Windglide

Pause

2012-01-30T01:24:00.004+08:00

Why do I always have to squeeze my soul dry for fyp.
So tiring. Can't it be fun with no expectations? Long gone is my excitement for doing a project of my own. Can I get it back?

The Artist

2012-01-13T23:14:00.007+08:00

When I first read about this movie in a magazine — A black and white silent film made in our time. I knew I just had to watch it. How awesome is that, for somebody to be bringing the old silent back in this age where everyone's going forward with 3D, effects and all. I can watch a silent film in a CINEMA, not youtube but high quality, huge screen presented in the format just like films of the past. Just the thought excited me a little, and I've read reviews that it's good so I went.

Definition of a silent film (from wiki) "A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue.""Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, starting with the pianist at the first public projection of movies" So a silent movie doesn't mean it's silent completely, there's music at times.

The story is set in the late 1920s to early 30s, the transition period between the end of silent films and the talkies(sound) came into movies. A melodrama about a popular silent film actor George Valentin who refused to come to terms with technology (the inclusion of voice in acting and sounds) and a budding young actress who's in love with this silly man. There's also the clever dog too who took some of the spotlight. To provide some history, many silent film actors lost their jobs when sound came into movies. It changed the acting because now that the actors can talk there's no longer the need to mug or move so much to get the audience's attention. They had to adapt to that. Another point is the image of the silent star would also change if he speaks.

It's a different experience watching a silent in a cinema. The actors have to dramatize their movements. When they smile, they put on their widest shiniest grin. It just seems to make everything happy. And when they're sad, the whole world seems to be crashing down, it rains, makes you wana go "awwww" for them. Although the lack of sound and words (though not completely), the set sometimes plays a commentary role that I laughed and aww-ed to myself for its apt use of words. There was this scene I remember where Valentin was walking dejectedly on the road and passed by a cinema called the Lonely Star. That "Lonely Star" was definitely referring to George Valentin.

Well here's the trailer if you're interested to check it out.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

2012-01-04T14:13:00.008+08:00

Just a short 30 minutes ago, I finished a book called "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick recommended by my dear friend potternuts a day ago who asked me whether I know a certain picture. Back a few more days ago, I remember a certain "Hugo" movie was mentioned during one of my conversations with another friend. Afterwhich I soon realise the connection, the movie was based off this book. These are reasons strong enough to convince me to read this.

Beautiful cover ain't it?
I got it off the book shelf from my school library the next day.

"The Invention of Hugo Cabret" concerns a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station in 1930 and a mystery involving the boy, his late father and a robot. (from imdb)

I think this is as much I want to say about the story to prevent spoilers. Reading the book/watching the movie without any expectations offers the best experience. I didn't know I was little spoiled of the story after watching the trailer and reading some of the reviews online that I slowly made sense as I read. But anyway I'll just continue to write about my two cents of this book.

Each page of the book is framed by black rims, like a cinema in a book form presenting the story in black and white, imitating one of those black and white films in the days of early 1930s where the story is set in. Like the pictures you see above, words were on a page on its own and the illustrations in a full page, frame by frame. Each page zooming in to see the character's expressions. In this book illustrations serve more than guiding the reader's imagination, it tells the story as well. Again the distinction between visuals and words reminded me of the inter titles in a silent film. Marvelous book form to stage the story.

It is definitely more than a children's book as it exposes the reader's to early cinema's beginnings. I couldn't be more glad for being in film history classes when I see references to those early shorts I've seen being introduced in a story like this. There even was a small tribute to "The Train Arrives in the Station", one of the earliest films ever shown in film history.

"In 1895, one of the very first films ever shown was called A Train Arrives in the Station, which was nothing more than what the title suggests, a train coming into a station. But when the train came speeding toward the screen, the audience screamed and fainted because they thought they were in danger of being run over. No one had ever seen anything like it before. ― An excerpt from the book "

Okay, read more to find out! If you're not familiar with film history, I'm sure you'd be fascinated after reading the book. Or catch the movie coming up in March in our local cinemas.

To end off this post I present this quote that pretty much tells why people make movies.

If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from when you go to sleep at night, just look around. This is where they are made. ― Brian Selznick. The Invention of Hugo Cabaret

On New Year's Eve's Eve

2011-12-31T01:20:00.008+08:00

On the last Friday of 2011, I made an egg stand after much effort. :')
It made my day after that.

My veggies are doing well.

My friend wrote me a new "egg"mon theme song.

I borrowed 2 new books from the library.
Life is great.

As for my resolution for the new year 2012:

Do more. (Because this year I've been thinking too much.)
Try new things. (Because I should.)

May 2012 be more exciting than this.

Recap 2011

2011-12-26T00:46:00.006+08:00

I just took a look at my archives for my new year resolution this year- "Do work happily". Have I done so? 2011 has been a thinking year for me, lots of background research reading, deep thinking for my projects, and I'm still thinking for my final project. Too much thinking that I find this year less of doing.

This year I had a lot of freedom to do whatever I like for my projects. One of it being the effwhypee. It is this freedom that's difficult to master. I always thought I knew what I wanted but now I'm not so sure what it is. Perhaps my highlight of the year was the short itp at Page One. I always wondered what it is like to work in a publishing house and I got my wish. Oh and I finally saved enough money to get myself a DSLR, that's another huge wish come true this year. With my new camera, I explored quite a few new places that I've never been to. Oh one more, I wrote a letter to my designer idol and got a handwritten letter reply, that's the coolest thing that happened for my year. That's not too bad for 2011. You know what, I think I've just thought of my new year resolution for 2012 but I'll keep it to when Jan 1 comes.

Anyway I've been largely idling at home for the past 2 weeks, a large part of it due to my sore eyes. Now that I've recovered, I should try to make good use of the remaining holidays to meet friends I haven't seen for a while. Spend meaningful time with people. Ok go. Plan.

Sore Eyes

2011-12-18T02:10:00.002+08:00

原来早上起来的第一件事不是刷牙或上厕所，而是睁开眼。

每晚睡觉之前我最怕的竟然是隔天早上会眼屎多到睁不开眼睛。

不知我红眼要红到什么时候。都已经一个礼拜了。。。

现实世界

2011-12-07T01:24:00.007+08:00

今天回家路上又被提醒到今年的graduate survey adm又排第几了。
另友人就安慰说“但至少这是你的兴趣啊！”

是啦。是兴趣啦。

虽然说已经很习惯听到这种的话，他们也没恶意，但有点厌倦。
又不是说因为是兴趣所以工作比较容易。
为什么我跟大家一样努力辛苦了4年，我的门科就只值这样。

虽然我也很想潇洒的说在我们这里成绩不重要，但它始终是个marker来断定你的水准在哪里。
对一科我觉得有很努力过但始终还是个B-, 我会有阴影。
不知不觉地对未来扣了几分的自信。
对一科我不用担心成绩，而老师对科目又超热情的, 我会对他所教的一切牢牢记着。
就这样扣扣加加，GPA成了对未来的保障和自信。

快下车时，友人问了我：“FYP有没有把握拿A？”
说真的我重头到现在从来没想过这个问题。
只是纯粹在作我觉得是我感觉的，不知道在现实世界会是几分。

Kaseifu no Mita

2011-12-02T23:21:00.007+08:00

It is quite rare to watch a drama feeling the screenwriter's presence overshadowing the drama more than the actors involved. There's only a few drama screenwriter's names that I can remember by heart and looks like I'll be adding one more to the list — Yukawa Kazuhiko.

Kaseifu no Mita (Housekeeper Mita) has hit 29.8% ratings this week! And it's only episode 8. I haven't seen such good ratings in at least 4 years I think and it deserves it.

It is a fresh and extreme approach to a family drama, a subject I most probably won't find myself liking but it's so brilliant in writing the character of Mita san! She is like a magical yet realistic plot device that triggers scenarios that's not normally humanely rational or logical to approach problems. In doing so, she realises the goals of the characters (the family she's serving) indirectly, or literally directly so to speak because she does anything she's told to do just like a robot. How deep is that, level 3? Her whole presence is like a living symbol of a hollow human being void of hope, love, happiness, dreams despite being perfect in everything else. A human robot.

As the story progresses we become curious what kind of past did she had that turned her to be robot-like and finally in this episode she tells us why. I love how they executed the scene because there were no flashbacks unlike most dramas when the characters want to narrate the past. I was even thinking if they might milk it to one whole episode because it's what we've been wanting to know. Her past's the most anticipated point of the whole drama! Then it was just plainly executed by her seated down talking and the family listening, right at the dinner table whole scene in about 10 minutes or less. No fancy frills, no emotional music and I just listened and watched as the family in the drama did. 最高でした。

Matsushima Nanako is awesome as Mita san. It almost seems like there's no acting at the start because Mita is emotionaless. But there were times when she reveals just very subtle hints of emotions, through her stare and her face. Anyway it has its funny, creepy, suspense, mystery, touching, sad, interesting and angry moments, quite a complete set of feelings while watching. So despite its plain creepy picture at times, it's a drama full of emotions and quite some depth. Give it a try ;)

In the mood for exams

2011-11-22T23:49:00.007+08:00

I guess I do like studying for film exams after all (even if it's not Capuzzo's paper this time). Today I feel like I've just travelled to India, France because I was reading up on Jacques Tati and now I'm in Hong Kong reading about Wong Kar Wai and his films. The more I read the more films I want to watch and then I end up reading all the other films these directors/actors were involved in, then wikipedia about their lives.. which aren't tested. :) Is that considered a distraction?

Soundtrack accompaniment for today's study:

I love this song, cheesy as it is. From the movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) (meaning something happens), one of the highest grossing film of its time. It's so happy and funny, I forgot all my worries / stress after watching the movie. Shahrukh Khan is so handsome. I love cheesy Bollywood movies!

From the movie Mon Oncle (1958) directed by Jacques Tati. Gotta love its quirkiness, low tech Mr Hulot struggles with modernity. I read something about director ending up bankrupt to shoot a movie because of the elaborate sets he made. That's a lot of passion and effort put.

Last but not least Chungking Express (1994). Since after watching the movie, its songs have been looping in my head for long while. It has such beautiful textures and colour and cinematography. It's a pity I didn't watch this before I went to HK during September. What a noobcake. Need to catch up on more WKW's movies after the exams.

Okay, enough digression gotta get back to business.

有点热血的一天

2011-11-20T01:57:00.011+08:00

今天热血拼到了九把刀的签名！还排了两次队，第二次竟大胆拿出我平常用的笔记本给他签。xD (是希望能每次翻到能激发我一点什么。）
起初排到我了工作人员说不行，只能签九把刀的书，害我失落的很。感谢朋友鼓励我上台后再试一次, 结果得逞了。到了九把刀面前还请他给我个加油，结果给了用功两字。呵呵。超开心。

本应该在家读书迎战考试，竟然像个粉丝跑到Suntec人挤人听演讲，排队拿签名。毕竟看完电影才短短过了5天，认识九把刀也就只有5天，我真还会把握机会。哈。过瘾。

今天认识如此成功的九把刀一点也没有明星距离感地，很爽快地就说签，而且是签到书展关门为止。很坦诚也很现实的大概只为美女签个心形。（妒忌某人:P）有趣的家伙，看读了他的书过后会有什么领悟。（今天买了3本！）但得热血拼搏下星期的考试才行。用功去！

年轻只有一次

2011-11-14T22:32:00.007+08:00

看完 “那一年，我们一起追过的女孩”，在回家的路程想了想自己十几二十初的自己到底做了些什么。没有说有多轰轰烈烈，但还是有点什么吧？只是上了大学之后好像少了点疯狂事，每天就想着功课怎么办，不然就在家里看戏，有时和朋友出去。也不是说不好，在课业上也有找到快乐的时候，毕竟是自己理想的课程。

转眼间，都大四了。快毕业了。在想有什么事是学生时代应该做的，但还没完成。

像在电影情节里，被男生这样狂追过。X （纳闷。）
参加学生社团。√（只不过又是华乐。现在倒是有点后悔没有试试其他社团。现在有点后悔了。还是打个 X 吧。）
去日本。X （从很久很久以前就很想去了，只因为金钱上。。。明年一定要想办法去成。）
有足够美好，精彩大学时段回忆？其实有两个字可以形容大学生活，那就是“熬夜”。一个人努力地把课业做好。

好像有点平淡的大学生涯。其实如果现在要我说出我曾经做过最疯狂的事还真的有点想不出。但是难过，发脾气，害怕，开心，无奈，没耐性，流泪，长大这些都有。想必最精彩的人生阶段只有在青春期。

Edit: Somehow after watching the movie makes me wana do something crazy that I can brag about as the craziest thing I did in life.

