hyuganatsu orange frm muji -$2.90



its 3am... my room is only half packed... im dead tired... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

man...



im lookin at a gift my brother gave me... first bday present. memoriable. its wraped in white paper. nothing fancy, but exactally as i taught him... memoriable. feeling nice and fuzzy.



my moms asleep now... jus. shes worked the hardest to make todae possible. memoriable. im very loved. she will be waking real early tmr. i love my mom. how can one not love the best mom in the world?



i was gonna bragg a little abt me... but im too tired... ill sleep now.



a week of parties and finally a clean room.

I’ve been thinking about design again.



In the even of floods and monsoons, I am reminded of this community of people in India. As I was told they live as a village by a river. Their houses, made from mud and wood provide shelter for their families, safe for their livestock and limited belongings.

Every year during the monsoon season these mud houses would be washed away. These inhabitants of the once life giving river would have to pack up and move up to higher ground to set up home again. After the monsoon season passes the Indians will once again move back down to the river. And theses resilient people do it every year, over and over.



I’ve never seen this place for myself, only heard of it from a distant source, however it sounds possible.



First thoughts were why would anyone want to repeat building their homes over and over, year after year. Doesn’t seem very smart. However, ill suppose the river brings about extremely fertile soil for farming and rearing livestock. And each year as these farmers have their homes washed away, the monsoons also carries away the old, nutrient depleted, soil. And along with it comes new grounds for tilling and ranching.



So lets suppose this is the reason for the Indians to keep returning to the river.



Now these city free Indians are now experts in mud house construction since they do it every year. I’m sure throughout the years they’ve improved in their methods of building mud houses. They must also have their own ways of transporting families, livestock and possessions. Maybe even building materials.

Don’t think any designer could match their knowledge in temporary and limited resource constructions.

Also these homes that they create would probably be in their simplest form – ‘minimalist design’.

And nothing’s stopping them from personalizing each home, wouldn’t you? I think, here in the city, we call it interior design. (I dun believe in interior design but that’s another issue for another time.)

How then would they device means to transport their annual move of homes, or their methods of recognizing the time to start moving? We have so much to learn.



Design problems, solved by solutions of non-designers, which are likely to prove themselves more efficient and effective than the produce of a pampered, city spoiled designer. Makes me wonder how any self respecting designer can feel happy producing rubbish on paper, which gets haggled down to rock bottom prices, sells it for peanuts and pat him/herself on the back and say “I also can design what” and eventually kill the market for design.



I once heard a comment that design was suited only for the rich. I’ve always thought it was flawed but could never find what was wrong with it since it had some truth in it.

With the short discussion above, I now think design is suited only for extreme circumstances, extreme poverty or extreme wealth – monomaniacal culture.

snickers hazelnut -$1.25

a day past christmas, as week past my camp and a mth past the israel trip... still a big rush of assigments to do and parties to attend. bah too many.

planning a birthday something on the day itself... the fools town council are telling me i cant do one cos there isnt space open enuff to be grilling meat. well ill do it anyway... like i care if the pple in the oppsite blocks get to sniff my food.

but anyways christmas was good, the camp at trengannu was good and israel was super. so really ive got very little to complain... ive got a super yr end.



my little cousin's at my place, which explains y im here typing instead of hogging on the ps2 console...

any ideas wat to do on the party? im boggled. if u can think of anything leave a suggestion ya?



still have my war stricken abode to clear up

cockles frm boon tat st. bbq seafood -$5.00

its 3am and i was supposed to sleep at one... and i havent packed. aii. gotta wake at 10am in the mornin, hope i make it.



jus finished uploading the first set of pics i took in israel adn sending em out, i expected it to be easier... but well 540 pic aint easy to plough thro. i hope i dint make too many mistakes. anyway the link to the pics is here> "Galilean Times" u can also find it under the magazine rack.



ill be off to camp till the 22nd, not really exicited though... much like b4 the Israel trip. well im sure Jesus will bless this trip too. all in good time...



sleepy giddy and stiff frm sitting infront of the computer too long. will miss pokeing at the playstation and my blog...



still wondering if i shld bring my camera...

liquorice frm the souvenir store at the Hyatt -12 shekels

well ive been trying as best to get 540, scanned, done and uploaded asap. however, staring at the com sux and 540 is a large no. to plough thro.



its gonna take a while, considering ive got final fantasy 10 beckoning on the ps2. tons on the to do list, wasnt this supposed to be a holiday?, and im forgetting christmas is 12days away...

bah!

too much too soon too fast... still im glad im free enuff for the ps2.





had a dream...

fish head beehoon frm the market near my house

fifteen! fifteen rolls of film... that sums up to 540 pics... feeling mad... never attempted so many... ever.

but well until they get developed ive got no israel story to tell.



bought a bottle of dry gin at the duty free shops. i hate it! its hard and has a nice sweet after taste, but hell! it smells like ligther fluid mixed in UHU. dang. shldave got rum...



anyone want the bottle?

golden mile, khong fatt beef noodles -$4.30

it was less then 19hrs when i was still stareing into the Israeli sky. yet i find myself momentarily forgetting, by bits and pieces, wat its like to be in Israel.



there at the Israeli airport we said our last goodbyes while the bus captian cheeram called out names as he handed out our plane tickets.

"laiheng!...(pause)

edwin!...(pause)

ariel!...(pause) wheres ariel? oh...(pause)

alyssa!...(pause)"

then, frm behind "-juval!-"

the joke, laced wif a longing sadness, met wif amiable laughs.

i turned and found our guide, juval, calling out his own name as if he wld be taking this flight wif us.

yea juval's a cool guy and a marverlous guide - always attentive, wif a frown on his face.

but at that moment the frown spoke of genunine sadness from goodbyes wif the frnds he had made in the last 9days.

i felt sad too, and i dun usually do.







lifts a glass,

to JUVAL!











yea... a moment to remember.

Chocolate Bar, mixed nut, frm muji

so im gonna fly tmr... finally got a little exicited after i started to pack... slow night though.

got my hair cut today, happy wif it... now ive got mane.

11hrs flight... man i dread it.

ive got eighteen rolls of film... a tad bit crazy, but im rather trigger happy... jus hope i cna pay for all the photo dev.



still packing.

hokaido fair, shio ramen -$10.00

finally stopped slacking and gaming to start packing for the 10day experience of a different land. looking at my to do list i hav

- camera lens cover to buy

- buy a small note pad

- roll of film in camera to finish up

- need to check how long it take to make a passport

- hair cut

- read up on the places visiting

- pack up

- get travel letter

- find my old NIKEs

lots more.



now that the trip to israel draws near it seems surreal. first time im traveling alone wifa bunch of strangers... really weird. then again such wldnt be close to possible if i dint hav my mom... she sponsored the whole trip from travel fees to expenditure. my moms the best... she never once made me feel bad abt it nor did she request and thing in return. if there is any human being who loved me its my mom. shes the best mom in the world.















afew peculiar things happened while i had become too lazy to blog. first theres this new 24hr convience store jus below my place. weird thing is its called Mmart but also has all the colours and iconography of 7eleven. its great to hav a 24 hr convience store a stones throw away, yet i doubt the integrity of the owner of the store since, the bad piracy of store identity and i dun like his face not his wife's and not even his children. yea weird.





my frnd adopted a hamster a week ago. the freaky animal bit me 5 times over! i used to think these household pets bite only in self defence and once they find no treat theyld give up and start being nice. i thought wrong... this carnivorous little minion of evil kept biting on my flesh over and over! it wasnt painful jus freaky to see somthing soo small trying to eat u. stoopid animal! wldave squished it if not for the fact that it meant lots to my frnd. now i like all animals cept hamsters those blood-thirsty, ferociously greedy, little beast.





my brother managed to bug my dad into buying a playstation2. the power of bugging... is theres any one who noes how to drive my parents half insane thro various methods of bugging its my brother. but its kinda sad that he doesnt hav many frnds and the few he hangs out wif are not reliable pple... if u believe in Jesus pls pray for my brother.





met my pri2 frnd at a bday party. talk abt old frnd... alvin. used to tag behind him in jus abt everything, yet he was pretty cool since he never tried to take advantage of my incompetance. somehow respect him... now in ns and all. hes grown up an so hav i, yet i still see the same mannerism in him as i did so many yrs ago. the same jumpyness, that frequent pause in his sentances while he speaks (makes him sound like a telegram) and the same smile he always had that was always sincere and also always stopped short b4 the cheeks... it was very much like seeing a part of my life thro time unfolding itself again. somehow we've lost contact but im sure ill paths will cross again.



back to doin the necessary.

hokaido fair, shio ramen -$10.00



the evil hamster and other animal rhymes =:B

damn the ham!

tried to eat my hand!

give it a WHAM!

into a can

wifout a brand

filled wif sand

to be baked ina pan

for biteing my hand!

