Steve in Action

Kids nowadays!!!

I wonder if I was like that when I was small... hehehehe

Six Billion People

There are six billion people on this planet
But I'll only ever fall in love with two
One is a black and white photo of Grace Kelly
And the other you might like to know is you

There are six billion people on this planet
And you'd think in all this time I'd find some more
I've looked in both the city and the country
But you're the only one that my heart's beating for

Let it snow

Woke up today, 8 a.m. My neighbour's roof are all white. Yup.. 1st snow this winter, the white beautiful snow is falling down from the sky in the end of November. Snow is falling down, Christmas feeling all around :). I hope this year Christmas will be nice, though I still don't know where I will celebrate it...

I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams

Almost Electrocuted

Worked in the apotheek (drug store) today, dealing with electricity like what I always do. Today I put 1 extra plug for the lab. Normaly it never went wrong.. I never turn off the electricity first, I'm sure I'm carefull enough when I do my work. But I don't know what happend today, perhaps my mind was somewhere else beyond the sea... So yeah, I got eletrocuted. First time in my life it happend for almost 2-3 sec. Usually 1/2-1 sec max (happend alot and I'm used to it).
The stupid thing was I didn't realize my left hand was still holding the ground cable (already pealed), while my right hand cuting the positive cable (brown). Almost all of my left hand palm burned (see the white spot with water inside). Luckily my finger tip is ok and I can still play piano, guitar, and type.


I was frozen for 10 minutes, cant do anything. Just sit and try to focus and went to the panel board, turned off the eletricity.. At least I learnt something: be sure there is no electricty when you work with cables.
I can't really explain the feeling i had. It was so hot, something tickling, my minds work but couldn't do anything to free myself. I think I was shocked by 1 phase (the +) so when it came to the negative I could free myself. If my left hand was holding 2 cables (ground and -) I think I will be dead by now... Thank God I'm ok, only a bit shocked and burned.

Enschede's Churches

Today for the 1st time I went to the evangelic church in Enschede. Big church, nice building, great sound system, and nice musicians. Since my own church went away somewhere to the gereformeerd church (boring ducth church.. hahaha), I choose to be in a church with full band, and great preaching. Though the service was in the dutch I still can understand (means that my ducth is getting better and my english is getting worst). The guitar player was the best among the musician, and the singer of course are much better than what we have (crappy ITC choir... hahaha, no offense guys.. but we are crappy). I think I will contact them and ask them if they want to have a combined Praise and Worship. I'm so excited about this, if we can use their building and sound system it will be so great. I'm tired of using 2 microphone for PW.. I want at least 4-6 mic, 2 leaders and 4 singers will be great. All insrument goes to the mixer and blend it together, all the amps just for monitor speaker.. ahh so great.
I miss my church in Indo... I can arrange the sound system nicely... Here I can't even say a thing about what I would like to have for ITC church. I don't know where all the money goes.. they should spend it for a drum kit (they are on sale now.. 700 euro and you get a nice pearl), a new stage piano (600 euro can get a nice Korg already), a complete sound systems (3000 euro for Peavey will be ok), and 4 more microphone.. a REAL one not toys for 30 euro (450 euro will be enough). So for everybody who read this especially the leaders in ITC please consider spending your money for those, speak up to the support group... tell them to spend the money wisely, it is God's money so we have to invest it for God's work.. e.g PW hehehe
Mer when will you come? Lets make another great PW soon, ok? Ppl already complain when we will have it again. Its been a while since our last PW. And I miss it badly.. praising and worshiping Him with our talents.

Cooking and Life

Some of us think (including me) cooking is a very nice work, great and useful hobby. I love cooking, creating something out of different ingredients, and different spices.
If you look carefully, cooking and living have some similar aspect. In cooking you use different spices such as salt, pepper, sugar. Those are the basic spices, but if you want more you can always add basilicum (Italians), ginger (some Indonesian cooking), etc. Why I called those spices as a basic spices? Its because all of those are used in every cooking in the world, no matter which country you came from you will know salt, sugar, pepper.
Well.. to use those spices you have to know how to combine them. Putting too much salt will make it too salty, putting too much sugar will make it so sweet then it will become bitter, putting too much paper will make it too spicy. So the perfect combination will make a perfect tasty dishes.
Lets take a look of our life. We have those spices as well and everything that is too much is never good. In my case I used too much pepper in the past so it became too spicy and hot. Lately I used too much sugar (really too much), too sweet then it become bitter. The bitterness stays in other ppl who tasted it. And sometimes I use too much salt as well, then it become too salty and it become 'garing'.. btw, there is a myth in Indonesia if you use too much salt it means that you are 'pengen kawin' (want to get married).. hahaha.
Making our life in a perfect balance is not as easy as making a perfect cooking... too much spices that we cant explain, strange combination of sweet and sour can be nice as well. So I need to learn more how to combine those thing in my life.. hehehe. I'm so exited about it.. Can't wait to make a perfect dish/life.

