Am listing it to review just how many favorite books I have and what are those..In actual fact It's probably more than 50, but I chose 50 who made the most impression on me. Oh well...I really grew up with books...They're the ones that mostly taught me how to think, how to view the world, what to know, what to care about...I've friends who told me learning form books is wrong, in a sense that they cannot replace real experiences. I agree, but books for me is a way to communicate with people past, great people long dead, or who stay so far away..books truly are the windows to the world. Alright, dear reader, do count how many of those listed here you have read and drop it as a comment. will appreciate tt =)
1.The Bible (not putting it here just to be politically correct, but because it is the most complex, far-reaching, and personally life-changing book amongst those I've read. AND i haven't even finished reading it!)
2.Bridge to Terabitihia - Katherine Paterson
3.Matilda - Roald Dahl
4.The Little Prince - Antoine de St. Exupery
5.The Silmarillion - J.R.R Tolkien
6. LOTR trilogy - J.R.R Tolkien
7. Derai-derai Cemara - Chairil Anwar (a compilation of his poems)
8. Supernova - Dee
9. Akar - Dee
10.Freakonomics - Stephen D.Levitt
11. Building Construction Illustrated ( yea i think so ;p ) - Francis D.K Ching
12.Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
13. The Red Queen -Jared Diamond
14. Sherlock Holmes series - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
15. The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
16. Catatan Seorang Demonstran - Soe Hok Gie
17. "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman?" - Richard Feynman
18. "What do you care what other people think?" -Richard Feynman
19. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - T.E Carhart
20. Biology 6th edition - Campbell & Reece
21. content -OMA
22. The Screwtape Letters - C.S Lewis
23. Mere Christianity -C.S Lewis
24. The Great Divorce -C.S Lewis (ok, basically anything by C.S Lewis, though I hve yet to rfinish reading all his works)
25. The Case for Faith -Lee Strobel
26. 5 cm -Donny Dirgantoro
27. Kambing Jantan -Raditya Dika
28. Tetralogi Laskar Pelangi - Andrea Hirata
29. Romeo and Juliet -William Shakespeare
30. The Speed Reading Book - Tony Buzan (I owe my current reading speed to him..a must read!)
31. Let Me Be A Woman - Elizabeth Elliot
32. Passion and Purity -Elizabeth Elliot
33. I Kissed Dting Good-bye- Joshua Harris (Basically the book that shaped my view towards BGR)
34. Thinking Architecture -Peter Zumthor (even though it's an architecture book, it's so beautiful that it calms me down when I read it...simply an architectural classic. Plus it's rather thin!)
35. Atmosphere - Peter Zumthor
36. Don't Eat This Book - Morgan Spurlock
37. Sabriel - Garth Nix
38. Shadow of The Wind -Carlos Ruiz Zafon
39. The Lotus and The Cross -Ravi Zacharias
40. Stories for The Extreme Teen's Heart
41. Clutter's Last Stand -Don Aslett
42. How to Have 48 Hours A Day - Don Aslett (It works! Too bad one needs more than 48 hours a day in archi..)
43. Jesus Freaks -d.c Talk
44. Diet for A New World - John Robbins (It's about vegetarianism. John Robbins is actually from the family who owned Baskin Robbins, but well..he converted into 100% vegetarian - meaning no ice cream too...)
45. Total Truth -Nancy Pearce (MUST read!)
46. Nodame Cantabile comic series
47. Idiot's Guide to Drawing (Read this when I was quite young, thankfully. It's a useful book for those who alwys think you just cannot draw!)
48. Biomimicry -Janine M. Benyus
49. The Golden Compass series -Philip Pullman
50. Harry Potter series -J.K Rowling
Hm...that's 50 for now...bu it doesn't include my favourite poets and short stories. By the way, aside from the Bible at no.1, and maybe the Bridge to Terabithia at no.2, the rest of the books is in no order of preference. I just list them as I remember them.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
I remember....
