Al Harkan

A Personal Blog

Hozhoni

When I was 9 years old, I stumbled upon a book of my father’s. The title read Samudra Al-Fatihah. The cover was worn out, and I don’t quite remember what made me spent hours reading a chapter from that book. But I remember what I read, because that was my oldest memory, the first time my mind being blown away learning about the grandeur of the universe. I learned about how atomic motions were parallel to the planetary and galactic ones. I learned about the tiniest scale of the micro cosmos, to the remarkable scale of the universe. And eventually, I learned about this way of looking at the cosmos, that put everything in my daily life into perspective.

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When Breath Becomes Air

“I don’t believe in the wisdom of children, nor in the wisdom of the old. There is a moment – a cusp, when the sum of gathered experience is worn down by the details of living.”

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The Great Hack – A Quick Thought on the Documentary

“You set out to connect people and you are refusing to acknowledge that this same technology is now driving us apart.”

This quote just summed how social media has transformed from a technology to connect people into a weapon to divide society. And this movie telling the story behind it quite well.

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Eulogy

It was Steve Jobs, I remember, who said, “Death is very likely the single best invention of Life.” It came to me lately this uneasy feeling that I’m not quite able to explain, even to myself. It’s not necessarily haunting, but it does follow me everywhere. It’s been weeks, if not months, that this feeling has been around: the thought of time when I die.

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Social Inertia – on How (not) to Change

It seems that everybody nowadays wants to change something.  We can tell that by looking at growing number of startups founded, ‘innovative’ products launched, or initiatives -well, initiated. It’s like literally every day in news we hear new startups being reported, new gadgets being promoted, and new social projects being campaigned -not to mention how many new policies being passed. (more…)

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Senjana

Tentang rencana yang masih jadi wacana
Tentang inginnya impian seberhana tapi masih sederhana
Tentang asmarandana karena tak kunjung beranjangsana
Dan tentang ingin bijaksana tapi tetap lenggana

Elah, fana

Cita-cita kala yuwana, jawabnya bagaimana?
Cita-cita dari bijana, kenapa sekarang di dasar bejana?
Karena repot fatamorgana yang ternyata hanya bencana
Karena repot oleh kirana yang ujungnya jadi gulana

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Paradox of Learning

The whole point of this writing is to talk about my experience when I was learning extensively about subjects I’m passionate at, while ignoring the conventional, obligatory campus’ credit system. I’m a social student, yes, but that doesn’t stop me to study computer programming, design, film theory, and variety of other subjects like astrophysics, economy, politics, or even a little about engineering. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily make me an expert in those fields, but that’s enough to make me keep wondering of how vast the mystery this universe has, how amazing life and exciting people are, and keep me feel alive (?) (more…)

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Dunkerque (2017)

It was that moment, when I watched “Interstellar” for the 20th times,
That I realized I didn’t just like to write or to read.
More than that, I’m fascinated with stories.
Tell me stories, and we are best friends.

 

So, this is the movie I had been waiting for more than a year, and in my case, I think that’s the first time I was impatiently waiting for months for something to come. I told you that I was waiting for three big reveals in 2017, and beside Dan Brown’s Origin and Tesla Model 3, the other one was this Dunkirk (2017) movie, the latest work of Christopher Nolan. You can call me a Chris Nolan fan boy, that’s fine, because what I did at July 21st, 2017 when the movie first came out was what a fan boy would actually do. I literally ran after hitching an ojek to the nearest theater as soon as my work done in the evening, and didn’t catch a breath until I hold one ticket in my hand. (more…)

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From Mars with Love – A Review

So, the other day I had an ‘assignment’ to read this quite popular book called “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus”. It was a re-read, actually, since I’ve done reading it about two years ago but had to read it again – just because I learned nothing back at the time. The book talks about how I, a man, am profoundly different from women. From our values that are inherently different, the way we cope with stress, to how we express ideas differently. It tends to start a fight between two whenever either one of them insists the other to accept them based on their own perspective.

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