Blog – Page 4 – Joshua Robinson, Composer

Advice

Batman’s Guide to Time Management

The worst productivity book you’ve ever heard of…

Opinion

When did we stop having fun?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “fun” recently. For most of us, “fun” is a concept that is reserved for our relaxation time outside of work or study. The things that we do aren’t considered “fun”, that’s “work”, and work cannot be fun (or if it is, it is usually in the […]

Reviews

5 Useful Travel Accessories

After spending 2 months with just a backpack in Indonesia, I’ve had some time to reflect on the most useful travel gizmos, gadgets, and accessories that I had with me. My hope is that if you also need to travel at some point in the future, then this list will help you, particularly if you […]

Advice

Lessons from Indonesia

I just got back from Indonesia, after nearly two months on the road. I really enjoyed my time over there, and it showed me that travelling (especially travelling solo, with just a backpack) makes you learn a lot about yourself and about the world more broadly. Here’s a few things I took from this most […]

Travel

The Experience is the Experience

Last weekend, I went to Borobudur Temple, which is a famous sightseeing attraction near Yogyakarta in Java, Indonesia. Now, when you book the tickets, they have lots of different options. When I was at Prambanan Temple the day before, you could buy a combo ticket, which gets you entry to Prambanan and Borobudur for a […]

Travel

Java: First Impressions

For the final two weeks of my study trip, I’m in Java, which is an incredibly important island as it is the host of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta (although not for much longer), and as such is quite politically powerful within Indonesian government. I’m spending a week in Yogyakarta, which is something of a study […]

Travel

Lake Toba: The Hidden Wonder of Indonesia

The past few days, I had this as my view (all for about $25/night): I realise, typing this now, that it doesn’t look like much – in fact, it looks rather like a dead garden at the front with the bin – but the main point was actually that I had this beautiful view of […]

Travel

Banda Aceh: The beautiful sharia region that was decimated by a Tsunami

“Are you filming a vlog?” Asks Ryan, also known as Ray to his friends (and after sharing a meal, I was now on Ray-terms with Ray). “No,” I responded, “why do you ask?” Ray proceeded to tell me that he thought Banda Aceh had a lot to offer for tourists, but that there’s not much […]

Travel

Reflections on Bali

Before I had travelled to Bali, I played in an Balinese gamelan (traditional ensemble) in Canberra. Friends there often expressed a sense of regret or sadness about the current state of Bali. “It used to be a beautiful, natural island,” they would say, “but now it has become overrun with resorts and tourists”. They would […]

Travel

Contemporary Gamelan in Bali

Hi everyone, I’ve been very sick this week unfortunately so only a very short blog post from me. Unfortunately I came down with some kind of illness on Monday and so I spent most of this week resting up. I was even worse yesterday but once again I seem on the mend (though I recall […]