KRIWIL

Hello people! It's currently 36 minutes past 11 pm, 29th July 2011, in Singapore.

Indonesian Soccer/ Football

Recently, the 2014 World Cup Qualification matches have started, and Indonesia played against Turkmenistan, whom we lost against during the 2012 Olympics. Thanks to the AFF Cup, I've become more aware of the progress of the Indonesian soccer world. I can't really judge whether the team has made progress or not, because I didn't really pay attention previously, but what bugs me the most is (or was) the management of PSSI (the soccer organisation in Indonesia). You know, Indonesia went to the final round of the AFF Cup, and we were playing against Malaysia. I didn't know how, but suddenly, the Indonesian soccer team (Timnas) became this really awesome thing in Indonesia, and everybody was talking about it. Whenever I go out, I could also see people selling Timnas jerseys, and on the news, you could see, hear or read news about how suddenly Indonesians desperately wanted to attend the matches themselves, the tickets would be sold out just hours after they were sold, and some people would even camp in front of the stadium to secure a ticket for them and their friends. Simply put, it was really epic, but a bit too exaggerated. Our Timnas played wonderfully in the early stages of AFF Cup, until the team managers started arranging less urgent activities for them. At the finals, we lost to Malaysia, and according to my understanding, it was because of the lack of focus of the players, which was due to the unnecessary stuff on their schedule.

In Indonesia, we also have 2 Indonesian soccer leagues, IPL and ISL. ISL is the official one managed by PSSI, and IPL is sort of an illegal league started by I-can't-remember-who. It's illegal because (if I'm not mistaken), there's only supposed to be one league in a country, and consequently, FIFA threatened that if PSSI cannot handle the IPL, they'll take some sort of action against our soccer players. I can't really blame the IPL for making the PSSI get threatened really. The guy who founded IPL actually started IPL because the ISL had some major problems and stuff. So he wanted the Indonesian players to be able to play fair and square, and so the solution was to make another Indonesian soccer league.

Anyway, the point is, even if our players have talent, we're not gonna make it far if the management from PSSI is substandard. At the moment, I think there has been some improvement. A new PSSI leader has been elected, and guess what? He fired the previous Timnas coach, Alfred Riedl. Actually, I don't really know why he did it, because Riedl was a great coach, right? But never mind, the substitute coach is pretty good too. The coach now is

Okaaay, back to the point. So thankfully, Indonesia beat Turkmenistan fair and square. The result was: Indonesia 5-4 Turkmenistan (aggregate). I hope we'll do better for the next match, and hopefully, we'll survive until the final rounds of the qualification, if not, more.

(Gonzales and Boaz, after Gonzales scored his second goal in the 2nd leg)

AFS Student Exchange Program

As I've said before... I've passed 3 rounds of qualifications for the student exchange program, and right now, the judges are in the midst of deciding which participants should be on this student exchange program. And I really really hope I'll be one of them.

(This part was written the next morning, because I got too sleepy to continue typing -_-)

Now, my dad gave me a dollar, and he told me to look at it every day, and pray to God that I get through the final round of qualification :D Personally, I feel that it's a good idea, although I'm not sure why.

Tuesdays With Morrie

My school has this reading program whereby each month, each class is given the task to read a certain book. For this month, we're supposed to read Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. Personally, I feel that it's an AMAZING BOOK. It's really inspirational, you can certainly learn a lot from it, and the best thing is that it's non-fiction! I'm really in awe with Morrie Schwartz. Even though he was dying, he didn't want to draw back from the world, and he used his remaining time to share his experience, knowledge and advice to people from all over the world. If you haven't read it, I'll recommend you to put it in your must-read-soon list, and trust me, you won't regret it.

The Hunger Games (movie out on 23rd March 2012)

Have I talked about THG before? I don't really remember. Well, if I haven't, THG is a trilogy by Suzanne Collins, it's pretty popular right now, and it is currently being made into a movie, which will come out on 23rd March 2012. I have read the trilogy (just recently actually), and I just love it so much. It's actually one of my favourite books now. If you haven't read it, I would suggest you to put it in your must-read-soon list too!

Simply put, the books are about Panem and the rebellion, and the main character here is Katniss Everdeen. Katniss comes from one of the districts, district 12, and she volunteered to replace her sister in the annual Hunger Games. The Games was a yearly event whereby 24 children from the age 12-17 from the 12 districts are reaped and placed in an arena where they have to fight to their death. The one who didn't die in the arena wins. Now, during the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta from district 12 participated, and they ended up winning the Hunger Games, I mean both of them won, when only one of them was supposed to win. And how did they do this? They played a really clever trick. Now, that's the short summary of the first book. Of course, the story's not as simple as that, I missed the love-triangle part and much more. The second book is also situated during one of the Hunger Games, and the third book is all about the uprisings and how the rebels defeated the Capitol. It's an amazing book, and you SHOULD read it. Soon. No, maybe NOW.

Yesterday afternoon, when I came back home from school, I logged into Tumblr, and I saw these THG screencaps! I'm so hyped up for it!