Short post-university update

As stated in the above title of this post, I would like to catch up and review my days since the day I graduated from university on May of 2017. It's been almost a year and my head's still trying to figure out how quickly time goes by, it was as if I was hanging around the nearby burjo joint in Jl. Pandega Mandala getting a late-night nasi orakarik in one day, and here I am coping with work and responsibilities, and writing blog posts in Bumi Serpong Damai the next.

A little insight on my life right now dates back to a couple of days after my thesis presentation, when I decided to intern at a car workshop to acquire mad skillz working on cars, which I did not get much from my years at the university, so I began searching and contacting a few well known car workshops in Jakarta, and none of them even responded to my messages. That is, much to my surprise, until a particular private classic car restoration workshop welcomed my inquiries and request for an apprenticeship. It's funny how all the mediocre workshops did not want apprentices, but a high-end one would gladly accept one, though I still consider myself very lucky and had asked at the right time.

I would love to write about the details of my experience in the workshop for the past couple months, but I guess that's a story for another time.

I didn't choose the thesis life, the thesis life chose me. Or not.

I can safely say that right now I am in that stage of uni life where many people consider to be the most stressful and tiresome. It's the stage where I'm starting to watch my friends - of the same year group - graduate one at a time, while I sit my fat-ass here writing dumb blog posts, listening to the same music for ten-plus years, still taking classes, and only just starting my final thesis.

Despite the setbacks mentioned above, I would like to beg to differ from what people are saying about this stage of uni life: it's not as bad as you'd think. Sure, those people you stuck with from the beginning tend to change, and are getting their degrees with their smug grins across their faces, but hey, who am I to tell them what to do with their lives. All I care is that I'm the one living in the moment, in my own pace - hopefully not too slow, though - and giving my shit the shit they deserve. By taking only two classes this semester, I'm starting to have more free time on my hands, meaning more personal, passion-channeling activities which I will be posting on this site in the future.

Speaking of the shit I go through these days, my thesis guidance counselor has been quite a pain in the butt for me to find around campus, and we've only met twice in two weeks! What sucks even more is that my proposed theme keeps getting rejected, but I guess its my fault I haven't thought my two previous ideas through. I really need to get my stuff together.

You might think I'm going nowhere with this post, and you're right, I'm actually writing this as a mere writing exercise - with a little update on my life - because I tend to get really bad cases of the writer's block, and I'm still trying to get my head in the game.

Kalimantan Living

As you might not know, I had recently returned to Yogyakarta to continue my studies after having spent two months in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan for an internship at Total E&P Indonesie, which began on the January 25th and ended on March 25th 2016. And boy, it was two months that really changed my perspective on life - at least for the near future.

I landed in Balikpapan on the 24th of January. It was a warm Sunday and I could still recall my first impression on the city as I made my way to the hotel. Being a gaijin with no friends or relatives in Balikpapan at the time somehow worried me for a second, but then I imagined all the possibilities in meeting new people. The city itself seemed like a quaint place to live in despite its mild hustle and bustle, no wonder Balikpapan won the Adipura award consecutively!

Long story short, my internship started off and went on quite well, I had made a lot of friends and colleagues to share thoughts with, from engineers, staff, operators to fellow interns and all the other people I got to know outside of the workplace.  I knew there was nothing to be worried about in getting out of the comfort zone and setting foot on stranger shores because in the end everything will always work itself out as long as you appreciate and enjoy the process.

The internship aside, Balikpapan proved itself to be a place I wouldn't mind revisiting or even living in, despite its high living cost. I just can't seem to point out the stuff that make the city enjoyable as it was for me, so it's safe to say that it might be the food, the weather, the sights and the people altogether.

I'm back (again). Hopefully for good.

Quoting from my previous blog post:

"I guess that's all I have to share right now, but I'll be updating the blog quite frequently from now on as I have nothing to do until September when my university life starts." -Post examination catch-up (25/7/2012)

Liar liar pants on fire you fat turd. It's been almost four years after "September when my university life starts." But you know what they say, you can't please everybody, so here I am trying to please myself instead with a comeback to the bloggerverse although I doubt hardly anybody reads blogs anymore these days.

