Friends In My Drinking Bottle

Doing chores is a bore for most people, including me! As they're no fun, I always try to find a way to reduce them. One of the things I did to avoid washing my large water bottle was by using it for 2 whole weeks. Can you imagine all the germs and organisms collected there? Ewww. Speaking of gross, I decided to check the water with a USB digital microscope in the hopes of seeing the little friends I had cultured over the past 2 weeks. I predicted that I will find many microorganisms and immediately wash my water bottle after the observation. Please do keep in mind that this was just a fun observation so there aren't things like hypothesis and variables. That being said, come and have a look at them:

Please pardon my Dad's voice :D

The first thing I did was setting up the microscope. The one I own uses the computer screen to see the results, as it doesn't have an ocular lens. Next I used an acrylic tent card holder as a glass slide with a pencil case underneath to make it horizontal. This was a bit difficult as I tend to nudge the pencil case around with my elbow, making the card stand diagonal again. Last of all I put a white sheet of paper under it to get clear results. 

I observed that there were microorganisms and cat fur in my water! The latter was unexpected, because I never saw or felt a thing when drinking it. I also observed that the microorganisms moved away from the light of the microscope, seeking a darker area. However, the microscope is only able to magnify until 500x (half of the common optical common microscope) so I can't identify their species. If anyone has any idea what they are, please do tell me! As for the cat fur, it must be the effect of me kissing my cat too much, but it won't stop me from continuing to do so! 

Located on the side of the microscope is a button to take pictures of the things we see under the microscope, but I couldn't snap a photo with it. Pressing the button will make the microscope shake, which will result in a blurry photo. So, I used my cell phone to capture my computer screen for a clearer photo. I know that the photo quality would've been better if I used the microscope camera, so please do pardon the lines you can see in the picture.

After I had a laugh at my disgusting behaviour, I immediately brought that water bottle to the kitchen and scrubbed and cleaned it like I've never before! In conclusion, whenever I feel afraid when I'm alone at home, all I have to do is remember that I have little tiny friends to company me! Nah just kidding.

 

 

 

Was Abraham Lincoln a White Supremacist?

 

Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States. He is most well-known for abolishing slavery and is considered a hero who fought for the freedom of slaves. This resulted in his assassination by a confederate loyalist. His death was mourned as "the darkest hour in history", with around 7 million people mourning his funeral train when it made the 13-day journey to Springfield, Illinois. However, when we look back at his actions from a modern perspective, he might not seem to be such an advocate of human rights and equality after all.

North and South America were on rough terms with their political differences, especially about slavery. While the Unions (North) disagreed with slavery, it was the main asset and source of income for the Confederates (South). When Lincoln took office in 1861, he had the ultimate goal of uniting the North and the South. In his famous speech, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It was his opinion that the country must choose to either support or abolish slavery.

In the early period of the civil war, I think Lincoln took a more passive aggressive stance towards the issue of slavery. While Lincoln disagreed with slavery, he wasn't sure about what to do with the slaves if they were emancipated. He thought about just sending them back to their native country but decided against it because they might not be able to survive there. However, he was also conflicted about the slaves’ status and role in society if they were to remain in the US.

Finally, Lincoln was forced to make a decision when the war was going badly for the Union. A sure way for them to win was to destroy the South's main economic centre, which was slavery. This pushed Lincoln to sign the 13th amendment, making it illegal to own slave and punishable by law. Most of the freed slaves joined the Union Army and this helped defeat the Confederate. We can see that Lincoln’s grand action to abolish slavery was based on a very tactical decision to win the war.

Some modern historian considered Lincoln racist and a white supremacist. They based this on his indecisiveness to immediately abolish slavery and his belief that black people cannot be equal to white people. In his own words: ” What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this;”

Lincoln's words are straight down racist and they might sound like something a racist person like Trump might say. That means he doesn't deserve to be called as one of the greatest president of America. However, we should also consider the time period. Human rights for black people have improved so much in the 21st century, while there were no human rights for them in the time of Lincoln. Whatever he said, we must acknowledge that black people's rights are started by Lincoln. In addition to that, we also must acknowledge his change of perception towards blacks' rights. Lincoln proclaimed that he will improve their lives if he gets re-elected for the next 4 years. If that really happened, black people's lives will be one step ahead of today.

