Yang Merah Tidak Selalu Yang Paling Keren

Purposefully written in Bahasa.

Tak disangka dengan internet gw bisa berjumpa dengan teman lamaku di masa-masa ketika aku tidak punya teman dulu.

Jetman! Well mungkin sekarang juga baru tahu nama lengkapnya Choujin Sentai Jetman! Mungkin lucu kedengarannya, tapi serial inilah yang memberikan semangat, kelucuan, dan satu-satunya teman baik gw selepas sekolah.


Selepas SD dan memasuki masa SMP, gw bukan termasuk anak yang keren (sekarang juga bukan). Dengan badan yang gendut, kacamata, dan ketidakmampuan dalam berolahraga, seseorang yang dulunya menjadi "teman baik" gw ketika SD, ternyata menemukan kelompoknya yang lebih cocok di awal SMP. Sempat shock sekali waktu itu, merasa sedih ... bertanya2 koq begini yah? Apalagi SMP, masa2 ketika ingin mencoba untuk menjadi keren.. tapi koq gw tidak bisa keren yah?

Situasi di rumah pun tidak lebih baik. Sepulang sekolah pasti harus bantu jaga toko. Well secara rumah (baca: ruko) gw di hook, so bokap buka toko di depan, dan nyokap waktu itu buka kantin di samping. Pulang sekolah jam 12.45, sampai rumah jam 13.30-an dan lagi puncak2-nya jam makan siang. Cuma boleh ganti baju (bahkan kadang2 tidak bisa ganti baju), dan harus segera turun dan membantu di toko. Kalau tidak.. wah bakal diteriakin.
En jangan dipikir kerjaan itu gampang, dulu bokap luar biasa diktaktornya. Hooa.. semua ga pernah salah deh. Bokap naroh piring di tangga habis makan siang, en gw bawa lampu TL 40 watt satu dus, kepleset tuh piring... gw yang diomelin habis2-an (bukannya khawatir gw ngegelinding di tangga). Ya elah.. tuh lampu panjang.. gimana gw mau liat tuh piring.

Saat SMP pula, kk gw bersekolah di Jakarta (SMUK 1). Wah ngedumel dalam hati... gw susah2 begini.. dia enak2 sekolah di Jakarta.

Sekitar jam 3-4 sore barulah bisa makan siang. Dan saat inilah gw bawa makan siang sambil nonton di depan tipi.. dan muncul-lah acara ini di Indosiar.

Awalnya gw pikir yaelah garing amat! Tapi koq lagu ending-nya enak yah....ya nonton lagi deh besoknya, sembari makan siang ngga ada tontonan koq. Lama kelamaan makin hanyutlah gw dalam petualangan Jetman. Bahkan di kemudian hari, kupindahkan jadwal les Inggrisku ke jam 6 agar gw bisa nonton Jetman tanpa terganggu.

Ceritanya menakjubkan! Pertama kali melihat model google five tapi dengan personel yang betul2 berbeda latar belakangnya. Yg merah (elang) berlatar belakang militer, yg putih/pink (angsa) putri orang kaya, yg biru (walet) mahasiswi, yg hitam (elang kondor) playboy, yg kuning (burung hantu) petani. Dan yg bikin iri adalah cerita pertemanan yang penuh warna (konflik, canda, dan cerita cinta).

Dan tokoh idolaku.. Gaaaaaaaiiii! Yang hitam (elang kondor). Memang dia betul2 keren tiada duanya. Individualistis, tidak sok2 setia kawan, kalau berantem menghalalkan cara2 kotor, playboy, pintar main saksofon... pokoknya di mata seorang anak SMP gendut dan berkacamata.. role model kekerenan deh! Apalagi ketika dia henshin sambil jalan (ceritanya lagi marah sama monster) OMG.... kereeeen sekali (sampai mau loncat2 di depan tivi)! Ditambah Condor Finish (guling2 panas dingin)!

Episode terakhir? Gw nangis sejadi2-nya. Ketika Gai ditusuk pencopet, terus dia bela2-in ke nikahan Ryu (merah) sama Kaori (putih/pink). Yg pas scene dia berjuang naik tangga, terus dia duduk sama Ryu, en ngomong terima kasih. Tambah deras lagi di scene pas mau foto bersama, Kaori khawatir mana Gai, terus dia ngeliat ke arah Gai, en Gai ngangkat tangan sambil senyum. Begitu Kaorinya senyum balik.. huaaaaaa sedihnya.