I can say this would be a new start for me in the midst of the final year of college - hold up, final year? You old, mayyn. You see I've been *forced* to writing blogs by my father ever since I was a wee boy, writing about almost anything, from family trip reviews, book reviews, to Maple Story related stuff. Yes you read that right, back then I was addicted to Maple Story and I would play every night, but my father being my father decided to set a prerequisite for me to play the game, that is to write a blog post with a minimum of four paragraphs.

Boy was I pissed when this happened, but not as pissed as my father when he sees me play without writing. As time passes I really got used to it, and many years later I finally realized that all that was actually for a greater good, and now I just can't thank my father enough for making me go through all that. Writing definitely was mind-opening, it shaped my discipline, knowledge, and I can say got me this far in life. It was the cornerstone to my life, and I have my strict father to thank for it. Thanks ayah.

Therefore, I have changed this blog name to Ariq's Corner(stone), in tribute to the good old days. You might notice that the first few posts in this blog is filled with stupid teenage angst, complaining about stuff, and I admit they were the result of my blunder years through high-school in which I might add am not ashamed of and those posts are going to stay on this blog for me (and you) to reminisce those blunder years.

Post examination catch-up

Hey everyone, I'm back on blogger, after month after tedious month of exams like the UAS (school exams), UAN (national exams) and SNMPTN Tertulis (the exam which gets you into national universities). Right now, I have been doing nothing at home but lie around, go over to a friend's house, and going out cycling in the afternoon waiting for maghrib, as you may know, it's Ramadhan! (it's when muslims fast for a month)

As for the results, I have to say the UAS were somewhat satisfactory and were above my expectations, not going to share the numbers or anything, but yea it got me graduating from high school. The UAN results? Abit disappointing, but having thought the school only had two weeks of preparation unlike other schools who get the whole year, I got one question wrong on the english paper, which'll leave a bad mark everytime I look back, but at least it also got me out of highschool.

I had to take the SNMPTN Tertulis all the way in Purwokerto, where most of my relatives live (that's in central Java by the way), because where you had to take the test depends on which universities you had for the two choices you were given, and I had chosen Gadjah Mada University (UGM) which is considered as a region II area, and Purwokerto is a region II area. I mentioned in a post on this blog that I wanted to go to Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). Well, I bailed out because I thought I was never going to survive, or let alone get into the place, and decided to go for something abit realistic.

And guess what?

Yeaaaaaaaa!

Couldn't believe it at first, the night the results were posted online I couldn't help but run and hop around the house, after all the failures and disappointments in these recent years, I just didn't know what to say, but I guess God really is fair.

So I went to Yogyakarta on the 3rd of July by car with my mom, sisters and brother, stopping by in Purwokerto to drop off my sisters and brother at my grandma's house, so they don't have to continue the journey to Yogyakarta. In Purwokerto, I was really glad to see my relatives being happy for me and all, and all I could do was smile and nod.

My mom and I got to Jogja on the 5th, the roads were freshly paved, too bad I was too occupied in driving to take pictures. I'll get you some after Ramadhan. Having gotten to Yogyakarta, I headed straight to the UGM administration office to hand in some documents. While waiting, I talked to people sitting next to me in the waiting room, and boy these people were from all over the nation. Some even came all the way from Sumatra, and Sulawesi, even from places I've never heard before. But it feels really good to meet new faces and make new friends here.

I guess that's all I have to share right now, but I'll be updating the blog quite frequently from now on as I have nothing to do until September when my university life starts.

An explanation on why the internet hates 9GAG

So I was browsing through reddit, and look what I stumbled upon:

Click here to zoom in

All very well summed up. Kudos to whoever came up with the analogy.

2012? Already?

That was fast. After only having to post four updates on this blog- in which one of them turns out completely pointless - throughout the whole year of 2011, I've decided - like exactly what I did a few posts back - to return to blogging, only this time I'm doing this with a bit more effort. Hopefully.

