Christmas presents from my landlady: a box of cookies and... a glass of garden! This is such a great idea, I should try to make one someday.

Being away from those I love is tiring at times, but how can I be sad when I'm surrounded by such nice people? Merry Christmas everybody!

So this is the first day of winter holiday and all of my friends had gone home and I was walking alone in the rain in the city center full of people shopping for Christmas and I desperately needed something to cheer me up. Don't ask me why I came home with a bouquet of flowers.

Arranging flowers was definitely not as easy as I thought, but they don't look too bad, do they? And most importantly, they do cheer me up. This is what my working desk looks like:


Ok, since we now have flowers and candles (you have no idea how many candles my landlady put in this apartment), perhaps it's time to do a deeper thinking about life (tsah).

I would say that 2011 has been a remarkable year. Started with January (of course), where my days were dominated with unproductive project meetings, exams, and reading Logicomix, which made me fall in love with Semantics. Then February came with more meetings, fight and tears over Machine Translation project. I remember on March I didn't really like turning into 23. But I've been 23 for almost 10 months now and it has been wonderful.

April marked the month of the unforgettable Eurotrip: passport incident, tulips, Venetian masks, reunion and separation. In May I became restless. My brother's wedding only made me feel even more homesick than ever. Flew to France for LCT annual meeting, met with a lot of people and found that it was quite fun.

Then came the long-awaited June. I didn't really care about my exams, I just wanted to get them done and go home. Leaving Malta and the people I became friends with saddened me a lot, but no feeling could compare to reuniting with your family and old friends (yes, and boyfriend). The feeling faded too soon, though, as July and August crept slowly and I came into a bitter realization that the place no longer felt like home.

September, I was back in Europe. How can I describe this month? Those were the loneliest days of my life. It was an awfully cold summer and I felt so miserable living alone with no one to talk to. Fortunately, things changed a lot when October arrived. I fell in love with this city, the way people bike without caring about the rain, the way every blue sky was something to be thankful for. Also in this month, I gathered the courage to meet with one of the men who changed my career, and he became my thesis supervisor. The leaves were changing colors and I went to beautiful Norway. Life was perfect.

The turning point of November was when the Semantic Web project started. Suddenly, life wasn't as perfect :D But it's still okay, though. Now I'm here on one of December's nights with my flowers and candles. Christmas is coming and with all this spirit of togetherness, I miss everyone. I wanted to tell you, but there are so many things that I miss. Countless little details that lead me to contemplations, despondency and the hope that everybody is all right.

This year I set up a goal of reading 50 books on Goodreads Reading Challenge. I thought 50 was a decent number; only 4-5 books per month. What I didn't take into account is the fact that in order to put a book on the list, you have to specify the date you finished reading it. Here's another fact: I read a lot of books, most of which are rereads or left unfinished. Of course, I can change the goal into a more reasonable number, but then I thought: hey I can do this.

And seeing from the progress today, indeed I can do it. But having a deadline for finishing a book, my friend, wasn't fun. Goodreads gave me this annoying message whenever I spent too much time not facing a book:
At your current pace, you are 1 book (2%) behind.
If anything, I hate being behind target.

Before this afternoon, I only had one more book to finish to complete the challenge. Kurt Gödel's biography Logical Dilemmas looked like a good choice for the 50th book. But then there's this chapter about Georg Cantor's work and I thought: screw this transfinite numbers, I'll read The Baby Sitters Club.

So, that's it. The book that completes my reading challenge is titled Stacey and the Cheerleaders. Oh well.

I don't think I will be doing reading challenge again next year; even if I do, maybe for only 20 books or so. The university library has more books than I could ever read in my entire life and I will be busy checking out those on math history and logic. Some might take ages and loan renewals to finish, some might be returned unfinished. Either way, I want to spend as much time as I like when reading a book.

Sepanjang sejarah perantauan, saya selalu mendapat paket apartemen yang mencakup tv. Agak sia-sia sih sebenarnya, karena 1) saya ga suka nonton tv, 2) pilihan channel-nya kebanyakan lokal, yang berarti bahasanya juga lokal, 3) jaman sekarang siapa sih yang masih nonton tv? Begitulah, intinya saya lebih berharap bisa mendapat apartemen yang lebih murah tanpa tv.

Namun malam ini semuanya berubah.

