Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Kenapa aku (dulu) tidak mau jadi dokter

Saturday, May 5th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

Cerebellum highlighted in blue

Aku barusan ngeliat (sebagian) One Litre of Tears episode 1 yang ditayangin Indosiar. Tahu kan? Ini drama menyentuh yang diangkat dari buku harian Kitou Aya, pasien Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). Pernah dijiplak Indonesia jadi Buku Harian Nayla (jiplak, bukan adaptasi, wong sama sekali tidak mengakui sumber cerita aslinya).

Aku sebelumnya udah pernah namatin drama yang dibintangi Sawajiri Erika ini. Minjem CD-nya adikku, suara asli Jepang dengan fansub Inggris. Tadi nonton soalnya penasaran aja, seperti apa versi dubbing-nya. (nggak berencana nonton lanjutannya, harus ngerjain TA dan nggak mau numpahin liter ke-2)

Secara umum dub-nya OK lah. Tapi aku cukup kaget dengan penyebaran informasi yang salah di beberapa menit pertama. Versi Indosiar menyebutkan bahwa pengidap penyakit ini akan “susah menggerakkan anggota tubuh, susah berbicara, dan mengalami gangguan berpikir” (kira-kira, nggak kurekam soalnya). Lalu belakangan disebutkan bahwa perlahan-lahan pengidap juga akan mengalami “…hilang ingatan” (kira-kira juga).

Aku bukan dokter, tapi dari yang kubaca di Wikipedia:

Generally, a sufferer retains full mental capacity but may progressively lose physical control.

Kata Wikipedia, mental (termasuk kemampuan bepikir dan ingatan) tidak terganggu, hanya saja perlahan-lahan kendali fisik bisa hilang (kesulitan berbicara, menggerakkan tangan, dll). Jadi, skor akurasi teknis -1 buat Indosiar. Seingatku, terjemahan fansub yang kutonton juga tidak menyinggung-nyinggung tentang gangguan pada fungsi mental. Pingin denger dialog Jepang aslinya tapi CD-nya lagi nggak di sini.

SCA adalah penyakit yang belum bisa disembuhkan. Selain 1 Litre of Tears, aku juga pernah nonton/baca beberapa cerita lain tentang penyakit-penyakit yang tak bisa disembuhkan. Film A Beautiful Mind diangkat dari kisah nyata John Nash, matematikawan penerima Nobel Ekonomi yang terkena Schizophrenia (ada adegan Igo-nya!!!). Film The Notebook merupakan adopsi dari novel dengan judul yang sama, kali ini tentang Alzheimer. Ada juga game novel interaktif yang mengangkat gagal ginjal kronis.

Di cerita-cerita tersebut, kita diajak menangis melihat betapa tidak berdayanya manusia. Ini abad 21 dengan segala kejayaannya seperti pembuktian Teorema Terakhir Fermat, disket holografik 3.9 TB, dan teleportasi kuantum. Tapi kita masih hidup dihantui berbagai penyakit yang belum ada obatnya. Di manakah sirup sakti Doraemon yang sekali teguk bisa menyembuhkan semua macam penyakit?

OK, kembali ke… uhm… inti dari postingan ini. (aku nggak punya laptop)

Apa cita-cita pertamaku? Jadi dokter kandungan. Ya, benar. Kok bisa? Karena saat ibuku bertanya “Agro besar mau jadi apa?”, aku diajarkan jawaban “dokter kandungan”. Omonganku waktu itu masih belum sempurna, jadi mungkin yang kuucapkan semacam “o-te… andunan”.

OK, mungkin itu bukan cita-cita. Aku hanyalah bagai pensistesis suara seperti Festival. Waktu itu aku masih terlalu kecil untuk tahu apa itu “cita-cita” dan “dokter kandungan”.

