Greatest Violinist from 21th Century, Lindsey Stirling

Lindsey Stirling is an American violinist, dancer, performance artist and composer. She was born on September 21 1986. Stirling performs a variety of music styles, from classical to pop and rock to electronic dance music. Aside from original work, her discography contains covers of songs by other musicians and various soundtracks.Lindsey Stirling started to play violin since she was 6 years old. From a young age, she had a fascination for dance, and she wanted to take both dance and violin lesson. But her parents said that she can just choose one lesson to take, so she chose violin. When she was a teenager, She joined her four friends in a rock band called Stomp on Melvin.

With her great talent, she decided to join America’s Got talent at the age of 23. She showed her great talent as a dancing violinist. The judges were really impressed with her talent mixing hip-hop, pop, and classical music on the violin, but by incorporating dancing with playing the violin. Stirling was a quarter-finalist on season five of America's Got Talent. Her performances really impressed the judges,  but after she attempted to step up the dance level in her quarter-final performance, judge Piers Morgan told her: "You're not untalented, but you're not good enough, I don't think, to get away with flying through the air and trying to play the violin at the same time." Those words really broke her heart. She felt really humiliated in front of audiences. She said that she will show him that one day she would be a great dancing violinist.

Shortly after being kicked of  America's Got Talent, cinematographer Devin Graham contacted her in hopes of collaborating on a YouTube video together. They agreed to shoot a music video for her song, "Spontaneous Me". The video boosted Stirling's popularity, and she began making music videos for her YouTube channel regularly. Beside that, she made covers of songs of other musicians and classical music. During 2011, the channel rapidly gained popularity and has over 1.5 billion total views and over eight million subscribers, as of October 2016. Then she started to write many songs with violin which is make her famous until now. 

 On 2014 she aired her first album “Shatter Me” and she tour the world to perform the songs that she writed. On June 21, Stirling received her first golden certification for her album, Lindsey Stirling, in Germany and in the next month, she earned golden certifications from Switzerland and Austria. On August 2, 2013, Billboard announced that Stirling's studio album had sold more than 158,000 copies in the United States and that she was the second best-selling artist on the Classical Crossover charts in 2013, behind Andrea Bocelli's album Passione.

In June 2013, she performed at Miss Switzerland, and in July, she joined Nathan Pacheco, The Orchestra at Temple Square and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the 21,000-seat LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, UT for their annual Pioneer Day concert. Stirling also announced her first ever tour dates in Australia, South Korea and Japan. Stirling's YouTube channel reached three million subscribers on August 31 and on September 4, after almost a year of touring, she completed her first world tour with her last appearance in London. On September 12, Stirling performed at the Dreamball 2013 charity gala at Ritz Carlton in Berlin, Germany. Two weeks later, Stirling announced on her official website that she had started making her second album. And just some month ago she aired her second album "Brave Enough".

River Otters

River otter is one of 13 species of otters. They are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. Lutrinae is a branch of the weasel family Mustelidae, which also includes badgers, honey badgers,martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and wolverines. This is the scientific classification of river otter:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Clade: Synapsida

Class: MammaliaOrder: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Lutrinae

River otters can be found in many different places, but they are usually found in tropical places. They live in colonies. An otter's den is called a holt or couch. They usually made it under a tree or a rock beside a river. Otters usually live with their feces. The function of this feces is to mark their territorial area. They live beside a river because they can find food easily. Its diets are fishes, eels, snails, crabs, slugs, and any other animal around their holt. They find their food by swimming. River otters are active hunters, chasing prey in the water or searching the beds of rivers. Most species of otter live beside water, but river otters usually enter it only to hunt or travel.

River otters can grow up until 40 cm in length and 20 kg in weight. River otters have brown fur all around their body except under the neck, they have white fur. They have elastic, long, slim body, so they can move agile. Different from weasels that have long tail, river otters have a short flat tail. The function of their tail is to make them swim easily. They swim move is up down up down and so on. They have four feet with sharp claws. Different from sea otters, they have bare sole pads on the undersides. They have four canine teeth like any other carnivore animal. The function of their canine teeth are to tear flesh and for self defense against their enemies.

