Graduation

This is Adrian Tan's speech at the convocation of students (class of 2008) at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (NTU).

Adrian Tan is a litigation partner at Drew & Napier LLC.

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LIFE AND HOW TO SURVIVE IT


I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address.

It's a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation.

I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.
My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one.
She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living.
She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator.
Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are.
I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home.
That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men:
when you've already won her heart, you don't need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life.
Some of you may already be married.
Some of you may never be married.
Some of you will be married.
Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You're done learning.

You've probably been told the big lie that 'Learning is a lifelong process'
and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters' degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on.
You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers.
Don't you think there is some measure of conflict of interest?
They are in the business of learning, after all.
Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they're wrong.

The bad news is that you don't need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone.
That may come as a shock to some of you. You're in your teens or early twenties.
People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people.
But I'm here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy.
We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long.
We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless.
There's very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup.
Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years.
Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you'll have another 40 years to go.
Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they're 50, 40, 30 years old.
Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation.
They would be very disappointed that they didn't meet their life expectancy.

I'm here to tell you this.
Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it's calculated based on an average.
And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family.

You are told that, as graduates,

you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.
That is what is expected of you.
And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people.
I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them.

And you don't need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life's a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it.
Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it.
Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment.
Your degree is a poor armour against fate. * Exactly.

Don't expect anything. Erase all life expectancies.
Just live. Your life is over as of today.
At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look.
This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you?
It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free.
Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do.
By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills.
The Japanese have a term "Karoshi", which means death from overwork.
That's the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways.
If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there's nothing left.
A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

*** There's a common misconception that work is necessary.
You will meet people working at miserable jobs.
They tell you they are "making a living" No, they're not.
They're dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful. ***

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free.
The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps.
Utter nonsense.

** Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort.
You may never reach that end anyway.

*** Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play.
Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again.
You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often.
Soon, that will have value in itself. *** I am enjoying my job.. not 100% of the time, but most of the time.. as compared to office work.. I think I would be much happier continuing this job.....

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator.
I enjoy it and I would do it for free.
If I didn't do that, I would've been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction - probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do?
You will find your own niche. I don't imagine you will need to look very hard.
By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do.
In fact, I'll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions.
By this time you should know what your obsessions are.
If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession.

Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm.
If you don't, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication.
To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth.
I'm not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things.
The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth.
Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating.
There is also great skill.
Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences.
It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it.
That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror. *

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth.
I now say this to you: be hated.

It's not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you?
Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many.
That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated.
In fact, it's often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one;s own convictions.
It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions.
Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average.
That cannot be your role.
There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself.
Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn't say "be loved"
That requires too much compromise.
If one changes one's looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being.
It may seem odd for me to tell you this.
You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false.

Modern society is anti-love. We've taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings.
It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise.
Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance.
It is hard work - the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits.
There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness.
In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way.
We learn the true worthlessness of material things.
We celebrate being human.
Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person.
Despite popular culture, love doesn't happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor.
It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming.
It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated.
You are not doing it to be loved back.
Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone.
You either don't, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology.
It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

You're going to have a busy life.
Thank goodness there's no life expectancy.

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Fair

This song i want to share with you Fair by Remy Zero.


Remy Fair - Zero - The funniest bloopers are right here


Hey, are you lonely?
Has summer gone so slowly?
We found the ground
And that damage was done
It's cold as you fade into the sun
Where'd you go? To me.

But you're alive!
Well, it's only
Fallen frames, they told me
You stand out, it's so loud
And so what if it is?
It's cold as you face into the wind
Where to go?
(Tonight a sun shall see its light)

So what if you catch me,
Where would we land?
In somebody's life
For taking his hands
Sing to me hope as she's
Thrown on the sand
All of our work
Is rated again
Where to go?