I remember,once again
It was the first time I met You
I didn't know, there's such love
Freely given to those undeserving
And I held back, not knowing what to do
Should I surrender, are Your promises true?
Is your mercy really meant for me?
Doubts flooded my mind
Would You forgive me?
These filthy lips
Don't deserve
To utter a word of praise
But what else,
What else can I do?
Beholding a God like You
You've taken my heart captive
Ever since
Never to be satisfied again
With any lesser things
You have made my life complete
The reason I live
Jesus,now I realize
How deep
How deep I've fallen in love with You
__
Kuingat lagi , pertama kali
Saat kita bertemu
Ku tak tahu ada cinta
Begitu besar, begitu setia
Aku takut menerimaMu
Takut berserah, pada janjiMu
Apa kasihMu benar untukku?
Kerinduanku
Keraguanku
Bibir ini tak pantas
Tuk memanggil namaMu
Tapi jiwaku
Terlalu bahagia
Menemukan Tuhanku
Kau menawan hatiku
Sejak saat itu
Tak terpuaskan lagi
Oleh apapun yang lain
Kau menjadi tuanku
tujuan hidupku
Baru aku sadari
Betapa aku mencintaiMu
__
Lagu yang aku tulis 5 tahun lalu, waktu baru jadi orang Kristen, waktu Yesus benar2 jadi pusat hidupku dan kebahagiaanku...waktu aku rela bangun jam 5 pagi supaya saat teduhnya bisa lama, nekat "menginjili" orang-orang di kanan-kiri, rindu datang ke gereja, menjalani hari dengan hati yang meluap-luap karena selalu ingat bahwa Yesus sayang padaku....
Ke mana perginya ya semangat dan bara apiku? Baru belakangan saja aku sadar aku harus mulai dari nol lagi, mendisiplinkan diri lagi untuk menempatkan Yesus sebagai prioritas utama, menunjukkan bahwa aku mencintai Yesus dengan tindakan dan bukan cuma omong doang, berhenti berdoa "Yesus, pakai aku" kemudian sibuk sendiri mengerjakan tugas.
Aku tidak mau lagi jadi air yang suam-suam kuku... Sulit memang terus berdoa pagi saat waktu tidur nggak cukup dan nggak tentu. Sulit memang konsentrasi baca Alkitab saat tugas menumpuk dan yang ada di pikiran cuma bagaimana menyelesaikannya. Sulit memang punya waktu untuk menjadi saksi bagi orang lain saat waktu untuk diri sendiri saja tidak ada. Tapi aku ingat lagi, bahwa saat aku begitu dekat dengan Dia, betapa bahagia dan damainya hari-hariku, sesulit apa pun juga.
Akan berusaha berhenti jadi hipokrit super sibuk, dan memulai proses jatuh cinta lagi. Kepada Dia yang memenuhkanku, memahamiku, mencintaiku.
Amin.
It was the first time I met You
I didn't know, there's such love
Freely given to those undeserving
And I held back, not knowing what to do
Should I surrender, are Your promises true?
Is your mercy really meant for me?
Doubts flooded my mind
Would You forgive me?
These filthy lips
Don't deserve
To utter a word of praise
But what else,
What else can I do?
Beholding a God like You
You've taken my heart captive
Ever since
Never to be satisfied again
With any lesser things
You have made my life complete
The reason I live
Jesus,now I realize
How deep
How deep I've fallen in love with You
__
Kuingat lagi , pertama kali
Saat kita bertemu
Ku tak tahu ada cinta
Begitu besar, begitu setia
Aku takut menerimaMu
Takut berserah, pada janjiMu
Apa kasihMu benar untukku?
