Hello, Dri! — This is a reply to a letter on your blog in 2015. Been wanting to write for a long time but I’m so tired lately. There are so many things on my plate. BUT it’s your birthday and I am planning to write it as a birthday gift. I don’t…

2021 was a year of grief, was a year of pain. — (Trigger Warning: Suicide) I remember some highlights from this year worldwide: Delta variant peaked, rising cases of reported sexual violence in my country, massive flood in Europe, more evidence of environmental destruction, and unjust vaccine distribution. More things are just old songs; workers exploitation, wars in the middle east, animal…

It’s been almost two years that students all over the world have been experiencing online learning due to the pandemic, and I’ve been teaching (and learning) online for almost as long as the pandemic last; *thus I write this as a personal reflection as a learner as well as a…

I had been feeling some sort of lethargy about certain takes on climate change. I think, mainly because I feel so powerless and it kind of enlarge my eco-anxiety and frustration on my powerlessness. I feel I have been gaslighted, and people doing tiny things are pretty useless. Other than…

Today you’re officially 66. We’ve been together for 27 years. I was living off of you, your nurture, your nutrition, and your love. I know you don’t really expect this is what you have at your age now. There are some things that hurt you deeply. I did hurt you…

During weekly training last week, I gained new insight. One of the senior teachers asked the new joiner teachers (including me) why do we call it error correction? Not mistake correction? What’s the difference between error and mistake (in language learning)? I’ve always thought it’s essentially the same thing. But as someone who deals with applied linguistics, I know, different…

“I grow old, and learn about the world Even so, could it have been better if I knew nothing of the world?” — #28 by Agust D Few days ago, I received news that two of my colleagues passed away on the same day. One lived in Sidoarjo and one…

How often do you think that anything “natural” is better than anything artificial? I’m the one who used to think so. During this pandemic, I witnessed some arguments about the vaccine being unnatural. Some even believe that herbs for their well-being are enough to fight the virus instead of getting…

Perpetual happiness is something to strive for, they say. As in it possibly exist. I’ve seen some utopian/dystopian stories that focus on this topic (and mostly show why it won’t work). There have been many examples of fiction with the premise that humans in the future life with eternal happiness…