damn the ham! =;B



back to ps2

chicken cutlet from a store named wow wow west, at bukit hawker ctr

jus last weekend, my brother and i headed for ubin wif camping provisions and high hopes for our treck at the island.



frm the jetty, we trecked to noordin beach only to find it under renovation. another sad singapore story of throwing away thebeauty it has (previously mentioned in my design academic paper)... this time its part of nature. and since there was also this injured dog there, prolly by irresponsible singaporean campers, we decided not to set camp there and headed for maman.



the dog, which i now refer to as lumpy, had large patch of hide torn off the back of its shoulders. burnt marks cld be seen on its fur arnd the wound and flesh. i suspect, a mix of vicious humans, solid fuel, open wound, flys & maggots and lottsa unhygenic dwelling conditions responsible for lumpy's unfortunate plight. i felt really bad for lumpy, and quite pissed at the animals, no... less than animals, that caused his pain. he was a good dog.



lumpy followed us through out the first half of our treck to maman beach. heading the way, he wld stop every once in while to wait, while we "caught up wif him". finally he had to stop, jus outside the territory of another grp of dogs. i pray he will be strong and heal up his wounds.



a hundred meters frm maman, the sky gave way to swollen clouds and it poured. i hurried my brother, jeremy, to the little shed, where the toilets were, for shelter. there, we ate two of the five cookies that my wonderful mom had packed for us. not before the passing of an hr, did the torrent subside into a drizzle. hastly we set up our tent on the sand and prepared dinner.

our dinner was made of instant noodles, tin tuna (in oil not ketchup), campbells cream of mushroom, button mushrooms and curry chicken. it was rather difficult to cook in the rain, the process took over two hrs but the results were more than satisfying. we slept early that night jus before nine.



rudely awaken by a dog sniffing arnd outside our tent, only an hr after i dozed into nod. i sat up and it ran off startled. i noted its muzzle, wasnt lumpy.

my brother sat up moments after it left, i guess he must hav had trouble sleeping for the excitement of camping for real and being pretty dissapointed wif us not having a camp fire. the drizzle had stopped and i allowed him out of the tent wif me. we played wif candles in the cool aftermath of rain, and hurried back into the tent when another round of pelting threatened. i planted "jiamin's lamp", a little lamp made out of the top of a plastic bottle placed over a candle in the sand - first made by my friend on one of my other trips to the island, jus outside our tent.



jeremy cldnt sleep nor cld i, since it soon became rather hot inside the tent. i opened the "door" of the tent in hope of better ventilation and yakked abit wif jeremy.

we were quite surprised and a little afraid when we saw lights and heard pple; only to findout, to our relief, that they were park rangers. they were jus checking the camping grnds and jus as surprised to see us there... we were the only ones. talked abit about the horrendous renovations taking place at both beaches/campsites after which they left and we slept, again.



it was four thirty sharp, according to jeremy's watch, when the strong sea winds picked up. waves of air rocked our tent on all sides. inside, it felt safe and the winds provided a nice air conditioning to our little lodging. the same happens always in a pulau ubin morning and memories of many other previous camps i had made at ubin flooded my mind. we dint sleep any more and once the winds had slowed, i made breakfast. plain oats never tasted better. along wif canned sausages and the remaining cookies we fill our hungry gullets.

the sun rose behind us as jeremy went out to burnt up the rest of his candles, matches and a small piece of fallen branch. i showed him how to skip stones over the water while he played wif sand. finally we packed our belongings and trecked back to the jetty.



note: i left a small pack of pyro supplies beihind an island in hope to find it again. if u go there u cld try to find it, itll be like a treasure hunt! its a ziplock plastic bag no bigger than a 4R photo. containing a burnt can lid, a piece of candle and slab of solid fuel.



that ended jeremy's first camp at ubin.

beef sausage frm cold storage -$1.50

i was clearing up my room digging thro some of my old stuff. found some photos of my studio in yr one. looking at those photos i remember how different things were in year one.





the way studios were meant to be.





table, fences and heaps of rubbish - evidence of work.





my table which i managed to keep wif me for 2yrs.





i remember my first day and how we were addresed, how we were taught to behave and how strict our lecturer was (now he's a softie). while it seem like we had chosen a ticket to 3yrs of damnation; the experience, though painstakingly taxing on our mental and physical selves, was in the end truly fullfilling. it was satifying to look back and noe u had really worked hard. it was gratifying to realise the amount u learnt wif the hrs u had put into work. it was dignifying to noe u were to the only ones, save a few other cohorts taught under the same lecturer, to hav been put through such ordeal and to have made it through.



i miss those times where jus abt everyone worked doubly hard, and did three times as much as we wldave. we were pushed, much, but not to our limits. however i feel that while most of us longed for rest and our eye rings only grew darker; we had ambition, common goals and also a common antagonist - our lecturer Keith. wif these hopes and cares occupying us, we had little time to form clicks, to be lazy and wasting our time, and to scrutinise each other's differences.



hard but simple times, yr one of interior architecture and design, wld always be a very large part of my life.

feeling nostalgic

mom's fish head soup -$priceless

i remember when i was first introduced to photoshop in my first poly year. then, it seemed like such an extrordinary tool. limitless possibilities in image creation. jus abt everyday i cld find something new abt the programe.

after awhile though, the things i cld learn abt photoshop stagnated and it became rather fustrating since i cldnt put my knowledge in the programe to pratical use (at that time i was only doin minor image editing which was fun at first but go abit dry along the way)...



also, i had this idiot of a lecture. when i asked him some simple questions abt the programe he told me to seek the help tool. was totally pissed! and now u wont find a help option in my photoshop programe, Ever!



however, it was not till only a yr later that somebody taught me how to use the programe in accordance to my course of study. it was like a new door opened in photoshop giving way to so many new persepctives in image editing and creation.



photoshop's a really fun tool. if uve got the basic shape or figure, human/animal or object u can create jus abt anything. it works really well wif a deecam. fred read in a article, that even the top users of photoshop only know abt 80% of the programe. it left me quite awed and i found myself wanting.

so if any one reading this noes photoshop real well, teach me! watever u noe and ill return the favour (that is if u dont already noe the little that i do). actually im quite willing to teach even if u dun noe any thing abt the programe.

knowledge shared, multiplies

calbee prawn crackers 85g -$1.25

*Mardi Gras, carnival before *Lent: in some places, a carnival held or ending on the day before the beginning of Lent, in the Christian calendar, often celebrated with costumes, parades, balls, and other festivities



*Lent, period before Easter in Christian calendar: the period of 40 weekdays before Easter observed in some Christian churches as a period of prayer, penance, fasting, and self-denial.









Was watching a cartoon and in it, this festival called *Mardi Gras was mentioned. I dint noe wat it was but the pple in the cartoon used the term loosely. I figured it mustave been a common holiday or somethin in Europe, so I had it checked out to make up for my ignorance. I found the above.



The cartoon featured the festival wif jus abt everyone in a great fanfare of parades and costumes. The town was bustling wif activities and there were all sorts of pple food and sales going on. Jus abt every room in that town was lit wif happenings it seem like lot of fun� lots of theft to.



Tmr/today being deepavali, i cld�nt help but wonder at the amt of �excitement� this �festival of lights� had brought. Infact even during Christmas or a New year, pple here hardly celebrate as a community. No bustle around the block, no children laughing, screaming their heads off whilst chasing each other (my brother�s having tution at 4 and im pitying both him and his tution teacher.), no fun.

So wat if the carnival brought abt some crime and disorder? Wat abt the little spark of celebration in life to look fwd to? i wonder if the word celebration has lots its meaning to ndp performances wif a bunch of audience waving abt their little flags.



i imagined dressing up and walkin thro a famillar town in the late evening, all decorated to look different. chilling winds bite into my skin but the heat of exicitement arnd soothes the soul. all arnd theres lots to eat, to buy, to look at. i bump into a few frnds amidts the buzz and we gallivant the night away.

I wanna hav lottsa festivals in my life.

claypot ginger, salted chicken for two -$6.30

been workin on a new template for the past 2days now... i come to a pause and im feeling rather giddy. was gonna go a head and dump the new template into fateggs but after hearing a round of less than satifactory reviews i think im gonna go back to the html boards. anyways heres the test page.



steph said its too complicated... linn said the scrollings weird (which is the fustrating result of screen size configs)... aloy said the white words on the left are too diff to read (actually dint intend then to be read, prolly for the curious few)...

kev says the backgrd is nice, maybe change the font colors, make the blog contents window at the right side and put something else in da middle.

i think prolly the layout i had planned doesnt workout on a blog... maybe a webpage.



anyone readin this noe how to anchor a page so that it doesnt scroll?



still i gotta thank cheryl (not my cousin) for loaning me her book and dreamweaver.



and pls have a look at the test page and gimme ur comments, after all crits are crutial to good design...



Try a Right Click on the Test Page!

napoleon, a Polar cake -$1.00

jus updated my pictures... look under the magazine section.



Ipoh Daily - updates to my last ipoh entry...