River otters are usually favored by people. This is hapenned because otters have cute face. They jump, run, and act very cute. They run after each other like playing 'touch touch'. But their physical characters fool us. They are actually naughty, mischievous animals. They usually disturb humans and other animals. They will chase us and bite us sometimes, but they bite with play meaning. So if there is an otter run after you, I suggested you not to run away. Because if we run away, otters will think that we are scared of them, so they will be more brave to approach us, they are just like dogs. They are also called as little thief. Somehow they can steal foods from any places that they can reach, just like cats. But beside that, some of them have a role to be a star in circus. They can bring a ball in their hands and throw it into a small basket ring. They can also walk like human with bringing things in their hands. They are so cute with their mini version human cloth. They can act selling things, waste something into trash, or dancing.

The population of river otters are decreasing. This is hapenned because there are many hunters that chase them. They are usually eaten or sent to the city to be sold as a pet, because river otters have a lot of lovers. We should conserve them by protect it from hunter in a protected forest or in a zoo. We can also multiply otters in our house. Once they grow up, we can release them in their habitat.

Question about otters
1. Why do people like to show otters as a circus performer?
A. Otters are really playful, their acts attract attention from the spectator.
B. Otters are very cute, they are really cute to watch.
C. Otters are smart animals, we can train them to do something.
D. Otters are weak enough to be forced to do something.
E. Otters are multitalent.

2. From the text above, we can conclude that...
A. River otters are really withdrawn.
B. River otters can live around swamp.
C. River otters can be an artist.
D. River otters’ swim move is resemble to dolphins’ move.
E. Otters are usually sold as a pet.

3. Why should we protect river otters?
A. To avoid extinction.
B. To sell them, so we have a lot of money.
C. We can eat them.
D. Their population are very little.
E. They are rare

4. The answers bellow are things that make otters swim easily, except…
A. All of otters have slim body, long, and elastic body.
B. All of otters have sole pads in each feet.
C. The move up down up down.
D. They move their flat tails.
E. The move of their feet.

5.

Announcement

 You can watch the video by clicking the link below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3PzhiY769o

Giethoorn

Giethoorn is a wonderful village located in Overijssel province, Netherlands. Giethoorn used to be a pedestrian precinct, but nowadays exceptions are made. It became locally famous, especially after 1958, when the Dutch film maker Bert Haanstra made his famous comedy Fanfare there. In the old part of the village, there were no roads and all transport was done by water over one of the many canals. The lakes in Giethoorn were formed by peat unearthing. The village became nationally famous in 1958 when Dutch film maker Bert Haanstra shot his famous comedy Fanfare here.

The village is small and has only 2,620 inhabitants. There are no roads in the centre, all transport is done by water over one of the many canals (but nowadays there is a cycling path). Venice has gondolas, Giethoorn has punters, traditional flatbottom boats that are used for transport over the canals. Giethorn has a long shape and is separated in three tiny settlements: Noordeinde, Middenbuurt and Zuideinde. The Dorpsgracht is the central canal that connects these separate settlements. The farms and houses are separated from each other by small canals. The bultrugboerderij is a common type of farm in Giethoorn. It seems to have a large bump because the barn is larger than the house in front.

This place is really a traditional village of Netherland. The houses in this village are very typical such as windmolens, Zaanse huisjes, Stolpboerderijen, etc.

Windmolens or windmills are the most eye-catching buildings in the Netherlands and draw millions of tourists every year. In the past, these were not just used to pump water or grain, but also to provide a cosy home. Zaanse huisjes or zaanse houses are usually made from wood. These are still commonly constructed and widely lived in, particularly in the Zaanse area. Stolpboerderijen or Dutch farmshouses are square-shaped Dutch houses with a pyramidal roof.

Giethoorn have many tourism attraction. There are a lot of people come to this village because of its beauty. There, you can go around the village by a boat. In the boat, there is a guider who explains the history and the lifes in this village. And also, you can drive the boat by yourselve. There are many kind of boat for rent.  Beside that, there is a place for taking a photo of you wearing traditional dutch clothes. But it is different from other photobooth in the netherland, it is more unique. There are also some restaurant and caffe for the tourism in the modern part of the village.

