A Lil' Shock and My Last Competition

ENGLISH

One of my most favorite TV show these weeks is American Idol 2006 (season 5). Well, you know I don't live in The US, but many TV Channel here show this program as one of theirs. (probably this is one kind of The US' imperialism). However, that's not what I want to write right now.

Well, this week, the Idols were down to the top 10 and they sang the 21st century songs. Some of them were good and the other were terrible. The judges (Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell) were pretty hard to be pleased. For me, some of them did great (Katharine, Elliott, and Paris). Some were good (Mandisa, Lisa, Chris, and Taylor). And the rest were horrible. But, in the result show the bottom three (of votes) was shocking and unpredictable. Katharine, Ace, and Lisa were in the Bottom Three. I was pretty surprised to see Lisa and Katharine (especially Katharine) in the bottom three. Katharine is always great in her performances (well, this week wasn't her best, I admit). Lisa sang good, but she had been in the bottom three for 2 weeks in row. Ace, he is terrible for me, and I guess he won't stand long on that stage.... . And, the one who was voted off is XXX (well, I don't want to write his/her name because I don't want to ruin the excitement for those who haven't watched this episode yet).

Well, this morning I got an offering from my biology teacher to join a biology olympiad next April. I accept it and it means that my first and last competitions during my high-school time are both biology, lol.

To download those bottom three mp3s (American Idol), click on their name and songs here and just follow the guide):
Ace Young - Drops of Jupiter
Lisa Tucker - Because of You
Katharine McPhee - The Voice Within

::: Bottom three this week

INDONESIAN

Salah satu acara TV favoritku sekarang adalah American Idol 2006 (season 5). Yah, kamu tahu aku nggak tinggal di Amerika, tapi banyak stasiun TV disini yang nayangin acra ini sebagai salah satu program mereka. (mungkin ini salah satu contoh dari imperialisme Amerika). Tapi, bukan itu yang mau aku tulis sekarang.

Minggu ini, acara ini sampai ke babak 10 besar dan mereka menyanyikan lagi-lagi dari abad 21. Beberapa dari mereka tuh bagus, beberapa jelek. Jurinya (Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, dan Simon Cowell) ternyata agak susah untuk dibuat seneng. Untuk aku, beberapa tuh bagus (Katharine, Elliott, dan Paris). Beberapa lumayan bagus (Mandisa, Lisa, Chris, danTaylor). Sementara sisanya jelek. Tapi, di result show kemarin, 3 terbawah (dari votingnya) mengagetkan, bikin shock, dan nggak terduga. Katharine, Ace, sama Lisa ada di 3 terbawah. Aku kaget ngeliat Lisa sama Katharine di 3 terbawah (terutama Katharine). Katharine tuh selalu bagus di tiap penampilannya (tapi yang kemarin bukan yang terbaik sih). Lisa nyanyinya lumayan, tapi dia dah di 3 terbawah selama 2 minggu berturut-turut. Ace, dia sih jelek banget, dan aku duga dia ga bakalan lama berdiri di panggung itu.... . Dan yang tereliminasi adalah XXX (aku nggak mau nulis namanya dulu soalnya aku nggak mau menghancurkan keasyikan mereka yang belom nonton episode ini).

Pagi ini aku dapet tawaran dari guru biologiku untuk ikut lomba biologi. Aku menerimanya dan artinya lomba pertama dan terakhirku di masa-masa SMA adalah kesemuanya Biologi, he3....

Untuk men-download mp3nya 3 terbawah American Idol, ada tuh di atas. Klik aja nama / judul lagunya trus ikuti petunjuknya.

It's Wednesday!!

ENGLISH

Well, this Wednesday is a little bit different with the usual Wednesdays because tomorrow is a holiday!!!

First of all, I want to say HAPPY NYEPI DAY to all Hindu-people, especially them in Bali. (Well, if you don't know what Nyepi is, Nyepi is the last day of Balinese Calendar, when no work is done)

This morning I just had an ordinary school-day. Well, we also had some classes in the lab to prepare our practical final examination in both Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Those would be held in the end of April. Then, I went back home at 13.30 and I just took a nap (after checking email and doing some stuffs around the computer).

At 18.00, three of my friends came to my house to continue our discussion which we also had last Monday at Silla Restaurant. It's almost fixed but we still have to do some more things, so I won't tell what it is now... :D. Well, we chose today because tomorrow is holiday, so we could have the discussion freely. That's not the only reason actually. We decided to have the discussion here in my house because we also wanted to spend less money. If we had dinner somewhere, we would have to spend more money (just like what we did last Monday). Then, we also watched the American Idol Season 5 Top 10 show here.... :) Well, at 10.30 PM we finished and they went back home.

