A little update on my university application, in case you're wondering:
I got a letter of acceptance from University of Hannover last week. The process itself is very simple and easy, because I'm from Studienkolleg Indonesia, which has ties to the university. I emailed one of the people in the International Office stating who I am, where did I come from, what's my intention, telling them I'm going to send in my application. Then I sent the application using Pos Indonesia, which cost like hell and took a week to arrive. The good thing is that you can track your documents, whether it has arrived in the destination or is being returned. After I was sure it had arrived, I emailed my contact at the university again, telling them that my document had arrived and asking if she had already got it and when can I get my letter. It took less than 2 days after my document arrived at the university until I got an email from my contact saying that she was gonna send my letter of acceptance in 30 minutes! Here's what it looks like
I'm currently sending my applications to uni-assist. I sent the applications for TUM, TU Berlin, Uni Hohenheim, and Uni Ulm. uni-assist is basically an representative agent for German universities. They helped these universities to proof and examine the authenticity of foreign documents. So if you want to apply in uni-assist member universities, you have to send the application to uni-assist because the university won't accept direct application. After your application was processed by uni-assist, they will then forward your application to the respective universities. A special rule applies to TUM though (being the #1 university in Germany and all). First you have to apply online to TUM, then you send in the documents to uni-assist for pre-examination (Vorprüfung). After that, uni-assist will send your documents back to you, and you should then send these documents plus your application forms and other additional requirements directly to the university. Yeah, I know, a pain in the ass. I'm really worried that uni-assist would take a long time to process my TUM documents and they would use the crappy 3-4 week shipping service and it would result in me missing my deadline. The deadline is July 15, by the way.
My dad had just obtained the original copy of my Studienkolleg certificate, and is currently in the German embassy to authenticate some more copies. I will then use these copies to send in my other applications to Uni Bonn, RWTH Aachen (also #1 university in Germany..one of its alumni being Habibie), KIT, and TU Braunschweig!
I'm waiting for my dad to transfer the money to my Deutsche Bank student account. It is one of the requirements for my study and for visa application. I will likely to apply for a visa in June. The visa will hopefully be done by August and I can go to Germany in August!
When I finish going through all these tiresome application process, I'm thinking of posting a step by step tutorial on how to study in Germany (in Indonesian, of course). Thought it would be helpful for the clueless high school graduates!
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Alice Eve, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin
Synopsis:
After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror
from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a
war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
Review:
The fact that the movie was awesome comes as no surprise. It is a JJ Abrams movie after all, and the guy doesn't make bad movies. In the first movie we were still being introduced with the whole universe of Star Trek and the new characters. The introduction aspect played a bigger part than the whole combating-the-villain plot. But in Into Darkness, we already knew the setting--Starfleet, USS Enterprise, etc.-- and we already knew about the relationships between the cast--Jim & Spock's friendship, Spock/Uhura, the whole Starfleet crew--so I feel like in this movie JJ is finally focusing on the villain. Even though I'm giving this movie a high score, there are some good and bad aspects I'd like to share.
The Good:
I have to give my thumbs up for Benedict Cumberbatch. Wow, his portrayal of the menacing John Harrison/Khan is unbelievable. His voice just gave me the chills and seriously, he has got to be one of the most good looking villain I've ever seen.
One of the many aspects that I also love is how we finally see some emotion
in Spock. He has always been portrayed as this half-human robot who
relies on his logic rather than his humanity. I am really grateful that
here, they show that he really could feel sad for the loss of his
dearest best friend.
We can't really talk about Star Trek without mentioning what JJ does best: visual effects. As someone who has worked with stuffs like MI3, Lost, and Hawaii Five-O, Star Trek is filled with awesome visual effects and hi-tech talk that are still understandable to the common audience. I also love Michael Giacchino's score for the end credits. It really adds that outer space feel.
The twist part on the plot kept the movie exciting to watch. For a moment I kind of believed that John Harrison is actually not the bad guy, thanks to Ben's never-before-seen tears.
I have to give a credit to Simon Pegg! His short and simple dialogues are by no means ROTFL-kind funny, it does have a way to keep you smiling and stay interested. This guy never ceases to wow me, be it in Mission Impossible or Star Trek. I'm so relieved to know that they didn't kill off his character because it would seriously make me sad.
The Bad:
While I LOVE Ben's portrayal of Khan, I do think he wasn't giving it his all. It's not that he's bad, not at all. I believe that his character could be developed and used more. It has SO much potential than what was shown on the movie, with the right writing. It was kind of disappointing to see that he got defeated so quickly, when he was depicted to be this "Worst Villain That Mankind Has Ever Seen". I simply couldn't believe he didn't even think that Spock could just simply detonate the torpedoes. I guess I put too much hope on his character, I valued his Brain/Brawl thing too much and went so far as comparing him to The Dark Knight's Bane. Maybe because it's Ben.
As a sucker for movie climax--especially on big-budget blockbusters--I feel like the movie's missing the 'oomph' moment. Like, in Iron Man 3, the 'oomph' moments that left your jaw hanging open were that scene where Tony's house was attacked and that scene on the port, the final battle scene. In Star Trek, though, I felt like the destruction-of-Enterprise battle with Khan should've been the pre-climax battle, followed by Khan's biggest attack involving the destruction of Starfleet Academy or the city or something, with the end being Khan's death, of course. It was a great battle, yes, but it didn't leave my jaw hanging open. Thankfully we got that Kirk's sacrifice scene, which added a little more climax to it. I was so torn as to whether I should cry or not when I was watching the scene, since I really don't believe that the main lead would just simply died. But the death scene was indeed very convincing.
Another thing that I consider weird is Alice Eve's character, Carol Marcus. I simply don't get what's the point of her character. And that scene where she changed her clothes, like, REALLY? How is showing her in her underwear relevant to the story? Maybe the producers think they need another female face besides Zoe Saldana? Though I don't think it's really necessary since Zoe alone is a strong presence.
