2010: What We've (to) Learn

Who Cares?

Earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption

And still they go on with their corruption

Hot gas and thick ash, the death toll's rising

Those ares and evil deuce, never caring

Refugee center's filled with sorrows to bear.

The nation's grief, they do not care.

The victims are dying on the hospital bed

And in bliss they watched tennis instead

There are those who still care though,
Them underpaid volunteers, doctors and soldiers

Who works hard even with a pay so low

Feeding, curing, caring, lifting wounded shoulders

Searching the ash covered village, 

Looking for a body to tow

Obama came too , making the front page

With big speech and an even bigger smilo

Aside from those, there were others too who care

Children, students, punks, traceurs and queers

Though we might not be able to do anything there

We can do something here
Donate

And so with our heart we sing, flip, and beg for money

these money we save, these money to save.

Aside from us, there are others too who care

Perhaps its you.

Pray for Indonesia

On October 31, 2010 groups of youth from every urban subculture join hands under the banner "From Bandung With Love" to express their art and help donate for the tsunami and volcano victim,  

 $672 and hundreds of prayers was raised from the event.

*thanks to Faisal Akbar for the pictures

Rhythm: Dazed

Dazed
Jakarta  0600hrs, Monday May 31 2010 

The alarm buzz, my head felt drowsy, my hand's searching for a button, snoozing it ten times over.
Its been 3 hours since I lay down, and 4 hours since I arrive in my lil' room.

After another hour of lying hopelessly unable to sleep, i got up and went back to the routine a hundred times repeated. Shower, breakfast, catching the bus, office work.
Complaining and little jokes here and there, telling the stories about the 2nd elimination race to some office mate, more work, just another day.

...it was only after lunch when I'm all out of work, and the data for the next report haven't arrive yet.

"WOAH!!! I'M GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST!!"

I couldn't believe it, the little amount of sleep, the fatigue unrecoverable, the sand dudes on the poster's background, all those things swirling in my head impairing my judgment of what is real. Grab the phone and sent a quick sms to creez to see if I'm not dreaming. Its real, she congratulate me and give some motherly advice.

We'd (Team Ironmen) came in 6th in that race, but since we waited for more than 20 minutes for the rafting boat to arrive, the time was deducted from our overall time, bringing our rank all the way to the 4th place as finalist.

The week followed quickly, with all the registration, preparation shopping, paper work, short interview, international driver license making, plus the pleading for a unpaid-leave vacation from the office.

Thank God this is real, thank God for this opportunity.

Rhythm: Exodus [Continued]

A glance at the map, the next check point is straight ahead, at the tip of this short mountain. A clean route through the mountain would be going by its shoulders, but that would take a long detour.

"Snap this is almost a 90degree climb!"
"Too late to change let's get this over with"

The team before us was not being careful, rocks the size of cows head are rolling down the steep face.
By the time we reached the check point 8 other teams has already pass before us.

"Still in the Top Ten, not Bad!"

We sat trying to catch our breath, water, sugar, laughs.


Little did we know that what we have pass was one of the biggest challenge, Its only later that we learn that this first touch with the wild has dropped 10 teams. A team with awesome build, with huge arms good enough to put you to sleep in one punch, has already dropped unable to go, asthma attack, weak will, not to mention thorns, bugs, height and for the unlucky teams, attack from the wild boar(really, this has got to suck, wild boar chasing after your butt T_T). Anything that the 1st elimination in the city didn't test, is now provided here.

Well honestly, the rest of the trip was pretty monotonous, up and down through mountains, river crossing, missing meals (some of the teams are faster than the officials who's suppose to bring food to a certain checkpoint), getting lost, rain, wet, dry, then wet again, blister everywhere. If its not for the beautiful rolling hills refreshing my eyes, that trip would have been a nightmare.


We spend that night lost. Unable to locate the checkpoint at 11.45 we gave up the search and set camp. It was a full moon a Friday night a beautiful night to seek enlightenment.


Location Unknown 0447hrs, Saturday 29th May 2010


"What? its only 500meters away, from where we camp!"


We had only eaten breakfast and lunch, yesterday's breakfast and lunch, add the lack of sleep, we were all HAPPY and not being sarcastic as in literally HAPPY, for some reason, at some point in misery people WILL laugh at them selves.
What followed is miles of walk, short challenges (carrying a huge banana tree-trunk trough the mud of inclining rice patties), rapid rafting and more walk.