Kerinduanku
Keraguanku
Bibir ini tak pantas
Tuk memanggil namaMu
Tapi jiwaku
Terlalu bahagia
Menemukan Tuhanku
Kau menawan hatiku
Sejak saat itu
Tak terpuaskan lagi
Oleh apapun yang lain
Kau menjadi tuanku
tujuan hidupku
Baru aku sadari
Betapa aku mencintaiMu
__
Lagu yang aku tulis 5 tahun lalu, waktu baru jadi orang Kristen, waktu Yesus benar2 jadi pusat hidupku dan kebahagiaanku...waktu aku rela bangun jam 5 pagi supaya saat teduhnya bisa lama, nekat "menginjili" orang-orang di kanan-kiri, rindu datang ke gereja, menjalani hari dengan hati yang meluap-luap karena selalu ingat bahwa Yesus sayang padaku....
Ke mana perginya ya semangat dan bara apiku? Baru belakangan saja aku sadar aku harus mulai dari nol lagi, mendisiplinkan diri lagi untuk menempatkan Yesus sebagai prioritas utama, menunjukkan bahwa aku mencintai Yesus dengan tindakan dan bukan cuma omong doang, berhenti berdoa "Yesus, pakai aku" kemudian sibuk sendiri mengerjakan tugas.
Aku tidak mau lagi jadi air yang suam-suam kuku... Sulit memang terus berdoa pagi saat waktu tidur nggak cukup dan nggak tentu. Sulit memang konsentrasi baca Alkitab saat tugas menumpuk dan yang ada di pikiran cuma bagaimana menyelesaikannya. Sulit memang punya waktu untuk menjadi saksi bagi orang lain saat waktu untuk diri sendiri saja tidak ada. Tapi aku ingat lagi, bahwa saat aku begitu dekat dengan Dia, betapa bahagia dan damainya hari-hariku, sesulit apa pun juga.
Akan berusaha berhenti jadi hipokrit super sibuk, dan memulai proses jatuh cinta lagi. Kepada Dia yang memenuhkanku, memahamiku, mencintaiku.
Amin.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Extreme Super-Time-Savers!!
Was doing models until quite late yesterday because today was interim crit. I think I'm becoming even more hardcore-ly archi now since I displayed one of the symptoms my friend was telling me about: when I accidentally poked my finger with the cutter, the first thing that came to mind was: "Shoot, will I be able to finish the model?!" (Nothing serious though, it was submission paranoia in action.)
Oh well, the purpose of this post is to share archi time-saving tips with the public in general. Of course, Time being an absolutely precious commodity in archi, we learn to save as much of it as possible (to be wasted later on by sleeping like a pig). Here are some of the techniques:
1. If you don't stay on campus, one of the best thing you can do is to stay over night, of course. But be careful, the time you saved in transportation might be wasted by the loss of productivity incurred because you can't sleep well in studio. Be prepared to experiment with sleeping places and positions until you find one that is comfortable. The goal is to approximate the quality of sleep you get at home. Familiarizing yourself with the studio light switches also pays dividends if, like me, you are photo-sensitive.
2. For morning lectures at 9 A.M, bathe just before you sleep and wear nice shirt and pants. Then the next day, wake up at 8.55(when you're sleeping in studio of course, which is just below the lecture theatre), brush your teeth and voila! you're ready for lecture! Having breakfast during lecture helps to shave off some more preparation time. Good thing archi lecturers are so understanding.
Alternatively, a nice jacket with a hood is useful to disguise creased shirts and newly-woken-up hair. After you wake up, wear your jacket and you're ready to roll! (This is my preferred strategy ;p )
3. If Time is really of the essence, bathing just once a day saves between 15 to 30 minutes a day, depending on what kind of bather you are. If Time is REALLY of the essence, follow the footsteps of my senior and don't bathe for 1 or 2 days. I mean, who says we should bathe twice day, rite? Do away with social conventions!
4. Regarding meals, learn from my archi friend who summarized her three daily meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner - into two: "brunch" and "lunner". Further summarization of the 3 meals into just one, "brunner", is possible but not really advisable, since depriving the brain but of sleep and blood sugar equals to slowly committing suicide.
5. If everything else fails, then don't sleep. Hence, you will automatically double your Time, e.g. 1 weeks' deadline becomes 2 weeks, and so on. Admittedly, this most unhelathy strategy is the one that archi students often resort to. Someone should do a scientific research on "The Effects of Sever Sleep Deprivation on Poor Architecture Students".
