The Risky Journal

 Every December 22, we Indonesians celebrate Mother’s Day (Hari Ibu). We honor our mother for everything what she did. In this day, Indonesians usually celebrate Mother’s Day by letting our mothers “free of their domestic duties”. In this day, mothers all across Indonesia have the privilege for not serving meals, washing dishes or just to clean out the house. However, frankly, I never knew why December 22 is decided as Mother’s Day. I never had a history class in which I learned as to why we celebrate Mother’s Day every December 22. A couple of months ago, I read a book entitled Gender, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia. After reading it , now I know that the true spirit of Mother’s Day is neglected for years. December 22 is chosen to honor the historic event of the very first all Indonesian Women’s Congress happening in 1928, several months after the historic Youth Congress. This information is something I never knew, and I think this piece of information needs to be exposed to

It's not usual for me to give a review of a book. But let me try hahaha ... It's a novel! It is entitled The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. First of all, I would like to tell you as to how I come across this novel. I did not intentionally want to have this novel. It was given to me by an American woman sitting next to me when I flew from Japan to United States of America. She is a teacher, English teacher, at Korea. We had a nice conversations and she was excited to know that I was an American Studies student, a department that she once wanted to enroll in. In the middle of flight she asked whether I like reading or not, then I said 'yes i do'. She then gave a novel by Paulo Coelho entitled 'The Alchemist'. She completed reading the novel for its ninth time, so she said. She told me how good the novel was. Well, frankly I am not a fan of novel reading. But then, I started reading this novel a couple of months after I was done with all of my thesis and graduation

Diambil dari Berita8 Gegap gempita SEA GAMES yang baru saja diselenggarakan bulan lalu sepertinya sangat bertolak belakang dengan ASEAN PARAGAMES yang saat ini sedang diselenggarakan di Solo, Jawa Tengah. Bahkan mungkin, tidak semua orang tahu kalau ASEAN PARAGAMES sedang berlangsung karena publikasi yang tidak semasif acara pendahulunya. Namun, ada hal lain yang lebih memprihatinkan yaitu ketimpangan bonus pagi para pencetak medali di ajang ASEAN PARAGAMES. Mereka yang mendapat emas, perak dan perunggu akan mendapat bonus masing masing sebesar 40 juta, 15 juta dan 7,5 juta. Itupun setelah diprotes dan pada akhirnya dinaikkan. Bila kesemuanya ditotal, jumlahnya pun masih jauh dari jumlah bonus seorang peraih medali emas di ajang SEA GAMES yaitu 200 juta. Menyedihkan memang, tapi ini adalah realitas. Ketimpangan nominal para peraih medali ASEAN PARAGAMES dan SEA GAMES ini menunjukkan bahwa pemerintah masih menganaktirikan atlet – atlet PARAGAMES yang merupakan para

What a year! That is probably the best opening to start reviewing this year. This year is really like a roller coaster. There are ups and downs here and there throughout 2011. Well, I will not list all of the ups and downs in my life in this post, rather I will only point some events that I will never forget in my whole lifetime. Well below is a reversed list of the events. 5. Finishing Thesis MY HOLY SKRIPSI After one year of struggle, I finally finished my thesis by July 18, 2011. It never occurred in my mind that I would actually finished it this year. I saw my self surrounded by doubts that I could make it. These thoughts lingered in my head in the beginning of this year. What in my head was that I kept on writing this thesis, submitting to my supervisor every week, and doing my best. And somehow, it was just over! Well, to remember that I even wrote posting entitled " Skripsi .. Thesis or Whatsoever You May Call This !!" on May. Well, it is funny now reading th

Hey you action movie lovers out there! Have you watched Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol ? Well, you BETTER watch it! Movie Poster from Flicks and Bits It all started with me canceling my plan to look for boarding house in Jakarta today hahaha… Instead, an old friend of mine and I just suddenly agreed to spend the day by hanging out to nowhere. Well, since we’re both moviegoers so we decided to check on the web about movie played in the city’s theater. Well, thanks God she agreed not to watch BREAKINGDOWN (sorry, capslock was activated accidentally). Our selection went to Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol . And it turned out that we did not regret our movie choice J . The movie opens with action scene in Budapest of an IMF agent being chased and eventually killed by an assassin. Then, it cuts to a man in a prison in Moscow who turns out to be Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). Well, then the story builds up with the sudden explosion of Kremlin which leads to an increas