Setelah aku cukup besar untuk membayangkan berbagai cita-cita, anehnya “dokter” sama sekali tidak pernah kuminati. Orang-orang banyak yang mengatakan hal-hal seperti “jadi dokter nanti kaya…”, “jadi dokter banyak duitnya…”. Mungkin itu yang membuatku anti. Bukan anti duitnya, tapi karena orang-orang HANYA menekankan duitnya, jadi seakan-akan dokter hanyalah mesin pencetak duit yang membosankan. Pasien bertanya, kita mendiagnosis dan memberi obat, orang sembuh, dan kita dapat duit. Aku milih yang lebih menyenangkan aja misalnya bikin komik (salah satu cita-citaku zaman SD dulu).

Tapi, cerita-cerita tentang penyakit yang tak bisa disembuhkan tersebut merubah sudut pandangku tentang pekerjaan di dunia kedokteran. Sebetulnya sejak sebelumya aku tahu bahwa ada penyakit yang belum bisa disembuhkan (contoh populernya AIDS), tapi itu hanyalah pengetahuan semata yang tidak menyentuh. Di lain pihak, dengan mengenal sosok seperti Aya hati ini benar-benar sakit karena aku tidak bisa berbuat apa-apa melihat dia menderita. Ingin rasanya bisa membantu dia. Ya, aku menjadi terbuka pada alternatif di dunia kedokteran selain menjadi buruh pencetak duit yang hidup bahagia ever after. Alternatifnya adalah meneliti penyakit-penyakit ganas tersebut, mencari obat yang menjawab rintihan orang-orang yang masih menyimpan sebenih harapan. Sama-sama bertujuan menyembuhkan layaknya dokter pada umumnya, tapi yang ini jauh lebih menantang dan menarik buatku.

Ah, tapi manusia itu terbatas. Kalau kita mencoba menjadi segalanya, kita malah tidak akan jadi apa-apa. Aku nggak berencana pindah ke kedokteran, tapi paling tidak aku sekarang lebih mengapresiasi dunia tersebut. Toh perkembangan di satu bidang ilmu akan mempengaruhi bidang lainnya kan? Laser, mainan para fisikawan, kini jadi alat penting di dunia kedokteran. Proyek komputasi terdistribusi Folding@home membantu usaha pencarian obat kanker. Jadi aku bisa sedikit puas, karena berada di dunia MIPA yang cukup dekat dengan bidang kedokteran.

強く前へ。。。

Laborous questions in a test

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

Why must instructors give a very “long” problem which doesn’t test understanding any better than a “shorter” problem?

Here’s an example problem to test the understanding of shift cipher:

Encrypt the plaintext “example” using the shift cipher with key B.

That problem should suffice. However here’s what some instructors like to give:

Encrypt the plaintext “iliketoseemystudentssufferhahahaiamevil” using the shift cipher with key P.

The second problem isn’t intellectually harder, it’s just more laborous!

I can forsee a similar agony in a microbiology test:

The nucleotide sequence of one DNA strand of a DNA double helix is:
-GGAGATCGCATGCATGCACAGCTGACGATGCA-
(dunno whether it is realistic, I just typed the ATGCs randomly)
What is the sequence of the complementary strand?

Isn’t a strand of -ATGC- enough?

PS: Oh and about that second example, it’s actually quite nice considering that my instructor gave a LONGER ciphertext to encrypt… Unbelievable…

Soul’d out

Saturday, March 10th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

Have you ever felt your “soul” being pulled from your body? I have… A couple of times, in fact, and they all happened when I was sleeping. Because I just experienced it some days ago, I’ll write about it.

Things started like usual. I decided to end my day and layed down on bed. While trying to sleep, I alternated between thinking random stuffs and reminding myself “If you keep thinking stuffs, you’ll never get to sleep. STOP THINKING NOW!”. After many minutes and countless of position change…

… (sleeping)

Then suddenly I regained my consciousness! I’m sure it was not a dream because I could vividly feel my body and the bed. However, I can’t say that I was 100% awake because obviously I was sleeping the instant before and I was still closing my eyes. (I couldn’t seem to open it!)

I was awoken because “I” was being pulled out of my body! It was very painful and frightening. Not to mention that a deafening noise resonated on me. Of course, I instinctly tried my best to resist the violence.