The history of Abraham Lincoln is a good example of the words "history is made by those who created it." Lincoln is noted only for his great achievements, which I understand, as it shaped today's world history. I was pretty disappointed though when I learned that he took his time in abolishing slavery as he was my inspiration. However, after more research and reading into primary sources, I think that it’s not fair to label him as a white supremacist because we are judging his actions from a modern perspective. We must keep in mind that during that time, the human rights movement was just at its bud. After a couple of centuries, understandably, the human rights movement has matured significantly. So our modern understanding of it would be very different from Lincoln’s time. Now that I know better, he has become much more than just an inspiration. He is proof that world-changing actions take process. It also shows that it's never too late to change yourself.

 

    

Tante Grey's Infographic Course

Hey guys! I'm extremely sorry for not updating in a really long time. I have been busy studying in the first half of 2020 and I just finished Grade 11 a few months ago. With my main focus on academics, I didn’t find any interesting topics to write for my blog, thus the lack of updates. Now that I am on a short holiday from academics, I have time to join some interesting online events.

 

One of the online events that I joined was an online infographic design course brought by Tante Greysia Susilo, a design lecturer at Pradita University. I don't know whether she has been planning to open this course for some time or did she open this course because of something that happened in instagram.

 

There were mean comments from ignorant people about homeschoolers in an IG’s post and comment section. There were a lot of different kinds of negative comments, belittling homeschoolers’ mentality, lifestyle, and social life. What annoyed me was the fact that they were all untrue and it was posted publicly on social media. A lot of people could get the wrong image about us! This made me momentarily thought about arguing with them online with my homeschooler friends. Luckily, I knocked some common sense into myself just in time. The decision to argue was a foolish impulse and it would definitely make things worse.

However, we felt all pent up. My friends and I, were at loss for what to do. We definitely couldn't leave this alone. Luckily for us, we got an advice from Tante Grey that the medicine to ignorance is education. By educating,we not only help them understand, but also channel our negative energy into something positive! 

 

One of the ways of educating others is through infographics. Thus, Tante Grey offered to teach us to make infographics. Our final project would be making infographics which debunk misconceptions about homeschooler.

 

The online course took place in zoomland and lasted around 2 months. We met once a week, with a total of 18 homeschool teenage participants. We were taught the basics of making a clear and interesting infographic: from collecting ideas to clustering information. After every meeting, the students were given a task to finish. Those who have finished the task would have their results discussed in the next meeting. There weren't any strict deadlines, but we were expected to finish them at a certain time, otherwise we would be left behind!

 

First, Tante Grey taught us the basics. There were a lot of simple details that could be easily overlooked when making infographics, such as data placing. We often forget that we should place our data according to how people usually read, which is from left to right and up to down. Instead, we tend to put our data in areas where we think they might look nice. Another thing about infographics is that there shouldn’t be too many words. It should be quick and easy to read.

 

Then we were given our first task! Tante Grey started by creating a mindmap with “Critiques Homeschoolers receive from the public” as the main theme. The participants were asked to continue it with all the critiques we know. Next,we were asked to pick a specific critique to focus on and make a mind map of the solutions. We were advised to pick the critique that we receive the most, as we would have more to say about it. I picked the topic of socialization.

 

It took me half of the day to create the mindmap, as I used google drawings in google doc. I’m not familiar with it, so it took me a while to get used to it. In addition to that, I made my mindmap with a lot of pictures. These are proofs that I socialize with a lot of kids my age. As the pictures are scattered in many different electronic files, it also took a long time to find them. I was pretty happy that I advanced to the next step without much critiques.

 

Once our mindmaps are done, the next task is to cluster or group all the data we made in the mindmap. Sometimes the topic is too broad and we had to narrow it down or choose a specific aspect of it to write about. While clustering, we also had to design our infographic. These two must be done at the same time to decide which data are the most important and choose the appropriate positions to put them on the infographic. I didn’t have any idea of how I should cluster all my data, so Tante Grey lent me a hand. She first asked me to divide my data into several categories, such as my academic and non-academic activities, my variety of activities or the frequency of my socialization. I originally chose to focus on analyzing the latter.

