Living in The Sun

Sometimes I just roaming around Soundcloud to listen to more songs and varieties. And I want to recommend three songs that I've found and are my favs on Soundcloud lately. Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash (Let's pretend I'm behind this guy, waiting for my turn to check out the collection) The first song is '아무것도 없었다는 듯이' by CyA CyA · 아무것도 없었다는 듯이 He is a bassist from ONEWE, and I found out he has a Soundcloud account just around late 2020 and I was just curious because he mentioned mixtape on the radio he attended. And this song is like...so good, so chill, and just easy and fun to listen to. The vibe it gives is like a chill night drive in the city full of lights. The second song is 'Ummm...' by JOOAN X ESON JOOAN X ESON · Umm... It was on an auto playlist while listening to CyA's songs, and this song came out. The slow simple and chill song (I'm guessing the genre is alternative RnB?? I don't know) with a minimalistic sound and pretty voi

One of the challenges that I take on this year, and I think is highly possible to do this year is the no-buy challenge . No-buy challenge basically means you can only spend money on things that you essentially need, and not just spending mindlessly. This can be done for a period of time, like a day, a week, a month, or a year. The rules are different for each individual who take on this challenge because it really depends on the purpose and situation for each person.  Someone maybe wants to do a no-buy challenge to save money, another one maybe wants to do it to fix their mindset about money, or fix their spending habit, maybe others want to do it to save the environment, and many other purposes. This will then affect what kind of buying you allow yourself to do.  Rules might also be different for someone who lives alone, and for another one who lives with the family, or any other situation that will affect their finances.  For me, the goal of my no-buy year is to save money and to fix

Today is the 29th day of daily blogging. Let me do some reflection and evaluation. 😊 Writing every single day is definitely not easy. Especially on the days where I have already been busy at work and I already used up all my brain capacity that day, those days are just the hardest ones.  Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash (let's pretend that's my hand typing on the laptop to write a blog post) Especially to think about what topic to talk about. Even though my friend already gave me some ideas of topics, some days I just can't use any topic from there because I just can't think of anything from that topic. It was...a good brain exercise. Almost every day now I just look at blog prompts on Pinterest, to decide on what I want to talk about for the day's post. Another way that has been my favorite was to look up my notes on the book I've read or some quotes I collected, and then do something about it.  When I am pushed to write daily, that means I need to

"If your life was a movie, what would it be called?" A series of fortunate events and luck. The storyline would be about an unfortunate world and strange events, but weirdly even though bad things happened, the main character always got lucky randomly and saved from unfortunate events.  This is me in my most optimistic mode.  👍

Photo by Taylor Grote on Unsplash From 'Small Steps' by Louis Sachar “Life is like crossing a river. If you try to take too big a step, the current will knock you off your feet and carry you away.” I guess we sometimes feel in hurry and want to arrive sooner (I'm not even sure I really know the destination), that is why we try to take a little too-big-step. But, then the big step makes our walk a bit unstable, thus it becomes easier to get knocked off by the current.  Taking small steps may not satisfy us in the feeling, we all just in hurry for....idk what. Maybe we see other people jump easily on the river or take a boat, or even already crossed the river or climb the tree on the other side, which makes us compare...our progress with other's result..again.  But well, we all have our own baggage, or different body structure, that makes the pace to cross the river different for all of us. And it is fine to take a small step. As long as we're focusing on our own des

 I've been thinking about this a lot. For days. At the day and night. And even dreamed about it. When I lay down, I put my hands under my head and wonder quietly, "Why are American houses built from wood?" Photo by Sieuwert Otterloo on Unsplash When I watched a house renovation on Youtube, I thought it was only cabin houses, tiny or small houses that use wood mainly for the structure. But then I saw big houses with multiple floors built with wooden structures, using plywood and drywall for the walls. It is so strange for me because here when we build big houses, we use brick and cement because it is perceived as more solid and strong. So the wooden structures with plywood just look very thin and not really strong for me. It is different from some traditional wooden houses where they use big timber with a secured joint mainly using the structure of the wood. Even when I watched HGTV, where they renovate a huge house, when they destroy the old room, for example, it was so

I was looking over my notes from the videos I watched and books I read before. It is a nice way to remind me of something that I thought important, and maybe useful for me now, or just in general just re-inspire me.  I made some notes on a video about ' Overpopulation or Overconsumption '. The video and the videos I watched before this were about climate change.  Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash So there was a discussion about whether climate change is caused by overpopulation. And this topic is one of the biggest agendas that people push, so that we, humans, can do something about overpopulation to prevent climate change.   Of course, there was an opposite view, which was talked about in this video. I recommend you to watch it, but I will point out some interesting findings.  Do you know that ten minutes of using a yacht is equal to the entire energy rural Africans can use in their lifetime?  Oh yeah and I think that will be about the same energy for rural Indonesian too. 

