Of packing and moving

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. I didn't intend to leave it at that last post before going off the radar for a while. It's been a hectic three weeks for me. I moved out from the halls in the first week of June. Not only was it physically taxing, but emotionally as well. After having lived with my hall mates for this significant amount of time, they grow on you. Sure, I'll probably still see some of them in campus or in the streets of Oxford, but its just not the same not being able to walk two steps out from your room and find someone to talk to when you're feeling lonely. Anna, Jimmy and Amanda. I will surely miss them to bits.

Moving out has made me realized that I'm a collector of things. Random pieces of junk, sheets of papers and articles and books (apart from all the clothes, of course). Sure, I'd love to have these worldly possessions with me in the following term, but moving them into storage was a feat which gave me backaches and sore muscles for the better part of my vacation. Needless to day, I got rid of quite a few things.

Packing the remaining stuff was no picnic either. I was pretty much required to sort things into 4 categories: for Storage, for Italy, Self-Care Package while I crash over at a friends' before I return to Malaysia and for Malaysia. It was a sorting nightmare. And couple that with storage woes due to my forgetfulness, transport and financial problems, tight schedule and lethargy, makes for one hellaciously brain damaging experience I want to forget. But I thank all my gods that almost everything fell into place at the very last crucial nerve wrecking second. Otherwise I would have been rendered homeless, with boxes of my stuff on the street curb, plane tickets in hand with no way of going to the airport.

But almost as soon as I left for my vacation, everything turned around for the better and my worries started to melt away in the Venetian waters. More on that later. And now, I'm crashing over at a friend's, looking forward to the concert tomorrow and then back to Malaysia in due time. :)

And by the way, these are previously unpublished photos of my room in Crescent Hall. The room I called home for 38 weeks. It too will be missed.

You...

...you know who you are

Bad Week

I've been having a pretty bad week. Firstly, the Chinese New Year break ended and I had to get my ass back here to PJ. Then classes started up again and I discovered that my Integrated Project was a catastrophe in the making. Then I got my results for the first assignment of Studio which I had nothing to complain about because I did below par. I really think I was about a week away from pushing my design forward to a much better state, but as fate would have it, time was just not on my side. And let's not forget about the shitty Environmental Science report.

Then I suffered from a cough which still last up to this second. And I'm wondering if I'm ever going to get my voice back. Then two days ago, my eyes kinda got a little swollen for no apparent reason and everytime I blinked, it freakin' hurts. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES AN AVERAGE HUMAN BLINKS?!?! But it has subsided since this morning and it's getting better.

And today I found out that I got summoned for running a red light back in Penang. Which is absolutely terrible. Good lord, I cannot believe this. It's just been a week and I've been encountering such misfortunes. And I still got so much work to do!

I swear to god, if there wasn't a party at Sophia's or the house visit to Jon and Kairi's, I would have spilled my marbles all over the god damned floor.


Good night. Stay tuned for more.

Annoying People on Facebook

Let's face it. Nearly every single person whom you know has a facebook account and probably even some others whom you don't know at all but nevertheless 'added you as a friend' for reasons unknown. Facebook is a blessing and curse for social communication and it's funny how it has exploded into our lives and has manipulated many to spend hours and hours being virtually unproductive in 'farmville' or 'restaurant city'.

I'm glad that I'm probably one of the few still unaddicted to facebook. And I do mildly smirk at those who are constantly logged in to the website. Everyday, everyday. Even when they're on holiday. Give it a rest for god's sake. And what's even more interesting are the people who start to measure time using the length they spend away from Facebook. "OMG, I haven't logged into Fb in 2 WHOLE DAYS!!!"

I may sound bitter, but you know I'm just speaking what's already probably in your mind. Here are 14 more people who annoy me and you on Facebook:

Sourced from GQ.com


Stay tuned for more.

Urghhh

Why god...WHY!


Stay tuned for more.

Hectic

It's been a terrible week. Assignments are due in a weeks' time but the workload ahead of us is just unbelievably daunting. There is just so much to do. The 1:500 scale model of Georgetown, Penang is no where near complete. I'm placed under the presentation team but I've to put that on hold coz' the model making team is seriously lacking in manpower. I've been going to college so often that I actually FEEL productive for an extended period of time instead of just relapses and traces of said productivity.

I've got dark circles around my eyes the size of dinner plates, I feel dehydrated and I'm eating more junk food than ever. I don't like where this is going but I am gradually changing my meals. Oh, when will this hellacious task come to an end?


Stay tuned for more.

