Should Have Known

Oh man, just realised that I won't hit my target of posting 10 posts a month in January! What a great way to start 2018 haha. But no fret, I have a few posts to write actually so I might just push it to February instead. Not gonna lie it's been a really hectic week so far. Also I was sick on Monday urgh. So I spent my nights resting and sleeping, didn't even touch my laptop after dinner heh.

Alright anyway I'm just gonna close off this month with as usual, the great music of January! Another year is upon us and I suppose January has been a really great month of discovery!

Great Music of January:

- Should Have Known by Still Parade

- Fields by Still Parade

- Ojai by Young and Sick

- My my my! by Troye Sivan

- Hollow by Katz ft Charlie Lim

- How It Is by Majik

Song of the month: Hollow by Katz ft Charlie Lim

2018 started off well music wise cause I discovered four new artists! They are Still Parade, Young and Sick, Majik and Katz. The first three, as usual, I discovered through Majestic Casual on YouTube heh. I discovered Majik through WOGN if I'm not wrong. Katz was discovered through Charlie Lim, who shared the video of the song on Twitter and I'm hooked!

I really love the sounds of Still Parade. The instrumentation of his music is really good, and also his voice is very unique. Reminds me of 80s music sort of, which are the sounds I'm looking for. Should Have Known is taken from his latest EP and it's my favourite song so far. I love the energy of Young and Sick in his song Ojai! Love the beat and the piano riffs which really just puts you in a good mood hoho. He also has a cover of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, which is nice too.

Majik's How It Is on the other hand is a more deep and mellow song. I love his deep voice that kinda complements the whole song and beats really well. As for Katz I love the song and Charles' voice! Pretty excited to hear more new music from him. Been putting it on repeat throughout January.

And yes Troye Sivan is back with a new song from his upcoming album! My my my is an instant bop and man I love the music video too. Troye's dancing is just pretty cool haha. Definitely a good song to dance to and I really hope he'll come to Indonesia one day! Must be a great experience to hear the song live and dance along with him weee. So yes please come to Jakarta Troye!

I just received First Aid Kit's new album Ruins on vinyl but I've yet to listen to it! Gonna spin it later on the weekend. Gave it a listen on Spotify and damn it's quite an emotional and great album I guess! Also I received Mesita's double vinyl for his Living/Breathing EP and Here's to Nowhere. I love both albums and I'm glad I have it! <3 Gonna give these albums a spin later on the week.

Alright that's all for now. I hope I can keep up with the posts on February. January has been pretty busy and also thanks to the stupid sore throat and fever that I had on Monday, couldn't blog a lot in this month. But it's okay my goal is to actually post 100 posts in a year, though my target is 10 in a month. We'll see, blogging is not a competition haha. Alright see you! :)

4 AM Rain

It's a rare occasion tonight, where I finished work and dinner at 3 AM! Was just lazying on my bed and scrolling through Facebook and Instagram for a good 30 minutes heh. That felt weird. It's been a long time since I did this to be honest. Life's been going really hectic every since 2018 started, just feels like there's a lot of things happening and lots of things on my mind. Been trying to clear my mind out but sometimes everything started rushing in again.

Nevertheless, time's been moving much more quickly too. Seemingly that is. Like I can't believe January is coming to an end soon, it feels like yesterday when 2017 just ended. Is this the kind of pace I'll be expecting for this year? Maybe yes maybe no. But it's gonna be an exciting year nevertheless!

Anyway since I'm pretty chill tonight, I wanna talk about something! I feel like 2017 was lacking in something... I'm not sure what it is but recently I realised that I've been quite out of touch with my personal goal. A goal that I made in 2014-ish I think (gosh that was 4 years ago). I remembered when 2014 started, I told myself that I just want to keep on creating. Be it photographs, stories, words or even music (the last one is pretty much non-reachable haha).

That's how I came up with Project365, and how I bought myself that draw something everyday journal in 2015 to try things out. It's true, in 2016 I stopped doing this. There was no personal project that I did! Which is kinda sad, looking back. I know I don't work in the creative industry but personally, arts will never leave me (and vice versa). So yeah just recently, I'm thinking of creating monthly projects that I can do throughout the year. I was thinking of doing a year-long project but then at the rate at which my life seems to flow, I think I won't be able to do it well heh. 

So yeah, perhaps a new "project" each month will be good? I have 30 days to do it and I think that's enough time to do it well too! I just don't know what to do yet... Hmm. Also this year will mark the 10th year that I'm blogging! Gonna do something special to celebrate this too. And yes I haven't thought of anything either mwahaha. I have 8 more months anyway so yep.

Alright just a random post. I'm going to enjoy the rest of this night... Doing nothing.

