Good evening, Greasers. I am leaving to Bosnia tomorrow for the project competition, and I should be very, very excited at the moment. But I am not.

I have been to many competitions before, from English debate to Astronomy Olympiad. What I like from these events is that you can really see for yourself how well you are compared with others. I like to think of it as a way of finding who I really am and what I want to do. At the end of the day, winning or losing doesn't really matter. You get to have the answer. You get a conclusion: "Oh well, my Math sucks, like it or not", or "Wow, I was born to debate!".

Which is why I don't really think about winning or losing before. What I do is preparing my best and try it out there.

But right now I can't stop thinking and wondering if it's all worth it. I don't know if the result of this competition is worth the effort I've put for this project. I am filled with burden. And here's the story.

Six months ago my senior friend, Yangki, asked me to be his partner for a Physics project. He talked about making a device that can detect tsunami. I was really excited. So along with three others, I started the project. We changed concept like changing clothes (which is really where the fun part was): Wheatstone bridge; Hall effect; Piezoresistive; and finally Capacitance-acceleration relation. I was responsible for the sensor, and the others were responsible for the transceivers and the computer program to project the wave on-screen (Borland Delphi).

Two months ago, we went Nationals. We presented the project in front of scientists, government officials, and students from all over the country. And yes, we won.

But what happened next was really shocking: it turns out that we have to pay for our plane tickets to Bosnia. I think it bears repeating WE HAVE TO PAY FOR THE PLANE TICKETS!

Maybe to my friends, two thousand dollars is no big deal. But to me it's a fortune. I got into this school through a scholarship. I lived with my retired grandparents. I was already a burden and I don't know how I can come up with that much money in a month.

So I looked for sponsors-and they paid about half of it. And still, seven million rupiah, for my Grandparents, was too much. But they somehow got it and here I am holding my plane tickets and packing my bags.

What disappoints me the most is my government's carelessness in this. We represent Indonesia in an international event, and what we bring here is a device that is possibly a solution to prevent a deadly catastrophe. Whatever happened to those words about "education being our top priority" that was written on your campaign posters?

This is too much burden for me. So forgive me for thinking that winning is the only option, because it's the only way to maybe pay the small fortune that cost my family.

And sorry for the bad English too.

Comments:

As long as you give your best effort no matter what happens you still have alot to be proud of(so don't your grandparents)

Good luck, good luck! And enjoy the trip!

Have a safe good trip (selamat jalan). Good for your friends and relatives coming up with the money. You are worth it, whether you win or not, and Indonesia certainly should have paid, Good Grief!. I'll bet you win - a very timely topic. We are expecting a tsunami here on the Oregon coast and probably could use such a device too (Capacitance-acceleration effect I am not familiar with and must look it up. Well GOOD LUCK and keep smiling

comment by baseeker on May 7, 2008 10:12 PM ()

wow I found something on it right away: "The present invention is intended to improve the output characteristics of a capacitance acceleration sensor to increase the stability on the detection accuracy by ensuring that a movable electrode can be displaced while remaining as constantly parallel with stationary electrodes as possible. The invention provides a capacitance acceleration sensor having a frame Fm which constitutes the body of the sensor, a movable electrode 13 which is disposed in the frame Fm and which is supported so as to be capable of being displaced in a specific direction in response to acceleration, and stationary electrodes 12 which are disposed so as to face the movable electrode 13 in the specific direction; and detecting the magnitude of an acceleration acting in the specific direction, on the basis of the change in an electrostatic capacitance caused by the variations in the distances between the electrodes. The capacitance acceleration sensor is characterized in that the movable electrode 13 is cantilevered by the frame Fm with a plurality of beams 14 which are provided in a plane parallel with the specific direction and which are capable of elastically flexing in the specific direction". But I still cannot find anything about the competition. Have a good time. Cheers

reply by baseeker on May 7, 2008 10:28 PM ()

How are you enjoying yourself while there? You must be having a fantastic time!

comment by sunlight on May 7, 2008 9:10 PM ()

Terrific!!!!!

reply by sunlight on May 7, 2008 9:50 PM ()

yes, i'm having a blast

reply by raragoe on May 7, 2008 9:43 PM ()

Shoot, that should have been paid for! What a shame!Hang in there, something good will happen

comment by teacherwoman on May 6, 2008 8:36 AM ()

i hope so!

reply by raragoe on May 7, 2008 9:43 PM ()

This is bad news! You should never have had to pay for your plane ticket. It is a great hardship and somehow or other, it should have been taken care of, especially because of the work you had put in and all of the prestige that it represents... win or lose. It is a terrific project. It should be recognized as such and the ticket should have been reward for all your work!

awe... that's sad that it wasn't paid for...
But to keep it positive, how COOL is it that you both figured something like this out???

comment by kristilyn3 on May 5, 2008 1:23 PM ()

thank you all for the support! i got silver!

reply by raragoe on May 19, 2008 11:37 AM ()

This is terrible--It is such an honor for you to be competing and representing your country. The least they could have done and should have done is play for the plane ticket.