extraordinary sport

When we feel passionate about something, we automatically feel happy, joy, cheerful, whatever, you can name it. Suddenly, there’s a smile, taking over the other emotions in yourself. That’s actually how I felt when I’m passionate about basketball. Basketball itself has made me into a better person both, in getting my body in shape, and also to build a better attitude and character. Also, it made me to appreciate the gift that God had given to me, and to enjoy playing for God’s glory. I realize that not everyone receives this gift, talent, of playing basketball.

Basketball expands my thoughts, experiences, and put some important values to my life. It turns my life brighter, although sometimes it also made my life a little miserable. At some point, it made me be happy, but sometimes it made me sad or pissed off, but neither way, I ALWAYS enjoy playing basketball. Even sometimes, it really wipes my pain away, and it is also a stress reliever for me.

From this gift that I got, I’d shared it with everyone else around me. I joined Karawaci Youth Sports League for this year, and the previous year, where we had to coach the little kids for 10 weeks. And by just doing that, I felt that I can be a better person who can influence somebody’s life. We’re not just teaching them basketball skills, but also manners, attitudes, and building a good character.

This year’s current basketball team is different than the previous. We’re just starting a season, and now we’re half way through. I really learnt a lot of things from this basketball team, both in skills, and valuable lesson in life. We have a new coach, and I think that’s what made this year’s basketball team to be different.

At the start of the season, there was a problem with jersey’s number. We know that Asian cultures especially Indonesia is different than the other cultures. Asian treats jersey’s number as one of the important things in basketball. But another coach wouldn’t let us choose our own jersey number because she thinks that it wasn’t a big deal, but for me it was. So I got #14, the number that I’m not even expecting it to get. I was so angry, and pissed. Eventually, He taught me to be patience, and try to forgive people. And I started to accept things the way they are, to look on the bright side by having the #14. This was just a small problem that I encountered.

The second valuable thing, yet IMPORTANT, that I got was about FRIENDSHIP. Basketball is all about friendship. In this sport, we build friendship to create teamwork and that what makes us a team. Well, I learnt that those who called as FRIENDS always support each other, in good and in bad times. BEST FRIENDS also wants each other to be happy. Moreover, BEST FRIENDS have to understand each other, and respect the decision that our friends take. The second I realize these things, I began to appreciate my team even more. This is the MOST valuable lessons to me, and my coach and friends opened my eyes and made me realize of these.

There were times when I felt lonely, and from that, I learnt to be STRONG by knowing that our GOD is always there for us. This is NOT just an ordinary sport, but an EXTRAORDINARY one for me.

P.S: Sorry I was late. Internet problems.
-del #14

Music = Joy of Living a Life :) - Frederick

This is my blog since I can’t write it on Thursday. So I write it now before it’s too late. *aaa*

Here it goes…

Today, I want to talk about music. Hearing music is kind of my daily activity. Personally, the type of music I like for this current time is instrumental rock, latin jazz, latin traditional and jazz traditional. I want to talk about my all-time favorite band, Dream Theater.

In my life, I think this is the only band that amazes me with their music composition. They have one song that is like 25 minutes length; we can assume that a 25-minutes-song will be very boring right? Well, this band that gives out their song “A Change of Seasons” breaks that assumption. This song is very cool and it is not boring. It is a medley of five or more songs and all of them are great.

I think this band is awesome since most of their songs are featuring a mood. The song “Hollow Years” give the sorrow feeling and at the refrain the song starts to be more into the feeling. The song “I Walk Beside You” is much more cooler. The beat on that song makes my heart pounding. I think almost all of their songs are good. Really good.

As we know, music makes the world go round. I personally think this statement is true because without music I don’t think I can concentrate on doing my work and be relaxed. Doesn’t believe me? I write this ‘amazing-fabulous-miraculous-sparkling’ blog while I am hearing music. Dream Theater music actually. Seriously, try it guys. :)

-Frederick

James' Post

Sorry, James couldn't post because of his Internet.

He will post his blog tomorrow.

Sorry for this inconvenient post.

-Frederick

True Freedom - Thompson IV

What is true freedom? That is the question I pondered when I just did my Bahasa Indonesia essay. We all know about freedom is; people who studies history knows what freedom is... freedom usually was put to the term when a country gain independence from a conqueror. Freedom also put in many different things like Freedom to speech, freedom to choose. So the basic thing is that using the word freedom is meant that we are free on a certain something that are constraining us.

