Music-Preambule

Among many fabulous and beautiful things in this world, I bet on all of my stamps collection that music must be one of the most admired by more than three-quarter living human in this world. The impact of music in our life is immeasurable, even one of our past philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, once said "Life without music is a mistake". Hence for us human being, to be able to appreciate music is as natural as living itself.  

According to Wikipedia, wondrous tunes and songs had been produced since the existence of human civilization roughly 50000 years ago. Music took part in the evolution of numerous aspects of human life, such as religion, art, culture, etc. Every civilization, culture, and country has their own variety of music, from folk song to Arabic tunes, and variety of musical instruments, from ocarina to kendang. And even until the 20th century, music's evolution is still far from its end, if it will ever end. New genres popping here and there in the past 50 years, rock, pop, jazz and hip-hop are only tiny parts of the whole thing called music.

I also have deep appreciation of music. And in this simple article, I want to share some of my musical appreciation. There is a saying that one's personality is observable through the music that he likes and there is high probability that the reader will know me better once they grasp my appreciation of music. 

My main objective in this article is to list the best song of all time. Since there is no way that I will be able to track down every single song in every single country and generation, therefore scope limitation is required to make this list . What I mean by song is music with lyrics that is sung in English, that is to say instrumental music and non-English music are excluded. And "of all time" is ranged since 1950-present, In my opinion that's a fair limit since music booming started in the early of 1950's.

The list will be divided into 5 parts, in each part there will be 10 top songs from particular decade. The first part will be the top music from 2000-2009, the second will be 1990-1999, and so on, to the last part from 1950-1969 which is an exception of 20 years instead of 10 years period. Selecting criteria will consist of the music itself, lyrics, quality of singer, and popularity/impact of the song to our society. These kind of lists will be subjective, and may not satisfy most of the readers. But all of you my readers are welcomed to state opinions and comments about my list.  

The first list will be published shortly. It will be the top 10 songs of the 1st 20th century decade. Please wait for it patiently.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy...

Ireng masuk Jakarta Post

Setelah 8 tahun kemudian baru diketahui bahwa nama penulis pernah muncul di sebuah artikel di jakarta post..check this out :

Surya Wahyudi wins students c'ships

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 03/01/2001 7:15 AM

JAKARTA (JP): Twelve-year-old Surya Wahyudi of Cakung Barat 01 elementary school won the Enerpac Cup Students Championships on Tuesday.

Surya collected full six match points (MP) from six sessions after defeating all his opponents. The second and third place went to Rezka Aulia and Azkah Muhammad respectively. They collected five MPs each but Rezka won on a progressive score (PS) of 20 compared to Azkah's 19.

Abuzar Fikri grabbed the title in the junior high school category with 5.5 MP followed by Ireng Guntoro Jati and Aris Haryanto who each scored 5 MPs. Ireng won with 20 PSs compared to Aris's 18 points.

In the senior high school category, Zulkarnaen won the title with 5 MPs and 13.5 PSs. He was followed by Rudy Kurniawan who also got 5 MPs but got only 13 PSs and Sauman Sani took third place with 4.5 MPs.

The Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) will organize a Junior Chess Circuit on March 16 to March 18 at the Wisma Catur on Jl. Tanah Abang I, Central Jakarta. Similar circuits will also be held in Medan, Banjarmasin, Bandung, and Surabaya.

""The junior chess circuits are meant to recruit talented and young chess players for the second chess Dream Team,"" said Percasi spokesman Kristianus Lien in a written statement. (nvn)

Hahaha...jadul bgt nih berita, bahkan saat itu penulis masih kelas 3 SMP. Tapi salah tulis tuh namanya, harusny Ireng Guntorojati payah ni jakarta post. Kangen jg maen catur, jadi pengen ikut turnamen lg, masi bisa bantai-bantai orang ga ya...haha

Journey Through Infinity - First Milestone

(Author Note : Journey Through Infinity (JIT) is the author personal memoir about..everything, Consider it as another Thus Spake Zarathustra version created by the author's alter ego)

FIRST MILESTONE

I Existed

A Primordial Consciousness of Existence

Came to LIFE

Without holy voice and light
Without big bang and birth
Without creation and evolution
Without divine source and divine purpose
Without body and soul

The journey started, A journey through infinity

From the darkest hour of past
To the uncertainty of future

From unconsciousness
To consciousness

From illusion
To existence

From quantum physics
To God

From earth
To heaven

My journey to LIFE

Though the journey might be endless
Though the search might be in vain
Though the resistance might be futile

It was to be started, and so it was

Culture Shock

By definition : Culture shock refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country. (Wikipedia)

Penulis juga mau tidak mau mengalami berbagai macam culture shock, di antaranya adalah bertemu orang-orang asing dengan budaya dan pola pikir yang berbeda dengan orang-orang indonesia. Ada beberapa obrolan menarik dan lucu yang antar penulis dengan orang-orang di sini atau obrolan yang penulis dengar sendiri.

