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OhLaila |
Monday, 29 July 2013
Your role models do not have to be big shots. In fact, they probably should not. Why adore people that are brightly spotlighted by the media so much, when there are so many of them that are so much more inspirational but kept in the dark? I was watching documentary videos about Jalan Kukoh because the studio where I'm interning in was looking to do an outreach program and we concluded that Jalan Kukoh neighbourhood has a lot of opportunities waiting to be explored. And so I came upon a Youtube channel called Growing Up With Less (http://www.youtube.com/user/GrowingUpwithLess), where a group of people are shedding light and providing voices for the people who are with lower-income, troubled but nevertheless really, really good at hearts. Man, I have never felt this motivated or touched in such a long time. (I guess their projects somehow work on me) This is where I realise that to be able to be successful, to be able to push yourself against the pressure the world is imposing upon you, you need a certain set of qualities. I mean, the people that they interviewed were superbly motivational to me. They struggle with menial jobs and low income, yet they are determined to improve the quality of life of their whole families. In fact, some of them do not just stop there. They even reach out their help to their fellow struggling neighbours. This fact really puts me into so much shame. These people can barely feed their families, yet they are willing to help others in need, despite risking their own well-beings. Yet some of us, who are much better off in the society, are simply ungrateful and to put it worse, we don't give a shit for that. We still feel that whatever we have, is not enough, no matter how much more we have, no matter how good our life already is. Yes, this is myself included. I try, I do. I try my best to feel grateful and appreciate the things I acquire and already have in my life. But sometimes, I do have to remind myself again and again that I should not waste my most precious possessions in life that I take for granted at times. Those are:
Anyway, I believe I was saying something about a certain set of qualities we should have to be successful.
No matter what you desire to be, or to achieve, I believe these are what we need to be successful morally:
Perseverance, Moral Values, Desperation
If we only have the first two: the perseverance is meaningless. There is nothing backing it up.
If we only have the last two: giving up is at the end of the road.
If we only have the first and last: you'll turn criminal.
This, I believe so.
But this is in my humble opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if others have their own.
I feel that those people who are documented in the Youtube channel all possess the qualities I mentioned. At least I see the attributes in all of them.
I'll be going there to do site visits with all of the fellow interns tomorrow. From what I've been reading, watching, and hearing, that's one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Singapore (it can even be considered "slum") with troubled individuals (poor, loan sharks, drug abusers, gang members) are, or at least used to be, abundant.
I still can't believe that Singapore still has a large slum. I guess some parties would rather hide the fact that they exist so as not to ruin the portrayal of Singapore as a first-world country.
Probably.
I'm slightly afraid, yet motivated too.
Hope to get a fruitful visit tomorrow.
Monday, 15 July 2013
YOSHIMARU Ramen Challenge 2013 (late!) So last Thursday, a day after my 21st, I had nothing to do after work. And my friend Chun Ming suddenly decided to adopt the YOLO mode out of nowhere. CM: Ramen challenge later, onz? Me: What time? CM: Nowwwwwwww Me: Lol ok. And we met up at Holland Village to this ramen bar called Yoshimaru. One of my favourite place to eat ramen I must say. For their quality, the price is really worth it. 11 bucks++ for a bowl of hearty ramen, when it can go up to 20bucks in other places. Yoshimaru also happened to be conducting this ramen challenge, whereby you have to finish a ramen exactly 3times the normal size within 15minutes and it will be S$0 ! Sounded like a good deal to me, so why not right! And I've gotta do something to make my birthday kinda memorable in a way too! Heh. From the sound (and sight of other people) of it, the portion did not look intimidating to me. Not until the noodle itself was prepared in front of my eyes.
Damn look at that. I got nervous right away.
And so when our bowls arrived, the rules and regulations were stated to us. We even had to sign an indemnity form before that.
Pretty simple, standard rules if you asked me.
Finish everything including last drop of soup and condiments, don't throw up, not allowed to go anywhere until the timer stops.
It actually looked very appetizing to the hungry me at that time.
The ready challengers before the timer starts.
And with the sound of a horn, the timer began! We gulped everything down as fast as I could.
But I started to strategize a little, by having soup on my left hand and noodles on my right, gobbling down alternately.
Soon after, I started to insert pieces of condiments into my mouth too. I figured it would be too sickening to finish up all the condiments only after I finished my noodles.
By my 7th minute, I started to slow down already.
By my (approximately) 3rd bowl of ramen, I was feeling rather terrible.
But I think I really pushed myself at that time. I can't really remember much of what happened. I was focused.
All I remember are these bits and pieces of thoughts floating around:
"Strategize. Eat the egg now. Eat the meat now. Soup now."
"Wow if Chun Ming barely finishes it, what about me?"
"FINISH IT UP!!! You're almost there and if you falter, it's 30bucks flying out of your pocket!"
BAM! With my last ounce of struggle, I finished until the last drop of the soup, and completed the challenge with a mouth-check by the waitress.
I did it! I just couldn't believe it at the moment. I was feeling literally the fullest in my whole life.
And for a reason I still couldn't exactly figure out, my limbs went numb for a few minutes.
They just paralyzed and my fingers were stuck in this weird position for a while.
I believe it was just an after-effect of adrenaline overdose though. Haha.
For the highlights of what happened, here is a short clip taken by Kabin who gladly accompanied us despite not participating in the challenge himself.
Most of the photos are taken by him too. Overall, a great experience I would say.