And you were somehow
The rain this thing could allow
I tried
But it's all wrong

You're so strong
And this life and work
And choice took far too long
Where to go?
(Tonight a sun shall see its light)

So what if you catch me,
Where would we land?
In somebody's life
For taking his hands
Sing to me hope as she's
Thrown on the sand
All of our work(worth)
Is rated again

And I was sure you'd follow through
The world was turned to blue(so fair)
When you'd hide your songs would die
So I'd hide yours with mine
All my words were bound to fail
But I know you won't fail

See, I can tell...

-----

i heard it while watching the movie Fanboys and its also on the movie Garden State. Side track into some trivia about the band..

the band Remy Zero also did the very popular Smallville theme song Save Me. Unfortunately they have also disbanded since. The song Fair can be found in their 2nd album called Villa Elaine.

Love the song, its so haunting.


-would you even catch me now?-

Zilch

suffering from Post Architecture-project-submission-vacuum Syndrome

**makes sucking sound**

Pre-Submission Mayhem

angry, red and painful pimples start popping out on the face
puffy, swollen eyelids
bloodshot eyes
pale complexion
disheveled hair
bloated stomache
aching arms, neck and back
constant feeling of fatigue

some of the listed symptoms above may sound like what women have to go through once a month when good ol' aunt pays a visit but don't get me wrong, what i'm referring to above is not to lament about the major inconveniences women have to go through but rather the sad plight of year 3 architecture students in NUS who are about to face their first big hurdle in becoming an architect, RIBA Part 1.

the idea of a SoHo is captured in the architecture studio where students work and live here as submission draw near. amid the cutting mats, broken off pen knife blades, new materials, waste materials, butter paper, cartridge paper, sketch pens and pencils, UHU glue, white glue, laptops, chargers, books borrowed from the libraries, mineral water bottles, empty drink cans, cup noodles, chocolates, models, drying towels, safari beds and movable boards, we architecture students work and sleep (wait, what sleep?) endlessly throughout the nights before submission to finish the deliverables. it sounds and looks like a junkyard or just and accident waiting to happen, but we get along. accidents to happen sometimes when people slice part of their fingers off or worse the 'blue screen of death' from the computers and the scream and scramble after to ensure files were backed up.

nothing compares to this. maybe some journalist should shadow an architecture student and keep a journal tracing what they go through.

its so so twisted, its sometimes funny.

i just have to make it through till the 17th..

I WILL GET THERE IN ONE PIECE!!!

On a lighter note

i havent much to show for design later this afternoon but i found time to search for some entertainment online and found these..

i hope you enjoy them as much as i did, no matter how small the entertainment value, its still waayyyy better than doing design now :/



this last one is my personal favourite because it happens all the time :/



laugh..

In an unconcious state

" she dreamt of him today.. "

" was it good? or a nightmare? "

" oh, it was a good dream. he came back, and said he loved her. everything like before.. "

" is she okay now? "

" she woke up and reality sets in, you know how it is. she's still hurting inside, i can see it in her eyes.. "

-----

fridays and weekends are like a dream to me, they hold so much promise during the weekdays that when i think of them, i feel happy, almost seeing my soul leave my body and i envision myself doing what i would be doing this weekend. an out of the body experience. perhaps they are now an escape for me. an escape where i wont have to face work, faces that i dont want to see, and the stress i leave behind in school. dreams, i realise, are an escape. its this small part in your brain that keeps and locks up the sweetest memories but also the worst fears. then when u close your eyes at night, the gears in this tiny part starts working, setting off a serious of frames. sometimes jumbled, sometimes making full sense. sometimes waking up up perspiring all over in fear, sometimes smiling with sweet thoughts and the worst, sometimes waking up cheeks wet with tears.

