FCT#26 log

Today, Feb 25th will be one of the most important dates in my journey of pursuing Ph. D. Today, I officially have a professor that willing to supervise my research topic. Yippi...! Here is the acceptance letter: Yes, it's in Chiba University, Japan. Ok, you might misunderstand about the letter... It does not mean I get the scholarship already and going to Japan next month. No! But having a professor for my research is a giant leap on my doctorate journey. This letter will be used to register at Chiba University as a post-graduate student. I put a lot efforts to have this-only-one-page-letter alone. It's not just dropped from heaven to my mailbox, it's not just one or two days correspondence with someone-somewhere in the internet, it's not just browsing at google and all of sudden got this letter. No! It takes months. I read lot journals, books, and dissertations before finally I came out with only-three-pages-resesarch-proposal to be sent. Next step will be findin...

How do you measure your success? For many years, I almost believed that success is always about the amount of money I earn or about good career I have. But, recently my mind gradually changes. I met many right people on the right time that shows me what success is. Through these people, I feel like God giving me piece-by-piece of puzzle to be solved rather than gives a whole picture. I called this Puzzle: "what-is-success" puzzle. After arranging the puzzle piece-by-piece, I come to the conclusion, that success is not merely about money or career. For me, success is about how big your impact to other people, how big your contribution to the society. If through your lifestyle, your action, your thinking, your teaching, your writing, your invention or whatever you can think of, many people are touch and became a better people, then you are simply a success people. I realize that living in this world is not about ourself after all, it's not about earning money and enjoy it ...

Saya suka makan keripik singkong (yang nggorengnya dengan terlebih dulu ditenggelamkan ke dalam bumbu garam, bawang dan kunyit). Dua puluh tahun yang lalu, pas saya masih SD, harga singkong Rp. 100 per kilo. Kata mami-nya Nina (yang baru beli singkong tadi pagi pasar), sekarang harga singkong udah Rp. 1000 per kilo, ato naek 10x lipat. Dalam 20 taon, harga singkong udah naek 1000%. Lalu dengan otak ekonomi yang pas2an, saya coba analisa. Kalo misalnya 20 taon yang lalu saya punya uang Rp. 100, terus saya depositokan di bank, apa sekarang, 20 taon kemudian, uangnya masih bisa buat beli singkong 1 kilo? Logikanya sih ya bisa. Kan di bank dapet bunga... Tapi dengan asumsi suku bunga deposito 8% per tahun, ternyata uang Rp. 100 saya jadi... Rp. 466 dalam 20 tahun. Kalo dengan asumsi suku bunga 10%, dalam 20 taon uang saya "cuman" jadi Rp. 672. Cuman cukup beli daon-nya doang. Jadi, kalo uang kita taroh di Bank, nilainya semakin lama akan semakin susut. Kok bisa ya? Kalo kata oran...

Knowing how to speak English is one thing, but interpreting English is completely different thing. So, there he goes. Leaping into a character called an "Interpreter". Last time I saw him, he was a lecturer with tons of office tasks during new coming semester. Preparing research proposal, preparing scholarship applications since he's so eager to take Ph. D this year, preparing subjects to be taught for next semester, involving in some campus activities to make sure that he can hit Key Performance Indicators (KPI) target as a lecturer. But then, last Saturday, the news came like brick hits his head. He was elected to interprete Pst. Steven Davis from Australia for the sunday service at Bethany Church, Malang. Why did they choose this-so-unexperienced-interpreter to interpret? The church has more experience-and-annointed-interpreters, but somehow they could not do the interpretation. One is sick and must be hospitalized, this-mom-would-be is pregnant for 5 months, and this-...

Saya punya sepasang sepatu hitam yang saya beli 8 tahun yang lalu (ya, it's been 8 years!). Harganya murah waktu saya beli... cuman 5 digit (which means less than 100K). Saya inget, waktu itu saya hampir lulus kuliah S1 dan nggak punya banyak duit untuk beli fancy ato branded shoes yang harganya 6 digit. Jadi ya... saya beli yang murah tapi bisa dipake untuk kerja resmi... Lalu jadilah sepatu hitam itu satu-satunya sepatu resmi saya - till... NOW! Iya, sampe sekarang saya masih pake sepatu hitam itu. Sepatu ini udah nggak sekeren 8 taon lalu ketika saya beli pertama kali. Lima tahun lalu, solnya harus diganti karena ada bagian yang robek hingga kaki saya bisa kemasukan kerikil ato air kalau saya jalan di jalan yang becek. Warna hitamnya sudah pudah di beberapa bagian. Tali sepatunya juga udah pernah putus. Yet, somehow sepatu itu tetap saya pake, dan saya nggak pengin beli ato ganti sepatu lain (beli sepatu kets iya, tapi nggak pernah ngganti sepatu resmi ini). Saya udah terlanju...

Yay, first posting in 2009 will be grouped in a new category called "My Doctorate Journey"... (Geee... I'm sooo eager to have additional "Ph. D" after my name, so it'll be "Windra Swastika, Ph. D"... Cool, ah? After finishing "My Doctorate Journey", next category will be "The New Adventure of Chasing Professorship", haha2...) So, it all started with a dream (remember...? we all are ordinary people, and will stay ordinary until we encounter extraordinary dreams and the moment we step forward to achieve that dream, we're becoming extraordinary). I'm dreaming... of a white Christmas..., oh, sorry, it's over... I'm dreaming, that someday my mom and my future soulmate (whoever she is and probably with my children) attend my doctorate graduation ceremony (somewhere in Australia, USA or Japan), and when the dean calls my name to come forward to stage, my mom shouts "THAT'S MY BABY BOY...!!!" (Please deh, ...

This posting is going to be my last posting in 2008, and when I look back, I'm quite amazed what God has done to me so far. How He has changed me, renewed my mind, renewed my strength, moved me from glory to glory... Never doubt that God is indeed a good God. So, here are... the result of my partnership with God. Awarded as Lecturer of the Year 2008 M* C** University - June 2008. *) Achieved Master Degree, Electrical Engineering, Br* University - August 2008. *) Successfully gave presentation to 300 students about the opportunity of being a book author - July 2008. (some of them came to me, ask and show their interest to be an author, I think I managed to motivate them... you go guys). Set a new record of largest-attendance-public-preaching (500 people), B* Church - August 2008. Set a new record of public speaking to a group of 70 Public Relation Managers from all university in Malang - November 2008. Visiting Singapore for a week - November 2008. *) Finally successful...