In the figure of a lamb, the feat of a lion.

Freelance Fiction Analyst, Plot Researcher

[hanenoaozora]

Me vs Archery in Genshin Impact

I’m writing this because I can’t concentrate on work ;;_;;

It’s currently patch 3.7 phase 2 in Genshin Impact, and honestly it’s such a dry patch ;;_;; aside from phase 2 banner featuring one of my must pull characters, Kazuha, whom I haven’t pulled yet because I pulled 2 Yoimiyas back-to-back in the previous phase while wishing to get spooked (weird 💪 but… now I have to farm primos for probably the whole duration of this phase and even then I could NOW get spooked… oh well LOL).

When I started playing, I loathed bow users due to how difficult the mechanics was, and it was so disappointing. My ideal playing style is ranged non-healer support, so archers are right up my alley. But, in the beginning, when your characters are still relatively weak even slimes could kill you, playing archer is so flipping cursed. It’s so hard keeping your distance from the mons, and when you don’t have the distance advantage, what good is your range potential then?

But…it’s been like… what, 9 months since I started? I have several characters built pretty well, and I can roam the open world without being afraid of getting KO-ed. So I’m starting to think that maybeeeeeeeeeee I can now try my hand at playing archers.

The character that changed my mind about archers was Collei. Sumeru has so many dendro-dependent puzzles, and my dendro characters when I was exploring Sumeru were Alhaitham and Collei (I was not ready to let go of anemo Aether back then). And as much as Alhaitham was praised for his intelligence, he fell short when it comes to solving Sumerian puzzles 😂Flipping 18s CD was so cursed. Then, I tried running Collei in the Sumeru talent domain and tried shooting the flying robot down, and I succeeded! That experience cured my apathy towards archery in the game 🥰

I’ve been wanting to build Yoimiya and Sara now. Yoimiya’s playstyle is not much archery though, because it’s mostly E and then autos. It feels more like using catalyst, with an option of aiming for when I want to mess with some random mons from afar or boars 🤣 Her burst gives off-field presence and nice tiny buff though, so maybe she'll be fun in co-op too.

Sara thooooo… I actually don’t like her character as a Raiden simp, and I genuinely hate the role she has in the Archon Quest and Kokomi’s story. Sorry if I offend you, but I think canon Sara is a failed attempt at characterizing a strong female leader. She’s as bad as Raiden imo, and if you want to know how bad I think Raiden’s character is, it's enough for me to not want to pull her anymore even though she’s the character that made me want to start playing Genshin to begin with 😂 (because Sawashiro Miyuki voices her ;;_;;)

After building Sara, maybe I’d like to try building Diona. Healing’s not much of my forte though (I suck at paying attention to people’s health), and it looks like her healing is an area thing so in co-op situation I’ll have to chase my teammates around to provide heals. I don’t know, I haven’t used Diona at all… Strangely, I have no desire to build and use Faruzan at the moment…

Right now, I’m just aspiring to be a Sara main in co-op 😁 It’ll be funny if she’s more well-built than my META lineup just because I want to be useful in co-op though 🤣🤣🤣

[hanenoaozora]

Me vs Energy Cost

When I started playing Genshin Impact, I had no concept of energy cost or energy recharge. My very early team was anemo traveler, Kaeya, Benny, and Beidou. Traveler, Kaeya, and Benny need 60 energy for a burst, while Beidou needs 80. I didn’t think too much about how long I had to charge Beidou’s burst, even though me and my sad skills were very dependent on her shield*.

Then, once I’m comfortable with Qiqi’s healing mechanics, I played her a lot (still do😉). Sometimes she swapped Benny out, sometimes she went together with Benny. She and Benny carried me against two abyssal beings in the Chasm (yeah, I’m that sad).

Later on I had Ayato, Thoma, and the last addition to my Yashiro team: Ayaka. At this point, I already know what it means to recharge energy, so for the those whose burst skills I rely on the most, I’ve learned to prioritize ER stats/substats in their weapons and artifacts. Problem is, for DPS class characters like Ayato and Ayaka, you generally want to prioritize their ATK stats and crit ratio, and these stats leave little room for more ER. Fortunately for Ayato specifically, his burst stays on field for a very looooongggg time that it feels fine even if he can’t burst every rotation (fyi rotation is something I should care more, but don’t 🤣), so I don’t have that much trouble with his energy requirement. At some point I put an ER Heart of Depth sands on him though, and at ~170% ER it was so much fun.

Anyway, as I have mentioned before: I’ve had a lot of high-energy cost characters since the beginning. Another character that I bring with me often recently is Xingqiu, and he also… require 80 energy 🤣 Aaaaaand… now that I really, really want to run Yashiro comm team, I’ve started building Sayu and when I checked her skills… yep, you guessed it. With how OP dendro traveler is, I now have him wield dendro and turns out his burst also requires 80 energy.