i used to have frequent dreams when i was a little girl (yes i was little once) and they were always the same ones. one always starts with me somehow sitting on the parapet wall outside my grandparent's house on the 13th floor and a strong gust of wind comes and blows me over and i start to fall in slow motion down to the ground below. i always picture the motion of falling very slowly and it feels almost relaxing but before i really relax, i hit the ground and that's when i always wake up, with my legs slamming the bed as if in mimicry of my body slamming into the ground. i would break out in cold sweat after because as a child that really scared me. another vivid occurring dreams i remember was this one where i find myself in this extremely expansive huge white space, so huge i cannot see the end of it. but as i start to explore, i see the walls and ceiling start to enclose towards me. they start to increase in speed and i quickly find myself breathing heavily, in a space that continues to move in closer. the air becomes stuffy and i just before i wake up, in the dream, i always find myself unable to breathe, in foetal position, the walls are still packing in, just slowly now, i feel like i am in a box, claustrophobia sets in and with my last ounce of strength i scream and try to push the walls away. It is at this moment where i wake up and find myself cramped into a small corner of my bed, in foetal position like my dream, breathing heavily as though i had just ran a marathon, heart beating quickly beneath my chest.

these dreams haunted me almost every night but i never complained or told anyone about it. soon, as i grew older, they slowly started to disappear and i rarely get them now. but when i do, i feel the same way like the little girl i was about 15 years ago. they never made any sense to me and i dont think they ever will.

-----

" dry her tears. i hope she will be okay tonight and every other night. "

Through the hard times

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence

You know how songs and music seem to touch you in transcending ways? well this song, in a weird way calms me very much. when i'm frustrated or flustered, it manages to calm my nerves. must be the way its composed (:

i love it very much (:

She Obviously Hates Me

What do you do when someone cuts you off as you speak?
What do you do when they think you're slacking off and haven't been attending their class for 4 for 5 times?
What do you do when they feed you what they think is the right answer?

WHAT DO YOU DO?

i'm really upset. very upset. its not like i dont try okay. and i'm not f**king invisible either. i've only not gone for your studio for 2 times and not 4 or 5 times you bitch. effing go change your glasses if you cant see properly, i'm not exactly what most people call a small girl and i never excelled at the game hide n seek either. u snide thing. behind that thin smile you always give lie the daggers behind..

"oh may! do you know you are severely behind time?", " where are your plans and sections?"

well if u cared to look, did have plans and sections before during the interim and besides i dont work well with two dimensional drawings, i need to make models to visualise the space and architecture BEFORE i get started with the drawings when i'm satistfied. dont judge me because i cant do it the way you want all your minions to work.

argh. i'm so angry/upset/frustrated/desperate with studio, no, wait, school. i was THIS close, THIS close to letting the wave of emotions overcome me. As she sat there in her stupid European manner, looking at me in the condescending manner, i felt a lump form in my throat. it was horrible. i felt horrible. had zero mood to say anything else in the defense of my project. ZERO. i just sat there "uhuh-ed" my way through.

she obviously hates me.

obviously, i'm too damn dumb for my own good to think of a solution that you're happy with.

i hate you. i hate school.
but i have no choice.

A Case of Schizophrenia

A Psychiatric Report
-----------------------------------

I cannot concentrate on the tasks ahead of me.

the mind is an amazing thing. Its like a web that weaves in and around each other. so intricate. when i try to go through and make sense of my thoughts, they seem to be on track for awhile before i think i lose my way again somewhere along another line, lost in translation before i find myself tumbling through another 'issue' again.

this happens more than once day and perhaps driven by the things that happen around. it feels like spontaneous combustion sometimes where everything just explodes at one go and i find myself doing things that i would not usually find myself doing. i become clingy and needy (in my opinion), i neglect important tasks, i find myself in emotional turmoil half the time thinking of the past and what-could-have-beens, i spend too much for my own good..etc.

