Why I Deactivate My Facebook Account

Yes, I deactivate it. It’s hard to delete it, that’s why I deactivate it. Just so because I’m fed up of its disadvantages. My lovely country, Indonesia, isn’t ready for Facebook. Let’s just say I need to take a break from it to keep my sanity because I terribly need it now that I’m doing my graduation project.

First, it distracts you. Oh yes, all the games, the quizzes, applications, photos, etc are resistance-proof  temptations. And even if you’re not tempted by it (I kept a healthy amount of playing there), you just can’t  get away because…

Second, ‘your friends’ make you distracted. I’m not an antisocial person. It’s just people seemed love to talk  and more importantly, being talked about almost anything. Those trivial matters like  ’My heart hurts me’ is  boring and useless. And it’s crazy seeing that those ‘controversial’ sayings can be baits to hundreds of even  more useless comments. It makes you feel you should comment too. If you don’t talk much in Facebook,  you’ll be deemed ‘antisocial.’ My not-so-close friend thought I didn’t like her just because I seldom  commented at her status. I didn’t hate her, I just didn’t feel a need to comment. Why can’t Indonesian people  be objective?

Third, and when you want to talk about scizophrenic people or waste problem, nobody wants to talk about  it. They often say, ‘Let things go,’ or, ‘What use talking about it anyway?’ I sometimes think Indonesian  people are only wastes to a supposedly blessed country.

Four, believe you me, but I have many poetic ‘friends’. So poetic that my timeline warrants instant suicide. They filled my timeline with melancholic or pessimistic thoughts (often about love). I started a day cheerfully & full of spirits, until checking my Facebook ruined my mood all day. I tried not to glance at the timeline, but a friend talked to me about another depressed friend and said I should check him/her. They were like ghosts, always finding a way to reach you!

Makes me think that Indonesian people can’t separate things that should be said in direct, daily conversations and things that should be typed in a public, indirect conversations. They seemed to have no shame, telling the world all things about them & it irks me.

But Facebook has given me its biggest advantage, connecting me with distant friends. I have friends in Central and East Java, Lombok, US, Pakistan, etc and it’s great to keep our bond close. I don’t mind talking about trivial matters here and there to them, because I can’t do daily, direct conversations with them while I want to feel as if they’re still close with me. So, yeah, I’ll be back once I graduate, for my friends.

What I Learn from Working In a Hospital in Indonesia

This summer I did internship at a government hospital in my town. It was tiring, but has its benefits.

Bad things:

1. It was honestly boring. As administrative staff, I don’t like doing routine job. Like everyday checking supplies in the pantry, checking computer data, blah blah whatnot.

2. Administrative staffs. Boring job for equally boring people. Both women and MEN gossip a lot. What’s worse, they were always gossiping about celebrities’ scandals and any form of housewives talk. Like there’s nothing in the world can interest them as much as gossip does. But they don’t seem to get bored by themselves, though.

3. Because of reason 2, I couldn’t talk to anyone. I talked sometimes out of boredom, but in merely 15 minutes they made me even more bored.

4. Flirty 30-40s men with gossip traits and banal language. God, this is simply untolerable.

5. I didn’t see high-tech medical equipments. Or they didn’t allow me to see. I wish they put me in hospital laboratory instead of the warehouse.

Good things:

1. I know that working in a hospital is a bad thing for me. Or at least working at THAT hospital.

2. Prevent me from applying for a boring job in the future.

3. Despite all its flaws, that hospital is still prestigious! It’ll do good for my resume.

4. Some of people there (usually those in higher positions, not merely staff or newly hired) were more respectable and nice to talk with. Unfortunately, they were often busy.

5. I learned about drug price policy and regulations. It really helps to make me looks as if I understand economic while I barely understand NASDAQ table.

My conclusion is: work at a hospital but just for a while, don’t make it my forever after dream job. I’ll end up being such a characterless individual.

Note: this only applies for administrative works and possibly what pharmacists do in a hospital, in Indonesia. Doctors do better I think. Considering I worked at a hospital in the CAPITAL of Indonesia, it may represents the condition of all Indonesian hospital in general. I’m not talking about international hospitals here, like Pondok Indah. They may not be different, though.

But I hope they may be.

Internship in a Hospital

I’m having internship in June – July, so I may not be able to post frequently.  This internship in a local hospital has been taking most of my HOLIDAY time and it’s insanely boring! But at least it gives me some valuable information: working as a Pharmacist in an Indonesian hospital is extremely boring, more of a clerk job, and I advise myself-of-the-future NOT to apply for job in a hospital. I’d rather be in some food industry, thank you. Maybe thinking ways of advertising, marketing, or better in quality control! More details come later.

Until then, I bid you adieu.

Your most humble & obedient servant,

F.F

Necroscope: A (Late) Review

I actually bought it in 2006, read it several times, confused, but undoubtedly attracted. I found out that it was written in 1986 by Brian Lumley. I remember I bought it at used books market. It was like waiting for me :p because it was at the bottom of a cardboard box, hidden, not yet sorted by the seller. I hated (or was afraid of) the cover so much so I wrapped it with lime-coloured paper & plastic. I wrote the title, author, owner (me), excerpt (on the back cover) in RUNES. Right, that’s stupid, but I wanted to make it less gruesome. But my friends think it’s the real cover but I haven’t made anyone read it, they usually say, “I have another book to read…maybe later” or “It’s in English? Yikes…I won’t understand” or “Morbidity isn’t allowed to enter my brain cells, dear.” Okay…

And about the story…it’s a parallel between the 2 main characters (the hero & the antagonist), Dragosani & Harry Keogh.
Dragosani is a KGB’s ESP agent. His special talent is draining informations from corpses through a morbid, gory mutilation-like process. He got that skill from his ‘acquaintance.’ When he was a kid, he (sort of) befriended a vampire. This vampire is chained under the hill near Dragosani’s home. Dragosani can’t see him, but he hears the vampire’s voice that teaches him the art of necromancy. It creates tension everytime he visit his vampire friend to learn the nature of the Wamphyrii (vampire in this series, very diverse from your traditional vampire, I assure you). I love the mystery surrounding Dragosani & the Wamphyrii, it’s all new concept for me.
Harry is the hero (at least in this book). We first meet him in his elementary days as a daydreamer, hopeless kid. But the math teacher discovers his math-freak brain (through a series of questions, which is one of my fav part in the story)…but the teacher can’t understand how Harry suddenly acquires this ‘special method of math.’ He only knows that Harry’s fond of doing his homework in the graveyards. The teacher begins to suspect the truth, but consider it impossible. Then we know his suspicion is true, Harry got his jaw-dropping knowledge from his former dead headmaster! He can speak to the dead, and the dead are willing to speak with him, as he is the only one they can speak with. I guess the dead are bored…

So…the dead love Harry & loathe Dragosani. The two don’t even know each other until the (almost) end of the book. But I love the interactions between Dragosani & the vampire the most. Needless to say, Dragosani is my fav character. He’s a very complex character, you got vast of his background. Well, everyone got deep backgrounds in the book, that makes the characters believable. Everyone has their own motives. The book’s very descriptive. There are murders, schoolboys matters, vampire, espionage, history, maths, all in this book. I hope Mr. Lumley write about Dragosani in his following books, but I know that the hero is Harry (hey, not that I don’t like him. I’m planning to buy the 2nd book). Some parts must be censored :p don’t mind it, don’t mind it, I usually skip it, but not for the morbid parts. I’m used to it now that I’m also a skilled necromancer (rats & toads are my ‘patients’ for being a pharmacy student)

Happy trailing the Mobius contimuum!