When you think too much

2011-11-10T22:59:00.005+08:00

Sometimes I wonder if I have a certain cell in me that always dislikes what I'm doing. Sometimes it will say: hey this is a lame idea why are you doing this or omg what shit are you putting yourself through.

This happens when you think too much about your project.

There are also times when I feel like my soul has been pouring out so much in my project that I feel quite empty inside now. *Knocks self. Is there still anything left inside me?

This is what happens when you make your project too personal.

Something I did, but probably not gona show tomorrow.

Panic button Not On

2011-11-03T20:07:00.004+08:00

I am so numb to crashing deadlines somehow I lost my sense of panic and anxiety. I need to feel panic again to be productive.

Where is my panic and anxiety button?
Thinking things will be alright too often will not work.

感慨

2011-10-26T01:57:00.006+08:00

This is my first time watching SPCO in a concert from an audience's view. It has finally come to this day whereby I'm not playing and watching my juniors on stage. As the first song started, I soon realised I wasn't listening but remembering memories that flashed at the back of my head as the song went on. How I missed my days there, and the people I've met, be it seniors or juniors. At the same time I'm also slowly fading away in time, becoming a part of history in SPCO.

看来只能看照片回忆当年了。

Seems like everytime when I haven't seen my juniors for a long time, and seeing them grown a little or looking more adult than before, I'd be overwhelmed with emotions. What is this feeling like a proud parent nostalgic about my kids. Maybe it's just me.

Time has drifted us all apart, I have moved on in life. It's been 3 years going 4 since I've graduated. How are my relationships with all these people I've met and was close to? Have they all deteriorated?

It's sad. But I don't usually initiate chats or outings quite often myself either thanks to being totally immersed in my studies. Right. It's just the long time no see awkwardness that can be quite daunting sometimes but noooo, I don't want these people to totally disappear in my life in years to come.

So resolution for the rest of the year: Find time to connect with my "old" friends, no matter how possibly awkward it could be. I really miss everyone.

What if

2011-10-17T23:05:00.005+08:00

Sometimes I wonder what kind of person would I be if I chose a different music path. What if the instrument I picked up was guitar? Would I be a more "angmoh" kind of person? What are the kind of people would I have met? How will it influence my creative work?

I just got distracted by a local music scene conversation with a friend while reading an article for an assignment about losing the ability to focus and concentrate on doing one thing that an experience of reading a book can bring, because of the internet. While another friend laments with me that bookstores and art places are in doubt of closing. That aside I just have another 2 new chat notifications blinking, one of which asking me to read another interesting article. These amount of conversations and things to do can all potentially go further in depth but I only have 1 brain and limited time, but I try to engage all..

I just spent my past 1.5 hr embracing distractions.

On studying

2011-10-02T23:00:00.002+08:00

Studying film related classes used to be one of my favourite subjects. Last time I'd try to watch all the movies C recommended and enjoyed studying the exam even. But it seems once it's bounded to a certain set of theories and textbook, I'm slightly less interested. Or maybe it's the teacher I'm having now seems less interesting and more bent on "following the rules" than the other classes' profs I've had. It goes to show how much more interest a passionate figure can instill in me towards a subject.

(btw I haven't been blogging, only because I'm maintaining too many blogs. )

Gou

2011-09-04T22:35:00.004+08:00

I'm picking up "Gou" (a japanese historic drama) again, after reading a passage Helmut Schmid wrote. In the #333 issue of the Idea Magazine, he mentioned that he compared Emil Ruder with the Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu. All the Daimyo lords then loved to drink his tea, and he was said to be the best teamaster in the whole of Japan in the 1500s. In all due respect, both are great masters of their own craft. So I got curious and picked up the drama in which Sen no Rikyu was a side character. If I could choose to meet a person, from any time dimension, I think I'd like to meet this tea master and try his tea.

Anyway I love the music in this drama, the erhu's so beautiful here. I reaffirmed that it's the same composer who did one of my favourite drama soundtracks, it just had that same vibe. I wonder if it's the same with the works I've produced so far, would people recognise my trace?

working with words

2011-08-29T22:14:00.010+08:00

I was very lucky to have attended a 3 day workshop with Helmut Schmid, a typography designer currently residing in Osaka, Japan. He is 69 this year, and attended the Basel School of Design in Switzerland during the 1960s under the great masters of design and typography, one of them Emil Ruder, people we read about in graphic history books. To be able to meet a man coming from such a long history like this is really amazing, what more learn from the master himself.

On the first day, he handed us these handouts one by one, folded neatly in 3 parts, each part opened to reveal a brand new paragraph sincerely. We were asked to print out a quote in A3 and were told that we would be working on the same quote for 3 days. Turns out we all chose something quite negative and so we were told to find a more profound one.

Design without Design — Helmut Schmid

What is design without design? Does it mean not doing anything? This was totally unheard of, and every thing I added on was considered over-doing for him. He really just wanted only a good typeset with no additional frills.

Univers is not Univers with minus kerning — Helmut Schmid

Day 2 we worked with kerning. It was very different from what we've learnt– kerning everything tight. He wanted it loose, to let the words breathe. This again was quite beyond from what I had understood about kerning. 1 line of words, TAGORE STRAY BIRDS, 10am - 12pm, just kerning alone. Quite an experience. I still don't really get how much is appropriate actually.

Let the words design itself. — Helmut Schmid

Day 3, we worked on our quote again, to try and improve from what we did the day before. I tried to make it more expressive in different sizes and positions but was rejected again for designing too much. He showed me a picture of a beautiful bamboo vase made in Japan. It was segmented, each part in different height. Then he said try the space between the lines, it should be different.

The bottom one's my final outcome for the workshop and I feel honoured that he liked it. It's not very often that we concentrate working on one single thing for so long, particularly a string of sentences that could possibly be easily done within perhaps an hour at most usually. Spending one hour to work on a quote may even be too long. In this fast paced society we've long forgotten to slow down to read and feel truly for what words mean and should stand for, adequately on its own without the need to "make it nice".

This is what I learnt in this workshop.

Leaky Sponge

2011-08-25T13:18:00.005+08:00

I haven't been writing for myself very much, or you could call it blogging rather. (Blogging seems to be a far too common used commercial word) I was rummaging through my journals yesterday for a favourite quote to work on that I realise these writings are the one of the few things tangible to recollect how I have been living my life. Well if I were to forget them.

It's week 3 now in my final year in university. I'm picking up Japanese again and disappointed to know that my Japanese has succumbed to a few levels below to what I'm supposed to know. So many things that we learn in life, how much will we really remember if we were to use them now?Be it mathematics, a science fact that you read about in the past, languages. If only in our human capacity can we be non-leaking sponges, forever containing the water we absorbed.

What if

2011-08-12T01:23:00.003+08:00

What if I loved running, would I be dark and tanned?

What if I loved to dance, hands and feet moving in synchrony, who could be my dance partner?

What if I loved playing the guitar, would I be strumming my favourite tune now?

What if I loved surfing, attempting to ride the waves with my surfing board?
Nature could be my sparring friend.

What did I choose to love?

labyrinth

2011-08-09T22:44:00.007+08:00

I realise all my interests seem to be things that are distant from my own life, be it my interest in Japanese, watching films or even SMAP. Yes they are close to heart but at the same time they're also all not close to me at all, or are they even issues. They're just alternate realities/stories/universe that I'd like to watch and listen to.

I wish I had more content.

Goodbye July.

2011-07-31T23:55:00.008+08:00

We had a sumptuous farewell dinner at a cosy Japanese restaurant tucked away at a quiet corner of Cuppage Plaza. Then my colleague asked, what did you learnt during your internship?
I definitely learnt things but I was hot from eating yakitori and ditzy trying to finish my Asahi beer to give a really good answer. I think I should seriously think about this question which I'll be trying to answer it in this post.

I'll definitely see books differently than how I used to, having worked on a few book covers and participating in some of the book proposal discussions, I realise there's a need to know other things than graphic design. Graphic design is only but a small section of this big word called design.

The business side of things? How to talk and propose something to your boss. To be constantly updated about things in trend, what are people interested to know? Sometimes I feel the things I know they've already known it long ago.

Remember names. Be it people, studios.

Be exposed to things other than design. I was very impressed with how much my colleagues were well exposed to various other things like architecture, fashion, lifestyle blogs and even music.

Read more, wordy books especially.

Talk more, speak up, anything.

Joke more? hahaha.

Say thank you. It's an easily overlooked word that's really under appreciated these days. But the people in my office use it ever so often, it really makes your day better.

Always share new books/links/etc and people will share theirs to you too.

Last but not least, have more faith in myself.

---

On a side note, I'm 23 as of now. Had a very pleasant birthday spent with my friends over eating, bus rides and playing with a friend's new smart phone. It's nice to have it fall right at the end of my internship this year, marking yet another new start of my academic life. I wonder what kind of fyp will I churn out next year, right now I still cannot imagine. Whatever it is, I hope it will be something I'd hold dearly and be proud of even when I'm old. Last but not least, figure out what I want to do with my future. Happy birthday Huiling, you're 1 year wiser.

華麗なる一族

2011-07-23T14:19:00.011+08:00

I finally got down to watch Karei Naru Ichizoku (The Great Family), one of the last few of Kimura's dramas that I've yet to watch. I was never a fan of epic corporate dramas that involve complicated family relations, businesses but I'm surprised how much this one managed to work out and blew me away. (spoilers ahead)

I was blown away by the emotional intensity between the protagonist Manpyou Teppei and his father, Manpyou Daisuke. Each episode I worry for Teppei's' dream as Daisuke hinders each step he takes towards building his own blast furnace in convenient excuse of protecting the Manpyou Bank Group. How could a father bear to destroy his own son like that? Only if he wasn't his own son.

Manpyou Teppei is a man of ideals, full of passion and a dream for the future of Japan–to build new technologies and enter the global market of the steel industry. Manpyou Daisuke is a strategist using any methods he can possibly think, even unscrupulous to protect his business empire, the Hanshin Bank. There is much differences between the both of them as well as similarities, how they each fought in any way possible to achieve their goal/dream. Who will win? is the big question that has been set up from the beginning.

Each episode time and again Teppei overcame each hurdle till the very last episode that Daisuke caused for him. But he chose death to overcome the hard feelings his father had for him that caused so much unhappiness in the family. Although admirable for his ideals and dream Teppei is, he is still human after all. The last scene of Teppei watching the sun rises I guess sums this up.

でも僕、なぜ明日の太陽を見ないのだろう。
But then, why will I not see tomorrow's sun?

Such a tragic heartbreaking tale. It was done in a way that wasn't corny with complicated love triangles, unecessary evil characters that scheme to snatch the protagonist away from his wife etc. Each character had valid motivations to act the way they did, even for the badass Daisuke's mistress, Aiko. Another good thing is it's only 10 episodes, so it won't get draggy unlike most corporate epic sagas. I guess that's why it works. And.. how can a drama be this good without a good soundtrack? The main theme is eerily shadowing what's forthcoming with its basses and strings, loved it.

This story reminds me a lot of Shiroi Kyoto, another epic human drama about the morality of doctors aired in 2003. A little more research made me discovered that these two stories were written by the same author, Yamazaki Toyoko. (This drama's adapted from a novel btw!) I was kinda surprised that it's written by a female as the stories were heavy, touching on society issues. Hmm more like touching on the dark stories behind industries. A number of her novels have been adapted into tv anniversary special dramas, and they've all been good. Mm Interesting.

