mcspiky

À La Piscine

2012-01-24T23:46:00.040+08:00

Been a while since I last swam. Spent the weekend with the family at Port Dickson which is something we never do for Chinese New Year ― travel. Isn't it ironic that we went to a beach resort to swim in the pool rather than playing by the ocean? You'd probably do the same too if you were us (the beach is just 'unswimable')

Not forgetting to mention, the next time you go to Port Dickson, book yourself at Thistle Resort because the place is just beautiful (no, I was not paid to advertise). Anyway this is a very short post because I am currently busy with some work; but I promise you'll hear from me real soon.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, TO ALL MY CHING-CHONG-LING-LONG FRIENDS!

Oh Nothing...

2012-01-21T19:00:00.001+08:00

....Just me and grandma from Penang.

What I Learned in Architecture School #2

2012-01-21T02:10:00.008+08:00

Todays topic on What I learned in Architecture School: #2 God is REALLY in the Details.

Before I begin, I just want to remind everyone that this post doesn't only apply to the world of architecture ― it is relevant to almost anything. Also, I don't claim to be the master of all-knowing, agree/disagree all you want.

"GOD IS IN THE DETAILS" - A saying most architects and architecture students should know, notably used by German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969).

The above idiom is just a fancy way of saying how important it is to pay attention to the little things; not forgetting to mention how everything should be done properly and thoroughly. I never really understood the importance of details, and that understanding didn't come to me until later in my diploma; and it was more of a slow self realization rather than a light bulb over my head....

I am SO going to hell for this...

When was the last time you were NOT impressed by a city made out of toothpicks, or sculptures on a fishing hook, or plastic food that looked absolutely edible, or god-like visualizations of Peter Guthrie? I do believe we, humans, are detail loving creatures though we might not always be consciously aware of it. With that said, I believe anything with a significant amount of details well paid-attention-to has the ability to draw in extra attention.

Elaborating on the idea of drawing attention; Buildings are very large objects, and it is very easy for an architect or a student to disregard the 'little things', especially during the early phases of any design. For those who actually paid attention to ces petits détails, they tend to get more praises en general (only a personal opinion).

Using my own recent work as an example.

A digital rendering of a toilet design I proposed.

Disclaimer: I don't think my work is the best example, but I think it makes more sense if I use my own property of intelligence rather than stealing some random image online to talk about.

Anyway...

I LOVE to see good digital visualizations/renderings, maybe that is why Peter Guthrie's website constantly makes me jizz in my pants. I doubt I have the time and patience to self learn to that god-like extent, but I would love to be able to render like him.... one day.

Something you should know, just because it is DIGITAL doesn't make it any easier to achieve. I honestly despise the immediate conclusion that ALL computer generated/created things are unworthy of praise. Getting everything to the smallest detail and mimicking real life is just as hard as doing a hand painting with the same intentions.

I had to re-render over and over again just to get the details right, a toilet scene like this took me a duration of 8 hours at least ― paying much attention to things like the size, texture and colour of the tiles, light intensity, and etc. Not forgetting the amount of time I have to create the toilet fixtures that can't be found online ― the basin, faucet at the bathtub, and the porcelain pots are downloaded; I am not taking credits.

Things that I had to worry about includes the texture of the tiles, making sure that it looks like small pieces of porcelain combined together to cover an entire wall. This makes the little grooves between the tiles critical to the image, it will never be the same without it. As much as its hardly visible, little things like these does improve the realism of a render (again, another personal opinion).

The rims around the handle where it meets the glass, or the brackets that holds two glass panels together ― All are part of the ensemble that creates a realistic (and detailed) render in which God will find a home.

and of course, there are some misses that I should mention...

THE LIGHT BOX! I might have not spent enough time on the details of the light box, which is now haunting me every single time I look at the images of my own work. The fact that the box is PERFECTLY square with perfect edges really steer the realism of the image into a different direction.

Not my property of intelligence.

The fact that actual light boxes should have slightly filleted edges. Light boxes usually have bulbs inside them which shouldn't produce a disgusting uniform glow to it, in other words there should be a noticeable difference in light intensity within a single surface of a light box. Missing small things like these has big consequences, I learned my lesson :(

To summarize everything up, I just want to remind you guys (whatever major you may be doing, in the creative industry or otherwise) that the small details DO deserve a huge amount of TLC which can really benefit you if you do. These 'small things' may seem extremely insignificant (also very time/work consuming), but very important none the less.

So what makes an A+ different from an A? My prescription... Extra attention to details, God is somewhere in there.

Toilets

2012-01-15T21:59:00.000+08:00

Currently busy with:

A Reply To My 17 Year Old Self.

2012-01-10T14:53:00.000+08:00

Four years ago I wrote a letter to my 21 year old self. I am extremely embarrassed by that letter for many reasons, hence I will not give you the privilege of having the link to that post. My attempts to discourage you from reading it (though it is still possible for you to find it in the archives).

Do keep in mind that I was very much a young naive himbo then, so you have to excuse the disgusting writing styles. I really wanted that letter ― or blog post to be exact ― to wither and wilt amongst all the others; though it was not until I turned twenty-one where this hauntingly appeared in my mailbox...

This is a hardcopy version of the post I wrote. Together with my old blog layout.

From Ethan, a reminder. My past caught on to me with a help of a friend and the Internet. Knowing this day would come where I have to face the words and questions of my 17 year old self, I thought its best if I reply now before it is too late, here goes....

Dear 17,

I am fine, thank you. I hope you are well too. You asked a thousand and one questions as if I am all-knowing, but I am just as clueless as you are without much answers to your silly questions ― surprisingly, much of your concerns then is still pretty much my concerns now. Though it is very exciting to know how much you and I have endured and grown, not to mention how much has changed (and stayed the same too).

It is amazing how everything took a hard 180degree turn just three days after you wrote that letter. I would like to believe through writing, you managed to free yourself from the splinter in your paw, and allowed something better to come into picture. 'Forgive and Forget' you said to me, I'm glad it wasn't too hard for you to do either.

Your journey to adulthood was nothing close to a smooth ride, but nothing too crazy as hell-on-earth either. Fate can be such a bitch, or at least a friend in disguise. No, not everything fell into place as you hope it would unfortunately... but I do feel luckier than most others. If there are any optimism left in me, I would say that shit happen sometimes just to prepare you for bigger things in the future - endure while it lasts because it will probably serve you well.

I am waiting, still, for different reasons now ― better ones I assume. If there is one thing that you must know, NOTHING can turn out right every time; with a prayer that everything will very soon, I am just going to make lemonades out of it.

Soon you will find yourself embarking on a journey to places you have never dreamt of going before, and fall in love with boundaries beyond yours. The journeys that you will endure will steer the wheels of your decision making, and force you into new ideas that you will never change despite how ignorant you appear to be to most people. Melbourne is lovely, you will enjoy your time there (though that is not what we should be settling for, dammit!)

I am ending the letter here, as I find experiences would be a better teacher than I can ever be. What I want to leave you with really, is the advice that things DO change (and sometimes work out for the better) even over a short course of a few years. With that said, I hope this can serve as a lesson for me today too. Slowly but surely, we all have to be patient I guess.

good things come for those who wait, no? anyway, we'll speak again soon. I'll try my best to keep writing, I know you wont. Much love from your older friend, 21.

Skytrex

2012-01-09T14:21:00.006+08:00

This post will be about our ― Kijun, Pearl, Ellen and I ― little trip to Skytrex just yesterday. Of course it was exciting, everyone who has been there and done that spoke so much about it (that includes ma mère and ma sœur who went a while ago). Besides, I'd be kookoo for cocopuffs if I turned down on a physical/outdoor activity like this.

In a nutshell:

Harnesses and steel cables + Obstacle courses + 5 storeys in the air + Tall trees = SKYTREX.

I left Awsek (my camera) at home and brought the Olympus instead, because of a fear that I might drop Awsek and never see it again. With that said, the quality of the pictures taken that day is good as zero and perfect as crap - grainy and noisy. ALSO WITH THAT SAID, If anyone complains about how 'bad my camera skills became', you're going to be so badly frowned upon.

Your judgements are badly received by the writer of this blog, you may kill yourself now.

Ellen and Pearl.

I got there a little later than expected. If there is something that you should know about me, is the fact that I don't do so well on the road ― especially travelling to new places and long distances. I took two wrong turns even with the help of a GPS and it drove me up the wall.

It wasn't funny then, and it is not funny now. I want to declare 'Bad Sense of Direction' as a real disability, anyone who disagrees will also be badly frowned upon...

Your judgements are STILL badly received by the writer of this blog, you may kill yourself now.

Far right, Ki Jun.

and Moi.

There quite a few pictures taken yesterday during our little Skytrex adventure. For those of you who want to be 'surprised by the obstacles that you will encounter', this is a SPOILER ALERT; and for those of you who are cat-like-curious, check out the pictures after the jump!

Harnesses; We were strapped on and ready to go by the friendly staffs there.Ahem, it sounds dirty because your mind is dirty... You are now frowned upon, again :(

'Oh it looks so uncomfortable', that is because it is. Not to mention it obscenely highlights the triangularity of your pelvis region... not cute, not cute at all.

STOP STARING, YOU SICK PERV!

One more last picture before leaving for the obstacles.

I probably didn't take pictures of ALL the obstacles, but there are more than the ones shown here. It is just very inconvenient to take pictures at some platforms. We took the EXTREME CHALLENGE trail, not sure how it differs from the others but I guess it has a Diffculty Level: Asian.

In all honesty, I don't think it is as scary as it is advertised to be, mainly because I felt quite secure with the harness and everything. If you want an advice from me, just don't look down ― it is quite possible to complete most of the task without having to do so.

with that said, I am not disclaiming that it is not scary AT ALL ― people do cry (very often) trying to complete some of the challenges. That fear disappears after the first few obstacles, really.

Flying-Foxing was the best.

I look forward to all the Flying-Foxes, but I must admit it is scary at first.

Camwhore attempt: on the platform.

Only a limited 3-5 people can be on the platform at the same time, so we took those chances to camwhore when we could.

Immune: Flying Foxing like a BAUS.

Warning: the above obstacle is hard for you people who spends most of their time spreading their legs

(stop thinking dirty you perv!!!)

To aid the imagination.

The platforms are quite reasonably sized, without any balustrades. There are safety cables where you SHOULD be constantly attached to, so falling off is possible but very unlikely. As I mentioned before, you will be immune to the height after the first few challenges.

This is a toughie.

I must admit this is one of the harder ones, though this obstacle is done at a lower altitude. Stabilizing and balancing on the pipes is a challenge in itself, moving and travelling is another level of bitch.

Who to bring along with you; I would like advise to go with those who are naturally adventurous and outgoing, it reduces long waits of course. All the challenges should be done one at a time; which means if one slows down, everyone slows down together.

THEN AGAIN,

My mom went with a reasonably large group, with a mix of people who are and not afraid of heights. She said one of the best part about her trip there was to see people conquering their fears ― doing things that they never imagined they would. To her that is one of the many fun of Skytrex, motivating each other and etc. I guess it pretty much depends on what tickles your pickles/ floats your boat.

Ellen and I

A small sight of a traffic jam amongst the trees.

Scared now?!

Don't be too frighted, they do have staff at some platforms to take care of you.

Of course by the end of it all, you will be pretty much soaked in sweat and a sense of achievement. It is normal for you to feel extremely hungry and thirsty after completing everything; so do remember to bring a bottle of water with you, and prepare some snacks to enjoy at the end of it all.