En pas ending roll.... wah betul2 sedih. Sebagian masih penasaraaaan sekali.. gimana nasib Gai? Cuma pingsan kehabisan darah.. or meninggal? Huaaaa! Tapi sebagian kesedihan lainnya adalah karena tahu kenyataan kalau besok sudah tidak bisa nonton Jetman lagi. Betul2 terpana di depan tivi dengan air mata yang berlinang2.

Sekarang, lebih dari 10 tahun kemudian... gw udah berubah.. udah punya best friends yang baru, sudah bisa menemukan olahraga favorit, udah bisa menghandle toko.
Tapi kemarin ketika nonton episode terakhir di youtube.. tetap saja mata berkaca2.

Tenkyu Jetman... teman di saat aku tidak punya teman.

Lagu ending Jetman.. yg bikin jatuh cinta pertama kali (kokorowa tamago...chiisana tamago... hahahaha):

Science, the frontier to the new amazing world

"What happen to the matter inside the 0 K temperature system?". A question was asked in physics class during my high school years. Then the teacher explained since 0 K indicates absolute zero condition means the system will lose all its energy, and all the atoms will cease moving one another. The system will be perfectly static since it has no energy to move even in the atomic level.

Is it true? At that moment that explanation sounded true enough to be accepted. And the most interesting fact is while on earth the temperature is nice and cozy, but the average temperature of the universe is 2.73 K, just almost 3 more degree to absolute zero.

Ok, so what is the answer for that question? The answer is Bose-Einstein condensation. Recent news from NUS startled me since they claimed to have succeeded in doing the experiment. It means creating one of the coldest material in the universe!

The most interesting fact about Bose-Einstein condensation is at the low(est) temperature, the particles will start to behave strangely. The atoms will display wavelike property. And as the temperature goes down, the wave will grow longer and eventually overlap one another. And then the atoms will undergo an identity crisis means can be everywhere at once in one big quantum system(hmm strange..)? But anyway it is nothing like my high school teacher explanation.

It is amazing to trace backwards and see how far physics can go. Once Newton thought about gravity and the basic motion of objects, and then Einstein came up with relativity and the world's most famous equation E=mc^2.

Newton's equation will be enough to send men to the moon, but it is Einstein relativity theory that enables us to find out interesting fact that the current record holder of time travel is the Russian astronaut Sergei Krikalev, who spent more than eight hundred days whipping around the earth on board both the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station. So far he has aged about one-fifiteth a second less than us people of the earth.

At around the same time Einstein published his most famous work, Max Planck published a paper at 1900 while he was struggling to explain the spectrum of the radiation emitted by hot objects. The paper was a root to more exotic framework: quantum theory.

Max Planck was led to the idea that energy is not emitted in a continuous stream, but rather in discrete bundles of a particular size. In the next few decades (until now) quantum theory blossomed into a new system of mechanics that would replace Newton's mechanic especially for the atomic and sub-atomic world.

In a quantum system, the system can be in many states at once, but when we observe it, than the system collapses and we obtain a single and specific result. The most famous experiment is double slit experiment. That when we fire electrons through double slit, it display wavelike result. But when we observe the electron one by one closely while it passes the slit, it will behave like a normal particle.

So strange! But yet it's so true. Science enables us to see outward and observe enormous things such as black holes, stars, and supernovas. Yet in the same time it enables us to see inward and observe minuscule matters. Still so much wonders left in this boring world.

Flat Feet

When I was in primary school, on field exercise we were asked to walk on a plank. It was a balance exercise, and I failed miserably on doing that. I was so confused, why other kids could do it with no problem at all. My sport teacher even asked me why i could not do it properly. After went home, I even trained at home using wooden plank, but again I could not do it properly.

The problem continues even until now. I just can't do balance position such as aeroplane position. I also have problem with blade-based shoes such as skate shoes and roller blade.

It was until I did yoga recently that I realized the root of the problem, my flat feet! And oh my goodness, it is so simple and fundamental that I missed it and kept blaming myself for unable to do balance related things.

The reason why i realized it during yoga was because during yoga class everyone came barefooted. As expected, during balance position I did awfully, and when I looked at others feet I realized the problem.
I have two balance points on the right and left side on each of my foot! And both balance points are unstable as they can shift to one another. To maintain balance, I have to "lean" to one point, and because I am leaning, my posture become unstable. To correct the balance, I change my leaning to other point, and so on.