The Verdict:
Definitely a must watch for the summer! If you don't like the story, watch it for the triple hottie combo, and the special effects. This is coming from me, though, a JJ Abrams fanatic. So I take no responsibility for unsatisfied audience.
Favorite Scene:
Though the scene comes so early in the movie, I love the attack at the Starfleet Headquarter. The one after the attack on the archive, and all the highest-ranking commander gather on a meeting room? the moment Kirk found out the true intention of the attack and then Khan's already begun the attack? Priceless.
By the way, I don't think Ben's picture on the poster above does him any justice. He definitely needs a better photo to show him in all his glory.
So I've just finished this really great K-Drama called School 2013. What drew me to this drama at first was, obviously, the hot main leads: Lee Jong Suk and Kim Woo Bin. But the drama turns out to be extremely awesome! When I started watching K-Dramas I've always expected my kind of drama to be the one with all those cheesy romantic scenes which I know is cliché but I can't help to like it! School 2013, though, doesn't offer you romance. I mean, I know it's there, you know, the awkward glances and why-do-you-care-so-much gestures. But I'm glad the producers didn't try to explore deeper into the romance, instead, they focus on the friendship! Man, I'm telling you, the bromance in this series is like, up there, with my favorite K-Drama couple of all time: Kim Joo Won and Gil Ra Im from Secret Garden. Park Heung Soo and Go Nam Soon's friendship is one of those things that can make you laugh, die from cuteness, and cry. Also, I love the fact the series is so realistic. They really capture the school system in South Korea, though it may not always look pretty. I was a little bit curious as to why the students in the series are always fussing about Seoul University. So me being me, I naturally did some research about the university and the education systems in Korea. From what I found, apparently high school students in South Korea are very demanding. The reason behind this is the University Entrance Exam (suneong), which pretty much determines your entire future. Passing the exam with flying colors mean a guaranteed admission in one of three prestigious universities in South Korea, the SKY (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University)--pretty much like the Ivy leagues in the US. Being a graduate of one of those three means you're guaranteed to be able to work for a chaebol, be it Samsung, Hyundai, etc. Having no college degree or attending a so-so university would mean you have to start you career from the very bottom and would have to work your ass off to climb up the ladder. This reality is imposed on the high school kids by their parents, who drove them to enter law school or med school and as a result the kids in Korea are super stressed. A normal high school day for a 12th grader is going to school from 7.30 to 4 pm, then going to one of those private tutoring called hagwons from 4pm to 10 pm, or even midnight. Here's an article regarding this matter.
On a wet Wednesday evening in Seoul, six government employees gather at
the office to prepare for a late-night patrol. The mission is as simple
as it is counter-intuitive: to find children who are studying after 10
p.m. And stop them.
In South Korea, it has come to this. To reduce the country's addiction to private, after-hours tutoring academies (called hagwons), the authorities have begun enforcing a curfew — even paying citizens bounties to turn in violators.
On one hand I admire the amount of work that these kids put for their university exam, but on the other hand I feel sorry for these kids. I mean they literally have no life. Like, no time to socialize or hang out or just be kids. Their entire high school life is dedicated to studying. Then they have to study for college, then work... From what I read the highest rate of suicide in Korea is among the teenagers, students, especially.
But I can see some positive sides of this strict system, though. The kids are more well-mannered. Reportedly the teenage pregnancy rate in Korea is close to nonexistent. Well I'm not that surprised, though, since I don't think these kids have any time for dating, let alone get pregnant.
That said, I don't think this is a matter that could be resolved quickly and easily. After all, it's something that has been a tradition for years. No one is entirely to blame here. The kids? They're studying because of the pressure from society. The parents? They want their kids to succeed and have a steady job. The Ministry of Education? They can't really do much since it has become a tradition, passed down from generation to generation. I do, hope, though, that they would let these kids have a little fun while they were in high school. It is seriously one of the best moments in one's life, before entering to the real world.
Anyways, I've been interested in this new series called Scandal. It premieres earlier this year. When I heard the name I was like, "Oh maybe this is one of those Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars/Desperate Housewives-wannabe shows". It turns out, Scandal is about the life of Olivia Pope, who runs a crisis management firm, who works for the White House. So that's the scandal they're talking about. Not the petty who's-sleeping-with-who thing, but like, the real political scandal thingy. I've always been into this kind of thing: White House, dirty political game, D.C...add in a spy/secret-service story ark I'll put in on my all-time favorite list. Oh, and Shonda Rhimes created it! Yes, that Shonda Rhimes, who created my first and longest TV favorite: Grey's Anatomy! Which means I gotta get ready for some office romance and soapy scenes....and a box of tissue. Kerry Washington is playing the lead role. I hear she's good. Hopefully her performance here is as impressive as her red carpet style. P.S: I know this may sound weird but I've been in love with the font News Gothic MT. Every German universities seem to be using it and the more I see it the more I want to use it. I feel this urge to type anything just so that I can use the font. It's weird, I know. Let's end this post with a dose of Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Suk. They are so cute together, both on and off screen. I'm torn between shipping the two and taking one of them for myself ;)
Posted on Sunday, May 12, 2013
I'm Tony Stark. I build neat stuff, got a great girl, occasionally save the world. /
0 comments (+)
IRON MAN 3 (5 out of 5)
Cast:
Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau
Synopsis:
When Tony Stark's world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called
the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.
Review:
I LOVE the movie! After months and months of horrible movies seeing Iron Man is like a breath of fresh air, and a promise of what's to come for this year's summer blockbuster season. I think this is the last Iron Man movie? Because from what I remembered they were gonna make it a trilogy. I hope this is really the case, because I can't stand seeing those greedy movie people ruin an already perfect ending to the awesome trilogy by making another sequel (like what they did to The Bourne trilogy with The Bourne Legacy).