 

She then gave me examples of how I could divide my frequencies into more categories, such as once a week, once a month, and once a year. She also gave me a format of how my categories would look like in the infographic.

 

Once I have categorized all my data, all I had to do was put them together. I used Canva, a free programme specifically for graphic design. I experienced some difficulty while making the infographic.

 

First of all, I rarely make infographics and had little experience in using programmes like Canva. Thus, I had some difficulty getting around. Next, I couldn’t fit all the pictures using my format. Therefore, I decided to change the format. I think I did a pretty good job at it, but Tante Grey said that I had to review my data placement again. I told her my problem with the pictures, which she replied with an infographic of her own XD. She used the same format with the same amount of pictures, thus proving that it’s possible. Following the examples of the placement  of her picture, I finally managed to finish my infographic.

 

Next we had to ask for feedback. We had to show our infographic to 2 kinds of people: those that are familiar with homeschool and those who aren’t. I chose my parents for the first and my ex-school friends for the second. When asking for feedback, I had to first tell them the message I wanted to send through this infographic. Next, I had to ask if they received the message. Unfortunately, one of the reviewers didn’t get it, but instead she thought I was telling about the variety of activities I did for my socialization.

 

When I talked about this with Tante Grey, she agreed with my reviewer’s point of view that my infographic seemed to lean towards the variation more. She then showed me an infographic made by one of my coursemates, Vyel. I saw how his infographic leans more to the frequency of socialization with the bar graph he put in his infographic. Seeing the difference I decided to just change my title from “Frequency of socialization” to “Variation of Activities for Socialization”

 

When most of us had finished our infographics, they are posted in the instagram of my teen group @Teenspower.squad. As the infographics are posted on social media, we hope that more people will be able to understand more about homeschoolers. I think this infographic is also really useful when facing ignorant people --- all we have to do is share these infographics as a reply to their negative comments. As a person who isn't really into graphic design, I found this course overall interesting. When I first started the course, I thought that making an infographic is only about gathering information and designing an aesthetically interesting charts. I never gave thought as what made them enjoyable to read and look at. Through this course, I learned that there is more than just pasting information on a template.

 

These are the end projects of mine and some others!

This infographic is made by Vyel. The statistic he puts in his infographic clearly showed how frequently he makes friends.

An interesting infographic by Yla!

A very informative infographic by Nuala!

 

My Pets' Nicknames

Nenek! Engkong! Mpid! Kucing gendud! You will hear me say those words at least once a day. They are just some of the nicknames I have for my dogs and cat, and the nicknames that I use more often than the rest.

"Nenek" is the nickname for my oldest dog, Snowy. In Bahasa Indonesia, nenek means granny. She got this nickname for being 13 years old, which is pretty old for a dog's age, and will turn 14 this year. In addition to that, she's the oldest among the dogs. Another version of this nickname is "Nenek Centil". The term "Centil" in Bahasa Indonesia is usually used for a girl who likes to play with boys, like the girl version of a playboy. I like to call her this because she likes to act playful and flirty around male dogs such as licking their faces and showing her butt to them several times.

Hello boys!

"Engkong" is the nickname for my second dog, Chiko. "Engkong" is the Hokkian version for grandpa. This is because he's 8 or 9 years old, which is also considered old for a dog's age. He also has coughs; more frequently than Snowy. This shows that his physical health is worse than Snowy, making him "older" than Snowy.

Next is Mpid. This is just a shortened version of my youngest dog, Speedy. It started from only Pidy, to Pid, to Mpid. I added the M in the front because it just sounds more comfortable for me. Also, when I feel as if I want to squeeze him because of his cuteness, I like to emphasize and say the M longer.

Last but not least, is my cat, the "kucing gendud". Those are the Indonesian words for fat cat. When we adopted him, he was really skinny and bony, making him a walking skeleton. But after a few months, he became a really fat cat. He looks a lot like a character in my sister's storybook. They're both fat, orange, and stripy. The cat in my sister's storybook is called "Kucing Gendut".

