About Jobs

In our life, I’m sure that everyone wants a job that they love, but at the same time, get well paid for it. Unfortunately though, that is just a dream to a lot of people. We often meet people who have a really high position in their workplace and a really high salary, but at the same time are stressed and unhappy. There are also people who have a job that they really enjoy, but do not earn much. As our time on earth is precious, I would prefer to have a job that I enjoy so that I could have a good life.
As most people will tell you, time is precious. We need to make good use of our time. Why spend so much of our limited time on things that do not make us happy and gives us so much pressure. A lot of us work every day except on Sundays, which shows just how much we work for the sake of earning money. Then on Sundays, we might be too tired to do anything except for resting. Why should we spend a lot of our time on things that do not satisfy or make us happy?

If we’re not happy at work, often times we will bring the unhappiness back home. When we are tired, our mind won’t be able to think well. We will lash out at every little thing. The atmosphere will be unpleasant. This may make our family members or anyone living with us wary. Our relationship with family members will also deteriorate.

If we are stress or unhappy for a long time, it may give us health problems. It has been discovered that stress can lead to sicknesses such as cancer. Instead of having a lot of money from our high income, we waste a lot of money on medical bills. Is this all really worth it just for the sake of earning money for our living?

There will always be obstacles and hardships in any job that we take. When we have a passion for somethingthat we love, we have the motivation to always try our best when facing obstacles, no matter how hard it is. We will always try to improve ourselves and our jobs too. Thus, we will be able to grow in our career faster. On the other hand, when we encounter a setback while doing a task that we dislike, it will be harder for us to solve it because we lack enthusiasm.

Why should we pressure ourselves with earning a lot of money? It’s not worth it. As long as we are able to earn enough for our living and some extras. Money isn’t everything, and we cannot buy happiness. Those who chose the jobs that they like will have a much happier life. Even if they don’t make much money, they will at least be able to earn enough for their lives. Those who don’t like their jobs might earn much more but in reality they dislike their repetitive tiring lives.

Chromatography With Natural Colours

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know if the colours in nature are made up of different colours too. So I decided to do chromatography on flowers, using this website as a guide.

Initially, I wanted to use the flowers hibiscus and Clitoria Ternatea for my experiment. Unfortunately though, I couldn't find the latter and so had to walk around my neighbourhood to find for other flowers. There were a lot of pink flowers, but according to the website, pink flowers may not work well. In the end, I found 2 red flowers (Hibiscus and Maule's Quince ), red Plumeria and Allamanda.

Materials:

- Flowers

- Filter paper

- Alcohol

- Clear glass jars

- Spoon/anything hard to crush the flowers

- Scissors

First, I crushed some of the Hibiscus petals using the spoon in the middle of the filter paper. I did this to take the pigments out. I expected red to come out, but surprisingly, a purplish colour went out instead. It's kind of wet, so I left it out to dry for a while.

While waiting for the hibiscus colour to dry, I crushed all the Allamanda petals. I forgot to leave a petal or 2 out to show you the flower.

Next I crushed the Maule's Quince petals. As it's really red, the purple colour that came out was much stronger than the Hibiscus's.

After that, I crushed the red Plumeria. If you see the petals, there is the colour yellow, but no yellow pigment came out, only the purple one. It's not as strong as the other purples, though.

I then cut a strip from the edge of the circle to the pigments. After filler the glass cups with water and some alcohol, I dipped the strip into the water. Next up is waiting!

From left to right, top to bottom: Hibiscus, Maule's Quince, red Plumeria, Allamanda.

After waiting for half an hour or more, these are the results I got:

Hibiscus and red Plumeria.

Maule’s Quince and Allamanda

From what I observed in the experiment, the red from the Hibiscus was made up of purplish brown and yellow, while the red Plumeria was made up of faded purple, faded yellow, and brownish yellow. The Maule's Quince was made up of purple, yellow, and a tiny bit of brownish yellow, and the Allamanda was made up of brown.

Conclusion:

When compared to the synthetic colours in the previous post, the natural colours aren't as strong as the synthetic ones. The colours that made up the synthetic ones mostly true to their colours; red is made up of red and pink, green is made up of green and a tiny bit of blue. However, in the case of colors from nature, the colours separated may not be the colours we originally see. The red in the Hibiscus and Maule's Quince was not made up of red, pink, or any colours that are close to it but purplish brown and yellow.

The colours of the flowers were really bright, but when mixed with water and separated, I observed that the colours are dark and dull and it seemed to always contained some brown. Meanwhile, the synthetic colours didn’t change much; they still have their brightness and colour. This might be because the particles of the natural colours dissolve in the water, while synthetic colours are synthetically made to retain its original colour.

Chromatography With Synthetic Colours

Recently, I learned about chromatography in my O Level Chemistry. Chromatography is the separating of the colours that are in a chemical mixture using water on a filter paper. One of its uses is to check if the colouring used does not contain any banned chemical.

There were 2 choices of how I could set up the experiment in my chemistry book, by using either a circular filter paper or just using a strip of it. I decided to use the circular one, because I have that filter paper. Cutting just a strip out of it would be a waste. It's also easier to set up for me.

Materials:

- Beaker/see-through glass

- Filter paper

- Food Colours (the chemical I want to experiment with)

- Markers (the chemical I want to experiment with)

- Ruler

- Pencil

- Scissors

First, I filled the beaker with water (around 250 ml), then dotted the middle of the filter paper with purple food colour. I then cut a strip of the filter paper, 1 cm wide, from the edge of the paper to the centre. Unfortunately, though, my dot was too big, so I couldn't use it. The water won't be able to separate the colours well if it's too big; I need a bigger filter paper for the colours to separate.

So I repeated the steps above, except with a smaller dot. I fold the strip of paper down in the middle and put the filter paper on top of the beaker, making sure that the end of the strip of paper touches the water. The water will soak the paper, and will move up the paper. When it touches the ink, it will separate the colours as it spreads out on the filter paper.

My food colouring has never been used for years, so some of the food colour around the bottle dropper had dried and became powder-like. Some of the powder fell on the strip, and when they got the water, they spread out as pink. You can see it in the picture on the right.

After waiting for around 15 minutes, I started to see a reaction. The first colour that I saw spread out was red, then a little bit of blue. This is how it looks like after I waited a bit longer, around 15 minutes later:

Next, I tried the red food colour:


I made the dot too big, but at least it isn't as big as my first dot at the start of this experiment.

