Archive for the ‘About Me’ Category

The New And Improved Blog!

Dear readers,

It has been two months since I last posted something on this blog. I have been away for a really important work back home in Indonesia. Now, I am back and made some changes. The most important thing, I guess, is when I realized that the blog was difficult to access from Indonesia, therefore I changed the blog’s theme. I was encouraged by my encounters with some people who admitted that they have read the blog! Thank you guys, and keep on reading!

Binsar

On Being An Adult

being an adult On October 12th 1980, 10 am, a boy was born at Pringadi Hospital, Medan. Twenty eight years later, on the same day of his birth, which is Sunday, he is already a man. He feels that he has been blessed in so many ways through life experiences, friends, families, good and bad times. All those learning has made him a grown up. At least, he feels as one.

Yes, to be a grown up, an adult, mature. They are challenging words. Lately, I feel that I need to rethink what is the meaning of being mature? I felt challenged by a very close friend’s statement, “You behave as if you are still a teenager, you have not grown up!” Even though she was jokingly saying it (which I think she was quite serious), her question struck me, what made her say that? Am I still not a grown up?

Well, this is not an apologetic essay or some sort, but it got me thinking, what is the meaning of being mature? . Wikipedia mentions that, “Adulthood can be defined in terms of biology, psychological adult development, law, personal character, or social status. These different aspects of adulthood are often inconsistent and contradictory. A person may be biologically an adult, and have adult behavioral characteristics but still be treated as a child if they are under the legal age of majority. Conversely one may legally be an adult but possess none of the maturity and responsibility that define adult character.” I think I can safely claim that what she criticized was my adult character.

My definition of “being an adult” is: being independent - yet not selfish and still listens to other’s opinion - in taking decisions and choosing life directions, able to live and enjoy life, and being responsible for every actions that he takes.

Okay, I hang out with some friends who are younger than my age (and some even dare to call me Om!). I like discussing not-important topics. I like throwing jokes (even most of my friends claimed that I’m not as funny as I think I am). I think those are the reasons why I can be seen as immature. However, eventhough I think I am impulsive, yet I like to plan my life ahead. I like taking risk while always count the probability. So, I am still an adult based on my own definition of being an adult.

My line of work demands a serious type of person, but I can’t see why seriousness can’t go along with fun-ness. I can be serious at times; and become the joker when tension is up. I think my art and fun side is wrestling with my systematic side, and I tend to mix them both. I know its not the best formula for everyone because maybe some would prefer seeing me as a serious person, but I like being who I am. I think my reflection is how I can have fun in what I’m doing yet looks like an adult.

Turning 28 means God has led my path so far, and by faith I’m sure that God will keep on leading me on God’s way. Thus, I am sure that God will equip me with the needed tools and knowledge to serve God, including on being an adult! Happy birthday to me!

Criminal Records Linked With Your Ethnicity?

Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst has proposed to allowing criminals to be recorded with the ethnicity background. This is a new proposal for the Police and Public Prosecutor since the Netherlands is currently registering the nationality and place of birth of suspects.

There are different comments on this idea. Expatica noted Trouw’s - a leading Dutch Newspaper - opinion that this could allegedly stigmatises foreigners and second and third generation Dutch nationals. In short, why would you note someone to be Morrocans, Turks, or Indonesians if they have a Dutch passport. What if someone from Frisland got caught? What note would they put on the person? Dutch or Frisians?

Expatica again mentions, “Ter Horst said she does not believe that this would stigmatise certain ethnic groups, nor should it be seen in a negative light.” Further the minister says, “If you want to solve a problem you have to know who is causing it. And if in Amsterdam it’s mostly Moroccans, then you have to give it a name. Otherwise you lose information. Moreover, you can also get the Moroccan community involved.” Read the rest of this entry »

You Are Connected To Everybody By 7 Degrees Connection

$It\'s a small world$ What would you think if you found out that everybody in the world would be connected with everyone else by at most the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of your friend’s friend. This is what they call as 7 degrees connection.

If you are a Friendster or Facebook user, you will know that we have level one, two, or three friends. Level one friends are the people that you have as your friend on your social network. Level two friends are the friends of your friends, which means you know them through your friends. Level three friends are the friends of the friends of your friends. Friendster only limits their network by level two friends, or what they name as second degree friends.