INDONESIAN

Hmm, hari Rabu ini sedikit banyak agak berbeda dari hari-hari Rabu yang biasanya soalnya besok kan libur!!!

Pertama-tama, aku pingin mengucapkan SELAMAT HARI RAYA NYEPI kepada semua orang yang beragama Hindu, terutama yang tinggal di Bali.

Pagi ini tuh di sekolah cuma hari yang biasa aja sih untuk aku. Kita juga ada beberapa kelas di lab untuk mempersiapkan ujian praktikum kita di semua pelajaran Biologi, Kimia, dan Fisika. Semua ujiannya bakalan diadain akhir April nanti. Trus, aku pulang ke rumah jam 13.30 trus istirahat siang (sesudah ngecek email dan melakukan beberapa hal seputar komputer donk tentunya).

Jam 18.00 sore, tiga temenku dateng ke rumahku untuk melanjutkan diskusi kita yang juga kita lakuin Senin kemarin di Restoran Silla. Sudah hampir jadi / pasti sih tapi kita masih harus melakukan beberapa hal lagi, jadi aku nggak bakalan nulis disini apa itu sekarang... :D Trus, kita memilih hari ini soalnya besok kan libur, jadi diskusinya ya lebih bebas gitu. Sebenernya sih itu bukan satu-satunya alasan. Kita memutuskan untuk diskusi di sini, di rumahku, soalnya kita juga pingin mengeluarkan uang lebih sedikit. Kalo misalnya kita makan malem dimana gitu, kan kita harus mbayar uang lagi kan (kayak Senen kmaren gitu)? Trus, kita juga nonton shownya American Idol season 5, 10 besarnya... :) Trus jam 10.30 akhirnya selesai juga dan mereka pulang ke rumah.

Monday + A Dark Night

ENGLISH

Today at 4 PM I went with my friends to talk about something important (well, I won't write the details right now, but I will tell it someday when everything is almost fixed... :D). It was raining very hard from 2.30 PM. At first we planned to go at 3 PM, but my friend asked me to postpone it until 4 PM. I thought it was okay because it was raining very hard at 2.30 PM and I wish it would not be very hard at 4 o'clock. But my wish didn't come true, it was still raining very hard at 4 PM.

Well, then we decided to have dinner at Silla Restaurant to talk about it. We arrived at Silla Restaurant at 5 PM and then ordered our meals. After that we discussed about it while we were eating. At 6.30 we finished having dinner then we went to the Karyoke. It was very expensive!! I thought it was Rp. 28.000,oo for two hours (my friend had asked that to the receptionist and she nodded >> it means an agreement right??). But it was not, Rp. 28.000,oo is for one hour!! OMG, it was very expensive. When I went there some weeks ago (it was weekend). It was not that expensive. It's weird because Monday is more expensive than weekend.... :(

Well, I arrived at home at 9 PM and PLN Sucks!!!!!!! The electricity went out AGAIN. Yea, two days ago it also went out for an hour and so did yesterday. And today it happened again!?!?!?! OMG. PLN works very poorly and I hate that. So, it was no electricity from 7.30 PM until 11.55PM!!!!! Crazy...... . Not only these last 3 days actually. Before, the electricity ALWAYS went out at least once in a two weeks... . That's annoying, isn't it?

INDONESIAN

Hari ini jam 4 sore aku pergi sama temenku untuk membicarakan sesuatu yang penting (aku nggak bakalan nulis detailnya skarang, tapi aku pasti nulis setelah semuanya hampir pasti... :D). Tadi hujan deres banget dari jam 2.30 siang. Pertamanya sih kita mo pergi jam 3. Tapi temeneku minta untuk nunda sampe jam 4. Aku rasa pas itu sih gapapa soalnya kan lagi ujan tuh dan aku berharap moga-moga dah nggak ujan lagi jam 4nya. Tapi ternyata harapanku nggak terkabul, ternyata masih ujan deres tuh pas jam 4.