A few days ago, I watched a movie entitled For Colored Girls. Well, although the title says "for colored girls", it does not mean that us, boys, are not allowed to watch this movie! So here is my review about the movie. For Colored Girls Movie Poster from  Rottentomatoes As a play-inspired movie, For Colored Girls  offer its viewers with the experience of watching plays in a movie. It can be felt once you watch it. In the opening of the movie, there are nine Black women having monologue but each monologue corresponds to each other. It is a great opening. The nine Black women deal with each individual conflict, probably as consequences of becoming woman in general and Black woman in particular, such as rape, abortion, love, infidelity, etc. The nine Black women have their own plot but each plot correlates. The characters are represented by a color: Jo/Red ( Janet Jackson ), Juanita/Green ( Loretta Devine ), Yasmine/Yellow ( Anika Noni Rose ), Tangie/Orange ( Thandi

You probably wonder why my blog is decorated with snow flakes all over places... It's not that I celebrate Christmas (well Christmas is massively related to snow), but I admit that it has little thing to do with it. I watched latest Glee episode about Christmas and there is the scene that shows snows falling down from the sky. It was so beautiful that made me miss wandering around snow as I did earlier this year. Well I got the chance to enjoy my very first snow in my lifetime in United States. Thanks to US Department of State for granting me SUSI Scholarship. It was really cool when I watched, touched and felt snow for the very first time. It was cold, lol surely it is. A friend of mine even dared to eat it!! Lucky enough he did not get sick for eating it. Now, watching latest Glee episode entitled Extraordinary Merry Christmas brought me back to memorizing those joyful days of walking around the street when snows were falling down from sky, or even walking in the midst o

I am sorry for neglecting this blog for ages. Some business in the past two months really kept me from updating this blog. Therefore, let me start by posting some lighter posting hahaha ... Well, the past two months were very hectic as I was involved in a recruitment process of becoming a journalist (a journalist to be precisely) in a very well known English newspaper in Indonesia. Thanks God, I was able to make it through. I am leaving Solo by the end of this month, sad, happy, excited, worried, oh well this feeling is indescribable ... Hahaha ... But surely I am going to walk through it. :) During the past two months, I traveled a lot, back and forth Jakarta and Solo (it will be fourteen time by the end of this month). Lucky me, I was still able to have vacation to Dieng Plateau, located in Central Java in October 2011. It was a great trip spent with my great friends. Well, below are some of great pictures taken by a very great photographer " Al Muwafiqi ". Lo

Sore ini saya membaca sebuah tweet dari the Jakarta Globe yang berisi tentang partai NasDem yang mencoba menggandeng MNC Group, salah satu media mogul di Indonesia. Reaksi spontan saya adalah kecewa dan frustasi. Bagaimana tidak? NasDem sendiri adalah partai politik baru yang digawangi oleh Surya Paloh, si pemilik Media Group. Bisa dibayangkan apa yang akan terjadi apabila kedua media mogul ini bergabung dalam kancah politik? Dalam era digital ini, siapapun yang menguasai media, dialah yang akan menang! Ini telah dibuktikan di Indonesia semenjak jaman Orde Baru dimana televisi nasional, TVRI, dikuasai oleh rezim yang berkuasa. Media yang ada digunakan oleh penguasa rezim sebagai alat pencitraan. Ketika itu, tayangan yang favorit adalah tayangan berita yang bertajuk “Dunia Dalam Berita”. Aneh, kok bisa program berita menjadi acara favorit? Ketika media dikuasai oleh rezim Orde Baru, media didekte untuk mengkonstruksi kondisi Indonesia yang dinamis, modern, berkecukupan, adil da

I don't know why somehow this morning I want to listen to an old song by a now fully grown Indonesian singer - Sherina Munaf. It was a song when I was a child. I loved it back then since I love the melody. But this morning, I just realized how deep this song is.  I am in love with its lyric. I love sherina's sincere voice when she sang this song. And below is my favorite part of the lyiric Mengapa bintang bersinar Mengapa air mengalir Mengapa dunia berputar Lihat segalanya lebih dekat Dan 'kuakan mengerti May be it is related to a writing that is in progress :) Well then, good morning pals ... Don't forget to take a look closer to anything in your life ... and you will understand everything better :)