This is how it looked like after 30 minutes:

The only colour I see in this food colour is red. After that I decided to do several colour tests together so that I save time. Otherwise I had to wait around 30 minutes for each test to finish and I wanted to do a lot of colour tests.

This is what happened around 30 minutes later.

A closer look:


I wasn't satisfied with the colour spread of the blue marker, so I decided to change markers. This is the result of my second experiment:

Satisfying

I noticed that the edges of the colour spread vary. The edges of the colour spread from the food colouring are wavy, while the edges of the markers are round and smooth.

The colour spread of the green and brown marker, red and yellow food colouring is true to its respective colour. Green markers produces green colour, brown markers produces brown colour, red food colouring produces red colour and yellow food colouring produces yellow. Whereas the blue board marker produces blue and pink colours. I thought that this was interesting as I didn’t expected pink in a blue marker.I noticed that blue and pink/red appears a lot. I don't exactly know why, but perhaps it's because they're 2 of the 3 primary colours.

Why do different colours rise to different levels? This is because the particles of each colour have different solubility (how well they dissolve in water). Those which are less soluble and doesn't dissolve in water well aren't easily brought along by the water. While those that are more soluble dissolves better in water and are easily brought along the water as it goes up the paper.

It was pretty fun making this experiment, as I could see all the different colours that make up some food colours and markers. This experiment was also time-effective. I had to wait quite long for the colours to spread, so while waiting, I could do my other studies while waiting.

Homeschooling: An Alternative for Education

Recently, homeschooling has become a popular choice among families who are not comfortable with the limitations of formal schooling, my family included. Some people confuse homeschool with flexi school or tutoring. Homeschooling is learning on our own in our home. As for Flexi schools, students study at home but still go to classes organized by the educational organization two to three days a week. Whereas tutoring is having someone come and teach you at your home.

There are also many different home schooling methods. Some followed a method made by Charlotte Mason and there are those who pay for a program where they can get printable modules. Some others, like me, designed our own lessons. There are various more types of homeschooling, but those 3 methods above are the ones that I’m most familiar with. I studied in a formal school up to primary level. Afterwards, I began homeschooling for junior high level. Homeschooling is much more flexible in many aspects, including time management, subjects we learn, teaching methods, etc. Although homeschooling is far from perfect, I think its benefits outweigh its limitations.

I experienced quiet a staggering amount of school tasks when I was in primary school and up till now, I still get plenty of complaints from my former primary classmates about their pile of works. They had to follow the government’s curriculum, which includes a lot of subjects. Students have to study math, science, Bahasa Indonesia, religion, PKN, etc. After school, they still have academic courses (bimbel) to catch up with their school subjects. Additionally, they also must complete tons of projects and study for exams. That leaves no time for them to pursue subjects that they are interested in.

With homeschooling, I had a more flexible schedule compared to my school friends. I only studied the necessary subjects that I need for my life and things that interests me. I study basic lessons such as math to calculate well, science to understand how everything works, language so I can communicate correctly with others, geography and history so I know about the world I live in. I also play music for fun. My average schedule everyday consists of several hours of math, science, and geography. Additionally, I also study English, history, and music as subjects that I have great interest in.

In most schools, students are usually taught in a uniform style. Students’ uniqueness and abilities are not taken into consideration. All students have their own learning styles and talents. Teachers expect students to learn what they teach in the same way and the same pace. This will result in that some students will fail in some subjects because they are not good at it. They will be given extra lessons and pressured to improve their grade. On the other hand, the subjects that the students excelled at will be overlooked because their grade is already good enough to pass. This situation will make the students feel frustrated because they are only drilled to focus to improve their weaknesses. Yes, weaknesses should not be ignored, but it’s the students’ capabilities that should be developed. This will make them excel in what they’re good at; they will not become a “Jack of all trades”. It’s a figure of speech used to call people who are able to do everything, both their weaknesses and strengths, but they are a master of none.

School teaching methods are also usually teacher-centered. Teachers control the subject materials and study pace. They “spoon fed” the lessons to the students; the teacher explain and the students are expected to pay attention. Afterwards, they will be given exercises to do and they will be expected to complete the exercises according to what the teachers have taught. Students are usually not allowed to have different answers or working methods to the exercises.

Meanwhile homeschool is student centered. This means that the children have control (with parent supervision) over their study pace. They have to make their own study schedules and learn the lessons on their own. They are not required to finish learning the lesson within a certain time frame (one hour for example), but the goal is to master and understand the lesson, however long it takes.

A lot of people are still confused about how homeschoolers learn. Well, I just open my textbook and read! I then try to understand the chapters and do the written and practical exercises from the books. When I have trouble understanding my lessons, I proactively find and use other resources to help me. Some of my sources are my parents (they are not teachers), the internet, and books. We have to read and understand the lessons on our own, without a teacher to explain directly to us. We will be more independent problem solvers because we do not depend on just our teachers to help us, but we learn to find different methods to learn until we understand the lessons.

I learned to discipline myself through homeschooling. When I was at school, I did my school tasks mostly out of fear of my teacher. It’s not that my teachers are fierce, it’s just that they are capable of threatening us and are able to give out punishments. Until now, I still have problems with disciplining myself. Back home, there was no one to do those, so I sometimes still wait for my mom’s presence and reminders to study. My parents didn’t threaten and punish me because they want me to be able to control and discipline myself. I often hear comments about how homeschool students lack socialization. This is an ignorant comment. As much as I’d like to be respectful here and not judge other people’s questions, I really find that question annoying. It’s as if because I am a homeschool student, I’m scared of other people and I don’t socialize at all. Homeschool students have more flexibility in socializing than school students. We learn to socialize in different kind of situations and with people of all ages, not limited to just students our age.

