The Rants, Complains and Nothingness

Finally, I have just setup my new blog under wordpress, this blog will be inactive after this, so please visit my new blog in wordpress instead :). Click here to visit!

Selama ini gw cuma pernah baca di koran2 atau di televisi mengenai penutupan gereja oleh saudara2 kita yang tidak sepaham, tapi kemarin pulang ke Jakarta terus dengar kabar dari nyokap kalau gereja Damai, tempat gw dipermandikan, tempat gw bersekolah dan beribadah di Jakarta, yang jaraknya ga sampe 1 km dari rumah ternyata juga ditutup baru2 ini. Waktu itu ga sempet kunjungi romo Widyo untuk mengklarifikasi berita ini, jadi kemarin sms romo untuk support perjuangannya dan tanya tentang situasinya, romo Widyo mengkonfirmasi kalau gereja masih ditutup dan mereka masih berjuang untuk membuka kembali gereja yang sebenarnya sudah sejak lama dibuka(dengan ijin!!!) sejak jaman bokap juga sekolah disana. Cuma karena mereka mau membangun gedung yang berdekatan dengan gereja, orang2 yang tidak suka di sekitar lingkungan gereja mengklaim bahwa pihak paroki damai mau membangun gereja tersebut dan mereka pun demo sampai akhirnya Camat pun mengeluarkan surat untuk menutup gereja. Menurut romo Widyo masalah ini sedang diperjuangkan oleh Komisi Waligereja Indonesia(KWI) dan telah dibawa ke Komnas HAM. Mohon dukungan doanya dari teman2 semua yg baca entry ini. Semoga perjuangan para pengurus paroki dan romo Widyo dapat selalu diberkati oleh-Nya.

Link untuk kronologi yang lebih jelas disini

From the whole six days I spent at Hongkong, I didn’t really go to a lot of places and I can definitely say that IT IS NOT A VACATION!!! Well, no regret though, Hongkong was not bad at all, different climate, interesting landscapes, hilly areas, nicely built bridges, tall buildings, great food and an unforgettable tournament. The first three days was dedicated to training and rest, didn’t really go to some interesting places, only Mongkok, a street market and shopping center and Maritime Square, a mall that is around 20 minutes walking distance from our Hotel. The rest was spent around the hotel area. Fourth and the fifth day was entirely spent for the tournament, with the farewell dinner slipped in at the latter. Last day was tourist day for a half day before we left HK

The tournament was unexpectedly interesting, although at first I was very sceptical. The Kazakhstanis and the Iranians basically dominating the show, specially in Kumite, with the Japanese showing their prowess in Kata competition. I’m really surprised to see how the game has changed compared to 10 years ago. The bad ones are the play-acting, lesser contact(maybe due to the speed of the game), over imaginative bunkais(ever see any Unshu-esque sokuto geri in Suparinpei? Or… the best… splits?) and my old body ;p but there’s also a lot of good things I found there. The speed of the game is definitely faster, specially those Iranians and Kazakhstanis!!! They are damn bloody fast! But not only that, those Kazakhstanis are damn good in sweeps and throws. There’s one particular throw that I like and definitely will try to use it in the training. The spirit of the game was also great, no ill feeling toward other players are shown exaggeratedly and in the end, all competitors respected each other and very friendly with each other. It’s good to see something like that in a game that requires physical contact like Karate.

I did mention to some of my friends that this will be my last tournament, but after seeing those kind of throws being used in the game and seeing how fast the Kazakhstanis throw his ura-mawashi geri to my face, I’m only becoming too eager to increase my level to get back at them Well, I definitely won’t give the tournament as my priority anymore, but I definitely want to make myself faster, more agile, more powerful and technically better… In one word, I want to make my karate better It’s time to concentrate to my traditional training again, so my dream of training in Okinawa won’t be vanished. Got to set some targets to achieve, until the next posts boys and girls! Onegaishimasu!!!

