FCT#26 log

They announced the scholarship nominees... And my name was not there. It was my 2nd strike after failed in ADS Application. Iya, getting scholarship for doctorate is not as easy as flipping hand. I failed in Depkominfo scholarship Application (but, still thanks to mBak Lily who gave the Depkominfo Scholarship information in the first place - kalo ada info lagi, bagi2 ya Mbak). In the next 6 weeks, I will try to apply the Dikti and Fulbright scholarship. Nggak selalu mulus emang... Tapi I'll keep PUSH-ing -- (P)ray (U)ntil (S)omething (H)appen...

Menunggu itu nggak enak. Saya dua minggu ini nunggui hasil test iBT TOEFL saya. Setiap kali buka personal page saya, selalu deg2an. Soalnya pas test itu saya ngerasa nggak well perform. Ada banyak missed bukan karena nggak bisa, tapi karena nervous ato nggak konsen - trust me, the situation when you're taking the test is totally different with your daily study. Especially the pressure! The energy to overcome the pressure makes you can't concentrate well (terutama kalo inget udah bayar $150). Selama 2 minggu, saya rajin buka personal page saya... Tapi score-nya masih not avalaible. Padahal, buka halamannya itu sambil merem2... Ngeri liatnya... Ngeri kalo nggak bisa sampe syarat minimum buat ngajukan beasiswa. Buat bisa ngajukan aplikasi beasiswa Ph. D-nya Fulbright, syarat pertama TOEFL-nya 575 (Paper Based TOEFL). Uni di Aussie juga sama, syarat jadi Ph. D students-nya adalah dapet skor International TOEFL 575. Mereka nggak mau nerima yang TOEFL2-an. Mereka hanya mau terim...

I believe this posting will be useful for those who want to take iBT TOEFL... And since you want to take iBT TOEFL, I assume that you already overloaded, loathe/sick with all the iBT TOEFL English materials. So, I'm not going to make vomit in front of computer. I will make it easier by writing it in Bahasa. Pertama , kenapa orang repot-repot ambil iBT TOEFL dan rela ngeluarin duit $150 (mana dolar naek terus lagi) lalu sampe di ruang test, mereka di-plokoto, mesti melototin monitor dengan headset terpasang lalu disiksa ngerjakan soal2 yang jelas2 bukan bahasanya sendiri selama 3.5 jam non-stop dengan resiko kencing batu karena nahan pipis? Motivasi orang beda2. Ada yang rencana mau sekolah di luar, dan sekolanya mensyaratkan nilai TOEFL-nya sekian ratus. Tapi sekolah itu nggak mau TOEFL yang TOEFL-TOEFLan, maunya TOEFL yang asli, yang namanya iBT ato internet Based TOEFL. Jadi dia terpaksa mau disiksa di ruang test iBT TOEFL. Kalo saya, laen lagi. Demi mengajukan aplikasi beasiswa ...

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-...