Oh well, the purpose of this post is to share archi time-saving tips with the public in general. Of course, Time being an absolutely precious commodity in archi, we learn to save as much of it as possible (to be wasted later on by sleeping like a pig). Here are some of the techniques:
1. If you don't stay on campus, one of the best thing you can do is to stay over night, of course. But be careful, the time you saved in transportation might be wasted by the loss of productivity incurred because you can't sleep well in studio. Be prepared to experiment with sleeping places and positions until you find one that is comfortable. The goal is to approximate the quality of sleep you get at home. Familiarizing yourself with the studio light switches also pays dividends if, like me, you are photo-sensitive.
2. For morning lectures at 9 A.M, bathe just before you sleep and wear nice shirt and pants. Then the next day, wake up at 8.55(when you're sleeping in studio of course, which is just below the lecture theatre), brush your teeth and voila! you're ready for lecture! Having breakfast during lecture helps to shave off some more preparation time. Good thing archi lecturers are so understanding.
Alternatively, a nice jacket with a hood is useful to disguise creased shirts and newly-woken-up hair. After you wake up, wear your jacket and you're ready to roll! (This is my preferred strategy ;p )
3. If Time is really of the essence, bathing just once a day saves between 15 to 30 minutes a day, depending on what kind of bather you are. If Time is REALLY of the essence, follow the footsteps of my senior and don't bathe for 1 or 2 days. I mean, who says we should bathe twice day, rite? Do away with social conventions!
4. Regarding meals, learn from my archi friend who summarized her three daily meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner - into two: "brunch" and "lunner". Further summarization of the 3 meals into just one, "brunner", is possible but not really advisable, since depriving the brain but of sleep and blood sugar equals to slowly committing suicide.
5. If everything else fails, then don't sleep. Hence, you will automatically double your Time, e.g. 1 weeks' deadline becomes 2 weeks, and so on. Admittedly, this most unhelathy strategy is the one that archi students often resort to. Someone should do a scientific research on "The Effects of Sever Sleep Deprivation on Poor Architecture Students".
Idealis
"Aku ingin mendaki puncak tantangan, menerjang batu granit kesulitan, menggoda mara bahaya, dan memecahkan misteri dengan sains. Aku ingin menghirup berupa-rupa pengalaman lalu terjun bebas menyelami labirin lika-liku hidup yang ujungnya tak dapat disangka. Aku mendamba kehidupan dengan kemungkinan-kemungkinan yang bereaksi satu sama lain seperti benturan molekul uranium : meletup tak terduga-duga, menyerap, mengikat, mengganda, berkembang, terurai, dan berpencar ke arah yang mengejutkan. Aku ingin ke tempat-tempat yang jauh, menjumpai beragam bahasa dan orang - orang asing. Aku ingin berkelana, menemukan arahku dengan membaca bintang gemintang. Aku ingin mengarungi padang dan gurun-gurun, ingin melepuh terbakar matahari, limbung dihantam angin, dan menciut dicengkeram dingin. Aku ingin kehidupan yang menggetarkan, penuh dengan penaklukan. Aku ingin hidup! Ingin merasakan sari pati hidup!" (Andrea Hirata, "Edensor")
Bahasa Indonesia memang tetap bahasa paling indah...haah....kembali terinspirasi setelah membaca kata2nya andrea hirata..mantap nian, sakti mandraguna! Memang hidup seperti itulah yang ingin aku cari...tidak peduli pendek atau panjang, yang penting sarat pengalaman. Sarat petualangan.
Apa sebaiknya aku alih profesi dari arsitek jadi pawang macan? Atau aktivis kehutanan mungkin? Tapi akhir2 ini aku suka yakin bahwa arsitektur itu memang bidang yang ditetapkan Tuhan buatku, jadi semakin menjalaninya dengan sepenuh hati.