It took us more than 2 hours to complete everything. As physically demanding as it appears to be, I do believe that any Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary can complete the obstacles. I would say it is more of a mental challenge than a physical one; this message is for all you ladies out there who think you can't do it because you don't 'work out'.

I am not paid to advertise for them, unfortunately; But it beats a lot of other regular activities ― reasonably priced and a short driving distance within the Klang Valley. So do keep a weekend free and try it out.

Now, ending with something that you might enjoy...

... urgh, you're such a perv and we all know it.

...tsk, tsk, tsk.

Cardboard Hoarding v0.2

2012-01-03T14:30:00.002+08:00

There was another set of work done prior to the one I featured in my previous post about me hoarding cardboards; and thought it was only fair if I blogged about it. Random note:

So I was having a conversation with Megan, talking about our plans after the exams. It happens every once in a while where I would give myself little projects to keep myself occupied - it helps me to stay away from long hours of unbearable boredom. Anything art related would be the primary preference of course, making stuff or creating new things.

So I told her all about my plans to make accessories out of cardboard, she got me a little more motivated when she agreed to join in the 'fun'. I had a fair share of fun, not so sure about her though (you probably have to ask her). The semester ended - together with the exams - we were already left with nothing to do by then.

Re-conversations of our little projects surfaced; Without an excuse and a bucket full of 'spontaneousity', we got the materials and started working almost immediately at Megan's crib (it was good that we started quick because I knew the slightest delay would kill the motivation).

The making probably took us 4 hours, we made a few stuff and taking the pictures only happened a few days after. Unfortunately with nothing specific we wanted to achieve, most of the stuff we made that evening grew out of experimentation and trial-and-error.

Thought you might enjoy some of the pictures we took:

The Ring and the Headband, both made out of cardboards...

...Model making boards to be exact.

The Crown...

...and the Horn.

...and finally. The Quill

The Housecats

2012-01-01T01:29:00.005+08:00

Rather than talking about the same stuff every new year - how it is going to be better than the last, and how it is going to be super prosperous - I thought I will divert all my time and energy into something else. I am not a crazy cat person. Though the following pictures may force you to think I am one.

I am merely an ordinary cat person (not all cat people are crazy).

Sapphire. Our first.

We lived in a condo then, and my sister had these sudden motherly urges to get a pet for her birthday. We had to rule out dogs because of a fear that their barking would bring us much problem. Getting a cat was the final decision - a proper balance between needs and practicality, I guess.

"Ewwww... a cat; the plain sight of their soul-draining laziness just makes you want to cry, like Dementors wearing fur coats with four legs. Not to mention their creepy stare and haunting meows." My initial thoughts proven wrong quickly, Sapphire wasn't like that... except for the creepy stare and haunting meows part (she does that a lot).

She is gone now but I still think about her all the time, more so when Belle came along few years after.

Belle. Numero deux

Belle is gone now too, I would like to accuse the painful crime of stolen, but I still have microscopic faith in society that no one can be THAT cruel (though evidence did lead to the latter conclusion of catnapped).

I told myself I would never love another cat more than I loved Sapphire, and with that in mind I really hated every single second that Belle was with us.

I was in Melbourne when I heard the news of her disappearance. It didn't REALLY hit me because I was away and when I see pictures/think about her, she is very much alive and well. how haunting isn't it? our memories of something will stay the same until new ones are built upon them.

Nah, she left us, and me specifically, with a sweeter memory. As much as I wished she was more like Sapphire, Belle wasn't too bad after all...

Rex. the Third

Rex came into our lives as a helpless victim. Caught in the rain, the new born cat was cold and hungry when my sister saved it from the streets and death.

The arrival of Rex really repulsed me horribly, I HATED HER. It was Rex that really made me rethink my love for cats... "do I like cats in general? or do I just like Sapphire specifically?"

Biting and scratching everyone she sees to the edge of bleeding, she was only a kitten when we found her. I guess every young IS playful at heart. They really DO grow up so fast, Rexy became a mom not too long while I was away in Melbourne... all these within a year's duration.

I thought I was coming home to see a cat that was so horribly playful, she proven me (and everyone in the family) wrong with her newborn (that my sister decided to name), Simba.

I am going to leave you guys here for now, I hope all of you will have some new resolutions to keep, and some good lessons from the past to take with you. To those of you who are celebrating new years day like me, alone at home with the parents, you are probably a crazy lonely cat person too.

Which I believe you might enjoy the following pictures of Rex as a mother cat and Simba. HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!

I propose this to be included in Clappity Sundays.

If this is not cute, I don't know what is. lol

PS: The family miss you both very much, Sapphire and Belle. Forever with us <3
(fine, I AM A CRAZY CAT PERSON!!!)

On a lighter note:

You're and alien, its supernatural.

Cardboard Hoarding

2011-12-29T10:46:00.011+08:00

What? Three post in three days?

Well this would probably be my last one before I head back to my real home, KL. The last two posts were very thought-like, so this will be something completely different - talking more about design... and shit.

If you are studying architecture, it shouldn't be a surprise that your house will be filled with tons of scrap materials - cardboard boxes and assorted papers alike. The interesting thing is that even the scrappiest of all scraps are worth keeping, it will serve as the 'study models' and 'experimentations' for future semesters most of the time.

It is SUPERVITAL (hopefully this will catch up and appear in the dictionary) that you keep scraps. Ideas come and go most of the time and playing with paper stuff really feeds the creative and hungry minds in the process of designing. For all of you neat-freaks out there: DON'T BE SCARED, if you see architects/ architecture-students hoarding on scraps, craps and rubbish.

*halelujah*

"Embedded in our blood, hoarding scraps is" says Yoda, if he studied architecture. On the burned side of the bread, the people that live with us would be crazily annoyed by our hoarding; in this context I am referring to my father.

"screw them, you must" says Yoda angrily.

after all that is said, I think I am the only architecture student who hoards; trying to drag all the other students under the bus with me. Let me know if you think my claims are falsely made, because I would like to believe that I am right about this.

Moving home soon, I wouldn't bring my scraps along with me. So I tried to make full use of the scraps in my house; rather than throwing it away I made accessories out of it. So ending with today's post, I will be showing you one of the few that I made during my last few weeks in Melbourne... and let me know what you think.

Design intention:
We usually try to avoid wearing the same thing one too many times; all this is to avoid someone saying "Oh I have seen that before!" *kills oneself immediately after*

So 'disposable' came to mind, and disposable fashion developed from there. How awesome it is, to have accessories that you can recycle immediately after wearing it for the day?

This was what I envisioned.

of course I couldn't find a naked model lying anywhere in my house...

so this was how it turned out instead...

scraps can be good too you know.

I urge all of you to just try take some scraps and play around with it. Be inspired by the rubbish around you! YAY TO MILD-HOARDING! And let me see what you guys came up with.

on a random note:

The postman rang and brought me a lovely gift from a dear friend in Adelaide. The gift and the gesture is BEYOND sweet, I can't even begin to describe how excited I was this morning to receive this. I have been a huge admirer of Inhae Lee's "My Milk Toof", visit the blog often hoping that I will be a genius like her....

and for this friend to get me this book, really got me speechless :')

Thank you so much, Ethan! I should call you ickle from now on <3

Thoughts on Melbourne

2011-12-28T14:19:00.009+08:00

So Jamie tweeted, welcoming me back to the blogsphere last night (which was very sweet of her, of course). But what was more interesting is that this happened immediately after:

Referring to the blue graph, not the face.

Anyway, the count is not that many if I am falsely giving you that impression, its just the sudden jolt that I was pleasantly surprised by. The point of it all, is just to inform you that Jamie is a force not to be reckoned with (don't ever cross her path cause you will be stampede by a herd of angry followers, and you've been warned!).... now to ease the tension with a friendly lol.

I know I probably mentioned the above statement a few times already; but I like to repeat myself, so sue me if you think it is a crime. Anyway,

My time in Melbourne is almost at an end, I could have went back with les parents a week-plus ago but I decided on a slow transition home in case I loose my head in the process. I will be flying off exactly on the last day of the year, in three more days (on the 31st December 2011 to be exact).

"Oh, 31st December? Oh so sad that you have to spend New Years Day on the flight"

NO I AM NOT GOING TO!!! I will depart and land on the same day, so sorry to disappoint *troll face*. Time for another lol to ease the tension... again.

Anyway it is really hard to squeeze every single ounce of my experiences in Melbourne in a single blog entry, let alone in a single sentence. With a gun pointed to my head, I believe my time time spent in the Land Down Under can be summarized into three words... I love it, or rather j'aime beaucoup beaucoup (for those of you who are slightly pretentious like I am.)

this is very surprising for me because I came here with the same thinking as everyone else, and it goes like this:

"Take me by the tongue and I'll know you... Kiss me 'til you're drunk and I'll show you..."

What I meant to say is, that it goes more like this:
"You going to Melbourne? It is just EXACTLY like KL, EVERYONE IN KL IS THERE!"

I was repetitively reminded of the similarities that I would encounter, and the only difference in Melbourne is worse weather and a few added racists. Everyone got the weather part right; but en general, I saw Melbourne as the greener side of the garden which I grew to love - don't get me wrong, I am not implying that one city is better than the other, they're just different.

only less than 9 months spent here, and I am already starting to feel a little reluctant to leave (hopefully temporarily) this beautiful city that treated me better than I thought it would. Though I have to admit, it is still confusing to me sometimes because I am not entirely sure what exactly about Melbourne that I love... is it the city? or rather the feeling of independence? I can't tell.

What I do know is that I owe much to the people that brought me here - the parents that worked so hard everyday, and the siblings that gave up their opportunities so I could have mine. I never once imagined an opportunity like this, and I know many people dare not even begin to. No, you probably don't have to remind me how lucky I am and how much of my blessings I should count, because I tell myself that everyday that I am here...

Well, there are so much left for me to reflect upon and write about; but I think it will be best if it end here for now...until then.

Revival

2011-12-27T20:05:00.006+08:00

Can't believe it, this is definitely the longest I have been away from my own blog. Truth to be told, I REALLY miss it so much. I was THIS close from leaving it to die in ruins, how horrible of me... eight years of memories would rot away just like that.

I stopped for many reasons, one of the many is that I felt Facebook captured the audience that I needed (so my efforts of writing and editing are really justified), more interactive (with people 'liking' and leaving their witty comments), and pretty much allow me to share stories, pictures, and updates like a blog does.

but it is not long before I realize Facebook can't really replace 'THE JOY OF BLOGGING!', which I love so much. I feel there is more creative space here, allowing me to decide everything down to its smallest details. I like that I am so in control of everything, being the control freak that I am...

every detail is part of me and who I am - the words I write, images I upload, the colours I use, the HTML codes that I (try my best to) orchestrate and everything in between. Its a multidisciplinary work of art.... *beams with pride*.

Not forgetting to mention, I like personalizing my own stuff, mmmmmm.... personalization. *drools*

here, I feel it is all mine! everything presented on your screen is more or less how I expected (or want) it to be - free from the limitations forced upon me by Facebook. I AM A CREATIVE PERSON, HOW DARE I ALLOW MYSELF TO FALL INTO THE DULLNESS OF STANDARDIZATION?!?!?!

what a relief... after I was done creating the blog header, I instantly felt my mind and eyes breathing once again without the navy blue of #3b5998 covering one-third of my screen.

the horror!

THIS IS MY SPACE, MY WORDS, MY THOUGHTS, MY LIKES AND DISLIKES. I don't want to care about who won the Mafia Wars, and who is 90% lucky today. This is MY WALL, unfilled with things that I have been tagged with (like images of cats, *hint hint*)!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I love Facebook. I just don't think it allows me to be as creative as I should, that's all. So after all that has been (repetitively said), I just need to pray to the muses of blogging and hope they give me much inspiration and motivation to continue writing...