So, like… I don’t know what I’m trying to say here… 🤣 I guess… since I’m so used to bringing characters with high energy requirement, 80 has become some sort of standard for me and anything below that feels “cheap”, as opposed to the other way around for a lot of other people… 💁‍♀️

*later I found out that most people build Beidou to be a damage dealer and not a shielder, and thus pairing her with The Bell was super not optimal… which is the sole reason why I kinda stop playing her. Because I can’t parry if my life depends on it… and yeah, finding out that I had been playing Beidou wrong kinda killed the joy of playing her for me >_> Just one example that the internet can be so very annoying when it comes to Genshin…

[pusheen]

[hanenoaozora]

Sumeru is Just Written Different I Guess

So, as of 22 April 2023 I have finished most of the 5* story quests, and I just finished Nahida’s 1st, Cyno’s, and Alhaitham’s story quests (SQ) back to back today. My general thoughts on them: they’re just written different!

Caution: this is NOT spoiler-free.

1. Nahida SQ Act I

The story takes off right after the archon quest (AQ), and it’s a really interesting story overall. Somebody tried to do something to Sumeru citizens by giving them dreams. At the end of the story, we find out that the villain tried to build an AI-esque person by harvesting people’s dreams, which is the issue we tackled in the AQ (but to a much lesser extent, because this time they weren’t trying to create a god LOL).

It’s interesting for me personally because most of my labmates research AI topics, and what the villain did in this story is like what my friends are now currently doing… but without human lives at stake 😅 (unless the autonomous driving team does some fatal mistake, WHICH I PRAY WILL NEVER HAPPEN)

Why I think this story is well-enough written:

I understand the gist of the story (though I missed something in the dialogue and had to check the archive afterwards 😅)

The cause-and-effect relationship between the events and the people’s choices make sense and are presented such that they can be understood easily

The plus here is that the traveler and Nahida are good friends, and the traveler’s involvement in the story feels natural, unlike in the stories I’m gonna talk about next.

All in all, I guess I’ll give this story 8/10. The missing 2 points that make this story not have the full marks is for rather random villain (like, the guy is literally just your run-of-the-mill researcher with too much brain and too much ambition) and clunky dialogues here and there. I have high hopes for Act II tho!!!

2. Alhaitham SQ

The story has similarities to Nahida’s in that it tackles AI-esque problems raised by your run-of-the-mill too-smart too-ambitious researcher. The difference is that Alhaitham is your (albeit buff as some scholars can never hope to be, and kind of part of the higher pecking order…?) run-of-the-mill official of the Akademiya, so pitting this researcher against him is actually fair play.

The AI topic, again, interests me and I guess since games employ some degree of artificial intelligence, it’s an easier theme for the devs to talk about? Because, istg the whole Sumeru is almost like the devs pouring out their nerdy side for us all to see. I don’t really vibe with their portrayal of research lyfe, because it still feels like what research life looks like for someone who isn’t in the industry. BUT there are moments of strong relatableness for me to feel that the devs know some way around research, academics, and, in particular, robotics and AI.

Anyways, back to Alhaitham’s SQ, I loathe how the traveler and Paimon are inserted. Like, at the beginning there was a problem a stray researcher wanted to report to Matra, and then the Matra roped in Alhaitam due to the office he’s running. It’s completely Akademiya’s internal affair. Why was the traveler given clearance to get in on the investigation that easily?!!!!!!

I mean… I get it… if the traveler wasn’t in on the case then we wouldn’t be able to play the story :v but I mean… (silent frustrated noises)

However, things took a turn for the better once everything was unravelled. I really like how the villain had personal grudge against Alhaitham and just wanted to get rid of him. The part with disturbance in the AI-esque network caused by outside interference (namely, Alhaitham’s own schemes) also made sense and kind of relatable. Like, I couldn’t stop wondering that maybe if the villain learnt AI from my supervisor, maybe he could first model the system more accurately and give up before endangering people’s lives because, as Alhaitham said in the epilogue part of the quest, that his model was too conservative and fragile.

The whole story also reminds me of Psycho-Pass. Collective consciousness, hello? LOL

Now, onto things I can go without in this SQ:

The bit with Kaveh. Seriously.

I like Kaveh (from hearing some of his voice lines). But his part in the story almost feels like fanservice. We only got to see him when the whole story ends, so he didn’t have any role in the case AT ALL. And we only see him just so that:

We know he lives with Alhaitham (as if it’s not clear yet from the end of AQ, which I also think is fanservicey)

We know he’s Alhaitham’s polar opposite (again, as if it’s not clear enough from the AQ)

We can see Alhaitham be an absolute jerk.