Out of all the nicknames I had given them, these are the ones that make the most sense. Not all of them react to these nicknames. Snowy doesn’t respond to anything, including her own real name, so there’s no point in calling her. Chiko sometimes responds to “Engkong”, as he starts to get used to being called that. Speedy always responds, as that’s just the shortened version of his real name, which he responds to too. As for my cat Goldie, he only responds to his real name or the shortened version of his real name, Odie.

My pets will continue to receive numerous, senseless nicknames as long as they live, as I will always find something new and funny about them. It’s a good thing that they all put up with their owner’s quirkiness and took all the nicknames good-naturedly.

Who Do I Turn To In My Most Difficult Times?

It is said that teenagers are awkward and I’m living proof of that. As I enter the dreaded teenage year, I suddenly discovered many situations that made me feel self-conscious and at loss about what to do. The person who I turn to to help me deal with difficult social situations is my mom. One of the most frequent and unavoidable tricky situations was walking my dogs in my neighborhood. It’s always full of people, like a park! There are kids and teens playing, adults out to talk with their neighbors, people exercising, vehicles, and other dog walkers. When walking my dogs, I just want to have a quiet me time with them. However, my all-white dogs are a constant attraction to passersby, and we often get disturbed by both positive or negative reactions. With people who like dogs, they would stop us and some would pet or play with my dogs. Some would even follow us. I only have a limited time to walk my dogs and I don’t appreciate being stopped every 5 minutes or so. People who don’t like dogs give us askew looks, a wide breadth, and I’ve even heard mean comments as they pass by. This results in me turning away from people I know to avoid having to stop and chit chat with them. I may appear rude and unneighborly, supporting the stigma that teenagers are difficult. As I often feel drained and agitated after taking my dogs for their walk, I usually talk to my mom.

My mom isn’t a counselor or a psychologist; in fact, she graduated from civil engineering. But being a middle-aged mother of a special needs child, my mother has an abundant of good and bad experiences. From her experience, she discovered that keeping bad feelings only made her feel worse. Instead, she sought out alternative ways to deal with them. A method which worked best for her was to release her negative emotions by breathing in and out. While breathing out, she imagined that her negative emotions went out with her breath. In other words: “pushing” them out mentally. She then would analyze what just happened and found out that she could learn some lessons from the experience.

My mom also taught that method to me. When I’m in one of my tempers, my mom always asked me to calm down first by “pushing” them away, as thinking with heavy emotions often lead to stupid decisions. When I was younger, she helped analyze the situation with paper and pen. It usually ended with her telling me the reasons of why people acted that way, and how I could react to them in a better way than what I did before. The reasons and factors sometimes surprised me. Sometimes, it’s just their habit to lose their tempers. Sometimes, it’s just because of the environment that they live in. I was also taught that my energy could be put into a better use for the greater good to help change the world into a better place. :)

Now that I’m older, I could analyze the difficult situations on my own and think of ways to handle them in a better way. Still, with an occasional help from my mom. As the person who raises me and helps me deal with my problems, she knows every little details about me. When retelling my bad experiences, I don’t have to explain myself, why I did what I did, because she already knows why. She would also know just the right words to say to me. I don’t think I would ever find someone else more perfect than her to guide me and help me through difficult situations.

A Tale of Discipline

Hello everyone! It's been a long time since I updated about myself, hasn't it?

With all my recent book analysis posts, I hoped that you all didn’t think that my blog has become a book review and analysis blog. It hasn’t. It’s still just a platform for me to share my life-views and activities with you all. I am an avid reader. So I have recently been busy reading and analysing different books, which I found to be quite interesting and educating. But, I get that if you get the same type of posts every few weeks, it would tend to get boring. So I will try to insert other types of writing in between.