So now ending my first post, after eight months of hiatus,.... what do you think? :D

First Class Bitch

2011-04-04T07:24:00.000+08:00

So yes. Just uploading some pictures to remind a future self what I was up to during this time of the year.

Don't the clowns look disturbingly obscene?!

anyway. a few years ago, I wrote a letter to my 21 year old self.

which I completely forgot about it until I received a very special mail from a friend.

Reminded me how silly, naive, and irritating I sounded. lol.

but I thought I should send back a reply. Not today though, but soon.

I guess its fun to learn how much change can happen in just 3 years.

and yes, I can answer a few, but there are more things that I probably need to ask a 25 year old self.

well, with that aside (for now).

"so Jason, what do you feel now that you're 21 years old?"

absolutely no idea. I do know that I had a lot of growing up to do, and probably more to come.

I am very nervous too I guess, I feel there is this voice behind my back that tells me I should already be earning my own money and taking care of myself... but I am not.

there are so much that I am hoping for, but somehow I feel there are a lot of obstacles waiting to pull me down. Why do I always feel like I am always one step away from the things I want? so close yet so far.

probably because I want a lot of things that are too much to ask for.

well I can't really say I don't have anything that I want, I do, plenty... I guess you can call it greed.

so what do I want to be as a 21 year old MAN (lol). I want to promise myself that I don't want to invest all my emotions into crying about the things that I can not have, instead just be happy with the things I am blessed with.

hell yea. I am a lucky boy if I really think about it.

so I am done crying. I'm brushing the dust off my shoulders, and I'm just going to hope for the best.

whenever that is.

HIATUS!!!

2011-03-21T06:46:00.000+08:00

So its been almost a month since I last posted anything at all

and I thought I would have more stuff to blog about when I am in Melbourne. Well I could, but with the time constraints and stuff, blogging is really the last thing on my mind

Its funny how something I used to do everyday become something I force myself to do just to keep this blog alive. I felt that maybe its about time I give up on my 5 year old blog...

I guess for now I'll just wait and see, that motivation in me to update this blog is almost dying.

As much as I love it, I guess there is a time we either need to stop... or probably just take a long break from it

I guess what I'm really saying is....

I'll just try my best to update as much as I can.

I hope I'll get that motivation in me back again.

oh and did I mention? I graduated from Taylors with a diploma.

Degree, here I come.

Lion Dancing 2011

2011-02-28T17:24:00.000+08:00

The following pictures are SO overdue.
This was the day before I left for Australia. All the pictures were taken back home in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia of course).

I always remembered fearing lion dances.

They were so much bigger than I was, and they moved so violently. Not to mention the sound of the drums irritates the hell out of me (if you're one of those people who've not seen one before, just youtube for it)

They are adorable from afar, but it freaks the hell out of me once they get too close

well of course you grow out of these fears, but then again the thing that stay is the fascination for lion dancing. Sometimes you just forget its 2 people inside pretending to be a lion, their movement so animated and believable you just can never imagine what happens behind the "head of the lion"

did I mention the lion is vegetarian? (refer to picture above)

it blinks. it move its mouth. wave its ear. All together at the same time... not to mention it wags its tail too. UH MAY ZING!

oh ya, looking at the picture it reminds me how freaky the eye always looked. Don't the lion's eye reminds you of Kaa, the snake from jungle book?

of course they do have some significance of blessing the house. Who knew they were more than just pure entertainment.

this is a very logical equation every Chinese should know:
Blessing + (Fun - Chanting) x excitement = Lion Dance! :D

Blessing my bed, probably helps me to sleep better. or worse, make me fertile!
Don't be surprise if I come to school pregnant.

YAY TO FERTILITY!

Well if you pay close attention, you will notice the things that they can/can not do performing the dance.
One of the many is that they usually walk out of the house/room/down the stairs with their butt first.

I guess its protocol and to make sure the luck stays in the house, this is just my wild guess.

WHAT A FREAKING LAZY LION. ALWAYS SLEEPING! GEEEZE!

not to mention the lion is very hungry for money too. So its vegetarian and... moneytarian

In terms of performance,
The Buddha is part of the show where it teases and plays with the lion.
In terms of purpose,
and usually guides the lion where to go and stuff

VEGETARIAN IS DA BOMB!

CNY 2011

2011-02-11T16:47:00.000+08:00

I am so caught up worrying about going to Melbourne next week and I did not even bother spending a single second on my blog. I think maybe I should just upload all the CNY pictures before I leave at least.

I am going to go short on the descriptions. Prepare for a heavy load of pictures!!!

Usually the Chinese New Year is spent entirely in Penang, but of course every year got a little different recently. Went to a few places and it was very tiring (from all the travelling).

Malacca > Kuala Lumpur > Kuala Kangsar > Penang > Sungai Petani > Penang > Kuala Lumpur

From this picture you can conclude 2 things.

Number one, I am Chinese (which makes me an Asian)

Number two, I am Buddhist (and we love burning things)

Prayers done before the reunion lunch

Things I know very little about, protocols and procedures of prayers.

HELL BANK NOTE!

makes you rich in the afterlife

Guess what my dad was telling us that day.

Yee Sang! I used to hate the taste of it, but I grew to like it over the past few years.

Burning notes.

back to the yee sang

(yes, the images were uploaded in chronological order - I was running in and out of the house)

Aunt and Cousins

Had steam boat for dinner that night (reunion dinner round 2)

Cousins.

Ariel and Vee

Daddy Alan and Vee

The Chews

No, its not my tummy rolling out.

ANOTHER YEE SANG!

while waiting for everyone to arrive

and yes I am well aware that I look ugly in this picture.

COCONUT JELLY FISH THINGIE!

Karaoke level 2

went back to KL that night itself.

Sky lanterns! (which is also very dangerous, please do not buy one!)

Traffic on the way to Kuala Kangsar/ Penang the very next morning.

Kuala Kangsar, 1st world dining area :D

Childhood memories.

First world kitchen!

Dad and his aunt talking about the hole that they used to poop in.

very disturbing indeed.

Drove to Penang after spending a few hours in Kuala Kangsar.

for the postponed reunion dinner with the grandmother.

Mother and Grandmother.

Prepare for some market shots taken by my sister.

Random garden shots.

The under furnished house D:

Reunion round number... I lost count.

The night, I met up with Stacie

She brought us to a pub/club called Sixty Nine Mansion

Gasp. Table and chairs in the water? I AM SOLD

Happy Chinese New Year guys!

Ice Outside

2011-01-31T20:34:00.000+08:00

I only remembered it was so cold that it was impossible to walk outside without covering yourself with at least 3 layers of fabric.

its funny to see ice outside your window. and its definitely unusual to see it lasting for weeks without melting a little bit.

of course by the end of my trip, it got a little warmer and the ice started to melt (very slowly of course).

I am still thinking about the cold winter sometimes. I remember dreading the cold, and all I wanted was to take the next flight home just to feel warmth. Then again looking back at the picture, I was stupid for thinking so.

I miss everything.

Snowing in Dallas

2011-01-25T10:19:00.010+08:00

Lately, I have been caught in an emotional roller coaster. It is a recent believe, that there IS a good side to feeling and getting hurt - it is through these feelings, we learn lessons in life that can not be taught otherwise. As much as we want to learn it through old fashioned methods of listening and reading, the best teacher for such valuable lessons is pain itself.

I myself am a "past orientated" person, and that I like looking back at pictures or memories, believing that all these things from the past are valuable because it is so impossible to recreate them again. "Looking back" is something that I do so naturally and it is part of who I am - as innocent as it sounds, it is not doing so much good for me (especially now).

Memories can only do so much for a person, and that holding on to a time that can not happen again seems a little foolish, especially when you really think about it. I guess some of us are just born that way - like myself. Though I am not saying that it is entirely bad too.

Took me a while to realize, the happy memories makes us sad - because it reminds us about our incomparable present. The sad memories also makes us sad - because it reminds us about a sadder time. So at the end of the day, why do we still want to look back when all it can really do is hurt us?

I guess from all of the hurting I've endured - not to say I am completely healed from it- I do believe pain is temporary, and that it can hurt you only when you allow it to. Sometimes, it is ourselves to blame for holding on to these painful memories; we should be investing all of our emotions/actions into creating the future that we always wanted instead.

As I stop wasting precious time crying about what has happened, I promised myself that I will do whatever it takes to make sure I will be happy one day. For every sadness there should be an expiration date - and to dwell in the same pain forever is stupid. After all, pain IS temporary, and it is about time I stop feeling sorry for myself, and move on.

the pictures were all taken during the few hours that it snowed in Dallas, it was my first time seeing snow and I was excited. It was SO beautiful and one of the highlights of my trip.

SFO - Day 3 and Day 4

2011-01-17T12:46:00.002+08:00

Back home. After a brutal 30hour-ish long trip (including the much dreaded 13 hour transit in Amsterdam), I am back in my crib.

SAN FRANCISCO. Day 3 and 4.

It got colder. It was harder to bear the longer we spent walking around the city. The good thing is that there were SO much to do outdoors, the problem is that the weather was a little crazy at the time.

San Francisco is filled with parks, city square, and terrace shops by the street, because of that, people tend to spend more time outdoors - so you get to see the city filled with people all day long. In a way making the city very human friendly, lively and exciting- which is always a good thing.

Back home in KL, everyone just spend their entire day in the mall - avoiding the much dreaded SUNLIGHT! Everyone avoids walking on the street because it is so dangerous and hot. This is not really good because its so dead looking (imagine walking into a zombie apocalypse with nobody on the streets)

anyway.

get ready for a HEAVY LOAD OF PICTURES!

M. H. de Young Memorial Museum

located in the Golden Gate Park

THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE by RENZO PIANO!!!!

*SURPRISEEEEE*

the only sad thing is that the obviously interesting part of the building (which is the roof) can only be seen from an observation deck in the building itself. So it is quite hard to appreciate the building (especially for a lay person) unless you are inside of it - personal opinion.

but the good news is that The Academy is the largest public Platinum-rated LEED building in the world, and also the world’s greenest museum. YAHOOOO!!!

in the courtyard

we got there VERY early in the morning.

Saber-tooth tiger... cat. or something.

This is cute. They had a wall and let you write ideas on how to be sustainable.

of course most of them who wrote on the wall were kids.

From the inside. looking at the ceiling.

Inside the gigantic sphere is the tropical rain forest, which unfortunately happen to be closed that day.

(they should have given us a discount or something!)

Taxidermy.

anybody wants their pet to be displayed in the museum?

The aquarium.

Sushi. yes, I was hungry.

SASHIMI!

not photoshopped.

They had different lights illuminating the aquarium containing these jellyfishes.

so puuurrrty!

Snakes.

Glassfish.

UPSIDE DOWN JELLYFISH.

I swear I did not know they existed until my trip to the museum

they honestly look VERY lost. because it looks as if they trying to swim through the ground.

from the aquarium below, looking all the way to the skylight.

its interesting to experience the aquarium where you can see all the way to the trees above the water

(above the water is the rain forest that was closed)

Kids. So many of them kids that day.

Meteorite :D

legend has it that there is a Martian living inside there - I'm joking, or am I?

Elephant bird which is currently extinct since the 17th century.

one of the many species of sharks that DO NOT attack humans.

The sphere in the exhibition/museum.

containing the rain forest.