Today was one of the days that I've been waiting for since last year. It's the day of The Arcane Salon Online Party Night with Even of Day (DAY6). It's been a full whole year plus since my last offline concert, and I was hoping that this could provide some 'simulation' feeling of the offline concert because it's Day6! I've watched online concerts before during this pandemic, but well, I miss Day6 a lot so this online party is like....the cure..for every disease in my heart. Although it was only the three of them because Jae and Sungjin are still on a break.  from @day6official twitter So I was waiting for the party, and prepared my My Day watch, and opened the VLIVE, find a good position and while waiting, the VLIVE showed some Day6 music videos before the actual show. It already feels nostalgic, because they mainly showed the MVs from the Every Day6 project in 2017, and that era was the savior of my 2017 actually. What a nice beginning. And then the online

So I really want to write about this. But I’m not sure I can explain it well. Hahaha...I may have to rewrite it at some point.  So, my friend and I talked about this a few days ago. That fortune and wealth is not always something that you own. It can be in many forms. It is not always following a ‘standard’, it is not only when we can buy something, or when we have a lot of money. In fact, it is in many forms in our life.  (I don't know the exact English word for 'rezeki'..anyway) It could be something that you could use, you’ve encountered, and many more... At first, my friend mentioned the fact that when I was in my last months in the Netherlands, I could use a friend's house while she was doing her project in another country. Her house was in the city center, really close to my favorite cafe. It was a really nice place on the top floor and I got to stay for free just taking care of the house well. I was given blessings through something that I do not need to own. Oth

Coloring is one of my favorite relaxing activities.  I remember when I was working on a lot of projects and thesis, and stuff, the coloring book was one of my savior. I think I finished three coloring books during my graduate study. Turns out is just not the 'feeling' but actually, in a study by Curry and Kasser (2005), they found that coloring a complex geometric design like mandala and plaid design reduced the anxiety level of the participants. So coloring definitely helped me before.  And then last year hit us like a silent storm, so many of us are affected by the pandemic, whether it is physically, mentally, financially, or in other forms. We may feel anxious a bit more because of this uncertainty. Well, life is uncertain, but this is just an enhanced uncertainty. For that, I actually make a few coloring pages. I have three editions, which you can see in my shop here ... This is volume one, volume 2 has more nature, fishes, plants, and flowers ... While volume 3 is a desser

One day I and my middle school friends were having a small reunion. We gathered in a chain restaurant in a mall.  One of my friends came while looking a bit hurt. She fell on her motorbike on the way and hurt herself a bit, but overall she was still fine. I haven't met her for years so then we talked about lots of stuff. She was really active in her adventurer club, she goes to different cities, hiked mountains, and went to caves doing some extreme stuff. She was actually preparing for an international trip for an expedition to climb the summit (I forgot which one). It was fun to listen to her story and I kept asking for more stories from her.  Then she said to me, "Actually, you were the one who told me that we should spend our time preciously, and spend the weekend to explore as much as we can, so I did" She then explained that in middle school, after she heard me saying that, she kept thinking about it and then actually do it. She made sure that every weekend was not w

"If you have a million dollars, what will you do with it?" Hmm...honestly I don't know. At first, I thought I would want to do a lot of things if I have lots of free money. So, I thought about properties, but then I don't really want to buy them if I have a lot of money, why would I want to stay in one place?. I thought about luxurious experiences, but I'm not willing to spend money on those things. Then I thought about food, but I like just ordinary meals. Then I thought about spending it on concerts and entertainment, but that won't cost a lot even if I watch all the concerts I can attend with my current energy (lol).  The more I think about it, the more I can't think of a way to 'properly' do something with the money. I probably will just save most of it for daily expenses for the next years, and then use some for traveling, just a normal traveling not a lavish one. And then go on with my life as usual.  The more I think about it, a million doll

Sometimes when I look at old photos, I noticed some faces that make me realize that I've met these people before. But few times, when I see these people in the photos, I don't remember exactly what happened, what is the 'thing' that was a thing at that time. And that happened a lot. People I've met just for a few weeks, few days, or even a few years. 'Ah..yeah there was this girl that I know for a few months..but how was it..? I don't remember'  It is so easy to forget about people, and when I look at the picture, I don't remember the detail exactly, but I remember the overall feelings, whether it was good or bad.  But then there's a case where I didn't even have a picture of the person, but the surroundings or the situation in the encounter. Somehow, the impression left harder, or maybe it is altered in my memories so the impression is better? idk well.  This picture reminds me of the old man who was sitting behind a church I stumbled upon w

