How It’s Been

Not a sport blog. Don't get it wrong.

What if we talk about Manohara? You know the one who generates more attention than Antasari Azhars murder case. The one who makes fortune by capitalizing people craze of sensation. The one who has her own group of supporters called Laskar Merah Putih. The one who….should I continue? Should I? I know you will say I shouldn’t. And I won’t. Her story will have its own proper place in our pop culture history. And I don’t want to torture you by writing a special article about her. I won’t do it. I promise. This post will be about me. And especially this page. This blog. The one you’re reading right now.

Technically, it started last year. I wrote my first post on Blogspot. It was ISL, Hope for the Lousy League, my first try after Fajar persuaded me to have a blog. Not satisfied, I wrote another post, Jawa-Bukitinggi (Bukittinggi’s Javanese), speaking of my own experience as a Minangese land born Javanese. But Blogspot didn’t satisfy me. It’s too cheesy, too colorful, and too young to my standard. Then I migrated everything to WordPress. It was far better. But from writing stand point it didn’t help much. I still wasn’t satisfied. I was a newbie to writing. It wasn’t as easy as I previously thought. Writing was a whole new experience.

Not finding a good reason to continue, I quit.

For almost a year, there was no post. None. I’m not somebody who writes simply about about what I feel, my personal problems, how I made it trough the day, or other diary-style writing. It’s not just that I don’t want to (to some extent) protect my privacy. It’s also that I feel I have to be able to make the readers understand my point of view on certain issues. Or sometimes, I hope that people can learn something from reading my blog. So one time people might say, “Hey, I like his point of view!” or “I don’t agree with him, but he has some good points”. you know stuffs like that. That’s why I initially named this blog Point of View, before changing it with other names, The Bench Warmer, Margonda Chronicle, Literati, until finally getting settled with its current name, Sideliner.

Two months ago after thinking for quite a while, I decided to give blogging/writing a second chance. I thought it was the time. It was the time when I thought my opinion should be heard or read by others. But still to write a good piece is not an easy thing. Reading others’ articles is my choice to develop my writing skill. The Newyorker’s Malcolm Gladwell has some influences in me. So does ESPN’s Bill Simmons. Putting people, real people in my column is his influence. I won’t lie about it. Prana and Fakhrul are two most active characters in my blog. And New York Times’ football columnist, Rob Hughes, has been one of my favorite writer since he contributed articles to local tabloid, BOLA, few years ago.

Badminton Championship, Indonesia Open was the moment I chose to restart. I can’t write something out of nowhere. To me it’s easier to comment on something rather than creating a short story about something I’ve never experienced. It’s never been my style. Eventually, restart I did. It was my only third post, It’s me, Badminton, and the 90’s. In the next two posts, I tried to write the article as short as I could. Around 500 words. 600 max. I didn’t want it to look too long that people might feel reluctant to read it. But then I felt, it did me no good. I wasn’t writing to please people, but I was writing to please myself. And I didn’t do it for advertising money either. I felt that I had to be honest to myself. And that was the second point of the restart. From that moment, I’ve been committed to write what I want to write. Strange as it sounds, but I don’t care what people will say about it. Some might get stuck in my blog and don’t give a shit, but I don’t care. All I want is to do it better and better. Officially, this is my 11th post and I know it’s a long long way down the road. But so far I’ve been enjoying it. It’s been a good fun.