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Our Film Won Second Place

Alhamdulillah, Our first film ever, an Islamic Short Film, titled Surat (translate: letter) won second place. This short film is made for short movie competition for Indonesian students in Middle East and Africa. The film is made almost without budget (only 1000 yemen riyal or $3.5) and without any proper tools. None of us had the camera, in fact the first takes we tried using phone camera, and we almost rented one. Thankfully the organization we study in that is Ibnu Abbas Scientific Foundation lent us a camera. Our computers also not high end, it's slow to process the captured films. We also didn't have the tool to capture audio, instead we were usi ng our phones. The timing of working also couldn't be more worse. It's in Ramadhan month, which all people sleep from dawn to afternoon here in Yemen. So we can only took pictures hour before dusk, because at night we don't have any proper lighting. Besides all that, I'm really glad that this film
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Bagaimana Video Games Hampir Menghancurkan Hidupku

Bagaimana Video Games Hampir Menghancurkan Hidupku Oleh: Tengku M. Laksamana ~Tolong di share ya~ Tulisan ini sengaja saya buat sebagai social awareness akan bahayanya video games. Saya sebagai mantan video games addict tahu persis bahaya ini dan tahu apa yang saya bicarakan. Kecanduan video games sangat berbahaya, bisa merusak tatanan keluarga dan kehidupan secara umum. Tetapi sampai sekarang, kecanduan video games belum dianggap sebagai penyakit sehingga belum ada treatment khusus secara medical. Sehingga orang-orang kesusahan saat ingin sembuh dari kecanduan video games. Begitupula bagi keluarga yang ingin anggota keluarganya sembuh dari kecanduan ini tidak tahu harus kemana mereka mencari, padahal mereka-mereka ini di Amerika Serikat  Bagaimana dengan di Indonesia, lebih besar kemungkinan para addict tidak mendapat perhatian apapun dan tidak dimengerti siapapun, hingga mereka kembali ke dunia virtualnya untuk melepas penat melarikan diri dari kenyataan. Terus menerus lingkara

Living in Yemen: Ramadhan month

I started the blog this Ramadhan, and now when I'm writing still also in Ramadhan. So I might as well write about this blessed month and how it affects the Yemenis. Ramadhan is the holiest month in Islam. In this 9th of the lunar month, the muslims are obliged to perform fasting - that is to refrain from drinking, eating and sex from dawn to dusk - a full month.  The muslim countries in Ramadhan usually will be more livelier at night. Such as in my country, Indonesia. More shops, food stands or night markets opened at night and there will be shopping frenzies. Same with Yemen. Only that in Yemen, the night is EXTREMELY lively because from dawn to afternoon everybody is sleeping. The road and street would be empty from dawn to afternoon. Then slowly people will crawl to their workplaces, or opening their shops after 4 pm, but still kinda empty. And you will rarely see the women, not because they are forbidden to go out, but they are busy preparing their household fo

I'm Making A Short Film

Just got the info yesterday, there is a competition for Indonesian students that studying in Middle East and Africa to make an Islamic short film about hijrah (migration from wickedness to the way of God). We don't know anything about making film, don't have any equipment to make the film but we want to enter. I'm the scriptwriter and would be the director. Have done the story script and the beat sheet (didn't know this terminology before), now I'm going to draw the storyboards. Maybe later we're going to use camera's phone to shoot, no budget to rent for a good video camera. The deadline is in a month. Everything seems impossible, but let us see how it turns out, because I'm confident with my story. Just want to post this in my blog, as a log. If somehow the film is done, win or not, it will become my first film ever! Update: Entry 18 June 2017: Slow but sure we have captured scene by scene. The problems that I can list on while mak

Living in Yemen: The People

I've stated briefly in my previous post  what is like living in Yemen  that the Yemenis are hospitable people. In this post I'm going to talk great length about it and also my experience with them. As an Indonesian, born and raised in Indonesia, we have always taught that we are very kind and hospitable. When someone in trouble we're going to help, it's okay to talk with stranger, always say the three magic words, friendly with our neighbors and so on. I know and believe that we are kind people, but comparing to Yemeni I'll say that we still have a long way to go. Below I list the trait of Yemenis as I have observed and have day to day interaction with them. There are some differences between the Yemenis who live in the north and the ones that live in the south. I will also list some of the annoyances too. Good traits: 1. HUMBLE  I think I should put this on top of the list even though my list isn't intended to rate which one is better. It just that the

What is like living in Yemen?

If you are like me, an aspiring person to study Islam, living here is great! It's a good place to raise a family in an Islamic environments, good education for the children, the people are legendary hospitable. Moreover if you are single, then living in Yemen can cost you almost nothing! Most Islamic boarding schools here are free of charge, even some of them might giving you a monthly allowance. There are even some universities that provide Islamic studies or 'Ilm Syar'i without tuition fee! If you bring a family, then the expenses will be much higher but the education still free. Although there are places where a family can stay in a free house provided by the school, like I had experienced in Marib. So you can study, as well as your spouse as well as your children. On contrary in Indonesia, which holds the most muslims in the world, Islamic school is the most expensive school. Because of that fewer and fewer people there are learning Islam, first it's not inter

Why I Moved to Yemen

It was a big question in my big family, even now it's still hard for them to fully accept why. I was working as an area manager in East Borneo for a national NGO in Indonesia. I had a wife and two children, I had a car and a house. My life was good, secure and normal, so why - as my father said - throw it all away for something that is unknown. When my brother was getting married, my big families were invited and I knew that there would be a judgement day for my decision, and I wasn't wrong. All the family members were questioning my decision, at that time my parents already gave up and asked them to help sway my decision away. One of my uncle told me why would I go to a violent place like Yemen in a mocking gesture, so I answered him back in a stoical gesture "Because it's a faith". I knew the answer will incite more mocking, of which I deliberately chose. So my uncle said, "that is not an intellectual answer!". So I said to him, in front of al