I have learned to make friends with different type of people through my every day activities. I have friends from my homeschool club, workshops that I joined, courses, and events. I also get the chance to meet and talk with my neighbours when I am walking my 3 dogs. They range from as young as 6-7 years old to middle aged adults. I learned different ways to talk with different kinds of people. I’d like to tell you of one of my group of friends. Behind my neighbourhood there is a slum and they often roam around my neighbourhood. Most of them are afraid of dogs and would run off if they see them. Now one morning I was walking my dogs and a group of slum girls took interest in my dogs. They watched from afar and took photos of them, but they still didn’t dare come near us. I told them that my dogs are not fierce and won’t bite and encouraged the girls to pat them if they want to, which they did. They had fun interacting with my dogs and became attached to them. The girls and I also became friends. School students usually have a more limited socialization environment. They usually make friends with classmates their age just because they spend nearly the whole week with them in their classrooms. Aside from that, they might make friends while they attend tuitions outside of school. School children also often suffer from peer pressure, where we have to change ourselves to be accepted by others. A lot of these students don’t know how to interact with people outside of this zone. From my personal experience, usually homeschoolers are more open to people compared to school kids. When I first met my other homeschooler friends, I could feel that they were much more open and friendly. When I participated in homeschool events, the homeschoolers are usually quite happy to meet new friends. In comparison, when I had gymnastics class comprised of all school students, I discovered that the students there have groups, exclusively made out of their own don’t often mingle with students outside their group.

In my country, there is a mandatory national exam to be taken at the end of our primary level, junior high, and senior high. To be able to join the exam, I joined a government institution called a PKBM to have my student number registered. They will take care of student administrations for the exam to the government, and all I have to do are sign some papers. PKBM is a place where homeschoolers who have no resources to learn from can meet up to discuss about their lessons. There are mentors there too to help us out.

Homeschooling is not for everyone. However, for families who think that formal schooling gives negative impacts to their children, homeschooling can be considered as an alternative. There are many ways to learning and receiving education. We can choose the methods that suit us the best. The most important thing though, is that we learn and are happy.

Learning anywhere anytime.

Have you ever seen this funny video about homeschooling? Check it out here!

Why Should We Spay/Neuter Our Dogs?

It may seem like a strange and cruel question, but it is one of the hottest topics among the dog community. For those who are new to this topic they may ask why? That was my first reaction when I heard about that topic. However, after learning more about the benefits of spaying and neutering dogs, I sided with those who support them. The dogs I’m talking about are household pets, whom are cared well by their owners. Some owners may say that it’s cruel to spay and neuter their pet dogs, as we take away something that God had given them. We would also be inflicting unnecessary pain on them and prevent them for procreating.

First of all, God made all living things able to reproduce to ensure the continuation of the species. Animals, unlike humans, mate out of instinct. Whenever a male dog sees or smells a female dog that’s having loops (period), they will want to mate with it. Female dogs, on the other hand, may not want to mate.

There’s also a problem of dog’s overpopulation, due to uncontrolled and over breeding of certain breeds for commercial and personal purposes by irresponsible dog breeders. By spaying and neutering their pet dogs, pet owners can help keep the population in check and ensure that there wouldn’t be accidental pregnancy which would results in more puppies than the owner could take care of. There are already certified breeders that keep on adding up the dog population. The fate of these puppies are sometimes worrying because when the owner isn’t able to take care of them, they are either sold or given away or abandoned in the street. Additionally, some dogs’ genes are immediately related to sicknesses like blindness. One small change in the dogs’ DNA because of careless and unmonitored breeding may make the dog more prone to those sicknesses.

Neutering also improves male dog’s behaviours. They won’t be territorial and don’t feel the need to mark their areas. Dogs mark their areas by peeing on them. Therefore, their actions could be really inconvenient. I have two male dogs, Chiko and Speedy. Chiko is neutered; while Speedy is not, due to a health problem. Chiko never marks his area inside our house. However, Speedy marks everywhere, even on my piano bag, repetitively. I had to keep washing it. It has become very annoying and inconvenient that we had to put on baby diapers on him for almost all day long. Some owners might keep their dog locked in a cage outside of their house because of this problem. However, keeping a dog locked in a cage is not healthy for the dog, physically and emotionally. Isn’t it better to just neuter the dog when it’s possible?

Chiko who was neutered

Speedy often has to use diapers at home.

My neighbour's chihuahua that was kept 24 hours in his cage outside because he kept on marking inside the house. 

Neutering will also improve a dog’s overall health. According to researches neutering will prevent uterine and breast cancer for the female dogs and testicular cancer for the male dogs. Some male dogs might be so persistent in trying to mate a female dog that they may hurt themselves. One of my friend’s German Shepherd, which was tied to a pole outside of their house, tried so hard to follow a female dog passing by, that he fainted. He pulled on his leash so hard and repetitively that he choked. A dog may feel pain for around a week after they’re neutered, but which one is worse? Feeling pain for a week or a male dog wanting to mate every female dog that are in heat but are unable to? Or probably getting cancer when the dog is older? Aside for proper breeding or proper breeding experiments, dogs should be neutered for both dogs and humans’ benefit.

My Music Part 2

By the time the exam day arrived,I felt fully prepared! All the exams were conducted in the auditorium and piano rooms at the main Gloriamus building. My exam was in the auditorium. The students had to prepare a photocopy of each piece that we play for the examiners. From the number of photocopies we prepare, you can then deduce how many examiners would be there in your level. The number of pieces we play for our exams and the number of examiners vary for the different levels. We will give the photocopies to the examiners before we start playing the pieces.
After I registered, all I had to do was wait, wait, wait, as the last student a level below me was still having her exam. Waiting is always the worst part of exams, as my nervousness just piled up one upon the other. My wait was so long though, that I became numb when I was called to enter the examination room.

Usually, when I play in exams or competitions, my fingers would shake due to nervousness. Strangely though, when I started playing my pieces my hands didn’t shake and I felt calm and relaxed. My hands gave away though towards the end of the exam and they shook, but I was able to finish my exam with hardly any mistakes.

Several weeks later, it was announced on the course's bulletin board that I got first rank (as usual), for both the flute and piano examinations. Thus, I was invited to perform in my school’s Year End Concert. The Year End Concert is part of Gloriamus’ yearly activity, in which the students who have achieved first, second, and third ranks in the exams are invited to perform one of their best exam songs chosen by the judges. Lucky for me, I was to play my favourite song out of all my exam songs, which is the Fantasie Impromptu. At the end of the concert, there will be an award ceremony. Those who performed in the concert will receive a certificate and trophy for achieving first, second, and third ranks; and those who receive high scores in the music theory exam would also receive their theory certificates on that day. There would be an ensemble performance too, where the students would perform 2 songs: "Dari Sabang Sampai Merauke" and "Carol of the Bells". I would also be playing flute in the ensemble with 2 other flutists. There would also be a Guzheng performance by two musicians who were invited by the school. Everyone was invited to come to the concert and watch if they want to as the purpose of this concert was to motivate other students who hadn't achieved any ranks yet.On the day of the concert though, I also had a piano competition in CDE Open Piano Competition. My category was scheduled around the same time as my scheduled concert performance.