Melaka Exclusive - after ipoh we stopped by melaka, same roll of film as the ipoh updates.



Little Purple Book - 5 pics wif my hair on them for those who never saw it purple.





oh yea and pls leave a tip/comment in the tipbox, i noe it aint workin real well and i cant find a solution but try. =)

back to R.TYPE

BilliyBombers -

onion rings, kamikazi burger, yin & yang burger, allstar burger, burger naked gun wif mushrooms and melted cheese, root-beer float, vanilla milk shake, chocolate flavoured cola, mango flavoured cola -$91.93

its been a while since ive sat down wif frnds for a meal like this... its great, food for celebration of our release frm questionable ethics and wavering design aspirations... atleast for now...

also the stoopid lady at the photo dev shop forgot to dev my pics, plus she was mighty rude abt it (grits teeth), guess the new magazine's only gonna come in next week...







the pixelworth facade.

frm icqs to email to blogs. these are the pixelworth facades.



the pixelworth facade grants the user a proxy. wif which on can fashion an identy one most prefers of him/herself. also reaction time here is maximised giving the user time to think twice b4 giving an ans that might cause him/her to sound stoopid. along wif these perks the pixelworth facade is also subject to perception. since and online conversation does not contain body language and facial gestures, most text is left mainly informational. although smileys hav tried to replace such expressions, i believe they are v.limited and are less effective when it comes to relaying feelings. ofcoures one cld use flowery language to enhance a desired mood but even shakesphere cldnt reside solely in books.



personally, this character stand in has become a large part of my life. conversations online differ frm face to face, in that i can hide behind this facade. concequences of wat i say seem to matter less and reactions to wat is said are also less discriminating.



whilst the pixelworth facade fashions a comfort zone for one to be more expressive in his/her ideas, it also gives rise to lies, con-techinques and other sorts of deceptions - since theres is no sure way of authentication. i can only hope that pple wld wise up and noe the person behind the pixelworth facade b4 trusting such a proxy.



now uve seen my mind... or hav u?

Royce, rare white -$12.00

two days in to my super holiday and its been real good. monday night came wif the leaders meeting thing... which was good, since some awkward part of the bible was cleared up. and prayer was made for me, its personal and im real happy abt it =) -it's a msg to be remembered-



and on tues i got DUNE! the machine crusade... haha long awaited and finally out wooohooo! im already hooked =)

and theres comming up this week - canoes! movies! birfday partay! also my presantation is this week... i guess its not something to be raving over but the week's still good since im done wif work for now... hahahaha! .gloats.



oh.. but ill be needing cash huh... hmm... will work on that.



and ive stumbled upon many weird html commands and scripts, got me really excited abt a new layout for fateggs. i mean there are soooo many! frm "no right click" scripts to clocks and cursor trailers... man! the choices seem unlimited.

theres even one that lets ur text marquee like this! plus u cld make it really long so it keeps scrolling and scrolling and scrolling......

how irritating is that^ ?! =D HAHA! the elations of choice.



off to play out my week!

chicken murtabak opp bugis junction -$5.00

finally submitted my project... aish. 3mths await me, 3mths of unknown and unfamiliarity. i guess its not that ill miss IAD lots but ill miss familiarity. no matter how lousy the experience, as long as familiarity sets in, leaving is always a pain let alone the more enjoyable ones...



to the yr3s of this poly yr, i must thank u all for ur wonderful hospitally. since i dint noe many of u and none well, ur support and accommodation to my classmates and i is very much appriciated. thank you.



looking back my entries in july i realised that i face a similliar situation. once again the studios of iad hav become very much home and leaving it always weighs me down.

yet feeling are feelings and many times mixed. im most happy to be no longer burderned wif projects and given much time to myself... ive gotta whole list of stuff!

aish.



tmr beckons today...

starbucks coffee, steamed milk irish cream -$5.00

got abit of extra time of my hands... took a trip down sucky memory lane...

bah. i hate bad memories, managed to forget most of em, but somehow seeing the pple i once knew always brings back feelings of anguish and thwartings. tend to feel stupid, wish that past was non-existant.

"live for today" - difficult. im not happy...

mistakes sometimes hav a lasting effect, and its difficult to proceed, carefree, when i noe i might make one. if life's like a card game... aii i dun play cards.



nevertheless, perfection is too heavy a burdern to carry, ill take my chances and forget my mistakes.

forget, forgot, forget again

Tanglin bake shop, 5 piece plain pita -$3.60



ez-link is evil, yes evil.



watched the news at 6:30pm today, reports of the ez-link system bringing troubles for the poorer folk and its new schemes for "convenience" sake.

i feel that as the small country that singapore is, its ridiculous that public transport cost so much. while marketing principles might justify the hike in public transport fares, it is irresponsible to allow for these prices to sky rocket...



tv reports now say that bus fares are growing too costly for low income commuters who work a long distance frm home. seriously, is singapore that huge? i mean in countries of greater scales this is unheard of and infact, common. im not sure how marketing principles of demand and availibility works, but maybe, maybe the reason that traveling a short distance in singapore cost more than traveling a longer distance in a larger country, is size.



however the cost of fares is not the problem of concern. it is the ability to travel arnd this island, in which we happened to be born in, that needs some evaluating...

i remember in my first year of design studies, my class was questioned as to how many places in singapore we hav visited. the majority of us knew only orchard/town and the areas arnd our school and home. many of us treat the other side of the country as a land of oblivion. it now leaves me to wonder if it was the arduously priced bus fares and the inaccesibility of less frequented zones that lead to such a demaning result.



note: traveling encompasses experiencing our surroundings and the observing of differences from one place to another. these feed our ability to imagine, which in turn brings forth innovation and creativity. suffice to say, traveling is a crutial aspect of education/learning. and the lack of "creativity" quotent in singapore students cld hav travel, or the lack of it, as one of the main causes.



market demands bring high transport fares, which in turn lead to students not traveling and thus the limitations in imagination and creativity. simulating this, maybe one the causes of students being dull when it comes to learning from outside of the text book or outside of sch's structured systems is the inconvenience in traveling abt the island.

possibily, the inability to be creative is the adverse effect of the market driven demands in singapore's society.



having said that, i state again, ez-link is evil.



hav u visited a remote location this year?

RomankanYokohama's rosu katsu teisyoku (fried pork-loin cutlet) -$10.00

slow day... no much progress wif work... this sux, i took a wrong turn in my project... now the model is abit too complicated. and wif the little time i hav left to finish it, the situation is truly demoralising... aish. i wish there was an easier way to tilt models...

where to start building? ahhhhhh! where to start building...



enuff abt today.



recently mcdonald's has been running this new advertising campaign on tv. i think the advert itself is prety good... very much like a levis advert, targeted at the teenage audience. for a while now macs has been trying to project a very family and heart warming image. the change is prolly some marketing strategy. and this tactic has proven effective, jus look at levis. after their campaigns, year after year, targeted to bring abt the image of sex appeal, street and authenticity, they have succeded in dominating the jeans market. i mean if given the choice between levis and lee which wld u get? this in turn gives them the power to command the highest market price.



do not be confused, i am not commending the actions of macs.



infact i feel that their actions prove them all the more horrible! lemme explain, the burgers in a typical singapore macs outlet taste like microwaved recycled food and they are mighty costly and never close to filling. likewise for most of their menu... seriously i believe everything served from a macs counter is recycled.

now wif the hefty sum of money they hav conned out of kids, kids buying useless crappy toys in their "make macs happy by buying their junk meal" (which were prolly assembled by unfortunate 3rd world poor-folk maybe even kids), they used their ill gotten gains and use it to con a different audience... they cld atleast invest in serving proper food. remember when the big mac as actually big? and there was a time when their regular hamburger wont fit an envelope.

also recycled food does NOT taste good.

after scrimping on food quality and quantity they now decide to brand themselves differently to increase sales. i mean BE ETHICAL! SERVE PROPER FOOD! i fear the day macs become as popular as levis though i doubt it.



i appeal to all who read this... boycott mcdonald's.



anyways macs aint the only bunch practicing business wifout ethics... i keeps me wondering if there wld ever be any chance for ethics in singapore.

i can only hope.