The other sphere, which is also known as the planetarium.

it is like an IMAX theater, only difference is that the image is projected on a 75ft dome

(which makes you feel part of the movie - its very hard to explain but it is true)

Albino crocodile.

the famous "living roof"

interestingly enough, the vents/skylight opens and closes according to the heat/CO2 concentration in the building.

of course it was too cold that day, the vents were all closed to keep the cold out. and they're all automated. *SURPRISEEEEE*!

it may look sunny, BUT ITS DAMN COLD!

and yes. those are solar panels directly behind me that generates the electricity to the museum

also acts as a huge overhang to shade the people below at the ticketing area.

the sad thing is that we can not walk about on the roof.

we were only allowed on this little observation deck

but still. it looks pretty in pictures, no?

GOLDEN! hahah

copy this if you ever want to design a green roof one day. haha

the courtyard. later in the afternoon when it was more visible.

i heard this is where they collect the rain water for gray water harvesting.

(not sure how it works though)

outside of the Academy of Science. walking about the Golden Gate Park

outdoor stage for opera and other theater performances

building envelope of M. H. de Young Memorial Museum

in case you were wondering, the sign says "no cycling".

There was a little path leading down to the forest.

on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge.

yes. we WALKED (for more than an hour)

YAY! THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE!

mind you it was FREAKING COLD THAT DAY.

and it was close to evening (which means it got a little colder since the afternoon)

saw this on a wall before walking on the bridge.

I guess people jumping off the bridge is common

and it got extra windy too.

and extra cold. the background is San Francisco city.

Day 4. Decided to visit more of the city.
There were more to explore, so we did.

random house.

oh yes, and we went to Lombard Street.

apparently it claimed to be one of the most crooked streets in the world.

this is the street viewing from bottom up.

no, I was not photoshopped in there.

walked to the Palace of Fine Arts.

White Swans!

in ruins. or so it seems

more stuff we saw walking towards the Marina

The Marina

apparently this is where all the rich people park their boats and yacht

more 3 leaf clovers! (look for the 4 leaved)

Solar panels on facade? green architecture!

*gives gold star*

Castro Street.

self explanatory

saw this graffiti which impressed me

oooooo.... graffiti.

this is somewhat wrong. Behind the many armed sculpture is San Francisco City Hall.

the problem is that the 2 things really don't go well together.

are you kidding me? Siamese looking sculpture in front of a Greek Revival building? eeewww!!!

KILL ME NOW!! ARRGGGHHH!!

see? the building so much better without the nonsense in the foreground.

more pictures soon.

DFW > SFO

2011-01-10T14:34:00.000+08:00

From Dallas to San Francisco.

San Francisco was one of the very few cities that I've always wanted to visit. It was a 5 day trip to one of the most happening cities in the world, and of course it was very exciting.

how do I describe San Francisco? well it reminds me a lot of Sydney (my comparison might not be accurate nor true). Buildings are all built in grids, tons of tourist, surprisingly a lot of Asians, a lot of homeless, and busy all the time.

The fun thing about San Francisco is that there are so many sides to the city, You get a different view/vibe/atmosphere in different parts of the city - the bay area, the housing area, and the city center.

so many different things to see and of course I was on my "architecture pilgrimage", visited different buildings by different architect (mostly elevation images, most of them needed admission fees)

Public transport is a little big expensive for me, of course like everyone would tell you - a dollar for dollar, it is quite cheap.

Tips on San Francisco: Do go to places that sells healthy food, because San Francisco charges tax for unhealthy food. This is to discourage people from eating unhealthy - so avoid fast food and try visiting Subway or something (if you are on a budget especially)

the weather was surprisingly colder than expected, everyone told me that the weather in California is very comfortable and it is almost the same throughout the year. It was VERY misty and cold, it was REALLY torturing to be outside and walking about...

the unfortunate truth is that I spent most of my time outdoors, travelling by foot, walking around taking pictures. It got to as cold as 3C to 5C in the day, definitely not something fun to do (spending the entire day outdoors)

especially for someone who spent their entire life in a tropical climate country, San Francisco was SUPER cold for me. Anyway, I guess pictures speaks louder than words, so here goes :

P.S.: the images were shot on the night upon arrival and the day after that// aka Day 1 and Day 2 combined.

Pretty, classical architecture trapped within contemporary glass facade

looks like a waste of money though, but still quite interesting.

love this shop. the entire shop facade was filled with the old sewing machine.

Frank Lloyd Wright.

V.C. Morris Gift Shop

This was taken at night, so a little blurry.

I visited the same place the day before leaving, and I will upload the picture soon.

Literally GREEN building.

The many hills of San Francisco.

FYI, their public bus are mostly powered by electricity

... I consider San Francisco to be quite green.

Public transports are simple to use, and people do walk/cycle around town.

TRAMS!

or as they call it, Cable Car

took the cable car from Powell Street to Fisherman's Wharf

End of the station, and that platform turns - to turn the whole tram around

the hills of SF!

from the Back of Ghirardelli Square

upon entering.

Mermaiiidddsss...

one of the random pier at Fisherman's Wharf.

the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. from afar.

more closeup images of the Golden Gate Bridge in the next post.

btw you are looking at the Pacific Ocean! :D

VERY COLD

obviously it is also because of the lack of clothing.

San Francisco city from the pier.

Alcatraz.

it is a jail turned tourist attraction.

Apparently the current around the prison is crazy (so whoever tries to escape gets drowned or something)

go wiki it yourself!

Wind direction pointing thingie.

this is SOOOO not photoshopped by the way

clovers! spot the 4 leaf clover in the picture.

(in case you really tried looking for it, I don't think there IS a 4 leaf clover in the picture)

Old submarine.

now you can pay to visit/tour inside the submarine.

of course for cheapoes like us, we just took pictures from the outside.

more battleships from the past!

a small view of the city and Fisherman's Wharf

(Fisherman's Wharf is just like a small area with lots of restaurants and shops)

the place really live up to its name for some weird reason - the area DO smell like fish.

more view of the city of SF

THIS WAS SO COOL.

Wild sea lions by the pier - ouh mah gawd!

apparently they should be filling up all those empty space (the random block of floating things you see in the pictures - or you can click here for an example)

I think the population of sea lions are decreasing - how depressing

view towards the city center (with more high rises)

Coit Tower

San Francisco. this is more towards the houses/shops area

as you can see, the city is VERY hilly and its very big!

Inspired...

The slanted house of San Francisco.

or is it? - inspired by one of the pictures I saw from 9gag.

Transamerica Pyramid

was one of the 5 tallest building in the world when it was completed

very iconic in the San Francisco cityscape.

Daniel Libeskind's Contemporary Jewish Museum

sad to say that part of that deconstructed black part of the building actually houses a gift shop - what a waste of time and energy to dedicate 1/3 of a structure for a gift shop :(

Mario Botta's SFMOMA

SFMOMA

closeup on SFMOMA by Mario Botta.

and of course, Union Square.

the hotel was near by

and if you happen to visit San Francisco, try to get a hotel somewhere in Union Square because that is where most of the shopping is. Not to mention it is a walking distance to the cable car, train station and bus station.

of course, always have your iphone with you when you are walking around. Just so you know, when you are in a gridded city... every corner looks the same/ every street looks a like.

more images soon.

Dallas Art District

2011-01-01T16:21:00.000+08:00

Every time when I mention that I am going to Dallas, the first thing that people normally reply is "oh? Is that where the cowboys and cactus are?"

hell no, you don't see bunch of dried hay rolling around on the streets and cow boys riding on bulls at the ranch. The city is not filled with cactus, dead carcases and sand.

Went to the Dallas Art District earlier today, which is located in the city center. BEAUTIFUL area with so many new buildings that I did not get to see the last time when I was in Dallas

Metal Pegasus, assuming that is made from rusted salvaged construction metal waste

Redbull gives you WIINNNNNNGGGGGSSSSSSSS.....

The City of Dallas @ as viewed from the Arts District

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

designed by REX | OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (partner in charge) and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas (extracted from our trusted source, Wikipedia)

Details details and more details.

Architecture tips : if you can camwhore there, the building is well designed (haha)

Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

Texturesssss...

Nasher Sculpture Center

Happy New Year, guys!
I'm half a day late, I know.

Kinect

2010-12-31T12:40:00.000+08:00

nothing much happened over the week. Went to Austin, Texas for a HUGE shopping trip...
I didn't took my camera with me because I thought it was going to be troublesome for me to carry my jacket and camera around while trying on clothes

so I left all of those behind and shopped.

But this wont be the end of my shopping trip though... I will be going somewhere more exciting for my shopping trip.

Wait for pictures :D

in the meantime, just watch this lame video of me playing Kinect.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-24T22:28:00.000+08:00

Gasp, it's Christmas eve already?
Well funny thing about here in the States is that everyone really goes all out with the Christmas decorations.

it is just like the movies, people setting up their yard with lights and figurines. Not to mention the competition between neighbours gets everyone all hyped up with the decorations.

Went to Highland Park the other day (it is where the rich people live) to check out the Christmas decorations, pretty!

so here are some pictures of some Christmas decorations.

horse carriage services around the area :D

sparkle sparkle

its a flight of steps, by the way.

this is whats hanging on the lamp post

Grapevine Lake

2010-12-21T08:33:00.001+08:00

GET READY..... FOR A HELL LOT OF NATURE SHOTS!

Lake Grapevine.

This is winter. Tons of tried up trees

TREE ON FIRE!

TREE ON FIRE, CLOSE SHOT!

This is me. Fat-TER jason.

oooo wild mistletoe!

Cant-Remember-the-Name Harbour

yes. 2 jackets.

TWO JACKETS!

Sunshine, lollipop and rainbow.

V-ray sky in real life

(architecture student reference)

anyway. Yesterday we went to Flavours for Indian food buffet.

DELICIOUS.

all the tandoori you can possibly eat.

and the red meat between the tandoori chicken and the bright orange sauce... is CHICKEN 65
soooo freaking delicious - i love Chicken 65!!!

then after that we went to Costco!

Love this place

they sell EVERYTHING on a shelf.

can you guess what is the weirdest thing they sell OFF THE SHELF?!

GYM MEMBERSHIP!

and MOVIE TICKETS!!!

unusual? ya I think so too.

Food Galore in Dallas

2010-12-19T00:06:00.001+08:00

So I have not been blogging over the past few days for a very good reason. All I did was eat... nothing but eat... So there isn't any much to blog about anyways.

I thought it only make sense if I had more pictures before I blog. Finally I have a reasonable amount of pictures, and today is all about the food that I ate over the past few days.

I had 6 buffet in a week.

In KL I had 3,
Saturday, international Hi Tea buffet at Shangrila hotel for mom's early birthday celebration
Sunday, I had TWO international buffet due to the flight delay

Tuesday, I had a Sushi buffet (which was rather interesting. a buffet with nothing but Sushi)
Thursday, my first Mediterranean buffet (which I LOVE so much - taste so good!)
and Friday, Southern US buffet (u know what, I'll love any buffet)

The following pictures are inconsistent, taken at different time/date. So do ignore if it doesn't make sense or it don't have any particular storyline.

This is the sushi buffet.

I love the crispy things on top.

all we had to do was tick the sushi we wanted from the menu and the chef will prepare them.
Apparently the service was suppose to be terrible, its fine when I was there (probably because it was on a weekday)

I would say it is very much westernized, you don't see the typical sushi you find in authentic Japanese restaurants
Some of the sushi have tempura, avocado, and cheeses in them.

I can't remember what are the sushi names.

They name their sushi like Dragon Roll, Veggie Roll, Samurai Sushi, and Philadelphia Roll or something like that. all taste SO good...

In the Fall/Winter time.

You get to see this: Apple Cider!

