Floating in Time

It feels scary that in some days, I totally lost track of time. Sometimes, I don't know what day is it today, what date is it today, what day is tomorrow, which part of the month are we in now, and so on. Sometimes I just go like "Oh hey June is coming to an end" and then I just came into a shock to come with this fact. Not sure if I'm too busy these days, or I just lost track of time.

Time flows in a speed no one can comprehend. Why some days flew by pretty fast, and some minute flew by real slowly. Time is a mystery. A beautiful one actually.

Anyway it's the end of the month now, time for Great Music of June!

Great music of June:
- Ship To Wreck by Florence and The Machine (FATM)
- Sea Creatures by SOAK (album version)
- Diver by Kid Astray 
- It's Alright by Kid Astray
- Youth by Parks, Squares and Alleys
- Forest by Parks, Squares and Alleys
- Closer To You by Christian Carcamo 
- Feet To The Sun by Mideau
- Hejduk by Mideau
- Deep by Jones
- White Light by Shura

Song of the month: Ship To Wreck by Florence and The Machine

Like I said last month, June is the month where a lot of my favourite artists and bands release their new albums....! And I don't have a single one of them, because I can't find it anywhere. And also buying them from Amazon is expensive so yeah. But anyway I am going to Jakarta tomorrow and I'm going for a CD hunt! And also there's this online CD shop that sells new albums and the guy told me that some of the new released are going to be released in late June. Which is now.

FATM just released their new album "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" and I really really love the song Ship To Wreck! Florence has definitely one of the best female vocals of the decade, or century heh. And I just love her lyrics. It's so meaningful and deep. Although this song is about a failed relationship that ends up in an abuse (I think). Her powerful voice and lyrics just awed me so much.

SOAK released her debut album as well and I can't wait to get it! Well I don't think it's going to be released here in Indonesia. The album version of her "Sea Creatures" is pretty nice. Although I prefer her previous version. But this version is more lively and yup pretty nice. Kid Astray also released their album Home Before The Dark, and my favourite song from them, Diver, is in it! I love Diver so much. I love the beat and the melody. It's super catchy and definitely awesome for summer.

Parks, Squares and Alleys is a band from Russia and I discovered them from the IndieAir channel again. Their song youth is very nice. I love the vibe and the feel of the song. It reminds me of a Saturday afternoon in a quiet town heh. I discovered Christian Carcamo's song Closer To You in IndieAir as well and it's a beautiful song too. Man, YouTube is my source of new music these days.

Discovered Mideau in MorIndie's latest "Walking Home" playlist and well hello, I have a new favourite electronic band now! Fell in love with their song "Feet To The Sun" when I first heard it on the playlist. Definitely a good song to walk home to. Last but not least, I discovered Jones while streaming Soundcloud again. She has such a soothing voice and it blends really well in this song of hers. 

As for White Light, I've talked about it. And yes I'm still obsessed with it. 

Yup alright these are my awesome finds for music in June! Can't wait for more music in July! 

Oh yes talking about music - two awesome things happened.

So on 13th of June, Sigur Ros did an audio stream of their Agaetis Byrjun release concert 16 years ago. I have no luck most of the time with technology and streaming - my laptop always crashed in this kind of situation. So I tweeted to SR saying "my laptop just crashed! Couldn't stand your awesomeness! Switching on my laptop again!"..... AND THEY FAVOURITED MY TWEET!

After the end of the stream SR signed off as "-sr" and it means that they have been on Twitter on that night! Oh my goodness. They favourited my tweet. I went to sleep with a smile haha.

And a few days back, I wished Sam Smith and Shura a happy pride and SHURA RETWEETED ME! WITH SAM SMITH ON MY MENTION. Another happy night! Was grinning like a fool heh.

Although yes these things are "small" things to you. But as a huge fanboy of all these musicians, they make me really really happy. They are such lovely people! I wanna meet them in real life so bad. Alright I'm going to stop here now. Gotta wake up early tomorrow for Jakarta. See you soon! And wishing everyone a Joyful July ahead as well. Hope you had a Jubilant June :)

Love Wins

 One day the flowers will stop asking why they are different.