Looking for new things to like

2011-07-10T20:03:00.003+08:00

How do you get that strong feeling of wanting to do something?
What makes you tick?
What determines your feelings whether you like something/somebody or not?

Say I like to eat cherry tomatoes.
Why do I like to eat cherry tomatoes?
Because it is delicious, juicy and a little sourish.
Why do I like something delicious+juicy+sourish?
Because it tastes good.
Why do you like something that tastes good?
Because other than filling up my stomach, my taste buds like it, and I'll feel happy eating it.
Why does your taste buds like something delicious+juicy+sourish?
...

The bottom of a "Why do you like this" question, does it bode down to genetic buildup how my cells would chemically react to certain elements that triggers the "like" adrenaline, to want to keep it by my side, consume more, want to do something for it?

...

Okay so what happens if you like something, what do you want to say about it. If it's a person, you'd want to tell him you like him. So what would I want to say about cherry tomatoes? It's healthy, contains a lot of vitamin c, everyone knows that. Or unless I discover a new nutrient that contains in cherry tomatoes that's not been discovered yet, then I'd want to share and tell the world about this wouldn't I? But you wouldn't know there's a hidden nutrient in tomatoes that hasn't been discovered yet in the beginning, what if there isn't, what can you say about tomatoes?!

effwhypee blues.

Even with time,

2011-06-27T22:31:00.005+08:00

Whatever bad memories you went through, will always stay with you.

西部的天空

2011-06-26T21:37:00.004+08:00

记得有一次跟某友人说过，东部的天空好像比较大。住在西部的我不曾记得这里的天空有怎样，都被组屋遮挡住了感觉好像比较小。今天骑着脚车走新的路线，第一次看见一片好辽阔的天空，而且还离我家不远。许多美好的东西似乎好像一直都在，只是没发现。

It is so easy to forget.
What I wanted to do.
What I used to fight for.
What I used to persist.
How do you find something that will make you feel so strongly for?

没感觉，真的没感觉。
工作之后好像少了点灵魂似的。

幸せになりますか？

2011-06-09T23:23:00.007+08:00

I guess working again has awakened me somehow of a bleak image I have of my future. It is as close to the real work life I might be having in the near future. For now, everyday I look forward to go home to eat dinner and watch TV with my Dad, watch the next drama on my list etc, feeling too tired to do anything else. Plus my long distance travel to and fro work takes away 3 precious hours of my life.

This leads me to a conclusion that I ought to have some sort of "life" after work. Be it anything like love, family, friends or hobbies kind of thing to support what you work for? Even though I may like my job, something is still missing. I have no soul after work, it's always tired. It might eventually become a mundane routine and my soul will be like a void zombie.

Life is too short to be wasted like that.
I don't want to have any regrets when I die.
When I die, I want to die a happy old woman.

(Here's an inspiring article on the regrets people have on their deathbed. )

School vs. Work

2011-06-05T21:47:00.007+08:00

This's my 3rd attempt at internship and every time I have something like this, a part of my life seemed to have sucked out leaving me a little empty inside. I do like my job this time, so what could be the problem?

Because I love school, I'm gona try to think in a case that I like my job but what could make me unhappy. If I compare a working life as to a school life though I'm doing similar things, the differences are:

1. You work in a restrained environment.
Eg1. You can't say take a nap while brainstorming ideas.
Eg2. There is no bed in the office.

Eg3. You are constantly monitored by your supervisor on your progress.

2. You can't afford to fail because you are a professional and not a student. It would cost a lot more to fail than a fail grade. When you fail as a student your morale drops, when you fail as a professional it costs you your morale and money.

3. Lack of movement.

When doing work, chances are you don't get to move around much other than your seat and to the toilet/pantry. But in school at least we move around when changing classes. It makes me depress to keep doing work at the same spot and the trip to the toilet only takes me 10 steps.

4. Peers.

The fun thing about school is that your classmates are all your age so there's more common topics under the sun. But in the working world, this is often not the case.

5. Holidays.

There's at least 3 months and 2 weeks of holidays in a year for me, as a student but what about the working adult? I'm not sure how much leave one is entitled to have but it is definitely lesser than a student.

6. Working hours.

Although students have homework to bring home to do, setting time to do it is entirely flexible and most often, probably less than 8 hours per day. Though there are often times also that we rush our assignments the whole day, we can rest when the deadline's over. But the working adult works at least STRAIGHT 8 hours a day and sometimes, if not most of the time, work overtime. Leaving little time for "me time" which I feel is one of the most important reasons why a working life is so boring.

7. Learning vs. Making Money for the Company

A student studies to learn whereas the working adult works to earn money. Which aim is more fulfilling? A repeating homework won't appear in a student's life while tasks for the employee could repeat, if not often. If you work in a factory, repetition tasks are even more apparent.

8. Working in a company makes one tire far more easily than learning.

Even if I did nothing in the company the whole day, it makes me tired far more than chionging assignments probably due to the reasons above.

After you graduate from being a student, this is it, you work for the rest of your life till you can't work anymore. How did human kind evolve themselves to dedicate so much of their lives "working"?

Insomnia monologue

2011-05-31T02:09:00.008+08:00

I can't believe I'm having insomnia the night after my first day at work today.
I thought I was quite tired and even tried to sleep early like at 11.15pm.
This is so embarrassing.

Was it the 1.5 hr transport journey stressing me out? Or something about the work environment making me brain a tad active tonight thinking what's gona happen tomorrow. In any case I have a record of having insomnias before fyp submission, exams etc so, ugh. The more I think about how I can't wake up tomorrow and might end up late again like today (20 mins late for my first day), the more I can't sleep. Shit it's 2.20am already. Looks like the more I try to turn in early to prevent getting up late the next day, it turns out like this. What are the odds man. I think my last insomnia was long long ago.

Journey to the east is more depressing than I presumed to be, sardine packed trains, random waits in between stations, missing at least 2 trains before I can board on any. And I have to take a bus after that and that bus is no better less packed. Gotta find a way to cheer up my depressing journey. But before that screw insomnia.

Of long bus rides

2011-05-26T23:36:00.006+08:00

Me brain has come to a standstill.

It's been 2 days since I came back from a short trip to Msia, maybe I should talk about it. I've made new friends, got closer to some, ate the most number of strawberries I've ever had in my life. It was good, relaxing fun. For some reason, it's not the memorable beautiful landscape or the number of things I've bought from shopping therapy that marked the deepest impression in my trip but the power towers I saw along my bus journeys did.

Bus rides were at least 5-6 hours long, the only thing I could do other than sleep was to look out the window no? Eventually I got curious at these towering structures that I don't see in our lion city. They are.... beautiful? Or should they be considered an eyesore to the natural landscapes. In any case, they are markers of men's intervention in nature. I was curious how they made the environment looked and quietly began my mini project while riding the 6 hour bus rides. I had this idea when I was riding from Cameron Highlands to KL halfway through the uncomfortable bumpy journey. That ride took about 4 hours and this plan kept me occupied for the rest of my bus rides :D

I wonder how the residents feel staring out their windows and see this towering structure in their midst.

So I stared outside the window with my camera in hand hoping to catch a shot when we drove past these structures. If I had to find a word to describe these structures, it would be they are so symmetrical perfect, its wires slice the skies in equal parts. That's its beauty I guess.

This's my proudest shot.

There's just something about its symmetrical tall stand and those long wires cutting across the landscapes that intrigues me. Man's work of art standing with nature can be beautiful too? It would be nice to see if some birds were standing on them.

Summer Holidays

2011-05-17T23:18:00.002+08:00

I haven't been updating because I'm enjoying my holidays. I've wasted enough of my life drama-thoning, thought I should start a to-do list for the holidays:

1. FYP (An hour a day to think about it?)

2. Revise my japanese

3. Get more familiar with my new camera and maybe take better documentations of my works.

If I can finish doing all 3 tasks in this 2 months holidays I'd be more than satisfied already.

JIN

2011-05-03T23:32:00.007+08:00

It has been 2 years since I last saw of this drama, I even made a post of how wonderful it is here. 2 years later, after watching the first episode of its season 2. I'm making a post again just to say I have nothing but praise for this drama. This drama has rekindled my love for Japanese Drama once again.

I was so absorbed entirely that I am only concerned whether Jin will be able to save another person. I wonder if it's the mangaka that brought this story to life or the actors/drama production team who made this drama so heart wrenching touching that I was able to cast away my skeptical side entirely and enjoy 2 hours of the beautiful Edo. Thank you for making this drama, I really enjoyed it. This season with Jin will be an awesome one.

The best word I can describe what kind of drama Jin is, the only word that comes to my mind right now is: 生きる. To exist, to live, in other words, life. It may look cultural seeing that it looks like a period drama but really anyone can relate to/understand this drama.

Anyway to sum it all up is this quote that resonates in the drama :

神はのりこえられる試練しか与えないです。
God only gives us challenges that we can overcome.

感動しました。ありがとう。

夢の心臓

2011-04-29T00:59:00.005+08:00

On Your Mark by Chage and Aska plays in the background, my earworm today after watching this touching inspiring video of 人为什么活着？

The background music came from this song:

My favourite part is the last verse whereby he sings "yume no shinzou megakete" in this higher voice.

夢の心臓めがけて
Towards the heart of dream
朝着梦想的心脏

Maybe because the lyrics used is "心臓" pronounced as shinzoh as opposed to the more commonly used "心" kokoro. I wonder why they used 心臓 instead of 心, heart(shinzoh) as an organ with a dream as opposed to heart (kokoro) with the emotional/spiritual meaning? After reading translations I still don't understand. But for some reason I like how "shinzoh" is used, cos I like the sound of it. haha. It just sounds more power when you pronounce it.

感触良多

2011-04-27T22:37:00.005+08:00

This week has been emotional, probably due to the FYP bomb that has suddenly landed on us 2 weeks ago that has forced me to question myself where do I want to go in the future, what do I want to do with this FYP. I'm seeing it as an opportunity to create whatever I want.

I've never felt so strongly for things in a long time that I would go all out and talk to people for advice. It has made me come to a realisation that I have reached the end of Year 3 in my 4 years here in ADM and I really don't want my learning to end so soon. I'm usually a quiet person, who's shy to speak, or tends to get nervous when I'm speaking perhaps to a stranger or in a public space. But these days I've been hopping around my profs' offices to talk, or to my dear peers who are always there to listen me out. I'm truly grateful for that.

There is something about ADM that has changed my life, especially in terms of thinking. I can feel the capacity of my brain growing, how I keep posing questions to myself or find things interesting that I want to investigate further. I love all my classes this sem and I am sad that it is coming to an end.

I found a special liking to my symbolism in film prof, who is about 80 years old with a huge tummy of knowledge and life experience. Imagine a person having lived through the 2 world wars, I think it is really incredible that he stands here in my class and shares with us his insight about a new film every week. I never thought we could look at a film this way even though I tend to fall asleep through these extremely difficult and abstract films. But I do enjoy playing "detective" to catch all these "symbols" planted, it's like mystery solving. A process frustrating but rewarding when you do find something worth investigating. He said he's involved in an exhibition with a media artist who's celebrating his 100th birthday this year, and again I thought these old people are so amazing to be alive and sharing their experiences to the world. I can't wait to be old!

Then there's Graphic Design, what I appreciate most about J is that she brings in guests to crit our work or give us lectures. Today again, I felt very small and that I'm young and naive, underexposed to the large world out there. And I really appreciate her for lending me a listening ear, sharing her life experiences and answering my questions all the time.

Tomorrow's gona my last lecture for history of animation, last class with Capuzzo. He has so much energy and life when he talks about all the works of the entire course the whole time that it is hard not to like him. It is so fun to listen to him talk about his awe for Cinderella, sharing this elaborate candle light holder thing with a landscape of Paris so intricately carved that he says represents our society. This society is already so well made that we're not lacking anything so how can we contribute, where do we stand? After that he switched off the lights and lighted a candle in. The Paris landscape changed, now with the light, the shadow casted upon takes an even more beautiful shape of the city. Wow, we exclaimed. Then he said, this is how you can contribute, we are living in it, we are the light to this society, making it more beautiful.