C-Day

The critique is over. That hellish day when I don't know what to expect and am just left there sweaty palmed, nervous and just thiiiiiis close to hurling all the contents of my stomach which is actually not alot considering the fact that I haven't eaten all that much in the past few days to begin with.

From now on, assignment due dates are to be blamed for my unhealthy eating lifestyle which ultimately ends up with my weight loss and going back home where every family member and friend will go on to say to me "You look damn thin."

Uh huh, Don't you think I know that! Go blame the assignments.

Back on track, this semester, our crit session was held at the Gallery which really was something special as the usual crits are held in the studios. I guess it's because our batch of students are slightly smaller in comparison to the other batches.

- Critique at the Gallery

My critique didn't go smoothly. It was a real rocky journey. One I would definitely most likely want to forget and sweep under the carpet. Almost everything that I thought would go wrong went wrong. Everything I hoped they wouldn't ask, they asked and added even more. So, is this self-fulfilled prophecy or what!?

I'll also blame it on the fact that I got slightly tough crits. But I know I'm probably the real one to blame for not meeting the requirements and not being critical enough on myself and on my design development stages. I need to question myself more. But I did get one teeny-tiny positive remark from the crits which I can only view as a bone that they had to throw at me just because I probably looked like a wounded dog after all of their harsh (but true) remarks. Just a way to make me feel slightly better I think. But it didn't work. While most of my coursemates faired well, I on the other hand can only hope that I get a decent grade for this semester to ba able to move on to the next.

But nonetheless, it's over. Which marks the end of the semester! The wrap-up. The finale of my second year in this course.

- post-crit

Stay tuned for more.

Random

Exam...tomorrow...finals...OMFG

I hate this subject. It's the pain in the neck felt by every student taking it in this semester.


Stay tuned.

Go Read My Blog

There was this one incident which I was unfortunate to chance upon sometime ago. It was one of several to come. An incident which would put me off. This happened when my friends and I were just beginning to jump into the blogging bandwagon. But up til' now, I still come across it once in a while.

Scenario 1: I am out with a friend strolling along the corridors of some shopping mall doing our usual rounds of window shopping and walking without a specific intention in mind. I think most of my outings are just for the sake of going out. So I pose a question: "How's everything going?" and the answer I get: "Oh, long story, GO READ MY BLOG."

Scenario 2: I dial up a friend's number in hopes of talking and catching up with the things that are going down in each others' life. We say hello, talk a little and when I ask something like "Oh, so how was that occasion you attended the other day?" The reply: "Go read my blog."

So now I'm left to wonder, Am I supposed to stop in my tracks, drive home from that mall and log online to check how your week went? Am I supposed to hang up the phone and instantly read up on all the juicy details you supposedly encountered? Or should I just save both of our time, and not go out or call or see each other and just sit in front of the computer awaiting each others' blogposts?

As far as I know it, blogs are not supposed to substitute all means of communication especially one on one commmunication. Blogs are like journals. If you're overseas and calls are expensive, then fine I'll gladly read your blog to keep myself updated about your life. But if you live several blocks down from where I'm staying, I think it would be pathetic for me to find out about how your cheesy prom night went by reading it from a bloody screen. Hell no, I want to hear it from your lips!

Whoever replaces one on one conversations with the line "Go read my Blog", I'm gonna bludgeon them with a blog widget to death. You think that's not possible? Im'ma make it possible.

Listen, I want to hear your stories from you. I want it to feel more personal than reading something about your life that 2 million other people can easily access.

Oh, and what's worse than "Go read my blog" is the line "Didn't you read my blog?" Since when was I obligated to read your blog? Do you expect me to be chained to the computer desk reading every word three times just to make sure I didn't miss out anything? If I didn't read all about that drama you encountered with that bitch from economics class at college and you say to me "Why didn't you read my blog?", I will personally glue your mouth shut with the UHU glue I just bought and currently have right in front of me. That way, all future conversations between you and me will be through blogs! And maybe even twitter!


And oh, by the way,
Go read my blog for more...

Just my Luck

One my assignments this semester involves rendering a video of at least 30 seconds of a 3D model of a building. As most of you would know I'm far from beaing the tech savvy. And naturally, I found this something of a challenge.

So yesterday I was at the college computer lab preparing to render some clips of my video. I had to make minor adjustment to the model and stuff and when I finished, I took off from college at about 10pm and left the computer on to generate the video. Something that you should probably know: A 10 second clip takes about like 8 hours to render. Insane, I know. But it's true.