The way Alhaitham treated Kaveh was uncalled for imho. I don’t get why people say he and Kaveh bicker like an old married couple. No. Alhaitham was just simply being a rude bas****. The way he pointed out Kaveh’s shortcomings were not friendly teasing, it was bullying, and it went too far. I hate that aspect of him, and I hate that the devs seem to tell us, “Here’s your handsome sassy boy, you’ll like him even though he’s rude because he’s hot!” and I hate that the majority of the fans seem to excuse his rudeness.

This SQ decides it for me: I don’t like Alhaitham’s guts. I give this story 8/10 just for the conflict and the AI theme.

3. Cyno SQ

I have the same problem with this SQ as Alhaitham’s: the way traveler being inserted into the story like it’s a course of nature, even though logically there should be some kind of complicated bureaucracy to go through first.

This story also takes off of the AQ and talks about canned knowledge smugglery (is this a word?) and some forbidden research on deadly desert ruins. Long story short, it’s pretty generic and there weren’t too much mystery to go on. BUT! Due to simplicity, there aren’t much I can rant about LOL

Oh! I know. At some point, the traveler was attacked by specially bred scorpions. Those scorpions didn’t leave meat, they just vanish 😭 Sad day to be a hungry traveler.

The dungeon we went into at the end was pretty cool too, but be warned, it could give some sort of motion sickess because of the rotating space around the traveler. Aside from that, it was quite dope!

The ending also gave me some bittersweet feelings. The tragedy doesn’t feel like sad for the sake of being sad, but more like “it’s sad because it has to be done and the baton is passed to the next generation so the future can flourish” type of thing. Kinda similar to how Zhongli’s SQ Act I made me feel. Certainly a fresh vibe from the usual “sad for no other reason” vibe from many, many parts of Genshin Impact’s lore.

I give this story 8/10 also. Even though this story gives me some emotional impact, but it’s just… generic and simple LOL Nevertheless one of my faves thus far.

[avendell]

Hermione sketches in different artstyles

[tristiul]

jangan salahin branding!

Apalagi salahin Tukang Pecel Lele walaupun kamu nggak suka Lele :( Karena Lele dipecel adalah hak segala bangsa. Ehee.

Refleksi soal Jouska dan brandingnya.

Jadi gini, geng. Saya nemuin beberapa postingan yang emang nunjukin soal beberapa orang yang justru dikenal orang duluan lewat karyanya atau kredibilitas yang terbukti. Entah menyangkut kasus Jouska dan brandingnya atau enggak.

Salah satunya adalah postingan Kang Al tentang Albert Einstein, dan postingan Tirto tentang Banksy.

Selama kurang lebih 10 tahun, Einstein bekerja keras mengembangkan teori relativitas dengan menyambi 5 tahun sebagai mahasiswa, 5 tahun lagi sebagai pegawai kantor paten. Jauh dari sorotan media, bahkan dari glamor masyarakat akademik saat itu. Itulah tahun-tahun paling produktif dari seorang Albert Einstein. (Postingan facebook Alfathri Adlin)

Banksy adalah seniman jalanan yang hingga kini identitasnya tak pernah diketahui. Ia dikenal karena berbagai grafiti luar ruangannya yang kerap membawa pesan satire dan menohok terkait politik. (…)

Tak hanya Banksy, ada beberapa seniman lain yang namanya sudah dikenal banyak orang, namun tak pernah jelas seperti apa identitas asli mereka. (Tirto, “Banksy dan Orang-Orang Anonim yang Tersohor”)

Dua cuplikan tersebut sekilas cukup kontras dengan Jouska yang dibilang-bilang punya branding yang kenceng. Jouska dikenal karena branding dan gaya menyampaikan wawasan finansial yang gemash.

Saya nggak akan bicara bedah ‘aib’ Jouska dan lain semacamnya. Tapi, ini soal kecenderungan bisnis, bahkan individu, dalam mencitrakan dirinya.

Ada yang lebih memilih untuk rintis reputasinya lewat rutinitas, sistem operasional yang rapi, serta memastikan sistem fixing bug (penyelesaian masalah) terlaksanakan dengan baik. Reputasinya disebar oleh orang lain yang merasakan jasanya.

Ada pula yang memilih untuk bangun branding yang kenceng terlebih dahulu, sehingga orang-orang berbondong-bondong tertarik membeli jasa atau produk mereka.

Menurutku, Mas Aakar (CEO Jouska) ini emang kecenderungannya demen dan emang jago branding — cuman timnya barangkali nggak ada yang cukup kuat buat backup dari segi credibility building dan compliance handling system-nya.

Mana yang bener dong, Tris? 

Keep reading

[hanenoaozora]

If The Qur’an isn’t Cryptic

As far as I know, people that don't believe in the Divine power mostly think that it doesn't make sense that God knows everything, and therefore knows that we're probably gonna screw up in our lives, and then let us do that, but at the same time He records all our misdeeds and prepares a bad place for us to come back to, when all the guidelines He gave us just mere beautiful and cryptic messages He entrusted to the prophets that aren't around anymore.