i am desperate. i sense this immense desperation inside. like i'm desperate to be normal, desperate to be happy, desperate to do well, desperate to act like everything is okay, desperate to maintain the front. why the desperation? because everyone tells me i have to move on? but what happens when when i'm not ready to do so and maybe just maybe, i'm just forcing myself to do just that and in the process of doing so, i lose myself. i dont recognise myself sometimes, this person i've become. i hate it. i feel torn between expressing my grief and pain and trying to move on. deep down i live wth regret and remorse of what i've done and its re-precussions. i try to put everything in a sealed bag n bury it deep it my heart n mind but like a man who refuses to die, it keeps coming back. i dont know how to deal with it and i try to keep burying it back into its grave, hoping that one day it will stay there. i will it to.

somedays i feel strong enough to face the world, somedays i just want to lay in bed and hide under the covers, afraid of what life may throw at me today.

today is such a day.

as i spill my thoughts here as i would to a psychiatrist, i feel vulnerable and weak. i think some good friends try to help but i guess because of my inert nature to keep my innermost thoughts to myself and how these thoughts are very messy and weird, i dont even know how to express them to someone else much less try to make some sense of it myself.

----

to my good friends,

u may think i'm too weak
u may think i should learn to move on
u may think i've become someone else
u may think i've already moved on
u may think u dont recognise me anymore

u may think a million other things that this entry cannot hold, but i have a simple wish that i hope u can help me with.

i hope u can be here for me when i need a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, an honest opinion and a guide to keep me in check.

i promise i will do the same for you.

please dont leave me alone and walk away. acquaintances i have many, but true friends i have few.

forgive me for i do not know how to express myself clearly most times

----

sometimes i am filled with so much self-doubt it scares me. i am afraid, afraid that i'm a mental basketcase.

believe me, i want to feel loved and i want to love but somehow i think that part of me just died too on that fateful day when he left..


my greatest fear : losing someone i love

a tribute

happy belated valentine's day

no more

dear friends

i don't think i will be blogging again anytime soon.

i've lost a huge part of my life, i no longer feel like myself anymore.
until i've found what i've lost, i will likely not come back here.

i wish everyone the best.
cherish those who love u and love them back.
make sure they know it.

dont be like me.

goodbye.

RANT!!!

JUST WHEN I'M BEGINNING TO GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY WEIGHT.. THE STUPID WEIGHING SCALE DIED ON ME!!!!!

ahem ahem

okay, got that out. sorry folks, i just had to get that out of my system.

I'm so starving right now cos i haven't eaten much in the last 38 hours. Only a packet of chee cheong fun for lunch yesterday and a single roll of spring roll for dinner and nothing else after that.

No. thats not my new diet regime.

its just cause i was working at ZOUKOUT and i hardly found the time to eat or there was no appetising stuff around. ahh..but its all good, had alot of fun at ZOUKOUT, in between the working and running around to the different areas to watch and dance..haha..a hell of an experience :) doing set-up again felt awfuly nostalgic of pre-study days where events, exhibitions and parties where the roster of the day..ah i do miss it.

i need to get ready for my HK trip already :) what clothes to wear and bring, what baggage to pack in, where to go, what to see... OOOO EXCITED!!!!

Mish Mash

its deathly quiet at home now. all the lights are off and the computer screen casts an empty glow in the room.
i have no idea why i cant seem to get to sleep. maybe cos of all the flood of events that happened recently. like all hell broke loose.

dear friends
dear me

some depressing
some so happy
some so embarrassing
some i have no idea what to make out of
some i have yet to know the full story

christmas is coming
new year is coming

i know what i want for christmas this year. which is good. i dont usually do. but this year. i've my sights on several things. ahhh. hopefully but some weird twist of luck i'll have my wish come true hehehehehe.

the new year is always the time where i feel most lost. i look back on the going year and maybe be filled with regret and sometimes joy in the things that have happened. but most importantly, i'd rather spend it with ppl close to my heart..not some insane party somewhere..

i feel old already..

no idea what's this post about. everything is scattered. i know. no train of thought. so all over the place. but maybe in this messy messy mess some coherency is present. i need to get my blogging mind back. blogging abt such un-interesting thoughts and events are so mundane. abt how i feel day in day out. boring. life i need a life.

ok let's take this nice n slow, walk with me if u will.
i warn u it takes great patience..

nice and slow
nice and slow into the new year

All Strung Up

Videos coming up..

