Jigoku Sensei

Again, I couldn't fulfill my resolution to write often in this blog. All the teaching preparations eat my time. I enjoyed them though. Teaching has been my passion for long. And this writing will be about teaching.

Jigoku Sensei is a Japanese anime about Nube. A special teacher with spiritual power. He loves his students so much that he would do anything to protect them. Most of the case, he dealt with demon and ghost.

I won't say that I possess similar power. Nope! But several weird cases happened to me. The most recent one happened just a while ago.

It was the last class, 6 PM. Something happened, so I had to move to another class. A small one, in the corner of the hallway. I kinda like the classroom though. Sometimes, if I got a break, I went to the room and going online there. Especially because it is located near the router. Quite cozy in the noon. The chair was comfortable, semi-sofa. And only eight of them was there.

For that class, I only have 3 students. The other three has resigned. A perfect condition, eh? You have a small classroom, small number of students, and space.. The material for that day was conversation. Voila!

Wrong! I have a full class! All the chairs are full. Other "things" were there. Nope, don't imagine scary things. They looked very normal, just like your ordinary students. They joined the class, and really study. I don't even fill the chill. However, outside the classroom, I sensed many of them want to join the class. They peeked from the window. There's no way I could let them in. No more place for them.

Jiah! When the class is over, those "people" smiled at me and vanished into thin air. They looked happy. Later on, I found out that some of my friends who taught in that class was often "disturbed". They were always freaked out.

Wew, reflecting on my previous experience, they just want to study. The more open we are to them, the more peaceful they will be. And out of the people, why did they choose me??

PS : This was the fourth time for me to teach "these people". Am I too passionate in teaching that they choose me to be their teacher?

Silly Act......

Darn, I leave my blog for more than a month... So much to do, so little time. That's my I didn't update this blog of mine for long. (Owh, that's a lame excuse! Get your ass back to the computer and start writing!!!)

Oh-kay, let's start the story. Few weeks earlier, I received a phone call from my ex-Study Program. They asked me to be a part-time lecturer there, since they lacked of lecturer. Some of them are going abroad to pursue the doctoral degree. To be honest, I was so surprised and excited that I felt like jumping around the house.

And some times later, I went to the common room complete with the formal clothes. Shirt, tailored pants (Ugh, how I hate this one! If only I could, I would teach wearing blue jeans!!!!), and cats shoes (yes, this one, I cheated!). People started staring at me with wonder. I didn't need to be a telepath to read their mind. "Aw, that senior of mine finally made it into a lecturership!" Huahahahahahahaha!

I spent my time trying to mingle with other lecturers in the common room. Acted very busy in front of my beloved BenQ, and finishing the snack there! Finished with everything there, I bade farewell to everybody.

Then I saw her in front of common room, my old friend who happened to have her birthday few days before. I got excited and ran to her. She saw me and smiled. But then it happened! The slippery floor combined with my slippery shoes brought me out of control. My coordination system failed me!!!

And BOOOOM! I fell down with an embarrassing pose. So very cartoonish! Ouch, I looked around and fortunately, only senior students were there. If only my students were there, how would they react?? Darn!!!! For the first time in a long time, I am feeling the embarrassment! Yuck!!!!

Jakarta Ranting #4 : The Forgotten Moon

Yes, as much as I hate Jakarta, I decided to go to the accursed city for my holiday last week. Purely for holiday, without any other businesses to take care. My dear friends invited me to relieve my stress there, and they promised to bring me all the fun. Well, since I had nothing else to do, why not accepting their offer?

I already prepared myself for the rate difference and the hot weather. No longer I wore my jacket everywhere I went, no longer I placed rate limitation in my account. Everything went out okay. I had so much fun, thanks to those crazy friends of mine there. I finally felt how weekend in capital city was. And the weather was still as hot as ever.

Continuing my trip to Bandung, I was greeted with colder weather. Cooler than it usually is, even friends there admitted that. The freezing breeze and temperature brought my body to its worst condition, especially after being exposed to the ever hot Jakarta. I didn't enjoy Bandung for my high fever then.

When I got back to Yogya, I just realized that the cold weather everywhere was due to the full moon. Usually I paid attention to that, and thus being able to anticipate the changing weather. And FYI, it's not related to mystical mumbo jumbo. It is a common knowledge that when the moon reached the peak of its cycle, the full moon, the temperature will drop. The bigger the full moon, the more it drops.

I was swayed by the atmosphere of metropolis city of Jakarta. Blinded by the lamp lights made by human being. It is a city with million lamplights, trying to rule out the night and rival those natural glimpse of stars and moon. The skyscrapers every here and there jutted high, covering every possible corner to gaze at the night sky.

And in that beautiful modern city, the space of nature and observation towards it has been radically eradicated. Cast aside by the name of modernity, industry, and business. Even the old tradition of observing the cycle of the moon to determine the weather and breeze becomes stranger by default.