I've gotta admit that if you put logic into faith, a lot of it wouldn't make sense. But, as far as logic goes, I can also say this: what if God operates on a wholly different logic system than us humans, one that spans the whole universe (and probably multiverse, who knows), life and afterlife, past, present, and future? Meanwhile, we can only make sense of the things that have happened in the past, and process what is in the present. When we talk about the future, we merely extrapolate the knowledge we've acquired to make predictions—that may or may not come true. Our logic system is severely limited compared to God's, which, in retrospect, makes sense! Of course, to come to this conclusion, one must assume first that God exists and has the ultimate, infinite, Divine power. And that His words are cryptic for a reason.

I mean, think about it. The Qur'an was revealed some 1400 years ago. Human civilization has evolved since then, some things that were the cause of parts of the revelation are not relevant anymore, as well as there are tons of things that exist now that throw confusion into how His decrees should be executed compared to then. Moreover, not the whole world follows Arabic traditions, where the Qur'an was revealed. If the Words are matter-of-fact, they can only be relevant to a specific cultural tradition at a specific period of time. That would mean that the Qur'an will probably only relevant to Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) time and place, and it doesn't make sense because suppose that God creates ALL of us, in the past, now, and in the future, then His Words should be applicable to ALL of us.

Anyway, I'm not writing this to diss the people that don't believe in God, so please don't take it the wrong way! (you can never know these days if people will flame you for what you write on the net because they take your words in a bad meaning, so I guess a disclaimer is in order LOL)

pic from: pngimg.com

[hanenoaozora]

Finding Yourself

“Finding Yourself” has been a recurring theme in my Overthinking Episodes for the past few years. I remember talking with A Certain Friend (Certain Friend, if you read this, you know who you are LOL), who was my classmate in college but decided to pursue a line of career, like, completely in a different universe than what we were studying. I mean, it’s not even 180 degrees out of phase (because that’d mean you’re still in the same domain, just inverted)—it’s a completely different thing!

So I asked this Friend about what made her settle on that decision. I knew that her family were against it in the beginning. She said, “I just know it’s something I want to do.”

That answer shook me like nothing ever before. Finding that one thing that you are willing to go to great lengths for… I’m gonna say this once and for all: that’s romantic, and no matter how stoic and heartless I may seem, I do find romantic things appealing.

There have been times when I sorta convince myself that passion is not important. What is, is to contribute to the good of humankind. Funny thing is this morning a question just popped in my head: why am I so fixated on looking for R&D vacancies? Why do I find it as “that one cool job”? I remember that when I was still a student, I imagined what kind of job I’d do, and research is what I always came up with. It has always been my answer. It’s not something I spout off just because I don’t have a different answer. It’s actually THE answer.

I should probably stop saying, “I’d love to be a researcher.” everytime someone asks about my life goal, treating it as something like a first choice or whatever. There is no second choice—there has never been any other choice, as far as making decisions go. I’ve just been too blinded by my own self-deprecating mind to actually internalize that.

[hanenoaozora]

Mempertanyakan Kebenaran

Menurut saya, seorang muslim pasti ada kalanya mempertanyakan kebenaran. Mempertanyakan yang gaib-gaib, mempertanyakan alasan hidup, mempertanyakan apakah agama lain juga benar, dan segala macamnya. Yang membedakan masing-masing orang barangkali adalah kadarnya. Yang tumbuh di keluarga muslim, lingkungan muslim, mungkin tidak sampai, atau tidak secara gamblang, mempertanyakan, “Allah itu ada nggak sih?”. Yang hidupnya di lingkungan yang lebih heterogen, mungkin perlu usaha ekstra untuk akhirnya yakin bahwa, “Ya, Islam benar. Aku pilih Islam.”

Memang, skenarionya tidak selalu begitu. Contohnya (yang lumayan ekstrem) istrinya Nabi Lut dan istrinya Fir’aun. Istrinya Nabi Lut termasuk yang ditimpa azab karena berkhianat, padahal suaminya Nabi. Istrinya Fir’aun menjadi salah satu wanita yang dijamin masuk surga, padahal suaminya mengaku-ngaku Tuhan.

The weird thing is, but at the same time, imho, beautiful, that there is no one universal answer to the questions, “Why do you think Islam is right? Why do you think Allah exists?”

Any kind of answer you give might or might not work for anyone. Ada yang bisa diyakinkan dengan topik-topik sains, ada yang lebih suka politik, ada yang mudah tersentuh dengan kisah-kisah perjuangan. Ada yang bergetar hatinya saat diperdengarkan berita ancaman, ada yang jadi tenang karena mendengar kabar gembira.