Refuse to accept the bitter truth, I am now trying to lean to one point and keep the balance there. Basically it kills my foot since only small part on the side of my foot which support the whole body's weight. But with proper concentration (really concentrate) I can manage to prolong the balance even though not as perfect as everyone else.

The other challenge is to do running. I also realized that since the weight of my body is not well distributed, my feet are not as shock proof as everyone else. Usually on the 3rd km my right thigh joint begin to ache, and I have to stop because of the ache instead of running out of breath. Right now I am still finding out why it always happens on the right thigh joint, instead of the left.

Sometimes I hate my body, it's so full of genetic flaws: flat feet, arms that can bend outward (which make push up harder), and lactose intolerance (which makes me always having bad diarrhea after drinking fresh milk).

But at the end, I just have to live with it =).

Who is your ally Indonesia?

Looking at news these past days, one could realize that 2nd law of thermodynamics is in play: "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium."
From 9/11, legalized terrorism on Afghanistan and Iraq, Iranian nuclear issue, North Korea crisis, Sawat Valley issue in Pakistan, Mumbai terrorism, Bali bombing, and all others numerous issues. We're plunging deeper into chaotic system right now.

Our suppose to be ally

And the latest news came from the very backyard of Indonesia, the border between Malaysia and Indonesia. Yet once again Malaysian army intruded into Indonesia's territory. On purpose? I believe so (since this "accident" happened numerous times before).
A lot of Indonesian, triggered by this issue, would yell "Ganyang Malaysia!" as once had yelled by Soekarno, the founding father of Indonesia, a long time ago.

The question is: why Malaysia? Is it true that both Malaysia and Indonesia share the very common root on language and culture: Malayan? Is it true that both countries are Islamic countries?
Malaysia suppose to be our closest ally if we want to consider the cultural and religious similarity. Why this fact falters? Then who suppose to be our ally?

World's power

To see the polarization of world's power now, we can recognize two giant powers: America and China. And yet Indonesia is so distant from both of them. We can't get too close to America because of Palestinian issue, and we always keep our distance from China.
And to expect alliance from Islamic countries is like expecting snow to fall in summer (not to mention that our closest muslim country keeps backstabbing us) .

How about our other closest tiny country: Singapore? I have to admit this country plays itself really well. As the slogan says: Singapore is where east truly meets the west. Due to its cultural background of Chinese people and heavy investment on China, the relationship with the mainland China is unquestionable (Chinese is arguably the second most spoken language in Singapore). And also the relationship with USA is well since they have no problem with Palestinian issue (they even have diplomatic channel with Israel). And to attack this country means to deal with the most advanced military technology in ASEAN not to mention the backup from 7th fleet of US Navy (Singapore is building a new pier at Changi Naval Base to provide support for this fleet). Very different from Soekarno's time uh?

The nationalism revisited

Suppose if our army attacked Malaysia right now. What would the reaction of the whole country be? Why I suspect the reaction would not differ greatly from when we heard about the accident of army's plane crash a few weeks ago? Even some of us would still visit Great Singapore Sales!
The exclusivity of our army hinders the access for some of its people, thus make the people feel less responsible for them. Have you seen Chinese and Indian people in the national army? Though they have been around in Indonesia since.. well you can say... before Islam arrived in this country?

There is some barrier in Indonesia's system, even though it can't be understood. Javanese vs non-Javanese, westerners vs easterners, muslim vs non-muslim, natives vs non-natives. When I was in third grade in primary school, I got punched in the face for the first time (and more for the years to come). Puzzled at that time, I just couldn't accept the explanation from my parents: that somehow we're different from when we're born. For some times I even asked why I was born different from the local.

Rarely we see Indonesia as Indonesia (or never at all). We often see it as parts of it. When Ambon's conflict was at the peak, for whatever is the reason, the banner of the forces is Islam and Christian. Each party launched its own backup forces (sometimes armed) without any respect to local authority and national army. Why it was so difficult to launch any backup under the name of INDONESIA? The answer is because we only care for parts of it. Parts that similar to us, parts that concern us. The rest of it, even though we share the common land, is trash.

So why should people in Jakarta care about tiny islands, barren and ugly, so far that they can only see it on map? To remember nationalism lecture on my undergrad years... it is so laughable now.

Should the conflict arise, who will help us? Will we be able to help our self, or to be crushed by our differences? Play the chess next leader!