I See You

 Thank you for coming to Jakarta! <3

Hello! Sorry for not blogging for a long time, lots of thing happened and I've been quite busy too! Also I just returned from Jakarta yesterday, after catching The xx live in Jakarta for their I See You tour! I've been wanting to see them live and I am thankful for the opportunity three nights ago :D Also I went to catch them with Chris whom I haven't met in two years weeee. Good to see you again!

Anyway I went to Jakarta on Tuesday morning. Went to the airport first to fetch my brother in law's mum who came here again to see her grandson mwahaha. I went to the airport first before parting ways with them to JIExpo Kemayoran, which is the concert venue. Met with Chris straight away there as well. It's been two years since we both last met and had a great time catching up with her over pizza at the venue, and of course spending the night at the concert! :D

 It's been two years!

Two local acts opened for them, Kimokal followed by Elephant Kind. Haven't heard of Elephant Kind before (heard of their name before tho) and they're really good! Also Kimokal is amazing live as well. There was a slight delay but man, everything was so awesome when the xx came on stage! Intro got everyone hyped up and the rest of the night was just electrifying.

Okay not gonna go in details about everything but I really love the energy during the concert. You can just feel the chemistry between the three of them on stage. Although the three of them are "separated", with Jamie at the Deck, Oliver on bass and Romy on guitar, you can just feel that the three of them share a deep intimate connection throughout the night. It's amazing!

 "I'll put on a performance, I'll put on a brave face" :(

There are a few highlights of the night! Romy's solo during Performance is just so so... Heartbreaking? Performance is one of my favourite songs from their new album and to hear Romy singing it solo is really oh so... Sad. We love you Romy! And then the crowd break into a choir during I Dare You, which I find really goosebump-inducing! Indonesian crowd won't disappoint.

The live remix of Shelter is also amazing, and everyone just had a great time dancing on the concert hall mwahaha. But for me personally, the best moment of the night was dancing to Loud Places. I'm really obsessed with this song and to hear it live is just so so incredible! Had fun dancing during the chorus with everyone else. Definitely a great moment of the year for sure.

 Loud Places

Well thank you so much Romy, Jamie and Oliver for coming to Jakarta! We've been waiting for you and we definitely had fun together with you on that wonderful Tuesday night. I hope you will come see us again. After that I sent Chris home and I went back to the hotel, before returning back home the next day via train from Bogor. It was a short but definitely amazing trip!

 Thank you!

Before I end this post, I wanna share what Oliver said on stage. He said something like this:

"The thing about our concert is that I want you to take this chance to leave all the pain and sadness you have away at home. And come here to have fun with us"

It was just what I needed to hear. I was having quite a rough week before that and was looking forward to this concert to forget life for a little while. Music has always been my escape. It is the only thing that allows me to leave this world behind without the need of physically doing so.

So thank you very much The xx! Hope to see you again soon here in Indonesia! :)

Just My Imagination

Okay I'm supposed to blog about this last night but my internet died for the whole day so I couldn't. Received the shocking news of Dolores' sudden passing last night and I'm really really sad by it. I grew up listening to The Cranberries and I really love her distinct, beautiful unique voice. It's like her voice always reminds me of my childhood! Songs like Animal Instinct, Just My Imagination, Dreams, Ode To my Family and so on. So yeah, can't help but to feel sad.

The 90s is definitely a wonderful era for music. I grew up listening to their songs and so till today, their songs will always remind me the much simpler days when I'm young. Okay I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of The Cranberries. Like I was only into them when I was young. But well I really love their songs. Now that Dolores is gone, I'm feeling really sad! :(

Oh well this is just a short post dedicated to this wonderful and talented artist. Thank you so much for the music, Dolores. I will always remember your beautiful voice. For it reminds me of my sweet sweet childhood. Condolences to your family, and to The Cranberries.

Habits Change

As mentioned previously in my previous post, I don't have resolutions for this year yet. However, every year I will always do one thing - change of habits! Well not sure if you can call it "new habits". But I like to change my habits, not so good ones, or just shift them around to make my day better I guess? Like for example last year I changed my habit of pushing work into last minute, and just doing things whenever I have the time, and finish them! So far it's been effective.

This year I'm planning to change my timings a bit. Okay here's a really random sharing.

So usually I would finish work (calculations, bank stuff etc) by 2 AM every night. I would then return to my room to chant, and then bathe, and then do more work (usually just small stuffs like printing things etc). I would then go cook dinner with my mum, have dinner and be finished at around 3 - 3:30 AM ish. After which I would return to my room to meditate, and then from then on, it's my free time where I would blog/YouTube/read articles etc. Pretty hectic huh!

And in this seemingly-long-but-actually-tiny time slot, everything feels very rushed to me. I don't really feel at peace and calm when I'm chanting cause I know at the back of my head that I still have stuff to do, and I have to cook too. Sometimes I would bathe at about 12 AM-ish so that I have time for chanting later on, and I wouldn't feel so rushed. But as the new year begins, I realised I've been getting busier that I won't have the chance to bathe at 12 AM hah.