Look at our aftermath expressions.
No seriously it was an out-of-the-world eating experience.
Although I doubt that I could ever do it again. Hahaha.I think I was really under the influence of the Holy Spirit or something. I never knew I could do all that.
The certificate of completion that we got at the end. We completed the challenge with around 2 minutes to spare.
A couple of cans of Mini Asahi as a compliment of the ramen bar.
Bloated. But triumphed!
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Time passes yet again. Didn't initially plan to write about this, That is, until this really great group of friends of mine from 10SH20 planned a surprise for me. I was genuinely surprised. Especially since I apparently mentioned it to them before that I don't actually plan to celebrate my 21st.
Photo credit: Donna
Wah I was really touched at that time last Friday, simply because I did not expect so many of them to turn up suddenly since I was only supposed to be meeting 2 of them. And since I really, really did not expect myself, much less anyone else, to celebrate my 21st. Haha. My parents has asked me about this a while ago too. Usually, someone's 21st birthday is celebrated more.. heavily than other birthday years. Supposedly. That was what I thought too, since very very long ago. Back when I was still an elementary school kid, back when celebrating my own birthday party was very precious to me. Gradually, year after year, I began to slowly move away from the idea of conducting a party to celebrate my own birthday. After all, I feel that a birthday is just like any other day of the year. Of course, it is a slightly more special one, or people wouldn't have created commemoration for it. But each day should be of equal importance (or equal unimportance). That includes birthdays and non-birthdays date too. At first, I thought I was lazy to plan stuff. I might be, I don't know. But I figured that I would if I really wanted to. I just realised that I don't really want it. Another idea also came to my mind. Since people put so much emphasis on celebrating a 21st birthday, Maybe to make it most memorable for me is to do exactly the opposite of what I'm supposed to do instead. Who knows, someday in the future I would look back on this day and remember it well because by doing nothing special, it became a special day indeed. Anywho, some things change. Some things don't. Although entering 21st birthday is often equated to entering adulthood, Which then equates to taking more responsibility on your own, being independent, blah3x. In short, be mature. To be honest, I don't really feel like I'm 21 already. My appearance can be a factor, but I'm not talking about that. Haha. I still feel like how I am a few years ago; Happy, loud, enjoy the company of friends, boisterous at times. But I guess I too realise myself that some things have changed, for the better or for the worse, in me; Starting to think about my financial future, striving to be independent, be more in control of my own emotions (YES, after all these years of futile attempts, FINALLY), thinking less inwardly and more outwardly, being more optimistic. Yet I tend to get lazy at times, taking my body's immunity and vitality for granted. And as I was typing this halfway, my 'terrible' (and mostly older) apartment mates suddenly barged into the apartment, turned off the lights, and surprised me with another birthday cake. Sweet! *no pun intended*
Photo credit: Haruki
And according to Josh, the one in red, there is still a prank for me somewhere waiting to be discovered. Until now I still can't figure out what they are...
There are still a little more of others that I didn't manage to meet this time; My bros from FTPSS, the YOLO gang, some peeps from 12F07, my friends in Indo, my parents. Maybe instead of waiting to hear from them, I should use this time to reach out to them instead. I'll see about that. Haha. At the end of all this, I think I know now why I'd rather not celebrate my birthday with big parties. The best way to have fun is with the small numbers of people you know you genuinely care about. And birthdays are simple annual reminders for us to appreciate them, who are available to us on most days, that they may not be there anymore once we turn our back. After all, what's a celebration without the right company right? ;) Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Something to produce? Well, finally after about a month of an internship, I guess I have something to produce. Didn't think of commemorating my very first, amateur architectural work. But I guess putting them in this archive of reflections and memories won't hurt. Haha. Basically this is an idea that the interns had to produce for the Archifest Pavilion proposal, although our ideas were not really gonna be use for the company's submission. Put simply, this was used as our practice. P.S.: To look at the photos with more clarity, right-click and open them in new tabs/windows. First of all I played around with the basic module, i.e. wooden pallets to create some furnitures and although the hinges were not visible, I thought of using them to connect pallets on an angle.
A random make-shift bed. Haha.
A box/cage. Mattress/padding can be added inside to make it a baby's crib. Heh.
Connect two pallets' same sides and put a glass surface on top to get a coffee table!
The simplest of them all above, is a makeshift sofa/bed. Hahaha.
My main installation idea for the site at Dhoby Ghaut Green, however, was a combination of a playground, mini-library, and activating the field area itself.
Also, what I think was really fun was to learn how to Photoshop your 3D model onto real photos at the correct perspectives. My first attempts turned out okay although it might not be 100% correct in terms of shadowing, perspectives, and proportions.
Oh here's a presentation board that I would probably print on an A1-sized paper to present my idea.
Yeah yeah yeah I know the name is a bit lame, but hey, I think from the list of names that we interns came up with, this name is the most suitable for my idea. And I don't wanna name it with some names that originate from Italian, Latin, French, or that sort of origins. All in all, I believe my idea is way FAR from perfection. So please, please, please leave some comments/criticisms here or to me personally. I don't care how harsh/sweet the comments are. I want to hear them. Haha. I believe those comments that I have received so far came from people who somehow tried to hold themselves back when evaluation my idea. So I am in need of the frank ones now. Good thing I have not been wasting my time as I sometimes thought I am. Looking forward to be doing more stuff in the not-so-far future! Softwares used:
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