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Uluru – The longest day trip in the world 🌍

It was a lovely almost ridiculous surprise that I pumped into the Uluru by accident. I had no bloody idea about the Rock til I took a flight to Alice Springs. It was an intensive but nice experience to see the unique natural landscape at Uluru and Kata Tjuta national park. Also, I learned more about aboriginal cultures, the rock art, the waterhole, the respect they gave for the old bushland.

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Escher x nendo at National Gallery of Victoria, Australia

My orientation about Melbourne was very amazing, “What an artsy city,  art is everywhere.” I and a friend stayed in Collingwood, where used to be a place for junkies and working-class then turned into a cool spot to hang out for creatives. Jamaica Plain in Boston also shared a familiar story.

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) was definitely on the top of my list and I was so thrilled by the exhibition named Escher x nendo there. It was a huge success and it took more than 30 minutes to queue even we bought the online ticket already. For people paying at the entrance, it would take at least an hour! However, the experience was totally worthy since the exhibition extended the senses and perception of audiences. It was great enough that I decide to come back again as joining the Masterclass at NGV to learn more about the process from 2 senior curators and the exhibition designer.

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Little way

Just a daily practice about That Nhat Hanh in Unity 3D game engine /

In the book “How to love” by Zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, he reveals the fundamental of love and care which I find incredibly valuable.
“Sometimes we feel empty; we feel a vacuum, a great lack of something. We don’t know the cause; it’s very vague, but that feeling of being empty inside is very strong. We expect and hope for something much better so we’ll feel less alone, less empty. The desire to understand ourselves and to understand life is a deep thirst. There’s also the deep thirst to be loved and to love. We are ready to love and be loved. It’s very natural. But because we feel empty, we try to find an object of our love. Sometimes we haven’t had the time to understand ourselves, yet we’ve already found the object of our love. When we realize that all our hopes and expectations, of course, can’t be fulfilled by that person, we continue to feel empty. You want to find something, but you don’t know what to search for. In everyone there’s a continuous desire and expectation; deep inside, you still expect something better to happen. That is why you check your email many times a day!
If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform.
The essence of loving kindness is being able to offer happiness. You can be the sunshine for another person. You can’t offer happiness until you have it for yourself. To build a home inside by accepting yourself and learning to love and heal yourself. Learn how to practice mindfulness in such a way that you can create moments of happiness and joy for your own nourishment. Then you have something to offer the other person.
When we feed and support our own happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love. That’s why to love means to learn the art of nourishing our happiness. Understanding someone’s suffering is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love.”
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Instead of chasing after someone, maybe I just need to sharpen my spirit, shape my better self. Heal myself, understand my organic development, embrace my own happiness. Accept me and be patient.
I am fed up with being a love seeker. I am strong and I am able to deal with pain, which doesn’t mean I deserve it. For those people who do not appreciate my care, just let them go. For those people who are down with love, just let them go. It’s not my failure. Do not let those mediocre people hurt my feeling.
Then, every time I head back to the negative thoughts, just say it to myself: “Good shits take time and so does love. Never stop believing, never stop trying”.

thichnhathanh

 

 

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The Look

They say,
we are too young
we are such kiddos
we are so spontaneous
we are so careless
so irrational
deep in the chaotic madness
we live like we don’t have tomorrow

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The look, the age does matter to them
they dunno how much we suffer
they dunno how many times we feel dead inside
and reborn like poppies in springtime
we’re just simply young pure souls
bravery makes us go all the long way
fall damn hard and stand up as the soldier
never show fear, never show tear
never ask for sympathy, just the company
never look back, never regret

Only death can rip off our hope
all that pains just leave us some scars
We move the world
We change people mind
We are the youth
We are the future
Please all the grumpy ordinary seniors,
shut the fuck off if you dunno “we”.