The mayority of people in this village are fisher. This is happened because at the end of the canals there is a big lake so people can easily fishing. Almost each houses have their own garage, but the garage is for the boat. There are also people who work as a farmer. in the winter, the canals will freeze. It is usually used for ice skating area. Beside that, you can find some museum such as Old Earth, Olde Maat Uus, and Histomobil. In the museum of Old Earth, you can find an exhibition of precious stones, ornamental stones and minerals, and a terrarium . The Olde Maat Uus is a Giethoornse farmhouse from ± 1800 with an exhibition live 100 years and working in Giethoorn. The farmhouse is furnished in period style, 





Source:
http://www.accessibletravelnl.com/blogs/Accessibility-in-Giethoorn
http://www.tourismontheedge.com/hidden-places/europe/giethoorn-holland-the-small-venice-of-the-north
http://www.tourist-destinations.net/2013/08/giethoorn-holland.html
http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/interests/traditional/windmills/vakantiepark-giethoorn-en.htm


 

My Experience at MEGANTARA

Megantara is a cultural festival held by SMAN 3 Bandung. This festival was held on 10th September 2016 at Lapangan Bali. The open gate was actually at 11:35 AM, but for all grade 10 should come at 07:30 AM to participate a parade. We were told to wear sundanese traditional clothes, pangsi for the male and kebaya for the female. It wasn't just grade 10 who participated the parade, there were also children from many kindergarten. Actually the parade was one of Megantara event. The parade started from Bali Street to Belitung Street, Sumatera Street, Merdeka Street, Jawa Street, and then back to Bali street. The seniors told us to sing a song or saying our yell yell while walking. We didn't know what song to sing and we don't have any yell yell, so my friends and I got an idea to sing a song for promoting Megantara. We yelled like mad until our throat sore. Then, a senior followed to sing. He commanded all of students to sing.

After the parade, I changed my clothes. Then, I went to Takolada with Dhea and Fathya. We ate and talked about remedial and many other things, waiting for the open gate. At around 12:00 AM after pray dzuhur, we went to Megantara. At the entrance, we got a free drink. There weren't so much people yet, but the show had already started. There were many performance, especially traditional performance such as angklung from Keluarga Paduan Angklung 3, Wayang Golek Putra Giri Harja 3, rampak kendang from Darul Hikam, traditional dance, traditional song from Kelompok Vokal 3 and many more. The most excited show was the traditional fashion show. Each class of grade 10 should send 4 representative to participate the fashion show. So there were 34 students who participated the fashion show because each student represented traditional cloth from one province. The jury who rate the fashion show was Ridwan Kamil. The winner of this fashion show was the one who represented Papua. There, I met a lot of my friends, especially friends when I was in junior high school. We talked a lot of story. Then, we bought some foods and drinks. We sat on the ground while watching the performance. And we didn't forget to take our picture at batik background that was prepared by the organizer.


At around 4:00 PM, the people started to fill this place. They knew that the most exciting performance would be showed at the night, especially The Changcuters and RAN. Those band was performing at the night. It was around 08:00 PM until 10:00 PM. I went home around 09:30 PM, after watched some performance from RAN.

My Crazy Experience at QURTILAS

So now I'm gonna tell you about one of my favorite experience. But before that, let me tell you a little bit about Qurtilas. So Qurtilas or Qurban Tiga 2016 is an event that was held by SMAN 3 Bandung. All of the member of this event was student from grade ten. So actually this is the first event for grade ten to be the workers. The main aim of this event was for sosial service by involving the qurban. The event was held a day after Eid al-Adha, it was the 13th September. But this event was already planned quite long before that day. This should be hapenned because we need a lot of money to buy the animals for qurban. We got the money by collecting it from all the students of SMAN 3 Bandung who wanted to donate their money for the qurban. We also got the money by selling food to every class in SMAN 3 Bandung. Beside that,we also had a qurban service for parents who want to fulfill their qurban. In the end, we got money that was much enough to buy 11 goat and 7 cow. I chose to participate this event. My job was to chop the flesh. Well, I was not really good at it but I should try it.