Trus, kita mutusin untuk makan malem di Restoran Silla untuk membicarakan hal itu. Kita sampe di Restoran Silla jam 5 sore trus pesen makanan kita. Kita mendiskusikan tentang hal itu sambil makan. Jam 6.30 akhirnya kita selesai makan trus pergi ke karaoke. Mahal banget tadi!! Aku kira tuh Rp. 28.000,oo / dua jam (temenku dah tanya ke resepsionisnya tentang hal ini dan dia mengangguk >> artina persetujuan kan??). Tapi ternyata enggak, Rp. 28.000,oo tuh untuk satu jam!! OMG, mahal banget tuh. Waktu aku kesana beberapa minggu yang lalu (pas akhir mingu) nggak semahal itu koq. Ini aneh soalnya masak Senen bisa lebih mahal dari harga weekend... :(

Aku sampe di rumah jam 9 malem dan ternya apLN menyebalkan!!!! Listriknya mati LAGI. Ya, dua hari yang lalu mati juga selama satu jam, dan kemarin juga. Dan hari ini terjadi lagi!?!?!?!? OMG. PLN kerja dengan sangat buruk dan aku benci banget tuh. Jadi, tadi nggak ada listrik sejak jam 7.30 malem sampe jam 11.55!!! Gila.... . Nggak cuma 3 hari terakhir aja sebenernya. Sebelumnya, listrik SELALU mati paling nggak sekali dalam dua minggu.... . Menyebalkan banget kan?

A Few New Books

ENGLISH

Some days ago, I went to the bookstore looking for some new books. I hadn't gone to the bookstore for quite a long time (about 2 months I think) and because of that I missed some new books. I collect some comics and I missed some new volumes of them. My brother told me that new edition of some comics had already released and he asked me to buy them (well, actually I could refuse it and asked him to buy that comics instead of me but I thought it was okay if I bought the comics).

First, I went to Toga Mas. This bookstore is always in my top list because they sell books cheaper than another bookstores. They give discount around 10 - 20% and that's pretty much, isn't it? Unfortunately, I didn't get all books that I was looking for. I just got 2 of them. And then, I went to Gramedia to continue my book hunting. Finally, I got all of them there (Gramedia is actually the most complete bookstore, but unfortunately, they don't give us discount and because of that they sell books more expensive.). Well, actually I got more than I want. I was tempted to buy Harry Potter 6 (The Half-Blood Prince) and The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe).

This is the pic of the books which I bought
:: Some books which I bought

INDONESIAN

Beberapa hari yang lalu, aku pergi ke toko buku untuk nyari beberapa buku yang baru. Aku dah nggak pergi ke toko buku lumayan lama (sekitar 2 bulan deh kayaknya) dan karena itu aku kelewatan banyak buku baru. Akumengoleksi beberapa komik dan aku kelewatan beberapa edisi yang baru. Adikku bilang ke aku kalo edisi baru dari komik-komik itu dah terbit dan dia minta aku untuk beli tuh komik (sebenernya sih bisa aja aku menolak dan gantian nyuruh dia untuk beli tuh komik nggantiin aku, tapi aku piki-pikir nggak papa deh kalo aku yang beli komiknya).

Pertama-tama, aku pergi ke Toga Mas. Toko buku ini selalu berada di baris teratas daftarku soalnya mereka njual bukunya lebih murah dari toko-toko lain. Mereka ngasi diskon sekitar 10 - 20%, lumayan kan? Sayangnya, aku nggak dapet semua buku yang aku cari disini. Aku cuma dapet 2 dari kesemuanya. Trus, aku pergi ke Gramedia untuk melanjutkan perburuan bukunya. Akhirnya, aku dapat semua buku yang aku cari deh (sebenernya Gramedia tuh toko buku yang paling lengkap, cuma sayangnya mereka nggak ngasih diskon dan karena itu mereka jual bukunya jadi lebih mahal). Sebenernya sih aku dapet bukunya lebih dari yang aku harapkan loh. Aku tergoda juga untuk beli buku Harry Potter 6 (Pangeran Berdarah Campuran) sama The Chronicles of Narnia (Singa, Penyihir, dan Lemari)

Gambar buku-buku yang aku beli ada di atas tuh... :)

It's not our fault, but.....

ENGLISH

I hope you are not bored with this topic, but I just want to write my opinion about TPHBS....

Until right now, I have already done 6 (of 9) subjects, they are: biology, Indonesian, Mathematics, PPKn, English, and Chemistry. And in every subject, there always appears some mistakes on the questions. The mistakes are usually there are more than one answers on the options, there is NO correct answer on the option, there is NO question but we have to choose one best answer for it (don't you think it's weird??), there is a question about a picture but there is NO picture to see, etc.