Newae, kemarin sempat ngobrol sama orang Belanda di kelas SS, kebetulan topiknya colonial history. Ternyata orang Belanda belajar juga dalam sejarahnya bahwa mereka memang menjajah Indonesia, tapi aku rasa pasti adalah justifications nya, pembelaan bahwa penjajahan 350 tahun itu enggak buruk2 amat. Yah, sejarah memang harus dilihat dari berbagai sudut pandang. Yang menarik, ternyata sampai sekarang budaya kita masih sangat terpengaruh budaya Belanda. Teman Belanda ku itu kaget karena katanya lihat meisses (Tau? Butir2 coklat yang suka ditaruh di atas roti dan donat? Kalau nggak salah mereknya "Ceres" deh.) Katanya, dia belum pernah lihat makanan itu di luar Belanda kecuali di Indonesia. Wah keren juga ya, kalau mau makan makanan Eropa kita nggak usah pergi ke restoran mahal, cukup beli donat aja. ;p
Bahasa Indonesia memang tetap bahasa paling indah...haah....kembali terinspirasi setelah membaca kata2nya andrea hirata..mantap nian, sakti mandraguna! Memang hidup seperti itulah yang ingin aku cari...tidak peduli pendek atau panjang, yang penting sarat pengalaman. Sarat petualangan.
Apa sebaiknya aku alih profesi dari arsitek jadi pawang macan? Atau aktivis kehutanan mungkin? Tapi akhir2 ini aku suka yakin bahwa arsitektur itu memang bidang yang ditetapkan Tuhan buatku, jadi semakin menjalaninya dengan sepenuh hati.
Newae, kemarin sempat ngobrol sama orang Belanda di kelas SS, kebetulan topiknya colonial history. Ternyata orang Belanda belajar juga dalam sejarahnya bahwa mereka memang menjajah Indonesia, tapi aku rasa pasti adalah justifications nya, pembelaan bahwa penjajahan 350 tahun itu enggak buruk2 amat. Yah, sejarah memang harus dilihat dari berbagai sudut pandang. Yang menarik, ternyata sampai sekarang budaya kita masih sangat terpengaruh budaya Belanda. Teman Belanda ku itu kaget karena katanya lihat meisses (Tau? Butir2 coklat yang suka ditaruh di atas roti dan donat? Kalau nggak salah mereknya "Ceres" deh.) Katanya, dia belum pernah lihat makanan itu di luar Belanda kecuali di Indonesia. Wah keren juga ya, kalau mau makan makanan Eropa kita nggak usah pergi ke restoran mahal, cukup beli donat aja. ;p
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Outing at Labrador Park
Went to Labrador Park with the ISCF people...very nice place, very romantic too, too bad there were so many ants..haha.. that aside, the place is pretty amazing cuz it combines two of my favorite natural places- a forest and a rocky beach (you get to see more creatures in rocky beaches than sandy beaches). Below are the pics I took...admittedly, lately I'm kinda lazy to write so this blog will temporarily be a photo blog...
Friday, October 12, 2007
Play time!
Went to visit the site for the current project with my studio...Love it! It's a small park called Mount Emily Park (can google-earth it) and it's one of the highest points in Singapore.
Anyway....the best when we went to visit was the weather..overcast sky but not raining at all. And so...all the complications of site survey were forgotten and we focused on the small, white-sanded (yup the sand's white! so nice!) playground that was there. Time to let loose our suppressed inner children!
Now, if only "site survey" can be like this every time....Sunday, October 7, 2007
Stuck.
Just came back from researching in library and my head is cracking. (And yet am so very excited...
I really do have a LOVE/hate relationship with Archi...)
Reason? It's the beginning of a new project and my tutor is a weirdly cool guy. His project brief: To make an Observatory on Mt. Emily park (It's somewhere in Mt. Sophia. The whole studio is still banned from visiting the site so we can concentrate on our concept.). The programs of the Observatory will be: observing the day time sky, night time sky, and the city.
