Last Month, I got several opportuinities to have discussions with people concerning in research. Actually, they do research all the time so that I can call them “Researchers”.

A lot of interesting topics occurred in the discussions. But the most interesting topic (especially for me) is about the “crime” in the Research. For some people, maybe these are not crimes. But basically we can say that “crime” here is something that break the Researcher’s ethics. I will try to explain some of them (based on what I got from the discussions).

The first crime is Plagiarism. It is clear. When someone imitates some part (or extremely, whole parts) of idea of another person, and publish it as his/her original idea, so you can simply say that it is Plagiarism. In the academic world, Plagiarism not only done by the students but also can be done by the professors or researchers.

Sometimes researchers imitate the unpublished paper of another researchers and publish it as their paper. Or sometimes researchers imitate the paper from other country than they publish it in their own country as their original idea. The worse thing, professors who supervise their students, use the student’s research and publish it as the professors’ research, without mentioning the student’s role in the paper.

Maybe Plagiarism can boost their popularity in the academic world. But this is fake popularity. By being researcher, you can be popular. But if you just want to be popular, you’d better not being a researcher.

The second crime is Double Funding. This is also clear. The bad researcher sometimes make some research proposals with same topic and subject, and they use the proposals to proposal funds from differents funding or foundation.

The objection is clear : to get double money. The researcher can do the research (as they propose it in the proposal) with using only one funding. But by doing research using double funding, they can get double money even they only do one research. It means, one report.

Maybe double funding can boost their income. But it is fake income. Do you want to be a breadwinner using this way? to feed your family? By being researcher, you can be rich. But if you just want to be rich, you’d better not being a researcher.

This day is very special for me.

I have a re-union of My Kindergarten, Kawahara Hoikusyo. Actually, it is just a sudden party. I have just visited this city, and I have met my teacher of Kindergarten several days ago. At that opportunity, I also meet my friend in Kindergarten, Kouhei-kun. It was really nice.

Kouhei-kun’s mother arrange this re-union of party suddenly. So that I don’t know about this plan. I have just surprised because of this party. Even most of my friends have moved to another city, but some of them can join this party. There are also my friends’ (that have moved to another city to work) mother that is willing to come to this party. It was really nice.

From left to right, Yamaguchi Sensei, Oumura Sensei, Ayumi-chan, Yuki-chan, Shinkai Sensei. In front, there are me and Kouhei-kun.

She is Yuki-chan. Now, she is working as an architect in Alph Design. When we was in kindergarten, we held a Vegetable Party. I was the Cabbage’s King, and She was the Tomato’s Queen. She changes a lot compared to her childhood’s appearance.

She is Ayumi-chan. She is now working in an amusement place in this city. She is also changed compared to her kindergarten’s appearance.

And He is Kouhei-kun. My bestfriend since I was in kindergarten. Now He is studying in UCLA. He will go back to America on next Wednesday.

And this is us. Who had spent our childhood together. Thank You for this party.. Hopefully we can meet each other again.

Ja ne.

Sometimes it’s hard to realize that there are a lot of crimes happen in our society.

Nowadays, illogical criminal cases (such as crime to parents, teachers, orphans, etc) can be heard as common sense. for me, it is really tiring to hear that kind of news on the media. Those who are really desperate with the condition will think that “this world is really an uncomfortable place to live”.

Complex problems (such as bankruptcy, poverty, jobless) around people can make them do anything to solve it. Sometimes the solution is a “shortest solution” that doesn’t use their mind, logic, and conscience.

What is “right” and what is “wrong” is a really absurd thing nowadays. Even we have laws, especially religion as our main law, but people don’t think that it is the solution to their problems.

We just have to listen to our conscience. It is the most honest thing in ourself. It will sincerely answer our questions. when we do something “right”, our conscience will praise us and give us beautiful gifts with happiness and satisfaction in our heart. but when we do something “wrong”, our conscience will warn us with sadness and confusion in our heart.

Just listen to your heart, listen to your conscience. You will realize what the right path you should choose.

i have just had two new pets in my computer.

it is a beautiful heron:

and a cute lizard

i have no windows anymore in my computer. for how long? it is my strong effort for me to go open source (hopefully i can) and stop using pirated software. just try to gladly play with my pets..

in indonesia (and maybe other countries), it is common to bargain the price of something that we will buy. maybe we think that the price is so expensive that we should bargain it. of course, the bargaining only happens on certain markets (especially traditional markets).

well, i should say that i am very bad in bargaining the price. every time i told to buy something cheaper, i never did is succesfully.

there are many tricks to bargain the price. sometimes we can start it from the half, or even 10% of the full price. it really depends on the stuff. but the main trick is: never feel guilty to bargain!! (that’s the hardest point for me)

my worst experience in bargaining happened when i was in junior high school. there was a vacation to bali. because i knew that i am very bad in bargaining, i didn’t buy kind of stuffs. but i saw interesting keychains. i was interested to buy it. the price is 5000rupiah each. i think, it’s ok. than i bought 10 keychains. after reaching the bus and meeting the friends, they asked me about the keychains. than they all laughed for me. because they bought it only for 1000rupiah for each.

that’s why, i prefer buying in a department store (we can’t bargain in it) to buying in traditional market. it’s really hard for me to bargain the price.

as lecturer,

the main job descriptions are to teach, to research, and to serve (to the society). those are the ideal condition. but in my country, it is not easy to do that job description.

i will give you a simple in research. to do research, lecturers have to find the fund by themselves. sometimes the focus of lecturers is not: how to do the research well. the lecturers have to think: how to get the fund. how to make the “proper” financial reports.

the word “research” is also absurd here. sometimes what we call research is a project with big amount of money. lecturers just need to do a “low level” research to get big amount of money. the one who think that money is much more important than the research itself, will find another project like this.

i have also involved in a project like this. and honestly, it always strikes my head. it is far away from the lecturers’ main job description. and you know, the project itself hasn’t ended yet! it has been 6 months.

but this morning, the head of the department call me to his room. and he told me about the finalization of the project (it made me pleased). and he told me also to prepare the materials for his lectures (with my pleasure), and help him to write a text book (yap, i will).

always strive to go back to main job description. even still need to learn a lot.

welcome to my new personal blog.

this is my another blog (my previous blog is written in bahasa indonesia). i just try to express my thoughts and ideas here in english. i hope that you can enjoy it.

thank you.