A Gift

What is the most interesting present that you have ever received in your life?

When someone gives you a present, you must be very happy, don’t you? There are a lot of reasons why people buy presents for others. To celebrate graduation, having a baby, get marriage etc.  Or maybe, it is not only about buying the present but also creating or making product. Whether the gift was bought or created, it will surely be appreciated by the receiver.

Sometimes, the gift is a special creation by someone “gifted”, and it become a unique one-of-a-kind appreciation for the receiver, and it feels great to receive such gift.

Recently, I received a gift from my previous student. The gift is so special because he made “this project” after I introduced him to free software Google SketchUp during one lesson. The gift really shows his appreciation since he explored himself the technique needed to create a very futuristic 3D figure based on his imagination. From a simple lesson in Maths class become a marvelous design. The lessons also enabled him to nurture his hobby to create and share his own SketchUp based design. This is one of the best gift I have ever had 🙂

Hereby, I attach his email citation to me with the screen capture of his “Chrome Delta Space Ship”.

Hi, ma’am.

…….

Anyway, I never got a chance to properly say thank you
for introducing me to SketchUp, and a proper goodbye. The
file I have attached here is part of what basically is a
friendly competition between me and Nathan Hartanto. We sent
SKP files for Space ships designs. I have made two, one is
the one I sent in this mail, and one other I made for
practice. He made a highly detailed escape pod, and what
looks like a plain but somehow coordinated shape of the
ship. We’re done with that war when he started writing, and
he asked me to do revisions for him. That still continues
today. Shame about not being in the same class though.

The interior is not done, but you can either walk in
through the hangar door under the back thrusters, or just
X-Ray the whole ship. Underneath the front thrusters (To
make amends to what Star Wars did wrong, the lack of
opposing force to decelerate ships in space), is a landing
gear, and underneath both wings are two more landing gears.
There are a total of six thrusters, Two in the back, one in
each wing, and two in the front. Nathan commented on the
uneffective design on the hangar, saying that a ship should
not carry many fighters, and that the hangar should be able
to fit at least three on one drop. But, it was made
aesthetics first.

If you have never introduced me to SketchUp, this would
not have been possible. I never would’ve made a dozen more
projects, and this ship to satisfy my imagination. So for
that, I formally here in this e-mail would like to say thank
you, ma’am. Thank you.

Also,…… I’d like to also say good bye to you,
and hope that somewhere else, you may help other students
progress. Your teaching style is quite top notch ma’am, and
I am sure your son is grateful to have a mother like you.

One last thing, …… I wanted
something better to present. Something that would make
people kinda have a sense of disbelief that this project was
made from scratch by a then eight grader. I believe I’ve
done it, in my own honest opinion, and though it’s very
late, consider this a farewell gift. I want to create a
version 2,0 of the similar ship from scratch, but that needs
time. So, this’ll do.

Picture 9

Picture 3

Picture 6

Picture 7

Picture 8

Picture 4 

2 thoughts on “A Gift”

  1. Stating that the gift will always be appreciated by the receiver is sometimes kind of a subjective thing, ma’am. Because there usually is a certain expectation when you are given a gift, that’s why in movies or shows there usually are a line when they receive a gift, “A ring? a watch? Oh, it’s a rock”. They might still thank them afterwards, but is it really from deep down where they really mean the thanks?

    Complaint aside, there’s actually a modified version of this where several parts been renovated. The idea of making one from scratch has been scrapped, but I am making a new compact ship. Speaking of compact ship, Nathan has made an escape pod-ish kind of design, and it is probably one of the best creations I’ve seen. It’s very detailed in the inside, and outside it keeps it clean. There are also those little details like numbering, and little things that you can’t see without X-Ray. I’ll ask him to send it.

    1. Ah si Arno ini 🙂 Sulit ya terima kalau saya sangat apresiasi terhadap apa yang kamu kerjakan? Ini jangan-jangan terlalu sering dibilang “kurang bagus karyanya” nih sama guru-gurumu 🙂
      Saya berikan sesederhana mungkin materi pengenalan 3D modelling, karena saya percaya, sekecil apapun itu, akan benar-benar mampu membuat seorang anak menjajaki level cara berpikirnya. Tetapi yang saya dapatkan adalah banyak dari kalian yang menghasilkan karya yang “wow” (I even couldn’t explain it with words), luar biasa baik, punya daya imaginasi bagus, yang bahkan di mata sesama anak-anak sering ucap “yaaahh gitu doang hasilnya” tetapi bagi saya sudah ada lompatan imaginasi yang baik.
      Lalu, setelah materi itu berakhir, tidak semua anak ada minat dan terus punya waktu untuk mengembangkannya lebih dalam, kamu dan Nathan adalah termasuk yang “bisa menjadi suka” untuk menjadikan itu hobi, dan kamu yang menghadiahkan “hobby” rancanganmu itu kepada saya. Kurang bahagia gimana coba saya? 🙂

      So, Arno, keep study hard ya, and keep in your mind that you have done a good job in our lesson. You don’t have to understand all now about what I’ve said above 🙂 but someday, you will understand more.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

snowflake snowflake snowflake snowflake snowflake snowflake snowflake snowflake