Billy Beane is a former baseball player who chose the baseball career over entering Stanford University with a scholarship after being scouted and offered a contract by a famous baseball club. however, his career didn’t go as smooth as he thought and finally he decided to take the path of being a General Manager (GM) of Oakland A’s baseball club. the club is struggling to win the championship with their very limited budget because in the world of baseball, rich teams rules. they can buy any players they want with the money they have, while poor teams can only try to survive with what they have.

his decision to take a brave step to build the team based on the players’ statistics, inspired by an economics graduate whom he hired as his assistant, was strongly opposed by everyone in the team, who still have a hold on the “classic” way of seeing a player based on intuition or outer looks. not giving up, he tried all he can to prove his method until finally he brought the team to break the record of winning the most game consecutively and everyone starts to acknowledge it.

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. -Hebrews 11:1 [NLT]

i think what Billy did is the same with what we call faith. we hope for something, we believe in something, although actually we still don’t know what will happen, but we still keep it. people might think we are foolish to believe something that is unseen, or can’t be proved, or can’t be explained logically. but if we know what we believe in, just have the confidence and don’t mind what people say or think about us. we might not be able to prove or explain it at the moment, but there will be the time when everything is made clear, so don’t lose your faith!

another point mentioned in the movie is another decision that Billy made in the end of the story. a very difficult choice between money and his dream. his final choice might not look good for other people, but he still keeps walking through his decision and not regretting it.

in our life, we might encounter many difficult choices like that. just follow our heart to make that decision, and whatever it is, and however it would turn out to be, don’t regret that decision. but of course, involve God also in making the decision and keep believing that God will do His part in it.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. -Romans 8:28 [NLT]

another routine in this blog for new year, putting up targets for the year…some are still a continuation from previous year(s) which are still not achieved, hopefully it can be fulfilled this year…these are my main wishes and targets of this year, there are some others that are undisclosed…

1. finish my master’s degree well, including finishing these 2 papers and thesis i’m writing right now and doing well in the presentations…actually my professor asked me to write another paper for an international conference and i don’t really care anymore, but well, if i really have to write it, hopefully it will go smoothly and can get accepted (would be better if i can go to the conference as well)…
2. hope that there will be no problem when moving to osaka…wish i can find a good apartment (without any noisy neighbour :p), quite spacious room with reasonably cheap rent, also everything will go well for moving out my things there…
3. start working, will have to do things excellently…learn a lot of things…hopefully there won’t be so many overtime working…
4. improve my japanese skill more and more…try to read more japanese text everyday…hopefully i get good result on my N1 exam last december…
5. still want to learn iOS programming, hopefully i have enough time and motivation to do it…also want to gain more programming skills…
6. want to learn new languages…maybe relearn french again, chinese or korean…
7. again, need to do more sports or exercise…hopefully even after start working i can still have time to do it…
8. again, want to use my time more effectively…this will be affecting whether or not i will achieve the previous ones…
9. travel to okinawa and kyushu as i’ve always been wanting to…

今年も頑張りましょう〜！！

looking back to my goals of the year, only a few are somewhat achieved:
1. finally i got a job in a good company and as i’ve been wanting for, to work in japan for several years and then go back to indonesia…not really the “ideal” job that i expected before, but i’m still thankful for it…
2. my research just got “significant” thing by the end of the year so i couldn’t make it to any conference last year…still need to continue some more by this month, but at least my professor is already “a bit satisfied”…
3. i could barely read any book…i get bored easily when i read books so i couldn’t finish any book i started reading…
4. i think last year i spent too much money on lots of things, travelling and buying stuffs so in the end i couldn’t save money…
5. the job hunting process improved my japanese skill quite significantly, by writing the entry sheets and having interviews in japanese with my limited japanese…still need to improve it more though…oh yeah, i passed the JLPT N2 early last year…hopefully the N1 result will be good also…
6. related to no.3, i tried to learn the iOS programming but i just stopped after only a while…
7. maybe my skill in photography improved a bit, but maybe still not enough to be a photo stock contributor…didn’t spend enough time to take pictures either…
8. after going to hokkaido, i visited osaka-kobe-hiroshima again for the second time after the earthquake…couldn’t make it to okinawa on summer, but i went to shirakawago and nagano on winter holiday…
9. still difficult to change this bad habit…just recently when i started writing papers and thesis i could stay working for long time…
10. i couldn’t make it to do exercise regularly…i was just going swimming when i felt like to, sometimes could go twice a week, sometimes just once, and sometimes not going up to several months…well, maybe something is better than nothing…