Calpis soda ina can -$1.65

-LOREAL *majireve advanced coded 8.16- that was the only english written on the purple tube of dye for my hair... its supposed to be direct frm japan... or so said the guy who did my hair colour for me... i guess he can be trusted.



well today i dyed my hair =) and first time in fact. haha. cost a bomb so im now really broke but also really happy...

oh yea and check out the pics i posted under "capitol review".







still feel silly in purple

perrier regular -$1.77

its two now but i refer to 11sept2003.

so after the accident incident, i made my way to bible study at abt 7pm. the train at seven had lottsa old people. particaluary there were two uncles that caught my eye.



one of em had rubber shoes. yes rubber! ive always known there were rubber boots but never rubber shoes. at first i tot, he had bought rubber boots and cut em off to the ankle. however on futher inspection, of the edge, it proved otherwise. haha, and they were brand new! plus they looked itchy cos the old man kept wiggleing his toes, causing the glossy rubber surface to glisten againts the lights above. haha anyhows the old guy looked weathered and tuff, so i figured he must work in some wet market or some wet goods delivery place.

another had this bright umbrella of red yellow and blue, much like the one the longan lady frm Ipoh has, jus smaller. actually, it was quite a big umbrella for a handheld one and though it look overused, it still retained some sturdyness. futhermore, the umbrella looked so 70s. i imagined this old man, in the rain, wif his umbrella walkin thro the little streets of tiong baru and bukit merah where, the art decor influence of the 70s is very much apparent in the buildings. the colourful umbrella wld hav fitted the facades of the housing estates like a fullstop in a sentance. haha wonderful, makes me feel like painting... but i cant... not yet. i also remember that, 2yrs back i wld hav hated these vintage and aged icons and products, but ive growned to love them.

utilitarian as these items may seem they looked very much a part of the two old men who owned them. it makes me wonder how somthing that looks so wrong when put in the light of current trends and style preferences cld be so explicitly correct when place in the right context.



i reached bible study late. but todays msg was abt forgiving pple and not being bitter. i think the msg is timely since ive kinda broken the silence between my father and i. and ness u are rite... i shldnt be bitter, haha it aint fun being a bittergourd :P

so ill pray and ill work towards being less bitter and more happy.

bittergourds no more!

NUH's canteen - chee chong funn -$2.50



ive jus uploaded my pics to ipoh, please click on "IpohToday" under the magazine rack for the album of selected pics.



i woke up, this rainy morning, to a call telling me that my father (yea, the detestable one) had slipped, fell and needed an ambulance. slightly flustered i prepared to go down to the hospital and walked to the site where the little freak accident had occured.

i found my father at the bus stop wif a few pple crowded around. a lady, prolly a fresh grad, kind enuff to support my father frm where he fell up to a seat then, wif her mobile fone called up my mom and i. she dint look too bright, and her set of braces made her look kinda silly, but she's a nice person. very nice. there was also a malay homemaker wif motherly chacteristics. this large lady along wif the grad was talking comenting to my father abt his condition while handing him tissue as he was bleeding at the nose. there was also this guy in orange, from his short exchange wif the grad he was the one who dialed up the ambulance.

then there was my father.

sitting and bleeding, but not much, looking a little dazed. no big deal i thought when i saw him... and no big deal indeed. but i guess he was in shock. he had first fell off the rain covered steps into a seated position, knocking his tailbone on the concrete grnd. he got up dizzy and moved to a seat only to blackout and fall off the seat, on to his knees then his face. his spects abraded his brow and nose bridge.



pause.



and before u pity this... well... my father, dont. unless u noe him better than i do.

anyhows the ambulance came, patched him up, sent him to the hospital where he spent 5hrs going thro the necessary checkups. and if any of u wish to noe, he is ok physically. mentally... well, waddling in self pity. (note again that u dun noe him as well as i do.)



today lead me to wonder again if i wld care if he died... after all, throughout the whole incident frm recieveing the call to waiting for him at the hospital i dint feel even the slightest tang of anxiety or fear. maybe its the peace of God telling me all will be fine or maybe its jus that i dun really care.

either way after silence between us both for abt 7mths, i managed to ask him how badly he was hurt. hes fine. he had to complain abit but refrained when he saw i was frowning at him. i also managed lunch wif him which contained no conversation. i dun feel enuff to care although i do feel obliged.



i imagine wat pple wld say and wat pple hav said. i think its like losing a finger. pple look at ur hand and say "oh uve lost ur finger!" but to the one whos lost it, its jus another day wif one finger less.



if theres any good left in me its gotta be Jesus.

meji fresh milk tiny bottle -$0.91

oh i forgot to say, i finished ma painting toodae! and it feels great =) dint think water colour cld be so farn! haha.

pokka mango drink -$0.70

the painful point of my project has arrived... production work... i hate it... but i guess this round it wont be too bad since i got to do design in the eariler part...



well pain aside, i found the receipt for the mango drink on my desk while i was packing up for work. (by now u shld realise the mess ive got piled up every where...) anyhow, i remember this mango drink thing to be on the shelves of every supermarket when i was seven and i loved it. ild always bug my mom to get one for me and though, at that time, it was kinda pricey my mom wld still get me one every time i asked... thinking back i can remember how nice i used to think it was. and i also thought it was juice when infact its really like a mango flavoured drink wif a few drops of mango extracts, like the label says. once my mom bought like five for me (yea my moms the best), they were sooo precious it took me like a mth to finish them. right now it'll take me less than a day to down all of em... haha.



i also found like a few scribbles made by my brother on a folded piece of paper. it had little drawings of pple each accompanied wif a few words sketched on their bellies.



one of em had no hair but a goatee and on his belly was written,

"the police are after me".

another had a frown and a scar on his face, on whom was scribbled,

"i am beat up".

on other parts of the paper was broken sentences wif words crossed out and shaded over.

sentences like,



_this is good beau

______________because the pen



_they donot like this

_______each other

___________we play with



_this is wat most

_people draw

s

__mo

______ot

_________hly

_____________ good



...it shows a level of thought, also an amount of stress. he never really talks abt it but i guess while one scribbles things going thro our heads gets some how translated on to sketches and words, which only we who draw it noe its real meaning. i used to do it all ther time, though i dun think i have saved any of such scribbles from my childhood. but i can remember, vividly how it felt like to put ur thoughts on paper, kinda releases the hold those thoughts hav on ur mind.

over all im glad my brother is questioning why. questioning the things arnd him. bad thing abt it is that prolly my father has passed some morally challenging statements to him... well i guess its part of being a kid in my family.



third attempt at starting work

3-monkeys cafe, blueberry italian soda -$4.90

the last two wks were really busy wif meeting renewed frnds finding some old ones and rushing to complete deadline aft deadline. i managed to get a breather of two days, left me time to wonder how failing wasnt too bad after all, it gave me time.



now that my projects comming to an end i start to wonder abt wat ill do after its over. work is a must, need cash - anyone hiring? theres also my 21bday and seeing all my frnds celebrate them really makes me wonder how ild do mine. then theres my hopes for ns wif so many complications.



hopes dreams and aspirations, pondering abt the future always left me feeling left out of society, which isn't exactly a bad thing.



tmr starts a new project wk,

who noes wat it'll bring...

duck porriage frm the coffee shop at outskirts of JEcentral -$2.00





.^. he's had a hard day...

Pizza Huts 6 cheese pizza set meal -$25.60

i slept clenching my teeth.

the day b4 i bumped into my frnd whom i had lost, or more like never had, contact wif for 2.5yrs. we had met in on tour to China, Harbin - a popsicle country close to Russia. im still feeling happy abt the incident, after all the odds of seeing her again weren't good. haha i feel blessed, very.



then i had pizza wif my frnd from primary/secondary sch, well not that we ever talked in sch. it seems she's had a worse version of church encounters as compared to mine.



(heregoes the stepping.)



ive got so many kinds of friends from church. all of them, i suppose, hav the same root problem. the pple in the church.

i feel. pple look to the leaders of the church for council, advice, hope and love. i do too. unfortunate, since these pple dont come close to wat Jesus is.

leadership is abt serving, not abt serving God, it abt serving pple. many leaders have never solved their need for love and attention.

they make the worst leaders.



i used to think, while being influenced by american cartoons, that the leader is the strongest in the group. that is the first misconception most hav as a kid.

secondly, "power" in leadership is rightly used to help pple under that leadership and not a tool to govent or rule over them. however wif pple who need attention the "power" which they recieve they use it to put pple down thinking that that makes them a step above the rest. firstly putting pple down makes one lower (i have been guilty of that).

thirdly leadership is over glorified. i think a good leader goes through the pain and problems of those under him, plus his own. thus when the group succeeds as a team much credit is given to the leader, since he represents the team and also since he was the main factor that held the group together.

now, the pple who need attention see the attention the leader get and hunger for it. they then use ways and means to achieve leadership and thus u get lousy leaders, who care only to draw attention to themselves and away frm the other members of the group, and in the case of the church even away frm God. these lousy leaders like to feel worshiped, and thus defeats the purpose of the position.



having said that, the pple who are affect by these braggarts either seek to justify those horrible actions and become as lousy leaders themselves or, they havent gotta clue wats going on arnd them or, they noe abt it but jus try to live out their lives in church on a low profile and not stepping on anyones toes or, those who look for a different church or, finally those who give up on Jesus.



i wish i cld change the world.



be reminded that the one who wrote the above is human and prone to being baised who also needs attention. and dont noe wat uve been through or the challenges u face, but dun give up on Jesus because of experiences wif pple, cos they are not worth it.



well ive still got my mask on

bugis st. ngak seah beef kuey teow -$4.00

preluede to the above.



its been difficult to blog.

more and more pple have been invited to read my blog. its always easier to put forth ur ideas on paper/screen then verbally, face to face. however wif pple reading it makes me wonder how to write, indirect or head on...

i mean if i was here to bitch abt the govt, which i will, its ok cos im not worried how the govt feel nor do i think they wld care to read my blog. but when its pple u noe who are reading ur entries, i start to run a masquerade even in a supposed diary.

ironic.

i start to think how to write so as to not offend pple.

which is, i think, why many blogs turn in to day to day happenings and how sad or happy the blogger's day was. (even wif this statement i cld be stepping on the toes of some of my frnds.) i think it sux and its not wat i started blogging for.



ive ever said in an earlier entry how i hated writing abt day to day happenings and stuff like that. i got replies saying how its ok and still quite interesting. thinking abt it, its prolly jus me who feels this way so i cld be a lot happier jus doing watever's easiest. but im compelled not to give in. for reasons that ego affected.



i slept clenching my teeth.

murakawa strawberry artifically flavoured bubble gum -rm$10

well i intended to write all abt my trip to ipoh but blogger crashed twice on me so ill jus post a little...









