Music in My Life

Music is one of the most important and powerful things in my life. My life without melodies and harmonies would be totally empty. To me music is more than just something to listen to or play, it’s something to feel. Listening to and playing different tunes helps me with my stress. It helps relax and it can also help to motivate me in difficult times. I love listening to music while on my way to campus, as I feel it helps me to prepare for the long day that waits and I know will go wrong one way or another. I also sincerely believe music has the ability to convey all sorts of emotion. Music shows whether the emotion is joy and happiness or sadness and despair through rhythms, harmonies and the lyrics. Music also has the ability to transport me back in time. It lets me revisit lost and forgotten moments in life. For example, I remember camping with my friends and the whole way along the camp site we sang songs and I actually can remember clearly all the songs we sang. I also feel that it helps me to get through things. Music is an immensely powerful thing and has a huge place in my life right next to my heart.

Rekomendasi Novel

Banyak dari kita yang bisa menghabiskan waktunya tidak melakukan apa-apa kecuali untuk membaca novel. Memang, ketika kita membaca novel, menghayati kata per kata dan menikmati penggambaran sang novelis melalui untaian kata yang mereka tulis memang menyenangkan. Sensasi yang didapatkan ketika membaca novel memang sangat berbeda dengan, katakan saja, jika kita menonton film. 

Berikut adalah rekomendasi untuk para pecinta novel:

1. Will Grayson, Will Grayson 

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, teenager Will Grayson crosses paths with..."Will Grayson"! Two teens with the same name who run in two very different circles suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions. Culminating in epic turns-of-heart on both of their parts, they team up to produce the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high-school stage. Told in alternating voices from two award-winning, popular names in young-adult fiction - John Green (author of "The Fault in Our Stars") and David Levithan (author of "Boy Meets Boy").

2. Eleanor & Park

A moving and funny coming-of-age novel about two misfits falling in love and growing up in 1980s America. Eleanor is the new girl in town, and she's never felt more alone. All mismatched clothes, mad red hair and chaotic home life, she couldn't stick out more if she tried. Then she takes the seat on the bus next to Park. Quiet, careful and - in Eleanor's eyes - impossibly cool, Park's worked out that flying under the radar is the best way to get by. Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall in love. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're 16, and you have nothing and everything to lose. 

3. The Cuckoo's Calling

Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

4. Paper Towns

Quentin has always loved Margo Roth Spiegelman, for Margo (and her adventures) are the stuff of legend at their high school. So when she one day climbs through his window and summons him on an all-night road trip of revenge he cannot help but follow. But the next day Margo doesn't come to school and a week later she is still missing. Q soon learns that there are clues in her disappearance ...and they are for him. But as he gets deeper into the mystery - culminating in another awesome road trip across America - he becomes less sure of who and what he is looking for.

5. The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.
The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about. But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.

Summaries diambil dari: Periplus.com

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child is an upcoming stage play of the famous Harry Potter series. written by Jack Thorne and based on a story by author J. K. Rowling, Thorne and director John Tiffany. The play is scheduled to open in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre, London, England. 

The play is set nineteen years after "Deathly Hollows" follows the story of Harry Potter himself as a ministry officer and his youngest son, Albus Potter. This Harry Potter story is considered as the 'eighth Potter story'. 

The play's official synopsis was released on 23 October 2015:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

The producers of the play have revealed the lead casts. Play as Harry, Ron, and Hermione are Jamie Parker, Noma Dumezweni and Paul Thornley. There are controversies on the casting of Hermione, criticising the choice to cast a black actress in the role, when the part’s original actress had been white.

The cast of 'Harry Potter And The Cursed Child'

But the author of Harry Potter herself, J.K. Rowling, is excited about the casting and showing her support on her twitter account:

Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione.

Sources:
Harrypotterwiki
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/04/emma-watson-hermione-noma-dumezweni-harry-potter_n_8909962.html

Murasaki Shikibu and her "Tale of Genji"

Murasaki Shikibu, or Lady Murasaki as she is sometimes known in English, was a Japanese novelist, poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court during the Heian period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1008, one of the earliest and most famous novels in human history. "Murasaki Shikibu" was not her real name; her actual name is unknown, though some scholars have postulated that her given name might have been Takako (for Fujiwara Takako). Her diary states that she was nicknamed "Murasaki" ("purple wisteria blossom") at court, after a character in The Tale of Genji. "Shikibu" refers to her father's position in the Bureau of Ceremony (shikibu-shō).

Lady Murasaki is said to have written the character of Genji based on the Minister on the Left at the time she was at court. Other translators, such as Tyler, believe the character Murasaki no Ue, whom Genji marries, is based on Murasaki Shikibu herself.

The Tale of Genji was written in an archaic court language that was already unreadable a century after it was written. Thus, the Japanese have been reading annotated and illustrated versions of the work since as early as the 12th century. It wasn't until the early 20th century that Genji was translated into modern Japanese, by the poet Akiko Yosano

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji#Authorship

Shodo, Japanese Caligraphy

Japanese Caligraphy or Shodo is an artistic writing of Japanese characters. It has similar techniques and principles to Chinese calligraphy. The usual method of practicing Japanese calligraphy is by writing the characters in ink (sumi) on mulberry paper (washi) and incorporates the same basic styles of writing that are included in the Chinese counterpart. These writing styles include seal script (tensho), clerical script (reisho), regular script (kaisho), semi-cursive (gyōsho), and cursive (cāoshū). Japanese calligraphy is an example of how a utilitarian task, such as writing, can be transformed into an art.  