Maksudnya, nggak semua orang bisa diyakinkan dengan, “Coba lihat alam semesta… betapa besarnya Allah yang sudah menciptakannya.”

Atau, “Kenapa kamu percaya udara itu ada padahal kamu nggak bisa lihat, tapi nggak percaya Allah ada karena kamu nggak bisa lihat?”

Atau, “Kalau saya percaya Tuhan dan ternyata Tuhan itu tidak ada, saya tidak rugi. Tapi kalau saya tidak percaya Tuhan tapi ternyata Tuhan itu ada, saya bisa masuk neraka. Jadi lebih aman percaya.”

Kadang, pertanyaannya tidak se-clear cut “Allah ada atau enggak?” yang rasanya sih lumayan banyak orang (at least, orang-orang yang memang sudah bersinggungan dengan agama dalam waktu yang lama) bisa jawab dengan level keyakinan yang rada tinggi. Pertanyaannya tuh mengamuflase diri dengan hal-hal praktis, padahal akar-muakarnya (let’s pretend this word exists) sebenarnya iman kepada yang gaib.

Contohnya, “Kalau Allah sayang sama manusia, kenapa memberi kita kesusahan?”

Atau, “Kalau takdir kita udah ditentuin, ngapain berusaha?”

Atau, “Zaman Nabi, aturannya begini-begitu. Tapi Nabi bepergian naik unta dan kita naik mobil. Kenapa tetap harus begini dan begitu?”

Yang bagian terakhir menurut saya paling seru. Misalnya, isu feminisme/women empowerment. Kemarin-kemarin saya nonton video di yutub, isinya seorang wanita (muslimah…? She’s of Mid-Eastern descent, at least) yang menjelaskan bahwa aturan berkerudung itu salah, atau paling tidak, dipraktikkan secara salah; dan bahwa Al-Qur’an tidak secara spesifik menjelaskan bagaimana bentuknya baju wanita; dan bahwa para cendekiawan muslim berpendapat wanita seharusnya berpakaian mengikuti perkembangan zaman dan adat istiadat lingkungannya.

Jadi kenapa kita harus tertutup dari atas sampai bawah, bahkan di kalangan tertentu sampai menutup wajah? Kenapa tetap berjilbab kalau di tempat kita berada kita dibuli-buli karena hal itu? Apakah ini konspirasi lelaki untuk membatasi kemerdekaan kaum perempuan? #pasang musik illuminati di sini#

Let’s talk about laws. Tahun 2014 Brunei memberlakukan hukum syari’ah fase pertama, yaitu hukum potong tangan untuk pencuri, dan tahun 2019 mulai fase kedua yaitu hukum rajam untuk yang berhubungan seks di luar nikah atau sesama jenis. Banyak negara yang protes, sampai ada yang minta pemboikotan segala.

Intinya adalah: kenapa hukum Islam itu kejam? I can understand the outrage if it comes from nonmuslims — they don’t believe in the Qur’an anyway. Tapi jangan salah… jangan-jangan banyak juga muslim-muslimah yang mempertanyakan keharusan menjalankan aturan-aturan sekeras ini. Saya pernah lihat di berita TV ada keluarga korban pembunuhan yang sangat emosional karena merasa hukuman yang dijatuhkan ke si pembunuh terlalu ringan. Tapi coba deh tawarin hukum qisas, pasti banyak yang protes.

Pasti sulit kan yakin dengan Islam ketika ada banyak hal-hal yang nggak masuk logika? Hal-hal yang terkesan cocoklogi atau “katanya”.

Sebenarnya, jawaban dari kegalauan kita tuh ada di dalam Al-Qur’an, if only you’d look close enough with an open heart. Emphasis on open heart. Karena ternyata memahami kebenaran itu bukan urusan kepala lho. “Mereka memiliki hati, tetapi tidak dipergunakannya untuk memahami….” (QS 7:179) Tambahan: kalau kita mau jujur pada diri sendiri dan mengutarakan pertanyaan yang mendasari semua pertanyaan-pertanyaan praktis itu: Allah itu ada nggak sih?

Soalnya menurut saya begini: kalau kita sudah mendapatkan jawaban mengenai Allah itu ada atau tidak, maka kita bisa membayangkan kebesaran-Nya (atau kalau kasusnya saya sih tidak terbayang karena besar banget…). Kalau kita bisa membayangkan kebesaran-Nya, maka kita bisa kagum dan takut. Kalau kita bisa kagum dan takut, tidak sulit (paling tidak, secara teori) mengikuti aturan-Nya. Kemudian berbagai pertanyaan lainnya, tentang alam semesta, tentang shalat, zakat, puasa, akan berbondong-bondong menemukan jawabannya.

Everything will fall neatly into place.