Penulis : Hey zender, how are you doing?
Orang America : Great, but I haven't found any place to have fun here
Penulis : There are a lot of them
Orang America : Really? So do you know where is the nearest night club? We should go together.
(err...penulis bingung karena biasanya cuma jalan-jalan ke Taipei Main Station atau night market)

Penulis : What will you do after exam?
Orang amerika selatan : Off course, get drunk...
(Kerjaan orang latin emang cuma mabok dan berantem)

Penulis : So Laoshi (teacher) do you have a plan to get married?
Laoshi : I don't think so...maybe not
Teman penulis dari indonesia : WHAT? But don't you want to experience sex?
Teman penulis dari kolombia : oh another culture shock...
(Itu bukan penulis yang ngomong sumpah...)

Laoshi : Sorry if it's not a proper question, but do you have a religion belief?
Penulis : Oh that's no problem. Off course I have, I'm a catholic. How about you laoshi?
Laoshi : No, I don't have any. So do all of indonesians have religion?
Penulis : Yes, it is required and we even state our religion in the ID
Laoshi : Really? Wow that's very funny..
(Penulis bingung karena merasa tidak sedang ngelawak)

Penulis : I'm amazed here maybe because I'm coming from a developing country into a developed one.
Orang Amerika : Taiwan is a developed country? I don't think so. It is still developing
(So your point is...emmm. Indonesia is an undeveloped country)

Penulis : So, are you a moslem?
Orang Turki : I am a moslem. But I don't follow its rule
Penulis : What do you mean?
Orang Turki : I don't go to mosque, I drink alcohol and sleep with women before marriage.
Penulis : oh ok...
(Kirain orang turki alim2 hehehe ternyata ga semuanya)

100 Jam Astronomi

Penulis cuma ingin mempromosikan event internasional ini, "100 Jam Astronomi" link dan berita lengkap silakan dilihat di sini.

Klo diingat-ingat, ternyata sudah lama juga penulis tidak memperhatikan kondisi langit malam dan lebih lama lagi tidak mengintip teropong. Jadi kangen. Sedikit menyesal juga di tahun 2009 yang katanya tahun astronomi dunia ini,penulis malah terpisah jauh dari teropong dan gelapnya langit malam. Padahal ingin juga menyaksikan gerhana matahari atau komet lupin beberapa waktu lalu.

Karena kangen dan penasaran, iseng-iseng penulis membuka-buka stellarium. Stellarium ini software untuk memetakan langit malam, jadi kita bisa tahu objek langit apa saja yang mungkin terlihat malam ini, kemana harus mengarahkan teleskop, nama-nama bintang dan rasinya, dll. Software yang cukup menarik untuk belajar astronomi dan untuk pengamatan amatir.

Ternyata penulis benar-benar sudah lupa kondisi langit. Orion dan Taurus sudah hampir terbenam, setidaknya di taipei sudah tidak terlihat lagi tapi mungkin di indonesia masih. Jupiter dan mars pun tidak nampak,mungkin jam 3 pagi baru muncul. Yang masih mungkin dilihat sekitar jam 9 malam cuma saturnus. Tapi mustahil melihat saturnus dengan mata telanjang di tempat seterang taipei, di bandung saja cuma terlihat sayup-sayup.

Di bawah ini hasil screenshot stellarium. Apabila nanti malam jam 7 kita mengarahkan pandangan ke arah barat (dari taipei) maka akan terlihat pemandangan berikut. Tentu saja gambar rasi bintang hanya ilustrasi belaka.

Bisa dibilang pemandangan di atas adalah hunting objek favorit penulis yang biasanya paling cocok dilihat bulan-bulan november-januari.

Rasi bintang canis major (kiri) yang menyerupai anjing besar dengan bintang paling terang di langit malam, Sirius. Bintang ini bisa terlihat cukp jelas dari taipei klo tidak mau dibilang itu satu-satunya bintang yang terlihat.

Rasi Orion (tengah), pemburu dalam legenda yunani dengan 3 bintang berderet di sabuknya atau lebih populer dengan sebutan Orion's belt. Orion's belt ini juga salah satu landmark langit malam, mudah dilihat dan menarik. Sedikit di bawah orion belt, ada nebula orion yang dapat dilihat dengan teleskop kecil. Dan menurut pendapat pribadi penulis, nebula orion apabila dilihat di langit yang gelap dan cerah akan menjadi sangat indah dan menawan, terutama bila sampai terlihat debu/kabut angkasanya.

Rasi Taurus (kanan), salah satu rasi yang menjadi simbol 12 zodiak dengan bintang paling terangnya, aldebaran. Namun objek paling menarik di konstelasi ini adalah Nebula Pleiades yang terletak di badan banteng (paling kanan). Menggunakan teleskop sederhana dapat terlihat sekitar 7 bintang cemerlang dan puluhan bintang-bintang yang lebih redup terlokalisasi di tempat yang tidak terlalu luas. Sangat menarik.

Hmm...kapan ya bisa lihat-lihat bintang lagi.