maybe the biggest thing that happened during the year, also for most people in japan i guess, was the tohoku huge earthquake and tsunami…for me personally, since that time my leg was injured, it was quite depressing that i can’t do things, even i didn’t know if i should be afraid or not…thankfully some friends were helping me out…another positive thing from it is that the job hunting period for most companies were extended, so i got more time to find a job and to learn more, although it was actually already kinda late anyway…

there are also several lessons God tried to teach me through unpleasant experiences…i just tried to be faithful toward everything He wants me to do…

well, overall, last year felt passing so quickly…i feel like still wanting to do a lot of things during the year but so soon it already ended…all i can do is again being thankful to God for everything, for the things i’ve achieved, for the new job i will start this year, for new friends i made, and for every life lessons i had…

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” says the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. ” -Jeremiah 29:11-

after the accident, Bethany recalled this verse and started questioning God. she asked her church youth leader, “Sarah, how can this be God’s plan for me?” and Sarah just said “I don’t understand. I don’t know why terrible things happen to us sometimes. But I have to believe that something good is going to come out of this.”

she couldn’t accept it at first but after a while she tried to get back in the water. however her poor performance on a competition discouraged her and she decided to quit surfing. after going to a mission trip to help tsunami victims in thailand she got her motivation back to surf again.

a reporter asked Bethany a question after she almost won a regional championship, “I just wanted to ask you if you could go back to that day and not have gone surfing, would you do it?” and this is her answer:

I wouldn’t change what happened to me, because then I wouldn’t have this chance in front of all of you. This chance to embrace more people than I ever could have with two arms. I was born to surf. This is why I wake up
at the crack of dawn every day. This is why I endure belly rashes, reef cuts, muscles so tired they feel like noodles. And I’ve learned that life is a lot like surfing. When you get caught in the impact zone, you need to get right back up because you never know what’s over the next wave.
And if you have faith, anything is possible.
Anything at all.

somehow it’s related to the sermon at church last sunday by ps.Brenden Brown from Hillsong Church Australia about being strong and courageous. when Joshua was in a tough situation and God appointed him to become a leader, God told him to be strong and courageous up to four times. He wants to make us sure that He is with us no matter what the condition is. He has a great plan for us and by being strong and courageous people can see God who lives in us.

i admit that finding a job, or what they call as shuukatsu (就活／就職活動),  for freshgraduate is so complicated. students start their shuukatsu activities from 1.5 years before their graduation. this is what makes it different from other countries where students start looking for a job after graduation, or at most one or two months before graduation.
the process generally follows this order:

  1. setsumeikai (説明会) or explanatory meeting by each companies where we can get informations about the company, the selection process, etc. it can also be replaced by job seminars or job fairs.
  2. entry sheet. this is the first part of the selection where we should fill some application forms called entry sheet that has a lot of questions, beside personal informations, such as motivations for choosing the company (志望動機), self-appeal (自己PR), experience during school time (part-time job, extracurricular activities, etc), and also some special questions that is different for each companies. some companies also have pre-entry that precedes this process.
  3. aptitude test (適性検査). the most common one is based on SPI test, which contains language related test (japanese!!), mathematics, and personality. some companies have their own kind of tests, and some provide the test in english which is good for international students like me (unfortunately only a few companies have it). some have the test online (and some work only on Windows >__<), some have it done in a special test center, and some in their own companies.
  4. interviews. there are a lot of interviews during the process. normally at least 3, but it could be more. and the form of the interview also varies. there are group interview, group discussion, group work, and individual interview.
  5. naitei/job offer (内定). this is the part where we can finally take a breath after those long tiring process, getting an informal offer for passing the whole selection process. after it is accepted, we only need to wait for the formal acceptance that is usually conducted on October.

during the shuukatsu time, students will get very busy with all these things, since generally each students applies for a lot of companies at once. it is a tough process for the japanese students themselves, and for international students, it is more difficult. learning from my experience, some advices i can give, the things you need to prepare for finding a job in japan:

  1. brush-up your japanese skill. it doesn’t have to be that good. at least if you can speak in daily conversation, generally it is enough to get a job. but since everything will be done in japanese, get prepared and get used to it. you will learn a lot during the process, getting used to write and read in japanese for the entrysheet, listening and speaking in setsumeikai and interviews, like what i experienced, but i would be a lot better if you are prepared beforehand, especially if you’ve been in japan only for less than 3 years and always use english in daily life (like me).
  2. collect a lot of informations. the process usually starts from 3 semesters before graduating. if you graduates on april 2013, start from october this year! most of big companies, especially foreign companies (gaishikei/外資系), start their recruitment early. usually there are a lot of job seminars on this period. you can also join some job information websites like rikunavi or mynavi to get more informations. i started quite late and i didn’t have enough information so i felt that it was very tough for me.
  3. know what you want to do, SPECIFICALLY. maybe this is the most important thing. you can pass all the entrysheet, but during the interview, this thing will be one main factor that can fail you. maybe this is the most difficult thing for me because i couldn’t really say what i really want to do in specific. for me, as long as i can have a job in a field that i like, that’s enough. any kind of task is okay for me. but for the companies, it is not enough. so, decide something that you want to do, find more informations, and say it explicitly.

the disaster was huge enough to bring fear to people even in Tokyo. so many people, especially foreigners, fled away, some to the west, and not a few, back to their countries. immigration offices and airports were packed with people who were trying to get out of the country. many nations through their embassies in Japan strongly urged their citizens residing in Japan to go back, and even the embassies themselves were trying to relocate to other cities other than Tokyo.

some people got depressed and traumatized. a labmate from C country cried after the big long earthquake. even a friend of my friend from T country whom I just met a few days after the disaster greeted me saying “hi. nice to meet you. you might die tomorrow.”

i myself didn’t worry so much. i got a bit panicked after the first big shock since it was very long and i realized it wasn’t just a common quake, and at that time my leg was injured so if something worse happened i might be in trouble. but after a while observing the situations, although the shocks still didn’t stop, seeing my neighbors weren’t in panic as well, i believed that everything would be okay.

the interesting thing is, while many of my friends got calls from their families, forcing them to go back home, my family didn’t. my mom was travelling abroad with my grandma at that time so she couldn’t contact me. my dad just texted me, asking about the condition, and just told me to keep praying. last week i went to my aunt’s house and we had some chats about the earthquake. she said that after the quake she still went on shopping, and when she informed my grandma, the answer she got was only “oh i see”. she realized that our family is so calm toward this.

through this experience, through sermons in church, and through what my aunt said, i kept being reminded about faith. faith is an important thing to have for believers. a faith that entrusts our lives to God, a faith that believes that our Father will never forsake us, a faith that He is in control of everything. the reason why we can be so calm facing this kind of situation, it’s all because we have faith in an awesome unshakeable God. even in the worst case scenario, we don’t need to be afraid because our lives is already in His hands. with faith, i believe that we can face any disaster that might come to our lives, because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. -Heb 12:26 [NLT]

it is an entertaining story, and i never concerned about the concept of god, devil, or any spiritual things there, i just thought of it as a common thing just like any other anime i ever watched…until last sunday at church, the preacher said something that reminded me of this series…

“Only God can fill the gap in your heart”

that’s exactly what happens basically in Kaminomi…a girl has a gap in her heart which becomes a place for a runaway spirit and then ‘god’ brings love to fill that gap so that the spirit cannot stay there anymore…

i realized that it is the same in our real life…many people have these gaps, these emptiness in their hearts that often makes them feel bad, feel lonely that they run into things that they think can fill those gaps…some become too ambitious in certain thing, some seek attention from others by doing “crazy” things, some find temporary satisfaction from free sex or drugs, and so on…but actually, none of them can fill those gaps…deep inside they still feel the emptiness…

the fact is only God can fill those gaps…His unconditional love for us is the only answer to have a full life…not only me have experienced this, i know heaps of people whose lives are changed once they let God fill the gaps in their hearts…

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” -John 4:13-14 [NLT]

so here i just want to share a way to prevent your computer (windows) from getting infected by viruses that mostly spread through mass storage devices (usb flashdrive etc)…i used these steps and i’ve never get any viruses infiltrating my computer…

1. install antivirus software in your computer…you can find many good antivirus software out there, such as bitdefender, kaspersky, mcafee, norton, avg, etc…in my case, i used AVG antivirus free edition since it’s free and doesn’t use so much resources…as long as you update the virus definition frequently, it will be a decent protection for your system, although sometimes relying only antivirus software is not enough…

2. mostly the virus will exploit the autorun.inf in mass storage devices to spread in a system…when the device is on and the autorun is activated, the virus will be executed and start its invasion…to prevent this, you need turn off the autorun…you can do this by entering the windows registry…press Windows button+R or click Start > Run and type regedit…find “NoDriveTypeAutoRun” or “NoDriveAutoRun” and change the value into FF (Hex) or 255 (decimal)…this value will prevent the system to have autorun on any inserted device (including any cd with autorun)…
WARNING!! if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t change any other things in the registry or you will damage your system!!