So this morning I went back to college to collect the finished video. Walked into the lab...saw that the computer I used had its screen off. Upon further inspection, the whole computer was off. Apparently there was this person who was smart enough to unplug my computer so that she could plug in her laptop although I had clearly written a message, and a big message at that, saying: "DO NOT LOG OFF...RENDERING IN PROGRESS."

But unfortunately some people are just utterly blind and amazingly stupid since THERE WAS ANOTHER POWERPOINT AVAILABLE JUST RIGHT NEXT TO THE ONE SHE UNPLUGGED. And further more, she used her laptop just to use MSN messenger. Needless to say my heart sunk. All those hours I poured into that 10 second clip has just been hurled into the recycle bin. Thanks to that remarkably dim-witted soul, I feel as though I'm useless. I'm like a bird with no wings, a student without a teacher, an oversized man with an XS-sized shirt.

Where is my will to live?

Stay tuned for m.....oh who gives a sh*t.....don't stay for all I care.

- A shot of the house I'm currently rendering.

This sucks

Just a quick update for ya'll.

I'm occupied trying to come up with concepts and ideas for studio and nothing seems to be flowing out of my mind. I'm still in the midst of searching for something to grasp on before I actually start working on everything else.

My computer is in trouble. It's been damaged and the estimated cost of repair: RM 1300.
Dad says he'll consider getting me a new one. If you think I'm jumping for joy, you're sadly mistaken. I'm in need of a computer right now. Without it, I can't do most of my work.


Stay tuned for more.

Hellish

I've been having a bad time lately. It's been a string a incidents which has made my life oh-so-crappy and caused me to be hell-iciously upset over every little damn thing. As most of you would already know my laptop problems, it has not yet been resolved and I'm currently trying to delete my Norton which has expired but so far, I've been unsuccessful as it keeps on prompting me to insert the Norton cd. I'm just a few steps away from hurling the whole damn thing out from the tenth floor.

Then just recently, I discovered my Touch n' Go card went missing. Now I haven't any idea how much is left in there, but I've searched high and low for it but to no avail. I've thought about it, backtracked and done just about everything. It's gone. FUCKING GONE.

And as of yesterday night, I'm plagued by a bad sorethroat. As if those two incident above aren't bad enough, now I've got this murderous pain in my throat which continually wrecks my day. Oh, just pull the trigger already.


Stay tuned for more of my fucked up life.

Type 2

There are only TWO types of people in this world. Ones who are nice. And ones who are plain DEVILiciously evil, nastily-obnoxious, domineering types who constantly spew sarcastic and outrageously insulting remarks at innocent victims AND have either frowns or cynical smirks plastered on their faces.

Good lord, why did I get the latter?



Stay tuned for more rants.

Regret.

Oh my god. Coming back so soon to PJ was a complete waste of time and not to mention effort. I was told that I had classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (which is today). The Tuesday class practically wasn't at all. Headed over to college just to attend a tutorial class which was barely one. Wasted all that fuel when the lecturers are fully aware of the world's dwindling fuel resources *Grumbles*. Then on Wednesday, we were taken to Klang to an art museum in which I personally believe was wayyyyy to short a visit. I had little if no time to capture the images I wanted.

And today's classes were...well whaddaya know...CANCELLED. Hell no! I rushed all the way back here just to be completely let down by the schedule prepared by the lecturers. I should have stayed back home and only return today. That way, I could have had more time to explore Penang and find sites suitable for my assignments, spend time in the comfort of my own home and also BE with my parents who happen to be away the entire period I was home. Even a few days would have made a difference. And instead, I hurriedly drove back to PJ just to endure a generous helping of NOTHINGNESS.

The only thing which is keeping me slightly elated is the fact that i'm looking forward to 2 Raya Open houses which i've been kindly invited to. One of which is tomorrow! Saving grace indeed.

Stay tuned for more.

One done.

I can't believe I managed to finish the comic strip let alone finish it in time. I was striving to complete it on Sunday, slaving away on my desk, leaving only for the occasionnal snack/bathroom/Mythbusters break. I was not looking forward to this project at all coz' firstly, human figures are not my forte. And I tend to get the proportions all wrong.

But it turned out quite alright. Although there are some frames which obviously suck, I was satisfied. I'm not expecting good grades for this particular assignment as I didn't manage to fulfill the site relation aspect. All I was aiming for was to complete it in time and with...dignity?

Well, one assignment down, another 2 exams, one report and one presentation to go. These two weeks of sleepless nights, unhealthy meals and brain-cracking is one hellish ride. I hope it ends soon.

