About Ed Sheeran and Reasons Why I Like That Dude

I'm gonna tell you about one of my favourite musicians: Ed Sheeran!

Ed's real name is Edward Christopher Sheeran. He was born on February 17th, 1991, in Halifax, England. He is a ginger and he is British. He has one studio album titled "+" and a few EPs (EP means "extended play" which is kind of like an album but with fewer songs, just in case you don't know). My favourite Ed Sheeran EP is "Songs I Wrote With Amy".

So the reasons I like Ed Sheeran is 1) his music. His genre is pop folk acoustic rap of some sort and I really like his songs. 2) his personality. He's awkward and quirky (which I can really relate to) and funny and fame doesn't really get to him. He once said in an interview that the press doesn't really care about his personal life, because there really is nothing interesting to write about, because he doesn't make his image like some sort of idol who always does like controversial things, like, he's just a normal British dude and people doesn't expect him to be like a perfect role model / idol (I really don't know how to describe this correctly but I guess you get my point). This reminds me of one of John Green's quotes from Paper Towns: what a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than a person. Oh and 3) his British accent.

So um that's probably all I have to write about Ed. Oh and he's gonna release a new album next year (which he wrote in just a couple of weeks like HOW) and I'm super excited for it! Oh and by the way, if you buy me Ed's official merchandises I will love you ok bye

My Living Environment

I'm gonna tell you about my point of view about my living environment: SMAN 3 Bandung!

[I was gonna take a panorama photo of SMAN 3 Bandung but I'm too lazy to do it]

SMAN 3 Bandung is a senior high school which is located in Jalan Belitung 8, Bandung, Indonesia. It is my senior high school. I've been a student here for almost a year. Nowadays I spend a lot of my time here (probably more than I spend at home).

I think SMAN 3 Bandung's physical environment is pretty much fine. It is clean enough most of the time, and there aren't much garbage scattered on the floor although there are some garbage scattered sometimes. So I still think that the cleanliness needs to be maintained some more. And I also really like the orchid garden because it's green and it has a fountain of some sort and it's really nice to look at.

Now let's talk about the classrooms, specifically my classroom: X IPA 8:

I think my classroom's fine but I'm not really fond of it because it's not comfortable enough (I probably think like this because my classroom in junior high was more comfortable and it's atmosphere and feel was nice and much less dull). And also, the temperature can get really. really. hot. I mean sure we have this small fan at the back of the room but honestly it really doesn't make much difference. The table's surfaces aren't smooth which makes it uncomfortable to write/draw on. Also, it can be kind of dirty sometimes.

National Examination

The national examination is an exam that occurs nationally in Indonesia every year. Every 6th, 9th and 12th grade student undertakes it. Sure, the purpose of the national exam is to measure the students' competences and intelligence, but the problem is that the purpose isn't accomplished. And it's actually everyone's fault. The national exam takes up a lot of money and thus a lot of them are corrupted by the government officials. Also, the national exam makes the students stressed out and unconfident about themselves, thus they cheat to get good scores. So, you can say that nothing is gained by running the national exam. In fact, instead of making students smarter, it ruins their morals instead.

This year's national exam is probably the worst national exam yet. The papers weren't delivered on time to some places, which makes the national exam postponed at some places. Also, the answer sheet's quality is very poor, which is probably because the money was corrupted. So basically this year's national exam was a failure.

I think that the national exam is quite unnecessary, because even though the initial purpose is good, the actualization is really bad. The nation's money is corrupted, and the students' morals are ruined. So the government should stop running the national exam because it has more negative effects than positive effects. If the government insists on preserving the national exam, a lot of things in this country must be fixed first, especially the people's morals.

Holiday Activities

So a week ago was a school holiday due to the 12th grader's pre-national exam, which didn't actually feel like a holiday because I didn't go anywhere and I had a lot of homework. Bleh. So here's what I did anyway:

a) Monday, April 1st, 2013

I went to school at approximately 10 a.m. to discuss about some stuff with my friends. Then at 12.30 p.m., my mum picked me up and we had lunch at Plate for Me. After that we went home.

b) Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

I literally didn't go anywhere. I stayed at home, went online for hours and I also did some of my homework. Then at night I went to Bakso Malang Enggal for dinner.

c) Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

I went to school at 9.30 a.m. to meet up with some of my friends, then I went to Dania's house to do my civics task, which was to create a documentary film that has something to do with what we learned on civics. We shot some scenes and we also took some photos. Here are some:

A rambutan on Jl. Rambutan. Rambutanception.

You may enjoy this photo of my toes.

Then I went home at 3.30 p.m.

d) Thursday, April 4th 2013

I went to school (again) at 10 a.m. to discuss  some stuff with my friends (again). Then I went home at noon. Then at 4.30 p.m. I had violin lessons at Irama Yamaha Music School. After my violin lessons, I went home.