To be honest, I only posted my study analyses because I had difficulties in thinking up topics to write in my personal entries. I didn’t participate in too many events recently. I didn't want to add more activities to my schedule, as there's this voice behind my head saying that I still have lots of things to do. During the holidays, I also couldn't hang out with friends because I had to catch up with my studies. I have an allotted study time of seven hours a day. However, I don’t seem to be getting any studying done. What a mystery! I even used to think that one of the reasons I'm unable to get things done was because of my extracurricular activities; and was about to cut them all down. After examining every possible clue, I finally discovered the culprit! D-I-S-T-R-A-C-T-I-O-N-S. Objects of crime: mobile phone, books, pets, daydreams, computer, and Internet access. Perhaps no further explanation is needed. :)

Thinking back, this culprit has been my constant companion for as long as I can remember; ever since my parents decided to trust me to study on my own. This culprit always succeeded in persuading me to trick my parents, and this obviously bore rotten fruits. The academic deadlines I set for myself always seemed to run away from me and I had to constantly chase them. Unfortunately, I acted like a snail and when I finally reached the finished line, I have another or actually many other races to complete. I seemed to be stuck in never-ending races.

In order to persuade myself to change, I had to find motivations. Unexpectedly, I found my motivations in my friends. I have a friend who goes to a prestigious school known for its rigorous and challenging activities. I wanted to experience similar challenges, but as you know, I have many incomplete lessons. Therefore, I felt the urgency to finish my studies so that I can pursue more challenging and exciting activities.

A competitor can also be a great motivator. A few months ago, I joined an academic course, where periodically, there’s an academic assessment. The results would be shown to the whole class. For the first assessment, I ranked 1st in my class. Recently, a new classmate joined the course. He is a diligent and dedicated student. He studied tirelessly, even during break time! I’m very much motivated to maintain my 1st position and he has become a serious challenger. Therefore, I need to work more seriously and harder on my studies.

I discovered that when I have more motivations, I have more drive to make changes, such as studying more and working hard. But motivations can only push me forward; it cannot help me to manage my time. So, I use a study method called Pomodoro Tomato. A pomodoro is to work with full concentration for 25 minutes then break for 5 minutes. Every 3rd pomodoro, I break for a longer time; usually for 15 minutes.

With these to help me catch up my studies, I'm starting to get back on track. I managed to find time to explore my coordinating skills. I became the coordinator of a homeschool event. Coordinating the event is quite time consuming as I need to spend a lot of time managing people. Therefore, I’m still hesitant in trying a new hobby, as it also takes up time to practise the skills. I still have subjects to catch up with, even though they're not as many as my previous years. I hope that these methods will help me for a long time. I’m very sure that at some point in my life in the future, I will be distracted again. Hopefully, I will find new motivations to help me get back on track!

Son: A Little Analysis on Love

The power of love is a curious thing. It plays a significant part in people’s successes, as it could motivate them to conquer their fears and challenges to reach their goals. The love here is not limited to just romantic or parents’ love, but it’s all encompassing, including friends and teachers’ love.

It is generally known that the greatest love is a parent's love. Claire sacrificed a lot to find her son Gabe. She left her home into the unknown, train hard physically to climb cliffs and traded her youth with Trademaster. Although Gabe never knew Claire, learning about her sacrifices for him made him felt wanted and loved. Before this, even though Gabe led a fairly peaceful life in the village, thanked to Jonas, who rescued him and became like a father-figure to him; he felt a void of not knowing his mother and origin. He agreed to fight Trademaster to save Claire.

The journey to find Trademaster was a hard one, and he couldn't have done it without those who cared for him. The main weapon that Gabe brought with him, is a paddle. The paddle was carved with the signatures of his friends and Jonas. Feeling those signatures, which symbolises all those who mattered in his life, helped motivate him to continue his perilous journey, and later to defeat Trademaster.

There's a saying that behind every man's success, there is a strong woman. I think it would be more precise to say several strong women and men. Many successful people in our world always had someone behind them, cheering them on. Some examples are Jack Ma and Barack Obama. When they made a big change in their career, their wives and families believed in them and supported them to just do it! Love and support from the people that care for us are the main recipes to success. No matter how big their roles are in our life, they help shape us into who we are today.

The fourth, and last book of The Giver quartet