Recently, BBC News mentions that Microsoft researchers, Eric Horvitz and Jure Leskovec studied the addresses of 30bn instant messages sent during a single month in June 2006. Their research found out that any two people on average are linked by seven or fewer acquaintances, they say. Their research shows that someone would be able to instant message any person on the average length of 6,6 connection steps. Read the rest of this entry »

A Journey Of Faith

May 25th, 2008.

It all came to this day! All my studies were and will be done for what had happened in this day. I was ordained as a full pastor of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (Batak Protestant Christian Church/HKBP) Church. The ordination service was held at HKBP Parparean, Porsea, North Sumatra province, Indonesia. It was an annual and important event of the HKBP church because 34 new pastors will be ordained for the church that has 3,175 churches around the world (according to the latest stats). The Bishop is the only person who has the authority to give the priesthood ordination blessings. Around 100 pastors of the church and 1500 congregation members, families and friends, and guests were there.

‘

March 13th –> I got a phone call from my dad saying that I was invited for the last ministerial training of HKBP Vicars which will lead to the ordination, if I passed the ministry final tests. The training would be on April 15th - 21st, and the test would be on April 22nd and 23rd. The ordination itself would be on May 25th. I was confused whether the invitation is correct, since I was still studying in the Netherlands instead of having my ministerial training in the church. Moreover, I have to renew my living permit and working permit that expired by the end of April. I have to renew my housing contract as well. What should I do next? Read the rest of this entry »

Going Home…

‘ Two weeks ago I received a letter saying that I was called to follow my last vicariat training on April 15-25, which leads to my last ministerial test to become ordained as a full pastor of HKBP Church. Therefore, I’m going back to Indonesia on April 9th, and return to the Amsterdam on May 29th.

‘ This ordination was the main purpose of all my theological studies. This is a very important moment for me. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the calling this year. I asked one of my senior pastors about whether I will be called this year or not, and he said no. But then again, I was called. My dad told me that he received a letter about it. At first I was not so sure about the calling, I thought it could be an administrative error, but after I saw my name on the church’s website, I am now convinced. I wonder what I would look like with my black robe on?
‘ I need encouragement and support as I’m following the path that I felt was destined for me. Despite all the worries and problems I have now; i.e. my 2nd chapter, my living permit extension, housing contract extension, the ministerial test,
I believe God has plans for me. I just need to do my best and God will take care the rest. If you’re back home in Jakarta, or North Sumatera, there’s a big chance I would be able to meet you all! Hope to see you soon!

My Wish To Visit List

Well, since I love travelling that much.. so I decided to have a “wish-to-visit” list on my account so I know what kind of places that I’ve never been and that I would like to travel next…. ok, here we go:

Domestic Travel: Ambon, Poso, Pontianak, Singkawang, Kupang, Komodo Island, Nias, Aceh, Balikpapan, and last but not least: Manado.

International Travel: San Siro stadion in Milan, South Africa, New York, New Zealand, Liverpool, Barcelona, Frankfurt, one of the Nordic countries, Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires, Transylvania, Bangkok, Manila, and last but not least: Boston (again… )

7 July 2007

Need to add some more on the international travel list: London, Nottingham, Praha, Cairo, India, and removing Boston from the list hehehe

18 September 2007

My New Hobby: Photography

I bought a new camera Canon Powershot S3-IS in Boston, and loving it ever since. I kinda knew that I had this passion on photography since high school but never had the will to give it a go. Now, with my new camera (amateur camera) I can fulfil this long forgotten hobby… Here are some of my pictures at Flickr. Well, not all of these pictures were taken by my new camera, others than pictures in Boston were taken with different digital camera. Read the rest of this entry »

Names On My Prayer List

When you pray about someone you feel very close to them. There is this connection in a prayer that I can’t explain that gives you peace and sometimes I literally smile while mentioning them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just For The Heck Of It :d

Which one would you prefer me doing? hahahaa (pasti ada yg mo komen bilang maruk!!!)

One Of My Photos Has Been Nominated

Yesterday, I received an email on my flickr account regarding one of the photos I put there. It turns out that it was short-listed for inclusion of Schmap Boston Guide. Not bad for an amateur like me! While they don’t offer any payment whatsoever, but I’m quite happy with the terms they offered. Lets keep the fingers crossed. Here is the picture of the Dragon Boat Race near Harvard that they wanted to publish. This was taken with my lovely Canon Powershot S3IS that I bought in Boston.