- Should I get an afro?

Stay tuned for more.

Still Sane

I've been crazed. Even as I type this i'm working on an assignment. In the past week alone I had a Studio mock-up evaluation, a 10 minute Building Services Video to edit, an Architecture History presentation and a Building Construction mid-semester exam. So basically, yeah, i'm a little stressed.

To add to the already daunting workload, i've got a Studio submisson this coming Monday, a Building Construction presentation on Tuesday, an Architecture History mid-semester exam on Thursday and a possible Building Services one on that day too. Can anyone spare me some cyanide?

I'll be very busy this coming week and I hope that the week after that (which is the week prior to Raya), I would have completed the assignments and done the exams.

A great way to maintain sanity, is to work well with your friends and not just only on assignments.













Stay tuned for more.

A terrible price to pay

So today was not the ordinary typical day at work. Instead of AutoCAD-ing endlessly on the computer, I was assigned to help out in taking measurements of a building they are thinking of demolising which is situated at Gurney Drive. If I could describe it, I would say it's an old, dilapidated anglo-malay styled bungalow. It may have been a nice house to live in way back when bicycles dominated the streets of Penang. It faces Gurney Drive and occupies the chunk of land all the way to the back street. And the sea breeze was great too, except for the fact that it's run-down, abandoned, dirty and with an appropriate touch of creepy. Oh, and it has a basement too! Here's how it looks like:

- the bungalow.


- As I was driving to get to the place, it hit me that I really never take advantage of living so near to Gurney Drive. I should start going there for walks or people watching more often.

Speaking of driving, by now everyone knows that the petrol prices in Malaysia have spiked by a horrifying amount. I think it's utterly crazy and many people would agree with me. I mean 78 cents?! 78 freakin' cents?! That a 40% increase! It's madness, I tell you MADNESS!!! Couldn't they have slowly raised the rates little by little over a longer period of time instead of implementing such a drastic and shocking change so damn fast. Why don't they just charge us for every step we take or push us off a cliff 'coz that's just slightly worse than what they have done. They could probably also raise electricity rates...oh wait...that's happening too. Hike up food prices? Check! Chop off our legs? Double check that!

And it was quoted somewhere that petrol prices may rocket up to 3 or 4 ringgit by August when they COMPLETELY saw our heads off remove the subsidy. Why doesn't the government just squeeze every living breath out of us. They've already pushed up the gas prices, next comes raising electricity tariffs and this will unavoidably cause an increase in the prices of food, retail, transport and every sector imaginable. And our income on the other hand...oh right...that stays the same f*ckin' amount.

Now if you'll excuse me, i've got to switch off the light in my room, go hog some petrol before the next price hike and cut out discount coupons for groceries and other ridiculously priced things.

Greelections

I don't really care about the elections coz firstly, i'm underaged and thus unable to vote and secondly, I don't know what on earth is happening. I mean I don't even know what DAP and PAS stands for! So, I prefer to wave at the elections as they go by. I've been listening to alot of comments regarding Penang now being under the opposition but frankly, I don't know what that means and what's gonna happen. I'm clueless...

BUT I am certain on one thing about the elections. It's the amount of trash produced everytime from the on going campaigns they use to promote themselves. They print their slogans and faces of the contending politicians on PLASTIC banners and string them all over town. On the walls, on the lamp posts, on the telephone poles and on just about anywhere they could find to display them. They even STAPLE THE BLOODY THING ON THE TREE!!! I am so standing up for tree rights for the next elections.



In addition to the merciless tree mangling, the plastic banners which are probably NON-BIODEGRADABLE will cause pollution! They are a waste of resources AND they get ruined in such a short period of time. ALSO do you even notice the amounts of the banner they put up in some places! It's madness!!! Come on people, it's 2008! It's time to go green! If you can't start with small things like printing banners and posters economically, how are you expected to progress? It's such a waste of time and money to print the posters which are clearly in excess.

What's been going on

After Chinese New Year, things have been crazy over here at college. I've like multiple assignment submissions AND presentations some of which fell on the same bloody day which totaly sucks coz then I have to stay up till the wee hours of the morning like 3 or sometimes 4am just to complete some of the projects. And the next day even more workload would just pour in and squeeze that every bit of energy you have. But honestly, not all's well. I don't think i'm performing all that well especially in the presentations and group projects. I totaly suck in those coz I tend to lose concentration and end up falling short of my groupmates' expectation of me. *Exhales long breath* I seriously pray I am able to survive this semester.

