minimalism

i lived a life as a nomad in europe for almost two years, moving in and out four different cities. i will have to write more about it sooner. but all i had with me on that period were just one big suitcase, one small suitcase, and a backpack. then three months ago i moved back to my hometown, to my bedroom, and after just a short while i realized how many things i have and how i've been living for two years without needing any of them and i barely have space for all of them.

another thing that i realized was that for the last three months being back in the city, i've been wearing not more than ten pieces of clothing when i go out everyday, rotating just the same pieces over and over without having much worries. well the point of dressing when you go out are just two things, being comfortable and confident. and if you think about it, it actually doesn't really take that much. (ps. it has to be added the fact that i haven't been going out on dates these days. eeps). and i have to say, i'm pretty much doing well with the simplification i've been doing for more than two years now. what this girl has been doing is admirable tho i don't think i can pull it to that extend even if i want to.

on another note, last december was a disaster. worst month of the whole 2016. i've never been in such low state of mind for years for as long as i remember. then on the very last day of the year, i went on a trip to a friend's hometown. it has a completely different vibe with the city i live in. and somehow being there has taught me how peaceful it is leading a life that is modest, being content with what we have, doesn't matter how much or how little money we make. it made me realized how deeply superficial and capitalistic the life in big cities is.

after barely sleeping, on the very first day of the year we drove to the temple for the first sunrise. and although it wasn't ideally the situation we hoped for, it did provide me some good thoughts and good ideas on how i should really start to clear out my thoughts on regular basis. and start to seek out to straighten out my tangled fucked up head more than anything else.

ps. i don't really talk about the documentary itself, but it pretty much resembles the thoughts i'm trying to convey here.

roma, lazio. (ii)

the couple retired to a villa in rieti, italy, that they had learned about from an in-flight magazine feature on affordable retirement destinations. it was about fifty minutes outside of rome by car, and the husband often went into rome for errands.
     "this car charger isn't working for some reason. i'm going to head into rome and get a new one."
     "don't they have them in the gas station in town? i'm sure i've seen them there."
     "maybe, but better selection in rome, probably. better prices in rome, too. they're always going to charge you more at a gas station in a small town. it's a convenience fee that you're paying in those places. it's fine, i was going to be heading that way anyway - i've been meaning to swing by rome to get some garden shears, too. anything else? i can call you and check when i get to rome."
     he loved saying "rome" like that. "head into rome," "swing by rome." it was just the nearest place to them. how cool was that! rome, the city of legends, of conquerors, of history, of myth - this was where he bought batteries! the place that people saved up to visit their whole lives: for him, this really was simple the place where he might fill up on gas one day and where the next day he'd have to know the right shop to pick up flowers for his wife to thank her for making dinner - with ingredients he had also picked up in rome. rome! that's all rome was to him! nothing special at all!
     "i should be home by five, or six at the latest. it's tuesday, so you never know about that rush hour traffic, coming out of rome."
     "okay. that's fine. see you then." "see you then!"
     and he headed into rome. 


the short story above was taken from the book written by b.j. novak, the american comedian, "one more thing." i read it some years ago and somehow i always remember it, the grandeur feeling of living in such city as rome doing mundane things. and now here i was living in the majestic city for some months last autumn-winter. i remember telling my friends months before, "you don't need any reason to want to live in rome. it's rome!" on which they all agreed.

i lived two minutes walking from the vatican, which means practically i can reach the city center easily on foot. every morning going to work by train i would see the vatican's saint peter's basilica. and if i took the bus i would see castel sant'angelo with the tevere river and the gorgeous autumn trees along the banks. it was amazing. it really did feel like what's written by novak, people save up to come to this place and yet i got to live around it and see it every single day, it totally felt like a grand privilege. in the evening after a tiring working day at the office i would go buy a gelato and sit on the vatican's piazza, where the pope usually held the mass, sometimes to just smoke a cigarette. it amazed me how this might be very luxurious to most people but it's just a simple mundane thing to me.

