Does grammar really matter?

Given a question: Does grammar matter?

Short answer: It depends.

Long answer:

Coming back to chess

 

Source: link

Hola.

I'm trying to keep my English writing skill intact, so I'll write this post in this language.

This is a story about me, who (at this late age) re-found chess, the classic board game with infinite possibilities.

On Marriage: a new perspective

Since 17 July 2022 about 8:30 am, I officially become a husband. All things feel so surreal, even till now. The girl I have "just" known for a year, is now my wife. All preparations, planning, and sleepless nights finally paid off.

Into the Marriage-verse

Hi.

I would like to express what I am feeling right now, and to store it here, since I know no one will really read it.

How it felt

You wake up tired. Every night, sleep was never good. Sleep is a small escape. Escape from reality, from the harsh truth that the one who used to be your reason of happiness suddenly turned into the very person who makes you like this. You don't even know what this feeling is. You feel sad, angry, betrayed, all mixed so hard and painfully. Every morning, you wish you don't have to face this ugly reality, you just want to come back to sleep, come back to the dream, the ideal world in which everything still behaves just like what you want them to be, like what they used to be.

This weekend (9-10 April 2022)

this photo is NOT related to the post

Okay, so I would like to keep my writing sharp and fresh. In this passage, I'd try writing what happened in the past two days, in the old-school-style of recount text.

This is Ramadan, which is a month for muslims to conduct fasting. Well, in a full month we are obliged to fast from sun up (fajr) to sun down (magrib). From the first day of ramadan this year, I did not regularly get up for suhoor (which is some kind of breakfast before sun up). I have only done it twice, which is today (10/04)—the 8th day  and the 4th or 5th day (I don't really remember). Okay, this is what happened this weekend.

Review: Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Your friend, question?"

SPOILER ALERT!

a review on rick riordan's percy jackson's greek gods

 

mythology.

what we call mythology today is what the people in the past used to explain things before we have science to do the job. from solar and lunar movements, the cause of sea wave, earthquakes, the origin of lightning, rainbows, etc. we humans are curious beings. we want to know and be able to explain all the things we see and experience, and that is one thing (of many things) that makes us what we are. and we made myths for that very purpose. myths are the easiest yet satisfactory explanations for things we didn't (yet) understand.

How I Nurture My English Skills (at least that's what works for me)

 learning a foreign language is a life-long process. you must maintain it. keep using the skill set you have learnt. keep speaking it, keep reading it, keep writing it, and keep listening to it. well, that's quite sums it up. in this post, i'd like to share how i nurture the skill set. i don't say it works for every one, but at least it works for me.

reinventing math

mathematics.

*sigh*

the subject of numbers, x, y, and calculations? not quite so, but you can say that.

it is one of our 'enemies' in school. but why? why do we think of it as a ghost, rather than a good friend? 

on marriage

our way of thinking is so much influenced by the way we were raised, friends we hangout with, books we read, schools we attend to, movies and shows we watch, etc. i have passed the quarter life stage, the ugly part consisting of heart break, failure, so much disappointment, and dreams not (yet) to be achieved. i have met many people, the good and bad ones. i have read (not so many) books. i have secured a (sort of) steady job. well, that's pretty much it... or is it?

Re-reading Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami

"Why? This world is rife with matters philosophy cannot explain."

-from Pinball, 1973 (Haruki Murakami)

during this goddamn quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic, i manage to finish some unfinished book from my collection, as well as re-read some books. opening my bookshelf, i found one book that i got for my 24th birthday several years ago, wind/pinball -two novellas written by haruki murakami which also happened to be his first two books.

this is one book that i re-read during this pandemic, beside life of pi by yann martel. 

That Bastard is Called ISUSPM.exe

ever wondered why your data balance drained so fast when you tether your phone to the pc? yeah, me too. you have set the connection to 'metered connection' as to prevent data drainage, browsed not that much, no video, no download, but still, your data balance is drained.

Review: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First thing first, I am actually not into history and that kind of stuff, until I read this magnificent book. I am also not really used to English-written books as it is not my first language and I have to check dictionary quite often, but overall, this work isn't that hard to understand for a non-English speaker (and someone who are not really used to reading English-written books) like myself. Harari has also a quite good sense of humor in this book, making it unboring to read. I can't stop reading once I started. In the book, Harari referred the mankind in several ways, i.e. Homo sapiens, Sapiens (as the title of the book says), human, human-being, mankind. I don't know if the different referration has to do with difference in the state of the Homo sapiens that he means, e.g. the human as the biological species, as a social being, or as just a natural coincidence, etc.

lagi kesambet

hidup ini memang penuh dengan persimpangan. ada beberapa cabang di setiap saat tertentu dalam hidup ini, dan kita harus memilih satu di antara banyak cabang yang ada. kita tidak akan pernah tahu apakah cabang yang kita pilih adalah yang paling baik bagi kita, yang paling aman, paling menguntungkan bagi kita, sampai kita telah melewatinya.