I love apple cider, taste a lot like apple juice only it taste a little bit more sour.
I can not get enough of this, apparently this drink will keep you warm (thats why it is only available during these seasons)

We had Church's Chicken on Wednesday.

It is SO much better than KFC! It is as fattening as any other fried chicken, but this is pure delicious
I love Church's Chicken and I think you all should try it as soon as you see a store.

EGG NOG!

eeeewwwwwwwww!!!! EEEEEWWWWWW!!!
I hate this thing!

I hear about egg nogs often in Christmas songs and stuff, but I never really knew what it was.
Apparently it is some drink (or you can pour it in some desserts - i think)

it taste of creamy white stuff. I don't fancy the taste but I am sure you milk/cream lovers would love this drink.
eeewwwww!!

Dimassi's Buffet is the Mediterranean buffet I had

I LOVE the food served in this restaurant.

They have fragrance rice which reminds me of Nasi Briani

those meat balls, roasted naan bread and herbs, roast chicken and everything in between.
(those are not the actual name of the food by the way, I am just describing it as how I see it and what it reminds me of)

looks delicious, no?

BEN AND JERRY'S NEW YORK SUPER FUDGE CHUNK!

this ice cream is to die for.

BEN AND JERRY'S FOREVER!!!

and last night we went to Furr's

It is a southern US buffet, they have stuff like Chicken fried Steak, Chicken fried chicken, meshed potatoes, deep fried beans, garlic bread, coleslaw, fried chicken, barbecue steak and etc.

(trivia: chicken fried is a method of cooking, so you get stuff like chicken fried chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken fried bacon and chicken fried fill-in-the-blanks)

YUMMY!

the reason why I had so many buffet is because the cost of a buffet is pretty much similar to a regular meal in the US. It is not something out of the regular price range, which is why people have buffet so often here in the US.

an ala carte meal here can cost from $6 to $15 per person (for example)
a buffet can cost about $7 up to $20 (I am talking about the mid range buffet)

unlike Malaysia
an ala carte meal (that you find on the streets) is about RM4-RM6
but a buffet (even for the mid range ones) starts at RM50

There is no crazy huge gaps between the buffets and the ala carte meals, which makes buffet a choice for an everyday meal. It is not like Malaysia where people go buffet usually to celebrate a special occasion and stuff.

I hope I don't come back a cow, but all I know is...

this won't be my last buffet for my trip.

There are so many more buffets that I have not tried.

(the image above is the interior of Furr's Family Dining - the Southern US buffet)

The thing I love about it here is that the variety of buffet is amazing. The buffets here are all very specialized and cuisine specific; unlike in KL, where there are a lot of international/fusion (plus Japanese buffet is TOO common back home).

This is me hiding in the blanket avoiding the very cold winter.

The temperature has been going up and down over the past few days.

Yesterday it was 10C in the day (and it gets colder at night)
and they predict the temperature will go up to 20C by Monday... and slowly decreasing back to 10C again after

Its been very cold, I even had a migraine from the the cold when I took a short walk outside of my temporary home.

My plans of travelling around the US is harder now. The price for air flights increased due to the holiday season, and there are a lot of flights cancelled/delayed because of the heavy snow in both East and West coast of US

anyway. this is all for now, I am going to leave you with an early Christmas wish,

Merry Christmas Everybody!

(the bread is sickeningly scary in real life - I hope you can feel the terror from the image above)

btw it is a loaf of bread with two different colours
the scary part is, its BRIGHT GREEN AND BRIGHT RED.
Don't the bread look very poisonous?!

Day 1 at Dallas

2010-12-15T02:45:00.000+08:00

Some updates for the time being,

I am in Dallas TX now, love the weather. It is a little bit chilly, during the day it is about 16C and at night it can go down to about 5C to 7C

though i heard this morning before sunrise it was -1C. Luckily i was indoor and still asleep.

anyway. Before I left we celebrated mom's early birthday at Shangrila Hi Tea

It is a very well known Hi Tea and it was really really good.

So, happy early birthday mommy!

of course you all heard my rant about the flight problems. At first, my flight was delayed for about 3 hours; and then they announced it was cancelled and postponed to a day after. I was quite worried because everything was so unpredictable after that.

The bad thing is that the flight was postponed in KL... and that I had to stay in KL for another day before leaving. Would have been so much better if they postpone the flight in Amsterdam - at least I can stay a day in a foreign land.

The good thing about the whole cancelled flight is that they compensated with a nice room in Nikko Hotel

and that I got to spend another day with my mother and sister at the gym.

and they gave me 3 buffet meals in the hotel as well . SCORE!
and yes. I am finally here in TX

What is so different about coming back to Dallas? well one thing is that the flight was different, United Airlines does NOT give you a personal entertainment system. 20+ hour flight with only 1 movie on the big screen, and they played Marley and Me (sickening).

this time. I got to spend my entire flight with my own entertainment system.
I got to catch up on a lot of movies, I watched INCEPTION (finally, but I didn't understand a lot of shit in the movie), Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, The Karate Kid, Going the Distance... and so many others

so it wasn't as painful as the previous time. Lesson learned, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM THAT YOU CAN WATCH ON THE FLIGHT!

IMAGINE SITTING ON THE SAME SPOT FOR 20+ DOING NOTHING FOR AN ENTIRE DAY!!!

the other good thing about my trip to Dallas this time is the winter. The last time I came here was during Summer. I got to experience a different side of this town (can't wait when all the Christmas decorations are up)

and i might be attending a Christmas show at the new Dallas theatre (which sounds super exciting).

and of course...

meeting old friends.

Arkan is so big now. To a point where I am so scared of touching it.

to those who owns an iPhone. this is Arkan today.

something for you to imagine.

it is almost as long/ probably longer than 9 iPhones.

yikes

anyway. more pictures coming soon. Keep you guys updated.
Can't wait for sales though :)

SABD Prom 2010

2010-12-05T00:54:00.000+08:00

Today is SUPER unproductive. I spent my entire day just watching nothing but youtube videos.

NON STOP. from 6pm until 1230am....

Though the difference this time is that I am now guilt free, I can watch as much as I want. I think I should enjoy as much as possible because freedom like this do not come by very often.

Prom happened last Thursday (5th of December 2010). The event took place in Rootz @ Lot10

the food and ambiance was good. Personally, I think the event had so much potential to be great. The thing started too late, dragged on for so long and ended too soon

I love a quiet setting where you do not have to shout at each other to converse, but the event was TOO quiet that you can hear footsteps and cricket noises (I guess a little bit of music would do great)

all in all, we all still had fun...

took so many pictures. I am only going to post up some of them, the rest will be uploaded on my facebook instead. These are the ones that I love/concerns me. hahah (sounds so bitchy)

Lai Ming and Felix

Lai Ming and YiShuian

Owh oh oh, owh oh ouh oh oh... owh oh oh oh!

all the single ladies, now put your hands up!

with Stacie.

and Rynn

Jon was such a dancer. haha

I was voting for you

Krystal in a dress, highlight of the night.

with Ms Shereen. who flew all the way back from NZ

good to see you again!

Music of the night.

with Pui Cheng.

With Ms Alina

my Architectural History/Working Drawings/ Architectural Studio lecturer

Megan!

Marie

with Justin

the boys

lol. my "signature move" as declared by Nik

with LIndsay LoYUAN. haha

she was soooooo drunk that night.

and Mabel the Cat.

going on my long holiday soon. I am SO EXCITED!

Post Hiatus

2010-12-02T16:04:00.000+08:00

yes. I think I am back

I just need to keep the ball rolling and start making sure that I blog as often as I used to.

It has been a crazy long semester, and that 14 weeks was dragging on and on and it seemed like it was never going to end.

We spent most of our time with the exact same lecturers for the last 2 semesters, and our holidays were spent doing our industrial trainings instead. So I guess that is what made the whole semester seemed long.

What did I learn for the past 3 years studying architecture? well a lot of things, and you can read more of it in my "What I learned in Architecture School" series.

but what is most important is that I learned that I love architecture more than I thought I did. No, it is not easy and it is not for everyone. The hours are long and tiring, some days not even getting any sleep at all. Projects and assignments snowballs and rolls in faster than it should, and overlapping due dates altogether

it is crazy, but at least it is not some repetitive factory work. Every assignment is so different, and every single one is crazier than the next.

but then again, aren't all work hard to do? I guess it is quite silly to aspire to be something that is easy to do, everyone needs to have some challenge in life, no?

but I guess when the assignments is non stop for far too long, it becomes exhausting. I think I have not left the house for a "hangout" in such a long time, it even felt weird walking around the mall without any assignments to worry about.

Its now the time, where I have the rights to be as lazy as I can possibly be. I better enjoy while it last, and making sure I blog every single moment of it. So hopefully this is post hiatus for good (until my craziness starts again in Melbourne)

So I have been working on a mixed used building. This semester we are doing on a culinary school/restaurant.
Though I have not gotten very good comments for it, I guess this is all part of the learning process.

I don't mind a bad comment, I just want my A++ <3 ** (A plus plus heart star star)

So I am still feeling a little bitter about the bad comments though, but then again...

I did everything I could possibly do,and I do not feel guilty at all because I have put in so much time and effort in this...

so nothing to feel terrible about. and because I take absolutely full pride in my own work, here are some renderings of my building :D

This is a culinary school/restaurant for a Malay cuisine. enjoy

restaurant

the classroom/ student kitchen

administration/office

Library

Front facade

building on Petaling street.

I MADE A FREAKING PHYSICAL MODEL. how cool is that.

hahaha

a little bit more technical.

on the other hand, running along the same timeline of our Culinary school project.
we had to design (in groups) and sell our ideas to a real existing client,

they approached the college asking the students to design a Dog friendly hotel where pet lovers can stay together and play with their animals.

this project is sited in Bentong Pahang.

Front Facade of Semai Sayang
(the name of the project/building)

Pool Area

Flexi Rooms

Cafe

Kitchen

Few Days

2010-11-29T02:13:00.000+08:00

I.... neeed... to... start... blogging... again....
not to mention a few things I want to do once the semester ends (in a few days).

SUPER EXCITED.

but seriously, I need to revive this blog. I think I'm the only visitor here :S am I?

hello? *echoes*

Congratulations!

2010-11-20T23:55:00.000+08:00

attended my secondary school Bio teacher's wedding earlier.

Congratulations to Ms Vimali and her husband Mr Kalidasu.

from all of us!

What I Learned in Architecture School #2

2010-11-10T01:28:00.003+08:00

HELLO.

After 5 Semester studying as an Architecture Student, never once I needed to stay up later than 3am to finish my work. I experienced my first all-nighter yesterday, 8am to 8am, spent 24 hours just sitting in front of the computer rushing for assignments

I still have another reign of assignments coming up, with a report to finish, a proposal presentation for our Integrated Project assignment, final exam to endure, and a final external presentation to survive.

I am so excited about the end of the year, I love holidays where there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

So this is part two of my "What I Learned in Architecture School"

These are a series of images of things you WONT be expecting as an architecture student. :D

Sleep. Well I know it is the same for many other occupations/courses, but I guess the problem with architecture is that there is no limit to the amount of things you can possibly show.

you can show as much as a single drawing, or a stack of drawings, and there is pretty much no written proof that one is better than the other.