So, a pulling fight occured for some seconds. “I” oscillated between my physical self and the outer world. What I noticed is that the noise intensified as “I” became farther from my body.

Of course I was afraid about what will happen if I didn’t resist and just let myself being pulled. What if I couldn’t go back to my body? However, I also wanted to know what adventure awaits if I just let myself go. In the end, my cowardice defeated my curiosity (for the nth time). So I kept on resisting the pull… Eventually the pull abated and things became hazy…

…and then I was flying. Probably it’s more accurate to say “being bounced around”, because it was really hard to control myself. I bounced walls, going room to room, sometimes going outdoor. It felt like a really wild roller coaster. I almost couldn’t figure out which was up and which was down.

Has my soul gotten completely out of my body? No, I’m definitely sure this bouncing around is just a dream. While the previous stage felt really real, this experience felt completely contained in my mind. Even the places are imaginary, not on my room, not on my house. Gradually, my awareness became weaker and weaker and then I just forgot what happened next…

As I’ve said before, I’ve experienced this a couple of times. The first occurence is when I was in senior high school (I forget which grade). I still remember the event clearly. How could one not, for it is very real and painful.

Was I going to experience OBE? Will death be anything like that? Or was it all just a dream? Whatever it was, if one day I couldn’t wake up from my sleep (not dead, but in a coma), it is probably because I crossed the lines :).

Which would you choose? Learning a language in 1 day or 10 years?

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

There are many random books here in Purwokerto, and some days ago I found two books with absurd titles.

First up is a book on my cousin’s bookcase: Bahasa JEPANG Hanya 1 Hari (Japanese in only 1 day) by Yan Tirtobisono. I was like “Heh!!!” when reading the title. I’ve learned this language on my spare time for around 2 years and still can’t do nothing :)… (well, yeah, probably because I’m not working hard enough)

The book’s 256 pages contain set phrases in roomaji without any grammar explanation. More like a travel pamphlet for me. I know that the Indonesian mentality is wanting results instantly without much effort, but, 1 day?!? Give me a break…

The other one is from my brother’s room: Korea dalam 10 x 365 hari (Korean in 10 x 365 days) by HS. Maru Lis. We all know that 10 x 365 days means 3650 days which means around 10 years!!! I was like “What the?!? This is a complete opposite of the other book!”.

I knew the author must meant something else, so I peeked at the contents. It turned out to be a 365-days lesson, with each lesson teaching 10 words. More like a dictionary for me. Anyway, the title is one of the most serious abuse of mathematical notation that I’ve encountered.

No need to read this…

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

I got a temporary modem to replace the fried one, but the situation is still unideal because the internet has been on and off. Worse, the connection was completely blacked out for the last 2 days.

So, I set out to go to a net cafe to blog stuffs. Of course I’ve prepared the stuffs on my flash disk so I could just copy-paste here.

But alas! After some seconds of browsing the flash disk, the contents just dissapeared from Windows Explorer. I tried plugging to another USB port and guess what?!? The contents are corrupted!!! (many files missing, file names using weird characters, etc…)

That why I hate technology with a passion… They simply don’t work! (oh, you DON’T want me to blog about how my mnemosyne data was corrupted by a UPS failure and I lose 3 days of work (thank God I have a backup)!!! Oh wait, I just blogged it…) Sometimes I think that life would be perfect if I was born a couple of centuries earlier, living as a farmer and not having to deal with the thing called computer…

Nuff ranting and whining. I’ll read some news and then go home…

Fried Modem

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

I’m now in Purwokerto. Will be here until an undetermined amount of time because I don’t take any classes this semester. Need to start working on the final project…

The cable modem got struck by lightning so I can’t browse the net from home. Other isteresting stuffs are the existence of a 12-stringed guitar (cousin’s) and a violin (brother’s friend’s). They have the potential to suck time because I enjoy messing around with musical instruments (though no good at any).

