Twenty Six

Thank you my beloved Baros United!

Another day, another year, and here I am surviving the 26th time that I circled around the sun on this wonderful planet! Ahaha. I love to term my birthday that way now, it's pretty interesting right. But yes, I turned 26 today, I am officially closer to 50 than I am to when I was born. Isn't that amazing.

I don't feel old, I don't feel whatever to be honest. Just shocked because I have officially surpassed the mid twenties, and I will be in my late twenties next year. Man, where did time go really. It feels like yesterday when I was celebrating my birthday with my poly friends (Hi Candy and Lizzie). But that was a proper 6 years ago? That's crazy right. But I had a great time today!

It was just an ordinary Tuesday, helped out at the factory in the afternoon and did some calculations in the evening. Then I went to have dinner with my family! Also celebrating my uncle's birthday which fell on Sunday. Sadly this year my aunt is no longer with us, if not we'll be celebrating our birthdays together on this special day. Oh well, happy birthday Oucun! :)

I don't have a lot of thoughts for today. Weird, as you grow older, your birthday is just another day. Although I would say the mid twenties is an interesting time of your life. I was just pondering just now, because this year marked the 5th year that I'm home. The 5th year that I entered the adult life, being an adult, and having everything that revolves around it. And it's an interesting journey.

More of this on another separate post I guess.

Well I hope that 26 will be a better year ahead for me. More wisdom, great health and... I don't want happiness. As I said once, I want mindfulness. Because mindfulness is better than happiness! I hope that the universe will guide me always, and show me clarity and light in this space. Give me courage, give me patience, and conspire with me to walk on this path together. Till the end of time.

Alright that's all for me today. Thank you to everyone who has wished me! I hope you're having a great week so far, and may you have an awesome other half of July. See ya soon :)

The Three Laws

I've been wanting to blog about this, since the holiday last month actually! But never had the chance to do so, don't even know why heh. But oh well here it is! It's a chill Saturday night now.

Right. So in life I'm pretty sure we all have rules and laws that we all follow. Some rules that we keep for ourselves, like habits and patterns and so on. And there are also beliefs like your religion and tradition (and superstition). There are also things that don't take shape in a form of object/subject, but just a law of life that you believe and follow. Tonight I'm gonna talk about it!

So there are three laws of the universe that I believe in. I like to call this a "universal law" because I realise that at the end of the day, I will always go back to these three laws. And I have come across many teachings and "laws" of life as well, but they can all be summarised into these three.

The three laws that I believe in are:

1. Everything happens for a reason

2. There is time for everything

3. Whatever will be yours, will be yours

The first law is pretty straightforward I guess. I think it is self-explanatory. Basically everything happens (and doesn't happen) for a reason. If they don't, they wouldn't have happened at all right? Even though most of the time, we won't know the reason straight away. Sometimes it takes a day, a week, a month or even a year. But eventually, one day, we will know the reason. And everything will make sense.

Which brings me to the second law, that everything has its time. It is sort of an extension to the first law. Sometimes we wonder why things happen at a certain timing, especially at times that we don't want it to happen haha. Most of the time, we will eventually discover why they happen at that particular timing, and not other timings. It's crazy but yeah, another reminder that everything has its time.

Last but not least, everything will come to a full circle when you accept all the things that happened to you; when you know the reason, when you know why it happened at that point of your life. For a period of time, we might still be unable to accept the reality. but eventually we will accept everything with out hear. And understand that whatever that is meant to happen to us, will happen.

AKA whatever will be yours, will be yours.

Following these three laws have made me a happier person in a way. And a lot of calmer and peaceful too. I question less and accept more. Or should I say... I see more. There are a lot of events in life that that has made me come to this point. It's like I will always come back to these three laws. 

Let me talk about an example that I went through.

As some of you might know, I was supposed to go to Stanford University for my internship back in year 3. I was shortlisted and chosen to go there. I was pretty excited about it, because I've always wanted to go for an overseas internship, like my sister who went to Sweden for a year. So I was imagining my internship, life in the USA, meeting new people and things like that. I was even planning to meet up with some friends who were also interning in the USA hahaha. 

But three weeks before the school holiday, I wasn't being told anything about this internship. I wasn't being briefed about it, unlike Darren and Jesslyn who were being briefed about their internship in Harvard. I didn't think about it much, until I was called to the office, to be told that due to logistics issue, I'm no longer going to the Stanford but to go for a local internship instead.

Part of me was crushed, cause well I've been imagining things HAHAHA (In Shakespeare's words, expectation is the root of all heartache heh). But part of me was also happy because I get to be close with the others. So yeah. But I was still quite "bitter" especially when my social media timeline was flooded with photos of my friends who were interning abroad heh. But then yup, I told myself the first law, I was pretty sure that I was meant to have a local internship.

It was only until the end of 2012 that made me realise a lot of things. So I asked myself, if I did go to Stanford, how will my 2012 be? I would probably not be able to play for my last Musical Delight, I wouldn't be able to join Stand Chart half marathon, and the dozens of runs I went as well, and many many more. So I felt both relieved and stupid at the end of 2012 - relieved because I have learned why my 2012 worked out that way, and stupid for the time I wasted feeling "bitter".

