You might be used to spending a lot of money on Thanksgiving Day. Now, you don't have to do it again. You can buy valuable gifts for your family without breaking the bank. I will give you a couple of practical tips. Firstly, don't go to the mall on discount days. You might think you can get cheaper goods, but discounts can tempt you to buy something beyond your needs. As a consequence, you will spend more money. I suggest you note all your needs and go to a store that sells them. Choose a store that gives normal prices as much as normal days. That will make you think over and over before purchasing something not included in the plan. When you go to the store, bring the cash as much as you need. Don't make transactions by using credit or debit cards. It can make you out of control with your money. Besides, it's a better decision if you don't use apps that offer buy now pay later. It can encourage you to buy unimportant things because of the lower prices. Once you ar...

Climate Change is the worst problem faced by humans and all creatures on Earth nowadays. If we don't take significant actions, it will be worse. The worst scenario is the extinction of all life. The main cause is greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, primarily produced by fossil fuel engines. The engines are usually used in transportation and factories. To solve the problem, we must transform such engines with other alternatives. Electric vehicles (EVs) are the most promising alternative so far. They give new hope because batteries and electric motors that move the vehicles don't produce emissions, so they are known as zero-emission machines. Such machines can be used in cars, buses, trucks, trains, ships, and planes. It promises a friendly environment and a better future for our Earth. However, making EVs a popular and first option for transportation models is a difficult mission. Recharging the batteries still takes a long time. The stations of recharge are li...

Communication with the professors can be one of the important steps in getting a letter of acceptance (LoA) from universities in the US.  Once we get the green light from them, it will possibly be easier to get LoA. In this article, I will share my experience when communicating with professors from various universities in the US. I have communicated with a lot of professors from different universities, particularly from the list given by BPI. Their responses were varied, but all of them were good responses. Inevitably, some professors did not give responses at all, such as from the University of Washington, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Some professors, for example, those from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and The University of Wisconsin at Madison, answered my email. Unfortunately, they acknowledged that they could not follow up on my application because my research interests were not relevant to their expertise. They also percei...

Motivation is significantly important for doing and finishing something in our lives. It is like fuel that generates engines. If it runs out, the engines will stop working. Maintaining motivation is needed to keep all work processes running. How can we maintain it? We will discuss that below. Motivation can emerge from various sources. It can be from external sources such as parents, teachers, friends, public figures, celebrities, or others. Or, it originates from the inside, such as personal interests, hobbies, intentions, dreams, and goals. The last sources usually have bigger effects on someone's success. Besides, motivation is also directly linked to something being done (intrinsic) or out of that (extrinsic). It is included in intrinsic motivation when we do something enthusiastically because of its appeal. On the other hand, when we do something because of rewards gotten not from itself or at the end of the process, or other reasons, it is called extrinsic motivation. Interna...

Nowadays, learning English is a guaranteed profitable investment. When we do it, we will get profits. Indeed when learning, we spend many resources such as energy, time, feelings, emotions, food, tools, or costs. However, all we do is worth it. It will develop ourselves to be better. Everything we learn will be useful in our lives, now or in the future.  Unfortunately, not all people want to repeatedly do it at any time, even throughout their lives. This is because we usually don't get the reward directly now but in the future. Some people feel that they don't get anything when learning English. They don't use it in daily life. So, they conclude that learning English is not useful because they don't get direct profits. As a consequence, once they finish their formal education, they stop to learn English. Other people still learn English but they don't succeed. They just feel that they have to do it. They learn because it is a demand from out of themselves. English s...

I strongly believe that the most important thing to be successful is never to give up. I have proven it throughout my life. The latest proof is when I successfully got a pathway scholarship for a doctoral degree program. As many as 45 candidates get the scholarship. The program will help us to reach our goal of studying in the US at least in 2026.  I have been struggling and waiting around ten years to get it which is the biggest of my dreams. I started the long journey to make my dream come true in 2014. I decided to learn English more discipline until I got a TOEFL ITP score of 500. The score was enough to get a scholarship for English training from the Indonesian Educational Ministry, the IELTS test preparation, in late 2015. The selected participants were around 40 from several universities in the entire Indonesia. We attended the full two months of training in the Language Office Centre at Gadjah Mada University.  We learned enthusiastically because the instructors were f...