"Welcome to the last checkpoint, all you have to do now is cross the river ahead and follow that road"
The man smiled and continued.
"You guys looks miserable, go its only another 5k"

We walked , we walked faster, we smiled, it stated to pour heavy rain, and just like the closing of the first elimination, now its again here, the rain, and so we ran, with our last strength we ran, we sprinted trough the hills. The camera man was ahead of us in a motorbike smiling, the finish balloon, clean water food, bed. We've made it. 33.31hrs.

Sukabumi 0830hrs, Sunday 29th May 2010

My tummy grumbles, it decided that the lamb chops is not going to agree for another second of their argument. The announcement from the auditorium started sounding.

"The top ten team please proceed to the hall for a short briefing"
 "Team Anhang, Team east, Macan gunung, . . ."

I was about to put my head under the pillow

"Iron Men"

What? we're 6th, that means...we made it to the reserve team, not bad. There is still possibility.


The meeting announce the coming test for the top 10, swimming and driving. Both went smooth, well Henry my team mate, reached over himself and had a bad leg cramp on the swim, but because of his calmness swimming with his hands to reach the pool side, the judge pass him.


The final meeting came, the the officers apologize for a little miss calculations on the score, they have forgotten to minus the freeze time (amount of time some teams waited for boats to come for the river rafting) scores are changed and God knows best.


What followed was a surreal awarding, cameras, cranes, lights. DAZED

Elimination1 slots for 700 team was opened in each major city of Indonesia, elimination2 top 100 teams was chosen, only 75 responded to the challenge. And only 5 teams will go for the final round.

P.S well yeah thats the end for now. 2nd part of exodus is kinda messy, sorry, its really late gota sleep. Prolly shud have find a better time write this, but the story will pile up if i do that hehehe. come back in 2-3 weeks ^_^

Rhythm

Genesis
Another morning in the office, the sun is shining brightly happy, car honks in the distance the AC was set to a calming breeze, printer, stapler, phone calls, small chit chat of the latest celeb gossip can be heard all around. Work will start to pile my desk in a few minutes, stretch my arms then went down the hall to fill my glass. Ritual for most of my office days.

"Yo ed! check this out"
"whats that?"
"I'm sure you'd be interested"

"WIN A TOTAL PRICE OF 500MILLION RUPIAH"
"Djarum Super AdventureRace2 the extreme journey"
"explore yourself explore the world"
"Registration now open at . . ."

I was about to give the brochure back to my friend when i noticed that it has the desert dune in the background. Small look around the web, it turn out to be a 3 part race with its final stage being held in the massive desert of middle east.


A race ei? Competition, a word despised by many Parkour practitioner, money, fame many of the wrong motivation to get into a sport is often contained in it. Not to mention the principal sponsor is one of the biggest cigarette company in the country, Religion forbids it, and it has been a pride to the Parkour Indonesian  community to turn down huge offers for cigarette comercials.


But, its the middle east, an adventure in the heart of world history.

. . .

"Team number 118, Iron Men please proceed to the briefing area!"

Jakarta 0847hrs Sunday May 23rd, 2010

I wanted to pee, am i nervous? it cant be, we'd gotten team number 113 earlier but had to replace it for 118 due to some technical mistake, but hey 13 is not a bad number and this will just be another stroll around the city, beside im with two of the best practitioner the country have, Henry an ex competitive Motocross biker, rockclimbing, buidling jumping superdad, and Randy an ex Junior national competitive swimmer. It will just be like anyother sunday, running around the city, jumping stuffs.


Then the can blew, the race begun. This was the last First elimination of the race, 900 slots was open for teams in Jakarta and those team who has failed the trials in their own city.


Rules was simple, gather 7 green check points, 5 yellow, and 1 red. Return to the finish line within 2hrs30mins. In our aid we were given blank maps and a compas of our own.


Randy took hold of the map we started ploting the route we would make, a total of at least 20Km in distance. Picked the most efficient way and made our way through the race.

I really can't remember much of whats happening during the time we were running around, we get lost, tired, dirty, exhausted, a little pain here and there, typical running stuffs. And there we finish. At 2.22 sparing us 8minutes for extra point. With the challenge completed we took the bus to the usuall Parkour training spot and meet the rest of the group there and have some fun. I kinda peeked at the scoreboard before we left, it says:

6. Iron Men 26000pts

we did good I thought.