Yang diperlukan adalah keberanian untuk membuka hati. Keberanian untuk membuka diri pada jawaban yang mungkin tidak akan kamu sukai, dan segala konsekuensi atas pengetahuan itu. Keberanian untuk memulai sebuah perjalanan yang bisa jadi panjang dan sangat sulit, karena kita nggak tahu kapan jawaban-jawaban atas keragu-raguan kita akan datang.

[mbtiwebcomic]

I have always wanted to see the functions personified, so I made INTP’s functions! I have some ideas for them and you can expect to see them again soon!

[tristiul]

xinjiang.

“Sebenernya gue ngga suka obrolan kemarin, banyak gosipin orangnya nggak sih..”

“Selaw kali. Kan tuhan maha pengampun😆, gapapa gosip dikit ntar istighfar.”

{🤯}

Barangkali, kita sering temui ragam hal kurang baik, tapi malah dipelihara, kemudian orang lain (atau kita) sudah biasa aja melakukannya.

“Soalnya yang lain juga gitu kebanyakan.”

“Kan Dia Maha Pengampun.”

“He he, gue mah agak nakal sih orangnya.”

Ini karena lingkungan kita terbiasa membiasakan hal-hal yang enggak baik. Bahkan bisa jadi ke tahapan me-ra-si-o-nal-kan. O ow. Hem. 

Lantas, apa hubungannya dengan Xinjiang? 

Coba, bayangkan kamu lahir dari rahim seorang ibu di dataran Cina. 

Keluargamu ialah pendukung rezim berkuasa. Kawan-kawan sebayamu juga merasa bahwa menjadi abdi negara untuk ‘membersihkan’ Cina dari paham-paham asing adalah hal mulia. 

Maka, kemungkinan, sikapmu terhadap apapun itu yang dilakukan oleh rezim berkuasa di kamp Xinjiang ialah sikap mendukung.

Bisa saja sebaliknya, sikapmu ternyata enggak mendukung hal tersebut. Tapi tentu simpulan tersebut dihasilkan dari perenungan, dialog, kekritisan, dan mungkin pesan ilahi yang mengetuk nuranimu– di tengah mayoritas sekelilingmu yang mendukung perilaku rezim mengesalkan tersebut.

Ihwal Xinjiang, saya nggak akan banyak bahas di data, fakta, dan syalala. Tapi yang saya bahas adalah, soal bagaimana hasrat dan kecenderungan seseorang, bahkan hingga ke level rezim berkuasa– dirasionalkan. Dan bagi mereka, hasrat mereka itu patut diperjuangkan. 

Bagi mereka itu rasional, walaupun bagi yang lain sangat keji.Padahal lagi-lagi mencatut Arthur Schopenhauer, rasionalisasi adalah taktik supaya hasrat kita dikemas selogis mungkin supaya diterima oleh sekelompok orang, bahkan banyak. Ehehe, simpelnya begitu.

Bagaimana pun, polemik Xinjiang jadi bahan pikiran bagi saya, bagaimana caranya supaya dominasi sebuah kelompok secara semena-mena terhadap kelompok lain, bisa terpatahkan? Apalagi jika doktrin dari kelompok pendominasi sudah terpatri sekian lama. 

Kekuatan apa yang perlu dipersiapkan? Apa harus perang? Da'wah politik? Apa bagaimana?

Yang jelas, kasus Xinjiang juga mengajarkan pada saya, jangan-jangan ada hasrat ganjil, bahkan kriminal kecil yang menumpuk, yang sekian lama saya rasionalkan (bahkan saya kemas dalam tugas sok suci), dalam benak tak sadar saya. 

Maka saya sadar jika religiusitas itu memang penting, tapi pincang jika tak disanding kerendahan hati sembari memohon ampun dan petunjuk padaNya.***

*Foto dari sini.

[sosuperawesome]

Sea Life Stickers, Keychains, Pins and Apparel

Byte Size Treasure on Etsy

[catlips001]

I can stop laughing at "I don't wanna be bread aaaaaaa! Nooooo!"

[catlips001]

[lake-shark]

the concept of how sir arthur conan doyle was as a person always sends me into fits. imagine making the most famous literary character of all time but you hate the character so much you try to kill him off. but everyone is so horny for this asshole detective they make you bring him back. even your own mother gets mad when he’s dead because she likes him. raising your prices to ridiculous rates to avoid writing holmes stories backfired and now you’re rich. it’s absolutely a pain because it’s keeping you from your true passion which is spiritualism despite how one of your good friends harry houdini keeps telling you it’s bullshit. you consider your best novels to be historical ones but they’re well over shadowed by the nemesis of your own creation sherlock fucking holmes. some fake photographs from some kids convinced you faeries were real and you wrote a whole book about it. you started writing stories in medical school. and yes, also you are a doctor. after you’re dead, they erect a statue of sherlock holmes across the street from your birthplace, causing you to probably roll over one hundred eighty degrees in your grave and scream into your casket pillow.