life is full of intersections. there are several intersections at every particular point in life, and often we have to choose one amongst them. we will never know whether the path we have chosen is the best, the safest, the most beneficial to us, until we have gradually crossed it.

dalam setiap persimpangan yang telah kita pilih, terkadang hasilnya tidak sesuai dengan apa yang kita harapkan. tak jarang hasilnya malah jauh lebih baik melebihi harapan kita terhadap jalur yang kita pilih tersebut. bagaimanapun juga, kita adalah yang paling bertanggung jawab atas pilihan kita. kita memiliki kendali penuh atas pilihan kita, dan tentu saja kita harus bisa menanggung semua resikonya.

for any path we have chosen, sometimes the result doesn't meet our expectation. often the resultant is exceeding high above what we have hoped over the decision we have taken. after all, we are the most responsible one for every decision we make. we have the full control over our own decisions, and inarguably we are the one to endure any subsequent risk.

hidup ini memang penuh dengan ketidakpastian. masa depan masih diselimuti kabut gelap yang menyebabkannya abu-abu. tapi justru itulah, kita tak boleh putus asa. masih ada harapan di setiap kegelapan, asalkan kita mau menyalakan lilin atau tidak. masa depan kita adalah milik kita, artinya kalau bukan kita sendiri yang memperjuangkannya lantas siapa lagi.

life is full of uncertainty. the future is likely covered by dark fog, causing it to be grey. yet that shouldn't make up upset about it and desperate. there will always be a beam of hope in the darkness, depending on us to light the candle or not. our future belongs to us, meaning that if it's not up to ourselves to fight for it, then who.

terkadang, kita mengambil keputusan-keputusan bodoh hanya agar terlihat hebat di mata orang lain. mengikuti kesenangan dan emosi sesaat untuk akhirnya menyesalinya di kemudian hari. tidak masalah, asalkan pada akhirnya kita menyadari kesalahan kita tersebut, dan mau belajar untuk memperbaiki diri dan jangan sampai mengulangi kebodohan yang lain di kemudian hari.

sometimes, we take foolish decisions just to make ourselves look impressive to others. we follow temporary emotion and indulgence just to regret it on the following days. it is okay, as long as we realize our mistake and are willing to learn from it to be a better version of ourselves and prohibit ourselves to repeat that foolish mistake ever again.

karawang, 25 januari 2018

疲れましたね

Reality

taken from own phone, some time ago

一昨日　は　難しい　でしたね。

two days ago was a hard day.

So Many Stories Untold

it's getting rarer and rarer for me to write to write. only one post per month during the last three months. what the hell is wrong? i don't know. the truth is, i really want to write some stories. want to share something over this platform so that one day i can learn and laugh at myself for how silly my past  was.

just not now. first, not so many will read it anyway, or probably it will be just me. second, i think it's not the right time to share it online. there are things you'd rather save for yourself. third, back to first reason.

i hope you all have a good day.

karawang, 23 september 2017

using the office's wifi connection

100wordstory: Love Just Sufficiently

Once a wise man said, "Love someone just sufficiently.” At first, I didn’t understand what he said.

Until one day I met this girl. She was just ordinary at first, just like the others. In fact, many other girls were better. She was just moderately good looking, moderately tall, and moderately fat. But unlike others, she was extremely caring. It made me fall even deeper into her. I’d made her my everything, my whole universe, purpose of life.

Then other day she suddenly left me. Saying "feeling can change" as if nothing happened.

I finally understood what the man said.

Karawang, 14 August 2017

everything written is fictional

Wish Me Luck on IELTS

hahaha

good night.

tonight was the last meeting of my IELTS course in REAL English. it happened to be a final test, to measure what we students have learnt during the course period. it is just like an IELTS simulation exam. the test consists of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. yeah, we all know that. but this night, we just do the listening sect 3 and 4, speaking, and writing. as reading and listening sect 1 and 2 have been done during the progress test some time ago.

by the way I am taking the official IELTS on November 5, which means about three weeks from now. the test will be held in UKDW. I need band score of 6.0 at least. it will be used to enroll a master's program abroad.

wish me luck.

Yogyakarta, Oct 17 2016

almost tomorrow,

Sulfur Mining : The Frasch Process

Frasch Process diagram (via nuroil.com)

sulfur is an essential element in our daily life. it is the 16^th element in the periodic table with standard atomic weight of 32. it is solid in ambient temperature and it has melting point of 115 centigrade.  many daily goods from detergent, pesticide, to pharmaceuticals can be traced to involve sulfur in their production process. sulfur can be obtained in many ways of production, e.g. mining, from volcanoes, and from side product of petroleum processing. in this article we are going to discuss how sulfur is mined, by a process named Frasch process.