerous kind of children educational programs served in the television. It's even more than it used to. Yes, but the difference is that those programs nowadays have their language dubbed. And that goes for not only kids educational programs. Mostly every foreign programs such as movies, serials, documentaries are all dubbed. Maybe that's why people can't learn faster or better.

Courses? Yes, I did go and take English courses several times. My first one was ESC (English Study Center, was it?). I joined that course by the invitation of a friend in my early year of junior high school. After that I took the course at EF (English First). I did the course for around one year and after that I quit since I needed to prepare myself on facing the national exam.
But everybody's different. Those were my ways, and you might have your own ways. Find it, make use of it. Just train yourself in any way you find comfortable and do it frequently. Just...don't be afraid to make mistakes, even stupid ones. It might turn out quite cool, y'know :-)

the city has changed

sighs,

Today I took a walk around Cikapayang bridge (under, that is). Actually, I was on my way back to campus from Annex Building in Tamansari. I had to do some administration stuff there in Annex. But that's not the point though. It was, when I walked under the bridge and around the streets of Tamansari, I didn't feel the atmosphere anymore. As I walked under the highway and several steps towards Annex, I already felt exhausted and sweaty because of the heat of the day caused by the intense ray from the sun, and of course those thick dust and smog coming out from cars as the street at that time was on a traffic jam.

Why? It's Bandung. The city isn't like it used to anymore. I mean, ten years ago when I lived in Cimahi -and several years after when it was my early year of living in Cirebon- Bandung was so nice. The image I got from Bandung was some big green trees in each side of the road with shades covering us from the heat of the sun. Now, you can only find that kind of atmosphere mostly in residential areas whereas commercial districts are now stuffed with shops and buildings.

When I was living in Cirebon, I always couldn't wait to go back to Bandung (although right now I still do) since everytime I went there, each time I came out from Pasteur, there were those bunch of big palm trees. I've always been amazed by those trees. But where are they now? All I could see was just some billboards and that fly-over highway.

Indeed that this kind of thing (development) is inevitable. It may be good for the city that it actually developed with its rapid growing of infrastructure. But it has changed the image of Bandung itself where it used to be a green, cool, and fresh place into some not-another-Jakarta kind of city. It seems that the development of the city only concentrating itself on commercial sectors and to some point, industrial sectors. I just felt that, Bandung isn't suited anymore for walking pleasure. You'd be needing at least a motorcycle to enjoy strolling around roads in the city.

aeroexpo 2005

uh okay,

Today I kinda went to an exhibition. It was called the AeroExpo held by students from Aviation Engineering (Aeronautical). The exhibition was held in Aula Timur of ITB campus on Jalan Ganesha 10 Bandung. Yes, it is my beloved campus, so to say.

I went there with my friend Tito from Aviation Engineering himself to see how good it was. Well, to tell you the truth, the event itself wasn't very lively. It used -after all- Aula Timur, which was not so spacious at all. Outside of the room, just near the reception desk, there was this booth from the TNI AU (Indonesian's air defense force). From what I saw, they showed somekind of jeep-like mobile (perhaps as air-dropped-kind of mobile) and several equipments and gadgets. But since I wasn't very interested in those things, I just went straight ahead to the reception desk and put my name in one of those visitors book.

As I entered the main room of the exhibition itself, there weren't so many booths as I recalled. From what I remember, there was only about 10-15 stands. Most of the room was filled with models. But I'm not talking about those sexy-catwalker models. They were models of airplanes and their variants. There were gliders, helicopters, etc. In one of the booth (I couldn't remember from where it was) they showed us how to remote-control a mini-airplane through computer. It was like playing a flight simulator, but you get an actual plane flying around. But of course it was just a dummy or toy-like airplane instead of the real one.

The second booth I visited was the Garuda Maintenance Facility Aero Asia (GMFAA). Why did I visit that stand anyway? Well, it appears that several days before the exhibition, one of my friend from mechanical engineering kinda invited me to do some work-practice (what the heck do you call kerja-praktek in English anyway?) in GMFAA. It turned out that GMFAA itself has participated in the exhibition. What a coincidence, so I said! I went there and do a little research and data gathering. I asked here and there, had some conversation with the man in charge there, although the man seemed not knowing so much all he did was refering me back to the brochure everytime I asked about things.

Last booth that attracted me from the rest was this steward school. It was named International Stewardess Training (Sekolah Pramugari Internasional -although it was named like that, there was actually steward there). Well, you know why. Because there was actually stewardess in charge of the booth and I'm telling you, she was cute! So I started asking things here and there. Most of the questions were not actually serious though, since I had no intention of getting into that steward/ess school whatsoever. The only thing that made me asking questions was to engage the cute stewardess in the booth. Hehehheh...

My friend told me before that there used to be three or at least two stewardesses in charge. But since I visited at around 1200 to 1300, it was likely that the stewardesses were mostly having a breaktime. When I approached the booth there were only one stewardess and she was like, sitting there alone without anyone to talk to. That was when I came in! Starting with asking for the brochure, and then asking about things...like: what's the activities, the requirements, tests that must be taken, and some other things. It was kinda cool, actually. She was nice and full of smile (ohoho, of course she was).

But not long after that, people started to come and tried to talk to her. First there was this steward from the same school as her (classmate perhaps) came around and was trying to take over for her on explaining things to me. And then there was also this mister from GMFAA who jokes around (or was it flirt?) with her. Finally, some guy out of nowhere suddenly came and took over my conversation with her (hey, I got here first dude!). Well, since the situation was not supporting anymore for me to engage the steward, I said quick thanks to her and unpresent myself. I didn't get her name though, not to mention her pictures :P I also wasn't in my full potential at that time since I wasn't feeling very well at that moment, and to tell you the truth, I hadn't taken a bath so my mind kept telling me to go home, take a bath, eat, get some medicine, and sleep. The classes for the day was already over anyway.