This is just one of the many things that taught me about these universal laws. As life goes along, especially after I come back home, these laws are becoming more and more evident in life. Accompanied with the Buddhist teaching of emptiness, everything seems to fall into place.

I think life is incredible in this way - that there are so many things we are unsure about in life. But life will always find a way to tell us why, and to teach us lessons and things we don't understand. Sometimes in a short time, sometimes, a lifetime. But whatever the case is, the universe will always be here to give us reasons why we are here. Why we lead such a life, and why life flows in such a way. 

Specks of dust

We are specks of dust in this universe.
But isn't it quite amazing, 
how these specks of dust exist,
in the middle of this great nowhere?

And one day we'll learn why we're here.

Taken 2 nights ago! The night was so clear.

Streamy Spotify

So... I have decided to give Spotify a try! I know, I once wrote on my blog that I don't like the idea of streaming music, and also the fact that I prefer having music files from iTunes etc. But it's on offer of 5000 rupiah (50 cents!) for three months so... I signed up for Premium haha. So far the experience has been life changing actually. I kinda see why streaming music is the future.

Anyway so I was listening to Florence and The Machine new album, which was released at the end of June. I have pre-ordered the vinyl and I'm just waiting for it to arrive, which now I learned that it's gonna take a longer time. So with the non-premium version of Spotify, the ads are really annoying hahaha. I think Spotify is smart, they use really annoying ads that drive you crazy and go for premium :O Like for example there's an ad for Samsung and it's a 1 minute ad (I think) of a spoilt phone which can't play music properly. It's basically an ad of cut-off music and just the sound of a spoilt audio.

And there's an ad for Spotify itself which is filled with the sound of car-horns and the bustling of a city, saying there's music for everything! Yada yada hahaha. But anyway, I was talking with Syaz once about Spotify and she was telling me how I should give it a try! Actually a few people told me to try it too. But the "old stubborn" me still don't give in heh. But seriously the ads are hindering my enjoyment of listening to music, so there I go! Signed up for premium.

Also the 5000 Rupiah for three months offer was ending in June.

So yep, I've been using Spotify not for about a week and learning its tips and tricks. Like how I learned that we can make playlists and download them so we can play without internet. And creating our own library and so on. It's been revolutionary and well I'm gonna give it more time to try it. But yep this past week has made me realise why streaming music will be the future of music. 

Spotify is basically like owning your own music library, but with more choices and more versatility. You don't have to download one by one, and you can still choose the music you want to listen to. In this day and age of cloud storage etc, we're entering the next phase of music I guess. From live music, to recordings, to MP3s and now streaming music. It's pretty interesting I must say, from someone who experienced this revolution of music. From casette tapes, CDs, iPod, now Spotify.

Alright I'm going to play around with it more. Also the new Years and Years album is finally out! Of course, I've been listening to it from Spotify haha. It's an amazing album. See you real soon!

50%

It's the last day of June now and that means half of the year is gone! And 50% more to go till we reach another year. I should probably stop reminding and telling myself that time is flying quickly on this blog. But well yeah, still a scary thought that I don't think we can comprehend heh.

Nevertheless 2018 has been a pretty interesting year so far. As I'm trying to not label my years, I just feel that it is going the way I want it to go? Although not fully, but things seem to be moving in a direction and pace that I've been wanting to. I'm learning to embrace emptiness as always, so I'll see everything as it is. But yeah, I hope it continues to go towards the direction that I wish for.

We can't adjust the wind, but we can adjust our sail!

I think 2018 is a continuation of 2017 (duh!) in terms of the lessons I learned. Like I think 2018 is just a year where I continue to persevere forward, and learn how to become a human I guess. I am learning the spirit of not giving up and just giving it my all. I'm learning the spirit of embracing things, just like what I did in 2017. And so on and forth. I hope to continue onwards!

I'm still trying to work on my resolution of getting more grip on my life. Getting more control and just going forward fearlessly. It dawns upon me that I'm an adult now, in my mid twenties. I think it's time for me to grab my life better and to just get a control of things! Despite many circumstances I'm facing.

Okay I am going to stop here now. Man, I need to do a better job blogging here haha. I hope the first half of 2018 have been going well for you. Lets enter the next half of the year with vigour and spirit! Another year we're going to close off soon. Lets write this page of our life well! See you soon.

High As Hope

June is coming to an end tomorrow! As expected, despite of the long holiday, I know June will fly by quickly. And as always, the year will move forward even faster as we hit July. It's quite terrifying really to know how fast time is flying. Well nothing can stop it from moving forward.

Anyway I've been setting up the laptop more and more in this week. Downloaded the things I need, like Google Drive and Spotify etc. Still need to set up my Dropbox though. And a few other programs. Still getting used to the new laptop, it just feels different heh. Need more time I guess. I just love how fast this laptop is as compared to my previous hahaha. Like I don't have to wait 5 minutes for the laptop to start. And opening documents is so much quicker. Saves lots of time for me hah.

Alright time for the great music of June!