On to better things, here are some of the pictures that i've been wanting to post up since last week but couldn't because of the said reason above. These were taken like a few weeks back during CNY and some were after. Just to recap some of the people I managed to hang out with.

- Had a reunion with the group, Ivan, Al, me, YM & Van at McDonalds. I believe we were playing cards that night.


- Met up with Zhi Xiang after not seeing him for like a month!


- Met up with Jee Mee! Just days before he was off the UK.


- Hung out with Karen & Khang May!!! ( whom by the way I have not seen in a whole year!) just last Saturday during my weekend back in Penang.

As I was commenting at the beginning of this post that I have numerous assignments, one of which I am about to show you guys just to let you know what i've been up to for my 'Interior Behavioral Studies' class this semester. So, this is a 2-3 person per group project and we had about 2 weeks to actually build the damn thing. Oh, and it was due today and i've already handed it in. The objective of this project was to build a 1:20 scaled model of a shop front display from a list of brands which was given to us. Initially we wanted to do ZARA but since 4 other groups were doing it, we picked GUESS. But you gotta keep in mind that for this project, i'm totaly NOT in my comfort zone. The group i'm in is not the usual group I am currently hanging out with, that's coz I joined the class late and Pam, Kar Weng, Fatin, Jon and Sophia have already formed their own group which totaly blows. I was practically forced to join another group and thus this project was a real challenge to me since the three of us in the group don't run in the same clique.

But safe to say, we managed to complete it and handed it in on time. Here's how it looks like:

- The facade of the model shop for GUESS.


- Some framed black and white photos with complementing black and white checker board floors.

Well, you gotta know by now that GUESS has the whole sexy, slutty image going on so that was a recurring theme in our model. We were trying to strike a balance between chicness and sophistication with the sexy sultry thing. So to do that, we used simple solid colours, a simple design and merging it with slutty cut-out mannequins placed in the display case. Oh, and it even has lighting! I didn't take a lot of pictures coz I was in a rush in completing the powerpoint presentation that goes along with the submission. But if I have the chance, i'll take better shots! During the past 3, 4 or 5 days, i've been having Pam, Kar Weng, Fatin, Jon and Sophia over at my place to do their projects. Just like a project hub to do their things. Kinda like a gathering space so we could work together and get each other's opinions. It was tiring, i'll have to admit, but it was fun. So, we were working on 3 models at the same time at the same place.

- It was the first time I had so many people over at the hostel!

Okay, so that pretty much sums up my week. busy, busy, busy. And now finally the projects have been submitted (well...except for one) and the presentations have been delivered. But then again, the second wave of assignments are about to hit soon. I hope I do well. *crosses fingers*

Damn Drivers

Okay, I know I just posted something nice just moments earlier, but I can't help it but to rant and bitch about the things that i'm about to.

Right, let me paint you a picture here: you're driving home after a tiring day. The scorching sun has been relentless the whole drive back. You look forward to unwind back home which is now only a block away. You turn a corner and WHAT'S THAT!?!?!

'WHAT THE F*** IS THAT!?!?!', you think to yourself. 'COME ON!!!!'

An asshole has stopped his effin' car right on the yellow box, hindering you from turning into your OWN HOUSE. So near yet SO FAR.

If you don't live in jammed up areas like I do, then you might not experiance this as often. I absolutely positively abhor people who brainlessly stop their car ON THE BLOODY YELLOW BOX! Don't they KNOW what a yellow box is for? Did they get their license through BRIBERY? Are they blind and blithely unaware of street signage? If not then WHAT THE EFFIN' HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE ANIMALS!?!?

Okay, it's not so bad if the person misjudged the distance available in front and accidentally stops on the box. But I TOTALY LOATHE AND HATE EVERY PARTICLE AND EVERY CELL OF THE PERSON WHO IS SO EFFIN' INCONSIDERATE THAT HE STOPS ON THE EFFIN' YELLOW BOX EVEN THOUGH HE OR SHE KNOWS IT EFFIN' EXISTS!!! To that person: PISS OFF!

I hope you smash your fancy shmancy car into a pole and get catapulted through your windscreen onto the road where your body grazes the tarmac for several metres causing brain matter and all your foul body organs to splash all over the asphalt. Urghhhhh!!! So if you DO stop on yellow boxes, I hope you discontinue to do so. Please be considerate.

Phew...spilling it all out on this post has made me feel so much better. Anyways, here are some pictures of the bastards. Cheers!