There's also Joe in Prod class who's been very nice, like a Dad with many kids taking us to field trips to print and paper houses, 睁一只眼，闭一只眼 on our tardiness and slack.

Just want to say I've absorbed a lot, just like a sponge and it's overflowing. I've taken a lot from my teachers and now that I'm coming to my final year, I want to be able to give out, all the things that I've taken and fuse something that I can contribute back in return. Perhaps that could be a direction I can look into for my FYP, applying this to a subject I feel very strongly about.

That's what's been going on my mind this whole day, so being the open book that I am, showing it all on my face unknowingly, people start to ask me what's wrong, am I okay. I feel so loved. haha. Thank you all, I'm really okay, just a little emotional today. : )))

Encouragement for my future self

2011-04-20T22:22:00.011+08:00

I was checking my emails a while ago and came across this from my faculty. I'm not a year 4 yet but I've been receiving year 4 fyp emails due to some issues with the credits system but anyway seeing this touched me:

Dear all

This is an affirmation email.

Crits can be hard. This fyp is a long and arduous journey. You are all immersed and your emotions are raw and your energy focused (hopefully not depleted)

Please keep in your hearts and minds that any advice or feedback that you receive along the way is meant for you to take and use or discard as you see fit.

These projects are yours and yours alone.

We, the faculty, support you and the choices you make. As you near the finish line, we are here to help if you need to drop by - at anytime.

Maybe I've been doing a project about encouragement for my GD, though I'm not involved, this email strangely touched me.

For some reason I'm distracted thinking that at this point of time around next year I'll be slogging my guts out for nothing else but FYP. Maybe I'll be needing an encouragement like this for myself in 1 year's time.

Paper vs Screen

2011-04-17T22:59:00.003+08:00

Just some hours ago I was troubling how to write an analysis, it was just very hard to get started on something that is based off memory. I tried typing but nothing seems to be able to come out, until I got fed up and tried to write something on my notebook instead. Miraculously, the words came and I finished what I wanted to write that's vaguely in the back of my head in around 45 minutes, on my notebook.

Sometimes it's strange the different kinds of medium or platforms for writing can play a part in determining how you write or whether you feel more at ease in writing. Perhaps if I were to be blogging on my notebook now, it'd be a different essay altogether. I feel more comfortable writing on paper I suppose, I don't need to care how my handwriting looks or whether what I write is wrong but just write as I please. Perhaps typing all these on ms word can be a little intimidating thinking it's for submission, things like that and it'll be affecting my flow of words.

Now I know what can help if I'm stuck for words.

Off-night Wednesday

2011-04-07T00:05:00.005+08:00

Wednesday nights are officially my off days to put my mind off school and.. watch as much TV as I want and perhaps write something, like what I'm doing now.

We had a guest speaker for Graphic Design class today. I think class has never felt so rewarding for a long while already, although we're suppose to have a presentation for our book ideas today. It made me feel small too, that I'm not aware of so many other art forms and issues out there. Now thinking of it, this semester's my last graphic design class in my university life. Then in another few months's time I'll be embarking a long lonely journey called the fyp. Time flies. So I guess I'm trying to treasure my classes now and absorb as much as I can.

After lunch was Bio Pop class, we watched another Hollywood film called Outbreak today. It's another one of those typical blockbuster action film with helicopter chasing, hero overcomes many hurdles and saves the day kind of film but with the subject of a fatal virus outbreak. I think these kind of films still has its appeal to me, because I was totally absorbed into it. But if I were to watch this on my own TV, I probably wouldn't have cared less. It must be the huge screen and an ideal seat with an excellent view. Compared to the 3 totally abstract films I watched yesterday, this was much much easier to swallow. So I learnt about the different levels of viruses categorization, how outbreaks like this are contained etc.

Then it poured heavily when class ended.
Blah blah blah.
I'm just documenting one of my routine school days in case I forget what it is like if I were to refer back from the future. Seems like there's not much of it left.

Blue Sunday

2011-04-03T22:39:00.005+08:00

Maybe I've been writing too much reports these days, whatever my thoughts have formed are dispersed into these reports of processes, analysis etc. They are interesting processes no doubt and I do like what I've been learning but why do I feel there's something still missing.

I figured for a while what I would like to blog about today, taking an hour's break from my deep research and no matter how I write I seem to go back to talk about school. Can't help it when it requires heart and soul to understand that huge pile of papers and information to be dug up from the depths of text. I feel drained.

I just re-watched or you could say replay a movie twice today so I can write something for my Symbolism class. Post-war to the 60s movies seem to have so much to tell. I'm still having a hard time trying to get the message behind these films. I can't say exactly whether I liked it, but they're complex artsy films told in their own language, trying to decipher them requires much effort. But it's fulfilling when I discover something new upon each re-watch. That's the thing about these kind of films. Sometimes I think I'm so used to watch these kind of deep stuffs, blockbusters and mainstream films have become rather boring to watch.

Hmm think I'll check out the fridge to see if there's anything chewy to bright up my spirits.

Crazy for once

2011-03-24T01:52:00.005+08:00

After one more tear, muster the encouragement from everyone and ready up for the time when these wishes will come true.
I believe in it therefore you shouldn't give up either
No matter how many times, raise your hands towards the sky
Full lyrics

This song couldn't be more apt to describe what I'm feeling tonight. Came across it while I was watching Funky Monkey Babys singing to encourage victims of the Earthquake on Music Station last week. I don't know any of their songs but while I was watching them, I did felt encouraged along with the lyrics. They sang it with so much force. Cho genki spirited song.

~~

Thanks for the push Tweng san :)

"Just sit down one day.... and just go crazy and apply everything."
Another sentence to record in Cindy's list of quotes.

元気出せ！

2011-03-21T01:34:00.005+08:00

失敗した時、悲しい時、寂しい時にスマップの歌聴くと元気が出る。スマップの歌はすごくﾎﾟｼﾞﾃィﾌｴﾝﾈﾙｷがあります。それの頑張ってのスピリットは大好きです。その頑張ってのきもちはわすれないで、明日、明後日もう、宿題は本当に頑張ってみます。

Haven't been writing in Japanese for a while, wonder if it's correct. Well as long as I can understand it's good enough heh.

自由是不务正业？

2011-03-15T01:17:00.005+08:00

Right now this project I'm working on has a lot of freedom, I kinda miss the days when my old profs take some control and say no or start scolding. That always perk me up, though it sounds rather wrong. Maybe I'm spoilt now that I should learn how to be independent for making decisions on my own projects.

If it's only when we like something then we'll do well in it, wouldn't it be nice if we like whatever that comes our way. Say I "like" math! I "like" xxx project! I "like" essays! If it's so easy to like, like the facebook "like" button, the world would be a much better place eh. I wonder what triggers us to "like" something in the first place. It also seems my "like" threshold has gone up as well over the years getting exposed to more beautiful things. So ya, I'm trying to develop more feelings for my project now.

Time for a change

2011-03-11T15:49:00.001+08:00

Thought it's high time I change the layout so while I try attempt to figure out the xml codings, stay tuned to this space.

The reserved fangirl

2011-03-04T01:44:00.006+08:00

I've never even dare to think that SMAP would ever one day come to Singapore. It was just impossible, the JE boys seldom step out of Japan for concerts or anything like that. But they came! The five of them came; to shoot a SoftBank commercial.

When my friend called me to tell me about it, I was checking my emails. I even thought I heard wrongly, SMAP in Singapore? 本当に？！I think I really feel honoured that S'pore built Marina Bay Sands to be picked by Japan's Mobile giant SoftBank to shoot a commercial here.

An example of the latest SoftBank SMAP ad:

I've always liked their ads, SMAP or no SMAP. (But of course I'm speaking from a bias fangirl view now) The quality of their ads are always top notch and creative. Look at this crazy ad, flying containers? and with auto stacking abilities upon the press of the button? Mad fun!

Now SoftBank ad with dog (no SMAP)

The dog is the Dad of the family while the guy bathing him is his son. The dog was a guy before until some accident turned him into a dog? Not too sure about that but the series of advertisement revolves around its family, he has a human wife, a black japanese speaking son, and a daughter who works at SoftBank. Crazy idea ain't it but it's funny and highly interesting. That's why I'm so thrilled they're shooting their ad here.

Anyway back to the topic of SMAP, I guess I'm contented knowing that they came and have probably left by now. My lucky coursemate managed to spot him shopping in MBS surrounded by guards from a distance. That's just super lucky. Well I hope they come again, and when I really do meet them in person, I hope I'd be the one in charge designing their shoot. HOHOHO. *ok let me dream for a while*

台上十分钟，台下十年功。

2011-02-26T00:43:00.009+08:00

What's next? That is the question. The long-awaited concert day that I've long worked for passed by in a flash. To describe this, nothing is more apt than the Chinese saying: 台上十分钟，台下十年功。I took the least photos this year, haven't had much time to talk to people too. The concert was a success and I'm done with my job.

The following day I watched The Black Swan with my friends. It was darker than I thought it'd be, thought provoking and horror at its realest - psychological fear. It's a film about perfection, how far will you go to achieve your dreams? To a point of betraying yourself, try be somebody you aren't and fight with your own instincts to resist? I think I can relate a little to Nina, this process of hard work just to achieve the best results so you can shine on the stage. At times, no matter how hard you worked, it's just no good. In this line of work, most of the time it seems the more of your soul you put in shaped into the brief/role, the better it'd be. This is the torturing part. Every project is a different container, how would you shape your soul to fit in? Or how much would you give to fit your soul in? “台上只有十分钟”，is it worth it?

This brings back to the question of what's next? I had the pleasure to attend a talk/documentary screening by a Disney animator yesterday. It was a great insight to Disney's history. After making so many breakthrough films, how do you keep it up to reputation? You always have to set the bar higher so not to disappoint the audience and the next film will be better than the previous and so on. I love classic Disney films and I'm glad I grew up in the 90s to have watched so many of them in one of Disney's golden period. I miss shorts like silly symphonies that filled up gaps in between shows. Right now everyone's so into 3D animation and they all look so plasticly same you can't tell which studio did what. "Walt would have known what to do", a surge of silence came over the auditorium as Hans Bacher sighed.

This song would sum up what Disney is all about, written for the Pinocchio in 1940.

On a side note, I love how Capuzzo described the fairy godmother scene in Cinderella in last week's class. Priceless.

Post conference thoughts

2011-02-20T00:49:00.007+08:00

Taking a moment now to say something when I should be in bed charging my own batteries to gear up for tomorrow's (later's) big day. It's part of the learning process ain't it?

Summing up today's events, I was hesitating between leaving the conference halfway and attending my last practice for the concert. In the end I chose the conference, after all I paid $28 for this and I'll probably never have another chance to hear the same people talk again. Glad that I stayed throughout the talk if not I wouldn't have gotten a copy of Kult's magazine. It was inspiring and I gained a good insight of the good people in the design industry. I feel better about the prospects in the local design scene although I felt being washed back to the boring reality when I left the auditorium. What else should I say? Being a good and interesting speaker is also a quality of being a good designer too. Although long it was entertaining, thanks to a mighty entertaining emcee who tied things up together, in good ol' British accent!

Getting positive comments on my design for the concert this year felt great and that made whatever unpleasant that I've gone through all worth it. So for now I'll end this post premature for a good night's sleep and may tomorrow's concert be a success!

A venn diagram

2011-02-06T15:20:00.003+08:00

So it has come, the last day of a 5 day long holiday. A day I've left supposed to be doing my homework. But currently, obviously has sidetracked to something else altogether.

I'm thinking of picking up korean. Imagine being a master of languages and having no problems understanding languages wherever I go. Well considering the korean wave has once again swept up the shores of our sunny island for some time. Or you could say my current obsession with Secret Garden and Hyun Bin has sudden increased my keenness in learning the language to grasp more information. Hey it's a new found passion! Just hoping that it lasts until the module selection next sem and then I'd take korean and japanese again altogether. Thinking about it has made me excited already.