"i wanted to pee"

***

Exodus
Work was already piling up, the aircon is'nt doing so good today in fighting the heat from the torturing sun. Is it me or is it just Monday? nah it surely is Monday's fault. I felt lazy, wish it would be 18.15 sooner so that i can go home and sleep, the running and the parkour training afterwards sure did leave me sore.
Lazily i fish around the web for somthing to refresh my sore Monday.

"9. no.110 IRON MEN 26000pts"
"Please complete the required documents for the next challenge on May 26th 2010"

***

 Jakarta 0900hrs Thursday May 27th, 2010

"yo! where you at? the bus Is late, but you'd better be here sooner"
"I'm sorry dude, i took the wrong bus, i think i wont make it there for another hour"

Sukabumi 1430hrs, sameday.


We were all complete, the last team mate made it just in time before the bus leave, now were are nicely tucked in our cottage with 5 or 7 other teams getting ready for the briefing on tomorow's race.


The Resort, "Caldera" was a decent scene, placed next to one of the most challenging river to be rafting in the "citarik river", organized and clean with a touch of native Indonesian architecture, its obvious by the color of the bricks that the place is new, the only thing which is out-of-place are the heavy decoration the many banners and flags from the sponsor of the race.

"Welcome adventurers to the 2nd part of the Adventurerace2, the ECO CHALLENGE. I will now explain the content of this challege that has been kept a secret from all of you"

The hardlooking guy started talking till late in the night of rules and regulations followed by even a longer seminar on orienteering, map reading, and rafting safety procedures.

"yo ed lets sleep early, we have to be done with breakfast tomorow by 6.00, they are still going to transport us to the start line, 1.5hrs trip"

***

A horde of war machine straight from the 1970's came down the steep slopes to pick us up, if the US army would travel in the latest fasion, the Indonesia army travels in their old school antique fashion. The participants mounts the old beast and was headed down to the south shores of Java.

"Man my butt hurts, how do they expect us to run when my back is already sore from the bumpy ride"

Pelabuhan Ratu 0745hrs, Friday 28th May 2010

Facing us is the Indian Ocean and a long strethch of the Java's souhtern beach, dirty sand being rolled out by 2meters wave, calling out for a great adventure.

"TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTT!!!" The can blew, This time I didnt feel like peeing.

Scrambling as if a bomb is dropping, the racers ran trying to gain ground ahead of themselves.

"What its only been 300 or so meters and we have to cross a river already?!"
"Yo guys! Let's take off our shoes"

 the river

We wore our shoes again after the river crossing and began running the rocky part of the beach Parkour training sure did kick in, soon we reach soft sand and slowly our dry shoes started to give edge, as the wet shoes of the other runner began to gather sand, making it heavier and harder to run in.

"Team Number 548 Iron Men you placed 2nd please join the team ahead of you for the next challenge"

The rubber boats were lining up neatly and ahead team Macan Gunung is ready to start the next challenge. We were paired with them to cross the ocean and row to next checkpoint.

"HOLD IT HOLD IT!!"

"AVOID THE WAVE, AVOID THE WAVE"

"WE'RE GOING DOWN!!ROW FASTER!! FASTER!!!"

pass the waves and we are safe

The first part of the ocean rafting is a beast, finding the timing between the wave is crucial, the rowing was though, you'll move forward 2mtrs only to get thrown back 5meters. But right after the wavy part, it was just all about endurance, a few kind words was said, acquaintance between the two team is made the rest is all about the row, row, row, row and row.

"Damn those other 2 boats are fast, but its alright we still placed 3rd, which means we are the 6th team to reach here"

got GPS? This is old school topography

"Forget about position, just get our bags, and Randy just start reading the map, find the coordinate and we'll go!"

The first few coordinates are points placed within the little city of Pelabuhan Ratu, i believed the organizer placed it there for us to warm up our navigating skills, but soon it started to head out towards the outskirt, and before we know it, we were given emergency food ratios. This was the last checkpoint with the comfort of a civilized pavement.

Motivate(d)!

Laziness, improper diet, abandoned training plan and late night invasion of comic reading. Ah what an irony, i know I've written of how parkour training is suppose to build self control, well..hehehe we all have those lazy rather unsinspired days right? And before we know it, it turns to a full week of uninspiredness, then soon 2 weeks of uninspiredness, for some it turns to months and then behold the transformation into TV worshiping, potato eating, fat gaining couch potato.(fear all fear all)

It wasn't until a divine intervention in the form of a race brosure sponsored by one of the biggest cigarette company knock my senses(irony), I've got to go back to training, afterall this is the main reason why I moved here! So i made the vow, a promise to self, with my heart pounding in motivation.