[nanowrimo]

3 Ways You Can Show a Character’s Culture

Diversity makes stories better, plain and simple. This year, we’ve partnered with the good folks at Writing With Color to get some advice on how to write stories populated with people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. In this post, contributor Jess Liang gives advice on how to show culture without falling back on cliches:

One thing I’ve noticed when reading stories with characters of color, or characters meant to be from a foreign country, is that all too often writers will resort to depictions like 1) having their dialogue sprinkled heavily with their home language, even when talking to those who don’t speak it, or 2) making the character little more than stereotypes. As a Taiwanese-American, I understand the efforts people are making toward more diverse representation in writing, so I thought I would show everyone ways to depict someone’s culture in a more well-rounded, believable way.

Keep reading

[hanenoaozora]

Psycho-Pass S3 2-eps Review (not really)

I haven't watched Sinners of the System, so I may lost some context here, but I'm going say what I want to say based on what I know so far.

1.

THEY ARE 45-MINS EPISODES OH-EM-GEEEEEEEE!!!!! I thought it was going to be just the first episode.

2.

Somehow it looks like we're shifting from a psychotic murder mystery to economy-themed mystery?

3.

WHY ARE MY FAVOURITE COUPLE A TAG-TEAM ONCE AGAIN?!!!!!!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love that I get the chance to see these two again, but having them on the same team and being such A GREAT team? It just feels like the writer only wants to give the audience what they want. Sometimes it's a bad idea to just show what people want instead of giving implications to it. You know. It just feels too good to be true. Moreover, after what that guy did in Season 1, which I'm pretty sure wasn't a favorable action by the system's/bureaucracy's perspective, which made him to "flee" overseas (correct me if I'm wrong plz...), now he's a valued member of an elite team? How did that work?!

Oh well, I get what I want, so why am I complaining? Dunno. Forget it.

4.

WHY IS SHIMOTSUKI BEING SUCH A NICE SUPERVISOR?!!!!!! Why am I writing in caps? Because it's just... ok, maybe she got some cool development since Season 2, because so far, in this season she looks like a totally different character. Probably what happened to Akane was the trigger to this change?

5.

That channeling skill makes Psycho-Pass more like in a magic kind of fantasy setting than a sci-fi kind and it gives me the creeps, srsly.

6.

In season 1 it's about judging the asymptotic people, in season 2 it's about judging people with a collection of different hues, in season 3...? Just a question to keep in mind.

7.

WTH that shine in Arata's eyes when he sees that guy in action?

8.

Ok... prolly because I love this series so much, especially the first season, that's why I'm kinda skeptical about this season but still have high expectations and so I'm freaking out about every little things that I should just take for granted (for the moment) and just enjoy the show.

9.

Would love to see development on the Team 01 current "hunting dogs".

10.

Edit. Just saw some discussion about this season, and someone pointed out that some things were said in Sinners of the System #3 about my fav tag-team. Alright. I'll shut up now.

[hanenoaozora]

Saya INTP Lagi

Disclaimer (?): pardon my weird occasional bilingualness… happens when I’m under tremendous stress LOL

Saya baru-baru ini ngambil tes MBTI (demen banget sih situ tor…) lagi. Hasilnya masih sama seperti sebelum-sebelumnya, INTP. Cuman kali ini N dan P saya mendekati angka 70% sedangkan sebelumnya N, T, dan P saya di angka 50an, yang saya artikan sebagai “being a more well-rounded person”. Kesimpulan ini hanya karangan saya sebagai perwujudan wishful thinking :p

Gimana dengan I-nya? Ngg… baiknya ndak dibahas #tutupWajah

Tes di 16personalities.com

Selama beberapa tahun hasil tes MBTI saya berubah-ubah terus bagian N/S, T/F, dan P/J-nya. Saya pernah dapat INFJ lho!!! Ada F-nya lho!!! As strange as it might seem…

Waktu itu (kalau dilihat dari perspektif sekarang) adalah masa saya lebih fokus dalam hal pengembangan diri secara utuh, masanya mencari kestabilan hidup, berusaha make the most of what I had that day, not seeking for more or other possible path.

Berkaitan dengan kegiatan selama ~2 tahun terakhir, saya itu bak pole yang nongkrong di unity circle. Mungkin hasil tes ini salah satu indikasi bahwa saya tidak lagi manusia yang imbang proses berpikirnya (lagi-lagi… ini hanya kesimpulan saya). Dengan kondisi “baru” ini, saya pun membaca kembali penjelasan tentang tipe saya, trying to find some insights into how I can better myself in pursuit of becoming more comfortable in my own skin.

Mencengangkan lho ternyata… not that I found something new, but more, like, being reminded of some things that REALLY happen that are put into words and it’s just so mind-boggling!