And this is their email:

Hi binsar,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the fourth edition of our Schmap Boston Guide, to be published early February 2008.

http://www.schmap.com/shortlist/p=10076372N03/c=SF2013632

Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the second edition of our Schmap Boston Guide.
Read the rest of this entry »

Arrrrgghhhh

‘ I just lost my whole finished chapter one yesterday. Well, it was not really yesterday because I’ve been trying to retrieve all the data in the file since last week by sending it to couple of friends. It didn’t work out. They said, “Bin, datanya emang udah ga bisa diselamatkan, makro nya kaya kena virus deh.” Yes, I kinda suspect the virus that has been spreading in Casema internet service for Duwo. I saw an announcement last week about it. I hope that it is the only file that got infected. I lost the file!!!!!!!!!!!! %#^$@(#*@*!)@)#*&!

‘ I forgot to back up the file. It was the result of my hard work before and after new year!!!!!!! But anyways, I have learned my lesson. I should always back up my file. I still have some files that have not been edited and still in pieces. Now, I need to do it all over again. I hope I can do it within this week. I really need some encouragement right now… sigh… I’ve been thinking about it and it made me a bit frustrated and now, I’m having trouble sleeping. Lucky I am chatting with someone on Yahoo Messenger right now. Someone I just knew, a cutie hahaha…

I’m Back And Here Are My New Year’s Resolutions

Happy new year everyone!

I’ve been away for quite sometime, and I was very busy doing a lot of stuff during Christmas and New Year. I was working at the church as custodian, preparing christmas, and was busy rehearsing for the service as well. Then I went to Hamburg for the New Year celebration. I just got back yesterday and was already busy preparing a short reflection for a family service last night. I am back and ready to start running full speed on my writing. But before I write some more stuff on this blog, let me tell you my new year’s resolutions.

1. Write chapter 2, 3, and 4 within this year.

2. Be more responsive with my emails.

3. Write emails to the people I haven’t managed to reply or contact last year.

4. Take a Dutch course.

5. Practice more on drummin’ especially on the motion and fingering.

6. IYF should be my main concern as well.

7. Less time hanging around on Facebook and Friendster.

8. Never forget my Bible Reading.

9. Wiser on spending.

10. More humble.

11. mmm…. 5 kg less hahahaha

12. Stop shopping. I’ve got enough materials now for 3 years.. yippiee

13. Maybe… and maybe… find someone new hahaha

That’s it. Of course I still have more stuff on friendship, traveling, ordination, and stuff, but they will come gradually. Those things I listed up there are the things that I really want to achieve within this year. So, let’s focus and make it happen! Cayo!

Krt Binsar Pakpahan

KRT means royal descendant of a kingdom in Java who still exist until today. Yap, that’s right, I became royal for 3 hours hahaha. Yesterday, 19 Dec, I attended a doctoral public defense of Rev. Dr. Bambang Subandrijo at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. I was his paraname. He got the privilege to use his own traditional costume, which is Javanese instead of the traditional tuxedo like the tradition of a doctoral examination at the VU. He defended his thesis on “Eikon and Ayat: Points of Encounter between Indonesian Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Jesus.” Read the rest of this entry »

5 Things I Hope From My Future Woman

I remembered a conversation I had with some friends about the 5 things that I’m looking for in a woman. Here they are:

1. I would love to be with a woman who will be able to argue me and give reasonable explanations for that.

2. I would love to be with a woman who is independent yet can be spoiled at times.

3. I would love to be with someone who is family oriented and still has her own career and dream, and she should keep pursuing it.

4. I would love to be with someone who loves me just the way I am.

5. We both should be able to complete each other in our goals in life.

Mmm, of course there are things that are not mentioned above such as kind, understanding, loving, caring, can be a bit grumpy (not much hehehe), and romantic. These are tough stuff, but no one is perfect and me neither! What about you?

Batak And New Year’s Eve Tradition

There is little chance that you will find a Batak (a tribe in North Sumatera, Indonesia - me too) anywhere in the world, partying and hanging around with friends during new year’s eve. I can hardly remember when was the last time I have fun with friends during new year’s eve. Probably never.