Not Dutch at all..!!!

Today I went to my office by train, my supervisor car were used by his wife. Well I never like to go to work with train, cost me more money and time... I took the 7.27 train to Almelo, then took the bus to my office. Worked from 8 to 17.30 as always.
But today was a little bit different than the normal day... My department has 6 ppl (including me and Jan as a stage student). Usually only 1 of us take the train and bus, but today 4 of us + 1 other stage student took the train. And the most amazing thing was the office closed at exactly 17.30, first time in couple of years I think... Usually there is always someone working overtime, but today none.. Completely empty!!!
5 of us wanted to go to the station to take the train. Yuri (one of my supervisors, half Indonesian) came with car, so he offered us to car pool, his car is old Mazda with 4 person seat.. and we were 6 ppl. So I said this is impossible.. He replied: Come on.. you came from Indonesia, how can you say this is impossible? Just hop in.
6 of us in a small car heading to the train station, he drove like an 'angkot' driver, that's the prove he is half Indonesian. Car was so full and crowded, we made jokes, mock each other, shouted to the girls, etc2... Hahaha, not Dutch at all... or at least normal Dutch bosses don't do that.
It was a nice experience to know how they can brake the Dutch law. Yup... law is made to be broken.. haha. If we crashed into something we wont get any insurance. I'm glad I'm still alive with his 'angkot' driving style (80 in 50 max street... hahaha).
Glad none of my co-workers are real Dutch.. haha.

1st performance with my new group

Me, Tj, and Tommy made this trio group: 2 guitar, 1 percussion and 3 of us vocals. Its quite cool, because we are quite good in playing and singing :), and I need it... since the choir can't satisfy my quality standart :P. So we did some practice, made some remix of songs and gave a performance. Today was our first performance, it was quite nice... with our morning voice.. hehe. So we sang 'Come, Lord Jesus Come' changed it a little, give melody here and there, and gave bible verse in the middle of the song. It was taken from Isaiah 61:1-3. We are serious about this group... when we practiced alone and sang the song, we can really feel the holly spirit. It was always a nice practice. Repeating the same songs, joking around, and doing some serious worship... it was so nice, satisfying.
We have plan to sing 1 song every week, I hope all the ppl will be ok about us. We just don't want to have the wrong image that we are showing off.. Its not about show, its about our desire to sing properly for Him. I hope we will get some support from the congregation.
GBU all folks.

About me

This is my first time describing my self in my blog... hehe, this gonna be a longgg story...

Born in Indonesia, raised in a Christian family. Happy child hood, great parents. Spent my kindergarten, elementary, junior high, and high school in a city called Madiun. The city should be the capital of Indonesia if the communist party won.. hehe. But because communism never went really well, Madiun has placed it self in the History of Indonesia as the city of the rebellious communist. Anyway.. lets move on. My life is not smooth at all, experienced many good and bad things, matured before my time to be. Been broken, couldn't hear Him answering my cries for help. Had some doubt about His existence as well. Was not a good Christian as what my parents want me to be.. till now still not so good.. hehe, but I'm trying my best to be one.
Went to a public university in Yogyakarta for more than 1 year. Love the city, and the ppl there. Learn a lot about living alone with very limited cash (its not that my parents couldn't send me, but because I didn't really care about myself).. ate hot meal 1 time per day (dinner), and never had breakfast made me so skinny (around 54 Kg that time... was the worst period ever). Worked in a 'warnet' from 12 p.m-5 a.m, and sometimes taught some junior high student math, or physics. In case you wonder when I went to college... I dropped my subject for the last half year, because I was preparing my next study here in Enschede. So I really had a lot of time doing nothing.. only worked, took some Dutch lesson, and slept the whole afternoon.. haha. What a life I had in Yogyakarya..
Never got any luck with girls.. I had a lot though.. really a lot.. dozen of them, but when I tried to be serious, things just went crazy.. So let it be.. But now its about time and I'm ready for love, had too much fun already..
I'm in love with music, my mom put me in music school since I was 5 or 6, I didnt really remember. Played organ and classic piano. In junior high I quitted music school and start learning how to play guitar, bass, drums, just for fun. Made a band with my friends, playing hard rock, heavy metal, and stuff like that.. was so crazy... My parents didn't like it though, they said God gave you the talents to serve Him.. I was just laughing when they told me all of those things. But then God broke me down.. haha, yeah I was a pain in the butt.. So I turned my way around and start playing in church. Start singing with the choir as well, then discovered that God wanted me to be a true worshiper, He gave me the talent and I have to give it back to Him, He is seeking such a man to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).
For your information I played organ, piano, guitar, saxophone, blues harmonica, and a little bit of drums, bass, and trumpet. Learnt flute from Mer (she was my partner in singing and worshiping) but didnt have the patience.
Back to my life... now I'm in Enschede pursuing my bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering, in my internship period working for PBF group in Research and Design department.
A singer, guitar player, and piano sometimes in 4U band, a christian band I made with some ppl in my local church. A singer, and guitar player in PPIE MC, indonesian community band playing Jazz, Pop, and easy listening song.
Lately I let my heart work more than my brain.. and I'm glad about it. Sometimes you need to use your feeling more than your logic. I can see more of this world and its beauty.