Joining this competition was a pact that I made with my teacher. When I requested Fantasie Impromptu months before the Gloriamus exam to my teacher,I expected my teacher to deny my request, as I thought it was still too hard for me because it's known to be an advanced song. To my surprise, she accepted it, but with the condition that I join the competition. As I really liked and wanted to play Fantasie Impromptu, I agreed immediately. Originally, I didn't want to join the competition as I would've just had my exam and didn't want to feel the nervousness of performing perfectly again.

For the competition, I play in the category Advance A. I'm only required to play one song of my choice. I decided to use one of my exam songs so that I won't have to do double work. My first choice was Fantasie Impromptu, but then I changed my mind and decided on Sinfonia 12 by Bach instead. Why?The total pages of the Sinfonia is only around a quarter of the total pages of Fantasie Impromptu, so I would spend less time on stage playing Sinfonia than playing the Fantasie Impromptu.

Because I had to play in both the concert and the competition, I had to make several trips back and forth from the hotel where the competition was held and the concert auditorium. Luckily, the auditorium and the hotel were not so far from each other. It only took around 15 minutes to get from one place to the other.

First, I went to the competition. I was the last one to play in my category. I had to wait for the previous category to finish so I had to wait pretty long. I was a little bit nervous while waiting for my category to start. It got worse when I was finally called and asked to sit in the participants' chairs. I was supposed to compete against 9 other participants, but one didn't come.
As I listened to the other competitors performing, I realized that the piano quality wasn’t sharp and clear. I didn't like it very much. When it was my time to perform, I put all my focus on my music, ignoring all the distractions around me and just on playing all that I’ve practised and learned. I was able to play well, with hardly any mistakes.

After I finished my piece, I didn’t get any time to cool down. I rushed immediately to the concert hall for my school’s Year End Performance. The concert was divided into two sessions with intermissions ensemble and Guzheng performance in between. The first session was for piano performances and the second session was for all other instruments. I was supposed to perform Fantasie Impromptu at the end of the first session, but I didn’t arrive in time. I had to skip my piano performance and play my flute ensemble pieces: "Dari Sabang Sampai Merauke" and "Carol of the Bells".

I was kind of disappointed that I couldn't perform the Fantasie Impromptu in the first session because the first session was attended by pianists. I had practised it so much that I really wanted to perform my favourite song perfectly in front of other pianists, who would understand the music better.
After the Ensemble’s Performance, it was time for the award ceremony. The MC called the students to get on the stage and stand in a row according to their exam categories. A teacher will then distribute the trophies one by one to the students while the MC called out the student’s name and what rank the student got. I stood at the very end of the row. I was waiting for my awards to come, but it didn't! The MC didn't even mention me. She had forgotten about me! Luckily, the teacher who gave the awards noticed me and asked the MC for my awards. The MC apologized and said that I didn't perform before so she thought that I didn't come.

While waiting for the second session to start,the Guzheng performers practised on stage. They were the first to perform. I didn't know if they performed in the first session because I wasn't present and the ensemble performance was the last performance in the first session. I'm glad that I got a chance to see them perform.

The Guzheng performance was great! They played two songs and one of them was a church song. It was interesting to hear a western song being performed with a traditional Chinese instrument. There were 2 Guzheng players, so they played the song like a duet. They looked very graceful while playing with their hands flowing back and forth the strings. The sound that the Guzheng made is similar to plucked string instruments, but even more clear and vibrating. Once in a while the players would play several strings very quickly to make trills, which sounded beautiful.

After the Guzheng performance, I had to hurry backstage because next was another ensemble performance.After the performance, I was rescheduled to play Fantasie Impromptu and then my flute piece.

I was nervous playing Fantasie Impromptu and my fingers shook while playing it, but I was able to play it well. The only thing I regretted from that performance was that I coughed when I was around 2 bars away from finishing the song. I held it since I was halfway through the last page but it slipped out just nearing the ending where I was playing softly and calmly because I was about to wrap up the song. So you can imagine how loud the cough sounded. It totally spoiled the performance for me.
My flute performance wasn't as good as my piano one as I was even more nervous now. My playing wasn't stable and the notes didn't come out clear. I also didn't play out the character of my song well. It was supposed to be a fun song, but I didn't play as happy and upbeat as the song should be. With the end of my flute performance and thus I completed all the performances of the day. I only need to wait for competition results and award collections.

The certificate and trophy for achieving first rank on my flute exam will be given out after the second session’s performances are over. Thus, there was still some extra time so I went back to the piano competition to see how I did. Before the winners were announced, the MC promoted the sponsors who sponsored the competition and the music school that held the competition. One of the judges also gave advice and tips on piano performing. I wasn't nervous while waiting, but to avoid getting nervous if the MC talked too long, I played games on my dad's phone. Luckily, I didn't get nervous.
Finally, it was time for my category to go up stage. Those who won will be called to step forward. I didn't expect much, I just hoped for at least getting the 3rd win. Lo and behold, I won 1st place. Other than getting a trophy; I got a voucher, a book, and some prize money.
Now that the CDE Open Piano Competition had officially ended, I went back to Gloriamus for the awards sessions. Once again, I was called up to the stage and the teachers distributed the certificate and trophy for those who achieved ranking on their musical instruments examination. This time I wasn’t forgotten. Yayy!

I felt really happy that I got to perform my favorite song, Fantasie Impromptu, and on top of that, I won first place in the CDE Open Piano Competition.

The one on the left and middle are my first rank trophies and the one on the right is the competition trophy. This is one of the songs that I played in the ensemble.
For now, this is my last music trophy, because I am no longer interested in participating in competitions and Gloriamus exam because the practise sessions take up too much of my time and I would like to use my time for exploring other things. Doing many concerts and competitions are all like training me to become a piano performer, but that's not my goal. I hope you understand!

My Music Part 1

This is still a trip to the past, as I'm going to write the behind-the-scenes about how I got my 3 music trophies, mainly 2 of them, that I earned last December 9th, 2018.

