...Huh...
a so-called haiku/poetry/pantun/??? from Xinda's Land

Racing with time
Finishing up this d*$#ed proposal of mine
14 weeks to the finish line

When are thou coming back, my Advisor
Burden desire for thy great art
and for the page properly signatured

Want to fly with Wendy and Peter Pan
O but wait
"Coach" rerun is on at nick @ nite

B.O.B.O.

A reminiscence to one hot (*literally speaking*) afternoon in Jkt, 18 years back. Mom picked nap time stories from Bobo, a children magazine, and read them for me and my bro.

Um...failed opening. Anyway, anyone with Indonesian as the mother tounge, do you remember the said magazine? Our family's Bobo subscription lasts almost 20 years and counting, from the days of my literary darkness up to this day. I've been fascinated with the imaginative and fun stuff, the science features, the whole wide world legends, and the moral stories from the featured characters: Bobo & family, Bona & Rong Rong, Oki, Nirmala & Ratu Bidadari, Si Sirik & Juwita. Bobo did play some role in my upbringing.

There is one particular Bobo feature that I have trully enjoyed. The bonus part in the middle of the magazine: the adventure of Pak Janggut and his magic bag. I've been trying to find more about the comic. As Google search returned 0 result, I know I should have start writing the magazine for more info [Rats, I don't even know the original name of the comic]. But if somebody knows or knows anyone that knows the stuff about Pak Janggut, please do contact me. Muchas gracias.

Ok, now enough with the stuff from the past. I just got an e-mail from our HS mi-list:
Big kudos to Uda and his future bride for a wonderful life ahead.

You got me straight trippin', Boo

Fri
2300 -- At home, bored beyond belief.
2315 -- Checking fandango. Reading this guy's review. Decided to watch "Identity". Going solo, midnight show.

Sat
0010 -- Arrived at Hollywood, v. long line. Decided to get ticket from the atm-like vendor.
0013 -- Overheard the 4 people in front just decided to watch "I", totally their last minute decision.
0015 -- Ticket sold out. Controlling panic attack. Bought "Anger Management".
0017 -- Entering "I"'s studio instead of "AM"'s. Front seat.
0020 -- Movie started. Thrilled beyond belief.
0150 -- Exhausted (mental-wise). Need some neutralizer, entering "Bringing Down the House"'s studio.
0151-0229 -- L O L
0230 -- Pseudo-equilibrium state of mind. Driving back home.
0240 -- Watching "LA Story". Fell asleep.

Note to self:
*Never watch any thriller/horror movie with a troubled state of mind.
*If indeed decide to watch it, be sure to neutralize the mind by watching any combination of Steve Martin films (at least 2) afterward.

Kish Says No Moore

I was one of the TAs for a microelectronics processing course in the Fall 2002 semester. Our boss, Dr. S, an industry veteran turned university lecturer, is a very funny smart man. A couple days ago, J visited Dr. S at his 3rd floor office. He gave J a copy of the "Kish Says No Moore" headline.

[Things in italics are for some seasoning.]

J: Who (in the name of J) is Kish?
Dr. S: Well, turn around & face the blackboard, use your x-ray vision.
J: (*puzzled*) Ha? I don't (quite) understand.
Dr. S: He is next door, (you unfortunate looking moron).

Anyway, Dr. Kish and his research on thermal noise predict the end of Moore's Law. {*come again?*} In 1965, Gordon Moore of Intel predicted that the increase in the number of transistors per IC is indeed exponential. Semiconductor industry pretty much follows the observation, directing the best effort to come up with a new processor every 18 months. So as we all observe, Pentium IV already had 100 million transistors compared to the 2000 transistors in the 4004 model of 1971.

The threat to the law comes from the pysical limitation of the thermal noise and the decrease in noise tolerance on the densely packed substrate.

But not to worry, there are many efforts placed to delay the death of Moore's Law, for at least a couple of scores. Folks at companies and universities across the world have been working on alternative materials, high-k dielectrics, novel processes, etc. The somewhat related question is: Have we found those killer apps in this journey of building super processor?