I have heard a term which when one desire nothing one gains true freedom. I think it is the Buddhist term for enlightenment. Personally, I think people misunderstand this as a true freedom. I read a book once about some story of Buddhist monks, one of them said that "Our mind and soul are just like the mirror, we have to clean it everyday in order to make it clean" here it stated that to make it clean, what it meant is clean from the dust that attach to the mirror which is in this metaphor is the evil in the world . A smarter monk argued that "If our mind and soul are pure there are is actually nothing, therefore no dust or impurities are attach to us" from this argue the monks decided to take the idea of the smarter monk. This means in my theory is that having no desire is not true freedom, they just free from desire, they have nothing that constraining them. What they have is emptiness and nothingness not a true freedom, in my opinion though.

Another type of freedom are the freedom from fate. We born as human, either a woman or a man. We can call that fate, but nonetheless we are not able to free from that fate, does true freedom also included this freedom of fate? We born to live as humans why not animals? we don't have the power to do so thats why we call it fate.

I read some people about True Freedom in a Christianity point of view that "True Freedom is not the freedom to sin but the freedom from the power of sin" quiet an offset what the True Freedom that I have in mind. Even if we are free from the power of sin we are not free from the power of fate isn't it?

What I had in mind about this "True Freedom" is that not a single soul can achieve this True Freedom. True Freedom is obtained by God and God himself. Even if we died we did not gain any "True Freedom". We do not gain the freedom to manipulate time and space or to create a world out of physical reality. Only God is the only one that can do such things. Any comments about this opinion?

-Thompson-

a short story entitled "A Second Chance at Life"

*just a random story I wrote. It's based on a true story. Sorry if it's boring or if the grammar is really bad. enjoy reading it ! xD

A Second Chance at Life

Susan came from a bad family background. Her dad died when she was young and her mother had remarried. She was unloved and that was probably why she likes going out during the night to party and participate in bad and dangerous things. Luke, on the other hand, came from a good background, and a much respected family. His childhood was pleasant and memorable, and he was brought up by great parents and brothers. He got the chance to do all kinds of crazy, outgoing stuff without his parents knowing; probably because he was a trusted young boy.

Susan was around 16 years old when she became pregnant to her boyfriend, Luke. The two of them weren’t surprised about this news, but both of their families were shocked; especially Luke’s family. Who would’ve thought that Luke would fall in love with a nightlife girl and have a baby before marriage?

Keeping the baby was an instantaneous decision; they were so young, but they thought they were meant to be. Other than that, both of them felt prepared to accept the role as parents. Susan didn’t want to have an abortion because she thought that the key to keeping her relationship with Luke alive was the baby. In a way, she also wanted the baby because she didn’t have the heart to have an abortion, and she didn’t see the point in killing an innocent child. After all, the baby was also a part of her flesh and blood, for goodness sake; basically, there was no way she was getting rid of it.

They were so excited that they bought so many things for the baby. Everyone around them saw them as the perfect couple even though their parents never agreed.

Susan got pregnant without telling Luke’s family and her family. Because Luke came from a very good background, his parents were really upset when they found out about the whole thing. So, Luke’s parents came to a conclusion that Luke had to take responsibility for the baby, even though his parents wished that they could just turn back time and prevent this baby from ever being conceived – it was the right thing their son should have done.

Both families finally had a small gathering between them and a couple of others; this was to keep the marriage quiet because they didn’t want anyone else to know about it. During the pregnancy, Susan always went to Luke’s house to spend the night.

Afterwards, the baby was born and he was the healthiest baby that they had ever seen! They were overjoyed. But the problems had just started. After they got out of the hospital, Susan decided to live in Luke’s house permanently.

Every morning, babies have to be taken out to the sun because it improves their skin. But Susan never did that because she wasn’t responsible enough to do it. Basically, the one who took care of the baby was either her mother in law or her maid. Every night she would hang around with Luke and their other friends; they’d do things such as clubbing, racing cars and all of those crazy and dangerous things! Everything was just too over the top!