Sumber: arifnurahman.com Sama seperti siang hari kemarin, hari ini saya masih berstatus “jobseeker” istilah keren untuk pengangguran . Kalau semua berjalan lancar, semoga bulan depan saya sudah tidak berstatus demikian, Amiiiin. Untuk mengisi waktu luang, saya pun menghidupkan televisi mencoba melihat apakah ada acara yang menarik. Karena sudah lewat jam 1, saya rasa sudah tidak ada acara yang menarik. Saya kelewatan acara favorit yang mampu menghubur saya yaitu Awas Ada Sule J (ini bukan iklan). Selepas jam 1, yang ada di saluran televisi Indonesia adalah FTV, talkshow, berita, FTV, lalu FTV yang lain  dan film pendek yang lain. Tidak banyak pilihan memang bila kita tidak memakai jasa televisi berlangganan. Akhirnya saya memutuskan menonton beberapa FTV. Ya, beberapa, karena saya selalu pindah-pindah saluran televisi. Semakin saya tonton beberapa FTV ini, banyak hal – hal kecil yang menarik untuk dikomentari. Namun di posting an kali ini saya hanya akan mengamati khusus tentan

Illustration, source: Onthel Melintas Zaman Around 4.45 am, the train I rode entered Jakarta area. It entered Bekasi train station and halted there for a couple of minutes. I knew then that I was about to enter Jakarta as I could see glamorous lights of the skyscrapers on the right contrasted to the darkness of the dawn. Soon enough, people swarmed and entered the train. They were not official Indonesian National Train Company (PT Kereta Api Indonesia, KAI henceforth) workers. They were beggars! It was 4.45 and there were beggars in Jakarta , the capital city of Indonesia , a supposed to be a rich country. It was ironic since these people did not look like beggars. They wore proper t-shirt and had tidy hair style. Yet, they begged for small amount of money from others. Illustration, Source: pencangkul on the blog Then, a girl came spraying air freshener. I thought she did it voluntarily but I instantly knew that it was a silly thought. “Nothing is free”, so I

Sumber: kampungtki.com Siang kira-kira pukul 11.00, Indonesia digemparkan dengan peristiwa meledaknya bom bunuh diri di Gereja Bethel Injil Sepenuh, Kepunton . Seorang pria yang diduga sebagai pelaku tewas ditempat. Sejauh ini, dikabarkan ada seorang jemaah gereja yang meninggal dirumah sakit. Bom yang meledak saat misa berlangsung ini berisi serpihan mur baut dan paku juga melukai belasan jemaah Gereja Kepunton . Saat artikel ini ditulis, polisi masih melakukan olah TKP yang dihadiri secara langsung oleh Kapolri Timur Pradopo. Berita tentang meledaknya bom di tempat ibadah memang isu yang sangat sensitif di Indonesia. Hal ini berkaitan dengan kondisi sosial bangsa ini yang terdiri dari berbagai macam agama. Atau dengan kata lain, Indonesia adalah negara yang plural dalam hal agama. Meledaknya bom di suatu tempat ibadah biasanya akan langsung dikaitkan dengan isu-isu SARA. Sudah menjadi rahasia umum, yang akan menjadi tersangka utama adalah para teroris yang biasanya akan meng

Malam ini adik saya baru saja dibelikan sebuah handphone touch screen bermerek Samsung Corby II . Ya, saya memang yang mengusulkan untuk membeli telepon seluler semacam itu karena dengan harga dibawah satu juta sudah bisa mendapat handphone touchscreen yang fiturnya cukup lengkap. Diambil dari jacquelineluxe.com Saya akui, saya memang tergoda untuk membeli handphone touchscreen. Terlebih lagi setelah adanya booming handphone berperangkat lunak Android yang mayoritas diusung samsung dengan label Galaxy nya yang berplatform Android . Saya bisa dikatakan pernah sampai pada tahap ingin membelinya, uang sudah siap, tinggal beli lah istilahnya. Mengapa saya ingin membelinya? Alasan sederhana ya mungkin karena handphone ini terlihat mewah dan canggih. Mewah kan ketika kita tidak memencet tombol? Mewah ketika handphone kita bisa gunakan sebagai GPS. Terlebih lagi, handphone ini masuk katagori smartphone yang notabene nya adalah handphone "mahal". Meledaknya smartphone di In