The first and second trophy was an award from my music course Gloriamus for getting first rank in both my Gloriamus piano and flute examinations. I didn't have that much obstacles while preparing for my flute exams, but I had one big obstacle in preparing for my piano exams. That obstacle was discipline, which I still had until now. I do like the songs that I played for the exams, I just don't like the many practise sessions that I had to do to perfect & memorize the songs.

I had advance level piano exam as part of my piano study at Gloriamus in November 2017. I had to play four piano pieces from different music eras. I chose to play Sinfonia 12 by J.S. Bach, Hoboken XVI by Joseph Haydn, Fantasie Impromptu by Frederic Chopin, and Arabesque by Claude Debussy. I do like the songs that I chose for the exam however, they are complicated to learn. They were from different eras, so I had to play them differently according to the characteristics and existing instruments used during that time. For example, during the Baroque and Classical era of Bach and Haydn, they used harpsichords because the piano wasn’t invented yet. So I had to keep that in mind and be aware of the differences between harpsichords and modern piano and try to replicate how songs were played on harpsichords on modern piano. I also had to make sure that I played the rhythm of the notes precisely. Additionally, I also had to memorize the songs.

I encountered difficulties because of lack of discipline in practising. I didn’t practise every day and wasn’t serious in practising. I didn’t follow all the instructions and corrections that my teacher gave me. As a result, I couldn’t play the whole song smoothly. Normally, I could finish learning a music piece in 2 weeks if I wanted to, but because of my indiscipline, I hadn’t learned the pieces even after three months.

My teacher was surprised that I still couldn’t play the whole pieces even at a month before my exam, so she gently scolded me. She said that I would not be able to memorize and play my pieces smoothly if my progress was still this slow.There was a high chance that I would fail the exam. Fail an exam!!! I've never failed an exam ever in my 14 years of life, especially a piano exam. My teacher’s words gave me the motivation to prove her wrong. I'll prove that my teacher got it wrong!

I started spending all of my free time (when I don’t have other lessons) practising the four piano pieces. First, I have to learn all the melodies and rhythm and be able to play from the beginning to the end with absolutely no mistake. Secondly, I have to add the dynamics and characteristics of the pieces. Thirdly, I have to memorize them. I practised for hours and hours on the songs every day. First, I have to make my playing smooth (it's not even smooth yet) then I have to memorise it. It was  very repetitive, and it did get pretty boring, but I persevere because I didn’t want to get scolded again.

By the time the exam day arrived, I felt fully prepared!

To be continued!

Music (Bimtek Part 2)

Following my last blog’s entry about my participation in Bimtek, we now focused on the main event of creating and performing music. If you haven’t read the first part yet, read it here before you continue.

So basically, the first day of Bimtek Event was mostly about getting settled and getting to know the other participants and mentors. On the second day, all the musicians were regrouped into groups of five. We were instructed to come up with a positive theme, especially about Indonesia and unity, for each group. We were given time to discuss for a while and then we must announce our chosen theme out loud. The mentors will write each group’s theme down on a whiteboard. As the mentors wanted unique theme for each group, the groups with the same themes must compete with each other for the theme or find a new theme. Some popular themes are about diversity, unity, and tolerance in Indonesia. In the end, I forgot what theme my group decided on, but it was something about "friendship."

I like my new group better than my previous group (I didn't think I really fit in). My new group made up of five people, three boys and two girls, including me. All of the boys can play guitars. They came from Pekanbaru, Kudus, and Jakarta.The girl was from Papua and she could play the trumpet. We chatted about a lot of things. It was fun talking to her. I think I like and feel more comfortable with the members in my second group because of their personalities. I'm not sure, maybe I think they're more mature?

Next is making the song! We were uncertain on whether we should compose the melody or lyrics first. In the end we decided on the lyrics. The lyrics were mostly composed by me and I have to admit, it was hard :). There were even some parts that my group's mentor deemed inappropriate, so my group had to edit and revise them lots of times. Lyric writing went on until past lunchtime. Then, we had to work on the melody.

We wanted a mix of pop and traditional Indonesian style melody and we wanted it to be fun. In our group, the different instruments our members could play were guitars, jimbe, kendang, and flute so we composed our melody with those instruments in mind. 2 mentors helped us revise the music.

At first, each of us hummed out melodies we felt that is suitable with the lyrics. The guitarist then strummed out some matching chords. We were halfway through the song when a mentor came and listened to our progress. He commented that the song was a bit plain and suggested for us to maximize the use of other instruments and not just focused on guitar.

I played out some traditional melodies with my flute and tried to match to the guitars’ chords. However, the mentor thought that the flute’s sound would be overpowered by the guitars and it would actually sound very sweet on its own. Therefore for the introduction, we decided to start with a flute solo.For the chorus we added a traditional drum and guitar parts for a more upbeat and modern melody.We had to change the structures of some parts of the lyrics so it would fit with the melodies. Finally, our song was finished close to dinnertime.

We still had some time to spare before dinner and my roommate, Ike, said that she'd like to see the storytelling group’s activities. So we went to the second floor where the storytellers are. Ike and I brought our musical instruments, flute and violin. When we arrived there, the storytelling participants had finished their assignment and were just relaxing and chatting with each other. They asked us to play our instruments for them. I didn't prepare for the impromptu performance, but at that time I was a fan of the Swan Lake theme, so I played a part of it as I didn't memorize it all.

A boy chirped out “Waa... a Barbie song!". That was unexpected! I found that a bit amusing and embarrassing at the same time as I came to the realisation that there was indeed a Barbie movie,“Barbie of the Swan Lake”, which used the Swan Lake theme song. I remembered watching the movie when I was younger. After a good laugh, the storytelling participants asked me to continue playing. It was nice and pleasant meeting them.

We were scheduled to perform the songs that we just composed in front of all the music groups after dinner. Since Ike and I went to the ballroom earlier than the scheduled time, we had some time to spare. I showed her how to play my flute and I tried her violin. Ike showed me how to hold the violin and where to position my fingers. She taught me to play the note “D” and “G”. At first I thought that the fingering’s not as hard as the flute as there were only 3 strings on the violin. It’s easy to position my fingers. However, when I actually played the notes, I realized that it’s hard to make the sound stable. Sometimes the notes sounded on pitch and sometimes it’s off pitch.

Soon afterwards everybody gathered in the ballroom and it’s performing time! The atmosphere changed and everyone was tense. The mentors randomly picked the order of the groups’ performance. There were 8 groups in total and our group was the 8^thgroup. Perhaps, the mentors felt sorry for us for being the last group, so they decided to change our position from the last group to the first group, by choosing us to perform first! Lucky us!