3. when you’re opening the device, it’s better not to open it from the main frame of windows explorer, but open it from folder tree on the left pane instead…sometimes if you open it from the main frame, it can also activate the autorun inside…

4. go to folder options in windows explorer and change the settings to show the extension of all your files and also to show any hidden files…it’s the easiest way to find out whether there’s any virus residing in your device or not…if it’s not caught by your antivirus software, enter your device with number 3, and see if there’s any suspicious files, and you can delete it if you’re sure that’s not your file…

well, basically that’s enough to protect my computer from most of the virus spread through mass storage devices…sorry if it’s not clear enough…i wish i could give a more detailed step-by-step way, but actually i don’t have much time right now, i hope i can update it some other time…i hope this information could be useful…

1. it’s job hunting time for the current M1 students here in Japan, so it is for me as well since i’ve decided to work in Japan after i graduate next year (at least for several years)…so i wish i can get accepted in a good company (quite reputable one) with a good job (that i will really enjoy doing) with good working hours (reasonable overtime) and good salary (a lot to save)…
2. for my research, i want to have some significant result by the middle of the year and i can start writing some papers to submit to at least one international conference by that time…and i want my main research focus is done by the end of spring semester so in the autumn semester i can focus on writing my thesis and maybe developing a demo application for it…
3. improving my knowledge and skills by reading at least two books per month, either computer books or academic books, and making something out of it, real application or summary of the book (depending on the type of the book)
4. save more money per month, by reducing unnecessary expenses, and also try to have a part-time job starting next semester
5. improving my japanese skill by any means necessary…need more practice to improve my conversation skill at least…
6. want to try to become an iphone app developer and submit some apps (at least two?) to the app store…
7. want to improve my photography skill as well (and buy more decent lenses), and try to become a photo stock contributor
8. travel to more places around japan…after hokkaido, hope i can also go to kyushu, tohoku area, and okinawa…
9. use my time more effectively, reduce my idle-time, on work days at least 6 hours have to be used for academic purpose every day…
10. do sports or exercise more frequently…at least twice a week either swimming or training in the gym…

i think these are enough for my main goals for this year…i have some more goals actually, but it’s rather personal so i don’t share it here… :p
yoooshh…ganbarou~!!

it was quite a difficult year, economically in particular…i spent a lot of expenses during the year, some for my own enjoyment, traveling and stuffs, but mostly for unavoidable costs…it was started with a quite painful thing in the beginning of the year where i had to pay two hospital fee within a month for my stiff right elbow and for pulling out my wisdom teeth (read more here)…then traveling to korea and western part of japan…and mid-year suddenly my notebook died, so had to buy a new one…then i was moving in to a new apartment, had to buy furniture and all the stuffs i needed…it was also the time of me going back home while also traveling to singapore and malaysia…all these things made me spent almost all of my savings…but i can still be thankful that i can still enjoy my life, eat good food everyday, traveling around, buying stuffs i like…God is still providing my needs…

i started my master course on april under a new supervisor in a new lab…during the entrance exam preparation, it was kinda stressful since my research proposal was being rejected by this supervisor…but then my mom reminded me to keep praying for him, believe that there’s favor of God in me…so i did and in the next meeting after i fixed the proposal he approved it and only gave small revision…so thankful, also after seeing a labmate who’s having the same exam (but for doctoral course) but her proposal kept being rejected for several times…i tried to enjoy the life in the new lab, although i have to come every day (which i don’t really agree with), and also with this new supervisor whose thinking is difficult to understand sometimes…but again i’m thankful because he cares to the progress of his students so i got more motivation to do my research…

meeting new good friends at school and from the english summer camp i joined, getting new experiences, having companions with similar interests, seeing my families and friends again back home, are great things to be thankful of the year…

rough times also happened, but well, many things i can learn about from those things and i just wanna see the good sides of it…what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…so here i am, stronger than last year, and i want to face this new year with new strength, new hope, with a great God who never leave me alone…