They love patterns, and spotting discrepancies between statements could almost be described as a hobby, making it a bad idea to lie to a Logician. 

Yea... paling seneng bagian nerusin series kalau di psikotes/TPA. And sometimes I wonder how people can recite dialogues with their own wordings that don’t even reflect the true dialogues that happened. Bukannya saya punya photographic memory dan bisa mengulang omongan orang verbatim, tapi paling enggak jangan bikin implied meaning-nya berubah dong!

People with the Logician personality type tend to share thoughts that are not fully developed, using others as a sounding board for ideas and theories in a debate against themselves rather than as actual conversation partners.

Haha maap yah...

People with the Logician personality type can get frustrated in trying to explain how they got from A to B to Z, sometimes they give up with a dismissive “never mind”.

Pernah ada teman yang somehow bawa-bawa almamater ketika dia tidak mengerti apa yang saya jelaskan. “Jangan samain kita sama alumni SMA X dong!” katanya. I remember being extremely annoyed hearing that. Saya sendiri merasa bahwa saya produk low-end dari SMA X (angka asli disamarkan) tersebut, dan langsung berasumsi bahwa ni orang cuma menyalahkan kondisi tanpa berusaha mencerna apa yang saya omongin. Atau mungkin sayanya yang emang ngomongnya ga jelas hahahaha... yasudahlah...

Logician personalities know that as they practice, they improve, and any work they do is second-best to what they could do.

Yea, I often feel like I submit a subpar work each time...

Many of the usual motivations for making friends – emotional support, social validation, shared routine – simply don’t apply to Logicians. More likely, these concepts are met with disdain, as people with the Logician personality type prize intellectual depth above all else.

So there’s actually explanation on why I have very few friends, and that my relationships with them are more knowledge-based than personal. Misalnya, kalau ngobrolin anime sama si A. Ngobrolin elektro sama si B. Minta insight masalah sehari-hari ke si C. Dan biasanya saya nggak ngobrolin anime dengan B dan C, nggak ngomongin elektro dengan A dan C, dan tidak curhat masalah pribadi ke A dan B. Bahkan ketika saya ngomongin pengalaman pribadi ke A, itu tuh (biasanya) konteksnya membicarakan plot anime atau sejenisnya. Dan kalaupun saya ngobrolin anime ke C, itu karena saya ingin menceritakan mengapa suatu anime relevan dengan apa yang saya curhatin. Sometimes I feel like I’m using them, but probably it’s just my naturally knowledge-seeking mind at work?

Though it’s a challenge for people with the Logician personality type to teach empathy alongside rationality, if they are able to pull it off, their children will grow into confident adults who know how to ask questions, use their minds, and take care of themselves no matter what comes their way.

If they are able to pull it off... what a way to be discouraging... Tapi mungkin pas saya punya anak entar, saya udah bukan INTP lagi. Who knows XD

Logicians have little interest in social distractions like chitchat and motivational speeches. For this reason, the flatter the workplace hierarchy, the better, making small, technical workplaces and fields such as law, forensics, and laboratory research very desirable for Logicians.  They can also move things forward as data analysts, mechanical, electrical and software engineers, and even as technical writers and journalists, provided the field is interesting enough.

LAB RESEARCH! ELECTRICAL ENGINEER! (technical) WRITER!

This is something I need to hear ;;_;; Tapi apa saya ga bisa jadi novelis?

If they can smile and shake hands just long enough to establish themselves as the brilliant innovators that they are, people with the Logician personality type will find that whatever the expectations for social conduct, it is the qualities unique to them that are truly in demand.

Haha... at the end of the day, ga bisa 24/7 ngansos ya... :’D

Trus… ngapain ngeshare tulisan ini? Berharap orang lain maklum kalau situ nyerocos ga jelas, kerjaan ga kelar-kelar atas nama perfeksionisme, dan having zero people skills and zero empathy? Hem… yah, agak wkwkwk… but seriously though, the biggest achievement out of this exercise is that I know that some things about myself have theories backing them up, 

that I’m not a complete failure just because I obsess over the small, unimportant details that don’t seem fit in the bigger scheme of things and spend a lot of time mulling over it, 

that my lack of enthusiasm in participating in mundane conversations about daily lives or what other people are wearing is just a normal trait and not signs of antisocialness (atau mungkin memang ini tanda-tanda keansosan), 

that my inability to form coherent thoughts the first time and need to, like, practice in front of the mirror before a simple presentation do not mean I have a terrible communication problem (well… they are communication problem, but now I’m seeing it not in the worst destructive way).

All in all, I feel pretty good knowing more about myself. Lumayan lah untuk ningkatin mood di tengah-tengah keserabutan kerjaan yang beberapa waktu belakangan ini bikin pengen nangis frustrasi.