Machap pitstop



chicken drumstick, u noe the fried kind u get at the sch malay store?



barberqued fish, salt and seasonng over fish, slowy grilled to perfection.



ice ginger tea, teh tarik wif a strong ginger scent, keeps u warm and awake









Ipoh chicken horfun restuarnt (more like a coffee shop turn restuarnt where u sit by the road to eat)



ipoh hor fun in some kinda chicken soup, light and yet very tasty. goes in smooth like porriage.



bean sprouts in fish base sauce. the sprouts were 2 times as fat as the ones we hav at home!



chicken, lean and corn fead.



fishball n meatball, not salty like the ones we get at home.





Ipoh's "tong soei gai" (dessert street in cantonese)



beef noodles, tender beef well done wif a hint of herbal flavour yet not too salty.



beef balls these were different frm the ones above, they were tender as if the meat was not first minced, gave it that crunchy bouncy texture.



fried kway teow. unlike the ones in singapore (that ive had), u cld taste the rather distinctive flavours of every ingredient in the dish.



pork porridge the porriage was thick, smooth and well flavoured.



frog leg porridge same porriage wif loads of frog parts and it only cost abt $2.



rojak. im not a big fan of rojak but the famous Ipoh prawn paste lives up to its name.



cuttlefish with kang kong. well in comparison to the other fantastic dishes we had this one dint really stand out, although cuttle fish is always nice.



ba kut teh was really strong and very herbal and very salty... but still good.



Ipoh ice ka chang. topped wif peanuts, sugar syrup, coconut milk and a scoop of icecream. enough to hav me change my perspective of ice ka chang.





Ipoh dim sum eating house



here the dishes were handed out on push carts instead of at a counter. the food is excellent and we had so many different dishes i cant list them out... lets jus say we ordered 70% of the menu.





Ipoh's salt baked chicken stall



salt baked chicken is one of a kind. i remember eating fried chicken in singapore and always halfway through the meal ild start to detest the flavour of chicken. yet when my half was taken i desiered more. the skin is salty wif a faint scent of herbs. this wrapped arnd a juicy, not oily, tender and succulent lean chicken meat. really u gotta try it to noe how desirable it is.











Melaka town's satay stall.



satay. u noe how satay is nice when u gotta a large piece of fat stuck between the kebabs of meat? well this ones got all fat wif meat in between. also the satay sauce is one of a kind.



Melaka town's dessert shop.



tucked in a row of shop houses this stall offered the authentic melakan chendol. i love it! and i dont eat chendol anywhere else besides melaka...

brown caramel and coconut milk layered over ground ice sitting over pandan "worms" and the blackish cubes. the caramel makes the dessert. like nothing ive tasted b4, this brown sugar blend goes wif ice alone of mixed up wif the ingredients. -sweet-.



a little melakan coffee shop

our last place of meals, last but not anywhere near least.



Melakan fried prawn-fish ball noodle. remember the canteens at offices and work places in the 1980s in singapore? the fishball soup here has that flavour. dun be fooled by the name "fish ball noodle" is nothing like the ones in singapore. after all it had flour covered deep fried shrimp and tiny fish balls the size of "chickadees" (the tv snack) that were... well of a very different flavour.



Penang prawn mee. again its nothing like the prawn mee we hav in singapore. this one is in a spicy soup and again wif shrimp sized prawns. it dint taste extraordinary, more like a dish u cld eat over and over again. well subtle but good.



Melakan popiah. once agian the flavour of this wrap dint shout but it was tasty since prawn paste was good and it was packed wif turnip. unlike the ones i hav eaten this popiah was rather dry and not soggy from sauce. ild prefer the dry one any day.











we went home after that meal which concluded our weekend to Ipoh.



ive got bubble gum!

orangina bubbly bottle -$1.72

as a general whole pple dont listen. u can be giving the same advice ovr and over again, like - "dont believe everything he tells u" or "its really not as good as it looks".

and yet when the worst happens, they look at u as if u r to blame and start complaining... bah!



i just made a wallpaper post at some wallpaper gallery.

the girl

the guy

the special extra

i wonder wat pple wld say. weird, even though i noe that most pple give lousy, uneducated comments im still pretty exicited to hear wat theyave got to say... i guess im jus hopeing for some comment thats critical and that ive never thought of which might change the way i percieve... well its unlikely.





anyways my road trip is today, different pple, different enviroment and most importantly different food!



whoopie!

angus o'neils premium root beer 375ml -$1.10

i went thro my older blogs and realised that my blogs now are starting to turn into some day to day dairy... sux...

i wanted to put thoughts here... but thoughts usually require a lot of words and chunk up the whole page... sux...

i wonder if there is a better way... i dun wanna ramble cos it... sux...

abt rambling, i do that quite abit, esp arnd my frnds. only realised it when my frnd frowned as i began to start on a familair topic... oh well gotta remember who i said wat to... but most times i repeate myself to the same peeps over and over again. fortunatally this only happens when im really busy.

also there are those peeps who ask me ques expacting a short ans but get a really lengthy one... i still dunno who i did that to but i hav my suspicitions...



well im still learning to write hope whoever reads my pages post comments.



actually its a pretty gd drink^

seafood her2 fen3 at the coffe shop downstairs

stupid blogger system dint publish my last post on time.

anyways i dint go anywhere but slept till 8:30pm, felt good. :)



sweet

Muji's pet bottle grape carbonate -$1.80

this weeks has handed out a whole list of work for me... from sch to home to friends, my time in the week was diced up into thin bits and handed out to them.

oh but sch work's progressing fine, im done wif my cousins name card and my frnds bbq 21bday party turn out really enjoyable - frisbee being the cause.



wif a public holi to end the week, the pace seem to slow down alot... i think i can finally get down to making my sketch pad cover out of that collon box.

im also left wondering where to head for in the evening, wif frnds or family.



my church frnd are going to the annual bowling tornament, bowling anit my game and even though there was a suggestion that i bring my frisbee that we might hav a game during the competition, im pretty tired frm playing yesterday :? acheing muscles and all, results of sticking in studio for too long...

on the other hand my family wants to go to the esplanade but im not keen on spending my evening in crowded patriot district...





maybe lazing at home is the best idea...



maybe not

lasagne at the funfair -$5.00 worth of tickets

i left the house thinking how dreadful to attend a funfair for abt 4hrs wif jus ten dollars. so i brought my camera, manual, along as something to do.



i reached the fair late, and at the point where the sun scorched... that was 1 pm and i bumped into ness, wld hav been funner if she wasnt already leaving.



i went ahead wif taking pictures which took up an hr... too many people too many trees cldnt see most of the old school building so i quit at 15 shots.



lunch. during which i met up wif my old sec school classmates, cant say i miss them... i always felt we lived very different lives, half the time i spent wif them was explaining why i did wat i do.



also i saw a few of my primary sch classmates. kinda weird cos this girl i used to sit next to, walked past me todae. she had really heavy make up... made her look really different and i was a bit too surprised to say hi. aish i wish i did.



3pm. met my former formteacher, he asked me to help out at the alumni store. i did. it was really boring and hot.



so came the last hr of the funfair. i bumped into SiewChwee, my contact from the alumni, a really nice lady who has on many occasions gave me treats. she kindly gave me the rest of her tickets.

man! cldnt be more exicited $80 worth of coupons one hr left to spend. i went arnd and bought :- used ikea lamp shade at $1 - sigg bottle for $25 - an umbrella for $15 - three bottles of water $3 - twenty popcicles $10 - twenty ice-cream sticks $10 - a mega packet of drink $4 - and i passed some of the coupons ard to my friends.

it was really great having soo much money wif too little time to spend... imagine earning $80 an hrs... man that is life where anything u wanted was urs...



oh yea and in the morning b4 i left the house i asked Jesus for favour and good timing, i had them both today.



so happy, so blessed!