At the day, there were just not more than 50 members who worked even though there were actually 116 members but most of them couldn't come and some of them were too lazy to work. Well, it would be a really hard work because the number of our member were too little to do all these jobs. The location for our jobs was at the corridor. There, I was with my friends. Some of them were my new friends. We started to work after the animals were slaughtered and flushed by boiling water. At first, our job was just chopping the flesh and the lard into small pieces. I was really bad at it but later I found some tricks to make it easy. What I hate from this job is when I chopped the lard. It was really hard to chop because the lard is too chewy even though I've already sharpened my knife repeatedly. Sometimes, I needed some help to chop it. In that time, I was with my friend Alya Dyah from grade 10 science 1. So, Lya and I decided to work together. Lya held the lard while I was chopping it, or sometimes we turned our job.

The time went really fast, I didn't believe that we had already chopped all the flesh and the lard. I felt relieved because I thought that our jobs were done until some people came brought a ton of inner organs of the cow and goat. It smelled very bad. I couldn't stand it anymore. Mrs. Aan said that we should chopped all of it. And we were like "Oh my god". I don't know what organ it was because it shaped really abstract. Then, we started to chop it. But before that, we wore our scarf covering our mouth and nose, so that we would not smell it. At first, I wear plastic gloves because I felt really disgusted to touch it. I don't know what I chopped but it shaped like wrinkled towel. But I didn't really feel disgusted when chopping it because it was not wet. Then I chopped something like digestive tract of cow. When I pressed it, it ejected brown liquid. I said "Eww Lyy, what is this?". "Don't think, just chop!" she answered with her regsined expression. Well I think she felt my the same as me. But I decided to chop other organ. I felt like my plastic gloves disturb my job. I didn't care anymore, so I took off my gloves. Lya was right "Don't think, just chop!".

After struggled for a long time, we decided to take a break.We walked around the school with bare feet. Then we passed my class, 10 science 2. I saw there were heads of cow lined in my class and it was full of blood. I was like "Oh nooo, why my class?". Then we decided to have lunch. We ate beside the little fish pond while chilling and we talked each other about many things. After finishing our lunch, we went back to job. But there were already enough people to do the chopping job. So at that time our job was to put in the flesh into a plastic bag. Yayy, at least not chopping anymore. The job was finished really fast because there were some teachers who helped us. After that we took a picture of all the members.

Even it was really tired, I was happy because I got new experience. Beside that, I have new friends. There were many problem that we made when do the job, but we solved it together so it will strengthen our friendship.

Who Am I?

Hello guys~! Let me introduce myself. My name is Lentera Ilma. People usually call me Ilma. I was born in Bandung September 9th 2000. I'm 15 years old now. I am a student of 3 Senior High School Bandung. My previous school was 2 Junior High School Bandung.

I live at Terusan Ekologi street number 2, Cigadung, Bandung. I live with my parents, my aunt, and my uncle. I have two siblings, one sister and one brother, but they don't live with me. My big sister's name is Rasyida Noor. Now she is 22 years old. She had just earned a bachelor in University of Groningen, Netherlands. Now, she want to find a job in Netherlands before continue her study being a magister. And my brother's name is Damar Zaky. He is 18 years old. He just graduated from senior high school. He continue his study in Telkom University.

Not only my family who live with me, there are also my pets. I have so many pets. There are 4 weasels, snakes, 2 otters, fishes, and 3 turtles. If you want to go to zoo, just come to my house. If you ask me my favourite pet, I can't answer it. I love all of my pets because they have their own character. For me, they are also my family.

Well I have many hobbies. I do my hobbies in some situation. For example, when I am happy, I usually dancing, drawing, studying, shopping, and reading novel or manga. My favourite manga is Detective Conan. I have loved this manga since I was little. I knew it from my brother and sister. They really often read or watch the anime. Even now I have all the books from volume 1 to volume 88. After 22 years the manga still go on. I don't know when it will be end.

When I am in a sad situation, I usually listen to music or play my violin. I don't know why when I play my violin, I feel better. It makes me feel really peaceful even if I play it badly. It makes me feel better in every situation for example when I feel sad, when I'm nervous or when I'm angry. It works better than listen to music. And also, I usually play with my pets when I feel bad especially my otters. They are so cute and smart. I usually disturb and make them angry because they looks so cute when they're angry. The most important thing to do when I feel bad is sleeping. Because with sleeping, you just forget all your problems.

 Well, that's enough from me :P