Was in studio today and Andrew was very very enthusiastically telling Sri and i to search Youtube for this little Korean boy who plays the guitar damn well. So we did a search and here's what we found...


Living On a Prayer by Bon Jovi

Yes, amazing right for an eleven year old boy? We looked at other videos of his and his WIDE and i mean WIDE repertoire of songs. Chanced upon a cover of Eric Clapton's (Slowhand), Tears in Heaven and that went on to me gushing about Clapton's songs..

One of my ALL TIME FAV LOVE SONG...(sing this song to me and i will so totally melt)


Wonderful Tonight

Which then lead on to...


Layla

Then to...


My Father's Eyes

Did a wiki search on Eric Clapton and his life story is undeniably full of ups and downs..lost parentage, substance abuse, affairs, loss of a child. Go wiki his name if you really want to know, but seriously, all those life experiences led him to write amazing songs including collaborations with the late Bob Marley.

Sighs...

I could just listen to the songs over and over again..
I'm all strung up..

One week

Best fliend and i

When best fliend and i are together, we do the craziest things :)

I have no patience for blogging now but i'll do it anyway since I'm trying to kill time while my hair dries so i can go to sleep.

F1 started today and the sound of the machines whizzing by made hair all over my body stand on end. It was a weird feeling, quite hard to describe but i secretly found it quite pleasurable. It made this tingly feeling inside that just made me smile. Odd really, but nice :)

(note: not even an F1 fanatic, know nuts about the sport, except Raikonnen's blue blue eyes)

Its Sam's birthday today, and best fliend and i went through alot of trouble making a surprise for him as well as getting his gift. I hope he liked it though :) and we had good fun going through all the trouble. Happy birthday Samuel Low Yan Yun!!!

hehe..

Mambo was awesome as usual on Wednesday. Think full house Zouk and excellent company on the dance floor. Bumped into a few familiar faces as well. Good stuff i say.

Finally got the full protection for my new lappie today. Its FLAMING RED and I LOVE IT!

One week almost over..

Buzz Buzz BUSY

Now don't blame a girl if she's too busy to update her blog.

Its a good sign isn't it? Like she has better things to do then pour a tirade of her emotions out on cyberspace and hope to gather some sympathy votes?

No! i will not do that today, maybe some other day though..haha

we're nearing the end of the 1st term of Sem 1 of my 3rd year in hell-hole Architecture School and i'm glad to say after all the shit i've been through i'm still loving it. Of course with great group mates and the occassional stress relieving session of good ol' volleyball, i'm still ALIVE.

Now, i'm just looking forward to the holidays :)

Catch up with friends, do the necessary spring cleaning although its technically autumn now, get my Europe trip album into place..most importantly to hang loose and have fun..

i like the way life is going now. Fuss-free with no strings attached. 

LOVING IT!

The Pursuit of Architecture

Site studies in sweltering heat
Rolls of yellow butter paper
Hours spent sketching
Beating the mind into plup for a credible concept
Translating that into space
Rolls of yellow butter paper
Hours spent sketching
Toying with pieces of cardboard
Transforming paper architecture to actual space
Sessions with tutors who slam you for your own good
Back to the drawing board again
Start all over
Reach a conclusion and make it work
Start work on deliverables
Slog like mad to make sure everything's in place
Presentation
Relief and satisfaction

At the beginning, one dreaded this one week workshop. Now at the end of it, one begins to see what were the lessons taught and the lessons learnt.

Only people who have had experience being in architecture school or its equivilent know what it really is like to be coupled down with so much stress and work and still be able to function properly. One enjoys what one does and no matter how stressed and busy it all is, its always a sweet ending when one has given it all.

Some friends might never understand how appointments, birthdays or even a simple meal together can be forgotten.