So I decided to change my timing!

I decided to chant when I wake up now. Giving me more time to do work before dinner mwahaha. Well I'm currently starting to change my habits and it's rather a challenging thing to do. Firstly, it's hard for me to get out of my bed. Also I ended up going back to sleep and waking up late hahaha. But I've been mindfully asking myself to wake up and things are going well so far.

If I woke up late, I would shift my chanting on a later time. So basically I don't chant before dinner. And so far the results have been quite interesting. I feel more "relaxed" at night and I don't like I'm in a rush. I just need to discipline myself and wake up more quickly I guess!

In 2016 I learned about making full use of our day. And from this experience, I realised that the 24 hours we have in a day is... Pretty short. Some people claim that 24 hours in a day is not enough, while some wish it was shorter (yes I met such people once). But if you use these 24 hours well, a day may seem like two! Sometimes we're just unaware of the time we wasted. And yes I'm guilty of that haha. But well nowadays I'm becoming less procrastinating haha.

Alright this is just a random post. I still haven't think of any resolutions so far! Whoops. I hope the first two weeks of 2018 have been good for you. Just 50 more to go to the new year hahaha.

Theme

Hello hello. It's the 7th day of the new year and I still haven't got any resolutions thought of HAHA. But I do have one thing! I kinda have... A theme for this year. Like something that I want to do and pursue as the year moves forward. Which is kind of the same as a resolution I guess?

Well I've always sort of have a "goal" of what I want the new year to be. Like 2013 was a year of change, so I want 2014 to be a year of a better change (which kinda did!). And in 2015 I was determined to continue making better changes, 2016 was meh alright. Lost for a while but I did come out of it. 2017 got me feeling pessimistic thanks to 2016 but once again, I did break through it!

My theme for 2018 is to hustle and get a better grip of myself and life! :P

Like well I want to become a more organised person in this year. Like I said last year (which felt long long time ago, though it was just a week before hah), 2018 is going to be an exciting year because well, we have quite a lot of things to do. So I decided instead of panicking and losing my mind, I decided to give myself this challenge and hustle forward! And to do this, I have to get a good grip of life and myself. So yep, hopefully I can do this throughout the year.

It's just been 7 days to 2018 and there are lots of things happening already. And I've applying my goals for this year! Lets keep this up I guess, I'm taking it as a good beginning!

I left 2017 with a sense of gusto. A sense of vigour and rush of excitement to just "feel alive". Trust me, it's not an easy mindset to keep up with, especially in this world where we are surrounded by lots of negativities. It's very hard sometimes to just have a positive mind, only to be destroyed with one speck of negativity. But it's not impossible, and we can do it!

So yup, I want to continue living my life with this zest! And it's my 2018 theme so far :)

Catch you later in my next post!

Happy New Year 2018!

Hello! First of all wishing you a Happy New Year 2018! May this year be a greater year for all of us, and may we all have a fantastic year ahead. Well hmm like I always believe, a year is only as good as we make it out to be! So let us all make this year an awesome one alright.

A pretty quiet and chill first day of the year for me today. Just went to the farm in the afternoon with my dad and it was raining like crazy in the evening! The sky is probably taking revenge after a week of sunshine and cloudiness, where it seemed like it was going to rain but didn't heh.

Also had a rather chill New Year's Eve as it fell on a Sunday. So nothing much to do. I was doing stock-checks at the shop again though. December was a great month! Best sale since the shop opened so far haha. I hope we're only going up and up in the new year mwahaha.

It's 2018 now, can't believe it! Although to be honest I don't feel much of a difference now haha. Like seriously there's no "New Year" feeling now. Not sure if it's because I've been getting busier so today just felt like any other holiday. And tomorrow we get back to work, regardless whether it's a new year or not HAHAHA. Okay yes I did acknowledge that this is the new year, it'll be crazy if I don't.

But what I feel is that... I think we're just walking on a void. Time keeps on going and years are just like some sort of checkpoints we all encounter? So as we pass from one year to the next, I realise we're all just walking into it. There's not much things to realise that we're in a "new" year. But of course, globally, a new year brings a lot of changes. Policy changes, elections, this and that. So there will always be new things in every year. And there is a significant effect for us.

Well what can I say, I think new year or not, we should all live our lives to the fullest every single day! We write continuously on empty pages and it's up to us if we want to make great ones that will be compiled into a great book, or we just want to write bad stories. 

I entered 2017 without a resolution, and made them slowly as I progress towards the year. Similarly, I don't have a resolution yet for this new year. I do have some in mind, and I'll talk about them soon.

Alright that's all for me on this first post of the year! I hope 2017 was treating you well. Once again wishing you a happy new year, and may 2018 be a greater year for all of us! Spread love and kindness to people you meet, be grateful for everything, and live our life to the fullest while we still can.