The Happy Prince

Hello. Nice to meet you. How are you?
Today, I'm going to retell the story of the Happy Prince. It's written in the book The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde in May 1888.

So, once upon a time, there was a city. In this city, stood a high column with a statue on it. It was the statue of Happy Prince. Happy Prince was covered in golden leaves with two beautiful sapphires as his eyes and a large red ruby on his sword hilt. Many townspeople praised Happy Prince for his beauty and elegance, sincerely or not.

One night, a little swallow went over the city. He was all alone since all his friends had already migrated to Egypt. He didn't go with them as he fell in love with a beautiful reed by the river. Through summer and spring, the swallow spent his relationship with his reed. Swallow's friends though it was stupid since the reed had no money and a lot of relationships, and they all flew away in autumn. The swallow was getting tired of their relationship since the reed was not much of a talker and always seemed to flirt with the wind. The swallow asked the reed to come with him to Egypt, but no, the reed refused as she loved her place so much. So, the swallow was left alone with no companions.

The swallow was seeking shelter in the city when he saw the golden Happy Prince. He then went between Happy Prince's feet and tried to sleep when a drop of water landed on him. The second and third drops later came even if it was not raining. The swallow went to check and he saw the statue crying. The swallow then asked Happy Prince the reason for his tears. The Happy Prince was sad because of the misery and ugliness of the city that he could see from the high column he was placed. In a house far away, he saw a thin and tired woman who was embroidering passion flower for the Queen's satin gown. In the bed in the corner of the room, laid a sick boy asking for oranges. He was crying because his mother couldn't offer anything beside a river water.

Happy Prince asked the swallow to stay the night and be his messenger, to bring the ruby on his sword hilt to the house. The swallow refused at first, describing the fun he would miss if he didn't go that night. The swallow finally agree after seeing how sad Happy Prince had become. He then flew over the city with ruby on his feet. After doing the good deed, the swallow remarked as being warm even if it was really cold.

When the swallow tried to go to Egypt the next night, Happy Prince asked him again to stay the night. The swallow refused describing more fun he would miss. Happy Prince then described that he saw a young Theater writer fainted because of hunger. The good-hearted swallow finally agreed to help the Prince. But, there was no more ruby to give. Forced to do so, the swallow took a sapphire eye of Happy Prince and gave it to the writer.

The next night, the swallow went to say goodbye to Happy Prince as Happy Prince asked him to stay one more night. The swallow refused, afraid of the winter that would come. Happy Prince said that on the square below, there was a poor little match-girl who had her matches spoiled. She would be beaten up by her father if she came home without any money. Without any other choice, the swallow picked up the other eye and gave the sapphire to the girl. As Happy Prince became blind, the swallow stated that he would stayed with the Prince always.

Then, the swallow told Happy Prince about everything strange he had seen in a strange land. Happy Prince asked the swallow to went over the city and told him what he saw. After the swallow made a lap around the city, he described of the sad condition of the poor. Happy Prince then offered the last thing he had, his golden leaves to be given to the poor and made them happy.

Then the snow came. The weather got colder. The swallow tried everything he could to keep him warm. But alas, he was finally going to die. He mustered his last strength to get a farewell kiss with the Prince, and right after that, he fell down death at his feet. Right at that moment, the lead heart that Happy Prince had snapped into two because of the heavy frost.

The next morning, the Mayor and Town Councillors noticed how shabby Happy Prince had become. Then, they took down the statue and melted it in a furnace. But strangely, the Happy Prince's heart wouldn't melt in the furnace. So, the workmen threw away the heart to the dust heap where the dead swallow was also lying.

When God asked one of his Angel to bring two most precious things in the city. The Angel brought him the leaden heart and the dead bird. Then, the God made the little bird sang for evermore, and the Happy Prince praised Him in His city of Gold.

The End

Note : The real story is really good. If you want to see the original, check out
http://archive.org/stream/thehappyprincean00902gut/hpaot10.txt

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Amazing Structure

This time, I'm going to tell you about amazing structure, The Colosseum. It's really amazing that I has known it since I was a child even if I come from another continent. Look at how majestic this HD picture above. (Note: I snatched it from Google).

Colosseum, Coliseum, or Flavian Amphitheatre all point to the same building. Located in Rome, Italy, it is the largest amphitheatre, an open-air place for entertainment and sports by the Roman Empire, and the largest in the world. I have scaled this building countless times (in AC:Brotherhood anyway) and it's super cool.

It was originally named Flavian Amphitheatre. The name Colosseum itself was derived from the colossal statue of Nero (Colossus of Nero) built before it and located nearby. By colossal, it was 3/4 the height of the amphitheatre. The statue did fall to reuse its bronze, though. Now, the name Colossum has been long used to refer to the amphitheatre and the statue got forgotten halfway. Sad indeed.