There is this radio that I listen to almost every night lately. One day, the DJ was asked by one of the listener, 'How can you hold your anger?' Then he said that if there is a situation that could make him angry, he has a three seconds rule, to not say anything for three seconds and actually think about what he will say. In those three seconds, many thoughts will pass by, and eventually, we could think that maybe showing anger is not the right reaction at that time. The DJ is someone who I've noticed shows patience and the ability to keep professional despite any situation. This might sounds easy, but as a person who works to get to know a lot of different people from different backgrounds, I can say it's quite difficult, although doable. Photo by Max LaRochelle on Unsplash Many times when I face difficult people, I could also hold in my emotion, and proceed with the conversation without the high emotion. I don't think I've ever shown real anger to people beca

Do we need so many features in a device? It is nice to have everything on one device so we won't need other things right? Maybe, but what I found often is that I only use approximately less than 30% of the features in my devices or apps.  For example, the picture above was taken with a special feature on my camera. It was a nice-to-have feature, but most of the time it makes me feel like all these additional features are just overloading my camera. Or the 4k video specs that I thought was a 'nice and important feature', when I essentially only need a sturdy sports cam that is easy to bring anywhere. When I want to buy a device I will compare all the specs and these features were some of the considerations to take in deciding which device to buy. But after buying it, suddenly these same features just feels like they overloading the device when I need it to only do the main thing.  That's why it is really important to have a priority in the specs we want.  Do we prioritiz

I once at a point where I felt like my whole identity was defined by my job. That's partly also because most of my time was spent at work and only thinking about work.  I used to spend the weekend sometimes on work, just because I can do it and it is easier to rearrange my schedule to meet with participants for my research. It was actually possible to better arrange it to make it just in weekday, but with a longer timeline, but as I didn't have anything important to do anyway, might as well use my weekend, I thought. Or one time when I presented the research about a product our company wants to build that actually it is not needed for our users, and is failing miserably in the test. When the people who want to build that didn't believe in the result of my research and want to continue pushing the product, I took it very personally. I thought that that person didn't trust me and purposely doing that to me.  And that one time when the top-level people decided to stop deve

Cooking for me is a survival skill, I can cook for me, and I can eat all of the things I've cooked in my life. And I almost never follow a recipe to cook something. I also don't like making cakes or baking things because it mostly needs a measurement that should be followed to get the best result. For me, cooking is just a way to obtain food, and to get nutrition, while having an okay taste, or still good to eat. It's as simple as that. Photo by Kevin McCutcheon on Unsplash As I never really measure the amount of sauce or spices in my cooking, it can be a bit risky if I put something really strange on it (while I don't avoid strange ingredients as well). So having good ammunition to support this simple cooking is very important. I always use very versatile spices and sauces that even if I combine them all, it won't taste bad. It's a certified good, from me. Oyster sauce Oyster sauce is just instant happiness. It has a sweet and salty taste, a very thick and ric

Ever since I was a kid, I'm just not good at motoric skills or anything involving body power and agility, things like that. So I was kind of used to become an odd one out in any physical games, which means, whatever I do, especially when I did badly in the game, everyone will ignore the mistake and look after me. Being one year younger than my class peers also kind of encouraging that behavior. I just accept it as it is.  Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash When I took a PE test in middle school, we had to do a tiger sprong. And so I did. My teacher told me I have a perfect posture and movement, but I do it very very slow. In any kind of group games, like basketball, I always avoided the crowd and just chilling on the side. But in shooting the ball, that was my favorite, as long as no one will take the ball, then I will be fine and able to shoot it perfectly.  I also don't know anyone in my family who has any extraordinary skill in sport or something, so I thought that must be genet

Let me tell you about my favorite part-time job ever, that none can beat to this day. I always tell about this to anyone who thinks about doing a part-time job actually.  I was a student in my last year at university, stressed with my thesis, and worried about my future. The uncertainty about my graduation also brought worries about my financial condition. A lot of my friends are doing part-time jobs in restaurants, or delivery service, which I think is quite okay, but to do that kind of part-time that requires hard labor while doing my thesis? Hmm, I need to think. While talking with my friends, she mentioned that one of her friends actually do dog walking as a part-time job, and I thought that would be nice to do. Except I’m a bit lazy, so taking care of a dog and walk them is not my thing, I prefer to stay indoors in the cold weather of The Netherlands. So I opted to take care of the cats! I never had a cat as a pet in my life,  but I have a passion for them that I played with my fr