and then of course there was the notorious transportation system and all the chaos rome is famous for, which i have to say, you have no idea until you really live it yourself. and it is completely different being a tourist and actually living there to work. the chaos you have to live with day to day drives you crazy most of the time. and then again, as i've been saying, living in a city is not only about how great the city is, it's also about everything else. about your job, about the people you encounter, there are lots of aspect.

it was during my period living in rome, i have to say, i went through the most "pensive" period after quite a long time. the chaos of rome reminded me a lot of the chaos back home, in a disturbing way. it was the first time ever i craved to go back home, after one year being away having not one single desire or thought about home. and everything that happened made me think about how hard it is to just be. to be a human being. to be who you are. what is it exactly to be "who you are"? in the end you're just a byproduct of your childhood, of your past, of all your pain. there's maybe no such thing as "who you are", you're just the "fragments" you present to each people you encounter.

leaving rome, i was torn between having a great relief and also sad at the same time for not being able to grasp rome as great as rome is. at the end of the day, rome is rome. rome is magnificent. rome is majestic. to be able to stand on such old civilization is still a surreal feeling. to be able to call it home, i am proud.

roma, sei grande.

on keeping it simple

growing up in a quite struggling childhood, i never put "fashion" as something that was essential. to be able to afford school and finished university were already good enough during my younger years. everything else was hard pressed with the lowest money to spent on. and by the way i lived my day to day life, i don't have much option on how to dress considering how perilous was the city i lived in. and then somehow i preferred to spent the little that i had on books and things related to photography.

but although i'm always the least fashionable person in the room, i always pay attention to the world of "fashion". like i always entertain myself with fashion weeks, fashion blogs, fashion tv shows, and such. i think there is the bit of art and creativity that i always enjoy out of fashion.

so, speaking of which, for this past year i've been trying to simplify my clothing into monochromatic scheme of black, white, and grey, with of course the inevitable denim. i know it has been quite a happening tendency these days, tho i'm mostly triggered by this lady here. i've been getting much comments like, "aren't you bored?", so i felt like i need to explain a little. the main reason why i do such thing is to simplify my life. you've probably heard of mark zuckerberg's grey shirt or steve job's black turtle neck philosophy. it's similar to that although i'm not taking it to that extreme. it helps to reduce the decision making process: when i'm buying things (i like acquiring new things but i swear i hate the exhausting activity of shopping), when i'm deciding what to wear, when i'm packing for travels. it saves me much energy knowing that i only have little colors to choose from. secondly, for me monochromatic looks more timeless and elegant. now this one is tricky because i think sometimes it's way harder to pull off something simple. you need to be more meticulous and selective. it's easy to pull off the look when you have all the resources to afford expensive things of good quality. i know they all say, it's better to invest on something that's a lil more expensive but looks classic and timeless, but i'm still struggling on the word "expensive". hah.

nevertheless, i need to say that my favorite color is red. however surprising it is to some of my friends, but it is. i always wear red as an accent. i always wear red bracelets. i try to wear red "extras" like gloves or scarves or beanie, or like my camera strap is red, my wallet is red. well, although indeed it has been making my life easier, but to be able to pull off the simplicity, i know there's still lots more of "practice" to be done.

mad about mad.rid

in the end, you are the city you're living in. you are the people you get to see everyday. you are the things you encounter on daily basis. you are the sunrise and the sunset you enjoy. you are the mundane beauty you experience.

after one and a half month being here, i can say that although madrid is not a spectacle city like other major cities like paris or barcelona, it has a quality that you can't explain. it might not be a major tourist destination with spectacular landmarks or certain architectural typology for people to enjoy, but as a city to live in on daily basis, madrid is great place to be. madrid is about the people you meet and the streets you walk on. it's about the atmosphere and the diversity that you can find here. it doesn't have certain stereotype, it leaves spaces for people to interpret.
 