"TONIGHT ILL RUN FOR 2.5km!"

Few working hours later...

blaaaaaaaaaaahhhh work sucks. So tired, wanna sleep already...(drops down to bed and started reading another comic)

NOOOOOO!! what am I doing? wers the heart pounding resolution to change? guess me cant always depends on those short moments of resolutions. With all this reason to "just sleep" I MUST motivate my self, if i can't start the change now? how much more tomorow or the day after that? Slip into my running pants, ugly shirt with busted shoes and started running. Destination. . .carrefour(to get some bed-time-snack, Damn im just so good in motivating my self :P)

They must think that guy is crazy, afterall its 7.30pm rush hour, the hundred car exhaust resounding to the same chorus of bad CO2 and heres a guy in the "greenlane"(thats the grassy part dividing the lanes on the road where they plant the trees)running under trees thats no longer producing O2 in this time of the day.

It must have the equivalent of smoking a full pack cigarette during that run cause' my head was spinning mad by the time I made it to carrefour, drousing my way to the snack bar to grab some honey coated roasted peanuts. While on my way to the cash register I saw this funny looking fat guy eating junk food looking at some health therapeutic slippers advertisment, being the "guy who just finished exercising" I was about to critic the guy in my head only to realize that being fat and eating junk food while looking at a poster of some magical slipper is probably healthier than running in the middle of Jakarta's rush hour. . .

But oh well, at least me was able to free my self from the locks of laziness. YAY!

* * *

Words of the wise:

It has to start somewhere,
It has to start sometime.
What better place than here,
What better time than now.

-Zack de la Rocha

Remember those words, might just give you the extra motivation to get someting done.

P.S. feel down on my bed asleep without showering. . .felt dirty filty and even lazier upon waking up.

This was certainly a bad idea. . .

Soul

Boom!!!!!!!!

That's the first time I've seen a corkscrew with my naked eye!! a beautiful, hard, yet essential trick in the trickster dictionary. This trick requires a trickster to go up in the air facing the sky, placing his body parallel with the ground, then twisting a full 540degress letting his body to face the ground for landing. Jumping to short means landing on the face, twisting too slow, or too late means the same.

Boom!!! and another one and another one, the adrenaline rising.

I sit there speechless, it was a Holly Friday afternoon, in the basement of the national stadium, the air is thick in carbon dioxide, bad ventilation makes sweating unstoppable. This was suppose to be the wushu's athlete training room, but today the trickster are borrowing it.

When suddenly from the corner of my eyes. BOOM!!! here comes another one I thought, but no...he's still in the air, too slow hes going to fall, time seems to halt and suddenly he gave that twist and landed almost standing straight up.

. . .

that must have been 2, no more than 2 meters up in the air, jumping, flying up the air before he gave it a twist.
The others stop drilling the cork and shake his hands in respect. He smiled.

Later that afternoon I asked him of how did he make his jump so high?

His answer
"You can see many-many jump and say that's cool, but there will be one Jump that will make you speechless. That jump, has a soul to it."

He stop to see the floor, trickster flying busting kicks and flips.

"You see many trickster doing the same move, you see that guy [points at this other guy] he did a very fast aerial, I think it can kill, but me I'd rather Enjoy the move, I love flying."


For the rest of the afternoon I joined them training, drilling with the lower level trickster, saw bunch of crazy moves, along with the grunting, pain, anger to get a trick flying, emotions being transfer to the punching bag. But for the guy who flies, he's just there with a grin, enjoying his air time, laughing at his mistakes, having the most fun. And his love for what he does seems to affect the people around him too.

I want that, to be able to fly up then twisting out the air. But I'm still afraid, my legs are too weak, my coordination sucks. So much reasons. I want to be free, but I'm still afraid.

Ah what an irony life is, all of us wants Freedom, but most of us are still afraid to be Free, still too angry, still unable to understand, comprehend to LOVE what Freedom really is.

Verdi [right] is one of the leading personalities in the Indonesian Capoeira scene. Many thanks for your inspirations

Chapter One : THe Davy Jones Drawer

Well its been some month now since i moved out to live on my own, currently renting a tiny 2x4m room in South Jakarta.
Freedom? Yes, kinda, well um almost...reasons why i moved out is to try for my self if i can survive on my own, im working in a "bank" to feed my self. and the other reason is to deepen my skills in my life's art, Parkour.