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Pain killer

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Heal the brokenness.
Just read. Eat. Sleep.
Meet my favorite people.
Cut off all the cunts and dickheads.
Bury all the false friends.
Kick back my temper.
Repeat my pig cycle.
When I dip into reading again. Warm up with Haruki Murakami’s book then dive deeper into well of loneliness.
Nothing to prove. Nothing to lose.
Just dance with me in the rain of silent words.
Men without women.
Men without women.
Men without women.
Roaring this pain out loud.
Fresh wound. Grumpy wound.
Twisted in the core.
Where is my outlet?
Please police karma, where the heck you’ve been?
Burn, burn, burn all my anger!
Raise up my voice, fight for my right.
Can you hear it?
Napalm bomb in a ghost shell.
Rotten. Reborn.
Just how aboriginal people burn trees in Uluru every year.
The fire. The volcano. The destruction for the start of something new.

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Faith in strangers

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We’ve read a lot of violent bloody crime on news and daily conversation. Who likes it? They scare us to death. Naturally, we have an invisible bubble surrounding against strangers that we carry every day to fight against the chaotic urban life, and defend for our safety.
I haven’t read or watched any news since 2014 besides the artwork and my tech geeks. It’s my strategy to feel secured and relaxed. Naive or too arrogant? You’re both right but I learnt that from Mass media 101 at college that the more you read about crime, the more you believe in crime and, obviously, the more you see crime. Plus, there were heaps of ways the media could manipulate our thoughts that I almost forgot right after the semester ended : ) Thus, I’ve upskilled my survival skills instead. What doesn’t kill you, make you stronger. You’d rather believe.
In fact, I’ve met the most amazing people in this world during my travel. I decide to write all those wonderful stories happened in my travel so far. 5 years. Around the world. To be continued.
On top of my mind, let’s talk about people I met on the flights back and forth Saigon and Melbourne in my recent trips.
  1. The lovely grandma

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I still have a bar of chocolate in my backpack. Dark mountain bar of Switzerland. The husband of that lovely grandma gave to me, he barely spoke any English, he just shook his head when I returned the dessert, I answered sincerely, “Thank you”. I was on the Scoot flight from Melbourne to Singapore. My 2nd time in fewer than 30 days. The old sweet couple took a flight home to visit the husband’s mom at the hospital. The aisle and the silence drift them apart. She was in the business class for giving a lecture to a wealthy middle-aged woman with her Bible storybook in propaganda style. It was nice of her to invite me there as a company, unfortunately, I was too stressed to shut off my chatterbox and found myself not a good match with those gorgeous ladies. But they prayed for me. Both of them and me myself for a good blessing to home.
Before that, we – the grandma, me and a nice Indonesia guy sitting next to each other had a great conversation about our lives. We raised it up since the nice guy offered me and the woman some food from his meal. I accepted it without any hesitation, I could eat a horse that morning, all I had so far was just anti-depression pills and worries. The grandma laughed out loud, she enjoyed my cheerful and responsive reaction. She told us, “that was the first time of my life I saw people were this generous and friendly”. Then, she shared with us about her anger, rage at Singapore education and how it was her childhood nightmare. How many teenagers killed themselves and how the government tried to hide it. It was a long sharing in a strong form of expression. How people locked themselves in public, no talk, no care, just racist fight. I had that sound recording on my phone. Such an honest downside opinion of the cleanest country in the world. The guy talked very briefly about himself, just listened and responded appropriately. I shared my mental break down at work and that was the reason I came home. I cried silently, face on my arms, between 2 passengers. The grandma asked me, “Ok. Grandma’ll treat you this time. Here is the menu. Choose whatever you like, ok lah? But no alcohol lah.”. “Ok lah grandma”, I answered. Ironically, the bacon egg n cheese was just like the customer service on that Scoot flight, tasted like shit!
Next chapter maybe
2. The sweet Lisbon flight attendant, “I don’t want to fly anymore”
3. Jess in Jump Inn – a wild walk to the teleport
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Healin’

 

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It was just my art therapy not with any analog but the digital medium for a break-up when I was lonely and had a monotonous life in Melbourne. Every evening after my 9-to-6 job, I attempted to come up with a 3D environment in Unity, a game engine and made a narrative video of that space.