They will realise that everyone is beautiful in their own ways.

And the world will embrace their beauty too.

Yesterday was probably one of the most historically significant date of our the century. The USA has legalised same-sex marriage across the states! After years of waiting, the LGBT couples can finally get married with their partners now. It's a great day to rejoice I suppose. I truly believe that we are free to love anyone we want to love. Regardless of gender, race and religion.

I know the news through my social media platform - thanks to my favourite artists, bands and websites. Sam Smith tweeted about it, and everyone else changed their profile photo to a pride-flag-inspired photo. The supports are overwhelming and seeing them made me feel emotional. So much happiness and joy can be felt from the photos I saw on the net when the parliament announced it.

But of course not everyone is happy with it. Well we can't please everyone can we?

Legalising gay marriage doesn't mean that straight people have to turn gay. Neither does it mean that the number of gay people will increase. It just mean more gay people can garner and support other people. They can live a happy life till they grow old with their loved ones, just like straight couples. The world will be a happier place I suppose. No LGBT individuals shall commit suicide because they feel oppressed. The LGBT community will have an increased support from one another too.

I can never understand why people claim that being gay is a choice. Being gay is a lifestyle. If being gay is a choice, LGBR youths who committed suicide because of bullying won't have to die. They just need to make "the choice" of turning straight to avoid these bullying scenarios! Who the hell would want to be bullied right? And don't tell me that it's not natural. It's found in a lot of other species.

I once read an article saying that LGBT individuals will most probably turn into lonely and depressed individuals when they grow old. DUH. Because they are oppressed and ostracised and bullied since young! I think the article should read "people who are ostracised and bullied since young will turn into lonely and depressed individuals". Anyone will turn like that if they go through the same thing.

Oh well everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I'm fine with it. Just please please don't force your ideology on other people. If you think same sex marriage is wrong, then please get married with someone of the opposite sex. If you like the opposite sex with all your heart, continue to do so with loving kindness. Don't have to tell people who love the same sex to do what you are doing.

Imagine you're eating spaghetti for lunch and I suddenly come to your table and throw your plate off saying "You shall not eat spaghetti because it is against my principle to eat pasta for lunch". How would you feel? So yes. Don't force your ideas on other people. 

Just because everyone in a cafe is drinking coffee, doesn't mean that you can't drink tea. And even if you drink tea, does it affect the people who are drinking coffee? No.

Milky Way

Milky way!

Last night was kind of a clear night. And it's been so long since I did some star photography (or astrophotography) so I decided to take my camera out! Set up my tripod, changed settings here and there, and I was so surprised to be able to shoot the Milky Way on my camera! Oh man, it was such a happy moment for me. I didn't know I can do it here in my hometown.

To be honest I've been very skeptical when I see beautiful photos of Milky Way with house/mountains/landmarks in the foreground of the photos. I thought you'll need some powerful camera and a pretty good and clear night to capture it! And also I've never seen the milky way with my own eyes. I did once, in Johor. It wasn't a clear milky way but definitely some strands of it. 

Actually I can see some strands of it in my hometown too. There's this cloud like thing on a certain part of the night sky that I've been eyeing upon. I am not sure if it's the milky way, maybe it's just some mist or clouds heh. So last night I decided to direct my camera in that part of the sky and yup, the above photo is the end result of the shoot! I am quite amazed myself.

It is kind of a crappy photo if you enlarge it. Firstly, the photo was somehow out of focus even though I already set my camera's focus setting to infinity. But somehow it's just a tiny bit out of focus so the stars look pretty vague. I tried to sharpen in in post-process and tweak the brightness and contrast. This is the best way I can salvage this photo. I am determined to take a better photo though!

I've always been fascinated with astronomy. In primary school I took astronomy for that "Young Scientist badge" thingy and after borrowing a pile of books about astronomy, I began to show a deep interest to it. My sister and I even bought a telescope! Err yeah it was those like 78 bucks one but it's pretty good. You can see the craters of the moon. I bought a constellation map as well and tried my best to map out constellations in my hometown. It was pretty fun,

Whenever I look at the stars in the night sky, I'm always amazed by the grandeur and beauty of this universe. I feel really tiny. We all think we are big-shot human beings but seriously, we'll never know who's and what's out there. Are we alone in this universe? I definitely think not. Does anybody else know our existence here? And the questions just go on and on. The universe is so beautifully scary.