As per the history, Colosseum was created by emperor Vespasian in 70 AD. Before it was made, the land was emperor Nero's domain. Nero built Domus Aurea, a villa, artificial lake, and the Colossus of Nero nearby. In Vespasian's time, the Domus Aurea was torn down, and the lake was filled in (the statue was still there though). Then, he built the Colosseum there with the spoils he took from the Jewish temple after Siege of Jerusalem. The building was finished in his son, Titus' time and he even remodeled it. The Colosseum has got bad damage after a great fire in 217. In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV declared the site as a sacred site where many Christians has been martyred there even if there is no evidence about it. If you read a Japanese manga series called C.M.B, <SPOILER ALERT> there was some conspiracy theory that the Jewish Temple was buried under the Colosseum and the declaration was to protect the site and the secret underneath it. Weird indeed. <SPOILER ENDS HERE> Today, the site becomes a real popular tourist attraction, with millions of people coming annually.

Actually, the common form of a Roman theatre is half circle. So, the Colosseum design is actually two Roman theatre put side-by-side. It is elliptical with height around 50 meter. The outer wall has been mainly destroyed so the outer wall that you see today is actually the inner wall. The now surviving outer wall is comprised with arcades, row of arches from many ancient architecture orders, like Tuscan and Ionic. The Colosseum had 80 entrances, 1 for the Roman Emperor and his aides, 3 for elites, and 76 for common people. The seating had many sections. The lowest and the best for Emperor, aides, and the senates. Then, above it, maenianum primum is for nobles and knights. After that, maenianum secundum for ordinary citizens and divided for the wealthy and the poor. The arena was a wooden floor covered by sand, which is now almost all gone. The underground structure, hypogeum is still visible though. It comprised of tunnels and cages for gladiators and animals.

The attraction held in Colosseum was gladiatorial shows with other variety. There were hunts, involving animals like rhinoceros, elephants, crocodiles, and many other Asian African animals. There were records of simulated sea battles being performed which becomes a debatable argument between historians today. There were also execution where the hero of the story (the condemned) died in a gruesome but authentic mythological ways.Today, it becomed one of the seven Wonders of the World. Many tourists come and pay to watch the interior, which seems to be really fun.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading until the end. Bye.

From :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum

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My Day in Matswapati (II)

And here comes the second part. Yay... I have no idea on how these real long boring narrative could be interesting to someone since my time there was not really a tense adventure or a comedic epic either. If you want to see someone with a good humor sense, check my classmate Farid's blog, http://dontlookathere.wordpress.com/. As for my own blog, read at your risk.

Last time, I left you when I was talking the moment I laid in a mosque. Let me copy part of the last paragraph of last post to remind you :
              ...After praying, I and my friends laid down on the floor there, some were playing with their phones, but I were not doing anything, just laying there. It felt so nice,with my head rested on my friend's foot and my eyes on the amazin murals on the ceiling. So peaceful. I could sleep there at that time.
Note : I do it to ease you, certainly not to lengthen the post.

After 20 minutes or so, I and my friends finally gathered the motivation to get working again. Well, actually even if we headed back we were going to slack anyway. Outside of the mosque was a cart selling baso tahu. I collected my money with my friend's to get a plate of it. It was good. After filling my stomach with my second dish, I went to Lapbal again. I got another stamp by the way, not sure why. I tried to sneak a game of karambol with my friends. I learned my lesson after we got caught and told to pay. Afterward, I went talking with my friends. At that time, it was the turn of a foundation that handle traditional games to present himself. I met my friend, Fonna there. He is a really kind upperclassman. I played the traditional games like a bamboo pistol with him.

Note : I know I talk about my friends a lot here. But they are all not the same people. I played karambol with the guys from other class that came from the same junior high with me. The friends in mosque were my classmates. And the friends I talked were my classmates last year.

It was three o'clock and I prayed Ashar (with a little bit of laying down in the mosque). I got another two stamp so I had five times counting the one I got the first time. After going back, I hung out at the stand between mine and the one with karambol, the X-IPA 2 stand. There was like a lot of puzzle there, like T puzzle and make a square puzzle. There was a challenge to anyone that finished to arranged the T puzzle pieces into the forms from the problem book in five minutes got to have a three thousand rupiahs kitkat (after paying two thousand rupiahs). The game was hard indeed. Not wanting to risk it, I played, without paying. I managed to finish the game though, but I didn't get any kitkat, of course. And here I was solving for like eight or so forms. But I still wanted the kitkat, so I gave the solution of the game to one of my friends. End result? I got half, yay. The kitkat was ok since I don't really like chocolate. And so, I hung around there with my friend from X-IPA 2 until the sun went down. The number of visitors increase over time. And that was logical since the main attraction was Glenn Fredly, a R&B singer. He sang at night and these people only wanted to see him.