I’m tagging this post lavishly. Tagging is an awesome Web 2.0-ish feature that should be used to its full extent. Look, my blog is even featured on http://wordpress.com/tag/Japanese/ (screenshot) because of the sheer number of Japanese-tagged posts :).

Substandard translations

Saturday, February 10th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

When lecturers give students writing homework, most students just Google for the topic and then translate some (English) web pages they found. However, ignorance of the topic or underutilization of common sense usually creates a translation that’s silly.

Last semester, I took “Introduction to the history and philosophy of mathematics”. The class is divided into groups and each group must make a paper about the topic they choose. Before the test, I managed to get all the group’s paper. One paper particularly stood out, so let’s try to reverse engineer it!

  • “Ini dapat dibuktikan dengan PENGENALAN” -> “This can be proved using INTRODUCTION”. Great, a new proving method has just been invented. It obviously should be “Ini dapat dibuktikan dengan INDUKSI” which in English is “This can be proved using INDUCTION“.
  • “Teorema PENGINGAT Cina” -> “Chinese REMINDER theorem”. As in, “the theorem that reminds you to eat and take a bath”. The correct translation should be “Teorema SISA Cina” which in English is “Chinese REMAINDER theorem“. A famous theorem in number theory.
  • “Seekor laba-laba memanjat DENGAN beberapa kaki di dinding…” -> “A spider climbs the wall USING some feet…”. Because the problem doesn’t ask for the number of feet the spider has (or uses), the translation that makes sense is “Seekor laba-laba memanjat SEJAUH beberapa kaki di dinding…” (”A spider climbs the wall FOR some feet…”).

It’s as bad as a Biology student translating “order” (in taxonomy) to “pesanan” (as in “pizza order”).

Substandard translation is also found in commercial translated English textbooks. Sometimes, it’s as if the translator didn’t check whether their sentence makes sense.

I’ve also found some funny translations in the Indonesian sub of movies containing techonological (e.g., “open source“), scientific (e.g., “string theory“), and mathematical (e.g., “group“) jargons. It caused some chuckles but sadly I don’t remember them. (IIRC it’s in, among others, “Antitrust”, “October Sky”, “A Beautiful Mind”, “Good Will Hunting”, and that movie about natural disaster where birds suddenly fall from the sky)

Bonus Meal?!?

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

I really hate when there is an unwanted animal in the food I buy. The most common is caterpillar in the vegetables. This time, it’s a fly. Not something like Drosophila melanogaster, but A BIG, FAT, FLY!!!

Talk about quality assurance…

The cashier didn’t use a greedy algorithm!

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

I just bought a Rp. 3,000 bread at Mirota Kampus. It’s a twelve slices plain bread that I use for three breakfasts. I gave Rp. 50,000, and the change was perfectly Rp. 47,000.

However, it is interesting that the cashier didn’t use a greedy algorithm. First she picked a Rp. 20,000, then two Rp. 10,000s, then a Rp. 5,000, and lastly two Rp. 1,000s. I swear that there are still piles of Rp 20,000s, so she could’ve gave me 2 x Rp. 20,000 + Rp. 5,000 + 2 x Rp. 1,000 as greedy algorithm would dictate.

I could imagine the cause…

Mirota Kampus Cashier Job Vacancy

We are looking for individuals with the following qualifications:

  • Female
  • Aged 17-25
  • Attractive looking
  • Honest, hard-working, and not greedy

War book?

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007 by Agro Rachmatullah

War book

By accident, I found out that I have a folder “War” inside my “Readings” folder. That’s weird, since I don’t remember saving web pages or books about war.

Inside, there is exactly one file, named “fuzzy_book.pdf”. “Fuzzy” as in “fuzzy logic”? What was it doing inside a “War” folder?

So, I double clicked it. Alas, the file was damaged!!! Opening it with Notepad, I couldn’t find any meaningful content.

My best conjecture is that I was in a warnet (net cafe) and downloaded a book about fuzzy logic, saving it in a folder named “War” (for WARnet). I then forgot to move the file to its correct place, while the download itself was corrupted.