Journal

VI

22 September 2013

This week is the 6th academic week in NTU. Overall, this week was relaxing yet tiring.

On Monday, everything went like schedule except after the class we hung out for a while at LWN Library. The next evening, our school club had a subcommittee recruitment day. I applied for IT Officer (first choice) and Special Project Specialist (2nd choice). The interview session was short and straightforward, and that day seemed it was uncrowded.

On Wednesday, we got lab session for CZ1004 (Great Ideas in Computing) again, which was the last compulsory lab session for the course. When I worked part-time, it was very uncrowded as I can use the “free-time” to revise CZ1002 (Introduction to Computing System) course which will held a quiz the next day; but because I had badly very much “free-time”, I revised for HE9091 (Principle of Economics), which I was still confused if I had to make it S/U course or not. After work, I visited the library to return back the book about Human-Computer Interaction and then find a book about web design and checked out one book called “Designing Web Interfaces”. Hope I can read through all of it.

I’m quite busy on Thursday. After the morning lectures, I had a group meeting (and lunch) of the HW0110 (Effective Communication) course. We agreed hat we should meet again next Monday discussing the assignment with preparations such as the points we wanted to put in the report. After that, we got tutorial class, quiz, and lectures. The CZ1002 quiz consists of 2 MCQs, 2 T/F questions, and 4 short-answers. Overall, it was easy but I’m not too sure about the T/F questions.

Friday was fun and stressful. The lab session of CZ1005 (Digital logic) was fun, I’m excited about ‘programming’ the logic design from a computer software then run it at a board. After I had my lunch, I got a group meeting on CZ1004 course, this meeting was quite short but crucial as we come upon the problem that our topic is too vast, and after we ask for advice from our tutor, he also think so. Then we decided to pick one of the topic under Human-Computer Interaction and focus on it. We happened to ‘chop’ the tutorial room and use it for another hour just for finding the suitable topic. We then decided to think of it and suggest a topic to decide on next Monday. I was quite stressful about finding new idea. To relive it, I then ate Matcha McFlurry from McDonald’s, it was a nicely flavored green tea ice cream which I found too sweet to be green tea. At the evening, I got a Dhamma Class II held by NTUBS. The speaker talked about Buddhist practices and what was the steps to be a good Buddhist. After the event, the committee had a mooncake-eating event. Well, it was nice to eat mooncake under a full-moon.

On Saturday, my relatives visited me and after some time, they departed. I then did my part on HW0110, CZ1004, and then finished my CZ1003 (Introduction to Computational Thinking) assignment.

On Sunday, we went to Buddhist Fellowship (West Centrer). There Ven. Rathanasara gave a Dhamma Talk about how to dilute bad karma: by doing many good things, the past-bad actions may not be much affecting us in the future. After the lunch, I went to Fairprice at Jurong Point to buy some goods and then went to hair salon to have my hair cut at Hi Salon at Boon Lay MRT Station for just $3.9. This is the first time I had a hair cut outside Medan, to be exact, I had my hair cut almost all the time at the same barber shop in Medan. In the evening, we went swimming and had dinner at Canteen 1.

V

15 September 2013

The fifth week had been a tiring one. Almost everyday I went back to room at night. I tried to come back straight to my room as early as possible but for some reasons I can’t. …

NTU

3 August 2013

Finally I’m at NTU! I’m living in Hall 11 and this week is somewhat busy. We departed to Singapore on 29 July through the newly opened Kuala Namu International Airport. After we arrived at Changi Airport, Singapore, we were fetched by NTU bus directly to our hall. Hall check-in was nicely facilitated by the seniors. There, we also met Welcoming Committee by PINTU (Pelajar Indonesia NTU). They also guided us to do many things required at the next day. On 1 August, my father, mother, and sister came to pay a visit. Actually it was for some agreement signing which my father must attend. Life here is quite tiring, but overall, it was nice!

Mr. Manaek Nababan

18 July 2013

Today, one of the most beloved teacher in my high school passed away. He is Mr. Manaek Nababan, a physics teacher, who was our form teacher at grade 12. He taught me somewhat little, because in the first days of grade 12, I’m attending my brother’s commencement, and I did not get in school for a week because of OSN, and a month because of Pelatnas.

He gave us so many general and specific formulas and put it on a box that make the formula seems important. I did not like to memorize those formula though, I just like to memorize a very general and short form of concept that will derive out the formula. But his general formula is very general that it can be applied at very much cases but the formula is too long to memorize.

Before boarding the plane that took I and Peter to Pelatnas 1 at Bandung, we met a guy who claimed to be an alumnus of Sutomo and former student of Mr. Manaek. He said that Mr. Manaek was used to be a teacher at a public tuition class (like Ganesha Operation), which focuses on speed rather than concept, and that is why he like to give us formulas: to speed up our work in examinations.

There were many quotes from him that were quite funny, like

Gantungkanlah mimpimu sejengkal di atas kepalamu, agar gampang diraih

translation:

Put your dreams a span above your head, so you can reach them easily.

In my opinion, this was to motivate us to reach dreams that were reachable, not to put them at place which were out-of-reach.

On our class’s inauguration party, he intended to come, but because of family matters, he couldn’t make it. Before the party, he told our maths teacher, Mr. HL, that he said that this class was one of the best class he ever taught and he intended to go to the party. But in front of us, he apologize to us that he couldn’t come because of him being the host at his family party that night. The Monday after the the party, we kept the cake that were cut during the inauguration and then shared the cake to him.

The last time I saw him was 24 May 2013, he gave us the letter that states our graduation. His voice that time was already weak, and he wore jackets, like he was sick but pushed himself to show everyone that he was okay. Often they said that when he looked sick, if someone asked him, he will said that he was okay.

This essay may seem very disorganized, but I will keep it that way.

Good bye Mr. Manaek Nababan, thank you and rest in peace.

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