I was so nervous! Our song started with my flute solo as the intro. This gave me a lot of pressure as not only our group was the 1^st one to perform, but I was also the first one to perform alone. I'm glad that there was a mic and camera test first, so I could calm down on stage for a while. We were asked to play a part of our song for the testing, which calmed me down a lot. Finally, the official performance started.

As the performance started, I put all my focus on my notes which I put on the floor because there was no music stand. So I wasn’t too affected by the cameras and the audiences. I’m happy to report that our performance went on smoothly without any mistakes. You can watch it here.

After everyone had finished their performances and the event was closed by the music mentors; there was a huge celebration. Most of the participants became hyper and danced around; I guessed they were letting their steam off. There were also a lot of photos or selfies sessions. After a while, everybody dispersed. Some went back to their rooms, while some continued to hangout.  Now that I think about it, I just went walking around in groups visiting other contestants’rooms. I think we were a bit rowdy and disturbed some other hotel guests. The security even came out to control the situation and some of the boys ran off. Eventually, I went back to my room. We had a mini party in my room with my roommates, Ike and Kak Ulfi. We had hamburgers and chatted until late night.The next day we packed up, took selfies of the three of us together, and it’s time to say goodbye.

This event forced me to step out of my comfort zone. I had to interact with different people from different cities and backgrounds. I felt that with so many participants, I couldn’t get along with everybody, but I did find a few good friends.This was the first time I was asked to compose a song in group with several musicians right there and then. It was challenging but fun. I also got to know some traditional Indonesian music instruments. It was truly a crazy experience.

All the participants.

Me and my roommates.

Ike, me, and Kak Rosince.

Music (Bimtek Part 1)

I haven’t been an active blogger last year due to my laziness (I'll admit it), but starting from April 2018 I suddenly had an aspiration to post weekly (I hope it will last!). I couldn't do it on April though, as I had to prepare for my national examinations which would take place on early May. I finally had more time to blog in June, during the holidays.There were many events that I hadn’t blogged about and so, for the next couple of blogs it will be a trip back to the past.

I participated in 3 big music events during November – December 2017. The first one was from October 30th to November the 1st. It was called "Bimbingan Teknis Akutalisasi Potensi Anak Melalui Media Musik Dan Dongeng" which is shortened to "Bimtek." The second event was my music school’s year-end performance and the third event was a music competition.

Bimtek was held by kemendikbud (Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan), Indonesia's ministry of education. They picked teenagers under the age of 18 from each province of Indonesia who have interest in music and storytelling to create positive music and stories for other kids and teenagers. This year, there were around 87 participants from 47 provinces. I was the representative from Banten for the music part.

It was supposed to be interesting meeting teenagers from almost all over Indonesia, but I found that it's not exactly easy to make new acquaintances. On my first day there in the morning, after registering myself, I was asked to wait with the others in the dining area. As I entered the area, I saw some of the other participants sitting in small groups. I didn't know which group to join as I don’t know anybody so I sat on an empty table.

I took out my math exercises to work on, hoping that no one will come up to me and talk; but at the same time I'd like to make friends with the others. Half an hour later 2 older girls came up to me and asked if the seat in front of me is empty. I said yes. After introducing ourselves, the two girls talked to each other while I continued with my maths. They went to the same college and chatted about people they know, their college, common interests, etc. I tried to join in the conversation, but I didn't find anything that I can relate to, so I just stayed quiet. Now that I think about it, I think I didn't put enough effort into trying to make a decent conversation.

Long before this event, one of the event organiser put the participants and mentors into a Whatsapp group. My mom informed that she was to be put into the group in my place because there's something wrong with my Whatsapp. Neither my Mom nor I checked the group frequently, so I thought that the other participants weren't talking much.

2 tables on my left one of the small groups became bigger as more participants arrived. At a glance, they were talking and laughing as if they already knew each other. I thought that the participants made another Whatsapp group without the adults, just for themselves. As my mom already informed the group the event organisers made that she was representing me, I thought that they didn't invite me into the group because of that. This made me think that the group 2 tables on my left already knew each other and were talking like close friends. This made me felt left out.

I paid more attention when more participants arrived to the 2 tables on my left. That table is the most crowded one now. They introduced themselves and get to know each other as if they never met before. This made me doubt my theory before about how they looked so friendly to each other.

I wanted to get to know them, but isn't it weird when the girl who's been sitting 2 tables away from you since before suddenly come up and introduce herself at that time? Why didn't she make friends since before. So I decided not to do it. 

As it got closer to lunch some of the people from other groups (including that group 2 tables away from me) came to my table to introduce themselves. It was nice meeting them.

After lunch the participants were asked to meet up in a ballroom. The MCs there asked where we came from. "Who's from Kalimantan? Who's from Sumatra?" When they asked which participant came from Jawa Barat and which came from Banten I was confused. So I just raised my hand when they asked the participants from Jawa Barat :p. I come from Banten anyway.

They then asked all of use to stand up and introduce ourselves to each other. I just stayed next to my seat while I introduce myself to any random person that would shake my hand. The Mcs encouraged us not to just introduce ourselves near our seats, but to move further into the crowd. I'm afraid I didn't get too far :p.

The MCs then called those who think they can remember at least 15 people to come up to the front and say their names. Well, I definitely didn't remember anyone that I met in that room. 4 people went up though. I recognized them from the place where we waited before and I guessed that they remember at least 14 because they already get to know at least 14 people there. There are more than 14 people in that 2 tables on my left.

When we were dismissed we were offered refreshments. We were asked to meet up again later in the evening. The music section were to meet up in that same ballroom, while the storytelling section are to meetup somewhere else. With that much amount of spare time, I decided to take my card to my room and take a rest there. 

I shared a room with 2 other girls. One of them is Kak Ulfi, the girl who shared the table with me before in the dining area, and another one is a year younger than me. They both said that it took a long time for them to get their cards, because the queue was crazy. That made me realise that I wasn't supposed to take the card before the mentors tell us too, but anyway....

When evening came, we met up in the ballroom as scheduled. Somehow, I felt that the atmosphere was tense. It could be because I feel pressured around new people. I sat next to Ike, one of my roomates, who's a year younger than me, and some friends that I made during dinnertime. I found out that Ike and me liked several similar things, and we had fun talking about them.