A Tribute to My Baby Blue

While driving to Waco [prev posting], it hit me. I miss my Baby Blue. For 4 years, she has been my mean source of transportation. It was love at first sight. Something deep inside wept, as I signed over the title registration to the new owner.

We traveled as far north to Norman, OK and down south to San Antonio. She was there for the two rafting trips, the shopping, the groceries, countless nightly stayed at the lab. Other than the occasional necessary belts changing, oil changing, and tune-ups, she was truly dependable. But this is just the time to let go, 11 years is critical, for financial and mechanical reasons.

I gathered all of the maintenance receipts, insurance cards, registration renewals in one folder; those and the pictures are the mementos worth keeping. Good bye Baby Blue. I wish you a good old age ahead. Live long and prosper!

Road Trip to Perdition

I had an inpromtu trip to Waco today. The land famous for David Koresh & the Branch Davidian [Waco = We ain't coming out] and for Baylor University's Med School. Last minute checklist: full gas, check; paperwork stuff, check; cell phone, check; map, check; sun-glasses [as it was sunny and almost 85 deg outside], check; water [same reason as prev], check; and I took off with the Rage, my bro's coupe.

Along the 110 miles travel, 82 at Highway 6 and the rest down in I-35W, I observed several things worth mentioning:
1. Blue Bonnet is everywhere. Not only the blue Blue Bonnet, but also orange, green, red, pink. Some even have all the available color on as a bunch. Btw, it's illegal to tamper with those mighty flowers, as they are the offical state flower.
2. Baptist church should work more on properly calling themselves. What were they thinking with: "Old Time Baptist Church" and "Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church".
3. There is an 8 Mile Ln in a small city 20 miles from Waco. Whether it carries the same geographical significance as the one in Detroit is very unlikely.

The long straight road makes it possibly to have a 0.5 mile visibility to spot every white sedan from suspecting law enforcement unit. Although, I pretty much obeyed the speed limit, since Rage is not equipped with a radar plus I could'nt find anyone to cooperate (*victimized*) to be a part of a wild herd. Anyway, Texas road is great, compared to I-10 section of Lousianna's, we have much better quality road and higher speed limit (70 mph in the free zone, 55 in the city). This to my concern is contributed to the fact that we have higher legal drinking age compared to LA, but that will be a whole other story.

The Department of Transportation's title registration's regional office in Waco, the destination of the trip, is located in Austin Avenue, a part of the downtown. Like other cities built in 19hundred, the downtown has one-way-paralel-numbered streets and avenues crossing the streets perpendicularly. Going west on Austin Ave, I found a middle-upper class residential area, with varieties of home: ranch, fixer-upper, colonial, cottage, and castle (with Rapunzel like tower, it was cute), you named it. This is the good ol' American neighborhood where people know the name of their post man/woman, where everybody greets each other, and knows everyone lives down the street.

It took me longer to find the place than to get the certified copy of my Baby Blue registration, as it shares a 1-story brown brick building with an insurance company which for some reason has a more grandeur life sign, while the DOT itself is only represented with a shoe-box sized plate that says, you guess it, Department of Transportation. Done with official business, I was inspired to fill in Rachael Ray's footstep [with her $40/day budget to get 3 decents meal in her travel destination]. Squaring around the downtown, I ended up decided to inquire the advice of some honest-to-goodnest local people. There it stood, the Salvation Army building. I got me, two nice old classical music cassettes, and a free copy of J video. Unfortunately, the nice shopkeeper couldn't name any good-nicely priced-lunch place around. I am doing my best effort to avoid chain restaurant.