So first off, I totally did not expect THAT thing about Mandarin. The villain is perfect and really suited for Tony. I personally think Killian/Mandarin is the best villain among the other villains: Jebediah (I forgot his superhero name) and Whiplash. He's as smart as Tony, as cocky as Tony, and as crazy as Tony, and he's doing it because of Tony, so in a way, Tony created the villain.
I also love how Tony came to be more grounded and a better man because of his little 'rediscovering' trip to Minnesota where he met Harley (and can I say, Harley is just sooo damn cute!). Granted, he's still the old Tony with those spot-on one liners and awesome sense of humor, but I think he really is a changed man in the movie. He's willing to sacrifice his works for Pepper, he's willing to open up to people. I do think that stunt in which he told the world his address was and idiotic move, but that was Tony being Tony, like when he announced "I am Iron Man" on the first movie (which is still one of the best superhero movie endings of all time).
Speaking of endings, I think this movie couldn't end in a better way! I kinda hoped that Pepper would still have that Extremis thingy in her system. I mean, she's SO BADASS with it! She was almost boring and forgettable like all the other superhero love interests (simply there to be the hero's Achilles heel to be used as a bait by the villain), but then she died and then 'resurrected' and with those eyes and burning with that fiery thingy? Girl power!!!
All in all, I think this is the best one out of the three and it would be a shame to miss it! I believe that the makers of Iron Man made a great move by releasing it earlier than other summer blockbuster, because this way it would last longer in the box office!
Favorite Scene:
Hmm, this is tough, because I like every second of the movie. Every scene is simply a winner. But what really left me in awe was the badass Pepper Potts scene! When I thought she was dead and then she came out of the flame and in a kickass kind of way killed (or I don't know if destroying a self-regenerating guy is called killing) Killian. Then those metal thingy fell down and she protected Tony from being hit by them and she was like, "I got you!".
By the way, I know this may sound so weird but I do find Robert Downey, Jr. to be so damn cool! I don't know how he does it, but he looks...hot. Like, the hair, the quirky-but-still-stylish clothes, the cool glasses...he is even more hotter as he ages.
So summer is coming and continuing last year's tradition, I'm making another summer playlist for you! This year, I also added books, movies and TV shows that you could enjoy this summer!
I haven't been able to compile the summer playlist containing this year's song, so I'm making the selected playlist first. The 'selected playlist' contains great summer songs from way back, be it last year or five years ago or ten years ago, whereas the other one contains only the song released around end of 2012 to 2013. Here they are!
These 20 songs are written in no particular order. I tend to search for songs that are not particularly popular or well known, and I try to mix a little bit of Asian songs in it, too!
About A Girl - The Academy Is
Abracadabra - Brown Eyed Girls
S.O.S - Jonas Brothers
Hey You - CNBlue
Guilty Pleasure - Cobra Starship
I Don't Care - Fall Out Boy
Potential Breakup Song - Aly & AJ
Dirty Little Secret - The All American Rejects
I Wish - FT Island
Just So You Know - Jesse McCartney
All Fired Up - The Saturdays
50 Ways to Say Goodbye - Train
Locked Out of Heaven - Bruno Mars
Blow Me One Last Kiss - Pink
Stronger - Kanye West
She's Not There - Glee Cast Version
Bang Bang - K'Naan ft. Adam Levine
Closer to the Edge - 30 Seconds to Mars
Dance Floor Anthem - Good Charlotte
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
Here's a Youtube playlist I made containing all the music videos of the songs I mentioned above!
Summer is usually all about the long-awaited blockbusters and superhero franchises. While I'm all for those things, I think there's nothing wrong at spending your holidays at home with a nice movie marathon. I compiled about 20 titles of what some may consider 'old' movies. You may notice that most of them are those cheeky, rom-com teen dramas. But hey, it's summer! A time to relax and enjoy the holidays without having to think to much for a movie! And besides, usually the guys in these dramas are so damn hot!
Chasing Liberty
The Devil Wears Prada
Catch Me If You Can
Peter Pan
10 Things I Hate About You
Bridget Jones Diary
Clueless
School of Rock
Penelope
The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants (1 and 2)
Mean Girls
Back to the Future Trilogy
Easy A
Juno
A Cinderella Story
Get Smart
National Treasure
Leap Year
Ocean's Trilogy (Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen)
Sydney White
Much like what I did with the movies, for the summer series I want to feature the series that are already finished and no longer shown on TV. These 5 series are a personal classic to me. Sure, they have their ups and downs, not all episodes were good, but overall they managed to stay in my heart and I love the light and relaxed feeling to it, not really making me think too much or too sad. They're sometimes touching, romantic, and funny!
Gilmore Girls
iCarly
Ugly Betty
Friends
Answer Me 1997
Well to be honest I've been behind on my books! I used to read books really quickly, like a couple of days or even a day for a 200-page teenlit. But since I know internet and DVDs I'm getting slower and slower. These 4 books were among my earliest teenage books. I read them in junior high. They were really awesome and fun to read! Too bad authors nowadays are hooked on creating books about either a) a fucked up dystopian society in which one ordinary heroine would lit up the spark that would start a revolution or b) a 50-shades-of-grey-slash-twilight ripoff in which a girl would be completely drawn to one man and would literally die if the guy left her. I long for the days when Meg Cabot teenlits--funny, romantic, and sassy--are the ones dominating the New York Times bestseller list.
All American Girl - Meg Cabot (also, the sequel: Ready Or Not)
The Princess Diaries series - Meg Cabot
Mates, Dates series - Cathy Hopkins
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series - Ann Brashares
As one of the requirements for my application to TU München, I have to complete a 6-week internship in the food industry. Well technically, it's not only for TU München. Almost all of the universities that offered the food technology program wants you to take up an internship.