Mulai dari awal. Sekitar 2 bulan terakhir ini, saya ngefans berat sama Milow. Lagu-lagunya mengisi iPod dan menemani selama sepedahan, jogging, dan masak. Tapi entah kenapa, baru siang ini saya kepikiran buat nge-like page Facebook-nya, hoho. Oke ga penting, tapi intinya dari situ saya tau keberadaan program berikut. Berhubung katanya bisa ditonton dari the Netherlands juga, saya pun nyari-nyari channel Canvas siang itu. Ga ketemu, ya sudah berencana tidur aja. Palingan bentar lagi juga tayangannya muncul di YouTube.

Di sisi lain, kebetulan (atau bagi yang tidak percaya kebetulan, mungkin jodoh) siang itu juga saya penasaran pengen ngetes coffee maker (lagi-lagi sepaket dengan apartemen, lengkap dengan kopi dan kertas filter-nya). Coffee maker-nya bekerja dengan baik, tapi tentu saja kopinya pun harus diminum. Alhasil saya ga bisa tidur malam ini.

Jam 22.15, saya nyalain tv lagi, just in case channel-nya tiba-tiba muncul. Daaaan... ternyata benar! Di channel 15, ada tulisan Canvas, lalu wajahnya si Milow pun muncul. Untuk pertama kalinya selama di Eropa, saya nonton tayangan tv lewat tv, huhuhu.

I didn't understand a word they said, of course. My progress in Dutch language class is next to nothing.

I'm currently reading Raymond Smullyan's To Mock A Mockingbird, a book recommended by my thesis supervisor/NLP teacher. Anyway, in chapter 5, Smullyan discussed some knight-and-knave puzzles, which reminds me of the good old Discrete Math days. Here it is:

In the Island of Knights and Knaves, every inhabitant is either a knight or a knave. Knights make only true statements and knaves only false ones.

1. Is it possible for any inhabitant of this island to claim that he is a knave?
2. Is it possible for an inhabitant of the island to claim that he and his brother are both knaves?
3. Suppose an inhabitant A says about himself and his brother B: "At least one of us is a knave." What type is A and what type is B?
4. Suppose A instead says: "Exactly one of us is a knave." What can be deduced about A and what can be deduced about B?
5. Suppose A instead says: "My brother and I are the same type; we are either both knights or both knaves." What could then be deduced about A and B?

Prolog solution

It's been a while since I last code in Prolog, but here's a quick-and-dirty solution that I came up with:

 truth(not(X),true) :- truth(X,false).  
 truth(and(X,Y),true) :- truth(X,true), truth(Y,true).  
 truth(or(X,Y),true) :- truth(X,true) ; truth(Y,true).  
 truth(imp(X,Y),true) :- truth(X,false) ; truth(Y,true).  
 truth(exor(X,Y),true) :- (truth(X,true),truth(Y,false)) ; (truth(X,false),truth(Y,true)).  
 truth(biimp(X,Y),true) :- truth(exor(X,Y),false).  
   
 truth(not(X),false) :- truth(X,true).  
 truth(and(X,Y),false) :- truth(X,false) ; truth(Y,false).  
 truth(or(X,Y),false) :- truth(X,false) , truth(Y,false).  
 truth(imp(X,Y),false) :- truth(X,true) , truth(Y,false).  
 truth(exor(X,Y),false) :- (truth(X,true),truth(Y,true)) ; (truth(X,false),truth(Y,false)).  
 truth(biimp(X,Y),false) :- truth(exor(X,Y),true).  
   
 truth(is_a(knight,knight),true).  
 truth(is_a(knave,knave),true).  
 truth(is_a(knight,knave),false).  
 truth(is_a(knave,knight),false).  
   
 truth(say(knight,Statement),true) :- truth(Statement,true).  
 truth(say(knave,Statement),true) :- truth(Statement,false).  
 truth(say(knight,Statement),false) :- truth(Statement,false).  
 truth(say(knave,Statement),false) :- truth(Statement,true).  

Answer 1: no

 ?- truth(say(A,is_a(knave,A)),TruthValue).  
 A = knight,  
 TruthValue = false ;  
 A = knave,  
 TruthValue = false ;  

If A is a knight, he wouldn't lie by saying he is a knave; if A is a knave, he wouldn't admit that he is.

Answer 2: yes

 ?- truth(say(A,and(is_a(knave,A),is_a(knave,B))),true).  
 A = knave,  
 B = knight .  

Answer 3: A is a knight and B is a knave

 ?- truth(say(A,or(is_a(knave,A),is_a(knave,B))),true).  
 A = knight,  
 B = knave .  

Answer 4: B is a knave, A cannot be determined.

 ?- truth(say(A,exor(is_a(knave,A),is_a(knave,B))),true).  
 A = knight,  
 B = knave ;  
 A = B, B = knave ;  

Answer 5: B is a knight, A cannot be determined.