The mentors broke the ice by singing us a fun song. They then asked us to sing along. At first everyone's singing was rather quiet and shy, but then it got louder, and those with guitars played along (we were allowed to bring our portable instruments, and I brought my flute). The atmosphere became more fun and friendly. 

We were then put into groups, and were asked to make a yell-yell for our group. They asked us to agree on a time and place tomorrow to make the yell-yell. Tonight will be useless to make one, as everyone were definitely tired. After introducing ourselves to each other and asked for contacts, we decided on 7.30 a.m. at the canteen to make our yell-yell.

The next morning, I woke up the latest out of the three . My consequence was: everyone bathed before me. While waiting, I prepared all my things so that after I bath, all I have to do is pick them up and go. I wanted to be on time because I'm afraid that my teammates would find me irresponsible. As I bathed the last, I had less time than the others to bathe if I want to meet up on time. 

My bath was really rushed as my roomates bathed longer than I expected. I still reached the canteen on time though. However, I was disappointed when I reached the canteen. I tried to find my teammates who I thought were already sitting somewhere in a group, as it's 7:30 already. I was even about to skip my breakfast as my consequence for waking up late, but I couldn't find my group anywhere.

I then saw one of my teammates still eating and chatting with her friends. I was surprised, and rather hurt. Her actions showed that she was irresponsible; she didn't respect the other group members who might had met up and were waiting for her. I found out later though, that others did the same like her. I didn't dare speak to her because I didn't really know her. I thought I still had time while waiting for them to finish theirs, so I followed Ike to take my breakfast and sit with her and some friends. I didn't eat much as I was afraid that my teammates will soon call me to gather up; my table is next to one of them. I had a little chat with my table mates and one of them asked me the languages that I could speak. She then asked me to say some English words while she recorded me. What should I say? As I had no idea of what to say, I just answered some of their questions in English. I felt I had done a poor job in showing my English, but anyway. That was one of the most awkward breakfast time in my life.

After I finished breakfast, I tried to find another of my teammate, as my next table teammate seemed busy chatting. I tried to find the one whom I thought was pretty friendly. I did met her, and we found a table for our discussion later. Our other teammates came after a while, and so the meeting started.

In my opinion, the meeting didn't go well. First, we forgot that we had to make a yell-yell, and instead made a song that kind of introduces our group. Not all of us are active in making the song; most of us just looked confused but they tried to get involved.

As most of us were late when starting the meeting, when we reached the ballroom at a scheduled time our song wasn't finished. Luckily we got a fifteen or 20 minute extra to finish it.

To break the ice (again) among us, the mentors had organised a game. We were to stand in a circle, and a person in the middle of the circle was to say a particular thing that some of us had. Those who had it were to move to any space in front of that person. The last one who didn't get any space was to replace the person in the middle. It was fun.

After each group performed their song (unfortunately, the others also made my group's mistake) and the mentor pointing out our mistake, we were asked to sit in a circle. One of our mentors performed a song that she composed when she was younger. Our mentors also asked one of the participants to perform a song that he made in his native language. All the songs performed had meaningful meanings behind them. 

We were then regrouped and this was where the fun starts! We were going to make a song.

I'm going to continue next week as this took so long to write. 

Interview with Bu Ismawanty of Shelter Melati Part 3 (last part)

After learning the history of Shelter Melati from interviewing Ibu Isma on December 2017, I then asked about how she usually rescues dogs on the street. It's easy to differentiate between dogs that were abandoned and the ones that strayed from their homes; just look at their condition. An abandoned dog is usually in a sorry state, while dogs that strayed from their homes are usually in good conditions.

The first thing to be done after rescuing a dog is to bring it to a vet immediately. The vet will give it a full check-up, which includes a blood test, a distemper and parvo test (this is required, as distemper and parvo are deadly and they can spread easily to other dogs). Generally, the rescued dogs will need to stay in the vet clinic until it is completely healthy, vaccinated and spayed/neutered. It is unethicalto house a sick dog together with the other dogs in the shelter.

When a dog reaches the shelter, Bu Isma will first put it in a cage by itself. Then she will put the cage into a bigger house cage with a group of dogs so they can get to know each other safely. It's dangerous to put the newcomer with the other dogs immediately, for various reasons.

First of all, there’s a hierarchy in a pack of dogs. The lowest rank is omega and the highest rank is the alpha. Omegas are the most submissive dogs, while alphas are natural leaders. No two alphas can be put together, as they will fight for the leader position. If the newcomer is an alpha, there will most certainly be a fight between it with the existing alpha. Sometimes, the newcomer isn’t able to socialise with the group even though it's not an alpha because it had previously experienced a big trauma which made him insecure with other dogs.

Once the newcomer gets along with the pack, it will be released from its individual cage into the house cage. Someone will still watch over the dog's interactions with the others. If everything is alright, the dog will stay with that pack. There are some dogs that don't get along with all the other dogs and need to be caged individually. Most of these are alpha dogs. They take much longer to place than non-alpha dogs.

Bu Isma has 9 kennel boys to look after the dogs. A kennel boy is responsible for several cages of dogs. Their responsibilities are to feed the dogs, clean the cage, watch out for the dogs’ health and interactions. The dogs are fed dog food in the morning and cooked meals for dinner. Visiting hours are arranged according to a certain time, to avoid distraction for the dogs during feeding hours. The dogs are usually very excited when there are visitors and won’t focus on their food.

The kennel boys with Bu Isma.

A kennel boy cooking.

With the daily caring for the dogs taken care of by the kennel boys, Bu Isma focuses on rescuing dogs and taking care of the dogs’ other welfare, such as bringing the dogs that need special attention to the grooming centre or to the vet. She would also process dog adoption application. This includes conducting a survey of the people who wants to adopt dog and matching their personalities to the most suitable dogs. Many dogs that were rescued had bad experiences in the past, and they can be traumatic. Bu Isma wants the dogs to have a forever home, where they will be loved and cared for well. This not only means giving the dog healthy food, attention, and vet visits when they're sick; but also giving enough space depending on the dog's body size. The bigger the dog, the more space they need. To reduce the risk of repeating the dogs' sad past, Bu Isma has to check the capability and readiness of the adopter. One of the things she does when surveying an adopter is conducting an interview. She also surveys the house to check if it's safe for the dog and if the space qualifies the amount of space the dog takes. Once she finds a suitable adopter, she will send the dog there. The adopter has to report the dog's condition regularly to Bu Isma. 