Glenn was charismatic and professional. I could see him handling the guest really skillfully. I watched the stage accompanied with my friends with their stupid shiny armband on their wrists. The people's reception was really good and enthusiastic. We sang along and moved our body while listening to him. At the end of the concert, Glenn had a selfie picture with us. After the Glenn show was over, people quickly went home and the place got deserted really fast.

There was a fire dance right at the end of the event though. After the lights went of, their extreme attraction was really eye--catching. After the event, I went home with my brother on his motorcycle.

The End.....(but not the last post since there are a lot of assignment I haven't done)

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My Day in Matswapati (I)

Sorry for the really late update. You can see that somehow I am writing a diary-like long prose here which is really hard to maintain your motivation until the end. But please, enjoy.

In case you don't know what Matswapati is, it is some kind of a cultural event that was held last Sunday, 28th September 2014 in Bali field (here I'll use the usual nickname Lapbal) to commemorate Bandung's birthday. There was some stage, attraction, and stand opened there. Last Sunday, the X-IPA 3's students got a chance to open a stand there with a collaboration with XI-IPA 3.

My time in Matswapati was really fun, enjoyable, with a bit part that made me felt guilty or bad that are best not remembered. I woke up on my usual time and did some preparation. The class' dress code was somewhat peculiar. Wear a plain black t-shirt, and tie the sleeves of long-sleeved batik around your waist and voila, a said-to-be semi-formal batik dress is done. But I have to admit that this peculiar way to dress is really neat, somehow. I didn't have any plain black t-shirt though, so I wore black t-shirt and packed two batik, just in case in my bag. Off I went to Lapbal.

By the time I got there, there was already a gateway made of bamboo. I could see the committee busy with their works. I went in. Lapbal is consisted with a building filled with a badminton courtyard, a little basketball field, and a spacious field used for track and field activity or even football. the building was used for the committee, the basketball for the food court, and the spacious field for the stand and the stage. But it was so spacious that the middle of the field was empty that looked really bad. Our stand was near to the stage, only two stand away from the stand. The decoration was pretty bad though. Picture a white stand with some table on top of some green grass, picture a handmade face of cepot being taped to the back, beside it is a board with some circle on it for the games, and decorate the rest of the stand with some newspaper, and you're good to go. That was the time where my thinking of the event got very pessimistic, but well I could just enjoy it.

After changing into a black t-shirt I borrowed from my friend, putting a peculiar headband, and some face-painting (water based paint to the face), I was ready to parade around the district. Our class seemed really enthusiastic to be the most enthusiastic in the parade and win a million rupiah. We created an anthem based on a memorable song from our three-days-semi-military-training that we had to sing dozens of times before we were allowed to eat. It seemed that we got a chance to relive that memories again because that day, we were also singing that song until our voice weaken, at least mine did. The public reception was kinda good, some people were curious I guess. Considering that our class was the noisiest one, not getting any reception would be sad indeed. At the end of the parade was a kuda lumping attraction, some kind of dance using horse prop and one person gets purposely possessed to do some extreme attraction like eating glass and being crazy. The students merrily watched it together.

 After that, the gate opened, we went inside. There was no visitor though. So, I went around the place. I visited the other class' stand, the sponsor's stand (I got sad and a little guilty seeing the sponsor came to this empty field). And then, I strolled around the area, the other stands, the food court, and the stage. The other class' stands contained things like accessories selling, mini games, even fortune telling. After strolling around and talking to my friends, I went to watch the attraction. Even though what I wrote seemed to imply that the event was bad, actually it was not that bad at all. The attraction were good, like jaipong dance, benjang fight, even dangdut song. One of the things that I won't forget about this event is karambol or in its English name, carrom. It's a member of billiard family where you strike the ball to get in the pocket, the differences are that the balls are some round glass pieces and you strike the ball by flicking it. That time, I was playing the game with my friends at stand X-IPA 1. Imagine yourself playing pool (actually karambol) while jamming to some groovy musics (well, dangdut. But it was groovy anyway). The best part was that I, well didn't pay. The rate was five thousand rupiahs per five minutes. The first five minutes, I paid. The two games afterwards, I didn't, nor my friends. The security was lax and free. So, even though we played really long consecutively. Nobody really even bothered to check if we had paid or not.