i have to say that now i know madrid a lil better than i've known my own city. because of the subject i've been studying, i got to dissect madrid from a lot of aspects from the history, the growth of the city, the behavior of the people, the urban fabric, the on progress development, and etc. it has been great learning from some of the best people in the industry. i got to learn from the master who did the master plan of the city back in the day to the young madrileño who's in the game of current and future technology.

although madrid doesn't offer any specific spectacular landmark, the city offers so many places to see and to experience. from the historical garden and museums, the quirky districts, bars and cafés, business districts, interesting squares, open air markets, refurbished spaces, cool architecture, and so many more. in the end there's so many things you got and you have to experience you can't help but getting more and more into the city each day.

madrid, españa.

i didn't expect madrid to be the third largest city in europe. personally i would prefer a smaller scale city where it would be simpler to be identified and explored. but on the third day being here i'm starting to like it. the winter is bearable, the streets are walkable, and what you see around architecturally and design wise is pleasing to the eye. i might not be able to perceive the whole city by only being here for 2.5 months and though i certainly feel less like home compared to when i was in italy, but i'm sure i will miss it one day when i have to leave.
 

2014.

"a few decembers ago, when asked about my wishes for the coming year, i remember saying that i had only one: i wanted there to be twists to the story, so that by year's end, the world looked different. that's been my wish every new year since. these past twelve months my world has transformed in unpredictable ways. i hardly recognize it sometimes — but i like to think that's a good sign." - shoko wanger
     
i don't usually do this kind of year-end reflective cliché thing because for me it's always just as any other day goes by. but these days i've been thinking about the bigger picture. going back ten years,

Read more »

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another randomness from the past few weeks. haven't been sparing enough time to write about anything, oh well..

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some randomness from the past few weeks..

little kitty

meet my new little fluffy friend at the office!

a counterbalance

foreign sense

In front of my office building where we usually sit to have a break, I was on the phone with someone in Paris who have no idea at all what Jakarta is like. It was a usual evening in a place with nothing special and interesting at all when he suddenly said he can hear the sound of birds on the phone. I tried to pay attention and to my surprise the sound did exist. It was something I never realized before. Minutes later, there was sound of simple music coming from the street, I explained it was someone selling ice cream on a bicycle and it comes with the small speaker playing some sounds. He said it was cute that ice cream is sold with some music playing. "It must be beautiful there in Jakarta", followed by my deep sigh.

Sometimes, if not always, it takes a foreign sense to be able to really appreciate the present and the little details that come with it. And I think it's also why people keep chasing novelty. Finding new things to be enjoyed daily. Which is why I am still chasing that "novelty".

ps. Photo is my favorite church in Perugia.

when the city falls asleep

Almost 9PM and it's not so dark yet here. I decided to get out of my room for some cold fresh air. It's Friday night but it's so quiet downtown. One day before June and it's still freezing out here in this four seasons country.

Life has been practical here, being sleepy in classes, cooking lunch and dinner, planning weekend travels, wine before bed. No traffic, no bosses, no deadlines. Everything's good. Everything's well.

chemex coffee

Some places can make you feel intimidating while some others make you wanna run away quick, but the feeling when i was in this particular place is that feeling of loving being myself. Weird i know. But the space is just about right, i'm liking the furniture, the cactus on each table (!), the music which is nice to have a serious or light conversations, and the rad magazines they provide. I'm actually more of a tea person rather than coffee, but I was so tempted to have coffee that is brewed with a chemex. Was a bit disappointed cause i thought each coffee would come with the chemex which apparently not so. I've been wanting buy a chemex just for the sake of the beauty, not the coffee.

ps. thank you dear friend, for the quality talk :)

recapturing, recharging

I've been losing balance on the way I drive my life on daily basis although overall I can still say that things went okay. As I've said before, being consistent is way harder than being good. But I guess that only means there are things piling up to do, relationships to manage, thoughts to be channeled, emotions to recover, body clock to be readjusted, and days ahead to conquer. It's not that bad at all to have that feeling of keep restarting and renewing.

