It was never my intention to suddenly abandon this blog. I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed with life lately. I feel like time goes by so fast each day, yet I’ve accomplished nothing so far. Time management is never my strength, and it’s become even worse these past few weeks. With Ramadan and Eid coming, and a new small business in mind, I can barely breathe. I’ve spent too much time on the road, commuting, and with all these things inside my mind, blogging has to be put aside.
It’s a shame; I used to love and enjoy blogging, but now it feels like a chore. Like I am forced to do this. Like if I stop entirely, I fail. I’ve been seeing a lot of blogs shut down these past years, but I don’t want to do that to this blog. I want to keep doing it. I think I need to rethink about the purpose of this blog. Refocus. Rebuild. And by doing so, I hope I can grow both this blog and my own self. Bear with me.
PS. Wait for a good news from me later this week 😉
How are you, friends? I feel like I’m not being myself in the blog lately. My writings feel and look forced, as if I write just to fulfill an obligation. I don’t want blogging to become this stressful. I want to go back to fun blogging, like I used to do a few years ago when I wrote everyday basically about what I had been doing that day. Simple as that; like writing a diary, only people from all over the world can read it. Does that make sense? Will my day-to-day rambling be appealing to you? What do you want me to write more, seriously?
And because I’m so caught up in this feeling of wanting to write like the good ol’ days, this week’s Weekend Links is a collection of my favourite posts on my own blog. Sound narcissistic? Totally! But maybe you can see a different side of me by reading these golden treasure. Haha!
I wrote this post merely a couple of weeks after realising that I was, in fact, in love with Afief. It was a problematic situation for me (and him too, to be honest) back then.
2015 has been so good to me as both my two favourite bands released an album when 2015 has only been 6 months. Earlier this year, Fall Out Boy released their sixth studio album. I wasn’t very excited and I didn’t like the album. They sound so different now than when I first found out about them and fell in love with their From Under The Cork Tree album. I understand that a band should evolve and become “more mature”, but it’s just not my taste. I didn’t post a review about American Beauty/American Psycho, because I knew it would be all negative.
Now, back to the awesomeness that Lifehouse’ new album, Out Of The Wasteland. Their previous album, Almeria, wasn’t really appealing to me and I gave it a bad review when comparing it to Boys Like Girls’ album. My argument was the same as why I didn’t like Fall Out Boy’s album: it didn’t sound like them. Almeria was a failure for me because it sounded so different than their previous albums. Out Of The Wasteland, however, has made me fall in love since the very first track, which is also the first single of the album, Hurricane. The whole album sounds like a nostalgia to me. All tracks bring me back to my teenage year where I used to stay in my room listening to Lifehouse’s self-titled album. It reminds me of being young and naive. The lyrics are also quotable; all my friends are probably already sick of my posting quotes from the album on my Path account. Haha!
Honestly all I can tell you about this album is just one word: AMAZING!, but here are my favourite tracks:
Hurricane – The lyrics feel personal to me. The lines “We made it through hell and back again” and “it just gets better” remind me so much about our struggle during our first year together. This song will be quoted by me for a long, long time to come. Haha! Flight – The piano intro reminds me of one of their old songs, but I can’t really put my fingers on it. Firing Squad – The intro and the lyrics make me want to stay up late and watch the sunrise. Stardust – My #1 favourite track of the album! I love Bryce’s voice and he sounds even much better than he did in Wrecking Ball (in Smoke And Mirrors album). Glad to have two talented vocalists in one band. Alien – The music sounds like Easier To Be (in Who We Are album) and I love it! Second favourite in this album. Central Park – This one reminds me of Stanley Climbfall (in Stanley Climbfall) and Walking Away (in Lifehouse), but the lyrics isn’t as depressing. My 18 year old self would love this song very much. It’s a good song to listen to in the middle of the night (I don’t know why, though). Hurt This Way – Hurt This Way sounds like a country song. I’m not really into country, but I like this one so damn much!
What do you guys think? Well, I can go on and on but I’m sure this whole post can be summarised with only one line: “This album is good so yeah go buy it, kids!” 😉
Keuken was back! This year, the annual food festival was held in the Husein International Airport, which is located just a few minutes away from my parents’ house. Being the hipsters that we are, we didn’t miss our chance to go. The festival was located in one part of the airport’s runway, so it was super spacy, but there was no roof above us. It rained a little bit and the crowd dispersed, looking for a shelter. The food was not too unique; it was all the same like last year and two years ago. We bought french fries with nori sauce, taco (my very first taco), chicken rice, thai tea, milk shake, and takoyaki.
I think Keuken needs to be re-evaluated and re-arranged for future festivals. It got boring and boring each year. Same food, only different venue. If not, I don’t think I’ll go next year 🙁
I survived the internet apocalypse! Well, clearly not an apocalypse, but I was so miserable anyway. We finally have our internet back and running, so I can be back to regular blogging and watching cat videos. Yay!
This week has been going on so slow. We took Jess to the vet for the very first time for her very first shot and have done nothing else exciting. We planned on going to Pangandaran Beach which was supposed to be today, but canceled because of a lot of things. But we’re going to Keuken #6 tomorrow, so we’ll just lay low and relax today.
This week’s Weekend Links consist of a lot of blogging topics, because I feel like I need to re-motivate myself in the case of blogging. I’ve been feeling uninspired lately, maybe due to the lack of internet connection so I haven’t read people’s blogs too much.
Here ya go!
I’ve shared several Instagram-related posts before, but these tips are spot on if you are new to the Instagram world (or if you are already a ‘senior’ but want to start anew).
If you are uninspired but still want to write a blog post, these tips from Betsy and Laura can be super helpful.
I have been contacted by three different companies asking for a collaboration with my blog these past two weeks only. This is new to me and I’m so excited! An Indonesian senior blogger gives some advice on how to keep this kind of relationship with companies sweet and steady. *Written in Bahasa Indonesia