Last week during GD class, we were to draw a venn-diagram, three circles of our interest, motivation and profession practice to find out more about ourselves and see if there's any special vocation that overlaps the three. I thought it was an interesting exercise and after that I did have a clearer picture of how these 3 circles made my decisions in life, thus far. I've been doing things that I only like so far, being in this design field because I liked it, I wanted to find out how to make beautiful things. Although I'm feeling a slight jadedness now because my latest homework's something to do with logos again. My this semester's modules being all film-study centric because I like watching films and analysing them.

Sometimes I wonder if doing too much of what I like would make me 'dislike' it. What if one day I'm sick of design and decide to do something else for a profession? What I'd dread is something that I used to like in the past would then turn into a chore, as a job. Then I'd have to find a new passion again? Hmm, a rather vicious cycle. But I doubt I'd be changing interest this fast when I've already venture in the field somewhat in depth already. I can't be changing husbands every now and then eh. haha.

Hallyu Wave!

2011-02-03T00:16:00.004+08:00

It has come to hit me again, the hallyu wave. But just the drama part of the hallyu wave. I've just finished watching Secret Garden not long ago. Was it because of Hyun Bin? His shining tracksuit? Or the beautiful scenery that it was shot in. But I think I got to say I'm quite a sucker for dramas set in winter. Winter dramas are usually good!

One of the best things in the drama is this house. I think I fell for the house first before the character, the scenery outside this house is just breathtaking! There's a wooden bridge, flora and fauna, a huge pond beneath that bridge AND LARGE GLASS WINDOWS overlooking the amazing land. Just everything befitting of a house one would ever dream of. Now look at the house again episodes later when it's finally winter.

The lake frozens and look at the brownish grass, gosh, just breathtaking. I was looking forward to scenes shot in the house every episode. Not to mention the interior of the house, every piece of furniture was modern and classy, matching Joo Won, the character who owns the house. He can sit at the bridge with legs dangling when he's feeling down, he can pick up a book and sit on a pure white sofa looking out the window. The possibilities of doing emotional scenes with this beautiful house and looking good are infinite! The koreans are really good at scouting good locations to shoot their films, not to mention, fashion too. + 10 for korean dramas.

Plot wise, I'd say they're shifting towards a slightly more realistic approach in handling situations even though for the fantasy element in the show. It's still cliche with the memory loss, rich arrogant protagonist and badass rich mother archetypes, but it still worked. The writers are good with tokens and catch phrases that adds character to the relationship, and making the side characters likable with no ugly messy love triangles adds another plus point. That sparkly tracksuit Joo Won wears in the drama is proabably selling like hot cakes in Korea now.

----------------------

On a side note, this semester I'm taking more film related modules like symbolism in film, and animation history. Now I think I'd like it even more if it was something like symbolism in asian dramas. By the way Happy Lunar New Year! May this year be times more awesome than the last.

Me Time

2011-01-22T01:05:00.006+08:00

Well the holidays are ending, and I've not completed some of the things I've planned to do this hols. For example changing this blogskin, finishing a book. Nevertheless I managed to catch up with people whom I've not met for a long time despite juggling with the things that I need to do for co. That's important, to maintain relationships with people I've made. Perhaps a resolution too, to keep in touch with my friends. This holidays has been busy, tiring too that I wonder if I can gear up enough momentum for the next semester.

Same old same old, the usual dread for a new term.

So what's new?
One of the many meet ups recently, my ol' close to 10 years friends have discovered my bochup side- drifting off or stoning when the topic didn't garner my interest/I couldn't hear properly. haha. Oops, so much so that it became the joke of the day. The thing about being friends for so long's that we're so accustomed to each other's personality that it is okay for me to be myself. Even this not very receptive to cold jokes and nonsense side of me. I'm still finding it amusing that they still can jokingly test me what they've talked about just now and then laugh it off. That's friends :)

Maybe it's something that comes with age, this indifference to things.
It's time for something new.
How about something new and exciting that can keep me enthusiastic for a long time.
And what will that be?

幸福，哪一站？

2011-01-09T00:46:00.009+08:00

最近在看“下一站，幸福”，不知为什么有种魔力让我非要看到主角们得到幸福不可。就这样把戏在几天内看完了。感觉好像脱离现实生活了两天，好久没有那么看戏看到那么过瘾了。原本以为老掉牙的爱情偶像剧以对我已麻木，但这一部给我的感觉有些不同，暂时有些说不上来。Hmm 让我想了想如今的我幸福吗？怎样才能幸福？

I've been going out very often these few days, going to places I've never gone before, exploring new places. Thanks to the easily available street directories and maps, I can always find them.

Like, first time visiting the train station and probably the last before it tears down. Going speechless at the $199 chair in Ikea, pretending and imagining scenarios of our ideal homes.

First time I have a friend who made chicken soup for me other than my Mom. Happily taking the lift up to level 50 of The Pinnacle hoping to stand on the sky garden only to find out we need to get a ticket to go in.

First time play inventing our own Type 4 module while taking a break from cycling. Almost like we're playing orientation games all over again.

Oh, happy times.
快乐休息站过后也该是责任站了。

Hey

2011-01-05T01:03:00.002+08:00

只是好几个月不见，为什么好像变成陌生人了？
It's bothering me.

Photosynthesis

2011-01-02T19:29:00.007+08:00

Eh!? It's 2011 already? 10 years ago I was entering sec 1, 10 years later I'm already in my 3rd year in the local university. Another 10 years? I wonder what I'd be doing at this time. Perhaps sitting in my own office with huge glass panel windows facing a beautiful view of urban landscape?

I figured there's a few things I want to do this year and some other things I'd like to do in the future. Like for example today upon coming home from an impromptu walk, ( I was feeling sick from facing the com all day and decided to head out for some human photosynthesis after the rain goodness of nature) the moment I stepped back in the house, the air smells.. stale. I realise most of my house's windows are closed except the window in my room and the living room. I neeeeed air, and them fresh. Anyway the windows are closed because my Mom's trying to minimise dust from coming in – the bads of living on a low storey. So if I ever get a home of my own, I want big open windows with the breeze coming in from time to time. Not quite a resolution but something to do in the future. For now I think I'd need to walk about more often.

2011 will eventually mark the start of my fyp year. By then I hope, I'll be able to find something I like to do and'll be able to keep me going for 1 year till it bears worthy fruit. Right now I still can't imagine what's it going to be like 8 months from now. Like how I couldnt imagine how my GD festival project will end up to be like:

Open publication - Free publishing - More pamphlet

or my film teaser project for motion graphics to look like this:

Rear Window Film Teaser from yunaling on Vimeo.

School, projects and maybe co'll still most likely still take up most of my year. After much thought I think I know what's my resolution for this year:
Do work happily.
When the grounds this year are still safe.

不忙不忙

2010-12-30T02:07:00.002+08:00

知道忙是怎么写的吗？一个心字旁加一个亡字。心亡心亡。每次说忙的时候心都亡了一次？
Is being busy a bad thing? I wonder why the person who invented this word associated a "heart" and "death" to make up this word we commonly use. 现在说忙要谨慎点哦。

跟自己打战

2010-12-27T19:36:00.004+08:00

为什么昨天做的东西觉得ok，今天打开来看想把全部东西改掉。

为什么每次做新的project都好像在跟自己打战。

不想跟上次做的东西相同，脑子里嚷着老师之前的碎碎念，想着大家能否接受。

好看，不好看可不可以不要判断？

Haiya, 只是个小东西可不可以做得开心点？

Merry sweet Christmas

2010-12-27T00:19:00.004+08:00

December's my favourite time of the year with the special lights, meet ups, events and special programs like Kouhaku. I've been enjoying my holidays now, going out whenever I can. Like attending Christmas exchanges and meeting up with friends I haven't seen for some time. Just today I went to 2 21st birthday parties and had lots of cakes and desserts. I probably never had so much sugar in my life that I'm gona be avoiding chocolates and sweets for some time. Speaking of which the sweet aftertaste's still in my mouth after a listerine wash. But I had a good time of course :)

I'm not sure if this's going to be my last post for 2010. It's been a great year of good movies like Inception, Toy Story 3, Tangled (Rapunzel), Taipei Exchanges and more recently Confessions. With movies like this, I'm thirsty for better films and dramas. Have I grown indifferent? I can't sit through a drama if the first episode doesn't interest me. My attention span seems to have gotten shorter. I get sleepy earlier. I go out so to not coop myself at home feeling bored. The more things I learn, the more experience I gain, I grow a little more indifferent. Yet I thirst for more knowledge and skills to fill up my desires. Such is life I guess.

Merry Christmas!

Confessions, 告白

2010-12-17T22:51:00.004+08:00

This is a film of total despair. It's almost like a movie in the form of a dementor, sucking away all hopes and light. Despite so, it's also dramatically beautiful in its set, use of colour, cloudy skies of rain and slow motion.

I guess my tolerance for psychological thrillers has gone up a huge notch since I watched Clockwork Orange for Western Film class. Nothing can be worse than that. Confessions is a mind twisting human horror tale of... the value of life.

It's been a while since I felt so adamant about watching a movie in cinema. I first read about this movie weeks ago, on a fine morning I read the newspapers yet on another teenage violence incident, and then I saw the review for Confessions. It couldn't have been more apt to say something about teen problems in modern society today. To add on it, the main lead is Matsu Takako, known for her sweet demure image in dramas. So seeing her a psychotic role like this is a first and got me even more curious to find out more.

The general outline of what this's about's that a middle school home teacher's daughter was murdered by 2 of the students in her class but the case was dismissed as an accident. She can't do anything about it because juvenile law protects minors from capital punishment. However she is determined to take some form of revenge against them. On the last day of the term, she confessed to the class her tale and she had put her husband's blood with hiv virus in the milk cartons of student A and student B. This is only 10% of what's the movie about.

This revenge thought coming out from a teacher's mouth is downright horrible. What happens after that was a series of confessions from the students in the class and mind-blowing twists in the aftermath of their teacher's speech. The actors were awesome and they include the child actors. Actually I'm kinda worried for the child actors whether acting so violently in the movie'll affect their lives in reality.

Despite the gore psychology, I liked the treatment of the film. It used quite a number of slow motion to magnify/tone down the magnitude of events, such as the rain falling. The ocasional cuts to the cloudy skies were beautiful. The pauses and sound effects used for example, the chalk screeching when the teacher wrote the japanese word of "life" on the blackboard gives the word a heavier attention.

After the movie ended, nobody got up from their seats to leave for some time. That includes me seated in my seat dumbfounded, while the 2 japanese teen girls sitting beside me started babbling about the movie. Haven't felt like this since I watched Inception months ago. Mind boggling perfect movie, but I wouldn't recommend this for the faint-hearted.

Western Film Recap

2010-12-15T02:18:00.015+08:00

I'm done with my papers and that includes western film history. I enjoyed studying this paper, watching as much films as I possibly can, feeling inspired and moved by the films reflected in the best of their eras. Before I took this module I used to have a misconception or fear watching black and white movies, that the actors in the films seemed to have bigger eyes and stare really hard, that it's often scary with its loom dark nature– like you never know if something's gona pop up and give you a scare. Pretty lame and lack of understanding I know, and of course I feel differently towards these films now.

I particularly liked Bicycle Thieves (1948) by Vittorio De Sica and Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) by Alain Renais, a poetic post war love story between a French women and a Japanese man. It was beautifully crafted with footage from Hiroshima and the atomic bomb aftermath, detailed and tragic. It was to be a fleeting affair but one of which the female protagonist reawakens her dormant painful memories and retells the tale to Lui. The film was originally commissioned to be a documentary but was instead changed to a narrative. It was interesting and sensual how Renais used footage like that into a memory experience of the couple. Poetic.