FINALLY I READ WIMAR’S NO REGRET!!! I heard about the book around one year ago if I’m not wrong, after I read Wimar’s biography, was scrambling around Kinokuniya and Border, asks some friends to look for the book in Gramedia(Batam and Jakarta) to no avail. I do know that I can order it via Equinox Publishing, but the packaging fee and the delivery fee was quite a draw off considering I was only going to buy one book. Last month I subscribed myself for a library membership, but I haven’t used it since I’m concentrating on my security book currently. But Last week since I was borrowing some books for my wife, I was also browsing around the catalog looking for some interesting books, and you know what, No Regrets is available!! So I reserved the book, collected it on Friday, set aside the security book until I finished No Regret! hahaha…

As the title says, I have no regret at all!! The way Wimar tells his story is more to the jumping around here and there kind of style, without real structure, but when you read it, the feeling of him actually telling you the story in front of yourself is very vivid. You know, it’s like when your gramps telling you about their younger glory days, the timeline is not important, but the story itself that is important. I have read Greg Barton’s biography of Gus Dur, and this book really feels like the missing link of the whole story. All doubts of Gus Dur has finally cleared, and I’m happy to say that he’s the best president I ever had. It is true that opinion building is the most effective weapon for politician, in fact, I admit that I also got affected by the bad publication of the press during Gus Dur’s reign as our president. But I do realized when finally ibu Mega became president, that the whole affair was just a political game by those corrupt, ambitious and traitorous politicians. Anyway, the point is, READ THE BOOK!!! It’s Wimar’s usual no nonsense writing combined with his sincerity and an ordinary people perspective. Definitely a great book, and because of it, I’m very tempted to start reading my Buru quartets, but I think I really have to concentrate on my security book again…

I would like to ask anyone who has blog or website to put up with all the other netters to echo our concern of the tragedy in Burma by posting one post about Burma in your blog or website and sign a petition here.

Lately I have been training with Chishi a lot, so I would like to share my amazement with this hojo undo(supplementary training) tool that might be one of the most useful and versatile one from Goju-Ryu’s array of tools for hojo undo. Due to my knee injury, I’m not able to do aerobic type of exercise and also some fast and explosive movements that utilize my knee. Because of that, I’m paying more attention to the good old Chishi.

Chishi, a stone lever, is a traditional karate supplementary tool. It is very simple in design, but training with it brings wonders such as:
1.Improving gripping power
2.Building wrist strength and flexibility
3.Building the back muscles to a proper posture - this is very important in martial arts, since proper technique needs proper posture
4.You will learn to use more back muscles that are larger compared to the limb or chest muscles. This will also improve the delivery of the techniques executed.
5.Some practitioners have the habit of not really blocking properly to the outside when doing yoko uke, chishi can help to dish out this bad habit
6.Not only yoko uke, but we can also train the strength and muscle stamina for other blocks like age uke, gedan harai and also shotei uke
7.Realize it or not, most of the trainings with chishi are circular in motion, either they are big or small

Of course many more things can be added, but the message is: I look at the chishi in a different view, in which it can only improve my training and helps me to better understand martial arts

Senjitsu no keiko tan to ii, banjitsu no keiko ren to yuu!!! - Miyamoto Musashi

My condolences for the victims of Burma’s military junta brutality and hats off to Burmese monks and laities that courageously risking their lives for the better future. We need to show support to them in any ways we can and pray for them to finally be able to bring down the military junta. God bless the Burmese!!!

Did anyone saw Live the Dream yesterday night? One or two contestants looked promising, but that’s not what I want to talk about. The guest performer, from a contest called "Superband"(a-supposedly-singing-contest-by-groups), although I don’t know whether they’re the winner of the contest but I presume they are judging by their confidence and such, by the name of… errr… something like… Mi bla bla bla???, was damn bloody hilarious!!! The only acceptable performance was the first 5 seconds, and afterwards… disaster is not even the proper word for me!!! Their performance was even worse than the contestants, and I can safely say that it was the worst performance by a band I saw in a television show.

Now, I don’t want to disdain the viewer of Superband’s taste in music, but for me, they’re damn bloody awful!!! First, the theme of the show was "ROCK", and the guest performer should be a rock band, not some cute teenagers that, once again, for me not even good for a pop band. Second, the voice range of the lead singer can’t even hit the low and the high notes for their OWN SONG, add to that, the background vocalist was lousy. Third, I just found out that the band name is Mi Lu Bing, and they’re the WINNER of Superband!!! Where’s Simon when you need him?

Indonesia tanah airku, Tanah tumpah darahku.
Disanalah aku berdiri, Jadi pandu ibuku.
Indonesia kebangsaanku, Bangsa dan Tanah Airku.
Marilah kita berseru "Indonesia bersatu."

Indonesia Raya,
Merdeka, Merdeka
Hiduplah Indonesia Raya.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA KEMERDEKAAN REPUBLIK INDONESIA UNTUK SAUDARA2 SEBANGSA DAN SETANAH AIR!!! MERDEKA!!!