Bu Isma shows her dogs only through facebook and instagram. She rarely joins dog events as her shelter is always busy. Joining events like those means she has to be there throughout the whole event, and she has no one to help her. If any of you can help Bu Isma promote her dogs so they can get adopted, or help her in any way, just send her a message through her instagram or facebook! She will be more than happy, as her shelter is overcrowded already.

You can help Bu Isma in a lot of ways, such as donating or adopting. If you like a particular dog in the shelter, but can't adopt it, you can be an OTA (Orang Tua Asuh). An OTA pays for a dog's expenses every month. The expense for every dog is the same, big or small. 

Bu Isma hopes that in the future, the ratio of rescued dogs versus adopted dogs will be more balanced. Currently, the number of dogs that she rescued is more than the number of dogs adopted out. Just for example, recently, 2 purebred dogs were adopted from her, while 11 mongrels arrived. Once a mongrel enters the shelter, it's hard for them to get adopted out, as people prefer purebred ones.

You can follow Bu Isma and her dogs through her instagram and facebook.

You can read Part 1 and 2 here. You can also read my writing of my visit to the shelter here.

Interview With Bu Ismawanty of Shelter Melati Part 2

Have you ever seen this video? That's a video of Hope, one of Bu Isma's rescued huskies. Hope was rescued on 13 July 2017, in a wretched condition. He was locked in a very small cage which was covered by a tarpaulin on the 4th floor of a rich person's mansion. When he was rescued, he was full of sickness and had malnutrition.

Hope was reported by his owner's relatives to Bu Isma on the fasting days of June 2017. His name wasn't Hope then, it was Demon. He was reported to be in a bad condition. In the photo that was sent to Bu Isma, Demon's case doesn't seem urgent. He was tied and his skin was full of skin disease, but he still could stand up. 

Bu Isma said that Demon's condition wasn't too bad, so she didn't rescue him. In addition to that, she was busy. Even if she rescued him from that place, there wouldn’t be a clinic available for him to undergo the medical evaluation and treatment that all rescued dogs must undergo before they are brought to the shelter;  as Demon was reported on the days leading up to the Idul Fitri holidays. Most of the vet clinics would be fully occupied with healthy pets, as their families were away on vacation.

Bu Isma told the informer to ask Demon's owners to bring him to the vet, as he only had skin disease. But the informer told her that Demon's owners didn't want to bring him to the vet because they're really stingy. They also complained that they bought Demon for a really expensive price, so why did he get sick? Well!

After the fasting month, close to the Idul Fitri holidays, Demon's informer pleaded with Bu Isma to rescue Demon as he couldn't stand anymore. He also kept on vomiting green stuff. The informer also reported that the owners rarely fed him because they were lazy to climb to the 4th floor, even though they had servants who could've fed him.

After the Idul Fitri holidays, Bu Isma contacted Dr. Magda Rumawas, a vet who often helps her with her rescued dogs. She asked Dr. Magda if she should rescue Demon, as all vet clinics were full. Dr. Mag said that she will provide space.

So off went Bu Isma to Demon's house. Demon's owners are a couple who had servants, and the house was big and grand. The whole house wasn't used though; the upper floors were only for the clothesline. When Bu Isma arrived at the 4th floor, she was confused as she couldn't see Demon. "Where's Demon?" she asked. The owner then opened a tarpaulin which revealed a really sorrowful sight:

There wasn't food at all. Even the water was outside of the locked cage. He was really scrawny, his skin full with wounds and holes, and had dirt in his eyes. He was even chained to the cage, even though he's already inside it. Demon couldn't stand at all because he was in the cage for too long. The small cage prevented him from standing correctly; he had to bend his body and legs. A lack of exercise made the muscles in his legs weak, causing his legs to have no power to support his body and stand straight.

Bu Isma was infuriated. When she was about to lift Demon up, the owners asked for a compensation from her, as they bought Demon expensively. Bu Isma raged at them saying that theywere outrageous. They had broken a lot of rules about animal rights and they could be sent to jail. "Okay, how much do you want? I have brought my lawyer. If you want to ask for your compensation, you can negotiate it with my lawyer! But afterwards, you are going to jail!"

Demon's owners became frightened. Bu Isma immediately wrapped him in a sack that she found there and tried to carry him. Even though Demon was very light, Bu Isma wasn't strong enough to carry him as she was shaking so much from anger. She immediately brought Demon to Dr. Mag's clinic where he was infused and treated. His name was changed to Hope.

The next day when Bu Isma visited Hope he was doing well. He had found his appetite. But after that she became really busy so she didn't visit him for a long time. One day Dr. Mag messaged Bu Isma, telling her not to hope too much for Hope, because his condition was really unstable. His infuse couldn't get in and he didn't want to eat. He was moody all the time, as if he felt he wasn't loved at all. 

Bu Isma's friend asked someone who could do AnimalTalk (or BodyTalk) with dogs to communicate with Hope. AnimalTalk is a method to communicate with animals telepathically. Telepathy deals with speaking directly to the mind without using external communication such as body language and words.We can convey and receive feelings, images, intentions, etcetera directly mind to mind.

That person said that Hope conveyed that he didn't want to get well, he didn’t want to live anymore. He felt grateful that Bu Isma rescued him, but after he was rescued he was just left here. He saw no difference between here and back home. He felt abandoned in both places.

According to what they’ve learnt from his replies, Dr. Mag asked Bu Isma to visit Hope with praises and a happy face. Although Bu Isma felt sad every time she visited Hope, seeing his poor condition, she put on a happy face for him and often praised him."Wow, you're so handsome Hope, you're so cool! Please get well soon, so that I can bring you home!"

These seemingly small and insignificant gestures and words really made a great difference. The infuse then could get in well and Hope started to eat. With numerous visits and help from Bu Isma and donators, Hope fully recovered. He is a really handsome dog now!

Hope is just one example of the many dogs who had similar fates like him. You can help fund the other dogs' lives in Bu Isma's shelter, like how Hope's donators helped fund Hope's life.

You can follow the dogs in Shelter Melati through their instagram and facebook.

Part 3 will be the last part! Wait for it next week!

You can read Part 1 here and my visit to the shelter here.

Sorry for late post *facepalm* I broke my promise.