*Spoilers below*

Well for Bicycles Thieves, it's a simple story taken place just after the world war, unemployment was rampant and our protagonist Antonio managed to find a job pasting posters, the only requirement being that, a bicycle will be needed. Unfortunately for Antonio, his bicycle was stolen on his first day on the job while he was busy putting up the posters. After Antonio's bicycle was stolen, I had this thought when he was searching frantically for his bicycle in the black market– wouldn't it be easier if he just steal it too? But glad he didn't. I felt so bad for him when he decided to take his son to a good meal when hopes of getting the bicycle back was getting dim. Despite efforts in finding the thief and when he really did, he was instead accused of recognizing the wrong person! Then in his dire state, he tried to steal a bicycle but failed badly with the owner and the public catching up to him. His son saw him and shed a painful tear as he takes out his handkerchief to wipe, holding his father's hand looking at him time to time as though consoling him as the father. Held on to his son, they walked, amidst the buzzing crowded streets. The father looked blankly in the crowded streets with a broken frown, the hopes of getting the bicycle was gone. In this scene, the father and son didn't say a word but their actions said everything. A thing to note, the cast weren't professional actors, the guy who acted Antonio was actually a factory worker in real life. Beautiful life in a harsh world.

Well it made me feel lucky to be living in this modern age, with no fret for my survival needs.

Then it's Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and the Kid, this song holds a lot more meaning to what I've already known from the lyrics. His clothes are all torn and tattered and his chair breaks when he sits on it, he is so poor but it doesn't seem that bad. He gets up and finds another chair, and life goes on. I think this's the spirit of his films. Sometimes I find it hard to laugh at all his silly mishaps, how can you laugh when you barely have enough to eat? But I guess his light hearted comedy approach towards these hard times gives hope and the message that it's okay, keep trying, you're not alone.

"To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it." -Charlie Chaplin

Watching films's a good way of learning and experiencing human's struggle with life and the environment they're in ain't it? Okay enough of my unfinished thoughts towards the subject.

RGB

2010-12-12T21:06:00.005+08:00

Before I move on to my 2 papers, just want to say: the worst is over! :D
Graphic Design is probably the module I learnt most this semester in terms of thinking, research, concept, design and spent the most effort on. To sum it up, it's a project about rebranding a festival in Asia, and for me I've chosen Japan's "Seven Five Three" festival–celebrating children of 3, 5 and 7 years who has come of age and pray for their growth.

The hardest part of the project was putting the research and concept into visuals. We had to come up with a logo and from there expand it into graphics and visuals. We can't depend on photos, it's not mine to begin with), so using just typography and elements from the concept, we had to do posters, medias, souvenir and a book. I guess from my previous posts you could tell it was a horrible week, there was only less than 1 week to finish all these. The book was the main challenge, the one medium I like yet struggled the most. In this one week when I thought nothing else but GD was initially torturing but glad I later grew accustomed to it. We could perhaps be a lot more productive if we didn't have other modules to distract our thoughts eh.
Here are some of my favourite spreads:

I'm very happy to how it turned out with the right papers chosen, perhaps most satisfying piece of work to date. Right now it's sitting quietly among with my coursemates' books in my prof's office, I wonder when can we get it back.

Maybe I should be panicking how to study 2 papers in 1.5 day now...

Cheer up

2010-12-08T14:04:00.009+08:00

今天发现功课做不好的原因的罪魁祸首是因为心情不好。
太执着于如何突破自己的瓶顶，不断催眠自己一定要成功。很难受。
最大的敌人不是老师，还是自己。
或许已经忘记怎么在意志消沉中自寻其乐。
但最重要还是要做得开心，或许就真的能想表达出自己一直在挣扎的。
我不知道，但可能会好过一些。

但愿这个想法可以持续多4天。。。

Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and bring forth from your very soul an idea.
-Lou Dorfsman

Couldn't have agree more.

Monologue.

2010-12-06T17:03:00.007+08:00

I want to do nothing else but graphic design.
Day and night, day and night.
The rain is falling.
Time is ticking.
I am writing.
All for a breakthrough, a breakthrough.

5.03pm
---

唯一去当时去台湾的遗憾就是没有好好的逛逛成品，买多几本design book.
现在拿书出来翻，还蛮想念当时跟大伙儿在台湾逛的时候。。。

8.00pm
---

I still cannot imagine what my book will look like in 6 days.

9.14pm
---

So other than coming up with my own aesthetics, and challenging the rules of layouting. I must be able to write my own content and sometimes bilingually too. Okay, breathe in, this can't be worse than math.

10.47pm
---

/_\

2.05am
---

I hope when I do get a job in this field, there's no hair-pulling crunch time such as this.
.. I'm not hopeful though.

2.16am

Unleashed

2010-11-23T23:58:00.004+08:00

So... I survived another weekend, the most miserable yet.
My tolerance for un-inspiration has perhaps upped another level, spraining my neck this time while I was trying to multi-task between my desktop and laptop. Thanks to that my spirits got to a new low (and trying to figure out whether it's my neck or throat that's hurting when I swallow my saliva. )

The weather was hot and my projects weren't progressing. All I could do to make myself feel better was to talk to my mates on msn and :( together. But nothing beats going to school and seeing people alive. After 4 days of cooping myself at home other than buying dinner once and watching harry potter at the closest mall with bro, my legs felt weak when I'm finally going out today. So, I figured, I should try to have something to look forward to, or at least keep my spirits up in these times of madness.

1. Maintain my social bar. If not I'd be like the 0 social bar depressed sim who mopes.
2. Find new interest like a new song or movie. This sem I've entirely stopped following any dramas like I used to in the past, that adds another -1 to my mood.
3. Be interested in what I'm doing and focus, even if I don't like the module. Because in the end, I still need to finish the project and I'd be sure to panick and feel worse if I don't finish it on time.
4. Avoid distractions unless I'm really stuck. Distracted thoughts feed the soul of unproductivity.
5. Walk about more often, to ease my poor muscles.

On a lighter note we learnt how to use fontlab today and boy was I touched when I finally see my typeface BEING TYPED OUT ON KEYBOARD. It was a moment whereby I felt all that struggle and misery was worth it. Cindy treated us pizza and I ahem made a new friend today ;) Life's good, school's good. In fact, i love my weekdays more than my weekends now because they're now dedicated to work.

Things to do this weekend

2010-11-19T10:19:00.003+08:00

Prof Prac Assignment 2:
~~Sample images~~
CV
Intro Letter
Student Biography
Marketing Plan

Mogra
Essential Elements: Finish polish up and don't look anymore.
30s Film Teaser: Think of style and better start drawing.

Type
Finish video + documentation of installation
Polish up type, vectorise my numbers
3 versions of type poster

GD
See Cindy again before Tues
Touch up posters
Work on the 12 spreads

Good luck.

Cindy said

2010-11-19T01:26:00.006+08:00

不要逃避问题。
想办法解决问题。
不是想新的办法逃避问题。

被老师看穿了。
I raised a few new ideas to overcome what was lacking in my initial design and she said this. Then it dawned upon me that I've been guilty of jumping to a new idea whenever I feel it's hard to do, giving it up without much thought of its potential. Though I can remember another prof who said you should never like your first idea too much, learn how to break up with it even if you've already put a lot of effort, when you know deep down it won't work. Contradicting isn't it?

Mastering design is like learning how to live life.
Every stroke and detail reflects your actions, you can't run away.
丑的线条就是代表你还不够努力。T_T

Anyway I'm glad I'm being reprimanded than getting a okay, not bad. I get a stronger drive to prove that I can do this. I actually kinda miss "getting pushed down the cliff" (by my hardcore profs) and see how far can I really go. Here's what my poster looks like now:

This is some japanese festival rebranding project that we've been working on. I was very satisfied with my idea, but I guess I got too comfortable with the execution that I didn't try hard enough to make it better. I don't know what's it gona look like after this week, deep down I'm scared too but I can only look forward now. 越战越勇！Anyway, it's only in school you can jump off cliffs safely without dying, so better jump more now.

一点感触

2010-11-16T03:03:00.004+08:00

今天看见朋友在这百忙之中收到了一束好美的花，有种莫名的感动。
幸福的女人最美。

What I'm trained for

2010-11-14T23:02:00.001+08:00

My job is to eat information and shit rainbows.
现在有点排便不出。

お誕生日おめでとう！

2010-11-13T01:33:00.001+08:00

Happy Birthday Takuya Captain!

Well it's the time of the year again, happy 38th birthday!
If you're wondering if I'm still a fan of Kimura Takuya after all these years, writing this post proves that I'm pretty much still am and will still be for a very very long time.

I've talked about why in my last year's post, so this year what should I talk about.
Well I'm already 22, not much of a raving fangirl anymore [Though I think I secretly still am sometimes]...

What defines an idol?
In this time and age whereby teens get swooned over by pretty looks and cute, I think what stands strong in the end will be respect. I think by now I've past the age whereby I'll be bought over by new rising ikemen, heck I'm not even interested in animes and even dramas anymore without feeling any corniness to the plot pattern that I've accustomed to spot. But I'm still interested in Kimutaku.

Because he is alive, real, transparent and close within reach everywhere. He's more like a living, talking brand. It perhaps wouldn't have worked so well if he wasn't a part of SMAP. You can watch him every Monday on SMAPxSMAP, you can listen to him on radio every Friday, he appears on magazines every now and then, stars in a drama once every year, takes part in variety shows, he even writes well and has his own column in a magazine etc and I believe there are more channels to watch him, SMAP and the other members on their own TV show. It's almost like okay, so how's this person doing now, what projects is he working on now and they talk about it and share their experience. Slowly you start to feel you know them, and watching them becomes a part of your life. Being an idol has surely gotta be so much more than acting cool and being good at something to be leaving traces in so many mediums in media- TV, music, movie, drama, publication, photography. An idol has to inspire and motivate, and having a strong identity that certain target audience can identify with. Perhaps it could be Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai for you, but for me, I'm the audience for Kimura Takuya.

So for transparency, the Japanese media has done a great job in publicizing their idols. But what stands strong and appeals most in the end has to be the character himself. What I respect about Kimura is his professionalism to whatever he does, be it something he likes or dislikes, yet being playful and enjoying himself at the same time. He has a way in taking in things and giving out in his own way, which leaves a very strong and unique presence in his works. Traits like this can very much apply to my field too- acting, singing, dancing, entertaining is pretty much a creative job too. So, he's been very inspiring. I think a person shines the brightest when one is passionate with what he does. Thus he has shone, almost 20 years now and still shining. Happy Birthday Kimura, keep on shining!

Wine tastes better with age

2010-11-12T02:42:00.004+08:00

I'm starting to think aging is a beautiful thing.
Sure, you've had times of fun and impulses, perhaps that's the stage where everyone likes to stick themselves longer in. But when you see past that, and with your experience, find new better things to get interested in, that's when you enjoy the things you feel that only comes with age.

I'm looking at my 55 year old prof who teaches film history with so much passion for life. Yesterday after a round of talk on neorealism he said he wants to show us something and asked us to come to the front. He put this white clay donut shaped thing on the table in front. Carved intricately on the circumference, is the city of Paris. "Ooh, so nice," we said. After which he added on that for all his 55 years in life he studied a lot of things, society, how life works and that we can see society has already structured itself quite nicely. Now that he finally understands, he wonders what he can create and add to this already well-built system.

Afterwhich he turned off the light, and lighted up a candle and puts in the hole of the donut shaped figure. What lighted up was an even more beautiful Paris, magnifying the intricate beauty carved on the figure with its shadows.

"A new way to view this beautiful city," he said, with a smile.

细水长流

2010-11-06T12:47:00.004+08:00

无意间在整理电脑时发现了这张照片。

忽然好想念你们。你们过得好吗？

几时再去吃臭豆腐啊。

Glad I'm meeting the juniors later.

拍照

2010-11-05T02:16:00.003+08:00

这次喉咙痛，

吃东西痛，

喝水痛，
打哈欠痛，
吞口水最痛。
真受不了。

~

这年可能是我大学生涯最精彩的一年, 我会好好珍惜。

So N or NW?

2010-10-29T01:17:00.003+08:00

Yesterday during film history class the prof showed us this:

N or NW, 1938.

This is one of the earliest form of documentaries, or rather I'd see it more of an ad or campaign in today's terms, created by the General Post Office (GPO) in UK. The N in the title stands for North and NW, Northwest. Because back in those days, when the postal code wasn't invented yet (neither the telephone perhaps), there can be 2 roads of the same name but in different directions. That's when the person have to indicate in the address, which direction, in this case North or Northwest. If indicated wrongly, the person may never receive the letter! In the short film, the girl is angry with the guy over some quarrel and writes to him to demand an apology, all in snail mail. They almost didn't made up because the guy sent his letter to the wrong direction!