Great Music of  June:

- Wildness by Snow Patrol

- High As Hope by Florence and The Machine

- No Place by Rufus Du Sol

Song of the month: Empress by Snow Patrol

Alright lets talk about Rufus new song first, No Place! Saw that Rufus posted about the new song on their Facebook page and I was so excited! I know they've been hinting about new music from their Instagram heh, when they released the official audio for No Place I was really stoked. I think it's such an awesome song. And the song totally comes cohesively with the art, of shadowy figures on a desert. I think the song depicts that feeling of being alone in a big space. They're releasing a new album and I think it's gonna be called Solace (since it's their tour name). Pretty excited to hear more from Rufus!

Snow Patrol released their new album on the same day as Chvrches, but I just received my vinyl like last week haha. I think it's an incredible comeback album from them, and easily my top 5 albums of the year so far. I think it's a pretty uplifting album with lots of ideas and emotions weaved into a beautiful tapestry. I can't really explain the album word by word but the whole feel of the album just fits beautifully I guess. Especially songs like Empress and Life on Earth.

I read an article that the singer of the band (Gary) was struggling with some mental health issues during their hiatus. But to see him spring back into action in this new album is quite inspiring. I think a lot of his songs in the album talk about this issue too. When I first hear Empress back in May when they released it, I was feeling upset about some stuff. And then I listened to the lyrics which goes like "You don't think it will, but it will, it will". Suddenly I feel hopeful about things haha.

I think that's the power of music. Out of the blue, a song can uplift you and just make you feel better again. I think I have cried in the car a few times listening to Empress heh.

One of my most anticipated (and surprising) release of the year is Florence and The Machine's new album High As Hope! When she released A Sky Full of Song I was over the moon. Knowing that more new music is on the way haha. I have pre-ordered the album and it's on the way too. But I gave it a listen on Spotify and oh my goodness, it is such an incredible album I'd say. There are so much class and energy all in one album. It's super "clean" and just well executed I guess? I was hoping that she'd go back to the Ceremonials era and I think she kinda did.

It's a marriage between Ceremonials and HBHBHB.

There's something about Florence's voice and music that feels so empowering to me. The lyrics, the movement and the whole energy of her music is just so amazing. I really hope that she will bring her High As Hope tour to Indonesia and I will see her live. Definitely a bucket list item for me.

Alright that's all for now. Tomorrow is the last day of June and July is upon us. I'll see you soon!

New laptop, who dis?

Hello hello hello! Can't believe that I'm currently blogging on my new laptop mwahaha. I bought a new laptop on Sunday actually, but there was a problem with it and I had to send it for repair on Tuesday heh, it's only like 36 hours old! So far I'm just downloading the things I need to make the usage of this laptop enjoyable. Like iTunes, which I just finished downloading and transferring the new library and stuff. And I'm currently downloading Google Drive so that I can do work.

Oh and the reason why I decided to get a new laptop is that... My previous laptop has been acting weird in this month. For example in last week alone, it fell onto a black screen 3 times when I turned it on, saying that there's something wrong with the drive. And also the drive has been making weird noises lately. Usually it doesn't happen often (the noise), but recently it is happening a lot. Also what's terrifying was during the holiday, it went into blue screen twice, saying that my hard drive was undetectable?! And then the scariest part was, I almost pressed "reboot drive" :O

I didn't know that setting up a new laptop that runs on Windows 10 is this troublesome heh. Well maybe this is the first time that I'm setting up a new laptop. My previous laptop was set up by the IT people in SP when I bought it (actually it was Weilun haha). They installed everything I need from office and so on. All I did was go home and just start using it. Now I gotta transfer the new data and stuff. 

Which I have thankfully learn how to organise and minimalise.

Eight years of owning a laptop and a gazillion of data, I've been learning how to "let things go" and just stick with what I truly need. Which is essentially music and photos from my recent travels heh. Afterall, 8 years of memories are stored inside my previous laptop. Photos from my poly days and so on. Well I have them inside my external hard drive so no worries. More space in this new lappy I guess.

I'm learning how to organise my documents well and so on. I'm quite a messy person for digital file keeping heh. Except for photos, I found a great way to organise them :D

Anyway I'm also trying to make my fingers familiarise with the laptop keyboard. It's pretty different from the previous laptop. Oh by the way I bought another Lenovo laptop! Cause I think Lenovo is a good brand, so I decided to stick with the same brand. Although the keyboard is different, typing here feels a bit familiar with my previous laptop. Just that I mis-typed lots of words now hah.

Today was a holiday here in Indonesia because we have an election. I took part in this 2nd election of mine, to choose the head of province (West Java for me) and the mayor of my hometown. The head of province I am rooting for won the election, but sadly not for the mayor. Oh well let us all move forward together for the next five years! I hope everything will be awesome for everyone.

I don't really like talking about politics cause not only do I not understand a lot about it, but also it bring a lot of conflict and unhappiness heh. So I always try to avoid it.

Alright that's all for now. Gonna head to bed! Hopefully I can familiarise myself with the new laptop more in the next coming of days. See you soon, have a great remaining last week of June :)