 ?- truth(say(A,biimp(is_a(knave,A),is_a(knave,B))),true).  
 A = B, B = knight ;  
 A = knave,  
 B = knight ;  

The Search for Arthur York
Inspector Craig: What do you know about Arthur York?
Defendant: Arthur York once claimed that I was a knave.
Inspector Craig: Are you by any chance Arthur York?
Defendant: Yes.
Is the defendant Arthur York?

Let's assume that the defendant is Arthur York, that is truth(say(Defendant,is_a(Defendant,Arthur_York)),true).

 ?- truth(say(Defendant,is_a(Defendant,Arthur_York)),true), truth(say(Defendant,say(Arthur_York,is_a(knave,Defendant))),Truth).  
 Defendant = Arthur_York, Arthur_York = knight,  
 Truth = false ;  
   
 Defendant = knave,  
 Arthur_York = knight,  
 Truth = false ;  

Under this assumption, evaluation of the first claim leads to contradiction. Thus the defendant cannot be Arthur York.

Siang ini terjadi perbincangan mengenai sastra Indonesia di Twitter, yang dimulai oleh teman saya yang sedang membaca Atheis-nya Achdiat K. Mihardja. Kalau bicara tentang sastra Indonesia, sepertinya saya harus mengaku kalah. Sepanjang sejarah pertalian saya dengan buku, tali dengan sastra Indonesia sudah nyaris putus, huhu.

Menilik halaman sastra Indonesia di Wikipedia, berikut adalah daftar buku yang pernah saya baca.

Pujangga Lama
Hikayat Hang Tuah: dibaca semasa SD, sebagian besar karena nama sekolah saya adalah SD Hang Tuah III.


Sastra Melayu Lama
-

Angkatan Balai Pustaka
Merari Siregar - Azab dan Sengsara: saya cukup yakin pernah baca semasa SMP, tapi sama sekali lupa ceritanya.
Marah Roesli - Siti Nurbaya
Abdul Muis - Salah Asuhan

Pujangga Baru
Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana - Layar Terkembang
Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana - Anak Perawan di Sarang Penyamun
Hamka - Di Bawah Lindungan Kabah
Hamka - Tenggelamnya Kapal van der Wijck

Angkatan 1945
Idrus - Dari Ave Maria ke Jalan Lain ke Roma
Achdiat K. Mihardja - Atheis

Angkatan 1950-1960-an
-

Angkatan 1980-1990-an
Hilman Hariwijaya - Lupus Kecil

Angkatan Reformasi
-

Angkatan 2000-an
Dewi Lestari - Supernova I: Ksatria, Puteri, dan Bintang Jatuh
Habiburrahman El-Shirazy - Ayat-ayat Cinta: urgh, horrible
Andrea Hirata - Laskar Pelangi
Andrea Hirata - Sang Pemimpi
Andrea Hirata - Edensor (ga tamat)
Anwar Fuadi - Negeri 5 Menara (ga tamat juga)

Selepas SMA dan pelajaran Bahasa Indonesia, praktis saya langsung lupa dengan keberadaan sastra dalam negeri. Sangat disayangkan sebenarnya; karena kalau bukan kita, siapa lagi yang mengapresiasi sastra Indonesia?

Sesungguhnya kalau dipikir-pikir, karya dalam negeri tidak kalah bagus dari buku-buku impor yang biasa saya baca (kecuali Ayat-ayat Cinta, but maybe that's just me). Liburan kemarin saya membaca Tetralogi Buru-nya Pramoedya Ananta Toer dan saya harus bilang bahwa Bumi Manusia dan Anak Semua Bangsa termasuk buku terbaik yang pernah saya baca.

Satu lagi sebelum post ini disudahi. Mengingat pelajaran Bahasa Indonesia, saya jadi ingat satu puisi yang pernah muncul di soal ujian. I'm not much into poetry, but this one is my favorite. Sejak pertama kali baca di lembar soal sampai sekarang. Apalagi sekarang. Buhuhu.

I'm staying here for the winter break, that's the plan.
Yet these days I feel so very miserable that today I found myself looking for a flight ticket home.

I swear to God I know that I
want to struggle to get by
the fact that all the good things someday die
because all the good things someday die

we wait for the light
to break through the summer night
I hope I run into you tomorrow
and I hope you will talk to me until
the morning comes until the morning comes

Milow - Until The Morning Comes

I'm still not coming home, though.

The view from 80-metres-high Martini Tower.