Po is back! The Dragon Warrior is on the screen once again with its second sequel. Released on August 16 in Indonesia (ya memang telat sekali Indonesia!!!!! gara gara kasus yang dulu itu), Kung Fu Panda 2 is still played in various Indonesia's cinema theaters. Kungfu Panda 2 Movie Poster The Furious Five and Po are asked to restore order in the Gongmen city as it is ruled by a tyrant peacock named Zen which plans to rule over China. Zen invents the use of fireworks as a deadly weapon. He plans to seize China with his newly invented weapon. However, the story becomes more interesting as it turns out that Zen plays a very important role in Po's past life. He is the key to understand who Po really is. Torn between his curiosity to deeply know his past life and his duty to restore order by defeating Zen, Po becomes a more complex character but still a funny character. In the jokes department, frankly I think Kung Fu Panda 2 is less funny than its prequel. So, if you

Yesterday, September 8, 2011 finally i had my graduation ceremony. I am now officially hold the title "Bachelor in English Language and Literature" (although I prefer Bachelor in American Studies hahahahaaa). Shaking hands with pak Rektor UNS (saat maju menerima ijasah sempat ngeblank tiba-tiba teringat mama hhha somehow I just knew that she was also watching  this from above dan juga teringat wulan hiks) I thank all of my friends in English Department 2006 for their supports and companions during my time in ED. I was so relieved to have friends like them. I specially thank my American Studies 2006 class for everything they gave me in the last semesters of my study.

I just spent lebaran's holiday in Bali with my extended family. Yeah, we departed from Solo in September 1, 2011 spending four days there. Well, although I once went to Bali, this time the nuance was so different as I went there with my extended family, not friends. Below are some pictures of my trip :) Please enjoy my narcissism hahahahaaaa.....  Departure Ratna Transport's Bus

I, Muhammad Rizqi Arifuddin, the owner of this blog would like to say "Taqoballahu Minna Wa Minkum" may our fasting be accepted by the Only Lord, Allah SWT. May we be forgiven for all of our sins. I humbly apologize for my mistakes for all of you ... i am terribly sorry if some of my writings offend you. #HappyHoliday =)

What do you expect when you watch Pirates of the Caribbean movies? Surely, you will expect Captain Jack Sparrow’s crazy actions. However, I cannot find the same atmosphere in the last sequel of Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I know it’s released last May and I realized that it is not an up to date movie review. But hell yeah! I just watched it last night (thanks to issues regarding Hollywood ’s films banning several months ago in Indonesia ). Pirates of the Caribbean on Strangers Tide is the fourth movie of the franchise. It tells the journey of Jack Sparrow in finding the Fountain of Youth. In this movie, he is not accompanied by Elizabeth Swan and Jack Turner. Instead, audience is introduced to Angelica Malon (played by Penélope Cruz) as Sparrow’s former lover. As the continuation of the previous movie, Sparrow does not sail on Blackpearl. In this movie, he is recruited as the crew of Blackbeard Pirates. Jack Sparrow is recruited because it is believed that he once gets

Kata-kata “enthusiastic, smart, active, beautiful, funny, strict” sepertinya kurang cukup untuk mendeskripsikan teman dan sahabat kita, Tri Wulandari Sidjabat. Hari ini, 15 Agustus 2011, dia dipanggil Yang Maha Kuasa, meninggalkan orang-orang yang mengasihinya. Meskipun dia telah pergi, dia akan tetap hidup dalam ingatan kita. Dan berikut adalah bagaimana saya mengingat kehidupan sahabat kita. Pertama kali saya mengenalnya, adalah ketika saya masuk kelas 3 Bahasa di SMA Negeri 2 Surakarta , hampir 6 tahun yang lalu. Kala itu, kesan pertama saya melihatnya adalah, “wah mbake ngeri”. Bagaimana tidak, rambut berantakan, baju dikeluarkan, lengan baju yang dilipat sepertinya menjadi identitas “rebellion” dia. Pertama berkenalan pun, namanya, agak gimanaa gitu, “Ndari”. Seiring berjalannya waktu, teman-teman sekelas pun sering memanggilnya “Djabat” nama marganya. Sering kali dia marah (dan kalau marah …. Hmmm ngerii) ketika dipanggil nama itu. Ya, begitulah saya pertama kali mengenalnya. K