Thinking that it's an amazing, romantic program, but knowing that the Singapore sky is very light polluted I happily went to research on astronomy and found out that binoculars can be used to stargaze and supposedly will enable us to see more stars. So grabbed my Dad's binoculars and camped at school (easier to find dark places). Was out at 1 A.M looking at the night sky...yep i's true i could see more stars with binoculars but it's still nothing to boast about. Obviously the night sky program most probably would not work.
Next day, happily told that to my tutor. His reaction: "Well, do you know why I gave you that program? Because in Singapore it would not work! The atmosphere is too thick."
. . . . . . . . .
I knew there had to be a catch somewhere...aaaaa!!! Oh well, but that's exactly why I so like being under my current tutor. Forces me to squeeze the last drops of creative juices outta my brain..hahaha..
And so I was thinking..how to make people appreciate a night sky that is just a blank, weird purplish color...Then my mind wandered to thoughts of "Surely, the only people who'd appreciate that kind of sky are people who've never seen the sky before...". Yep, the visually impaired or the blind.
....Got me thinking... we take "Observing" as such a simple, mundane, trivial thing. But what about blind people? Maybe they want to see the blue day sky, the black night sky, with all their heart..but they cannot. How do these blind people "observe" the world? How do they tell time? How do they tell one place from another?
And so that is the idea that I'm playing with in my head right now. An Observatory for the Blind. Am I becoming too cretive for my own good? Hm....I foresee challengingly fun but stressful times ahead...Feels that I'm getting myself into trouble, actually..
But surprisingly, there are people who thought of it before. There's a workshop that helps blind people "explore" the outer space. (Just google "observatory blind") , and NASA published books about the universe that has textures to help the visually impaired explore sunspots, constellation etc. It's titled "Touch the Sun" and "Touch the Stars".
Hufh.....hence all is not lost....yet....
I really do have a LOVE/hate relationship with Archi...)
Reason? It's the beginning of a new project and my tutor is a weirdly cool guy. His project brief: To make an Observatory on Mt. Emily park (It's somewhere in Mt. Sophia. The whole studio is still banned from visiting the site so we can concentrate on our concept.). The programs of the Observatory will be: observing the day time sky, night time sky, and the city.
Thinking that it's an amazing, romantic program, but knowing that the Singapore sky is very light polluted I happily went to research on astronomy and found out that binoculars can be used to stargaze and supposedly will enable us to see more stars. So grabbed my Dad's binoculars and camped at school (easier to find dark places). Was out at 1 A.M looking at the night sky...yep i's true i could see more stars with binoculars but it's still nothing to boast about. Obviously the night sky program most probably would not work.
Next day, happily told that to my tutor. His reaction: "Well, do you know why I gave you that program? Because in Singapore it would not work! The atmosphere is too thick."
. . . . . . . . .
I knew there had to be a catch somewhere...aaaaa!!! Oh well, but that's exactly why I so like being under my current tutor. Forces me to squeeze the last drops of creative juices outta my brain..hahaha..
And so I was thinking..how to make people appreciate a night sky that is just a blank, weird purplish color...Then my mind wandered to thoughts of "Surely, the only people who'd appreciate that kind of sky are people who've never seen the sky before...". Yep, the visually impaired or the blind.
....Got me thinking... we take "Observing" as such a simple, mundane, trivial thing. But what about blind people? Maybe they want to see the blue day sky, the black night sky, with all their heart..but they cannot. How do these blind people "observe" the world? How do they tell time? How do they tell one place from another?
And so that is the idea that I'm playing with in my head right now. An Observatory for the Blind. Am I becoming too cretive for my own good? Hm....I foresee challengingly fun but stressful times ahead...Feels that I'm getting myself into trouble, actually..
But surprisingly, there are people who thought of it before. There's a workshop that helps blind people "explore" the outer space. (Just google "observatory blind") , and NASA published books about the universe that has textures to help the visually impaired explore sunspots, constellation etc. It's titled "Touch the Sun" and "Touch the Stars".
Hufh.....hence all is not lost....yet....
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