So it is pretty much up to you to decide how much you want to show, and how much you willing to do. The aim is to sell your idea, and if you need 40 images to get people to go crazy over your architecture, then 40 images is what you have to produce.

if you think a single image can show everything that you want to show, then 1 image is good enough.

and I guess that is where the sleepless night comes in. In architecture, there is never an "okay I am done", but instead it is always an "Okay, I think i am done for now". And usually, single image is never enough to sell any idea.

to add to the horror, a building changes its design everyday for many reasons (even until it is done construction, changes will still be made sometimes). I'll go into details for the next series.

and when one part of the building change, all 40 of the images changes together with it. Which also means, producing all 40 of the drawings..... from SCRATCH! *insert lightning and thunder effect*

(of course if the changes are small, you don't have to do everything from the start again - of course, you cannot always expect that the changes will be small everyday)

so What exactly did I learn from Architecture School? well to sum it all up, a building can never be perfect, and the design of a building will naturally change so often; and all the work piles up naturally because of all these changes.

If you are a person who loves holding on to the work your produce, unwilling to trash a week's worth of sleepless night and hard work. Then I guess it is something you can not expect to do if you are ever planning to be an architecture student/architect

Lesson learned:
a week's worth of work can (and sometimes expected to) be trashed in a single second. GET OVER IT!

Zumba For Charity

2010-10-29T19:22:00.000+08:00

Well it is only a week left till the event,
Really amazing what networking can do for you

got your tickets yet?! :D

Environmental Science

2010-10-19T00:08:00.004+08:00

No, its not that I have extra free time. It is just that I am so tired of reading environmental stuff and I decided to rest my mind with some blogging :D

DON'T JUDGE ME!!!

Anyway, we spent the entire morning finishing up our Environmental Science project. Which is to create a multi-functioning-something out of recycled materials. Sounds easy enough? well it is definitely harder than you think.

With limited amount of USABLE recycled materials we could, plus we had to make it multi-functional, made the assignment harder than we anticipated it to be.

though we manage to force an entire 10 week project into 2 days (due to huge amount of procrastination and the importance of other assignments which got in the way.)

with all that is mentioned, I think I am quite happy with the outcome. Though I have no idea what the lecturers would say about it tomorrow (presentation in the morning) *crossing fingers*.

We created a chair out of wooden palette, rebar steel, raffia strings that can be configured into a few different sitting positions. Anyway here are some images from this morning which I absolutely love :D

Rynn's girl guide skills came in handy.

Little do you know that extra-curricular activities ARE good for you :S

Especially if you aspire to be an eco-friendly-architect.

KiJun working on the slides for tomorrow.

can anybody explain how is banana related to recycling?!

Stacie adjusting the rebar steel in place

Nik testing the chair before bringing it out

So the chair configures itself into a few different position for a few different purposes.

CONFIGURATION 1:

of course, the standard one seater

a place where you can read your books and eat alone :(

CONFIGURATION 2:

and when eating alone seems too depressing, eating with another friend can be an option

Trivia: the pizza box is already a week old (if i am not mistaken); the worse part is that no one bothered to throw it away

of course when you spend too much time alone with another friend,

you might end up having fights here and there

CONFIGURATION 3:

The laptop table.

of course it works best with short people. ahem...

CONFIGURATION 4:

Somewhere to "duduk bersila"

probably somewhere where you can meditate, or pray.... or eat durian O_O!

CONFIGURATION 5:

The lazy Chair

CONFIGURATION 6:

of course if you're too afraid to sit in the deadly looking chair, you can use it as a

bag/ book/ water tumbler/ pizza box holder.

anyway,
I think I need to get back to my work. with all that said, I leave you with photo of the day

this... is... so... random.

Jamie's Big 20

2010-10-12T19:56:00.002+08:00

Before I begin the birthday shout out. Just want to say thanks to Aiman for inviting us (me especially), to your lovely open house.

Sorry I couldn't thank you sooner because I didn't have the time to update my blog (or at least, the last thing I was thinking about was updating my blog)

"I love you, Aiman!!!" says Kak Justina

anyway. here are a few pictures from the little gathering.

and before I begin, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures mainly because I feel so inferior with the other cameras around me. I feel damn noob! Bottom line is, I SHY OKAY!? geeze...

but I think Jamie has pictures in her camera which is worth taking a look at (though I am not entirely sure when will she be blogging about the party)

While waiting for Jamie, we all stood at the table like retards.

Leka and her 3 best friends; Elaine, Left and Right.

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL! meh!

Monster Sue, who is so freaking excited about surprise parties.

anyway. I would like to end this post with a bigggg birthday shout out to Jamie the old lady. and may all your ~~wet~~ sweet dreams come true.

I would also like to end this post with a random picture of Belle.

can you imagine how terrifying it is to see a cat outside the 2nd floor window?

PS. Remember I wrote a little short poem that goes like:

cover me up with ribbons of red,

tie me up with bows of blue,

I'll paste some stamps on my head,

hoping the postman will send me to you.

someone was sweet enough to continue the poem in the comments
(which I totally forgot to post it up, silly me)

Anonymous said...

"A parcel drapped in reds & blues
Sitting by the window looking so beautiful
Everyone was staring with eyes of envy
Whilst i secretly wished it was for me"

Meh

2010-10-04T08:21:00.000+08:00

Apologizing for the lack of attention given to my blog.

It has been almost more than 2 weeks since my last update, no, I'm not done with blogging yet. It is just that the end of September (and probably the entire October) has been the craziest and busiest month so far, and the last thing I can think about is blogging.

so much work to do and it is so scary!

so much to think about, with my industrial training interview, Melbourne University, apartment hunting, final presentation, current assignments and everything in between.

I'll be back soon, can't wait for the holidays! :D

The September College Babies.

2010-09-20T00:31:00.000+08:00

So on Thursday night we all decided to celebrate Jonathan, Mable and Stacie's birthday; since their birthdays are only a few days apart.

We went to Marmalade in Bangsar Village II and I personally think the food there is really good. Though I personally would love the burger more if they replaced those avocado with pickles instead, seriously, WHO PUTS AVOCADO IN THEIR FOOD?!

I am so sorry if I've offended anybody, but I think avocados are one of the most disgusting fruits out there. WORSE THAN DURIANS! *shows sulky-sour face*

anyway. Took tons of picture, though it is just pictures of people around the table posing and stuff. I do not have the time to properly blog about this event, so here are some pictures from the night...

correction, here are A LOT of pictures from that night...

Sue and Rynn

Lady Marmalades

Trivia, marmalades are fruit preserves that are made from citrus peels, sugar and water (I didn't know that!)

But lady marmalade just means whore in short :P (jokes)

Stacie and Sue

LiYuan and Jonathan

Felix and Shibi

the 3 Juns,

Tze Jun (Justin), Jun Win and Ki Jun.

YiShuian LiHui and Marie

Rynn and LaiMing

Seriously sue, why are you in so many of the pictures? =.=

The birthday trios!

LaiMing Megan and Kyrstal.

Me and Felix.

we're not very good friends as you can see.

Sir Marmalades

Trivia, in contras with lady marmalade (aka whores), Sir marmalade means handsome boys :)

and yes, I'm one of them. tenjewberrymush.

The pretty girls :)

No, I didn't make a mistake captioning earlier.

See? Jonathan is a leng lui!

Mabel the tai kar jie.

and Stacie, the foul mouth girl

She loves saying bad words :P

(actually in all honesty, she's the total opposite of Sue)

Jon the cute little bunny.

Play boy

and I am starting to realize Jonathan is in a lot of the pictures too

hmmm...

the birthday people! Three cheers to the September babies!

OoooooOoooOoOOO large crowd.

"KISSSSSSSS!!!!"

Act Cute

No comments.

oh, Kak Justina joined us later that evening.

what a pleasant surprise. She's such a lady!

Marmalade in Bangsar Village 2 brings out the best in everyone

Kak Justina brought Cik Joanny for dinner too.

What pretty ladies

Sorry Shibi, couldn't finish your album :(

*like*

is it a phone or a shoe?

or a phoe sho?

phooe? shone?!!?

SM Mable

Happy birthday earthlings!

Just came home from Tony Romas today. I had a very satisfying meal, lets go again!

Nik's Raya

2010-09-18T01:46:00.000+08:00

Its been three years knowing Nik, and this was the first year we were all invited to her open house for Raya. I personally do not have a lot of Malay friends so it is very rare to catch me in these occasions.

The interesting thing though, is that all the guest invited that time were all Chinese. 1 MALAYSIA!

anyway. Nik wanted to post the pictures I took on her own Facebook, its good news for me because I do not have to double post it (one on my blog and the other on Facebook).

Anyway there are quite a number of pictures that I left out, hopefully you can see the rest when it is uploaded. Here are some of the pictures that I personally liked :)

Fiona Nik Krystal Rynn

Felix Nik Marie Stacie and LiHui

Marie, Jonathan, Justin, Sue, Kijun, Aiman and Megan

Happy eating in the living room.

Krystal Rynn and Stacie

The theme was traditional clothes.

Lucky for me, my dad has one set of baju Melayu lying around the house.

Don't I look pretty in black? :D

The usual pose:

The full body - nik leaning - sue tip toeing pose.

For some weird reason, pushing Sue away seems like a very fun past time

HAHA. so random!

can masuk poster already.

Group shots 1

there were many more in between. I only uploaded my favorite of the bunch.

The boys and the pimp

The girls.

The gang and the pimp.

We're all devoted servants of our mighty queen Nik!

SOMEBODY FEED HER SOYA BEAN JUICE ALREADY, SHE'S THIRSTY!!!

I was laughing my head off when they were doing this shenanigans

How lovely, black rotting teeth look-a-likes.

the Queen of rotting teeth.

More pictures should be uploaded soon. be patient!

anyway. Still have pictures from yesterday when we celebrated Jon, Stacie and Mabel's birthday. Went to Bangsar Village 2 to eat at Marmalade. Post the pictures up soon

I'll be going on a one day trip to Malacca tomorrow! Gonna visit the grandparents, so you guys out there better behave!

Birthdays Galore!

2010-09-14T20:38:00.001+08:00

ouh man i LOVE THE CAKE!

Well since the "King's cake incident" that happened recently, we decided to be loyal to RT.

Celebrated dad's birthday with a green tea + red bean cake. with some fruits on top

The old man!

and exactly a week after...

celebrated my brother's 24th Birthday, and he's getting old.

ouh the similarities.

Happy Birthday Daddy and Koko!!!

Not to mention, Happy Birthday Stacie, Jonathan and Mabel!

YOU ALL ARE SO OLD!!!

anyway. This is just some short update and I'll post up some images from Nik's open house soon.

cover me up with ribbons of red,

tie me up with bows of blue,

I'll paste some stamps on my head,

hoping the postman will send me to you.

Random Thoughts About Skins

2010-09-08T01:36:00.000+08:00

blog skins that is....

I started blogging in October 2004, and that time blogging was not even popular yet. There isn't anything called a blog shop, nuffnang, or any shits like that (or maybe I just haven't heard about it)

not everybody had a blog then too, unlike today, everyone has a blog (or at least everyone once had a blog). It was fun then especially there was more purpose to blogging (until Facebook came along and got everyone even more connected than ever)

writing is not my forte, the thing that I love most about blogging, is creating the blog skins.

all I remembered was wanting to create my own customized blog skin because I knew I did not want my blog to look like any other blog. So I spent a lot of time just reading HTML codes, going through a hell lot of trial and error, spending 8 to 10 hours just making my blog right.

and at one point in time I created blog skins for close friends and family who started blogging (until too many people started blogging and I couldn't care less anymore)

dressing up my blog, coming up with new blog layout is one of my favorite past time (and it still is i think), and I can spend HOURS just trying to make everything look right. Theres this indescribable high I get when a blogskin turns out exactly the way I imagined... (yesss I'm a freak bitch baby!)