Woah. Don't you find it amazing that 72 years later we can easily convey our thoughts to the other party by sms, phonecall, msn, email, fb, twitter etc? I wonder what's gona happen in another 72 years, perhaps we can use telepathy by then? Like see through another's thoughts whenever we want to? Actually thoughts have gotten so transparent now, you get to see everyone's thoughts everywhere, on statuses across, fb, twitter, msn etc. Not that it's a bad thing, reading them keeps me amused most of the time. Well maybe occupying too much of my time, making me distracted.

"When I wonder about the best way to express my feelings sincerely... Maybe I'm secretly trying to make an impact?" - Kimura Takuya

Perhaps we all secretly wish to make an impact of our existence, whoever that may, pick it up.

Gomenasai no more

2010-10-22T01:36:00.006+08:00

So I've won, the tickets to the Anzen Chitai concert, this Sunday. Didn't expect to win. Can't seem to find an interested partner, nor am I really free to go, being bugged down by assignments. Sigh it's supposed to be a happy thing.

So hey there all the best for your concert, hope you'll find it great here in Sg and the haze's not spoiling your impression here. I was really interested to watch you play live. Keep singing!

ーフイリン

-------------------------------------------
UPDATE. Friday, 5.26pm.

My long time no see japanese class classmate who works in Mediacorp surprise called me a while ago to ask me why I haven't collected my tickets from them and I'm the only one who didn't collect them. She even has my essay in her hands! Unbelievable coincidence. I seem to be fated with this band huh. Wonder if my post yesterday worked some magic there.
缘分有时候真的很奇妙。

So yes I've decided to go and with my friend who called me :D
Thank you Hannah san!

男人女人

2010-10-18T17:21:00.007+08:00

Newfound respect for typographers who can spend years to develop a typeface. These 2 took me 1 entire afternoon, and well they're still not very perfect yet. I remember one of my profs once jokingly said about me/my craft: On the outside I'm a girl but on the inside, I'm like a guy, not meticulous enough. Now whenever I feel a little lazy in polishing the details, I'm reminded of this to keep myself going harder.

Recently I've been reading up traditional values in gender. Like women are expected to be good at sewing, keep the house neat, cook, wait on the husband, etc. I wonder if we're losing these fine values a woman's used to expect to have, as modern society progresses. Sad to say I for one, isn't anything like that. ha. Now in modern context, you want to be successful in career, in life and manage your family well taking up additional roles to more than what is expected from a woman's life - to be a good wife and mother. See, girls need to be good multi-taskers for a good reason.

I think I want to be a man my next life, if any.

Thanks to the brownie I had for supper, I can't sleep with a full stomach.

Goodbye Sadness

2010-10-16T01:39:00.006+08:00

Recently if you've watched tv, you'd have probably seen this being publicised much. I too got curious, One- it's a very old japanese band coming to S'pore, how rare is that? Two- I happened to know one song by them and it played during the advertisement. It was Suki sa, this opening theme from an anime called Maison Ikkoku in the 80s. Even if it's just snippets of the songs, I thought Koji Tamaki's got a rather alluring voice. I got curious and went to youtube more of their songs.

Then I heard Kanashimi ni Sayonara, Goodbye Sadness.

There's this phrase in the chorus that keeps getting to me.

泣かないで一人で、微笑みで見つけて
Nakanaide hitori de, hohoemi de mitsukete
Don't cry alone, show me a smile

His songs tend to be quite powerful in giving comfort, and being emotional. That said, I have to say this song has been my earworm for going to a month already. Now that I see a chance to win tickets to the concert in i-weekly by writing a 100 words essay, think I'll give it a try.

Mid Sem Review

2010-10-15T19:11:00.005+08:00

Today I tried to sit down and write my artist's statement for my cv. Looking through my works done from before, and what I'm currently working on now, I wonder if I have lost some oomph. It's my third year, a year which I have to get in the mood mentally for my final epic year project next year, which isn't far. As of now, I don't feel particularly concerned, or interested in any of my current projects, well perhaps only for graphic design where I've gone pretty deep in doing my research due to Cindy's pushing. Feeling numb to deadlines isn't a good thing whereas for last sem I was literally panicking and stressing out everyday.

HELLO DRIVE? WHERE ARE YOU?

And it seems I haven't blogged anything about my work this sem so far yet. Gosh. Have I been that distracted with CO and whatever not? I need to be scolded. Like here

Hope to cancel everything on this to-do list by the end of Recess Week, with drive!

Light up

2010-10-14T00:13:00.002+08:00

I need to be more unfeeling.
For my spirits get dampened every time I get rebutted.

Happy Children's Day

2010-10-03T18:00:00.004+08:00

已经有十年没有庆祝儿童节了。最近在graphic design class做关于在日本庆祝儿童成长的传统节日，忽然又想起埋在抽屉深处里，装满童年回忆的铁盒子，其中就包括了一些老师送的儿童节礼物。

就说那龙雕刻的钥匙圈吧，是我四年级的华文老师送的。记得当时他拿着一个大袋子说里面装着全12生肖的钥匙圈。因为大家都是肖龙的，而龙的钥匙圈有限。所以为了公平，大家只好从袋子里抽一个出来。很幸运的，我抽到了那属龙的钥匙圈！好像买toto中了头奖一样，超开心的，也是礼物当中我最宝贵的。现在把它拿出来看看还真希望它能为我在这个project的research上带来好运，让我早点找到答案。

As for the apple ring candy, I remember it was from a relief teacher given to us wishing us luck for our PSLE. I thought that was one of the best sweets I've ever tasted hence I washed and kept the wrapper for good luck. And I liked the stapled handwritten note that came along with it. I guess it made me believe it'd really increase my luck. Looking back now as an adult, this teacher was very sweet.

To question the purpose of celebrating Children's Day in Sg, I think I've never really given much thought about it. Other than this being a day whereby I get presents from my teachers, feeling appreciated that I'm my teacher's student to receive this honourable token from them. These notions are fine really.

Just that were there hopes in each present that wishes convey to these children/students, other than wishing them oh happy children's day, here's something nice to make your day? If everything, every gesture has a deep meaning, can I find an answer deep enough to answer my prof's why beyond the why questions next week... ?

Next One

2010-09-29T23:20:00.006+08:00

I was reading up on Charlie Chaplin just a while ago, after film class today introduced him and the other silent comedy films. Surprisingly discovered and touched that he composed "Smile", the song sung by Nat King Cole and many others. Leading me to recall the quote regarding Chaplin while watching the last ep of "Gold" the other day, the main character said: When asked what was Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece in an interview, he said: Next One. Then I saw my classmate tweeted this video:

Elizabeth Gilbert (Author of Eat,Pray, Love) : A new way to think about creativity.

So she said, when she got psyched up over her dangerously, frighteningly, overanticipated follow-up book after her major freakish success:

"Don't be afraid, don't be daunted, just do your job"

She just hit all the right spots of being a creative in 20mins. Just as I was thinking that my this current motion graphics project that I'm working on is just plain lame no matter how I try to polish it up. So if we just keep doing our job, it'd be okay? Like if I keep writing I'll be able to finish this blog post that I've been trying to type since more than an hour ago and then finally feel at peace with myself and continue to work on my project?

Seems like it does. (After deleting chunks of sentences, filtering and distractions like tv)
So my point is... I had the honour through my overloaded distractions to find out that C.Chaplin and E.Glibert had similar thinking in the positive attitude towards working on the next big thing despite already done many great things and that I'm inspired.

Oh yes, I've finally write that strong gust of wind down despite my incoherent articulation. At last I'm at peace with myself so I'll now be continuing to do my work obediently as a good student would. Right...

笑傲江湖

2010-09-24T01:40:00.009+08:00

最近8频道又重播了99 年新加坡版的笑傲江湖。偶尔在电脑前做东西时会跑到电视前，看一看。其实自小以来都很喜欢看这种江湖故事的古装片。拍的有些cheesy, 刚才还在某scene上看到了许多dust spots.真是的，cameraman 没把摄影机擦好啊。虽然如此，当时年幼的我是超喜欢看的，如今还是带着有些怀旧的心情偶尔到电视前看一看。还是觉得令弧冲很帅，哈哈。就在昨晚嘛，在电脑前做功课时，此剧的片尾曲传到了我耳边，就觉得挺好听的。今晚便特意留意此曲的曲名与演唱，终于给我找到了。

Managed to find a "youtube" version of the song here: http://www.56.com/u57/v_MTA0MTUxOTg.html

对酒当歌
作词：Alan Poh
作曲：柯贵民
演唱：吴佳明

路遥遥行遍万里山河会知心能有几个
刀剑里笑看风云变色谁胜谁负谁晓得
浪滔滔数尽悲欢离合放得下能有几个
邀清风明月对酒当歌醉三分悠然自得

不管今夕身处于何方酒入肠豪情万丈
尽管世俗仍笑我痴狂恩或怨都由我扛

天苍苍豪情气壮山河得与失又算什么
刀剑里笑看风云变色我行我素我自乐
人匆匆犹如红尘过客名和利又算什么
邀清风明月对酒当歌醉一回人生几何

好潇洒的歌词啊。

什么“刀剑里笑看风云变色，我行我素我自乐。人匆匆犹如红尘过客，名和利又算什么。”说得好！
看，为本地连续剧制作的歌也有好的时候吧。可惜啊，现在本地已经不拍古装片了。

Blurp

2010-09-22T01:06:00.007+08:00

Life is great now that I'm 4 weeks into school but I guess it's busy in a good way. With 2 nights of my week occupied with co, getting more involved with the comm and weekends spent going out attending concerts, birthdays, meet ups what nots. I think this could be my most happening year in uni.

I have cool friends who know how to make mooncakes, free tickets to concerts and speak Chinese the imperial way!!11

In fact I think I've been playing too much that I'm not spending enough time with my school work. (Tend to be the reverse for the past 2 years) Perhaps I'm an old bird now, thus already gotten used to the work pace or hmm, well this is only week 4.

Tonight is a self-declared rest night because I had lessons from 9 to 830 so I deserve some slack. Plus it's Mid-Autumn Festival and I'm still full from a supper of mooncakes and peanuts.
I miss blog talking to myself. Oh and yay I have Western Film History tomorrow!

I Don't Want to Live on the Moon

2010-09-10T01:14:00.003+08:00

This song and video sure brought me lots of childhood memories. Haven't seen this for at least 10 years and when I randomly came across this it was like I was brought back in time till when I was 10 or less. I used to have sleeping problems, because I was afraid of nightmares, voices in my head etc. So perhaps this video with Ernie saying good night to Bart but him not sleeping yet and singing something made me feel touched and comforted. I liked the song so much I even wrote alternate lyrics to the tune then. I still think this would make a great bedtime song.

Sesame Street was my favourite childhood program, well at least up till when I was upper primary or so and is probably my earliest memory of watching television. I can't remember what was my favourite segment, probably Ernie and Bart's? I also like how they have a letter and a number of the day and have segments to introduce it. But for now I think I like Elmo best.

Elmo thinks that for grouchy people if you give them a hug, then they wouldn't be so grouchy anymore.

Awww.

Elmo is so cute and cuddly here, I want him to do a Huiling's World for me. xD

Well, before I go to sleep, I think I'll listen to the song again. Good night and sweet dreams.

A quickie

2010-09-02T00:34:00.003+08:00

Well I've finally completed that Inception 30days challenge. It was fun though sometimes a drag when I have no idea what to write. I'm glad I managed to finish it and didn't give up till the end! It probably improved a bit of my skills in impromptu writing too. hah.

These 4 months of break have been fulfilling, I had fun, work and ample rest too. Met up with friends, watch lots of movies, Inception, celebrate birthdays, slack, co etc. So now it's back to school, up another level, level 3. So far so good this first week, with some lessons cancelled. The best part about returning to school's seeing my schoolmates again and of course helping to eat some of the buffet for the freshies. Can't waste any food can we ;)

I think my favourite day of the week's gona be Wednesday because of Western Film History, seeing I'm updating this today too. We were shown quite a number of first films today and I'm looking forward to the next lesson already.