Muji's straight orange juice -$2.90

going to a funfair tmr.

IKEA swedish meat balls -$5.50

today i missed my camera.



a bus had made a wrong turn today, and to make up for that the driver actually turned his bus at the axis of a T-junction. at one point it was facing on comming traffic... wld have been a great photo subject, oh i miss my deecam!



i went back to sch, my former secondary sch. it had been situated in a new building. now this building is old and has lots and lots of intresting spaces and wall surfaces and textures. fantastic. the way the building filltered light and brought forth shadows is a thing seldom seen in architecture (in singapore) these days.

from mortar to concrete, white washed surfaces to rough and uneven wall finishes, solid to perforation, inside, outside and transistional spaces, human scaled conners and walkways; this building had it all. i felt trigger happy... yet i had nothing to shoot with, oh! i miss my deecam.



im going back again tmr and on saturday... which means i hav to ba working extra hard on my project... i really hope i dun loes track and still be able to produce lots and lots of work for my first review. oh but the fun fair is on saturday and i intend to take pictures... too bad i dun have my deecam... i really miss it.



i bought my Rekords today!

hill street beef noodles (now outside my school!) -$3.00

Pick the day you were born on to see what kind of fart you are.



1-AMBITIOUS Always ready for a fart.



2-LAZY Just fizzles



3-AMIABLE Likes to smell others farts.



4-SELFISH Only enjoys smelling his own farts.



5-CARELESS Farts in church.



6-SMART ALEC Farts when ladies are present.



7-CLEVER Farts and coughs at same time.



8-SCIENTIFIC Bottles his farts.



9-STINGY Belches instead of farting to save his asshole.



10-FOOLISH Farts and laughs.



11-SHY Blushes even when he farts silently.



12-CONCIETED Thinks he can fart loudest.



13-UNLUCKY Tries to fart and shits pants.



14-TIMID Jumps when he farts.



15-BEWILDERED can't tell his own farts from others.



16-SLOVENLY Farts and fizzles, rots his pants.



17-NERVOUS Stops in middle of fart.



18-MISERABLE Can't fart



19-CONFUSED Face looks so much like ass, Farts don't know where to go.



20-GROUCH Grumbles when ladies fart.



21-SNEAKY Farts and blames it on the dog.



22-DISAPPOINTED Their farts dont stink.



23-FRESH GUY Jumps in front of you and farts.



24-BIG BULLY Farts louder than everyone else.



25-DELUDED Enjoys all farts thinking they are his.



26-CUTE Discovers from farts what others have eaten.



27-WISE Farts and say's "Who in hell shit ??"



28-DAMNED MEAN Farts in bed and pulls covers over wife's head.



29-MUSICAL Tenor or bass Clear as a bell Smells like shit Sounds like hell



30-HONEST Farts and blames in on the hostess.



31-LIVELY GUY Jumps in air, farts three times, kicks like hell simultaneously.





poot!

Muji's strawberry candy 80gs -$1.50

24 july 2003

today my prayers were answered verberly.



i hav been given hope.

L' Emozione Pasta Bar's Vongole -$7.50

work has been building up this week, not unexpected... jus a little sudden.

i hav no complaints though, since so far its all going really well. being busy isnt a bad thing i suppose.



well being busy also made my breakfast all the more gratifying.

bacon, eggs, sausages, bread and milk. it was prefect breakfast made by my super mom.

she's the best, that which she cooks always taste good... ya my moms the best.



back to work

"after eight" chocolate mints, box of 5 -$1.30



i try not to.

i know too little to my advantage, yet too much its burdensome.

i want to go to Japan b4 Heaven.

i wish they had real rollercoasters in singapore.

i hate my f... no, i try not to.

i miss pple i knew but dint get to noe better when i was younger.

i fear, but i dont ponder in that department.

i hear the renovated bukit timah hawker ctr has got lotsa gd food.

i search for a way i can do wat i love, and earn lots and lots of money!

i believe constant eye jabbing will give u a headache.

i wonder how a whole nation can be sooo blind... fortunately not all of them.

i regret not keeping in contact wif my primary sch classmates.

i love only after being loved.

i care for my mom, my brother, my friends.

i always critisise... always wif alota typos.

i cry in fustration.

i fight to please my ego, not that im proud of it.

i write to remember.

i win.

i lose myself in thought most of the time.

i confuse everyone when im nervous.

i listen to ROCK!

i need, Jesus provides.

i breathe once in a while.

i should hav more than $10,000 to go to Japan in 3yrs from now.

i dream weird dreams, wake up, and cant recall any.

i feel like leaving everything and go.

i am getting better.

i have the best Mom in the world.



ripped from ness' blog.



i have the best Mom in the world.

pippin hot peanut butter pan waffles found at the neighborhood confectionery -$1.00

its been a good week! actually its jus been like two days and their goood.



going back to sch wasnt as bad as i thought, my juniours were we pretty friendly so it still felt like home... hoho, attentention seeker!



my frnd came back frm San Fran. and bought me a frisbee! heheh... well it always feels good to be remembered.



i got a pretty good lecturer for this term! yay! and there was a mixup but it cleared up quick, yay!



i think i might ave found someone that ive lost contact wif, for awhile now. =D yaaaaaaayyyyy!!!



ive been digging thro design competitions (which is like wadeing thro shit) and i found a really good one! here it is -

Architecture Virus

A work of architecture is not borne completely independent of other architecture. The fact that an architect�s work is influenced by previously seen architecture, (be it historical architecture, the architect�s previous works, or the architectural works of others in journals), cannot be denied.

If this is so, and built architecture is seen as the subject, one can say that the DNA of each work of architecture is infused from the architect�s eye to the brain, and there, is mixed with the DNA of other architecture to bear a progeny.

At that time, as far as architecture is concerned, the brain of the architect is the breeding place, where the selection for survival is at stake.

This is the breeding and proliferation mechanism of architecture, as seen from the concept of Meme.

For a short while, the powerful DNA leaves numerous progeny.

If generation, DNA, and proliferation were to exist, wouldn�t there be viruses as well?

As in the theory of virus evolution, the virus is not something which only causes a negative effect.

What is meme virus-affected architecture? Or, what is virus-like architecture?...



Ken Sakamura

again - Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

ive been praying all week

Polar's strawberry roll -$0.90

gotta go back to sch tmr... feels weird, going to sch but not finding my class.

well maybe its a good thing, most of my class mates were flesh thorns anyway. but is gonna be weird - returning home a foreigner.



i think the font im usin for my blog text shuld be bigger.



found this on some one else's blog... cardboard, corrugated. u can prolly do jus abt anything wif paper. the guy who made it says cardboard was used cos its recycleable and it allows the user to scribble on it.

fire hazzard cld be a prob, but ild still go for it.









i miss my dee cam.





ive got a papier-m�ch� on my table, dried but incomplete. ive got a quater of an animation done, left on my desktop, now untouched. there's the comic im supposed to do. and now ive got my project on my hands.



challenges, challenges, and more challenges.

Cole's crab and cheese pizza block -$1.95

Alvis,

took me for maths tution when i was in sec 3.

he's a good teacher my grades went up from "F"s to "A"s.



well there was one tution session, Alvis had jus taken his seat and i was turning to the pages of homework he had set for me.

he must hav been really cooked cos the next thing i knew he was frantically pulling at the switches of my fan.



it was an old fan type where u turn the knob to switch it on, somewat like a kitchen timer.

well this fan had three other switches for the changing of speed and louver but those were on some kinda pull type switch, each attached to a string.



it was a really funny sight. at first i heard the clicks of the switches being pulled at, slow but steady. but when i turned arnd he had gone frantic, tugging at all three simultanusly! sounded much like the old toy machine guns that rattled whne u pull the trigger.

haha! i controled my laughter forcefully and turned the fan on the right way. heeeee, u gotta be there to see his fustration! after all he's quite a soft spoken person.

i had to excuse myself to the toilet to laugh my head off...





till now i havent really figured out y he did it. maybe he thought the motor in the fan started up like those old truck engines. itll be pretty cool to hav a fan or some home appliance that worked this way though...



it was nice being a kid.

Muji's maple pan-cake 8piece pack -$1.50

i was jus lookin arnd blogger and im not satisfied... wif my blog... josh was rite, white bg des look some wat better.

needs lotsa pics though. other wise itll look really dull.

aish.

so looks like im gonna need to change it, which means ill need pictures, which means ill need a deecam.

along wif which, ild also need to learn some script based web programming, which means ild need some pro web programer's help.

and then theres the factor of time...



oh well ill see wat i can do.

DISSATISFIED!!!