We have an unwritten tradition, for every Christian Batak, to gather with family during the change of the year. Gathering with family does not mean your own nuclear family, this means gathering with your extended family. We will have a small prayer and reading the bible together exactly at the 00.00 o’clock. During the small prayer, we will have a chance to say something - some words - could be words of appreciation of what had happened or apologizing for the things that went wrong during the previous year. All of the family members usually have their turns to say what they want to say. Then we will, in turn, apologize each other for what had happened the previous year. The idea is to start the new year with a fresh heart and a prayer. Then afterwards we will commit the first sin of the year, drinking and poker gambling hahaha…. (just kidding). Read the rest of this entry »

How To Read This Blog

I have received some complaints about the heavy access to this site. Therefore I changed the theme of the site and you will notice some small changes here and there. However, after the change two weeks ago, I decided to switch back to my old theme. In order to make it easier to access, I kept all the changes I made for the previous theme. The most significant change is on the pages. I have deleted all the sub-pages such as ‘on theology’ and ‘flammers paradise’ and put them inside the home page instead. I also put all the video from youtube in the full page of the thread - this means you have to click ‘continue reading‘ to see the video. Thank you for your feedbacks. I hope that it would be easier to access this blog now.Enjoy reading and please do leave your comments … Have a great day everyone!

Disclaimer: Although most of the things here were written because they really happened, they are not necessarily happened to me unless I put them under the category “about me”. Some of the articles were written because of the stories that others told me, my imagination, friend’s requests, emails, etc.

February 27th, 2008!

My Family: Celebrities Hahahahaha

I have to promote this Indonesian teen movie because my sister is acting in it hahaha… She didn’t play the leading role, only a small part, but I guess it’s quite ok since I haven’t seen the movie myself hahaha… She’s getting there… aren’t you sis?? She acted already in some movies, and her role is getting bigger all the time… hahaha… Ok, her name is Ruth Damaihati Pakpahan, preferred to be called Iyuth. I think, my family is getting into this art thingy…. hahaha… First it was my sister, then my dad also launched his own Batak songs album… Here’s a piece of the story…

Read the rest of this entry »

Working At Restaurant Selecta Part 2

Guess what!

I’m not officially working there anymore (read: Working at Restaurant Selecta). The CWI (Dutch authority in charge for working permit) did not allow me to work in Selecta since last month. The accountant of the restaurant said,

gisteren zijn wij gebeld door CWI, in verband met aanvraag tewerkstellingsvergunning Pakpahan.

Deze wordt niet verleend. Reden is dat Pakpahan geen student is.
Op zijn verblijfsdocument staat vermeld “arbeid in loondienst” .Dit slaat op zijn onderzoekswerk bij de universiteit.

blablabla… then…

Dus helaas, deze meneer kan geen werknemer worden van Selecta B.V.

Wat jammer!

Anyhoo, all is good. I was surprised that the timing was perfect when I really need some break to start writing. Then these last couple of weeks I was helping there again. I will not work there anymore since I don’t have a working permit and I don’t want to risk my chance of studying here just to get some extra euros. The good news is that my work permit for the Crossroads International Church was granted. So, I am now working every saturday and sunday at the church, with bigger rate per hour hahahaha…

These couple of weeks, I met new friends at Selecta: Okki, Ferry, and Oscar. I also met the ‘old timers’ such as Arief, Intan, Sally, Oppie, Mira, Ralph, Sylvi, Etta, and fulltimers such as Jessy, Jere, Leo, Salomon, and ofcourse Tante Roos.

Here are some new and old pictures of the ’slaves’ hahahaha… gonna miss them - i think [ *} wink wink

Why Am I Here?

I want to share a bit about why I am here and what is my purpose in life. I was born and raised as Christian. Before I was born, my dad had made a vow to God that he would give his first child to God as his servant. He did this as an act of gratitude of God’s grace. When I was a child I was happy to tell everyone that I want to be a pastor. But then when I was in high school I realized that being a pastor was not a cool dream. I was in a band (I played the lead guitar back then), partying, being the kind of person with so many friends, and to become a pastor is the least coolest thing I want to be. Then I had doubts about my future especially because I was thinking about pursuing other career, becoming a lawyer for instance. But then I realized that God always set the course in my life. God pulled me off whenever I tried to set my own course in life. When my band was about to sign a possible contract with some local clubs in Jakarta, I broke my arm in a motorbike accident. I couldn’t play the guitar for sometime. Then my cousin told me that I will not be able to play guitar as fast as I wanted anymore because one of the nerves on my arm was not working properly anymore. Then I had to decide to which college I have to go. I decided to go to theological seminary while taking the test for a state university. I passed both. But then somehow without hesitation I choose the theological seminary. Read the rest of this entry »

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Binsar Pakpahan

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