Thanks to my fever, I finally re-noticed the cycle of the moon once again. And this full moon is so beautiful. Big and bright, yet cold and soothing, touching our deepest flow of vein with chill. But under the influence of frost, we have the chance to re-ignite the flame of ourselves, re-appreciate the warmth from a cup of tea, and good night rest. That's why I still don't want to leave this city, since I still want to have the bond with nature around me. Ah, fool me.....

Carnot System and Life

I was tempted to write upon the stability of life by the comment in two posts before this by Yellowtofu. He stated that we can make an analogy of perfection and balance in the Carnot system. Hmm, I was never a good student in the senior high. To be honest, I cheated in my National Final Exam, including Physics. But, I happen to know about Carnot system.

Carnot system is the ideal machine, in which the output is totally equal with the input. Very efficient machine, eh? (Please correct me if I’m wrong, but this was written in my piece of cheating paper during National Final Exam! Hehehehe!)
Yellowtofu made analogy that actually the stability itself would equal to death. Because everything is stable and harmonic. And to think further, when everything is balanced and in order, what should we do then?

Perfect stability and harmony is only existed in utopia. Just like Carnot system is only utopic design. And I can imagine that in utopia, everything is perfect. There is this balance of love and hate, of black and white, of good and evil. Everything is in harmony. But then, life would be so dull. We will have nothing to do, even no chance to do anything. STOPPED. No challenge, no threat, and that would mean no opportunity to develop ourselves and explore new things.

What would it mean for human to stop developing? DEATH.

This makes a strong revelation, that actually there is a beauty in an imperfection. That friction would lead us to a full life. That the imperfection would lead us to the dream of perfection. And life itself is one big IMPERFECTION.

The struggling to reach the stability is what makes us alive. The journey to shed away our imperfection to achieve perfection is the real essence of life. The voyage for us to keep being better over time is what breathes us spirit. And we will embrace our final destination in death.

Dream Journal 4 : An Empty Train

I wanted to go to Bandung by train, so I went to the train station. It was very crowded at the time, many people are waiting for their train. And suddenly I heard the announcement that the train to Bandung will soon depart. Quickly I moved to the train and went into it. There were nobody there, saved me and 4 young girls.

The five of us walked together, trying to find the comfortable seat for us. Contrary to the crowd outside, I found nobody in the train. It was empty, totally empty. Everything is broken, like the train had not been used for years. We felt totally strange there. We kept going to the last compartment, and finally found a girl sitting there.

She asked us, "You want to go to Bandung?"

We nodded. The girls started to find the seat in that compartment. I was still curious at that time, "Where is everybody, miss?"

She stared at me and smiled. "It's very hard to explain. Let's just enjoy the journey!" She stood, and I could see that she was short. Her T-shirt is purple, and she had a nice pigtail behind her head. Her face seemed familiar, but I just cannot recall it.

"It will be twenty five thousand rupiah per person," said her. We handed her the money, and she said again, "Thank you. We will soon depart! Enjoy it!" At the same time, the train started moving.

The young girls started having conversation among them, while the short girl sat comfortably in her seat. I was driven by my curiosity. "Will you excuse me for a while? I want to see the whole train!"

They looked at me for an instance and just nodded. I went out from the compartment and started walked along the train. Nobody there, so I decided to went back to my place. But on my way back, I saw a man with red checkers shirt. He had thick beard and short curly hair. He stood in front of glued newspaper, as if he was trying to read all the articles. Yes, another person! I screamed in my mind enthusiastically.

I approached him, but when I reached his spot, he was no longer there. I saw him in another compartment instead with another guy that I didn't see previously. My body shivered. I looked at the newspaper, and the date was March 25, 1987. DAMN!!!

I rushed back to my compartment. There, I approached the short girl and asked her, "Tell me, is this a ghost train?"

She looked at us with a sad look. "We don't mean to deceive you, sir! But yes, this is a ghost train!"

I got shocked. The young girls in that compartment were also got shocked. "That's why there were nobody here. But, how do you manage to find out that, sir?" they asked me.

"I found a newspaper dated back from 1987. There is no way someone would save newspaper that old!"

One of the girls gasped. "Yes, there's no way newspaper from 10 years ago was here. It is 1997, isn't it?"

This time, I became more and more pale. I just realized that the girls were also ghost. They came from 1997....

The short girl looked at me grimly and said, "Sir, if you feel deceived, we can return your money and you can stop in the next station. Next one will be Rembang!"

"Yes, please! I want to stop at the next station!"

The train stopped, and I quickly jumped off the train. It was really a big station. So crowded, but everyone is gray. Damn! The train has gone off without me, and I couldn't see it anymore. As if it vanished into thin air. But the song they played in the train is still echoed, even after I woke up. It was the song "Mengenangmu" by Kerispatih, but only the last part.... "Di keabadian!" (note : In eternity....)

DAMN!!!!!