The search for a place for internship is definitely not easy, especially when you, like me, choose to do your internship here in Indonesia instead of in Germany. In Germany they're used to dealing with stuffs like these. You can look for pre-study internship (Vorpraktikum) offers on the internet. They even pay you for a couple of euros per hour. But here in Indonesia, food companies aren't used to dealing with special requests like these. So just walking in to their office or sending in your proposal to be an intern and hoping you would be accepted is quite impossible. During my time in Tangerang I kept emailing my contact in TU München (who is so friggin' good-looking, by the way) and he was kind enough to give me the details about what I should do during my internship. I begged dad to use one or two of his connections to get me an internship place, and on Monday, April 15th I met with the Head of Laboratory from PT. Sinar Indochem, a pet food manufacturer, and she agreed that I could do my internship on their lab! I've been doing the internship for 2 weeks so far. It definitely has its ups and downs. The upside is that I get to learn a lot of cool new things! And operate some awesome laboratory equipments. The downside is that I have to spend a lot of time observing, and by observing I mean having nothing to do and be bored out of your mind. Why? Because the analysis takes hours to complete! Say you want to analyze the fat content of a raw material sample. You put the sample on a certain analyzing equipment, and then they automatically extract the fat out of the sample. Then you put the sample in an oven to dry it, and the drying process took about 3 hours. So you literally have nothing to do for 3 hours. I can't really help around with the analysis and stuff since I would be more of a burden than a helper, since I have no experience at all.
Anyways, here are some pics of the lab I've managed to snap, most of them to make me remember how the equipments operate.
This is a Soxhlet device. It's a more traditional one. It's used for extracting fat. I didn't get to operate this one since it was too complicated and they say I'm better off with the semi-automatic Soxhlet device instead.
The white device in the middle is called Retsch. It's a grinder. So basically you put your sample into that navy blue-lined hole, then it will come out as a fine grounded powder in the glass tube on the left side, that you can take out. You can then move the powder into a plastic bag.
The lab's got 2 floors. The first one is for fat, moisture, and calcium analysis and also for grinding samples and inputting the end results. The second is used for phosphor, protein, and fiber analysis
This is the weighing room. They use analytical scales to weigh the sample. You put the samples in, and then wait until the numbers stay still, and you get your sample weight.
Here's the semi-automatic Soxhlet device. You put the sample into extraction thimbles like this
then you put them into the extraction machine. Then the extractor will dip the thimbles into the ether-filled aluminum glasses that you have prepared before. The ether will react with the fat, and as a result you'll get a fat free sample inside the thimble and the fat will now be in the aluminum glasses (the ether is now evaporated) that you can weigh to calculate the fat content!
This one's called desiccator. Almost all procedures use oven to dry the samples in order to evaporate the water in the sample. After you get the samples out from the oven, they'll obviously be very hot so you cool them of first in the desiccator for about 15-60 minutes (depending on the procedure) before weighing the samples.
This one's used to analyze fiber content. It's called Fibertec. According to one of the lab operators she doesn't really used the equipment anymore ever since there's a new and more efficient device called Ankom. With Fibertec you can only analyze 6 samples but Ankom could take up to 24 samples!
This is the Kjeltec device used to analyze protein content. It's quite complicated since there are 2 main process: digestion and distillation. This one's the distillation unit. You put the reaction tube that you've digested in to the right side of the unit (the one that's got that orange-y stick suction thingy) and you put an Erlenmeyer beaker on the left (the one with the red suction thingy) and fill the beaker with some kind of a red-colored 'receiver solution' . The device will then do the distillation process. Because of the titration process the solution will then turn into greenish hue. After 4 minutes you can then take out the beaker and the beaker is then titrated with HCl solution.
Here's a look on the digestion unit. The unit is on the right side. The one on the left is connected with the digestion unit to condense the smoke caused by the digestion.
For the titration process they use this device called Titrette. You put your beaker on top of the electrical stove (? I don't know the exact name of the thing) and put in a magnetic stirrer to the beaker. You can then charge the 'stove' with electrical current and because of the electromagnetic principle the magnetic stirrer would continually spin and stir the beaker. Pretty cool, huh? The titration process is the same as usual, you pour drops of HCl until the color of the solution turns into pink, and write down the volume of HCl needed for the titration.
This is what they call crucible adapter. You put in the crucible (those tiny shot glasses) to this thing to make it easier for you to carry the crucibles.
This one's the crucible holder. After the analyzing process the crucibles will be undoubtedly hot, so you take them out of the device with this thing.
Here's the newer Ankom device I was talking about. You put in the samples into the box-shaped device on the left, pour enough H2S04 and NaOH and it will react with the fiber, therefore you can get fiber-free sample to weigh. The one on the left is for storing hot water to clean the device after use.
Well, that's it! From what I've observed being a lab operator is definitely not an easy job. Since the procedures requires a lot of time to complete, they often have to work overtime because the samples that needs to be analyzed are so many, and each procedure can only process a certain amount of sample so they have to repeat the procedures for a couple of times. It's definitely a fun experience though, getting to operate cool chemical equipments and do exciting lab works, nothing compared with those lab experiments I got in high school.
I finally got to watch the full show for this year's MTV Movie Awards.
It's such a relief that there are no Twilight movies anymore so this year we can finally see some true winners. It's soo boring during the Twilight days, because no matter how bad it is the Twilight movies would win the Best Movie anyway.
Thanks to MTV Movie Awards, I get to discover this great hip hop artist called Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. They are by no means newbie, but their new-found fame was triggered by the popularity of their song Thrift Shop from their recent album, The Heist.
I'm not so much of a fan of Thrift Shop, but the single that they perform for MTV Movie Awards, Can't Hold Us, got me hooked instantly!
I love Macklemore's energy in his rap. The song will constantly play through my mind this whole summer.
Fefe. Eighteen. Student/Blogger/Occasional layout designer/Movie geek
Blogging since 2007.