It is just two weeks into 2021, but I have so many things I want to do, so suddenly. Is it some kind of new year syndrome? suddenly you have so many lists of things to do and to prepare, and you feel the rush and sense that the time is already not enough for everything. Even today, I usually already in bed at 9 ----not necessarily sleep but just relaxing or do easy peasy tasks like watching videos (lol)--but suddenly today is not enough for me. I just rushed back from working on something as I remember my daily blogging.  I wish I make a better blog post, not just updating, cos this is such a waste of blog posts.  But done is better than perfect. I promise tomorrow will be better. Bye for now

 It is the song I made yesterday. In a language only I could understand.  The song is about a description of a calm and beautiful day.  Here is the lyric so that you can sing along with me. Hariari O are Hali maribu hala hali mariwa hali maribu haya pa padi luma wari madibu wari madibu tara ana malibu simara~ sami naribu sami naribu wa diba tiba ha...riari O are ha...riari O are hu..uuu...uuu hu..uuu...uuu hanima libu riga hanima liga niba haniba ribu riba kuni mala nu tama habi lagi sunima~ hu..uuu...uuu hu..uuu...uuu Sakii · Hariari O are

I thought I was on a ‘creative block’. I started to feel sluggish and hate to start doing everything that I usually enjoy doing. I will start open procreate or a paper but I couldn’t draw anything, I would look at the wooden blocks and just sigh, everything feels like a chore, I hate to clean the mess afterward, and so on. Photo by  Steve Johnson  on  Unsplash I thought maybe ‘someday’ it will be over and I can start enjoying doing those things again. But, no, nope, nothing happened. I just laid on my bed, watching youtube videos (not that I’m saying that was wasting my time), and then a weekend will pass just like that.  There must be something I should do, I don’t really like this feeling of non-enjoyment, so I kinda ‘forced’ myself. Try to start it again. Starting is the hardest part. So, I tried to do it from little things.  From writing quotes, I found lately to my journal and decorate it. I just pull out every stationery, stickers, and stuff, and working on it. The start was inde

I just finished (finally) a book that I read since October last year. Range by David Epstein. After reading the first two chapters, I was intrigued by the story in the content as it was related to my work right now, so then our team conducted a small research based on this. And then I never finish the book. Until yesterday. Overall, it gives a lots (tons) of stories to support the argument that being a generalist is also important despite the society’s worship for over specialization.  We as a society is used to the story of young prodigies, and how the one who learn and specialize in one thing earliest is the champion. And we, people who are not specialized since kids, often feel ‘too late’ to be good at something, let’s say in martial art, or music. So, reading a long argument and stories about the importance of being a generalist and how being a generalist can give advances in many fields was comforting. The fact that trying different thing and not sticking to one thing and not kno

There was this t-shirt, that I like. So this t-shirt, I bought it probably 9-10 years ago, and with fabric markers, my friends and I doodling on it. It is full of our favorite characters and just random stuff, Taichi, kobo chan, naik haji, broom bike, ghost, mohorok, my mole, just a total random stuff at the front. And on the back side it was Mizuki, my character for a comic story we developed back then (‘Love is pathetic’, best comic of the century). Front side Back side I wear it just like— wear, wash, dry, wear, wash, dry, over and over again till May 2020 when it started to fall apart, the collar just ripped so easily, and so on. So I decided to give it a good rest, and started a new life with a new doodled t-shirt. (Late) Welcome to my wardrobe family, newbie. A new t-shirt with new drawings. This time I determined to make something ‘pretty’ with flowers, and this time I draw it just by me, myself and I. Here are the details on the new t-shirt. A rose! And then another rose on the

We had a project back in the university to teach the design process to high school student who lives in a small village in Bandung. Very far up in the mountain, I and my friends called it the land on the cloud as we really go up in the cloud to reach the village.  Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash There was a couple who opened this kind of 'open school'. As the nearest public school is still so far away from the village, they decided to make this school for high school students to help children in the village to finish their education.  The couple was actually an alumnus from our school. I forgot the detail but from what I remember he dropped out of university and decided to move to this village far in the mountain with his wife and make their life here. But I remember the first time I learned about that story I was shocked, to be honest. Life in the village up in the mountain is not easy, you need to give up so much comfort of the city, that's what I thought.  They raise goat