Happy fasting everyone! It’s the twelfth day of Ramadhan and the twelfth day of fasting for us Muslims. But let’s don’t make fasting become a reason for us not to think critically. Before I studied about gender representation in media, I probably won’t be able to say this. I dare to say that during Ramadhan various forms of media (from advertising to news) perpetuate the ideology of women as housekeeper ideology resembling the ideology of women as mother as instilled by Indonesian government during Soeharto era. Try to look at television commercials during sahur (eating before dawn arrives marking the start of fasting) or buka (eating after the sun sets to break the fast). Count how many television commercial that depicts a beautiful-slim-long-haired women who is cooking, preparing meals, washing dishes etc. While their children both girls and boys only wait for their mother. The father surely does not take this domestic issue as he is the breadwinner. Father figure in some adv

GREAT … hanya satu kata ini yang mungkin bisa saya berikan untuk film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Akhirnya, saya pun melihat film ini juga biar melalui laptop, dengan gambar masih theater screen. Namun, saya tak kecewa. Poster 1 Saya sempat khawatir akan bagaimana David Yates selaku sutradara akan memfilmkan bagian ini mengingat banyak bagian yang rumit di novel. Ada beberapa hal misalnya tentang kerumitan untuk masuk ke Gringgott (gimana ya nulisnya yang benar?), kerumitan menjelaskan mantra Caterwhaling di Hogsmeade, menjelaskan kerumitan menemukan diadem Ravenclaw, kerumitan menjelaskan hubungan antara Harry dan Voldemort yang tercipta secara tak sengaja, atau juga menjelaskan proses ‘kepemilikan’ tongkat sihir, cerita tentang Snape yang ternyata adalah seorang yang ‘baik’ dan banyak hal yang lain. Namun, di film ini Yates menurut saya berhasil membuat hal-hal yang hanya bisa dipahami dengan membaca novel nya bisa dengan mudah dicerna oleh para penonton

Lewat tengah malam, h-1 menjelang sidang skripsi, saya masih membuka mata. Jadi saya putuskan menulis saja. Beberapa minggu belakangan ini saya penasaran. Saya ingin tahu negara mana yang memiliki blog terbanyak. Saya mencoba keywords berbagai macam tapi belum menemukan juga. Saya mencoba memasukkan beberapa keywords : "negara pengguna blog terbanyak", " countries which have most blogs ", sampai yang rumit " statistical data of countries that have most blogs in the world " dan tetap saja saya tidak bisa menemukannya. Mungkin kalau ada yang nemu, boleh lah dibagi. Hasil terbaik yang saya dapat ya dari web ini:  http://julianhopkins.net/index.php?/archives/292-Which-country-blogs-the-most.html . Ini pun saya tidak yakin benar akan keabsahan survey si pemilik blog. Tapi setidaknya satu yang pasti, Indonesia tak disinggung di dalam daftar negara pengguna blog terbanyak. Lain halnya bila kita mengetik kewyords "negara pengguna facebook terbanyak"

Hari ini, serial drama korea Dong Yi yang ditayangkan oleh Indosiar berakhir. Besok, serial The Great Queen Soendoek akan ditayangkan ulang. Dulu, stasiun televisi yang sekarang memfokuskan diri pada drama asia ini menayangkan serial Jewel in the Palace . Kalau dilihat, Korea (dalam hal ini yang dimaksud adalah Korea Selatan) memang sering membuat produk serial kolosal yang menayangkan wanita Korea yang mampu meraih status tertinggi di masyarakat pada zaman dahulu kala. Dong Yi, selir kesayangan Raja Sukjong   Ketiga serial ini ( Dong Yi, The Great Queen Soendoek dan Jewel in the Palace ) berdasar pada sejarah yang benar – benar terjadi di Korea . Ketiga tokoh utama yang ada di serial tersebut nyata. Dong Yi , mengkisahkan seorang wanita dari kelas rakyat jelata yang mampu menjadi selir istana kesayangan raja. Namun, di akhir hidupnya, ia memilih untuk tinggal di istana, mengabdikan hidupnya untuk rakyat jelata. The Great Queen Soendoek mengisahkan perebutan tahta di ker