Since the year's still fresh, just like anyone would do, I came up with resolutions, this time it'd be easier to manage. To think positive. That's right, no more unpleasant snickers to society from me, no more of my mild criticism towards anything. You might ask what struck me into getting into this resolution, well, it just came to me, really, seeing the world, filled to the brim with _______ (Be a lamb and help me out. I can't find the right word.) and all that jazz, got me to realize how we have to enjoy the little things and be content with what we have in order to avoid falling into what I call the nega-zone. I'm not trying to be some hippy demanding everyone to do whatever this is I'm doing, because I'm doing this for myself, now the cup-is-half-full kind of person.

Moving on, there are many things for me to look forward to this year. Some with very hard impacts on my future, and some hardly important to others.The semester two exams, Ujian Nasional, SNMPTN, and university entrance tests await me a few months ahead, I have to get my head in the game, this time, I'm dead serious this time. Of course I have other plans such as to get that bicycle frame sitting in my garage fully restored into a brake equipped fixed gear bike (This I planned from this time of year last year.) You see, I've decided to "go green" and commute by bicycle, when I, hopefully, get into a university, which by the way is preferably this:

 

Or this:

Planning to take mechanical engineering for one of these two bad boys. I guess that's all I have to say for tonight. There's a chemistry try-out at school tomorrow, really have to study for it to boost my free-falling chemistry scores. Bye!

2011? Already?

Whoa, 2010 must've been in such a hurry. That was the shortest lasting year I had ever lived through, so short that I haven't even thought of a new year resolution. It felt as if the other day I was fast asleep in the car in Ocean Park's parking lot for the 2010 new year's eve, and now it reads January 2011 on my phone.

To me, the year had gone well, although it was fast, but it went well. I achieved several targets I had planned on for quite a while; getting into the science stream, getting my first car and a few others. There might've been some problems, both minor and major I had encountered throughout the year, fortunately, they'd been solved far before the end of the year. All in all I am well content on what 2010 had to offer.

As for 2011, I would probably procrastinate on coming up with new year resolutions like I did last year, and having to think of it, new year resolutions hadn't been working out for me, in fact they had never worked for me no matter what was for me to change.

Oh yeah, you might also be wondering why I don't have pictures to go with this post, the answer to your wonder would be that three out of the three cameras I own don't work at all. One has a missing battery, one needs a film roll and the SLR is screwed up in a way I can't explain due to my limited photography skills. See, I was supposed to take pictures from the Volkswagen Jamboree last month and wanted to write a nice, long field report of the events with pictures accompanying the text, but my camera decided to screw up on that day and still won't work until this very day. Disappoint.

Okay, back to what I was writing about in the first place. I am really looking forward to the completion of the Amigo Azul's rebuild, in which I doubt will happen in between the first two quartile of the year. Speaking of the bug, it's still at the mechanics until this very day getting it's engine overhauled. I checked it out the other day, finding out that the engine plates had been repainted and all that was needed to be done now was the reassembly of the engine which Jajang said would probably take up to five days with the electrical components of the car getting straightened out as well. I don't feel like elaborating on specific details of the car's progress right now.

I think that's it for tonight, it's 10 and I really need some sleep. Bye.

Blegh.

Ricers. Bloody posers who know nothing about cars. Some of you would think that ricers are individuals who attempt to customize their cars, trying to make them look fast, but no.

In my opinion modifying your vehicle in such a way does make you a ricer, but your personality, the way you communicate with others and even the people you hang out with are determinant factors on how people like me judge people like you on how much of a ricer you are.

Recently, I have been browsing facebook for awhile going from profile to profile in search of ricers, I did stumble upon a few real automotive enthusiasts, which their names I wouldn't be mentioning, but their population was no match for the population of the local ricers that were in the social network. They were everywhere, with their fake profile names and their dull cars for profile pics. I am not going to elaborate in depth on this matter as I do not want to react to rants or threats by those of you who get offended easily over a blog post reviewing this counterculture.