Photos are taken with 35mm film, the first time I tried using ISO 200 expired cause they no longer sell the 400 I usually used. I pushed it to 400 though, expecting more grainy pictures. I actually didn't expect the reddish tones but the whole roll turns out to be the way I like it.

a card from k.a.r.l.s.r.u.h.e

i mean, Karlsruhe, a city in Germany. That's just the way he wrote it. Anyway, thank you.

postcard from the states

Last week this lovely postcard arrived to me from California sent from Kristin Rogers, a lovely person from instagram! Don't you just love the internet for things like this? :) It's actually a set of watercolor papers with the postcard format printed on the back you can straightly mail it just like that! (Oh I so want a set of that!). So that lovely birds are actually her painting.

Her feed is one of the joyous one on instagram, she posts photos of happiness around her family, her lovely kids, her husband, church, and other lovely things. Sooth the mood and give warmth to the heart.

watercolor sunday

So this is kind of how I spent my sunday morning. It wasn't at all great and I'm not satisfied whatsoever with what I came up with, which, looks like a kid's drawing. But I don't really care. What I do know is that it feels good. It's been like nine years since I last intendedly paint and it's been six-seven years since I last used watercolor and a brush. So yeah, this is the first and surely won't be the last.

ps. the sunday sky from my roof.

p2. blogspot keep changing the way they code the html every now and then. it makes the whole image margin looks shitty. i have to keep changing the whole thing every time they do so. so infuriating.

social jet lag

Social jet lag is "the discrepancy between what our body clock wants us to do and what our social clock wants us to do."

I am so suffering from a chronic one.

an old route

Routines kill the appreciation of things. But after you're free from the routines, revisiting it every once in a while makes you appreciate it even more than you used to.

After more than a year, some weeks ago I revisited my college. Last time I took a train ride there was probably about four-five years ago. Riding a train used to be a painful thing back then. But this time it felt a bit more joyous than I expected. Revisiting the old route, station after station trying to remember which comes next. (But of course it felt better because I was riding a much better train which hasn't existed when I was in college.)

Inside the campus area we usually ride the big yellow buses to travel from one faculty to another. But I chose to walk along the path by the trees passing a lake, enjoying the scenery I rarely experience in the city, feeling proud that I was once part of the community studying there.

But, if I was asked to go there again in the near future, naah, it's a bit too far from the city it will cost me too much time on the road. If I was asked to walk by the lake again, naah, it's too tiring. So I guess, best is to give it some time to be able to enjoy it again in the future.

finally shifted?

“What the world needs is a set villain that people can point at and say, “It’s all your fault!” - Murakami

Call me so yesterday, but this morning at 9:38AM I finally finished reading my very first e-book. Now this is quite something for me. I've always said that I can't read on screen (computers or any other gadgets) when it comes to long passages, unless I really really have strong interest, and it needs extra focus. It makes me dizzy and I tend to skip a lot of lines, usually end up not reading it. I've tried reading Hemingway's e-book and gave up on the 8th page. So it's quite a surprise that I finished this one in less than 3 weeks.

Now, having finally experienced all the convenience of reading a paper-less book, it scares me somehow how this would affect my habit. Strolling around fancy bookstores has been one of the most joyous activity I always treasure on my daily basis. And hunting for the right cover of a title works more effectively for me than any other retail therapy. But on the other hand, I also realized that my reading pattern has changed. These days I read mostly during my commuting time in the morning, which is only about 15-20 minutes of bus ride, or during the intermission of a performance, well, basically I no longer set aside the time to read but I read during the time when I couldn't do anything else. I don't read on a nice sofa with coffee in hands flipping through pages but I read on those idle moments between activities.

So, conclusion is.. Printed books, right now I still have two I have to finish, two virgin ones I have to start soon, and one I have to reread. After that, we'll see what happens next.

ps. the Running book cover was designed by Jody Barton, who has a pretty cool doodle blog.