I'm posting this because,
I just realized that blogger is SUPER user friendly now, and customizing your blog is just as easy as ABC. You really do not need to spend a lot of time to make a decent looking blog. ITS SO FREAKING EASY COMPARED TO 2004!!!

an old fashion blogger like me, I only knew how to read html and not those widget thing-a-ma-gic that blogger is using today. Now html codes are so complicated and its really not so easy to read (to me at least), of course my past experience helped a little.

anyway. I am trying to create a new blog skin. The coding is ABSOLUTELY different from my current one. Don't ask me why do I even bother... it is just something I love doing :S

Happy birthday Dad!
and in a few days, my brother is turning 24 :S ew they're old!

anyway, random note

I have no idea what is freaking wrong with my computer, but every time when I leave it on untouched for a little to long, it starts slowing down like crazy!

it gets so slow that it'll hang when I do almost anything (it takes 10 mins to load a word document! A WORD DOCUMENT!!!). I even need to WAIT few seconds to delete A SINGLE picture from my desktop.

I am so worried for my computer. Kill me now!

Urgh.

2010-09-04T10:06:00.000+08:00

never felt so stupid in my life.

the sour taste in my mouth is turning bitter.

wish I could turn back time...

I'm in a huge emotional mess now

argh. what was I thinking?

DCA in December 2009

2010-08-24T17:22:00.000+08:00

Hello youngins!

This is going to be a quick post because I have tons of work to do, and if my group mates know that I spent any of my time blogging... they would probably want to kill me *shows innocent face*

today, I saw pictures taken from my industrial training LAST SEMESTER for the very first time and it definitely brought back some interesting memories.

making models is definitely not my forte, but I got to do an entire month of it, which gave me super muscular model making arms. I think my model making skills died out since then. I got to work with Felix for a month and Sue for a week... and here are the pictures

disclaimer: images below are taken in December 2009 by Felix.

We got to work with our lecturer.

and Bad Romance was the theme song for December.

hence the inspiration of this picture... we couldn't stop singing the song. and it was new at that time.

the craze went on, and we actually wanted to make a whole collection of pictures with stuff on my head

but then, i think we all forgotten about it :(

working on the U-hotel was the most stressful period during the industrial training period.

I guess it is because the design kept changing and the errors kept coming up.

us being crazy in the office.

me and felix worked on this.

Felix was damn patient.

I wanted to dig my eyes out somewhere in the middle of making the model

Durian-Durian

2010-08-21T00:00:00.099+08:00

AIYO!!!

I really do not want to look back in the past and think to myself, "I should have done that instead". The only problem is, I absolutely can not predict the future.

Whatever decision I make today will definitely influence what will happen to be for the next few years of my life, or probably my entire life. I do not know which is the best for me at the moment.

Whatever it is, I think I have made up my mind. Will I be happy? I honestly don't know. Is this the choice that I want to take? Not really, it is more of a choice that I HAVE to make, not WANT to make (if it makes any difference for you people).

At this point in time, I think I am making the best decision for me. What happens in the future, is up for something/someone else to decide. Wish me luck.

*insert super huge sad face emoticon here*

the infamous fish bone folding.

If I am not mistaken this is what it is called.

one of the most difficult (in my own opinion) things to fold

but then again, you should see other kinds of folding.

especially if you Google for "modular origami", I swear you'd pee in your pants figuring out how to fold those

The images above are all inspired by Durian.

the facade looks more like it is inspired by seaweed or armpit hair, whatever it is...

I still think it looks decently pretty. no?

The other day we decided to do a little photoshoot because we were feeling a little mou liew before presentation. Realizing the campus actually created a very strategic place to camwhore, we took full advantage of it.

Jonathan and Li Hui joined us for a while before running off to the library.

Megan, Li Hui, Nik, Jonathan, Stacie.

Minus Li Hui and Jonathan.

WEEEEEE.

oh yes, Taylors paid damn a lot of money to create the artificial "picturesque" lake

yes... a lake. when they can use the money to build more parking lots instead.

Back in the classroom right before presentation...

Stacie putting on her sarong.

someone should come to college in that one day.

Sue finally joined us after running about helping us to print our stuff

She missed out half of our photography session earlier, but even if she was there...
I don't think I'd want to take any pictures of her anyway :(

yay to kampung-ness!

OMG. SO COOL!!!

Eh I think its damn fashionable lor (minus the constipated face)

WEEEEEE!!!

Presentation time. Dining with the lecturers.

After the presentation.

and last but not least. the picture of the day....

Felicia.

Bentong

2010-08-20T10:43:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates.

I feel exactly like how Jamie felt as mentioned in her previous post.

Blogging gets harder especially with the existence of Facebook.

anyway. went to Bentong, Pahang to check out a site for our next project. We're suppose to design a resort for people and their pets, and it is located in a durian ochard. here are the pictures.

Nik!

Rynn and Kyrstal

Glutton!

Durian, Nik and Stacie

durian and Rynn!

with the actual architect who is working on the project.

You Better Put a Ring On It

2010-08-11T22:04:00.005+08:00

Something interesting/disappointing happened in college today.

Image courtesy of Nik's Blackberry.

Why is it Interesting?

Well of course its my first time witnessing a real life proposal, and to see one up close is exciting to watch actually. Usually in the movies they'll just cut off the scene after the girl says yes, but what happens next? Do they awkwardly walk away? Make out inappropriately in public? Cry hysterically? Faint?

I told my friends about what I thought of a guy proposing in public. I think its very courages. A man value's his ego more than anything else, sometimes even more than their relationship with family/friends/lovers. When you risk your ego to propose in public, seems like a bold an daring move that is worth a praise.

Then again, to see couples so young getting married/engaged, quite scary at the same time. Who knows if they haven't thought everything through yet?! what would their parents say O_O!!!

Why is it Disappointing?

well turns out the whole public engagement was fake. It was a gimmick, or an advertisement for their charity event. Sue said "It was love turned to hatred", which was true, we hate them now for wasting 5 minutes of our lives!!!

how can you turn something so romantic/sacred into some gimmick to get people to attend a charity event? GROSS MUCH (so bitchy).

anyway. who am I to comment, why am I talking about engagement again? I'M ONLY 20!!! *now put your hands up!*

So it is already the second week of college. I can't believe its already the final semester, though I can't help but to feel it is only the beginning of a very very very long journey.

I can't really say it has been completely stress free. I am already thinking of the universities that I will be going, the things that I'll be doing, and the work that I have to be completing.

Seems a little bit all too much to comprehend at the moment. I am feeling so many things, and I'm one gigantic emotional wreck.

and no.

I'm not the kind of person that goes with the flow, because I believe TOO strongly in the quote that says "If you're always going with the flow, you're only going to end up downhill".

So kids, grandpa Ooi is telling you to swim upstream like salmons.

on a random note, we have to create a fictional company for one of our assignments.

KiJun wanted us to be the Phuture Architects.

seriously, what the Pharch :)

SOTW #13

2010-08-07T07:47:00.002+08:00

pieeewwww.....

piew pieewwww.

Chi Chi's 22nd

2010-08-01T21:35:00.007+08:00

Its already August, time flies no? For me time flies pretty much at an inconsistent rate throughout the year, of course a month feels like a second during the holidays.

Its been 2 and a half year in Taylors doing my Diploma, and tomorrow I'll be starting the first day of Semester 6. The beginning of the end of our diploma (sounds so intellectual eh?)

As "OCD" as people assume I am, I do not draft out an entire blueprint of what I will do differently for each semester. As much as I wanted to, I really try to make the best out of each day in school.

anyway I do not want to jinx anything, So wishing everyone a terrible final semester, and I hope that everyday is suckier than the previous :P break a leg guys (or crack a brain, guys!)

Putting that aside, my sister turned 22 last Monday (which is terrible because I only found time to blog about it today). Here are some pictures from the little gathering with the family

2 cakes? :D

I do not know the exact name of the cakes,

what I do know is that one cake is from RT and the other is from Kings

Its tradition to have King's fruitcake on her birthday because it is her favourite cake. She loves it and the family has been buying the same cake since forever.

Proof:

taken in 2008, her 20th birthday.

oh but wait a minute, theres this one teeeeny weeenie problem this year.

THE CAKE LOOKS DISGUSTINGLY FLACCID!

RT cake on left and King's Fruit cake on right.

Just so you know, for the same size and weight, RT is selling that cake for RM28 and King's is selling the fruitcake at RM45

The fruitcake barely had any fruits on it, and it looked as if an earthquake happened 5 minutes earlier. DISGUSTING MUCH.

Mom made a complain to King's, we get to eat the flaccid cake and on top of that we get a new complimentary fruit cake!!! :D

so buy more flaccid fruit cakes so you can get one more for free (all you need to do is take some pictures and file some complains) :D :D :D

unusual family portrait for 2 very different reasons.

one. I am in the picture, only that its my reflection you get to see

two. What is Victor doing there?! O_O!

Happy Birthday Chi!

While we waited for brother to come back from work, took some pictures of Belle since we were bored at home.

BELLE IS STUPID!

and irritating!

SOTW #12

2010-07-27T23:00:00.002+08:00

I had have enough of Sue Whineyhouses.

its now time for Felicia Whineyhouse instead.

i love you felix!

I know your photoshop better than me, don't take revenge on me!!!

haha :P

GATHERINGS GALORE!

2010-07-25T10:44:00.002+08:00

aka GG. haha, lame!

Elaine wanted to meet up with everyone again after being MIA for a long while. So she suggested the Delicious in KL. The funny thing is, I never really thought that people actually go to that branch, guess I was wrong about that.

and always, Delicious has one of the best food but the WORST service. no?

Charlie's Angels, I should make a blog post of them soon.
The 3 of them have too many pictures together. haha

The girlfriend. (tumpang glamour)

This gathering was just a small random one. I thought it was necessary because it was months since we actually saw each other.

The new "it" couple. haha Karhoe and Cai Jin

Didn't take a lot of pictures then. Spent more time eating and talking than taking pictures. Su Yiean, Denesh, and Cai Jin's boyfriend was there too.

I don't think I left anyone else out. I hope not, at least.

So I never really talked about the group of friends that I had before I was in Form 2 (most of the people from the pictures earlier, are people I met in Form 2). I was from a different class and I had a different "gang" back in Form 1.

Jovita organized a gathering to celebrate Elena's birthday, met at Sunway Pyramid's Dragon-I. To me it was random because we never actually gathered together for almost 7 years.

Its sad that we all just stopped hanging out immediately after entering 2004.We were all divided into different classes then , I guess we all found our own group of friends after.

I personally forgotten how close we were back then and how childish we were (and still is). That night, all the old jokes came up, felt like we turned Form 1 again.

Jovita, Elena and Pik Chee

Xin Yun, Hong Wen, Hong Wu, Jovita, Elena and Pik Chee

I laughed my ass off when Jovita reminded me of a song that we used to sing a lot in class, aka the Nipple song. I swear that song made my night.

oh, and I am totally against taking picture from a low angle. but...

I kindda like this picture, i thought its very cute.

oh and btw,

meet Pooplet

What I Learned in Architecture School #1

2010-07-17T17:35:00.006+08:00

I got this idea from an actual book called 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (which Jonathan Tan first showed it to me).

Image is taken from : http://blog.miragestudio7.com/101-things-i-learned-in-architecture-school-by-matthew-frederick/1704/

random cute doodles? I'M SOLD!

I was never born thinking that I'd be an architect one day, and its something that I grew to love. Honestly, architecture school has taught me more than just architecture.

So I thought, why not just write a list of things that I personally learned in architecture school? YAY TO RIP OFFS!!!

So for my first post in this series,

#1. YOU CAN NEVER BE STINGY WITH PAPER!!!