After watching Divergent, I wonder to myself if we are actually an experiment carried out by some extraterrestrial civilizations. You know, maybe we are a prototype of a new creature/living thing. Maybe some robot civilizations create us, thinking we might make a great inhabitant of a planet. But I think we are doing a horrible job because we are destroying our planet everyday. 

No one knows really! Just an interesting thought to think about.

Alright stopping here for a while. I'll talk to you soon! :)

Golden by Szymon

I came across with this beautiful song a few weeks back on YouTube via the channel MorIndie. I went to buy it on iTunes right away. And I watched this beautiful video as well. I saw on the description that he will be releasing a new album soon. And I am excited! I thought to myself that hey he is going to be a great emerging artist of the year I bet. I reckoned that he's an emerging artist cause there is only one of his songs on iTunes. So yes, I was pretty excited for him.

Until last night I found out that Szymon actually passed away three years ago, after losing a battle with depression. I was left in a deep shock and sadness, cause I truly feel that he's such a talented musician. Although at the same time I feel thankful to have come across with his music - and for his friends and peers who are releasing the songs he recorded in his room a few years back in his forthcoming album. Such a wonderful and beautiful talent, gone to soon, really.

I can't wait to get his album. His other song - Katyusha is another gem as well.

Happy Ramadhan

First of all just wanna wish all Muslims a smooth and blissful Ramadhan ahead! Yup the fasting month started today. It feels good to listen to the call of Sahur and Buka again haha.

Being the first day of Ramadhan, the factory is closed as a tradition. So today was a pretty chill day. Today is also co-incidentally my mum's birthday so happy birthday mum! And also, it is the death anniversary of my grandfather. So my family gathers again to do some prayers. It feels good to have everyone together again. It's been quite long since all of us gather together.

Can you believe my cousins and I play hide-and-seek together just now! :P

It is a pretty much chill day and I did nothing much except for going to the farm. Ramadhan is always a period of the year that I look forward to. I just love the feel and vibe of the holy month I guess? Like the call of Sahur and Buka, seeing people preparing and selling Tajil dishes in the evening, and of course Hari Raya Lebaran itself. Ramadhan always reminds me how fast time is passing us! Although yes, every year, it'll be 11 days earlier than the previous year.

Alright just a short update for now. I will talk to you again soon :)

White Light

I am currently hooked, so bad, to this latest song from Shura called "White Light". Sadly she doesn't release it as a single in iTunes, and I've been listening to it on Soundcloud. Before I sleep, when I wake up, when I do work, etc. It is so good! Definitely a jam we all need for the summer. I rarely find an artist in which I would like every single song they released. I mean I'll like some songs, and doesn't quite like some songs. But for Shura, I love every song from her so far! I really can't wait for her album.

Today was an alright Sunday I suppose. A bit shocked about some stuff as well. Okay here goes.

We will have a lot of flower demands for Hari Raya. Which is coming in about a month's time. As for the fasting month (puasa), we will have a decrease in demand. We learned our mistake from last year, so this year we reduced the flowers we planted for the fasting month, and increased for Lebaran. We planted these 3.5 months ago back in early March. We used to count the growth period by weeks. This time round we even count it by days. We gave the flowers 105 days to begin harvest, and 112 days for "grand harvest". Basically the latter means we'll have A LOT of flowers blooming together.

We have a greenhouse that we planted for the fasting months. We counted the days, and the beginning of harvest fell on this week, and the grand harvest as next week (22/6). We counted another greenhouse, and the beginning of harvest is suppose to fall in July - mid fasting month.

But somehow somewhat - we have begun harvesting from these two greenhouses this week! They bloom way too quickly. I am super worried because the first week of the fasting month is when the demand of flower is the lowest. But now we have a lot of flowers. And I am also worried that the greenhouse in which we planted for Hari Raya is going to bloom more quickly than the planned date.

