18.5.08

What John Mayer Says About Life

John Mayer is one of my favourite male singer. His songs have influenced me since about 4 years ago. He is like teaching me how to live in this world. Here are some lyrics from his songs that teach me about living in this messy world.

"They love to tell you 'stay inside the line'
But something's better on the other side"

This is from the song called "No Such Thing". In this world, many people love to live in their comfort zone. They, including myself, tend to be "stay inside the line" because they are affraid if "the other side" will bring unluck for them. But actually, sometimes there is another world outside "our world" that is better from "ours". And how can we get out from "our world" and have an excitement to live in "the outside world"? I think it's about a decision to make. We have to choose whether we'd rather choose the comfort zone or get some crazy challenges from "the outside world".

" 'Cause I wonder sometimes
About the outcome
Of a still verdictless life
Am I living it right?"

This comes from the song called "Why Georgia". This part usually makes me think about the outcome of what I have done, the impact to others, to the environment, whether people or the world will accept my behaviour or not. As the result, I try to do things right so it will bring the good things as outcomes, to another people or the environment.

"My stupid mouth
has got me in trouble
I said too much again"

This comes from the song called "My Stupid Mouth". Many people talks about everything without thinking whether it may have bad impacts or not for themselves, without counting whether what they say is true or false. This part make me rethink when I wanna say or write something.

"Scared of a world outside
You should go explore
Pull all the shades and
Wander the great indoors"

This is from the song called "The Great Indoors". Like my first quotation, this part encourages me to look outside "my own world" and try to live there too.

This song tells me to be the change agent in this world, although it means that we have to be in a system structure, for example government struture. It's not that we can't do anything if we stand at the distance, but it's kind of difficult to give a great impact to the society. But for me, I'll choose to stand outside the struture because actually it's not comfortable enough for me to be in a system structure. So, I'll just be a change agent for the little scoupe of my environment.

"Stop this train
I wanna get out and go home again
I can't take the speed
It's moving in
I know I can
But honestly will someone stop this train?"

This comes from the song called "Stop This Train". The word 'train' is an analogue for 'life'. This life goes out so fast that sometimes we can't ever imagine. Sometimes we feel tired in our life that we wanna get some rest. But we can't make it stop, right? So be it. But it does'nt mean that you can give up your life. Even you feel tired sometimes, don't take a rest too long because you will waste a lot of your time.

Well, I guess I'm done with John Mayer lyrics. Next time, I'll right down another lyrics from the others.

17.5.08

The Importance of TheSupporters' Existance

I have just watched The Indonesian Uber Cup (one of the world badminton competition) team played against China in the final. Well, based on the quality, the China players were much better than the Indonesian. But overall, I satisfy with the Indonesian team. The Indonesian players have shown great efforts in the final, even their stamina were not so good. Well done, Indonesia.

Although the Indonesian team was not predicted to be one of the finalists, the players could play at their best. I think one of the factors which can make a person/a team play well is the supporters. Indonesian supporters (who were Indonesian too) are one of the greatest supporters in the world (excluding football supporters of course). The Indonesian supporters always give their support to the team, develop the team's spirit, and encourage the team to win the game in positive ways. They make insidental banners, worn ribbons that were tied on their hands/heads, create creative taglines to be screamed in the middle of the game. I really like it. Those make the team's spirit go up so that they give everything to win the game.

I have just realized the importance of the supporters' existence in any kind of games. If there are supporters for a person/a team in a game, the person's/team's spirit can be developed. The player(s) will give their best effort to win the game with/without thinking about the result. Without the supporters' existence, the team may not have more spirit to win the game. The player(s)'s mentality can be going down.

I just talked to my friend who is the baskeball girl team's captain in our major in the university. She had to get through this day so bad. Actually perhaps it was because what she had been through the day before. Today she had to lead the team in semifinal phase against HMTL (environment engineering student organization). In that game, the MTI supporters didn't give all their effort to encourage the team. As the team captain, my friend didn't like it so much. She was angry and upset about why the supporters didn't act as what was expected. She couldn't accept it because she thought it would make the team enthusiastic. The team might not play well today. But thank God, fortunately the team could win the game.

So, you can see from the two examples above that the supporters existence in any kind of games is really important for a player(s). But to encourage the player(s), the supporters must not do the bad things, like do things that are related to racism, throw any kind of things to the opponent(s), insult the opponent(s), etc. If the supporters do the bad things, it will bring a disaster(s) for theirselves and for the player(s) too.