Adores fashion, music, film, and everything entertainment
An avid fan of BIGBANG, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Grey's Anatomy, and Running Man.
Enjoys web designing, photography, and film editing
I believe everything sounds better with a British accent
A little update on my university application, in case you're wondering:
I got a letter of acceptance from University of Hannover last week. The process itself is very simple and easy, because I'm from Studienkolleg Indonesia, which has ties to the university. I emailed one of the people in the International Office stating who I am, where did I come from, what's my intention, telling them I'm going to send in my application. Then I sent the application using Pos Indonesia, which cost like hell and took a week to arrive. The good thing is that you can track your documents, whether it has arrived in the destination or is being returned. After I was sure it had arrived, I emailed my contact at the university again, telling them that my document had arrived and asking if she had already got it and when can I get my letter. It took less than 2 days after my document arrived at the university until I got an email from my contact saying that she was gonna send my letter of acceptance in 30 minutes! Here's what it looks like
I'm currently sending my applications to uni-assist. I sent the applications for TUM, TU Berlin, Uni Hohenheim, and Uni Ulm. uni-assist is basically an representative agent for German universities. They helped these universities to proof and examine the authenticity of foreign documents. So if you want to apply in uni-assist member universities, you have to send the application to uni-assist because the university won't accept direct application. After your application was processed by uni-assist, they will then forward your application to the respective universities. A special rule applies to TUM though (being the #1 university in Germany and all). First you have to apply online to TUM, then you send in the documents to uni-assist for pre-examination (Vorprüfung). After that, uni-assist will send your documents back to you, and you should then send these documents plus your application forms and other additional requirements directly to the university. Yeah, I know, a pain in the ass. I'm really worried that uni-assist would take a long time to process my TUM documents and they would use the crappy 3-4 week shipping service and it would result in me missing my deadline. The deadline is July 15, by the way.
My dad had just obtained the original copy of my Studienkolleg certificate, and is currently in the German embassy to authenticate some more copies. I will then use these copies to send in my other applications to Uni Bonn, RWTH Aachen (also #1 university in Germany..one of its alumni being Habibie), KIT, and TU Braunschweig!
I'm waiting for my dad to transfer the money to my Deutsche Bank student account. It is one of the requirements for my study and for visa application. I will likely to apply for a visa in June. The visa will hopefully be done by August and I can go to Germany in August!
When I finish going through all these tiresome application process, I'm thinking of posting a step by step tutorial on how to study in Germany (in Indonesian, of course). Thought it would be helpful for the clueless high school graduates!
Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoe Saldana, Alice Eve, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin
Synopsis:
After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror
from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a
war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
Review:
The fact that the movie was awesome comes as no surprise. It is a JJ Abrams movie after all, and the guy doesn't make bad movies. In the first movie we were still being introduced with the whole universe of Star Trek and the new characters. The introduction aspect played a bigger part than the whole combating-the-villain plot. But in Into Darkness, we already knew the setting--Starfleet, USS Enterprise, etc.-- and we already knew about the relationships between the cast--Jim & Spock's friendship, Spock/Uhura, the whole Starfleet crew--so I feel like in this movie JJ is finally focusing on the villain. Even though I'm giving this movie a high score, there are some good and bad aspects I'd like to share.
The Good:
I have to give my thumbs up for Benedict Cumberbatch. Wow, his portrayal of the menacing John Harrison/Khan is unbelievable. His voice just gave me the chills and seriously, he has got to be one of the most good looking villain I've ever seen.
One of the many aspects that I also love is how we finally see some emotion
in Spock. He has always been portrayed as this half-human robot who
relies on his logic rather than his humanity. I am really grateful that
here, they show that he really could feel sad for the loss of his
dearest best friend.
We can't really talk about Star Trek without mentioning what JJ does best: visual effects. As someone who has worked with stuffs like MI3, Lost, and Hawaii Five-O, Star Trek is filled with awesome visual effects and hi-tech talk that are still understandable to the common audience. I also love Michael Giacchino's score for the end credits. It really adds that outer space feel.
The twist part on the plot kept the movie exciting to watch. For a moment I kind of believed that John Harrison is actually not the bad guy, thanks to Ben's never-before-seen tears.
I have to give a credit to Simon Pegg! His short and simple dialogues are by no means ROTFL-kind funny, it does have a way to keep you smiling and stay interested. This guy never ceases to wow me, be it in Mission Impossible or Star Trek. I'm so relieved to know that they didn't kill off his character because it would seriously make me sad.
The Bad:
While I LOVE Ben's portrayal of Khan, I do think he wasn't giving it his all. It's not that he's bad, not at all. I believe that his character could be developed and used more. It has SO much potential than what was shown on the movie, with the right writing. It was kind of disappointing to see that he got defeated so quickly, when he was depicted to be this "Worst Villain That Mankind Has Ever Seen". I simply couldn't believe he didn't even think that Spock could just simply detonate the torpedoes. I guess I put too much hope on his character, I valued his Brain/Brawl thing too much and went so far as comparing him to The Dark Knight's Bane. Maybe because it's Ben.
As a sucker for movie climax--especially on big-budget blockbusters--I feel like the movie's missing the 'oomph' moment. Like, in Iron Man 3, the 'oomph' moments that left your jaw hanging open were that scene where Tony's house was attacked and that scene on the port, the final battle scene. In Star Trek, though, I felt like the destruction-of-Enterprise battle with Khan should've been the pre-climax battle, followed by Khan's biggest attack involving the destruction of Starfleet Academy or the city or something, with the end being Khan's death, of course. It was a great battle, yes, but it didn't leave my jaw hanging open. Thankfully we got that Kirk's sacrifice scene, which added a little more climax to it. I was so torn as to whether I should cry or not when I was watching the scene, since I really don't believe that the main lead would just simply died. But the death scene was indeed very convincing.