Novel Review: Paper Towns

Title: Paper Towns | Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Books | Year: 2008

Paper Towns is about a 12th grade high school boy named Quentin Jacobsen, or as his friends call him, Q. He lives with his parents in a subdivision named Jefferson Park in Orlando, Florida (Here's an interesting detail about Jefferson Park: a long time ago, it belonged to an guy named Dr. Jefferson Jefferson, and the truth is he was not a doctor of any kind. He was an orange juice salesman named Jefferson Jefferson but when he became rich, he went to court and made "Jefferson" his middle name and changed his first name into "Dr.", as in capital D, lowercase r, period. Pretty wacky right).

Q has been having this huge crush on his neighbour, Margo Roth Spiegelman, since he was little. One time when they were nine, they were going for a walk in Jefferson Park (a park in Jefferson Park). Then they found a guy slumped against a tree circled by blood, with blood pouring from his mouth. Then the police took care of the dead guy. At night, Margo visited Q (she appeared on his bedroom window) and it turns out that she did some investigating and she found out some stuff about the dead guy they found who turns out to be named Robert Joyner. Robert committed suicide and according to Margo he did it because "all the strings inside him broke".

Since that day, Margo and Q basically had different lives. While Q was an ordinary not-so-popular guy at school, Margo was this typical popular girl. So like a few days before the exams, one night, Margo suddenly appears on Q's window again like she did when they were nine and she said that she was going to take Q on a mission and that they needed his car (his mother's, actually). Turns out that the mission was 1) pulling pranks on Margo's boyfriend, Jase, because he cheated on her, 2) pulling pranks on Margo's friend because none of them told her that her Jase was cheating and she's basically pissed of them, 3) breaking into the SunTrust Building and 4) breaking into Sea World. Then the next morning, she was missing.

The thing is, Margo had ran away from home several times and she had always left clues for her parents to find her although her parents never succeed in finding her, and she had always went back home. But this time, it's like the clues were meant for Q, as if she wants him to find her. So, Q tries to figure out where Margo is, with the help of his friends and some of Margo's friends. But the more clues he discovered, the more he realized that the Margo everybody knew isn't who Margo really is.

Writing every detail about Q's discoveries and investigations would take too long (plus it would spoil the book for you), so I'll just skip it. So eventually, they found where Margo was, and it turns out she didn't even want to be found. She ran away to Agloe, a fake village created by a company who made maps as a copyright trap, or also called paper town, but some unknown person built a general store there and thus the village became real even though nobody occupies it. Margo chose Agloe because she was a paper girl, and maybe, in a place where a paper town became real, a paper girl such as herself could become real too, and she never intended to come back to Orlando. In fact, she planned to travel somewhere else.

Here's the interesting (yet annoying) part of the book: it doesn't have a proper ending. So Q asked Margo to come back but she didn't want to and Q really wants to be with Margo but he had to return to Orlando. So they agreed that Q would return but Margo would visit sometime. Then when Margo was going to leave, she just couldn't and Q also couldn't stand watching her leave and then that's it. YUP, THAT'S IT. So we know nothing about wether Margo continues to travel or returns to Orlando and like be with Q, what about Q's college, etc. Yup.

Even though I felt like throwing the book across the room because of the ending, I think that's one of the things that make this book interesting, and one of the reasons why I really like this book (I'm a big fan of "ngegantung" endings). I think this is a great book, not only because of the great & interesting story but also because of John Green's choice of words. His words are somehow funny and deep and simple and sophisticated at the same time and, I don't know, I just really really enjoy reading it.

Here's a quote from Paper Towns:
“Peeing is like a good book in that it is very, very hard to stop once you start.”

Describing a Friend: Agas

I am about to describe a friend of mine. His name is Agastya Prabhaswara Putra, but he's usually called Agas.

Here is a picture of Agas, look, the background is really cute! The. Background.

He was born on March 10th, 1998. He is pretty tall but not too tall like about as tall as I am and his eyes are rather slanted. He has short black hair.

He is a nice person although he can be mean at certain times (to certain people). He talks a lot about a lot of things and he is a funny and weird person, he makes me laugh a lot. He complains a lot, but that doesn't bother me since I also complain a lot hahaha. He is a REALLY organized person and I am not exaggerating by putting "really" on caps lock because he is so organized that it sometimes amuses me, I mean seriously he organizes his books alphabetically and he has schedules for his watches and jackets. That. Is. Insane. As a matter of fact, he is kinda insane.

He is really fond of dogs. He has two pet dogs, Sidney and Michele. He likes to sing and he is good at it, and he has this somewhat burning passion for karaoke. Among his favourite musicians are Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys, Paramore, Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Neon Trees and Train. He likes to read novels such as The Hunger Games, The Secrets of the Immortal: Nicholas Flamel, The Inheritance Trilogy, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He likes to watch movies such as The Hunger Games and Ice Age, and he also likes to watch TV series such as Once Upon a Time and Glee, and he also likes to watch cartoons such as Adventure Time. He really likes to eat chocolate and he also really likes coffee especially Starbucks.

He really dislikes cats. He also dislikes vegetables except for carrots, pickles, lettuce and cabbages. He dislikes drawing sometimes.

We get along really well and we have a lot of inside jokes and overall, he is a good friend (kind of). Teehee!

Bonus: here's a link to Agas' blog.