Just finished another two books, Bubishi - the Bible of Karate and a biography of P.K.Ojong, one of Kompas’ founder and a prominent journalist. I’ve also just finished chapter 35 of Pluto, a remake of Tetsuwan Atom by Ozamu Tezuka.

For traditionalist, Bubishi should be very interesting. The book was a revered book that was valued by most of karate masters in Okinawa. The name Goju-Ryu was derived from one of the phrase inside the book: "Ho Goju Donto" - The way of breathing is hard and soft; Mabuni Sensei also use this book as a reference for his style, Shito-Ryu. This book is one of the evidence of the connection between Okinawan Karate(Toudi Jutsu - as it was called) and Chinese Quan Fa, which derived from some Quan Fa styles such as Whopping Crane and Monk Fist Style. Of course there’s other styles that influenced the development of Karate, but these two styles are the most prominent one. Aside from the historical side, the book also talks about traditional medicines, vital points, and bunkai or application. The techniques used is not only atemi-waza(strikes), but also tegumi(grappling), kyusho-jutsu(vital points), kanzetsu-waza(joint manipulations) and shime-waza(chokes).

Sports karate style competition is good, in the sense that it is aerobically demanding, build up confidence, speed-oriented and also helps karate propagate all over the world. But it also lacks a lot of practices that was common before it was popularized. Junbi undo(preparation) has changed since the emphasize has also changed, hojo undo(equipments) training is rarely seen nowadays, kata has been changed so it only looks good, but in result, the bunkai has also changed from the original intention. Maybe for youngster who only looks at the competitive side, it’s not a problem. But for someone whose looking for a deeper understanding of karate, sports oriented styles aren’t enough. Usually they’re looking for something that they believe is usable on self defense encounter on the street, something that should be effective against any kind of attacks, and something that can bring down the opponent at the soonest time. Traditional karate fortunately still has it, and this book is a great reference/introduction to it. The author, Patrick McCarthy was a very competitive athlete, but he has look to the abandoned side of karate(by most of its practitioner). The focus has again started to shift from mainland Japan to the Ryukyu Islands(Okinawa) and also to China. A lot of practitioners are trying to dig the old practices and value it more than ever because of its original intention: self defense instead of competition.

Next book is the biograhy of P.K.Ojong, one of the founder of Kompas, written by Helen Ishwara of Kompas Gramedia group. Overall, the book is very interesting, the language style used is very flowing and easily understandable. There’s a lot of minor details that brings the reader closer to Ojong himself when reading the book. For me, this book can be read by all segments of people such as entreprenuers, since Ojong build Kompas Gramedia group together with Jacob Oetama as the main actors from the formation years until Kompas become an icon name in a lot of households providing updated and no compromise news every morning; journalists themselves can also read what kind of man he was, even after being threatened by government of the old order and the new order, but his principles of morality and his belief in democracry never fade away; students and teachers also can follow him in looking for knowledge, valuing books for self development and study as a lifelong process; and all of us ordinary people, since Ojong is also an ordinary person, but with extraordinary will, work ethic and of course heart, he has been an influence to a lot of younger generation that aspire to follow path. One of the prominent younger generations are brothers: Soe Hok Djin(Arief Budiman) and Soe Hok Gie, Goenawan Mohamad of Tempo and also his Kompas co-founder, Jacob Oetama.

Last thing I want to mention is the manga: Pluto by Naoki Urasawa, a remake of Tetsuwan Atom. Thanks to Indra for introducing me this manga(in fact he introduced a lot of manga to me, many thanks!) I did watched Tetsuwan Atom before, but I can’t really remember the storyline, but from what I read in the internet, more or less, the main storyline is the same. The artwork is quite typical of Naoki Urasawa(Yawara, Monster, 20th Century Boys), and the storyline is darker than Tetsuwan Atom(this is only my opinion, since I only remember the original was more colorful ;p). The main character is not Atom though, but Gesicht, a Europol robot-investigator. The storyline and the depiction of the world is very believable, even the Iraq invasion(in Pluto it was Persia/Iran) by the USA(in Pluto it’s USF) is also depicted inside the manga, of course with a Weapon of Mass Destruction(WMD) included
I still has some more books to finish, Habibie’s book, Taiko which I have abandoned since I came here, Father Magniz’ book about socialism, and I also need to start learning my security book well, I would like to get Pram’s book, specially Buru tetralogy, but I’m not really sure whether it can be found it Batam or not. I’m also wondering why Homunculus manga hasn’t been out for a long period and also still looking for new mangas that’s interesting. Maybe I will read 20th Century Boys since I haven’t finish reading it also. Ahh… so many things to read, so little time