Thankfully though, seeing the growth of the plants on the Hari Raya greenhouse, they look like they are going to bloom right before Hari Raya. I just hope we'll have enough rain and sunshine to sustain their growth, and for them to bloom right on the planned time. And not earlier like the other 2 greenhouses!

Well this is the taste of having a business that involve living things, which are affected by weather/nature. You just can't control them. It's like... When your business is a production kind of business, it's easy. You can have 3 shifts to create your product and sell them easily. For flowers, well you have to plant them, let them grow for 3 months, and then harvest them. Don't forget about the weather that can affect them. And also nature - like pests, winds, weird weather pattern and so on.

From this issue, I learned that well no matter how hard we try to control nature, to anticipate her actions and to "adapt" to her ways, I think queen nature is going to find her own paths. And sometimes I just feel that she truly knows the best. Whatever she does, is really for the best of us. Unless of course we're talking about natural disasters and so on. These are the ones that are beyond our control, and also no one wants natrual disasters to happen to us right. And yes, yet we still destroy nature and expect that she won't give her revenge to us. Hashtag humans.

Alright that's all for now. Can't believe Puasa is going to begin on Thursday! It feels like it just happened 3 months ago. Oh well, have a great week ahead everybody :)

Streaming Music?

Today I came across the news that apple is actually starting their own streaming music service. Just like Spotify and the latest addition, Tidal. Personally, I have never tried any music streaming services except for Soundcloud. And YouTube, because some people feel that YouTube is another form of streaming music service. Which is kind of accurate, since I can play my playlist of favourite music.

As of now, my only source of music entertainment is my iPod or these days, I've been using my Discman. I'll randomly pick a CD from my collection and listen to it at night. And I still listen to my iPod to go to sleep. And when I woke up halfway through sleep, I'll listen to music again.

The discussion about streaming music being the "future" of music is buzzing now. Personally... I don't know. I've been reading articles, watching vlogs and videos about this issue. An article says that it is not really a fair and great way for the artists to be making money, but it's good for the service provider. Another article says it's a better way for artists to make money because people "pay" per stream of their music. Or something like that. I'm not entirely sure about how this streaming music works.

I would say a paid-music streaming service is a much better idea than illegal music downloads. As you know I've always been buying CDs of my favourite artists. Or CDs that to me are worth buying. If physical formats are not available, I'll buy their albums either in iTunes or Bandcamp. Personally I prefer Bandcamp because the money goes straight to the bands (maybe they have to pay Bandcamp a fee too). And also Bandcamp allows me to download in whatever format I wish to download.

Actually joining band has made me respect artists more. To prepare for a 2 hour concert, we put in so many hours of rehearsals, sectionals and self-practices. Same as artists - they put in so many YEARS of hard work and experience, to create new songs for an album, and not forgetting to rehearse for tours worldwide! All of these hard work are not easy nor cheap! And to me, as a fan, the smallest way I can help them is to buy their music and of course go to their concerts. And buy their merchandise.

Imagine you're a band, you squeezed your brain off to write songs, rehearse so many hours to record an album, and then you discover that people are downloading your songs for free. I would feel so hurt heh. Although yes I am guilty of downloading some songs for free online. It's not because I want to, but it's because I really really love the song but it is not available anywhere. 

Also, I purchase songs because their quality is so much better than some those freely downloaded songs. I can get pretty OCD when it comes to song quality.

Which brings me to my next point - availability. Like I mentioned above, some songs are actually not available in every country. There are a lot of songs unavailable in Indonesia's iTunes store. Although somehow across the years, they get more and more available. So you know perhaps, streaming music is the way to go, if it means that the songs are going to be available universally?

But without a doubt, I am going to continue collecting physical formats of my favourite artists' albums. Until somehow, everyone decided that CD should go extinct and... Yes. Now most of my favourite artists are in Spotify. But it is not available in Indonesia so I listen to their songs in my iPod from the albums that I bought. And also I don't like the idea of just owning "files" in the future. There is a sense of sentimentalism and pride, when you own physical formats!

Can't imagine in the future, the conversation we'll have about new songs will go like....

"Hey have you streamed the new _______ songs yet?"