So thats all folks.. me from the past to present (I wish I can say something about my future as well :P) hope you enjoy it. For some people maybe this is too long.. but who care this is my blog not yours.. hehe.

Hope, Faith and Action

Romans 5:1-5
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

When we talk about faith and hope sometimes we forget about the 'action' part. If we look deeper into the verse we can see some action that we should do.
verse 3-4: we need to rejoice in our suffering, not only regreting it but doing something with it. Rejoice!!! then perseverance will come and it will shape our character which will bring HOPE to us. and Hope from God wont disappoint us. If God poured his love into our hearts there wont be false Hope, all you can hope is something that He want you to Hope for, to give you more motivation in this live. So lets try to have the right attitude towards our Hope, invite the Holly Spirit and He will give you the right Hope.

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God.. (Psalm 42:5)

We all dream of love

We all dream of love
We all dream of meeting someone
Sent here from above

But if no one comes we must endure
Have faith though we're not really sure
Cause what else can you do
Until you meet the one who dreams of you

We all hope someday
We will fall in love
and it will never go away

But if you fall down you must stay strong
Just get back up and sing your song
Cause what else can you do
Until you meet the one who hopes for you

But while we wait let's still have fun
and practice for the time to come
Cause what else can you do
Until you meet that one who dreams of you

We all dream of love
We all dream of meeting someone
Sent here from above

Sick

I woke up this morning and found my bed sheet full of blood, apparently my nose was bleeding whole night. I don't know how can that happened, maybe because I didn't have enough sleep for couple of days, and the change of seasons. The weather just go crazy again. We had quite nice week, and now (starting from Sunday) its cold, and Mr. Sun feels a bit shy and hiding behind the grey clouds.
So I hope this will end soon. I don't want to spend all my blood and wash the sheet again.

Works, works, and works

My internship started 2 weeks ago (at least the full time one). I got a nice place (PBF group, website under construction already for 2 years), nice salary, nice people (one of the boss is half indonesian, and the beautiful secretary is also half indonesian). And I got a position in Research and Design department. So they gave me my own desk with complete tools, a computer, and maybe they will give me a telephone. I worked with 3 seniors who design and test the power supply. I'm quite happy with my task, and I'm getting good at it. Yesterday I blew up 3 powersupply that I made for testing a new prototype, it was fun... hahaha. The powersupply has to deliver a minimum voltage of 42V with maximum load current of 12A at minimum input voltage of 90V AC. The prototype that I made deliver 40V DC, so I need 2 more Volts. We changed the value of a resistor from 47Kohm to 56Kohm to make the resonant frequency of the mosfet lower so it can produce more output voltage. It was ok at 6A, at 9A still ok, 10A start making sound.., 11A getting louder, 11,8A BOOM!!! I blew it up..." hmm thats not good", we said it almost in the same time. We thought it was out of regulation, so we put a diode accross the controler to bypass some current and to maintain the reference voltage at 2 volt, we thought everything will be ok because it will always be inside the regulation. Apparently what we thought was wrong, once again it blew up at 11,8A. Things was getting worst when I blew the 3rd powersupply at normal condition without modification, but still at 56K.
Today we made several change to it, Wouter (the boss) said it will be better if we decrease the resonant impedance by lowering the value of the Inductor, and change the resistor to its original value (47K) so we ask the production department to make a 25uH inductor instead of the 30uH that we used before. Then the test came... 10A still OK, 11A still OK, 11,9 A still OK... hmm this is good. 12,3A still OK.. huh?? This is bad, it should reach the current limit now.. 12,9A click the current limiter start to work, the powersupply died.. Thats a good sign..
So my task tomorrow, modified it and test the short circuit current (16A).. It will be fun.., playing with big Amps and large Voltages...