As much as it seems, a mere "jumping around" parkour takes a much deeper meaning than just that.
(man i think ill just make a lil post about parkour hehehe)


***

Parkour (sometimes also abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement (English: the art of moving) is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment. It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, as if moving in an emergency situation.(wiki)


In its movement a parkour practitioner called a traceur will seek to move from one place to another in the fastest, most efficient and fluid manner. But that "to move efficiently" brings the traceur to a deeper part of training more than just mere jumping around, it will lead them to Strength and Conditioning (SnC). A training session where practitioner will "condition" and "strengthen" themselves to be able to take in and bounce off some of the most rigorous techniques of movement.

One of the parkour motto is "Etre et Durer" meaning To be and to Last. Parkour is not something that you do in the morning and forget when a training session is done, parkour is not something that you do for a month or two and leave once you're done with it. And that ability to last means that in many ways being fit for the art.

And so the traceur goes into lots and lots of physical training, building a body that can withstand drops, and jump gaps. Not the kind to built massive bulky (good locking) muscle no, but the kind to built efficient body suitable for the movements required even more.

But that, being just strong is useless if your mind is not trained, unable to control that power. In parkour, practitioner built confidence trough training therefore gaining a greater ability of self control (something that seems to be lost in our time). In this time of age, the society teaches more fear than courage. "Don't do that or you'll fall, don't climb the tress you mite break a bone, just Jog running is bad for you, don't this don't that" and before you know it, you have loose your control over your body, what was created [or evolved] as great hunters, farmers, explorers, creative minds is now reduced to junk eating, office sitting , unhealthy hermits. Our creativity is slowly being taken away from us (maybe thats one of the reason why people are addicted by video games, its an easy way to achieve). And gaining that control, that freedom is one of the reasons for parkour training. When you see a traceur jumping over gaps, it goes for more beyond just jumping, there is months of leg training which tells the traceur that Yes this gap is within you reach, there is a great Mental war, logic fighting over doubt, over fears. Courage? yes, but there is also patience.


Parkour training also built awareness, yes to the body and mind, but also to our environment, worldwide green projects has been run hand in hand with the parkour community. Parkour teaches its practitioner that the world is one massive playground, and dirty playground isn't quite the pleasant place to "jump around".

Parkour as much as any arts can be, is a way of life. A life where its practitioners believes that in their training as well as in life that "There are no limits only obstacle, and all obstacle can be overcomed."
And as much as it is a way to escape situations, Parkour is not a way to escape from life, rather its a way FOR life.

No i do not know completely where my life is going rite now, but i know I'm still in the beginning of one heck of a great Journey, this is parkour, motus ventorum.

***

In that short note ^^ this first chapter will be used mostly to record training, experiments, and log my progression for the next few months (Till July i hope).

Seclusion is one of the reason why I'm here in Jakarta, to concentrate with my SnC quite the unexpected place to be alone, but its here in the big city, where people feels more lonely, more than any wilderness.

if your really interested in knowing more about parkour then this 4 part video will be a GREAT start.
Nature of challenge 1 2 3 4

Prologue

A boat beneath a sunny sky,

Lingering onward dreamily

In an evening of July --

Children three that nestle near,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Pleased a simple tale to hear --

Long had paled that sunny sky:

Echoes fade and memories die.

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,

Alice moving under skies

Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream --

Lingering in the golden gleam --

Life, what is it but a dream?

THE END

-

Lewis Carroll

Introduction

Ummnn how to start?

Well I've been reading bunch of blogs for quite some time now, and I totally LOVE how it inspires me. It's most certainly much better than those short status messages at some social networking website, blogging' actually gives a whole piece of your minds in concrete details.

So I'm making one of my own, this Blog will be used to give an idea of what I'm up to, I'll try to update as often as I can. Anything from Adventures, Parkour training, life, thoughts and maybe a lil' bit of artwork here and there.

So why Ventorum any way? Or what is Ventorum? Well its from the Latin root word Ventus meaning Wind, Ventorum then literally means "of the wind" a possessive Latin form of Wind. So why wind? I love wind, simple as that. She travel far distances hearing many tales and bringing them. She can be a soft blowing whisper or a mighty storm like battle cry. Wind is mysterious, comforting, and she live with so much Freedom.

...

Hope to keep you all updated.


p.s yes my grammar is getting worse by the second, so please all you eagle eyed grammar masters. PM me of any mistakes in my writings.thanks :D