Tremor

I was in deep shock to hear the news of the Sabah quake yesterday. Actually I woke up to the news. I thought it was just a quake at Sabah. Until I read the news in the late afternoon about how some climbers at Mt Kinabalu was stranded as the way down the mountain was blocked by fallen boulders. And then I read the news about people missing, and casualities... And it's just so saddening.

Today more news of causalities were announced. And news about the death of a mountain guide circulated on Facebook. It saddens me a lot because Mt K is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. To hear such devastating news happening in that place gave me a shock. Also, the mountain guides are some of the loveliest people I met and trekked with while I was there. I hope more good news will arrive in the coming days. Glad to hear the news about survivors though.

Climbing Mt K was a life-changing event for me. And I'm pretty sure that those climbers affected will feel the same too - that climbing that beautiful majestic mountain will change their lives in one way or another. It's just sad and devastating that they have to encounter this during their climb.

We live in a beautiful planet - but also a scary one. We don't know what is happening inside of this planet. Quakes like these can happen anytime, anywhere. I'm feeling a bit uneasy too because somehow the quake is "traveling" down south. From Nepal, then Japan, now Sabah. And below Sabah is Indonesia. And we are located on the ring of fire. I hope the quakes will stop.

Condolences to the victims of the Sabah quake and their families. Take care wherever you are.

Happy Waisak 2559

Being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman,
but becoming at last, a true human being - Sogyal Rinpoche

First of all wishing all Buddhists in Indonesia and around the world a happy Vesak day! Alright as I've mentioned last year Vesak falls on different days, somehow, in different countries. It falls on the 2nd of June this year here in Indonesia so yep! Vesak is an important day for Buddhists because it commemorates 3 events of the Buddha's life - his birth, enlightenment and death (paranirvana).

I've been deepening my Buddhism starting from May as I've mentioned in my previous post. It's been truly an enlightening experience so far. And nope I'm not done yet. I have so much more to go! But after knowing a few main and core lessons of the Buddha's teachings, I've gained a deeper admiration and awe towards Buddhism. And of course, to the man himself - The Buddha.

So around 2500 years ago, a man named Siddharta left his life of wealth and pleasure behind. He is a prince of a kind, enjoying life everyday. But he knew that this "wonderful" life of his will not last forever. He came across with old age, sickness and death - something we can never run away from. And contemplating about this, he became sad. But he went for a search to end this suffering.

After exploring different methods of meditation, which includes an extreme way where he only eats one grain of rice a day, Siddharta went into a deep meditation and he realised three things - That everything in life is impermanent, and whatever is impermanent causes suffering. And whatever is impermanent and causes suffering, is insubstantial. He discovered the middle-way approach - which is a path in which we neither do  extreme self-mortification nor enjoying too much sensual pleasures.

He became enlightened, awakened. In fact a Buddha is someone who is "awakened". He is free of his own ego. He is free of his own delusions. And I like Sogyal Rinpoche's words from his book "The Tibetan Book of the Living and Dead". That "being a Buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last, a true human being". This sentence gave me so much enlightenment.

Contrary to popular belief, a lot of people (including some Buddhists) regard the Buddha as a god or some super human that grants wishes and health and wealth. To me he is not a "god". He is my teacher. He is someone who helped me to go across paths in life with his teachings. After learning more about Buddhism, I'm more convinced that Buddhism is not a religion. It is a philosophy, it is a teaching. Lessons you can learn that can perhaps make you a better, happier person.

In fact I agree with the Dalai Lama who said that you shouldn't learn Buddhism to become a Buddhist. But become a better whoever-you-are as a person!

Well somehow the more I "dig" deeper into Buddhism, the more enlightened I become. About everything! About life, about who I am as a human, a person, about other people, about mankind and more. I am so far from becoming enlightened, of course. But the Buddha is really my inspiration. He is someone I want and strive to become. And I welcome you to read more about Buddhism. And no I'm not asking you to convert into a Buddhist. I just hope the Buddha's teachings can inspire you :)

Alright that's all from me for now! Wishing everyone a happy Vesak again.

Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukithatta - May all living things be happy!