Another thing that I consider weird is Alice Eve's character, Carol Marcus. I simply don't get what's the point of her character. And that scene where she changed her clothes, like, REALLY? How is showing her in her underwear relevant to the story? Maybe the producers think they need another female face besides Zoe Saldana? Though I don't think it's really necessary since Zoe alone is a strong presence.
The Verdict:
Definitely a must watch for the summer! If you don't like the story, watch it for the triple hottie combo, and the special effects. This is coming from me, though, a JJ Abrams fanatic. So I take no responsibility for unsatisfied audience.
Favorite Scene:
Though the scene comes so early in the movie, I love the attack at the Starfleet Headquarter. The one after the attack on the archive, and all the highest-ranking commander gather on a meeting room? the moment Kirk found out the true intention of the attack and then Khan's already begun the attack? Priceless.
By the way, I don't think Ben's picture on the poster above does him any justice. He definitely needs a better photo to show him in all his glory.
So I've just finished this really great K-Drama called School 2013. What drew me to this drama at first was, obviously, the hot main leads: Lee Jong Suk and Kim Woo Bin. But the drama turns out to be extremely awesome! When I started watching K-Dramas I've always expected my kind of drama to be the one with all those cheesy romantic scenes which I know is cliché but I can't help to like it! School 2013, though, doesn't offer you romance. I mean, I know it's there, you know, the awkward glances and why-do-you-care-so-much gestures. But I'm glad the producers didn't try to explore deeper into the romance, instead, they focus on the friendship! Man, I'm telling you, the bromance in this series is like, up there, with my favorite K-Drama couple of all time: Kim Joo Won and Gil Ra Im from Secret Garden. Park Heung Soo and Go Nam Soon's friendship is one of those things that can make you laugh, die from cuteness, and cry. Also, I love the fact the series is so realistic. They really capture the school system in South Korea, though it may not always look pretty. I was a little bit curious as to why the students in the series are always fussing about Seoul University. So me being me, I naturally did some research about the university and the education systems in Korea. From what I found, apparently high school students in South Korea are very demanding. The reason behind this is the University Entrance Exam (suneong), which pretty much determines your entire future. Passing the exam with flying colors mean a guaranteed admission in one of three prestigious universities in South Korea, the SKY (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University)--pretty much like the Ivy leagues in the US. Being a graduate of one of those three means you're guaranteed to be able to work for a chaebol, be it Samsung, Hyundai, etc. Having no college degree or attending a so-so university would mean you have to start you career from the very bottom and would have to work your ass off to climb up the ladder. This reality is imposed on the high school kids by their parents, who drove them to enter law school or med school and as a result the kids in Korea are super stressed. A normal high school day for a 12th grader is going to school from 7.30 to 4 pm, then going to one of those private tutoring called hagwons from 4pm to 10 pm, or even midnight. Here's an article regarding this matter.
On a wet Wednesday evening in Seoul, six government employees gather at
the office to prepare for a late-night patrol. The mission is as simple
as it is counter-intuitive: to find children who are studying after 10
p.m. And stop them.
In South Korea, it has come to this. To reduce the country's addiction to private, after-hours tutoring academies (called hagwons), the authorities have begun enforcing a curfew — even paying citizens bounties to turn in violators.
On one hand I admire the amount of work that these kids put for their university exam, but on the other hand I feel sorry for these kids. I mean they literally have no life. Like, no time to socialize or hang out or just be kids. Their entire high school life is dedicated to studying. Then they have to study for college, then work... From what I read the highest rate of suicide in Korea is among the teenagers, students, especially.
But I can see some positive sides of this strict system, though. The kids are more well-mannered. Reportedly the teenage pregnancy rate in Korea is close to nonexistent. Well I'm not that surprised, though, since I don't think these kids have any time for dating, let alone get pregnant.
That said, I don't think this is a matter that could be resolved quickly and easily. After all, it's something that has been a tradition for years. No one is entirely to blame here. The kids? They're studying because of the pressure from society. The parents? They want their kids to succeed and have a steady job. The Ministry of Education? They can't really do much since it has become a tradition, passed down from generation to generation. I do, hope, though, that they would let these kids have a little fun while they were in high school. It is seriously one of the best moments in one's life, before entering to the real world.
Anyways, I've been interested in this new series called Scandal. It premieres earlier this year. When I heard the name I was like, "Oh maybe this is one of those Gossip Girl/Pretty Little Liars/Desperate Housewives-wannabe shows". It turns out, Scandal is about the life of Olivia Pope, who runs a crisis management firm, who works for the White House. So that's the scandal they're talking about. Not the petty who's-sleeping-with-who thing, but like, the real political scandal thingy. I've always been into this kind of thing: White House, dirty political game, D.C...add in a spy/secret-service story ark I'll put in on my all-time favorite list. Oh, and Shonda Rhimes created it! Yes, that Shonda Rhimes, who created my first and longest TV favorite: Grey's Anatomy! Which means I gotta get ready for some office romance and soapy scenes....and a box of tissue. Kerry Washington is playing the lead role. I hear she's good. Hopefully her performance here is as impressive as her red carpet style. P.S: I know this may sound weird but I've been in love with the font News Gothic MT. Every German universities seem to be using it and the more I see it the more I want to use it. I feel this urge to type anything just so that I can use the font. It's weird, I know. Let's end this post with a dose of Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Suk. They are so cute together, both on and off screen. I'm torn between shipping the two and taking one of them for myself ;)
I'm Tony Stark. I build neat stuff, got a great girl, occasionally save the world. /
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IRON MAN 3 (5 out of 5)
Cast:
Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, Jon Favreau
Synopsis:
When Tony Stark's world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called
the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.
Review:
I LOVE the movie! After months and months of horrible movies seeing Iron Man is like a breath of fresh air, and a promise of what's to come for this year's summer blockbuster season. I think this is the last Iron Man movie? Because from what I remembered they were gonna make it a trilogy. I hope this is really the case, because I can't stand seeing those greedy movie people ruin an already perfect ending to the awesome trilogy by making another sequel (like what they did to The Bourne trilogy with The Bourne Legacy).