These are the examples.
1. In English section this morning there was a listening section. First, the quality of the tape was very very low. I thought there was a sound effect (of rain) on the recording, LOL >> they buzzed all the time. Then, the last part of it was listening to short passage. And in the last passage, the only sentence which talked about people just like this: "People in this area are unbelievable friendly". And we only had: busy, lazy, friendly, and beautiful as the options. Yea, probably I misheard, but it was because the low quality......
2. For question number 15 on math subject, we only had a black rectangle and we had to choose the answer... . Don't you think that's silly? (you can see the pic below).
3. In math exam last Tuesday, there were 7 wrong questions (there were 30 questions total and 7 of them are wrong!!)
4. etc.....

Fortunately, because this is still TPHBS, so my school decides to make all wrong questions as bonus (we had to fill 2 answer sheet, one for school and one for the government >> the government will check it). So, our school can check our answer and give us mark, and this mark is counted as our real score.... . But, if it's the real Final Examination (UAN), we can do nothing. We have to send our answer to Jakarta, and even if there are some wrong questions, the correct answer is the answer on their answer key and we can't protest anything about it. There is no bonus score.... .

:: Take a look at question number 15

INDONESIAN

Moga-moga nggak pada bosen deh sama topik ini, tapi aku cuma mau nulis pendapatku tentang TPBHS ini....

Sampe sekarang, aku udah ngerjain 6 (dari 9) mata pelajaran, yaitu Biologi, Bahasa Indonesia, Matematika, PPKn, Bahasa Inggris, sama Kimia. Dan di setiap mata pelajaran, selalu aja deh ada kesalahan di soalnya. Kesalahannya biasanya ada lebih dari 1 jawaban di pilihannya, nggak ada jawaban yang bener di pilihannya, nggak ada soalnya tapi kita suru milih jawabannya (nah, bingung nggak tuh...), trus ada soaln tentang gambar tapi nggak ada gambarnya, dll.

Ini dia contoh-contohnya.
1. di ulangan Bahasa Inggris tadi pagi ada bagian listengnya. Pertama, kualitas kasetnya jeleeeeekkk banget, kayak ada sound effect hujannya di rekamannya, LOL >> soalnya brrrzzzz trus sih. Trus, di bagian terakhir listening kan mendengarkan ke bacaan pendek. Di bacaan terakhirnya satu-satunya kalimat yang ngebicarain orang tuh gini:"People in this area are unbelievable friendly". Dan kita cuma punya: busy, lazy, friendly, and beautiful sebagai pilihan jawabannya. Mungkin sih aku salah denger, tapi kan itu juga gara-gara kualitas tapenya yang jelek....
2. Untuk soal nomer 15 di matapelajaran matematika kemarin, kita cuma ada kotak hitam trus kita suruh milih jawabannya... . Aneh banget kan? (bisa diliat tuh fotonya di atas)
3. Di ulangan matematika kemarin ada 7 soal yang salah. (Kemarin matematikanya ada 30 soaln dan 7 diantaranya salah!!)
4. dll

Untungnya, karena ini cuma TPHBS, jadi sekolahku masih bisa memutuskan untuk membonuskan semua soal yang salah (kita kan harus ngisi 2 lembar jawaban, satu untuk sekolah dan satu untuk dinas >> dinas bakalan ngecek jawabannya). Jadi, sekolahku bakalan ngecek jawaban dan ngasih nilai, nah nilai ini yang bakalan diitung sebagai nilai kita.... . Tapi kalo misalnya ini terjadi di Ujian Akhior Nasional (UAN) nanti, kita dah nggak bisa apa-apa lagi. Kita mesti ngirim jawaban ke Jakarta dan walaupun ada beberapa soal yang salah, jawaban yang bener adalah jawaban di kunci mereka dan kita nggak bisa protes. Juga nggak ada nilai bonus.... .

Boring Weekend + MonDay

ENGLISH

Last weekend was a boring weekend for me. I went nowhere and just stayed at home and studied because starting this morning I have a test we called TPHBS (Pre-Final Examination Test).

Talking about last Saturday, my orange fermentation was finished. At first we thought that my team's fermentation was not successfull because on Friday when we checked it, there was no bubble (there should be some bubbles). But, when we and our teacher checked it, she said that it was succesful (yaaay.... !!!) and we could drink it if we want. So, we boiled it first and then we brought it to class, and drank it when the breaktime. Well, it was bitter actually (because I didn't take the fiber away, and those fiber caused the bitterness on the drink). It smelt like a tape and I think it contained a pretty high alcohol (of course la, alcohol fermentation clearly created alcohol). But unfortunately, when my orange fermentation succeed, my tempe fermentation failed. Not only me, some other team also failed on this experiment. But the tape experiment succeed just like the orange alcohol.