"1 apple a day, keep your doctor away. 3 powersupply per day, make your doctor awake"

PW 12

Once again, another praise and worship with 4U band went on yesterday in our ITC fellowship church. It was not really prepared like the previous PW9, 10, 11. People were busy with their own stuff. I was and still busy with my new job. Joe was busy with the new house. Rihard as usual had to work in utrecth. Arun has to go to Nijmegen everyday. TJ has to prepare his coming internship. And Merlyn just came back from Indonesia this Tuesday. So we had one practice in Thursday and that's it, Friday we had to do the PW.
But what I admire from my friend is they still have some times during their busy period to arrange everything on time for the PW. Joe made a nice poster for the PW. Arun can still arranged the power point presentation, and invited Joep to give the sermon.
The PW went really well. The songs, the preaching, the theme, the poster, everything were in the same track. God really prepared this PW. He gave songs in my heart, He gave words in Joep's heart, and He gave a cool design in Joe's mind. Everything was absolutely perfect.
Thank you God for your goodness, and your never ending inspiration. And thank you Mer, Joe, Rihard, TJ, Arun, Joep for your willingness to serve God as a team.

Steve

I just recieved new pictures of steve. Wow... he is big now, much bigger than the day I left him (2 years ago). And he is also nice, good looking... I think that the 'handsomeness' things runs in our family tree (no one is 'not good looking') huhahaha.

New Pictures

I bought one more guitar last week. White Ibanez, really nice fast action guitar. Joe took some cool B&W pictures of me and the guitar in the cemetery near his new house in glanebrug, edited it in photoshop and made a comercial for me endorsed by Ibanez Signature Series ACM (Andrew Christanto Model). Thanks Joe, its really cool.













*There are more photos but still in progress. Click the picture to enlarge it.

Live in Love

‘You don’t need a reason to love, and to help someone.’

The more I look deep in my world, the more I’m thankful for it.
My Father gave me a new opportunity every time I failed.
No matter how much I let Him down, he will be there for me, because He doesn’t need a reason to love and to help me.
He loves me as a son and as a Father he help me to crawl, to walk, and to run.

Thank you Father for being there for me.
You were there when I stumble; you were there when I fell.
Thank you for teaching me how to love.
Now I can love someone, the way you want me to love.

‘There's a new love that's born for each one that has died’

Andrew,
Sunday, August 7, 2005

Hitch

"Any guy can sweep any girl off her feet, he just needs the right broom." - Hitch

Damn right... All you need is the right broom. But the problem is: sometimes its difficult (possibly impossible) to find the right broom, isn't it?
Women, a complicated yet beautiful creature, in fact more complex is more interesting (at least that's what I think). The more you try to understand them the more you get lost inside their complex personalities, its like finishing the unfinishable puzzle. Well maybe some women are not that complicated, but believe me some are... And that complexness make women a perfect partner for men, a simple straight forward creature. Not every men are that simple, some men are complicated, they don't have enough testosterone inside them... hahaha. No offense.

What I learnt from this movie is: sometimes all you have to do is be yourself, maybe that is the right broom. So it is that simple, don't make it more difficult... Well we are men anyway, God made us to be simple, ehmm.. ehmm.. and honest... hahaha

So women prepare yourself, we'll sweep you off your feet...

"Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away." - Hitch

3 voor 15 euro

I lost my faith in summer… the rains washed it all away. Summer in Enschede: cold, rainy, and windy… If there are some hails then this summer will be perfectly sucks.
Anyway, it helps me to stay at home, doing nothing but watching movies, and listening to music.

Couple of days ago I bought 3 DVDs from free record shops, ‘The Bone Collector’, ‘Memento’, and ‘Live at San Diego (music DVD)’. Sometimes they have old DVDs for cheap price, 3 for 15 euro (unfortunately, yesterday my friend told me one DVD is only 60 cents in Indonesia). Damn, I would like to go to Indonesia.

I’ve seen “Memento” for 3 times, but still I would like to watch it again. I can still see it from different perspective. It’s about Leonard (Guy Pearce) who can’t create new short-term memories after the accident (somebody raped and killed his wife, and he got smacked right in the head). Fist time I saw Memento, it remains me of “50 first date” (Drew Barrymore has similar condition as Leonard), only Memento is the thriller version of it...

I felt sorry for Leonard, some people abuse him … the sad thing is he doesn’t know it and he thinks he is doing the right thing. Of course that happen because of his ‘condition’. In the other hand, I admire his way of dealing things. He takes pictures, he writes notes and tattoos, although some tattoos and notes is not the ‘real fact’, he wrote it because he confused himself between reality and his own world. I start to question myself; do I look at the world as Leonard sees the world? Do I look it subjectively or objectively? We all seem so different but we’re just the same… aren’t we?

For people who like thrillers and unusual movies ‘Memento’ should be in your list. You will understand what I write after you see the movie.

“I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do I believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I'm no different.” – Leonard