So first off, I totally did not expect THAT thing about Mandarin. The villain is perfect and really suited for Tony. I personally think Killian/Mandarin is the best villain among the other villains: Jebediah (I forgot his superhero name) and Whiplash. He's as smart as Tony, as cocky as Tony, and as crazy as Tony, and he's doing it because of Tony, so in a way, Tony created the villain.
I also love how Tony came to be more grounded and a better man because of his little 'rediscovering' trip to Minnesota where he met Harley (and can I say, Harley is just sooo damn cute!). Granted, he's still the old Tony with those spot-on one liners and awesome sense of humor, but I think he really is a changed man in the movie. He's willing to sacrifice his works for Pepper, he's willing to open up to people. I do think that stunt in which he told the world his address was and idiotic move, but that was Tony being Tony, like when he announced "I am Iron Man" on the first movie (which is still one of the best superhero movie endings of all time).
Speaking of endings, I think this movie couldn't end in a better way! I kinda hoped that Pepper would still have that Extremis thingy in her system. I mean, she's SO BADASS with it! She was almost boring and forgettable like all the other superhero love interests (simply there to be the hero's Achilles heel to be used as a bait by the villain), but then she died and then 'resurrected' and with those eyes and burning with that fiery thingy? Girl power!!!
All in all, I think this is the best one out of the three and it would be a shame to miss it! I believe that the makers of Iron Man made a great move by releasing it earlier than other summer blockbuster, because this way it would last longer in the box office!
Favorite Scene:
Hmm, this is tough, because I like every second of the movie. Every scene is simply a winner. But what really left me in awe was the badass Pepper Potts scene! When I thought she was dead and then she came out of the flame and in a kickass kind of way killed (or I don't know if destroying a self-regenerating guy is called killing) Killian. Then those metal thingy fell down and she protected Tony from being hit by them and she was like, "I got you!".
By the way, I know this may sound so weird but I do find Robert Downey, Jr. to be so damn cool! I don't know how he does it, but he looks...hot. Like, the hair, the quirky-but-still-stylish clothes, the cool glasses...he is even more hotter as he ages.
So summer is coming and continuing last year's tradition, I'm making another summer playlist for you! This year, I also added books, movies and TV shows that you could enjoy this summer!
I haven't been able to compile the summer playlist containing this year's song, so I'm making the selected playlist first. The 'selected playlist' contains great summer songs from way back, be it last year or five years ago or ten years ago, whereas the other one contains only the song released around end of 2012 to 2013. Here they are!
These 20 songs are written in no particular order. I tend to search for songs that are not particularly popular or well known, and I try to mix a little bit of Asian songs in it, too!
About A Girl - The Academy Is
Abracadabra - Brown Eyed Girls
S.O.S - Jonas Brothers
Hey You - CNBlue
Guilty Pleasure - Cobra Starship
I Don't Care - Fall Out Boy
Potential Breakup Song - Aly & AJ
Dirty Little Secret - The All American Rejects
I Wish - FT Island
Just So You Know - Jesse McCartney
All Fired Up - The Saturdays
50 Ways to Say Goodbye - Train
Locked Out of Heaven - Bruno Mars
Blow Me One Last Kiss - Pink
Stronger - Kanye West
She's Not There - Glee Cast Version
Bang Bang - K'Naan ft. Adam Levine
Closer to the Edge - 30 Seconds to Mars
Dance Floor Anthem - Good Charlotte
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
Here's a Youtube playlist I made containing all the music videos of the songs I mentioned above!
Summer is usually all about the long-awaited blockbusters and superhero franchises. While I'm all for those things, I think there's nothing wrong at spending your holidays at home with a nice movie marathon. I compiled about 20 titles of what some may consider 'old' movies. You may notice that most of them are those cheeky, rom-com teen dramas. But hey, it's summer! A time to relax and enjoy the holidays without having to think to much for a movie! And besides, usually the guys in these dramas are so damn hot!
Chasing Liberty
The Devil Wears Prada
Catch Me If You Can
Peter Pan
10 Things I Hate About You
Bridget Jones Diary
Clueless
School of Rock
Penelope
The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants (1 and 2)
Mean Girls
Back to the Future Trilogy
Easy A
Juno
A Cinderella Story
Get Smart
National Treasure
Leap Year
Ocean's Trilogy (Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen)
Sydney White
Much like what I did with the movies, for the summer series I want to feature the series that are already finished and no longer shown on TV. These 5 series are a personal classic to me. Sure, they have their ups and downs, not all episodes were good, but overall they managed to stay in my heart and I love the light and relaxed feeling to it, not really making me think too much or too sad. They're sometimes touching, romantic, and funny!
Gilmore Girls
iCarly
Ugly Betty
Friends
Answer Me 1997
Well to be honest I've been behind on my books! I used to read books really quickly, like a couple of days or even a day for a 200-page teenlit. But since I know internet and DVDs I'm getting slower and slower. These 4 books were among my earliest teenage books. I read them in junior high. They were really awesome and fun to read! Too bad authors nowadays are hooked on creating books about either a) a fucked up dystopian society in which one ordinary heroine would lit up the spark that would start a revolution or b) a 50-shades-of-grey-slash-twilight ripoff in which a girl would be completely drawn to one man and would literally die if the guy left her. I long for the days when Meg Cabot teenlits--funny, romantic, and sassy--are the ones dominating the New York Times bestseller list.
All American Girl - Meg Cabot (also, the sequel: Ready Or Not)
The Princess Diaries series - Meg Cabot
Mates, Dates series - Cathy Hopkins
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series - Ann Brashares
As one of the requirements for my application to TU München, I have to complete a 6-week internship in the food industry. Well technically, it's not only for TU München. Almost all of the universities that offered the food technology program wants you to take up an internship.