This morning, just like what I have said above, I had the first day of my TPHBS. I had Indonesian and Biology this morning. They were not very hard but also not very easy. For biology, I had to memorize a very very large ammount of things and it was unpleasant. But that's okay.... :) Tomorrow I have math and PPKn test....

::: My Orange Fermentation

Two tested subjects (Biology and Indonesian)

INDONESIAN

Akhir minggu kemarin adalah akhir minggu yang membosankan untuk aku. Aku nggak kemana-mana dan cuma diem aja di rumah sambil belajar soalnya mulai pagi ini kan aku ada tes yang disebut sebagai TPHBS (Tes Penjajakan Hasil Belajar Siswa / Pra - Ebta).

Ngomong-ngomong tentang Sabtu kemarin, fermentasi jeruknya akhirnya selesai. Pertamanya aku kira fermentasi kelompokku gagal soalnya pas hari Jumat dicek, dah nggak ada gelembungnya (padahal seharusnya kan ada gelembung-gelembungnya tuh). Tapi waktu kami sama guruku ngecek, ternyata berhasil (yaaayy.... !!!) dan kita bisa meminumnya kalo kita mau. Jadi, kita pertama-tama merebusnya dulu, trus habis itu dibawa ke kelas, trus diminum pas istirahat. Ternyata rasanya agak pahit (soalnya aku nggak ngambil serabut-serabutnya, dan sayangnya serabut-serabutnya itu yang bikin pahit). Baunya kayak bau tape gitu dan kayanya ih mengandung banyak alkohol (jelas lah, namanya aja fermentasi alkohol ya pasti ada alkoholnya donk...). Tapi sayangnya, ketika fermentasi jerukku berhasil, fermentasi tempeku gagal. Nggak cuma kami, tapi kelompok-kelompok lain juga gagal fermentasinya. Tapi fermentasi tapenya berhasil koq kayak fermentasi jeruknya.

Pagi ini, kayak yang udah aku bilang i awal tadi, adalah hari pertama dari tes TPHBS. Tadi tuh ulangan Bahasa Indonesia sama Biologi. Nggak susah-susah amat sih, tapi juga nggak gampang-gampang amat. Untuk biologi, aku mesti ngapalin banyaaaaaaaaak banget dan nggak menyenangkan tuh. Tapi nggak papa koq... :) Besok aku ulangan matematika dan PPKn...

Another Friday

ENGLISH

At school this morning I had an Indonesian Practice Test. Unfortunately, I didn't remember that it was gonnabe held this morning, and I knew it just 15 minutes before the test started!! Then, I just let it flows. It was not very hard, but there were so many reading questions which made us take more time in doing them.

Afterschool, I went back home and then I took a nap for 2 hours until 2.45 PM. At 3 PM I went with my friends to watch and attend the overseas education exhibition. It was below our expectation. We thought it would be a great and big exhibition and we would meet a lot foreigners, etc. But it wasn't. After that, we left it at 4 PM and we went to Plaza Ambarrukmo (actually we didn't plan to go to PA, but because we spent less time in the exhibition, we had more time to spend, and PA is pretty close to that exhibition place, therefore we went there). We spent about 1 hour in PA and then had dinner at Waroeng Steak Restaurant. Then, we went back home. At home I played computer and surfed the net.

INDONESIAN

Di sekolah pagi ini aku ada latihan ulangan Bahasa Indonesia. Malangnya, aku nggak inget kalo tesnya bakalan diadain tadi pagi, dan aku baru inget 15 menit sebelum tesnya dimulai!! Ya udah, aku cuma membiarkannya mengalir aja. Nggak susah-susah amat, cuma ada banyak bacaannya jadi kita kan ngerjainnya jadi lebih lama juga.

Habis sekolah, aku balik ke rumah dan istirahat siang selama 2 jam sampe jam 2.45 siang. Jam 3 sore aku pergi sama temenku untuk nonton dan menghadiri pameran pendidikan di luar negeri. Ternyata pamerannya dibawah harapan. Aku kira tuh pamerannya bakalan gede dan hebat gitu dan kita bakalan ketemu banyak orang asing disana. Tapi tadi nggak kayak gitu. Habis itu, kita meninggalkan pameran jam 4 sore trus kita ke Plaza Ambarrukmo (sebenernya sih kita nggak ngerencanain mau ke PA, tapi karena kita menghabiskan lebih sedikit waktu di pamerannya, kita jadi ada waktu untuk dihabisin, dan PA lumayan deket sama tempat pamerannya, makanya kita pergi kesana). Kita di PA tadi sekitar 1 jam trus makan malem di Waroeng Steak/ Habis itu kita pulang. Di rumah aku main komputer sama main internet.