Anyway, the drift scene here in Indonesia isn't so bad, unless you're having the Japanese drift scene as a comparison, there are some pretty decent drifters and machines out there. The events held here are quite interesting to start with as well, but once ricers start collaborating in the scene, I couldn't bother my ass to even take a glimpse at it, which is what's happening right now. High school boys with their subcompact front wheel driven cars toying around with their parent's money just to "upgrade" their cars (Where some, or maybe most of them don't even know what they're installing) for so called drifting and going to meets with their so-called enthusiast buddies, use your own money in building your own car, your parents didn't work their asses off just to fund your hobby while you flunked in school. Oh, and middle-aged know-alls who think they know everything about cars bragging around about their newly bought luxury of a car and pimping the crap out of it. When would these people come to their senses? I just don't get it. I'm not referring to any specific individuals whatsoever on this matter, it's just what I see through my eyes added with my logical opinion.

"But Ariq, it's our right to modify our cars the way we want, who are you to judge us?" Well it's my right as well to criticize you and your sorry cars. This is a free country, as much as you want to express yourselves on your cars, I’d like to express our point of view as well. Respect that! By the way that last part was from Add More Horsepowers! disclaimer since I couldn't be bothered to think up of another smart alec quotation.

Speaking of AMHP, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, it's an Indonesian anti-rice culture blog where they review snapshots of ricers lurking through the streets of Indonesia. Here's a link to their blog overview.

I think that's it for today, and once again;

"This is a free country, as much as you want to express yourselves with those thingamajigs on your cars, we’d like to express our point of view as well. Respect that!"

(:

German Love.

So yeah, I have nothing to do right now so I might as well update the blog. Yeah, so like my car came a few weeks ago from Purwokerto on a truck. Couldn't get any pics of it cuz I was busy making sure the car got off the truck properly and considering the fact that it was 6 in the morning on a Friday, so unless you are an utter imbecile, you'd see what I meant.

A few days later, I called the local VW specialist recommended by a friend of mine to check on my starter motor which seemed to jam. When the guy, Jajang, came I found out that my starter motor had been incinerated. Oh well, there went 700k-ish for a second hand German starter motor.

Then after only a week of normal usage, the Bug won't start. Again, I had to call Jajang to check the car out. He came in a '74 Bus with his coworker and was looking sweet as a nut (The Bus). He diagnosed the car in the rain with me holding an umbrella above him for a few minutes and declared the flywheel broken. We chat for abit and talked about the budget for the rebuild and such for the rest of the afternoon. In the end, I told Jajang to take my car with him to his garage to get the engine rebuilt.

The next day, he rang me up saying that the mounting for the gearbox was mucking fessed up! It had the older model's mount instead of the late model's, now I have to bother myself in searching through a junkyard for a mount. LOL jk, I can get Jajang to do that hehe. I have lots of things to get for my engine rebuilt anyway, but they would all come from Jajang's mate's part shop. Couldn't be bothered to go into details for the blog. Sorry.

Few days ago, I came to Jajang's garage to check on my baby, which I have now made up a nickname for it: La Amigo Azul. Idk why I chose "The Blue Friend", but... nvm. Here be some pics from the garage. Don't mind the quality. Cruddy Blackberry camera.:

Engine's off, revealing the cross section of it's "balls" 

Engine oil leak.

Notice the messed up mount.

Earlier this week, I was thinking on what style I should build the car and I was thinking... Rat look. I found this really cool website; www.rat-look.com, it had everything related to rat look, so I decided to read up some guides on "ratting" your cars. Seemed like ratting would be something unique and affordable at the same time here in Indonesia, so I made a thread. Then this guy, nightwish, shopped some pics of my car:

Totally in love with the rusted hood and shark-teeth decal on the doors, with a roof-rack and a single fog-light, the car is gonna be fweet as suck:

2 color schemes in mind... Choices :(

That is all @:).