The search for a place for internship is definitely not easy, especially when you, like me, choose to do your internship here in Indonesia instead of in Germany. In Germany they're used to dealing with stuffs like these. You can look for pre-study internship (Vorpraktikum) offers on the internet. They even pay you for a couple of euros per hour. But here in Indonesia, food companies aren't used to dealing with special requests like these. So just walking in to their office or sending in your proposal to be an intern and hoping you would be accepted is quite impossible. During my time in Tangerang I kept emailing my contact in TU München (who is so friggin' good-looking, by the way) and he was kind enough to give me the details about what I should do during my internship. I begged dad to use one or two of his connections to get me an internship place, and on Monday, April 15th I met with the Head of Laboratory from PT. Sinar Indochem, a pet food manufacturer, and she agreed that I could do my internship on their lab! I've been doing the internship for 2 weeks so far. It definitely has its ups and downs. The upside is that I get to learn a lot of cool new things! And operate some awesome laboratory equipments. The downside is that I have to spend a lot of time observing, and by observing I mean having nothing to do and be bored out of your mind. Why? Because the analysis takes hours to complete! Say you want to analyze the fat content of a raw material sample. You put the sample on a certain analyzing equipment, and then they automatically extract the fat out of the sample. Then you put the sample in an oven to dry it, and the drying process took about 3 hours. So you literally have nothing to do for 3 hours. I can't really help around with the analysis and stuff since I would be more of a burden than a helper, since I have no experience at all.
Anyways, here are some pics of the lab I've managed to snap, most of them to make me remember how the equipments operate.
This is a Soxhlet device. It's a more traditional one. It's used for extracting fat. I didn't get to operate this one since it was too complicated and they say I'm better off with the semi-automatic Soxhlet device instead.
The white device in the middle is called Retsch. It's a grinder. So basically you put your sample into that navy blue-lined hole, then it will come out as a fine grounded powder in the glass tube on the left side, that you can take out. You can then move the powder into a plastic bag.
The lab's got 2 floors. The first one is for fat, moisture, and calcium analysis and also for grinding samples and inputting the end results. The second is used for phosphor, protein, and fiber analysis
This is the weighing room. They use analytical scales to weigh the sample. You put the samples in, and then wait until the numbers stay still, and you get your sample weight.
Here's the semi-automatic Soxhlet device. You put the sample into extraction thimbles like this
then you put them into the extraction machine. Then the extractor will dip the thimbles into the ether-filled aluminum glasses that you have prepared before. The ether will react with the fat, and as a result you'll get a fat free sample inside the thimble and the fat will now be in the aluminum glasses (the ether is now evaporated) that you can weigh to calculate the fat content!
This one's called desiccator. Almost all procedures use oven to dry the samples in order to evaporate the water in the sample. After you get the samples out from the oven, they'll obviously be very hot so you cool them of first in the desiccator for about 15-60 minutes (depending on the procedure) before weighing the samples.
This one's used to analyze fiber content. It's called Fibertec. According to one of the lab operators she doesn't really used the equipment anymore ever since there's a new and more efficient device called Ankom. With Fibertec you can only analyze 6 samples but Ankom could take up to 24 samples!
This is the Kjeltec device used to analyze protein content. It's quite complicated since there are 2 main process: digestion and distillation. This one's the distillation unit. You put the reaction tube that you've digested in to the right side of the unit (the one that's got that orange-y stick suction thingy) and you put an Erlenmeyer beaker on the left (the one with the red suction thingy) and fill the beaker with some kind of a red-colored 'receiver solution' . The device will then do the distillation process. Because of the titration process the solution will then turn into greenish hue. After 4 minutes you can then take out the beaker and the beaker is then titrated with HCl solution.
Here's a look on the digestion unit. The unit is on the right side. The one on the left is connected with the digestion unit to condense the smoke caused by the digestion.
For the titration process they use this device called Titrette. You put your beaker on top of the electrical stove (? I don't know the exact name of the thing) and put in a magnetic stirrer to the beaker. You can then charge the 'stove' with electrical current and because of the electromagnetic principle the magnetic stirrer would continually spin and stir the beaker. Pretty cool, huh? The titration process is the same as usual, you pour drops of HCl until the color of the solution turns into pink, and write down the volume of HCl needed for the titration.
This is what they call crucible adapter. You put in the crucible (those tiny shot glasses) to this thing to make it easier for you to carry the crucibles.
This one's the crucible holder. After the analyzing process the crucibles will be undoubtedly hot, so you take them out of the device with this thing.
Here's the newer Ankom device I was talking about. You put in the samples into the box-shaped device on the left, pour enough H2S04 and NaOH and it will react with the fiber, therefore you can get fiber-free sample to weigh. The one on the left is for storing hot water to clean the device after use.
Well, that's it! From what I've observed being a lab operator is definitely not an easy job. Since the procedures requires a lot of time to complete, they often have to work overtime because the samples that needs to be analyzed are so many, and each procedure can only process a certain amount of sample so they have to repeat the procedures for a couple of times. It's definitely a fun experience though, getting to operate cool chemical equipments and do exciting lab works, nothing compared with those lab experiments I got in high school.
I finally got to watch the full show for this year's MTV Movie Awards.
It's such a relief that there are no Twilight movies anymore so this year we can finally see some true winners. It's soo boring during the Twilight days, because no matter how bad it is the Twilight movies would win the Best Movie anyway.
Thanks to MTV Movie Awards, I get to discover this great hip hop artist called Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. They are by no means newbie, but their new-found fame was triggered by the popularity of their song Thrift Shop from their recent album, The Heist.
I'm not so much of a fan of Thrift Shop, but the single that they perform for MTV Movie Awards, Can't Hold Us, got me hooked instantly!
I love Macklemore's energy in his rap. The song will constantly play through my mind this whole summer.
