Uses

Grabbed it while prices were still being jacked up (not obscene yet). I do regret not buying at the normal price, and not going for more storage. Silver lining: I snagged an external SSD before those climbed too, so it rides along with this 256GB Mac Mini.

Once you use a monitor this big, there's no going back; the size is just right. Worth noting, a screen this size needs a wide desk. Mine is 80 cm deep, which to me is the minimum for something this big.

The standard picks for Mac users. The Magic Trackpad has no rival, a must-have; I even keep two, one White and one Space Gray. People call the Magic Mouse unergonomic, but it fits me perfectly and looks minimalist, even if it's completely useless while charging. I have two of those as well, one for work and one for personal. I keep reconsidering a multi-device mouse, but I'm not ready yet, already too in love with the Magic Mouse.

I finally got my hands on the NuPhy Air75 V3 that I’ve been craving for so long. This counts as my very first mechanical keyboard, since I've spent a long time using the Magic Keyboard and other ultra-slim boards like the Keychron B6 Pro Ultra-Slim. It does take some getting used to because the body sits a bit high; even though it’s a low-profile series, coming from the ultra-slim profile of the Magic Keyboard makes the NuPhy Air75 V3 feel noticeably tall. I might want to try a wrist rest—wonder if it really makes a difference? Looks-wise, wow, it’s gorgeous. It has a clean white finish and a customizable knob. Overall, I’m satisfied. Will I miss ultra-slim keyboards? We'll see how it goes moving forward.

My first-born. The first guitar I bought with my own money, a few months into the job at Terato Tech. Once I had it I felt like "I am a hero", sure I could play like the people I look up to (Kotaro Oshio, Tommy Emmanuel, Masaaki Kishibe, Erik Mongrain, and others). Turns out, no. That's when it hit me that I'm not all that gifted on the guitar. Still, this one has won me a few music competitions, hehe.

Payung Teduh is the main reason I wanted a guitalele (probably for plenty of other people too). I had this exact model back when I lived in Malaysia, but sold it before moving to Indonesia. Once I'd settled here, I bought another as a birthday present to myself. If you've never played a guitalele, picture a regular guitar with a capo on the 5th fret. That's basically it. And it's compact enough to take anywhere.

As a Riau native, I grew up on Malay music, and in high school I even studied it for a while, though I'd never actually held a gambus back then. So once I was working, I tried buying a traditional one. That gambus still used animal skin to make its sound. One time I went home to my hometown for a long stretch and left it behind; by the time I got back, rats had eaten through the skin. Years later I found a luthier building modern gambus, full wood and made much like a modern guitar. So I'm playing gambus again, still an amateur.

This little instrument has been my go-to lately, since it's compact and far easier to carry around than a guitar. My first one was a 21-key, but that type has no chromatic notes, so I went hunting for a chromatic one and found this Gaharu 34-key. It's a local product, and it sounds great. In standard C tuning it can handle most songs. After playing a while I noticed a few notes are missing and need retuning. I still slightly regret not just getting the 41-key; maybe next time. But if you only want to test the waters, I'd say go for the 17-key. It's more than enough.