One day, she was racing the car with a friend before she lost control. She yelled to give signals of help… But no one understood them. They all thought that it was some random thing that she was saying. BANG! She hit her head on the steering wheel. Blood started spilling everywhere and her friends started freaking out. Luckily, she was saved because her friends were fast enough to get her to the hospital and the doctors worked really hard to save her.

When she was still unconscious, she had a dream that made her realize that what she had done and that the person she had become was someone that was not satisfied with what she had. When she opened her eyes and saw Luke in front of her and the people that cared for her; the ones that were with her the whole time, she thanked God for it. From then on, she realized that her life was filled with amazing blessings… especially her baby, who should be taken care of very well because he was a true blessing from God.

She promised God to spend more time with Him and start from the beginning to have a better life in return for saving her life. She thanked him for giving her a second chance to fix all of the mistakes that she had made in the past.

-stePh-

Laptops Anyone? - Frederick

As we know, laptop these days are very good and catchy. Me myself want a laptop for my study since I don’t have one. When I browse in the Internet, I found a very cool looking laptop. That laptop is the Alienware. Alienware is the best gaming laptop out there. It has the specification just like a desktop. Which is amazing.

At first I asked my parents if I could buy that shiny-black-onyx laptop. This laptop’s main material is not made of steel. It is made of lithium metal that is lighter and environmentally friendly. This laptop is like a dream item for me, because the price is not cheap. Alas, I should find another substitute for this laptop.

I browsed the Internet. When I look at Sony Vaio’s website, I see another cool looking ultra-portable laptop that is only 11.1” inch. This laptop is also good since the specification of this laptop is also good. Well not as good as the Alienware, but it is quite good. After drooling so much, I was frightened by its price. It says that it is about US$4000 for this ultra-portable laptop. I think I should find another one. But when I want to browse to other websites, I saw the advertisement of a cheap Sony Vaio laptop. It is only about US$3000 and with the quality above the US$4000 one. I checked, how can this happen?

After I checked why, I found out that it is only because of the size. This US$3000 one is 13”. Gosh… the difference is only 1.9”. Is it really worth to pay US$1000 more for a 1.9” smaller size? I guess not. So yes, I post this blog to let you all know how much is the difference in price of a smaller size laptop with less memory and stuffs. I tell you, it’s not worth it. J

-Frederick

life..

Life in IB had been very busy, especially this week. As if like this week is the climax out of the past 2 months. I am becoming a temporary nerd this week. There was a biology test today, and the day before I was studying extremely hard. Moreover, there is a Business test tomorrow, and math test the day after tomorrow. Thank God, the biology test was over, I was so happy, but at the same time, I realize that I still got 2 tests to go for THIS week. Just after school, I went to study business together with Jacqueline Utomo, Tara and Shelly at coffee bean. It really helps a lot in studying for the test tomorrow as we were discussing about the case study and all of the information that was being given by the teacher. Today I was plain stressed out because a lot of things, including all those problems in my life, but mainly, because of the test tomorrow. I know I can’t afford failure as the result of the test because if I fail, I’ll fail business for my term one. I didn’t want that to happen.

Today I also had math tutor with my teacher in my house. She was shocked after seeing the result of my previous math test. Then, she made me do a lot of math questions. I was so tired until I fell asleep that time, with my head on the book, still holding the pencil. My teacher woke me up then, and I was so embarrassed.

Besides studying, my days are filled up with basketball! Even though sometimes, I got frustrated and pissed, but I don’t know why, I’m still joining every practice. Actually, joining the basketball team is what makes me love school! Especially if there is a game right after school. Playing basketball makes my study time lesser, and also my rest time. But I simply don’t care, as long I’ll do my BEST in everything and work hard on it everyday.

All of the stress, I’ve been going through, thank GOD, my friends are always there for me. I’m so grateful having friends like them; they are there in all of situations. And because of them, even though I’m having a difficult time, but at the same time, I can also enjoy my teenage life with them by my side. (:

Now, it’s exactly 10: 43 pm. I am writing this blog with my half eyes only. I have to get enough sleep, but I got to study for business test tomorrow. There’s something just came across to my mind. You know what, Thank God; we don’t have homework for English. Thank you Ms. Jess!!!!

Sorry, this time going to be a short blog from me. I apologize, Miss Jess! I’ll write much longer next week. I promise =)

Adela R