Rochor bean curd -$1.00 smoooooth!

today... big hullabaloo over the new electronically driven trains. i had dropped at dhoby ghaut mrt station to get bean curd. yes Rochor bean curd, smoothest ive had, light and sweet, glides in ur mouth. i dare say, its the best bean curd arnd. i bought 4 bowls!!! (1 each for my mom and brother & 2 for me!)



well im not writing cos of the fabulously silky smooth bean curd (though i wld deserve an essay).

today... i saw a lady wif a purple fringe, yes jus the fringe. but it was done really well, black head of hair parting at the side wif a nice deep hue of purple in the front where it parted. i never did think that purple hair cld look so good, but well the lady was pretty and fair skinned so it all added to the effect. yes i change my mind or i repent (repent being the same as change of mind) abt purple, it can look very good.



and then i saw my frnd, he dint look too good, kinda beat and pretty defensive like it wasnt nice to be seeing me was... well im sayin that only cos hes usually extremely easy going and rather happy to talk to be abt any thing. i remember him last talkin abt getting employment as a graphic designer... or was that multi media...? cant remember. but now hes doing some computer stuff... weird encounter.



lastly i saw an old frnd walking down the road wif her boyfriend. she was smoking. hmmm. i have frnds that smoke but ive never felt sad abt it. i think its bcos they were already smoking b4 i knew them or they dint really believe in not smoking. well i dont believe in smoking and so did this girl. well she isnt exactly the best of girls, a heavy clubber (i hate clubbing! esp in singapore) but i think she always had her own stand againts smoking. i mean she wldnt sit where smokers were sitting, she wld show discomfort when pple arnd were smoking and sheld ask smokers she knew not to smoke too. well i dunno wat broke her but i think is really sad. is not fair that pple sld change their minds for the worst. its not rite that wat little was right is now twisted by society. i hate clubbing. is jus not right. its prolly the thing that got her smoking otherwise its got the biggest influence. sux sux sux.

now i feel borederd cos i hate to see pple destroy their lives and themselves. aish!!!



pple! u ve got to love and treasure and love urselves more!



i wish i cld do something to stop youths/young adults/pple who are jus embarking on a "beautiful life" destroying themselves frm the begining.

ill pray for my frnd.

some china brand, apple flavoured aerated water -$0.90

gonna sound a tad silly. ive come across some impressionable words this week.

twas jus yesterday that i was reading the story, "the velveteen rabbit", to my brother for a bedtime kinda story thing. came across the phrase - "It lasts for always". i always had, pictured in my mind that the phrase wld go "it lasts forever". there are prolly so many other possible variations to that line, but only one got embedded in head. it got me thinking how many other things in my life has jus been monotonous, lacking alternative views, thoughts and perception. well ild blame it on the enviroment im put in, this dull and dreary city wanna be of an island, but maybe its jus that ive got much more to learn.



"lights snapper" was the name my mom gave my father when he came home. eveytime he is abt, he'ld be clicking off the lights which were left, switched on in the vacant rooms at home. crazy... hes always complaining that we keep the lights on for no reason. and when we do keep the lights off he'ld complain that the house was too dark and that a dark house was supposedly ghostly and bad.

but its not abt my dad that has had my thoughts lingering on, its abt the word "lights snapper"... funny name... yet logicaly its correct and it sounds very much like one of the names of the giants in Roald Dahl's "BFG". (giants names were: fleshlumpeater, bonecruncher, manhugger, childchewer, meatdripper, gizzardgulper, maidmasher, bloodbottler, butcher boy and the big friendly giant.)

"lightsnapper" come to think of it, it sounds like a fish... ya, i have a fun mom.



ive always thought russian names have a very unique sound in them. i came across one of them in a national geographic monthly - "Shchuchye". its the name of an area where biological and chemical weapons are tested. worst thing abt it is the fact that there are homes and familys presant in those parts too. the kids there learn in school how to act in the case of an outbreak or leak of a test weapon. sad isnt it? ive always thought living in the city was bad but this is surely worst off... its ofcourse doesent make growing up in singapore any better but its jus ironic to be advancing in techonlogy and yet regressing in humanity. after all techonology was first put forth to help make being human more effective.

in the same artical was the name "Nevanda", likewise a town wif families and children who grow up learning emergency procedures to a nuclear test gone bad.



wat a depressing age we live in.

wat wld i do wifout jesus?

rosemary ham -$2.50/100g

this blog is two days late...

got really caught up wif doing odd jobs. well by odd jobs i mean helping my frnd do posters for his church event, still workin on that comic i was supposed to finish weeks ago (frankly im not sure if they will still accept it this late... but im sure my chances, wif jesus, are always gd), "babysitting" my brother (erm "babysitting" really doesnt giv a good perspective on wat takin care of my bro is like... here it take alot less responsibility, after all he's a grown kid. well i blame it on the lack of knowledge of a better word).



no real work though... havent been able to find a goood job. well "good" being somthin that pays $6 and above, part time shift work 3-4 days a week and its gotta be a customer service thing or maybe something that revolves arnd adobe photoshop.

well there has been one opening at "simply bread". it was a really goood bakery when i last went there 4 years back, their crossants where unmatched. i mean at a dollar each, those tiny crossants had a doughy, soft but firm insides wif light and crisps outside. and unlike most, if not all the other crossants that are preped in the stores of singapore, those crossants were moist! making evey bite one to remember. it was perfect wifout anything added. i guess it was the lack of yeast added that gave the little buns their marvelous flavour.

well sad to say, things hav changed. when i was there for the interview i had the chance to try their crossants. they are now $1.50 and larger. but they now taste really comercial. lottas yeast to make it larger, when u bite it its like biteing on dry sponge. yuck! dissapointing.



the interview wasnt that fantastic either, 6day week being a really lousy factor. and i wasnt really prepared for the interview so i guess i left many questions open.

ah sux!

i even went for a hair cut for the interview. kinda shocking... i told my hair dresser, Sunny, i wanted a neat hair style, somethng shorter and wif out a parting. man. she gave me, or more like she took off four fifths of my head of hair... now i cant help feeling lighter and naked, weird. i guess itll grow, fast i hope.



nothing like holiday fun.

Gelato, double scoop of mango and rock melon ice-cream -$4.00 havent had better =D

i finally found it!





"Ikaugra" a puzzle/shooter, has had me boggled as to defeat the boss of the 2nd chapter... i sux pretty bad huh? well there were some things abt that particular boss that i dint noe... (i thought the shield opened based on timing).

well i dint get very far anyway and since i dint have the money to experiment a different method of playing so i shought the net for help.

i started my search abt 4mths ago, then the game had yet to be relased to the U.S. on Gamecube so most if not all of the reviews were in japanese.

imagine digging thro pages of unknown language, clicking on links that bring u no where. i gave up my search for i did not want to risk sanity.

abt 2 days ago i heard news that Atari had released Ikagura on Gamecube. so i tried again to search for some new infomation.

well im glad to say after some proper digging i found game hints and even some walkthro movies for some of the chapters.




Overjoyed is and understatement. also found like a whole lot of Ikagura illustrations! i slept a happy man =)









dun give up.

Royce' Chocolate, yogurt white -$12

wif two arduous wks of project submitions and final yr exibitions past, ive been left wif a pleasantly peaceful aftermath, with the exception of a hiccup detailed in a prev log, of time on my hands.

this time of abt 10days has left me idling, gaming and tieing up some loose ends (one of which being to clean up my room =D ).



skipping midweek service during the two weeks mention earlier and one more bcos of a public holiday, has left me rather dried out...

thus going back of service today was gratifying. peace reigns again and it feels really good esp after the service. my pastor while explaining "the ark" and the covent of the old testement made a quick remark,

"...actually it wasnt possible in the old testemant but Jesus did somethings that changed it..."

he was actually refering to the Jesus' obedience and death on the cross. however instead of being psudeo-reverent abt it, the remark was passed in the most casual way (jus as u wld talk abt ur frnd helping u in noe particular occasion). really cool and very... settling like a feather falling into my stomach the words fell.

ya i like the way my pastor sees Jesus.



its been a good week

Sakuma candy drops -$erm... gotta check out this one again...

AH! jus finished loading the mustard lable for the links.... though my archives still dont work :(

will look in to that much later.

im wondering if ive over done it... maybe the old fat eggs was better, maybe...

off to work on my comic strip.



gotta clear up my room...

