A New Platform (other than this Medium)
I’m babbling about Podcasting and Volleyball. Why? Because I don’t have any fucking clue why I wrote this…
Alright, back again after a month of nothingness.
With all those stuffs I’m doing right now at my new office in Mannheim for completing my bachelor thesis, it is kind of draining to have such monotonic weekdays routine without squeezing some of other new activities I’ve been doing right now.
I’m talking about the ways to get around the boredom I currently have. I’m talking about podcasting and volleyball.
And if it’s not your day, you could ruin the whole team, which basically you don’t want it to happen.
Volleyball as a sport is a no stranger for me. It’s an on and off sport, since not many Indonesian friends I know here in Mannheim would like to regularly attend those practice sessions provided by the university’s sport programme, especially being shy at the first practice in 2018 after a year not playing it, leading to a yearly Sportfest in Karlsruhe back in May. I kind of needed some guidance and also a seamless integration to the game with the help of friends of mine, who are basically better and have more experiences on the game than me.
But after the Sportfest, the game seemed different to me…
It is more intriguing, more complex, and more of a communication sport than badminton I regularly play. You see, you have 6 players on your team, you and the other 5 team-mates. The objective is to score as many points as possible (of course, duh!), but because of the number of players (which is six) and the number of touches are limited (which is three, two are a setting, one is spiking/grounding the ball to the other side of the net) and it is harder than you might think or what you see from your own spectator-perspective.
You don’t always get the ball, sometimes in a match you could just only wait for the ball to come to you to spike it or to dig it if you’re in a defensive situation, sometimes you could do nothing at all but to block it, and sometimes you have to set it to your attacker (the one who spikes the ball) properly all the time. And if it’s not your day, you could ruin the whole team, which basically you don’t want it to happen.
But this sport teaches you a whole new perspective about being in a team in general:
- You couldn’t win the game without the help of your team-mate
- You couldn’t win the game if your head is not in it
- You couldn’t win the game if you’re not considerate enough to your other team-mates
- You have to carry your own burden together with your team-mates to win the game
- This sport is hard to master, but it’s a lot of fun to it, even if it doesn’t go your own way
- Sometimes you have days where your head is just all over the place
- And so on and so on
And that’s why, I always try to make time to attend the practice sessions, even if it’s just twice a week. I’m still a beginner by the way, so I’m not that good to play it like a pro (well at least, you could feel like it xD)
Other than that, I also tend to be quieter most of the time. I don’t talk that much on weekdays while I’m at work, so I kind of needed other medium to share what I’ve been thinking or seeing lately.
So then I look back at my medium entries this year, and I found this passage on this post:
…and I have my own podcast now. Hooray!! (Still in Indonesian, btw). I mean, I didn’t think that I would really start making weekly (or bi-weekly) podcast episodes back then in January.
I don’t have to show my best side or hide my worst side. I can just be candid and be frank when talking about something in particular.
I once considered to apply to one of the Indonesian online radio to be an announcer, but the concept and the gruelling (not really) broadcasting schedule kind of throw me off. So I looked up about podcasting, I listened to some of the Indonesian ones (look at my following on my soundcloud, there are some amazing podcasts out there from the Indonesian podcasters) and surprised by how flexible it is to curate and control your own content.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, a radio could also do that as well, but then what comes to people’s mind when they’re talking about a radio: the songs.
Podcasting in this sense, it’s more of a talking-blog (or an audiobook, but laxer). It’s not necessarily a vlog without a video, but you could say that as well. The setup is no different than most online radios have, but the starting point is the reason why I’m doing it in the first place:
I don’t have to show my best side or hide my worst side. I can just be candid and be frank when talking about something in particular. I don’t have to set up any camera or whatsoever. The principle of plug-and-play in a music studio without too much preparation draws me to have my own podcast.
Though I must say, podcasting is not a deaf-friendly medium to get the message across. I wish someday many podcasting platforms can also provide a close-captioning method to deaf person, so that they can enjoy the content as fully as what vlogs can do. (Deaf — or tuli in Indonesian — isn’t a negative word. Look it up!)
I only have four episodes so far and the fifth one will be available on Wednesday, July 17th 2018 with the help of a friend of mine, talking about music and human behaviour. Unfortunately, all episodes are still in Bahasa Indonesia, though. Unless, if you’re a non-Indonesian, you’re reading this right now, and you want to share something about anything we can talk about, just hit me up on my soundcloud account, instagram, twitter, or even e-mail. Maybe we can make an episode from our discussion as well.
I hope those things I mentioned above will help me in the long run, even if the future isn’t that vivid enough to make me seeing it further.
-SR