A calligraphy set consists of:

1. Shitajiki: Black, soft mat. It provides a comfortable, soft surface.
2. Bunchin: Metal stick to weight down the paper during writing.
3. Hanshi: Special, thin calligraphy paper.
4. Fude: Brush. There is a larger brush for writing the main characters and a smaller one for writing the artist's name. The small brush, however, can be used for the characters, too.
5. Suzuri: Heavy black container for the ink.
6. Sumi: Solid black material that must be rubbed in water in the suzuri to produce the black ink which is then used for writing. Of course, "instant ink" in bottles is also available.

These are some of Shodo's characters:

Human - Hito

Freedon - Jiyuu

Love - Ai

Goodness, good - Zen

Sources:

http://japanesestation.com/shodo-bentuk-seni-kaligrafi-jepang-yang-sangat-populer/

http://tdworkgroup.blogspot.co.id/2014/09/shodo-kaligrafi-jepang.html

Pictures:

google.com

http://www.japancalligraphy.eu/gallery.htm

Reported Speech

In the English language, there are two ways of conveying what someone else has said: direct/quoted speech and indirect/ reported speech.
Direct/quoted speech, involves quoting the exact words uttered by the person, within inverted commas or quotation marks. For example: She said, “I won’t be coming home tonight ” is an example of direct speech. Note that in this type of speech, a comma is most often used before starting the exact quote within the inverter commas.

Indirect/reported speech, on the other hand, does not have to be within quotes or reported word-to-word. In fact, unless one is relaying the exact words spoken, one should never use quotation marks. For example: She told us that she wouldn’t be coming home that night is an example of reported speech. Note that the verb tense necessarily changes in reported speech. This is because when we report speech, we are talking, obviously, about something that was said in the past. Hence, it becomes necessary to use the past tense of the verb.

DIRECT SPEECH	REPORTED SPEECH
He said, “I’m fine.”	He said that he was fine.
He said, “I’ve been married for three years.”	He said that he had been married for three years.
He said, “I went to the theater yesterday.”	He said that he had gone to the theatre the day before.
He said, “The show was already underway when the chief guest arrived.”	He said that the show was already underway when the chief guest arrived. (no change in tense)

When we are reporting what someone else said, we normally don’t use their exact words with quotation marks (direct speech), but instead we use indirect speech (also called reported speech). Indirect speech is introduced using certain phrases.

Example:

He says/said …

She explains/explained …

She tells/told me …

He asks/asked …

Reporting Verbs

Reporting verbs are used in reported speech

The most common reporting verbs are say and tell. However, there are a number of other reporting verbs that can be used instead of say or tell to make more efficient (i.e. shorter) statements and questions.

Consider this original statement in direct speech:

'I'm sure that everything will be alright'

If we reported the statement with say, we would get :

He said that he was sure that everything would be alright

This is an acceptable statement in English, if rather long. However, the words I'm sure that... in this sentence can have the function of assuring someone. Therefore, we can use the reporting verb assure

He assured me that everything would be alright

This is a) shorter, and b) makes the function of the sentence absolutely clear.

Common reporting verbs - say pattern

The following common reporting verbs follow the same pattern as say 

i.e. verb + (that) + clause :

admit

advise*

agree

announce

claim

complain

confirm

declare

explain

insist

mention

promise*

propose 

say

suggest

warn*

* also used with other patterns - see below

Common reporting verbs - tell pattern

The following common verbs follow the same pattern as tell 

i.e. verb + direct object + (that) + clause :

advise

assure

convince

inform

notify

persuade

promise

reassure

remind

tell

warn

Reporting actions : requests, promises etc

These are usually reported using an infintive structure :

reporting verb + infintive with to

Examples:

They argreed to pay the legal costs.

He promised to come as soons as possible.

Common reporting verbs that follow this pattern are :

agree

ask

claim

demand

offer

promise

propose

refuse

threaten

Some verbs can be followed by an object and infintive :

reporting verb + direct object + infintive with to

Examples:

He reminded me to call Kath.

She warned them not to mention it.

Common reporting verbs that follow this pattern are :

advise

ask

beg

convince

encourage

forbid

instruct

invite

order

persuade

remind

tell

urge

warn (not to)

Reporting verbs followed by a gerund

Some reporting verbs are followed by a gerund, not an infinitive :

Direct speech : 'Why don't we have the party at Peter's place?'

Reported speech : She suggested having the party at Peter's place.

Common reporting verbs that can be followed by a gerund are :

admit

deny

mention

proposed

report

suggest

NB All of these reporting verbs can also use a verb + that + clause structure (see above).

Compare :

He admitted that he had taken the money.

He admitted taking the money.

She proposed setting up a committee.

She proposed that we set up a committee.

He mentioned seeing Martin.

He mentioned that he had seen Martin

The sentences in each pair have the same meaning.

Change of persons/pronouns

If there is a pronoun in Direct Speech, it has possibly to be changed in Reported Speech, depending on the siutation.

• Direct Speech → Susan: “I work in an office.”
• Reported Speech → Susan said (that) she worked in an office.

Here I is changed to she.