So, I squared back the downtown, and found this so called Trading Houses, and the sign says that there is a Deli on the backpart of the store. O my, a Deli. If this is NYC, I will gladly try it. But anyway, I had no other choice since this thunderstorm inside kept hauling me, vigorously. Then, I said to the Deli owner that I want something big for lunch and decided to get the roastbeef sandwich, hoping if it will be minuetely as good as a phillycheesesteak. Wondering if the cheese cake is from the Cheese Cake Factory [since he got it from Sam's], I couldn't help my self to order it too. While the food turned out to be an unsatisfaction, I got enough excitement exploring the rest of the store [the building has three stories of glorified garage sale stuff]. I bet you could find any "antiques" that you want, reasonably priced too. I took a copy of Texas Antique directory, just in case I need a new hobby.

The was nothing special on the ride back home. Arrived at my apt, there were Jem and Kumin and my brother trying to have some studying done, with a Papa John's pizza in the middle of the room. Then, it was time for the special American Idol air time. And now, I'm back in the lab, trying to deposit some real p+ with the new chiller. And, I'm hungry. If only I could find a better, bigger meal in downtown Waco....

Hi, D...

Hi, D.
I'm having a big-serious-ultimate problem w/ you know who. Could we talk about this sometime today?
I know you're busy w/ Plant Design & stuff, but I really need some of your advice.
Call me 458-1501.
X. 11:12 AM. Tue.

to be continued....

Pic..Pic..Piccaso

I bought a set of The World's Greates Classics CD 2 or 3 months back. Yes, I am a pure mainstreamer in the area [well, I'm actually a mainstreamer of any type of music, ;P]. "Blessed" with a very short attention span on a long list of chosen subjects [music, of course, is one of them], I had difficulties to remember which piece belongs to which composer; even a simple act of differentiating between Bach or Schubert's Ave Maria is excrutiatingly painful, and not to forget, unsuccesful. So I gave up trying to understand the style, the movement, etc of the genre and simply taking classical music for the sole purpose of enjoying it. [Still with me so far?]

Accompanied by 1 of the CDs from the set, I present [drum roll, please] this weekend in history at the Xinda Land.

Authentic Chinese Food by J's mom.
Having one's Mom visiting is always nice. Especially, if she asks the son to have some friends over for a nice home-cooked meals. That was exactly what happened this Friday, we-the research group members, minus Dr. K-were invited to J's for a dinner, his mom is here visiting for a month. Please say goodbye to the Kung Pao & Gen. Tso's chicken [the so americanized chinese food] and say hello to the soyed sauce hard boilded egg cooked with tea leaves, baked chicken, steam meat in cucumber roll, short ribs in garlic sauce, and the chinese style curry. All were MSG-free and were much-much better and somewhat healthier than any of the so called chinese restaurants here.

Piccaso at the Lapin Agile
A 90-minute play by Steve Martin. Directed and performed by one of the professor and students, respectively, of our school's Dept. of Performance Arts. PaLA is an award winning play, a respectably funny one. Mr. Martin to me is now much more than just a Father of the Bride or the Oscar guy.
The play is about Einstein and Picasso bumping to ea other at a Parisian Bar, the Lapin Agile. There, they discussed their understanding on the purpose of each other's field, that art and science is actually free from collision. The fictional story happened way before both characters were famous for the relativity theory and for setting the first of the cubism style painting.
There were cultural references to the Beatles and the Nazi. One of the characters expressed his opinion on the 20th century, he said something like this: "Lead by the German, the 20th century will be known for its peace". There were also a small fight of the the bar maid and her lover over his romanticsm: It's post. No, Neo. Post. Neo. and so on. And who could have guest that the visitor/messenger (and they all looked at him if he had pouch on his...) was the man from Memphis, Tennesse, not Egypt.

Baby Shower
We threw away a surprised baby shower for N, men were invited, gifts were presented, games were played, and there were lots and lots of food. It was fun.

Starry, starry night...

As I walked home from school on the wee hours of this morning, there was a very bright spot in the dark yet clear sky. So I have this internal conversation:
xinda1: Hmm..what's that? Another one of those cell phone relay?
xinda2: O, it's not. It's a actually a very bright star.