Kellog's honey krispies -$4.90

i dint draw this

but im really sick of city life... KILL THE CITY!

sesame seed doughnuts -$0.60

argg... im still so pissed... damn shouted at my mom... its not right i should'nt shout at her...

i feel bad this sux.

im always in this unnessary pressure oh-man! need to get out of my ordeal. partly cos of the weather... it sux!



need to get well

muji's apple soda -$2.00 refreshing!

friends...



friends that i havent seen for a long time.



friends that i havent talked to for a while.



friends that jus turned 21.



friend that sabotaged me and everything i hold dear and still doesent realize the damge he's done.



friends that ill miss.



ah friend the word's too lightly used...



roger and bernard whom i havent seen and talked to for some time... rogers birthday party yesterday... he's got truckload of friends... he actually wanted me to get to noe his frnds...? weird... hows that possible...? ah but he's cool and sincere and a good frnd to hav... (ness if ur reading this it goes for u too!)

kinda envy him and peeps alike... hes got really good parents! both of em! wow... and lots of frnds too. ahh but atleast ive got one =D best mom in the world



bernard... haha we went through lots together. most impressionable was the camp we setup. 3 of us, my cousin bern and me! it was like peeps dint really want a youth church camp so nobody wanted to help out. but we believed there shld'ave been on every year. so we planned and runned the camp. twas really fun... and i wld remember all the time we took time out of our 'n levels' studies to do the camp... cycling, pasteing treasure hunt notes all over east coast, eating bk after that while planning the admins. yup good times =D



my good frnds haish! and then there are the...



hes been through some tuff times wif me too. but well thing jus got sour... sux u noe? like u though the best of ur friend and then this.

this frnd stuck by when no one believed we cld built a raft at ubin in one day... 3 of us... ubin... two nights... we built a raft that worked! jus that it dint hav enuff bouyancy to carry all 3 of us plus belongings... but we were mighty proud when we paddled it arnd the shore in front of the strine... yup real accomplishment and i still hav the oar we used for that one... haish... but this time he really got me in a fix... its work ethics vs frndship! how am i to pick!

arggg bad desicions!



so my frnd is workin now... on attachment. he asks me to do some work for him at the last hour and offered to pay me freelance wages... how am i to take money from a frnd? how? infact a job like his wld cost arnd 100 bucks per piece excluding extras. and i noe its a crazy amt to get frm a frnd whos only wages come frm attachment. (here in singapore they pay students pukes for internships.) and i noe he'll have it hard if he doesnt hav enuff to show for his presentation commin up in the nx 6hrs. so i made a him deal: that ill do 2 of the 5 pieces that he had to present and that he'ld find me a part time job and buy me lunch... well all seemed fine until he told me he was offically doing all this design work for FREE! madness i mean this is a killer on so manny levels!



1. ppl r gonna think: ah! design and designers are cheap we done need to pay for pple giving us ideas. and if that think like that the profession of design is in jerpordy... madness!!! i mean if u consult a doc uld pay him consultation fees so y the diff wif designers? or if u hire an accountant for his services wont u pay him? and are designers any different? we do a service and we expected to be paid! whether we are good at wat we do or not! ofcoures designers ought to be responsible but u dont go to a doc and ask him if he grad wif honnors of jus scraped thro wif grade "D"s do u?



2. since i have made some layouts for him and most unfortunately one of my ideas was picked... and since my frnd is offically not being paid for his work or works submitted under him, the peeps he's working for effectively get my design work for free. pple are gonna think: oh! we cld ask edwin to do graphic layouts for free! man! and if i asked for cash peeps wld be like : u do jobs for free so i dun expaect u to be asking for much or even worst or anything at all! well im not saying im superb, but since u wont ask a doc how well he did in sch b4 ya pay him, i think i sld be paid a market price when i get the job done. and so shld any of u designers out there.



3. hes design career is in jepordy too... but thats his ball game i shant go into that...



4. as the state of appreciation for the design pratice is seen still widely seen as a practice that doesent affect the way things are done, things like this is only gonna make the situation worst... i mean the boss of my frnd prolly thinks that the design of his advertising media is only needed to inform pple that their company exist. however this advertising media if done well, could attract attentions and leave impressions. which would effectively increase sales. yes and that is done by the power of design. futhermore these bosses think that they noe better than the designer - after all they orderded my frnd arnd, changing his/my planned layouts to their prefered config. oh man! and since the state of respect, which my frnd has given these bosses, of design its no wonder they think they can also do design... after all its free.



understand that im really mad at this frnd of mine since he apologized not, nor did he offer to right wat he did wrong. he barely told me he had no choice and make any comments when i tried to explained this situation to him (yes in a most infuriated way). i still wondwer if he understands the full and rippleing effects his actions cld cause. he prolly doesnt wanna do design when he grads anyway. haish. but ill trust my Jesus who has came through for me over and over again.



well these are the frnds ive encountered this wk... oh man! bitter sweet.

my jesus never sabotages

BurgerKing - mushroom meal, heavy mushroom! -$6.00

alrite i must say -

a big thank u jesus

today was the day we put up our exibitions and yes, as promised i was given a small excess conner to put my work...

yes i was feeling depressed cos of that little corner cos its a really sucky small space. so today one of my classmates gott fever and another jus dint come and guess wat? i got a full space of my own! wohooo or yuppie cant express how happy i feel upon noeing that. i laughed myself all the way home!

the feeling was espically great cos thro the past my i had laden myself wif worries, depression, anxiety and the nightmares, which were a real killer. every day i woke up in a daze wondering how deep ive gone in to a shit hole. but today! its like a fresh breeze and moring sunshine woke me up from a twisted dream. oooooohh too many "haizz".



for all that you've done i will thank you,

for all that you're going to do,

for all that you've promised and all that you are,

is all that has carried me through,

Jesus i thank you.



oh man endless "thank u"s wont be enuff to represent the depth of love jesus has shown me. really. failure dont look so gloomy now cos jesus is sufficient for my joy. u noe ive spent $65+ in the past wk on cab fare jus to transport my exibits to and fro but now that im blessed sooo much $65 is chicken feed. after all nothing can buy happiness but when its given everything else seems small.



i have seen dawn!



life will get better in christ

MosBurger - a fish burger and a croquette burger wif one ice milk tea -$7.35

dinner... tonight i had two dinners! one at mosburger which felt some some wat small and 1�hrs later a bowl of porriage wif a tall glass of milk at home.

now im all bloated, its been a while since ive been so full, feels a bit giddy to have cramped so much in such a short span of time.

but my moms the best even aft working a whole day she still manages to cook a wonderful bowl of porrage jus for me. i wldnt trade moms wif anyone even if my life depended on it.

my moms the best!



ah well went back to school, and ive got problems wif my lectures again... i dont think we wld ever see eye to eye.

so much for beng given anoher chance - rite.

turns out ive become a convient space filler for the empty slots left by students who hav little to exibit. given leftovers. well i guess its still gd for me i dont noe how ild do it but im definately not going to conform to the conventions set by my lectures... jus that im so very tired, weary of having to fight my way to do wat i feel is right to do.

oh xian! here we go again.

surely there must be more fulfilling challenges in life... back to work.



press on!

Post great grains crunchy pecans and whole grain cereal -$5.25

ah!

well i dint finish my final project on time, now they are telling me i failed...

failing sux

havent been failing in a while so it sux more

ah!



aft abt a mth of turmoil on a last min project i failed.

sux more since i gave up doing wat i liked to do and stooped to the lousy standards of my lecturers. ive failed as a contractor!

i shld shut up now rite.

i shld never stoop to doing wat i dont like jus to pass.



weird dreams

well my cohorts graduating exibition's comming up, and the lectures hav disapproved me of exibiting my work since my failure...

three days ago had a dream that they'ld let me participate in this upcomming exibition, but only if i finished a lage amount of work for this exibition. for that few hours in my dream imposed situation i experienced a large amount of stress since i was put in such a dilemma*.



*dilemma cos im not too keen on doing more tedious work jus for the exibition, yet i noe it will make my mom proud to see my work up as an exibit.



i was glad to wake up and quickly dismissed the dream.

well yesterday i checked my mail and realised that i hve been given a chance to the exibition if i had enuff to exibit.

hmmmm. weird... a bit freaky but the worst thing is that ive now plummeted back into the hole of stress, anxiety and dilemma since i feel like im required to do quite a bit of work before my deadline - which is tmr.

back to the drafting board i guess...



always hope for tmr.

cheese and onion omelette

its not anythin new but it taste great and ive only realised the recipe a week ago. so im pretty exicited abt it :� oh ya and parts of it goes to my frnd who taught me, verbally, how to cook those sweet japanese omelettes they leave atop sushi. yay!



The recipe �

Depending on the size of the pan, mine has a radius of 100mm so I�m using, 3 eggs � whisked.

Parmesan cheese, I�ve used mozzarella but feel that parmesan works better. We�ll need about a handful. If you are using jus one egg use less cheese�

Chop up onions to your preference. I use about one onion sliced so they come in crescents. My onions are the small ones, difficult getting those huge bulbs where I stay.



Alright, heat up the pan on a low flame. Keep the flame low. I use butter, other forms of oil is fine, a little less than a tablespoon.

stirfry the onions till the first browns turn up on the edges and, wif the butter still in, take the onions out.



In goes the eggs!



Now u gotta watch close,when the egg gets cooked ard the edges, evenly pour the cheese ,wif the onions going in straight after, along the middle of the eggs.

the top layer of the eggs ought to still be half cooked or liquid at this point

flip a left third of the eggs in toward the ctr and then the right. it should "stick".

let it cook and flip the egg over so it cooks on both sides.



don't over cook it!



estimate for the cheese to hav melt well within the omelette. remove and u r ready to serve.

start cooking!

Lamb Chops Fried!

i dint draw this