Coffee and Contemplation - 1

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  It was a pleasant evening, and I always order a Japanese iced filter whenever I spend time at this particular slow bar in Jakarta. As I sipped my 50k-something coffee, my mind began to contemplate the passage of time. Ten years ago, I only paid 18k for the same menu item, the same beans. I understand how inflation works, and I know that coffee crops depend heavily on nature to thrive. Yet, as I sat there, I realized how drastically prices have skyrocketed over the last decade—not just for coffee, but for everything. Even though my salary has increased fourfold in that time, I still feel as though my buying power has weakened. It wasn't just the price of the beans that bothered me; it was the realization that the cost of living is quietly eroding everything I’ve worked for. I won't go into the weeds of government mismanagement, but it reminded me of a scene in The Trial of the Chicago 7 , where Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character asks Sacha Baron Cohen’s about his contempt for hi...
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Midnight Doctor 7.0

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'Ve been shopping hard?' looking at my shopping bags, the doctor teases me. I cant even produce a smile. I sat at my very familiar chair, put all my gadgets inside my bag and sigh.
I have a lot in my head. Words are banging my brain's wall, searching their way out to my mouth.
'This, is not me.' i gesture to all shopping bag. 'I tried to stop me, but i failed, beside, i need them.'
'Ah, manic attack? And now you're feeling down?'
'Money cant buy happiness. Even you're a good shopper.'
'How's your feeling.'
'Drained, lost, never feeling right. Maybe i should just die. Nobody care about me. Maybe it's doesnt matter whether i exist or not. Noone ever gonna looking for me. I wanna cut my wrist.'
'Shin...' the words are lost. The doctor knows, im saying it just because im sick. 'Shin, what happen?'
I cry instead. 'Nobody cares' I say. And cry again.
'Maybe you need some sleep.'
'My sleep's troubled. I keep waking in odd times, unable to shut my eyes again until dawn.
'Im tired with living and i got noone to watch my back. Im struggling alone. Im lost, im lost. And nobody cares.'
'By nobody, who's exactly you'd expect?'
'People who once need my help. People who i put first before mine. People who without asking it, i'll be there for them.'
'Have you ever ask them?'
'I can tell whenever they're in difficult times. Why cant they do the same to me?'
'Because they got their own life, Shin.'
'And i dont?'
'Do you?'
'Well, i always thinking, if i help them, they ought to help me. I know i never been on anyone priority, it's sad.
'I always left behind, unless they need me. I dont wanna to be on the first list, i just wanna be on the list. That, i never be.'
'Do anyone upsets you?'
'Yes. And it's hard to always bear a mending heart. It always goes to shattered. Life's suck. But why mine?'