I wonder what is its name, I've never payed much attention on the stars much less on the constellation before. On the next couple steps, my question was answered.

Somebody: Hey, girl (she actually said: "cewek")

I was like, who is that? O..it's I and P. 30 secs before, I was thinking, what is this couple doing in the middle of cold morning, standing there on the pedestrian's walk. It turned out that they were actually on a "break" on the way to Ihop. Girl, it's only a couple steps away...hihihi...

Then, I uttered my excitation about the bright spot.
xinda: Hey, did you see that bright star, where is it? (I circled couple times cause suddenly I lost the sight to the star because of this tree nearby.) Is it Venus?
P: No..it's actually Jupiter. Venus is closer to the sun compared to Jupiter, so we couldn't see it that bright around this time. I heard that they found another satellite for Jupiter, so now there are 53, but you can only see 48, using the telescope.
xinda: (*talk to I*)wow...smart guy.

So, it's official. I have found a new subject for observation. P has a pretty powerfull telescope that we will be able to see all of those amazing bodies. I want to have my own telescope now, hmm..maybe not now now..anyway....Ebay...here, I come.

Interesting conversations, warning: might be boring

Part A:
hhl: What is this, Sade?
xinda: Yeah.
hhl: You're not supposed to know her, she is too old.
xinda: Why not, I couldn't live with BSB and N'sync alone.
hhl: (*mumbling and went away*) She is too old...she is told.

Part B:
Kak Meita: Hey, I saw your pepper spray. Did you just buy it?
xinda: Yeah. I had a serious concern though, how are we supposed to refill it. Sure it looks like a pen, but there is no access to the inside, except for the spraying mechanism.
Kak Meita: (*amazed, glared, all in one*) You are asking for an attack and then you want to refill the spray? If it ever happens, you might want to consider a much heavier artillerry than a pepper spray.
xinda: (*thinking deeply, 1 sec pause*) huhuahahhahuhaha....

--The conversations have been brought to you by a blogger's block.

Vegetable Soup for the Lenten Soul

As do-gooders-practioners of a certain religion that celebrates their "Holy Months" this March & April, me and a group of Indonesian students volunteered to cook and serve the meatless soup this past Friday in the Activity Center of the institution.

The journey began with a discussion in the mi-list as to what kind of soup we are going to prepare, do we need a second "entree", who is available to help the actual cooking, etc. The group members were very enthusiastic about the occasion, reflected in the many opinion on the different kinds of soup that is easier or a bit tastier or somewhat cheaper to prepare. We ended up taking a vote, the results were, soup: macaroni-vegetables (carrot, potatoes, tomatoes, green bean), second "entree": gado-gado (Indonesian style salad with peanut sauce dressing).

As the status-quo-liason to the institution, I'm supposed to contact Mr. Scott, the one in charge for the whole activity. He was very grateful about our volunteering. Through the course of our conversation, he found out that we are going to use some nutmeg for the soup and was a bit thrilled. I found out a couple days later, that actually, everybody in the institution was thrilled with the nutmeg idea.

The day before the D-Day, I went shopping with Claudia in her nice light gold "new" Accord. Destinations: Farm Patch, a nice little fresh vegetables, fruits-and anything else produced from a farm-market, and the new HEB, for the processed ingredients.

I couldn't help with the cooking, since I had weekly group meeting with the research group. It is not a good practice to be not present in the meeting, unless one has somekind of life-threatening emergency. So after dropping the ingredients in the institution's industrial kitchen, and a last minute additional shopping plus a swing back to my apt for some brown sugar and pilancillo (that's Spanish for our "gula jawa"), I raced back to school for the meeting. I was a little bit worried that we didn't have enough time to serve everything at 7, it was already 3:30 PM when I left.

It was a success. In less than 2 hours, the troop of 8 with the command from Mas Niko and Linda completed the assignment. What an efficient work. So, we just need to arrange the food to be ready to be served.

