in the mood", Sabtu, Januari 27, 2007

kinderenwereldtje


Anybody who has been in the Netherlands has perhaps seen these pictures of two little boy and girl. Jip en Janneke are famous as the characters of Annie G. Schmidt and their adventure-stories have been translated into many languages (I even found in google the Tono-Tini version of this :-)). Nevertheless, the original Dutch version has been proven timeless and captured the hearts of people from different ages (e.g. me :-)), thanks to the great illustration made by Fiep Westendorp. These two women together have enriched the imagination of millions of Dutch children from several generations.









To me, it is Fiep's illustration which is most fascinating (perhaps because I'm not 8 years old anymore :-)). Just take a look at Jip en Janneke. How can someone draw silhouettes and put expression there, make us (and children) understand what is happening, and at the same time amuse us? And look at other illustrations; Flodertje, Pim en Pom (not by Annie, but it was also illustrated by Fiep), Dikkertje Dap, etc.; they are all witty and entertaining.

Perhaps it is also the 3-letters-name of the characters (Jip, Pim en Pom, etc.) which make all together sound amusing also, especially when you listen the musical-version here.

Dikkertje Dap
Dikkertje Dap (the name of the child :-))
Zat op de trap
Sitting at the stairs
s-Morgens vroeg om kwart over zeven
Early in the morning at 7:15
Om de giraffe een klontje te geven
To give the giraffe a sugar block

'Dag giraffe'
Hello giraffe
Zei Dikkertje Dap
Said Dikkertje Dap
'Weet je wat ik heb gekregen?
Do you know what I got?
Rode laarsjes voor in de regen'
Red boots for in the rain
'Het is niet waar!'
It's not true!!
Zei de giraffe
Said the giraffe
'Dikkertje Dikkertje Dikkertje Dikkertje ik sta paf!'
Dikkertje... I am baffled!

'O giraffe'
O giraffe
Zei Dikkertje Dap
Said Dikkertje Dap
'Ik moet je nog veel meer vertellen,
I have to tell you more
Ik kan al drie letters spellen: A-B-C!
I can all the three letters spell: A-B-C
Is dat niet knap?
Isn't that smart?
Ik kan ook al bijna rekenen
I am also almost able to count
En ik kan mooie poppetjes tekenen'
And I can draw beautiful puppets


nice story, isnt't it? :-)

I wish children in Indonesia could be lucky enough to also have such imaginary characters who are close to their world, who represent their daily lives and who are like their neighbouring friends. Not a supranatural one (although there's nothing wrong with this, I'm not against Gatutkaca :-)). Just as the way children are, and allowed to be curious and to make mistakes. Perhaps it is not needed to always burden children stories with "moral values", i.e. what is expected from them as pre-adults ("Tono bermain bola, Tini ke pasar bersama ibu, Budi dihukum karena nakal" ... why don't they ask why Budi doesn't want to go to school? Perhaps the teacher is too boring ;-) And what if Tini - a girl - prefers to play football instead of helping mommy?). Perhaps by letting children to develop naturally just as they wish to be, we can then have adults who are less judgemental to other people who have different values than them ;-) Like what it is said in Totto-Chan: every child is basically good.

PS: for bebek - maybe children illustration is your vocation? *wink... ditunggu lho, karya-karyanya ;-)

***

"A carpenter never gets an award for a beautiful table. But when someone does something worthwhile in the arts, there's always such a song and dance." (Fiep Westendorp)


Great site about both of them: http://www.annie-mg.com/

in the mood", Jumat, Januari 12, 2007

cubit senang

Minggu ini aku belajar, bahwa hidup tidak hanya persegi-persegi hitam putih. Ada banyak cacat dan ketakteraturan. Tapi bukannya itu juga yang menjamin perubahan. Bentuk-bentuk itu ada, untuk membuat kita selalu ingat akan hidup yang bergerak.

Dan di sudut-sudut tepi yang cacat, ada kejutan-kejutan kecil yang mencubit senang. Seolah berkat mengalir tak pernah putus, walau kadang tertutup reka.

Yang terdefinisi dan diharapkan, tak datang. Namun kejutan-kejutan manis itu berkata, bahwa hidup yang mengalir memang membawa ketidakpastian. Di dalamnya aku menemukan syukur.

***

Thanks for everybody, who has made yesterday a beautiful day ^_^

in the mood", Minggu, Januari 07, 2007

Guten Rutsch*

New Year comes with new resolution. One of mine was a direct result of heart-to-heart talk (or heart-to-head, to be more precise :-)) with my supervisor on my last working day, just before holiday.