Have you had a plan to spend your end-of-year holiday? If not, I will tell you one good option. You can get an exceptional and unforgettable journey, exploring my town, Bengkulu City. It is the Capital of Bengkulu Province, which is also a beautiful, plural, and friendly city. It is located on the west coast of Sumatra Island facing the Indian Ocean. You are better off coming by air. You can depart from Jakarta via the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Some airlines such as Garuda Indonesia, Lion, Batik, Citylink, or Super Jet, can be an option. It takes around one hour to arrive at Fatmawati Airport in Bengkulu City. The schedules are routine every day. You can book the tickets from the early days. Once you arrive in this city, you can stay at many budget hotels, widely spread throughout downtown, around thirty minutes from the airport. Many options can be considered, based on the cost, location, amenities, or comfort. Each hotel provides special services such as a restaurant, a s...

BAB 1. PENDAHULUAN Teknologi digital dan perkembangannya Kemunculan dan perkembangan teknologi digital telah mempengaruhi hampir semua aspek kehidupan manusia di abad 21. Teknologi ini telah menjadi tulang punggung dunia industri, perangkat utama di perkantoran, teknologi pendukung sistem transportasi, alat untuk berkomunikasi, sumber dan alat pencari informasi, sumber belajar, media pembelajaran, bahkan sebagai alat dan sarana hiburan. Hampir semua aktivitas manusia menjadi lebih efisien, lebih efektif, lebih mudah dan lebih cepat berkat dukungan teknologi digital. Komputer sebagai fondasi utama teknologi digital telah menjadi perangkat paling penting di semua bidang pekerjaaan manusia. Dengan didukung beragam aplikasi serta terhubung satu sama lain melalui internet, komputer telah berhasil mempermudah, meringankan, meningkatkan kualitas, serta mempercepat perkejaan manusia. Komputer telah digunakan untuk pekerjaan-pekerjaan di depan meja seperti administrasi keuangan, administrasi pe...

  Keesokan harinya, istriku mulai beraksi. Dia mengerjakan semua aktivitas yang telah kutuliskan tadi malam. Tampak kegembiraan luar biasa di raut wajahnya. Aku tidak tahu kegembiraannya itu karena apa. Apakah karena dia memang menyukai anak kucing. Atau karena anak kucing itu telah menjadi objek eksperimennya. Entahlah. Aku tidak perlu bersusah payah mencari penyebabnya. Hal yang terpenting, melihatnya gembira membuatku turut bahagia. Hari pun terus berganti. Dia memperlakukan Lala dan Lili secara adil setiap hari. M akan an dan minum an untuk mereka dibelinya di supermarket. Tempat tidur keduanya dijahitkannya dari baju-baju bekas. Tidak lupa dia juga membuatkan tempat bermain bersama. Saking seriusnya, dia juga memasang CCTV di beberapa titik rumah sehingga bisa mengawasi perilaku keduanya ketika sedang berada di kampus. Rupanya, makin lama pikiran dan perilakunya makin aneh saja. Eksperimen pertamanya baru berjalan dua minggu, tapi dia sudah mengusulkan eksperimen beri...

  Aku baru saja menghempaskan pantat ke atas sofa di ruang tamu ketika istriku tiba-tiba datang menghampiri sambil menenteng keranjang kecil di tangan kanannya. Tanpa ba-bi-bu , tangan kirinya langsung memegang pergelangan tanganku lalu menarikku. Terpaksa aku kembali berdiri. Sepersekian detik kemudian d ia berbalik bada n lalu berjalan cepat menuju pintu depan rumah sambil terus menarikku. Dia membuka pintu dan keluar menuju teras. Tanganku dilepaskannya sebentar untuk menutup sekaligus mengunci pintu. Aku hanya berdiri bengong melihat kelakuan anehnya. Dia masih tidak bersuara. Begitu pula Aku. Sebenarnya aku sangat penasaran . Apa sebenarnya yang hendak dilakukannya. Rencana apa lagi yang hendak dieksekusinya. Walaupun begitu, aku belum berani bersuara. K ubiarkan saja dia beraksi . Setelah memutar-mutar gagang pintu guna memastikan pintu telah terkunci, dia kembali memegang pergelangan tanganku dengan erat lalu melangkah ke halaman depan rumah. Langkah kaki...