Research poster

My first research poster on the project I currently doing for the RAG lab, which I design for the Northeastern Research Expo.

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Eid Greeting Technology

I’ve been noticing the way my Indonesian friends send Eid greetings from time to time.

The oldest I can remember is by sending paper cards by post. I still remember the joy of card shopping - choosing the pretties pictures and picking the wisest words, usually during the last week of Ramadan. My father used to order a bunch of these cards, which looks more professional than cute or pretty, to be sent to his colleagues. “You get what you give. meaning, in returns, we also received cards from friends and family. I’d say this media in comparison to other media mentioned here is the more personal, less practical and less environmentally friendly.

Couple of years later came mobile phones with it’s fame replacing all those cards with text messages. Phone call is just for personal VIPs because having to call and say the same words over and over again to many random acquaintances is just too much to do. Not enough by simply saying “EID MUBARAK, people invent the art of Eid text messaging that to my knowledge can be categorized as wise words, poetic (pantun included), pictures made of characters, and jokes.
Confession: I’m a not so good Eid text messages artist and I used to exchange messages I received from one friend to sent it to another.
Imagine how much money those cellular providers made during those days!

The internet gives us more media alternatives to send Eid Greetings. E-cards is quite popular back then. It’s just like the paper cards, except that it’s electronic, and the picture can move, sometimes added by sound and some of them are free. Okay it’s nothing like the paper cards.

But, the most advanced technology in Eid Greetings is probably via Facebook. Here’s some of the things that you can do with it:

1. Write the greeting on your status and sort of just wish all of your friends will see it and so the job is done.
2. Send the greetings to friend’s personal walls, which takes more times.
3. Upload pictures that act as Eid cards and tag friends whom you wish to send the greetings to.
4. Write a note and tag friends to whom you’re writing to.

EID MUBARAK! May Allah accept (the good deeds) from you and from us.

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Dale Chihuly at Desert Botanical Garden

I saw Dale Chihuly glass art for the very first time at an Exhibition in De Young Museum, San Francisco last year. It was also the first time I recognize his existence as an artist.

I ‘met him’ again this may when I went to the Desert Botanical Garden at Arizona. It was not an indoor exhibition, it was outdoor, mingle with the surrounding. All I can think about how painful it is to make them, how he has to be very careful or everything would just be shattered into pieces, and I admire those who do things I cannot do and good at it

I am neither an artist nor an art reviewer so I cannot give any meaningful explanation, detail description, and critique whatsoever. But, there are many essay that you can read about the work of Chihuly. I am merely a spectator and I like it How bout you?

updated!

Chihuly is a fulbrighter too from America. He had his study in Venice, where he started to developed the glass artwork. Awesome!

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The Dilemma of Muslims in America at MP Book Point

Friday,Febuary 8 2008, I attended a dialog. The title was “The Dilemma of Muslims in America”. The speaker was Mr.Putut Widjanarko. He earned a PhD from Ohio University with his dissertation “A Study of Indonesian Transnational Muslims in New York City”. He is also a director of Mizan Publisher.

He began his presentation by describing Muslims in America. Their number are not precisely known since census in US never ask about religion. According to Ba Yunus and Kone (2004), the largest ethnic group is Arabs, which are 32 percent of American Muslims, followed by the American Muslims (mostly African American) with 29 percent. The Muslims from South Asian countries (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Ceylon, Afghanistan and Maldives) rank third with 28.9 percent. Then, they are followed by the Turks (5 percent), Iranians and Bosnians (each 2 percent). The rest are Malays, Indonesians, Kosovars and others [here]

This ethnic groups had their own mosque and they only go to their ethnic mosque. Originating from many different countries, cultures, and various schools of thought in Islam, a monolithic perspective and treatment towards Muslim communities in the US will not help us in understanding the aspirations and internal dynamics of each community.

The situation changes after 9/11 with the increased sentiment towards Muslims. Some Americans do committed violation towards Muslims. But, the others show great kindness. Real story, the moderator was there, when 9/11 tragedy happened,to study and his wife is wearing hijab.  Her office friends, trying to protect her, asked her to stay in the office till the situation get better. Some American friends shops for their Muslims neighbor who were afraid to show up in public. So, to see American from monolithic perspective is also wrong.

Lesson learned, hasty generalization are always wrong. Muslims are not only those in the middle east or a bunch of terrorist and Jihad is not terrorism. And America is not George W Bush foreign policies, which are criticized by nations all over the world and even American them self. Mr.Putut said that “the strongest critics towards American Government policies came from American”. I agree and I believe those who’ve read the books of Noam Chomsky or watched the documentary movie of Michael Moore would agree.

Please stop spreading hatred around the world…

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