Last year had been an exhausting year for me. Besides personal problem and the usual work demand, I had been feeling more and more like a misplaced person in the institute. Perhaps it was a culmination of all the pressure together, of starting in a new place, of being a foreigner (whose differences amazed the never-going-out-of-the-country colleagues), of being a lone ranger in terms of my subject in the institute. Added on top of that, my own evaluation of my PhD study.

I have always considered my field to be (or should be) in the area of chemistry. After all, you need chemistry to understand what is going on during processing and analysing your sample. Then, since you are using analytical instrument, you need a bit (or a lot) of physics also, depending on how far you are playing with your instrument. Biology comes later, when you are moving away from experimenting with the hardware of your instrument and getting closer to more application.

I have never been in doubt of my preference; i.e. more into application, closer to patients; and that's why I landed in this institute. Of course, pharmaceutical sciences is just at the intersection of many natural sciences' displicines. You always need a bit of everything to understand everything.
But problem comes as you are moving deeper into your own spesialized subject. The question is then, how broad is enough? Broadness has inverse operation to deepness, just like a manager functions differently than a technical specialist.

In this institute, I am the only one doing analytical chemistry, while everybody else doing anything related to molecular or cell biology and on purposely (I mean, they have said clearly to me that they don't care) oblivious to even the most basic knowledge of my subject. I felt then like a stranger, lack of scientific input from others and lack of my own contribution to others. Worse was when the big boss of the institute wanted us, the PhD students from different research areas, to integrate more by having regular scientific discussion to broaden ourselves. But since the big boss and the staff members themselves don't know where our overlapping technical interest is, why don't we all discuss history instead? ;-) That is also broadening, isn't it? (by agreed definition, broadening is discussing topic different than our daily project). At least, it is fair to everybody :-)

My supervisor of course understood my problem very well. She is actually at the same place like me, only we have different position :-) Good supervisor, she promised to find another PhD student and postdoc soon :-) so I could scientifically benefit from my surrounding also in this institute. (Of course there have been already projects that needs another PhD and postdoc. But I like the way she consoled me :-)).

But back to my new resolution, as she and I agreed, I would integrate myself more to the research group of my doctoral-father; which is no biology at all and actually a lot of physics, but still it could be a good balance for my research.

So there I was, during my first two working days in this new year, attending two totally different group seminars. The second one on Friday was the one from the institute. Again, it made me think if I have made a good choice by coming to this group for my PhD. And again, of course, I re-evaluated what I really want and like to do, for now and for the future.

Nowadays, most people do not talk about only a single discipline - chemistry, biology, physics, or even pharmaceutical sciences. In this area, they like to use the term "life sciences". There have been more and more joint-initiatives among different specialized areas in natural sciences. As mentioned in the joint-program of ETHZ and University of Zurich, "The life sciences encompas the experimental natural sciences, biology, chemistry, and physics, including the integrated methods from mathematics and information technology, as well as clinical medicine". It includes also enviromental sciences, agriculture, nutrition sciences, etc. The sense of globalization has been also in the development of natural sciences. Although, when it boldly states, "The life sciences... exhibit broad inter-disciplinarity with no boundaries"; well, I don't agree. The boundary do exist, and it is a meeting point for the same purpose, not always an integration (where different areas truly find an overlap, hence create a new branch of branches of science).

I think, I hope, that my awkward position here, would eventually be a blessing in disguise. From where else I can have a chance to discuss and evaluate the results of a molecular biology experiement, for example, without actually having to do the lab-work myself (which can take at least days, providing you don't have to grow something first beforehand). Although I almost cry whenever I have to read their papers - it's like reading in foreign language - and it takes many hours of my precious time. I will also stand any "strange" question or reaction whenever we have to do "integration", I get a chance to learn the different ways of thinking from different specialized people anyway. It is a useful experience, I think, for my future, especially if I go back to Indonesia where money-and-other-things prevent technical specialization, where I think inter-collaboration very much needs to be developed and I also wouldn't want to be limited only in a single discipline.
And as for getting scientific input from my surrounding, hmm... this is more difficult to be solved. But it is not a dead-end yet, as I can still try to find it outside the institute. It could be then at the same time broadening my network.

So I am not quitting yet :-) Although finding another place has been in the back of my mind. No, not now. Not this year at least :-) As an old friend of mine always said whenever we were in unfavourable condition, "Try to make the best out of it". I agree. I will turn all of these into blessing.

So, although a bit late, but still:

Wünsche einen guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!









* Literally translated: good sliding.