On Korean Drama

Have anyone here watched Korean drama? I am sure some of you have. For me, Korean drama is somewhat predictable. It is almost certainly a love story between a guy and the girl where both of them cannot be together due to either family interruption, illness, accidents, unrequited love, or some other thing.

Has anyone ever been somewhat frustrated with them? I have had my share of fault, spending hours watching them instead of studying, working, or being productive. But what frustrates me a little is that girls who watch those drama often talk about how they wish they can find happy endings despite all the drama. They want to meet a prince charming, a gentleman who, as Bruno Mars would say, will catch a grenade for them.

I was hanging out with some friends today. We were watching a music video – Korean – about a pick-pocket girl who was chased by the police. In the video, the guy who likes her saw the chase, went after the girl, pull her into hiding, grabbed her cap and jacket, and give himself up to the police instead of the girl. Immediately, my friend (girl) said,”that can only happen in stories. There won’t be a guy that nice in real life.” or something like that.

Now, guys, will you feel frustrated hearing that? Don’t you sometimes want to shout out: “Yes, a guy like that exist! And that is me!”?

 

An Argument I Will Most Definitely Win(?)

All a girl needs to do to look beautiful is to smile with all her heart and smile aplenty.

 

“You are beautiful,” I said

I’d like to make a protest. Why is it that in certain cultures, saying that a girl is beautiful immediately indicates a personal attraction that needs to be gossiped around?

Shouldn’t an artist express his awe just as he sees it? Why would he need to hold back his opinion so not to risk giving trouble through the gossips generated?

Beauty is beauty!

 

Grounded

Ever thought of why humans are not born with wings? I do sometimes….

I went on a trip a couple weeks ago. I was so tired coz the flight outbound is after work, but I’ve always had trouble sleeping on airplane so I could not take a nap. Instead, I tried to pay attention on what’s going on around me.

Two things took my attention:
1. During takeoff and flight, passengers will shut their window, or at best, ignore what’s going on outside by reading magazine.
2. During landing, starting from pilot’s announcement that we are nearly at destination, passengers will start looking out of the window…. only for a brief moment. But when you can start seeing the cars on the street, the trees, the houses, then the people on the ground, passengers start to look outside.

Why are people so eager to look at the ground? Is it because even though many people dream of flying, they are truthfully afraid of flying? So afraid that they try to ignore the clouds floating below during flight? So eager to land that they stare at the the cars on the street, the trees, the houses, then the people on the ground?

 

Language Barrier

When I created this blog, I envisioned myself to be able to share my stories in English. Share what I’ve learned in school and in life. But obviously, my vision did not came true. My blog remains empty and lifeless… I’ve questioned myself why, and this summer, I think I’ve finally come to an answer.

I was born from a different mother tongue, called Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). I was raised and taught by her. As a result, my mind thinks in terms of Bahasa Indonesia too.

I thought I’ve overcome the language barrier. Four years after I started college in the US, I’ve been able to talk fluently, write papers, and read books in English. This summer, as I spend two whole months in my home country, I’ve read six fiction books so far (with one more waiting after this post). I began to realize that I prefer Indonesian better. The words flow more beautifully, and its richness in variety can construct stories upon stories with unlimited possibilities. It’s just easier to be creative with Bahasa Indonesia than with English.

Pretty lame excuse…

I know… that’s why I’m not going to start writing in Indonesian in this blog.

 

Such Cuteness…

I was walking to school today, carrying my lunch, when I saw the cutest girl ever. She has blond hair and wore sunglasses.  My heart melted when she said “can you hold my hand?” to the one standing next to her. Such cuteness…

Her mother replied, “no, try crossing the road yourself.” The girl reluctantly walked forward, tapping his white cane in front of her. She’s half my height, she looks no older than 5 years old, and she’s blind…

 

The Golden Rule

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

This year is my 2nd semester of grading homeworks for a lower-division materials science class. Some of the homeworks have less legible writings. Many times have I wished that students would write more neatly so the homeworks are easier to grade and I can give them back on time.

But the more I think about it, the more guilty I feel, too. Why? Because, I have also submitted homeworks with less legible writings. I have no right to ask for neat writings when I have not done so, myself.

The statement at the beginning of the post says it all. It is the golden rule.