7:01, there were already a long line (longer than the usual Friday) formed from the kitchen serving area to the outside door. We were surprised, and afraid that we wouldn't have have enough of those soup, much less the gado-gado. Everything is big in Texas, including the appetite.

7:30, still some line, by this time, they had to put 5 extra tables and couple chairs for the crowd. We were sure that we won't have enough soup. Err..actually we had, for the first round. But there were people coming back for the 2, 3, 4 rounds...yeah, our soup was that good.

8:00, gado-gado was gone. Most of the group member were not even had a chance to eat it. Poor Nadeth and her craving.

So, the volunteering was a success. We even had people coming to the kitchen and start some kind of light cheerleading activity. What a nice day.

As a summary,
Gallon of soup made: 5
Total head count of people eating the soup: 80
Recovering our reputation back from the choir fiasco: priceless

Yuri, who?

In an effort to get the right part of my brain functions properly, I went to a concert entitled Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloist. Being poor students and all, we (me and a group of close "artistic" friends, oh yeah and my bro) can only afford the balcony seating, the farthest one up. With 50% discount coupon from the Batalyon, the school newspaper, it still cost us $15.50 a ticket. Well, there goes the budget for 4 movies at Hollywood. Btw, the concert is a part of the MSC-OPAS program for the Spring semester. This is the closest thing to performing arts and operas we have here in CS without having to drive out to Houston or Dallas.

After installing the new solenoid valve that was just arrived that afternoon, I raced back home to pick up clothing for the evening. Who knows where all those nice stuff are located on my ever-cluttered-tiny closet . I was even thinking to wear one of my suits for interview, in case I couldn't find anything to wear..waks..even my brother has a more sense of fashion (well, he always has).

Being an ignorant person, not until I read the program did I realize that that was a String concert. What a foul.. I thought that soloists= singers, and that they are going to perform some kind of opera style singing.

Anyway, the program started with Yuri, the violin virtuoso, with 3 cellist, 1 bassist and 1 harpsichordist playing Bach's Bradenburg Concerto # 6, with 3 movements. Let's just say that the piece was quiet moving. Sorry, I couldn't put more intelligent review. But just in case anyone interested, please do contact me for the complete program, ;p.

In the second pieces, there were already a group of 30 violinist, violist, cellist, bassist, double bassist, and cembalist performing, with Mr. Bashmet conducting.

The third or the last pieces before intermission from Toru Takemitsu were strange, well at least for a laywoman like me. Unlike the usual string chamber music [like the ones in the background of Tom & Jerry or nice movies soundtracks], there were less harmony and different rythm, especially for this piece called Funeral Music (Black Rain). I guess the title speak for itself. I couldn't help comparing Mr. Takemitsu's composition to those of Vernon Deyre character in Agatha Christie's "groundbreaking" non-crime novel, the Giant's Bread ;p. It was that strange. The nice part of the performance was the post intermission session, which is Tchaikovsky's Souevenir de Florence, op 70, again 3 movements. Definitely, I enjoyed (*understand*) those pieces.

Other than the slightly improved right brain condition, I could say that I have found a more appreciation for the string orchestra, particularly because they could cover a whole range of emotion. And you know what, I wish I had a recording of W.R. Supratman playing Indonesia Raya on Aug 17, 1945. The violin was just perfect for a national anthem like this.

I finally decided to...


post this meme variant, for fun and for some introspection. Since it's really hard to come up with a list of 100, here is, then, one for the "30 Things 'bout Me"


1. I take my meals on unconventional time: lunch at 6 PM, dinner at 2 AM; I skip breakfast because it makes me dizzy.

2. I have a high alcohol intolerance. I'll get skin rashes all over upon consuming two bottles of beer or a four oz margarita or two glasses of wine.

3. I rarely get sick. Except for the recent discovery that I am allergic to anything that comes along with Spring.

4. According to the Barbara somebody's book, I am a melancholic-choleric.

5. That's partly the reason why I like easy listening music (jazz, country, oldies, blues, classic, chant, pop, rocketc). Any other genre would be great, provided that it has some minor chords.