Cinderella, the Front Runner of Disney Princess The Most Famous Disney Princess according to Wikipedia What is in your mind if I mention Disney princesses? You probably will conjure images of Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and other princesses. They all belong in a realm of American popular culture that is so hegemonic, even in Indonesian culture. We have been so accustomed to these characters that we take them for granted. Once we consume a popular culture product, we also consume the ideology embedded within. What do these princesses teach us, or teach your daughter?   Can I say that Cinderella is a bad girl? Or Snow White as an evil character? No, surely not. They all belong to the ‘good’ girl. They are the protagonist of the story. Then, what are the characteristics of a ‘good girl’ according to the princess above? First of all, a good girl is so kind hearted. She is indeed too kind. Why does Cinderella obey all of her step mother’s request? She

Last night, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II was finally released. Knowing nothing whether this movie will be released on time in Indonesia makes me worried. Well... today I will also release my unexposed story during my trip in US!! Hahaha ... You know what, I was lost in Hogwarts !! Yes that's true.  Here the story goes... It was a full fun day... My group and I visited the Islands of Adventure at Universal Studio, Orlando, Florida. Well... the only reason why I chose to visit this place instead of Disney Land was because there is this so called "the Wizarding World of Harry Potter" area hahahaha ...

Sudah cukup lama sebenarnya saya pingin mengkritik iklan extra joss ini. Iklan ini sangat 'silly' dan 'sexist' dalam pandangan saya. Iklan ini diawali dengan frame yang menunjukkan tiga orang lelaki bepawakan kekar, yang bekerja di suatu konstruksi bangunan. Mereka menggenggam minuman berwarna pink di dalam kantong plastik. Wajah mereka tampak lesu dan tak bergairah. Mereka di shoot dengan shallow focus sehingga kamera hanya memfokuskan lensanya pada ketiga pria di frame. Frame awal ini ditemani dengan non-diegetic sound berupa voiceover seorang wanita dengan suara kecil. Dia mengatakan "laki minum rasa - rasa, harusnya ... "

I just got home from Solo Batik Carnival 2011. It was awesome. I needed efforts to get to the comfortable spot to watch this annual parade. This year, it was held in the evening causing more people flooding Slamet Riyadi Street, Solo. Yet, it was worth it. Below is some pictures that I captured, sorry if it is blurred. To get a very smooth picture in that kind of situation with just digital camera is such a heaven blessing hahaha...

Sore ini twitter timeline saya kebanjiran tweets adek tingkat yang sedang mengikuti seminar mainstream. Di Jurusan Sastra Inggris saya memang pada semester akhir akan dibagi menjadi 4 bidang minat: Sastra, Linguistik, Kajian Amerika dan Penerjemahan. Setiap bidang memiliki keunggulan dan kekurangan masing masing. Mungkin demi alasan itu seminar ini diselenggarakan oleh EDCOM. Namun, berbagai reaksi yang muncul di twitter, sangat menarik diamati. Ada yang semula tertarik pada mainstream A, terus tertarik mainstream B. Ada yang semakin mantab dan yakin untuk memilih mainstream yang dari dulu telah disenangi. Ada yang bingung memiilih yang mana karena

Siang tadi, saya menghadiri pekan olahraga antar tingkat yang diselenggarakan di jurusan saya. Angkatan saya bermain basket. Ada dua giliran, pria dan wanita. Ketika para pria sedang bermain, mereka terlihat bermain dengan apiknya. Bola basket seakan menari dalam tangan mereka. Mereka terlihat sangat menguasai bola basket. Ketika giliran para wanita yang bermain, tentu saja terjadi perubahan atmosfer di arena pertandingan. Pertandingan tidak 'sepanas' pertandingan sebelumnya. Disini terlihat para wanita kurang menguasai bola. Dari hal ini, bisa terlihat ada hal yang sangat mendasar yang pada akhirnya membuat suatu konsep gender. Pria terlihat lebih dominan dalam hal ketrampilan olah raga, dalam hal ini basket, daripada wanita. Hal ini yang menjadi suatu konsep gender yang dimaknai sebagai sifat alami pada masing masing kategori seksual (laki - laki dan perempuan). Laki - laki diatributkan dengan ketangkasan. Perempuan diatributkan dengan kelembutan. Olah raga, tentu saja akan