 

Big Fuss Over Small Detail

Tomorrow is the day when my senior design project group is supposed to present our final design. We were working on our powerpoint presentation for most of the day. Everyone was tired and tension was high. We wanted to finish the powerpoint as soon as we could so we could go home for the day. At the final practice run through, a group member mentioned something that I do not agree with. The problem has something to do with cantilever beam bending problem.In the above picture, the left diagram shows an example case of a beam, planted into the ground, being given a force at the top. The right diagram shows the free body diagram of the case. My disagreement came when a group mate mentioned that the moment M is largest at the bottom of the beam so it will definitely break at the bottom, near the ground. I disagreed, stating that with couple-moment, the moment should be equal throughout the beam. Therefore, the beam may break anywhere along the length L.

In the end, we found a common ground and settled this argument. The funny thing is, this argument is entirely irrelevant to the whole project. Me arguing over a small detail had us wasted a solid half an hour where we could have gone home and rest. In previous post, I did say that small details are indeed very important. But in this case, it is good to be reminded that it is not worthwhile to spend too much time building on ONE small detail, while neglecting the other details that form the big picture.

I should also learn to present my arguments more calmly, because I sure sounded like Prof. Frisbie when he commented on a statement in one of the lab reports submitted to him (that martensite is a phase): very pissed…

 

Looking Back

More than two years have passed since my last post. I have survived in the Materials Science and Engineering program so far. Done quite a good job, if I may say. The amount of knowledge and experience accumulated is larger than Avogadro’s number (6.02×10^23), and every single one of them is more important to be remembered than Silicon’s band gap energy value (1.1 eV).

The following are some lessons I have truly learned:

1. When you get into something, give it your 100%. Materials Science and Engineering is a hard major, period. But like in the world of materials science, we must constantly look for a harder and harder material. It opens up new possibilities, worlds of new explorations, and brings us into a brighter future. Therefore, any effort put in has to be 100%, in hope for a better future
2. Small details are as important as the big picture. No wonder there is a whole ‘army’ of scientists and engineers dedicated to studying materials microstructure. Materials microstructure (porosity, grain size, flaws, precipitations) can heavily influence the overall properties of a bulk material. It cannot at any time be ignored.
3. Don’t just complain about a problem. Instead, find a solution. After all, we are engineers (in-training), problem solvers. If the textbook is unhelpful, find another book. If the professor is unclear, ask a friend.

A friend said during a group conversation one day:

“don’t just focus at what you don’t know. Compared to before you got into the program, you know much more. If you could speak to the past you, he would think you are speaking in alien languages where in fact, you are only speaking Materials Science.”

Indeed, a lot as been learned. And yet, there is still so much to learn….

 

MATS 3011 Lecture 10: Nobody’s Perfect

Yesterday in MATS 3011 lecture, we talked about crystal defects. When crystals form, they condense into a specific structure. These structure are represented by the 14 Bravais lattices and each has its own unique placement of atoms in reference to another atom.

We went over point defect and its three variation. The first one is vacancy where there is a void where an atom should be. The second one is interstitial where there is an addition of extra atom where there SHOULDN’T be an atom. And the third one was substitutional, where a foreign atom replaces an atom of the crystal type.

In the class note, Prof. Holmes told us that real crystals always have defects. They are unavoidable. And the case is the same as us, humans. We are not perfect. We have faults here and there.

Just as a vacancy point defect, we always lack certain good traits (here represented as each atom in the crystal). We just don’t have them. Maybe because we were never taught about them.

Like a substitution point defects, we have some ‘bad’ traits in place of the good traits.

And like interstitial point defects, we might have good traits that are not supposed to be there. Maybe because even though we think it’s a good trait, we just didn’t do it in the right place.

However, these defects can be beneficial. In example, semiconductor needs defects in order to have their electrical properties. Thanks to substitution defect, semiconductors have brought advancement to our technology (i.e. computer chips).

The case is the same with us. By not being perfect, we can complete each other. Hence, interaction between humans are created. By interaction, we bring advancement. I can’t imagine if everyone in the world is perfect. Nobody will need help from another. Everyone will live on their own because they don’t need anyone else.

Defects are a good think, ain’t it?