Architecture is one gigantic hypocrite when it comes to the environment. Green architecture + environmentally friendliness are amongst the few virtues that is preached very often (especially in this century)

*halelujah*, gigantic building covered in greens.

Even in presentation, words like "touching the earth lightly" or "naturally ventilated" comes up more often than it needs to. Which reminds me, I should make the next blog-episode about bull shitting (hahaha, no seriously *serious face*)

and then, it comes to *wait for it* THE CONTRADICTING PART! (insert lighting and thunder sound)

is the fact that papers are SO RIDICULOUSLY OVER USED in architecture school (or even in real life). We all use HUGE amount of papers everytime!!!

I didn't even know paper bigger than A4 existed. As a matter of fact, I freaked out and cried when I first saw an A0 paper (exaggerating).

We use paper for almost everything, presentation and submissions, crying and pooping, design and brain storming. (I specifically mention crying and pooping because it happens very often - I will talk about that in my other blog episodes)

literally, paper architecture.

I have been doing my industrial training for 2 weeks and I've spend at least 2 entire hour just FOLDING ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS!

THE AMOUNT OF PAPER USED FOR A SINGLE PROJECT, IS PROBABLY THE AMOUNT OF TREES FOUND IN KL ALONE!!!

more literal paper architecture for your viewing pleasure

In a way, necessary. but then again, hypocritical.

I thought to myself again, when will this change? Its so sad to see the amount of papers used per project, and the amount of money just spent on papers and printing alone.

To me, "default" paper size is no longer the usual A4 size anymore. A3 sized paper is the new A4, once you're in an architectural student!

I remembered the amount of paper we had to use just for consultations with the lecturers (referring to Working Drawings subject). which was super ridiculous, I must add!!!

It is as if architecture school was made to brainwash the crap out of you. The equation of, "Paper = WASTE ALL YOU WANT!!!" must be tattooed in your head so bad that it swims in your vein, FOREVER!!!

So as much as I hated knowing that paper is something that you can't be stingy with being in the "architecture scene", its definitely something all students are forced to get used to (at this point in time, at least)

SOTW #11

2010-07-13T22:36:00.003+08:00

I am not done with Australia's post by the way. remember the toilet in Sydney's hotel that I was telling you guys about?

well I didn't want to freak you guys thats why I didn't mention about it earlier, but I thought I want to get this thing off my chest, its been bothering me since I came back from Australia

yes, the hotel is haunted.

or at least thats what I think it is... for some weird reason you get this CRAZY chill that is different from a normal winter breeze or something.

I mean, i really felt like someone was watching me. I went back to check the pictures I took from the toilet, and guess what...

I knew there was a ghost watching me poop!

SOTW #10

2010-06-30T00:00:00.000+08:00

I missed 2 weeks of Sabotage of the week! THE HORROR!

this week, I'll feature an image I took from Brisbane, Australia!

Jamie gave me the idea when she tagged Eric on facebook

no hard feelings. :D

AUSTRALIA!

2010-06-29T22:19:00.004+08:00

FINALLY THE AUSTRALIA POST!

Well since most of you guys already seen the images on Facebook (if you haven't, just check them out there). Today's post only contains SOME of the images I took from Australia.

Spent about 10 days in three different cities, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

So the real reason why I went there is mainly because of a dance training which is in Sydney. The cheapest way to get to Australia is through AirAsia. BUT, AirAsia only flies to Brisbane and Melbourne.

Which means, fly to Brisbane, head to Sydney, then to Melbourne, then back home :D GENIUS!!!

I HONESTLY feel out of all 3 cities I enjoyed Brisbane the most, maybe its because we were staying so close to the city and navigating/walking wasn't too bad for us

we spent the longest time in Brisbane, the weather was great :)

Our home for 3 nights.

This is a backpackers hotel. It is the cheapest way to stay in Brisbane (or any part of Australia) as a tourist.

All we have to do is rent a bed, and share with random strangers for the rest of the night. As scary as it may sound, we really enjoyed the experience (I think we were lucky too)

It is quite exciting to come back to the hotel at the end of the day, not knowing who your new room mates will be. We were lucky to have roommates that were extremely nice

of course you might not be so fortunate to get exciting fun-filled story tellers every night, once in a while you'll get grumpy hairy creepy old men too... but all fun.

Brisbane is SOOOO pretty.

there are so many bridges that links the 2 part of the cities, and each with their own unique designs. most of the bridges are for pedestrians only, which means you have the entire bridge to yourself without any car waiting to crash into you.

There are a lot of people who cycles/walks there, plus, the weather so nice (I am talking about 16C during the day), there's really no reason why you should be at home watching TV like a lazy bum bum.

every building so different.

I love being in a first-world country. I could actually walk on the street feeling so safe without having to hug my camera like it is a bag of gold.

its very safe to drink water from taps, and the city itself is super clean; Australia has such fresh air too...

City boy loves the first-world city!

Visited the Art Gallery and the Museum

(image above showing a display from the art gallery)

and you know what is so great about it? ITS FREE!

Unlike Malaysia where everything costs money, Brisbane is smart enough to give the citizens somewhere to go/see without ripping them off.

its HUGE, not to mention the things in the museum were REALLY good (though most of the things inside, to my own assumption, were replicas)

RAH RAH RAH AH AH!

The art gallery were displaying hats, and all the other exhibition about it - history, pioneers and etc.

they had a section where they allowed you to make your own hat, for free of course. Materials, scissors and tapes were all provided. Of course, I couldn't resist doing something so spontaneous

we spent 30 minutes just randomly creating a hat. so thats the result as seen in the picture above. Model : Sonia the sister.

Sunset!

Spent day 2 in Movie World.

Which was very exciting. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE roller coasters. LOVE!

And its nice to visit those world class theme parks, unlike Sunway Lagoon or Genting Highlands.

Batman tower and Superman escape

Ironically, when I was in 6 Flags in the U.S., it was Superman Tower and Batman Something (forgot the ride's name)

THE STUPID THING IS, it was non peak season and they decided to renovate the Superman escape ride that day. MCB!!! looks SUPER scary which I regret not getting to experience the ride. mehhhh

Kung fu pow!

This was on a way walking into Lethal Weapon, the ride. I've never heard of the movie btw.

Oh, but we absolutely loved the ride, we rode on it twice. THRILLS AND EXCITEMENT!!!

and how can you not take pictures with superheroes

They actually had a small photography session with Batman, but there were kids all around and its quite pathetic of us, two 20year olds fighting with a bunch of kids to take a picture

how disturbing... besides, Batman left for lunch early anyway (so much for a superhero. asshole!)

oh this is Lethal Weapon.

WEEEEEE!!!

Spent day 3 at the Zoo.

not just ANY zoo. Its the Australia Zoo, informally known as Steve Irwin's zoo. It is about AUD50 per entry and I personally think its quite worth it.

the thing about the zoo is that its SO educational, and it is not just some walk-and-look kind of zoo. There are so many shows to watch, things to learn, stuff to see and animals to pat!

there are NO extra charges to take pictures with the animals, the only thing we had to pay extra was the Kangaroo's food (which was only like AUD2 a packet of food that will feed about 3 whole kangaroos - in other words, super worth it)

SO educational, and its not like any other zoo where you feel the animals are kept there for your entertainment. The zoo is so well managed and clean, that you don't even smell any poo AT ALL!

the zoo is HUGE, and its still expanding. I'd recommend you to go when their "Safari" section is added, according to some staff over there, they are going to introduce some African animals soon.

We enjoyed the scheduled otter feeding session

where the zoo keeper would talk about the animal and their story. Apparently the otters in the picture above are sisters, I forgot their names though.

SHEEPS!

can you see the baby in its pouch?

The kangaroos are free to move around everywhere.

as long as you have the bag of food, you can feed them as much as you like

apparently someone told me this is a wallaby. whats the difference?

Fed the elephant, which everyone has a chance to do it.

in Malaysia, they probably charge each person RM50/person to feed the elephants

Her name is Siam :D LOVE. for me its because I've never been this close to an elephant before. Feeding one was really exciting.

Sydney. oh how the weather got colder.

It was still bearable, about 13C-ish during the day (if I am not mistaken). Sydney was very interesting.

As we were walking through the city, we noticed how everything will start looking prettier as it gets closer to the harbor (for some weird reasons).

The city is busier than Brisbane, tons of tourist, less pretty buildings (in my own opinion- as compared to Brisbane and Melbourne)

Of course, definitely a million times better than anywhere in Malaysia.

Yay to first worlds!

Finally, got to see the infamous Sydney Opera House.

What is so weird is that, the Opera house is meant (and better) to be seen from far away.

the harbor is like a U shape. If you want to see the Opera house from its best angle, stand on the other side where the Harbour Bridge is located. and vice versa.

Ferris Wheel. too many of them in my opinion

The view of the Opera House is still not too bad from here.

I loved that it was winter when we were there, because it was SUPER comfortable to just sit outside and look at the harbor.

it is so calming, just sitting there doing nothing. I can not imagine what it'll be like to have such a nice scenery nearby home.

It makes me a little jealous that the locals can find such a pretty places to hang out and chill, not like us where we use McD or Starbucks as a potential chill-out place.

Standing on the "Opera House" side of the harbour.

You'll get a clearer view of the bridge.

Spent the last few days of our trip in Melbourne.

Thanks to our friend Eilly and her boyfriend Benny for their great hospitality

Melbourne, IS FREAKING SHIT ASSHOLE OMG IRKING COLDDDDD!!!

COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD!!!!

COOOOOLLLLDDDDDDD!!!

It's so cold that its uncomfortable to be outdoors, and yes, we spent most of our day indoors because it was really too terrible to go outside.

especially from the evening until the next morning, it got down to 7C at night and about 10-12C during the day.

it is humid and misty, which makes everything extra cold. AND ITS NOT EVEN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER YET (it'll get colder apparently, OMG!)

as predicted though, I do miss the cold weather, I'd trade a cold winter for a hot summer anytime!

just give me nice warm jacket and a warm bath, and I'm good to go!

TRAMS! First time riding on one which was interesting.

last meal for the entire trip. sonia enjoying her mint + chocolate chip ice cream.

thats all from Australia. I'll add more if I think of anything new. at this point in time, i think that is all. ENJOY!

do check out my facebook for more pictures.

Felicia the Drink Bitch

2010-06-12T16:04:00.002+08:00

Here's a GOOD NEWS and a BAD NEWS.

the GOOD NEWS is that I am back with a new blog update, I totally forgotten about these pictures which we took a few weeks ago.

the BAD NEWS is, the pictures are from our previous "karaoke" session.

DONT GET ME WRONG, it's really uncommon for us to karaoke so often. I guess we are all very "lala" on the inside, karaoke sessions DO make us orgasmic-ally happy.

theres nothing much for me to caption but "Sue is singing" or "Stacie is holding the mic". So just look at them pretty pictures :D

This is Su Yiean. Loud, obnoxious, and smelly.

+ Felix

Krystal Singing =.="

OMG WHO THE HELL IS THIS CUTIE?!

Felicia, our drink-pouring-bitch for the day.

Look at her elegant pose. jealous!!!

BIG. HEADED. STACIE!

+ Rynn

Megan and Mabel, as if you don't know them (after so many pictures)

nobody cares about Stacie.

Ki Jun

Drama mamas

I've checked 3 times, and no, its not the same picture as the one above.

Ending the pose with a picture of the Cutie...

SOTW #9

2010-06-09T10:11:00.002+08:00

thanks felix and nik, i knew you guys loved my work :D

*click on image to see the original picture*