After strolling around,I went to the food court to bought my food. I bought standard sundanese food, rice, chicken, tempe, and tofu. I ate at my own stand, sitting on the table there since no one was coming anyway. After finishing my food, I went to the mosque outside the Lapbal. The gatekeeper put a stamp mark on my body to make me able to come in again later without paying. The mosque was filled with the students and committee praying there. I also saw my friends there praying too. After praying, I and my friends laid down on the floor there, some were playing with their phones, but I were not doing anything, just laying there. It felt so nice,with my head rested on my friend's foot and my eyes on the amazin murals on the ceiling. So peaceful. I could sleep there at that time.

And this is the end of part I. I'm going to upload part II real soon. Promise.

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My Unforgettable Moment

Hello. Thank you for staying tune in my blog. As promised, here is my third post. It's about unforgettable moment in this 15 years of my live. Even though I have some memories that I confidently think I can keep remembering till my old time, those kinds of moments are limited and tend to be short and abstract or so. That's because I am not the type of person that is constantly attentive to my surrounding as I am usually lost in my thought. Well, these moments are when my surrounding feels heavenly and epic.

One example of that kind of moment is when I was 5th grader. I was going on a trip to Middle or East Java (I can't remember) with my maternal family. My maternal grandparents came from there and we were going to visit some graves. I remember we were going there by car. I and my parents woke up before the sun rose and we picked our maternal grandparents from their home. I was sleeping and when I woke up, a scenery of green forests met my eyes. Suddenly, my teacher contacted me and said that I had a contest 2 days after. Finally, I had my mother took me home with a train from Yogyakarta that night. Now, here is what I meant as an unforgettable moment. I remember the next morning, I woke up. I remember I was eating a pricey frozen steak that is usually served in a train. I remember that the scenery was green, just as I like. I remember the TV played an album from The Corrs (here is a link on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ov6USLXwGA) and at that time I remembered a song with lyric "So, listen to the radio" and the song before it was good. I remember that after the album ended, they played Mr. Bean's Holiday there. It just felt so heavenly that if I were asked if I wanted to relive the experience again, I would say yes without hesitating.

That's one unforgettable experience from me. It may feel flat but it was a special one for me. Thank you.

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My Friend

Hello again, my reader. This is my second post, thank you. I am sorry for the huge time margin between my first post and my second because of my procrastinating habits. In this post, I am going to tell you about my friend, Della.

Her full name is Della Annisa Zahra. She was my classmate before she changed class to the accelerated class. She was born on July 22nd 1999. She lives in Jl. Jongjolong 57 Buah Batu. She studied in SMP 13 Bandung. She has a younger sister aged 12 and a younger brother aged 4.

She is relatively tall and has fair skin. Her nose is rounded and she wears glasses. She also wears hijab that makes her looks like a Middle Eastern girl.

She likes reading novels, like the Hunger Games Trilogy. Her favorite genres are action, fiction, and comedy. She likes watching education movies like NatGeo and also films like Despicable Me, Conan, and Smurf. She also likes browsing youtube and playing games in her computer. Her favorite food and drink are french fries and orange juice.

People she looks up to are Marie Curie, Galileo, Mozard, Beethoven, etc. She especially likes Marie Curie because she is persistent and never gives up. When she grows up, she want to be a designer, anthropologist, psychologist, and maybe a math teacher.

That's what I learned about her. Stay tuned as I will turned up my 3rd post soon. Thanks for reading.

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My Self

Hello world. This is my first post, thank you for reading this. My name is Bimo Adityarahman Wiraputra, usually called Bimo. Right now by the time I am writing this post, I am 14 years old. I live at Jl. Rajawali Sakti 1 no. 23 Bandung. I study in SMAN 3 Bandung as a tenth grader.

For my appearance, I am a skinny, dark-skinned, and a little shorter than average. I have oval face with black curly hair, black eyes, and a rounded nose. I also have small wrist that makes me looks very skinny. I am not that muscular, but I think my small built gives me a little agility.

As for my hobbies, I like reading comics and novels, watching film, and sometimes traveling. Sometimes I buy my comics and novels. Sometimes I rent them. And most of the time, I pirate them. Even though it is illegal, it also enables me to get things not yet available in my area, for free of course. I also like traveling. Going to another town or city where I don't know the environment and seeing the scenery there. Going around in the city using my bike is also fun for me. I don't really like studying, but my favorite subject is Math. They are like puzzles. My favorite foods are chicken and brain curry from Padang, hotplate mushroom and chicken noodles sold in Istana Plaza for 25 thousand rupiahs, catfish, and cheeseburger. My favorite drinks are strawberry milkshake, cola with milk, and milk tea, which are all made of milk if you notice.
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In my family, I have one father, one mother, and a brother. My father is a university lecturer and is currently getting S3 study in Yogyakarta. My mother is a doctor and when she aren't working, she will do the house chores. My brother is a university student in physics engineering in ITB. Our ages differ by seven years.

I think that is all I want to say as my introduction. Thanks for reading.

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