6. I have a type B blood which according to some research is supposed to carry an aggressive type of personality. I'm not aggressive at all.

7. I can't carry a tune and I can barely play the organ even though I got 12 years worth of private lessons!!!

8. All through elementary school, I wanted to be a judge or lawyer. In junior high, I was thinking about becoming a doctor. In high school, I settled to be an engineer, a chemical engineer to be exact.

9. Two words: Batak bred. But I can understand more Javanese than the Batak language itself, b/c...

10. ...my parents speak Javanese at home; Mom went to school in Semarang, Central Java, while Pop grew up in a Javanese populated rubber/coffee plantation in North Sumatra.

11. I have three great younger siblings: two brothers and a sister.

12. I have a thing for the military: the uniform, the discipline, the ranks and orders (in that order)

13. I'm blessed to get a 4.5 year all-paid scholarship for an undergrad study in the US.

14. As of right now, I am finishing up the requirement for my Master's. My specialty is Semiconductor Fabrication.

15. I will continue to work on a PhD in the same institution, with the same advisor and the same research topic.

16. I have difficulties to talk in front of the public...

17. to have a publicly open personal weblog is a whole other story ;)

18. I am not much of a reality TV fan.

19. Other than Friends, Seinfeld, and the like, I watch old old sitcoms such as Cheers, Designing Women, I Love Lucy, and The Andy Griffith Show.

20. My favorite radio stations are NPR and my school's station KAMU.

21. I was going to pledge in a KAMU's fund-raising, but considering the current economic situation, decided to postpone it to a later time. I will pledge, I promise I will.

22. I was the maid of honor for my one-time roomiee's wedding (hello, Kak Meita!)

23. I like to bowl and to play some b-ball, emphasize on the shooting part, not on the running part ;).

24. At one Permias spring games in Oklahoma, I was going to play with the flag football team. We practiced once before, I loved it.

25. I used to be a cop magnet, as in cops were always around when I'm driving, any time, any place.

26. I got a warning for running a red light and two tickets for speeding and for running a stop sign. Both tickets have not affected my insurance rate, yet. *crossing her fingers*

27. I hate self-help books, except for the 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People.

28. I believe in Feng-Shui.

29. I have a crush on Joel Stein, the TIME columnist.

30. My weight has been exponentially increased these past five years, with some perturbation a couple months before going home for Christmas.


That's all folks!

"It's getting cold in here.."


It's getting cold in here. I'm re-doing measurement for plate M8. Have an internal conflict for postponing it for a quick dinner (hungry level 8/10) and a JAG rerun at 6. Btw, I have observed this phenomenon [it might not be true for everyone], whenever I am hungry, it feels that there is a sudden drop of ambient temperature around me. On a totally different subject:

Week-long Celebration to Honor Graduate Students

National Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week will be held Monday-Friday (April 7-11). This is the fifth year Texas A&M has participated in this national event to recognize and appreciate the hard work and dedication of graduate and professional students, graduate assistants, research assistants and teaching assistants across the nation. The Office of Adult, Graduate and Off Campus Student Services has planned several events throughout the week for graduate students. The Wake-up Crew will pull into the graduate student hallway of the Wehner Building on Monday (April 7), on the steps of the Zachry building on Wednesday and in the "Fish Bowl" of the Veterinary School Building on Thursday. Each of these mornings, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., students can stop by the table at each building and have free doughnuts, coffee and juice. Informational handouts pertaining to graduate students will also be available. Students can stop by the Rudder Fountain area from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday to get free candy bars and a quick drink before heading back to class.

Hey, it's about time...I wish they give more than free doughnut & candy bars [a foot long subway is not that bad ;D ].

Daypop


I have nothing specific to ramble on today. But I heard about this blog search engine and their ranking system. Salam Pax's personal account on the war is definitely one of the top.
Urrghh...what is this white gourd drink J gave me? It has too much sugar...

Authority



Enough said ;D.