Its all in the pursuit of architecture that one finds true happiness :)

Goodbye Life, Hello No Life

Alrite, its the 2nd day of school and i'm already moaning and dreading it. So not a good sign, reminds me of Yr 2 Sem 1..Sighs..

BOO!

We have this Tropical Architecture Workshop running for 1 week and we have deliverables that have to be done by this Saturday for the final crit which is almost like possible considering the scale of the project. We have to design a building within a 8.3m x 18m x 15m site which is situated in a private housing estate, at the end of a row of terraced houses. Its supposed to be converted into a cafe and 2 other programs which suit the context of the building. The design has to encapsulate tropical design as well as concepts relating to the context of the site. Sounds like alot? You should hear about the deliverables..

1 A1 panel depicting your design in concept and rendering
Full Floor Plans
Sectional Drawings
1:50 scale model of the overall design
1:20 scale model of a sectional door/window/opening

so there..all by this Saturday did i mention? Oh well, at least i should take heart that its group work? But you know me, i'm not that good with group work in unfamiliar environments and unfamiliar people. Its just weird. We have to establish a whole new studio synergy all over again. :(

The next 5 weeks are going to be a whole new project all over again. I just hope its interesting..

Yes, i know i promised more abt the trip and some pictures to go along. They'll come up as soon as i manage the time and got them all put together. I've yet to show them all to my family either.

Goodness, i realise i have nothing much to blog about now except things happening in school. I need to find another focus somewhere somehow, by hook or by crook. How apt a title!

Verbal Diarrhea

Greetings from this very inactive blogger who has just returned from her 42 day long trip to Europe, covering 16 cities and 6 countries namely France, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, Czech Republic and Austria.

Awesome would be the typical way to describe it but me being me wouldn't say it like that..
It was a very enriching trip in which i learnt many valuable lessons from the people i travelled with, met and studied with. I don't think the entire experience could be measured by a single word or even a passage. Enriching is the best word i can think of to say of it and ENRICHING it will be.

It was..

FUN = when laughter and stupid moments happened
EXCITING = moments when we threw caution to the wind
IN AWE = private moments when we took in the breathtaking view or simply admiring the beautiful architecture
HOMESICK = the yearning for a taste of home just so we know we weren't too far away
FRUSTRATION = tempers flaring and ugly scenes followed

and the list goes on which would be too long for an entry. I would love to post pictures to share but you'll have to wait as they get sorted 1st. 42 days without full access to my laptop means no less than 10GB worth of pictures to sift through before they are fit for publication here. I plead with you to bear with me while i do so and i promise u will not be disappointed.

And so ends my 1st Eurotrip and you can be sure i will be back for seconds. Just too much to see in so little time. Maybe the next time i'll try couch surfing or something of that sort. :)

I'm just glad to be back now, at home, where all my loved ones and friends are. Being away for this long ( the longest time i've been away ) taught me much and i think i really do treasure everything i have back home more.

But its okay..
I'll see you soon Europe..but not before i conquer the Americanas first!
*grins*
Work and Travel USA in the pipeline..

I know this post isnt doing justice to the trip but i'd love to tell u more about in person if i have the chance to :)
Its a personal thing i'd love to share with you..

Patience is a Virtue

hi folks..

i know its been awhile and i apologise for the lack of updates but monotony isnt very much fun to update abt..
hehe..

but anyway, i have to keep this post short because in less than 3 hrs time i'll be on my way to Europe to take in the sights.

yes..everyone says "WOW, what a great opportunity!"

one half of me agrees..but the other half..erm..kinda sad..i'll be super home sick lah..

urgghh...sound so weak. i hate it.

i promise everyone i will come back with loads of pictures to show and hopefully, if i can afford it, a small token.. :)

while i'm away, i'll be thinking of my new crush and his awesome moves on the podium..

whahahaha

cissa...only u know who okayyy...

OMG..here i go again..

okok..got to go now..

I LOVE YOU PEOPLE!!!!