It’s almost two months, yet the building that houses the famous Haunted House is still swarmed by people. My city, Surakarta, witnesses a popular culture ritual that is unfolding. In this post, I would argue that even ghost now attains a status as a popular culture product. Solo, Javanese Culture, and Mysticism As one of the oldest city in Java, Solo once functioned, and it does still function, as the center of Javanese culture in Indonesia. The Keraton Kasunanan (Kasunanan Palace) which was the ruler of Solo, now serves as the cultural guardian of the city. Tracing back to the history of Solo, an assimilated form of Islam is the biggest influence in the city. I argue this as an assimilated form of Islam to refer to the reality that in Solo, Islam is not practiced solely adapting its Arabic version as taught by Muhammad PBUH. Solonese practice both Islam as inscribed by the holy prophet and Javanese cultural belief ( kejawen ) which includes the rituals which are not inscribe

Tomorrow some of my friends in ED 2006 will graduate... I'm going to attend. I know I will feel jealous because they finish it sooner than me haha ... but that jealousy is what I need to burn my spirit. In this post, I promise that the next slot of graduation, I will be in ... Congratulation for all my friends who will graduate tomorrow ... May goodwill with you all ...

I think I am now officially Adele's fan as I wondered through you tube searching for this girl's live performances. I like watching a singer's (or a group's) live performances because I can see whether he/she/they can really sing or not lol. As for Adele, I am amazed at how terrific her live performances are. She was never off the key. She made wonderful improvisations on her own song. Sometimes, her live performances are better than the recorded version. I would like to share you three Adele's live performances that I love the most. Somehow, the three are in acoustics version: Someone Like You This song is about your "x". It's not about crying over your x, but keep on happy for your "x", cherishing the days with your "x". She performed it on Brits Awards 2011. She is so much into the song. Astonishing performance.  Chasing Pavements It's from her first album,  19. I love how she made improvisations in this song

Beberapa menit yang lalu, saya baru saja melihat tayangan berita di salah satu stasiun televisi swasta yang membahas mengenai POLWAN (Polisi Wanita) yang dengan mahir mengendarai 'moge' (motor gede) untuk berpatroli. Ada suatu hal yang menggilitik benak saya sebagai orang  yang suka berkomentar tentang banyak hal. Saya tidak pernah memperhatikan perbedaan kostum antara polisi pria dan wanita sebelumnya. Namun, sepintas ketika saya melihat tayangan berita tersebut saya melihat ada perbedaan yang cukup signifikan. Dalam tayangan tersebut para polwan menaiki motor gede yang bertuliskan polisi di body motor. Namun, ketika kamera menge shoot  bagian belakang helm para polwan itu, tercetak tulisan POLWAN, tidak polisi seperti yang tertera pada body motor tersebut. Juga tidak seperti helm polisi (pria) seperti yang tertera pada gambar diatas. Mengapa polwan harus mendapat helm dengan label POLWAN? Mengapa tidak POLISI? Apakah pekerjaan para wanita itu bukan polisi? Pelabelan &#

Supreme Court USA, Washington DC During my trip to USA on January - February, I visited one of the most important building in US i.e. Supreme Court building. It is located in Washington , DC . Like any other governmental building in US, it is all painted white and it has Greek architecture style. It felt so great to be there. It felt like a dream since one year ago, I only studied it from text book in my American government class.  It was in the morning, and pretty cold, somewhere between 0 - 5 Celsius degree. I love the cold haha. I stood in a line with my group waiting for the door to open. Entering the building, like usual we needed to pass through a very tight security check. Then, the awesome part ... the museum ... Like any other governmental building in Washington DC , there is a museum that is opened for public, and it is free !!! I observed many photos, figures and else ... Then, I found this scripture...

Reading Obama’s speech on the previous post is like reading a story about a hero who wins a great battle. How can’t it be? I try to do small analysis of the text’s structure. If it is observed well, it is like a short story narrative. It is started with the introduction about the story of September 11. It makes Americans remember their bitterest memories. It makes them remember the horrific tragedy happened to them. It craves to their deepest mind about the most painful wound in US’s history. This introduction functions to arouse these feelings, pain, grieve, loss and hatred. It also functions to introduce the problem of good vs evil represented by US vs Al Qaeda. It introduces us to the hero character and the evil character. The evil is Al Qaeda and Osama as the one who committed terrorism. While the hero is US (its government and its troops) for standing for its citizens, for the sake of securing them from further attacks.  The body of the text conveys the sequence of even