(Maybe I'll talk about it over at thefilmcase, it's not gona be dead so soon yet!)

A little publicity

2010-08-30T00:54:00.004+08:00

Having fun with my little Inception project right now. For my own easy reference:

Day 11 - In your group of friends who would be the Extractor?
Day 12 - The Point Man?
Day 13 - The Chemist?
Day 14 - The Forger?
Day 15 - The Architect?
Day 16 - The Tourist?
Day 17 - The Mark?
Day 18 - Take a picture/draw/sing/whatever something Inception related
Day 19 - Would you mind if the concept of idea thievery and inception was a part of our reality? Why or why not?
Day 20 - A pairing you ship

Day 21 - What was the best dream you ever had? *

Day 22 - What was the worst dream you ever had?

Day 23 - A letter to your favorite character

Day 24 - How many times have you or are you going to see Inception?

Day 25 - Who would you incept? *

Day 26 - What idea would you incept?
~
Day 30 - A letter to Christopher Nolan

*- one of my favourite posts

(27-29 werent that interesting qns. :x)

~~Will be updating continuously till the 30th day.~~
Stay tuned :)

Meme completed!

Recap

2010-08-18T22:36:00.007+08:00

I know I haven't been updating about my life lately, being preoccupied with the meme, squeezing my brain juice trying to come up with a good answer to each post daily. It's taxing but still good fun at the same time when I do come up with something. Gradually I think it helped me in my writing too, and a good brain exercise for coming up with something on the spot.

A photo with my colleagues

I'm finally back to enjoy my holidays now that I'm done with work. The 2 months have been a great experience, learning how the outside world works. In the end, it very much comes down to how capable you are in handling your job, when facing constant changes from clients, checking, proofreading, preparing the work for print. (I'm working in a print company) I guess some of the perks in working in a relatively small company's that you don't feel neglected and you get to do important jobs. Compared to those days in my previous internship at a big company whereby half the time I was only working on 1 major project, this time's experience was much more fulfilling.

Maybe having this work experience will make me appreciate school more, because you get to do what you want. It's a whole different world out there, most of the time you feel you're doing things for the sake of getting it done and just look forward to getting paid. Having projects you can't choose coming in everyday, most of them corporate, as time goes by you can get jaded. It can get repetitive too, the same things that come monthly, it's like a routine. Well there are those slightly more fun ones once in a while, but overall it was a nice experience. My colleagues and the boss were nice. Maybe the next time I do another internship I'd like to try working in publishing or a creative agency.

Twenty two years

2010-08-05T00:19:00.002+08:00

This is what I've been up to for the past 4 days:

http://thefilmcase.wordpress.com/

An Inception discussion blog, or rather a blog to post our Inception meme. Comments are welcomed!

So right now I'm another year older now. Hmm I still feel the same other than my age digit has changed. I probably need to invest a little more in skin care and start thinking about my future. It's only about 1 more year before I start on my FYP. Time sure flies.

Nevertheless, thanks for the well wishes and presents! May this be a better year than the last!

GOLD

2010-07-28T21:52:00.012+08:00

After more than a year's wait after last year's Love Shuffle, I've been waiting for Nojima Shinji to pen something again. I was a little disappointed last season to not find anything but alas, the wait has ended. This season there's GOLD:

This is a whole different kind of drama from his last title. By now I guess you could say I'm a long time fan of his works when I believe the top 3 of my favourite dramas are all penned by him. Anyway this show just started 3 weeks ago and I am finding little to no discussion posts for this show hence I'm gona start one myself now. HERE.

Starring Amami Yuki, who's known for her strong headed women roles, she's definitely one of a kind, well having spent her twenties in the Takarazuka troupe (An all-women musical broadway-like troupe and you know what she used to play? A man!), I'm always amazed by her acting. Next is Sorimachi Takashi, who's known for his role in GTO. (Sad to say I didn't watch GTO but I definitely heard of his name of course) So what's this story about?

Yuri Saotome is a charismatic beautician who runs a major sports gym and aesthetic salon. Her older brother died in an accident just before his opportunity to achieve a gold medal at the Olympics, so she chose to marry a wrestling gold medalist. After giving birth to four children, she and her husband broke off their marriage, leaving Yuri to raise the kids by herself. With their excellent genes, three of them have been raised as possible candidates for the next Olympic games.-Tokyograph

I know it sounds super average, but this is just the general setting of this drama. Saotome Yuri is the soul of this drama, she is beautiful, charismatic, confident, successful and probably everything a woman wants to be. She has a daughter and 2 sons and they are all Olympic candidates. There are probably a lot of shows that have a character like that but what's different about this is, and the part I like best is: This show tells us why and she talks about her own set of theories, education beliefs and amusing views on life that will leave you pondering at the edge of your seat~~like Inception~~, and laughing too. Yes laugh, it's wittyly funny.

What to look out for:
1. For now it seems that every episode Saotome Yuri will be having some kind of interview be it on TV or for magazine and she'll discuss a topic regarding her views towards raising children in society nowadays which never fails to intrigue me.

2. The dynamics between her and the blur clumsy secretary, Rika. The whole point of the laughing point is here. Rika probably represents the audience who asks her boss, tonnes of questions that one of us audience would like to know. Well sometimes it's the other way round, which usually turns out Rika completely agreeing with her boss that it's really amusing to see.

3. Character history
The Saotome family probably has a complex history that makes this striving for an Olympic GOLD medal some sort of a destiny and the extents Saotome Yuri goes to train her children to get it. I'd like to know whether one of them will really get the medal because right now at the 3rd episode, we're starting to see some conflicts within the family. Let's see how is the witty Saotome Yuri's gona solve this.

I'm really excited about this show. 8D
(I know I know I'm becoming a film drama geek... or already am)

(photos are screenshots from http://www.fujitv.co.jp/GOLD/index.html)

Inception

2010-07-21T23:47:00.005+08:00

If you've talked to me for the past few days, you'd probably know I'm obsessed with Inception. I've looked forward to this for the past month and I'm glad I wasn't disappointed at all and it has totally met or even far exceed my expectations for this show. Every scene is so crucial to this movie, there is not a single part where you feel dragged or wondering whether the movie's gona end yet. Just that you probably need to pay full attention to the story to get a hold of what's going on, because this whole concept of dream within a dream is so puzzling and intriguing with Nolan's set of rules, you get sucked in the whole idea and you want to know more. After the first watch, I had the utmost desire to wana watch it again to figure out the ending. (Which I did on the next day)

Of course this isn't the first Nolan film that made me feel this way. The first time I was introduced to Christopher Nolan was Memento, a film about this guy who had a condition whereby he can only remember for 30 minutes and forgets whatever happened. So he had to write notes, tattoo whichever works to remind himself who to trust, what has happened etc. Moreover the story was told backwards, so this definitely will leave you asking a lot of questions after the show. Years later came the Prestige, probably my favourite of his films considering how I can relate to it to watching Inception. One of my favourite quotes from the Prestige:

Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled

This pretty much sums up what I feel about Inception too. I guess it could be very simple like Borden's trick but we, like Angier refuse to believe the simplest, we continue to search for answers. Anyway the searching, discussing part is always what I enjoyed doing. I've never seen so many articles and discussion regarding a film quite like this. All that buzz and discussion on the internet, me like! I'm really glad Christopher Nolan has finally made a big name for himself.

A movie doesn’t need to be in 3-D, it doesn’t need to have a gratuitous sex scene/love interest, or even a villain. This is what movies should be, challenging, questioning, thrilling.

(source: http://tinyurl.com/36m8jrt)

第36个故事

2010-07-17T03:13:00.004+08:00

在夜晚还没结束之前，在记忆还没淡掉之前，不要忘记。

I had the honour of sitting an aquaintance's jeep home today. There was no distance between us and the driver's seat besides an opened window. Sitting on the back riding the winds of the highway, as close to windgliding as I can get. Skies were chasing, the lights flashed by bright. Light english songs for accompaniment with afterthoughts of a good movie lingering. Life is good, it's almost like flying. 梦想中最美好的人生实现了？

“EH, 从这里exit?”

The best kind of movie is when you enter the cinema with no expectations and leave feeling.. "dazlious". Especially when it's impromptu and underrated, and you feel like only you and your bunch of friends know this secret.

A Viscommer's Gush

2010-07-11T12:46:00.011+08:00

Good afternoon! This's one of the rare times when I feel like blogging on a sunny lazy Sunday afternoon. heh. I had a great weekend last week and yesterday attending a 21st birthday party, shopping at a library sale, borrowing DVDs, watching them and I was lucky enough to be able to attend NDP's Combined Rehearsal 3 last week! The goodie bag was awesome, perhaps the best I've seen in all these years.

Great Buys and Borrows from the NLB Book sale.

One of my favourite find's the Nipponpop book! (See at the top right corner of the book is SMAP and Kimura Takuya!) All I wanted to know about JPOP and the various popular artistes from the good golden 90s are all in this book. On account of that, I love the colorful pages and photos, every page is so drastically different! It was nice youtubing these artistes and reading about them at the same time xD

A random colorful page of the book from the Ethnic bands section

All the books are going at $2 each and you can borrow up to 6 dvd titles there!
Here's a peek into the goodies bag for NDP this year. It comes with a fun box and inside are the food, drinks, tattooes etc all packaged nicely. Plus a publication descripting the process and the making of this NDP, things you would wana know about the parade. Awesome ain't it?

The NDP goodie bag, the fun box that shapes the bag, in Futura!

I'll end this in a rather abrupt note as I'm running late for a concert.
(Now that I'm back I can't seem to continue to where I left off so I guess I'll leave it like this for now)

Moon lover

2010-06-30T23:13:00.018+08:00

(Note: This is a pretty long winded drama talk with slight spoilers)

Thoughts till watching episode 7 of Tsuki no Koibito so far.

There's something about Tsuki no Koibito that I felt strongly wanting to defend about, despite the bad reviews it has gotten so far, with regards to Lin Chiling's acting, disappointing plot, otp not satisfied. There's something about it that I didn't quite feel the same with most of the so-called romance dramas that I've felt.

I know everyone misses the good old golden 90s love generation dramas, I do too. Perhaps the biggest downfall of this drama was promoting it as a love drama, and emphasizing it very much in the trailers... when it isn't quite so. I wonder if I had mislooked the good points of this drama just because everyone's all so acted up with lcl's acting. It had such a good cast, a good theme song, a good soundtrack, great production set, the night scenes with the moon were beautiful. But why is everyone so determined to mark it down. Was it really a poor script? Or maybe the screenwriter just wanted to try something new? This is 2010 after all, the start of a new decade. Those nostalgic feelings we had for those 90s love dramas, will we still see it again? - was probably generally the feelings of most audiences hoped to see.

7 episodes in so far, next week being the last, the entire drama has been revolving the 3 women around Rensuke. I actually like the interactions between these 3 women, they seem to be all good friends with each other. And I like some of the scenes when the women talk, they tell a tinny weeny bit more about Rensuke. Well cos there's this unknown air around Rensuke, the feeling like we don't know him well enough and there weren't enough scenes to really explain why he acted this way or that, (I think usually you'd conclude that this guy is a jerk.) At about 5-6 episodes in, I was wondering whether it was bad writing or was there something more that will come and tell us why? Especially the fact that he doesn't express himself much, verbally and even in actions, he just does he way he does without saying anything. I think the response to this kind of protagonist either pisses people off as bad writing or like me, I'm eager to see what's gona happen to him, how is he going to fall, and maybe more depth?

Somehow I feel this drama is like an experiment to a different kind of direction with romance. It definitely triggered a lot of thinking for me, how many dramas can make me feel this way? Usually you'd just go "waaa so coool or waa soo sweeeeet" for yet another chase skirt scene. Anyway throughout the watching of this series, I actually looked quite forward to the next episode hoping to see if the writer's gona come up with good development or a look into the past scene etc. Often I wondered how things'll turn out, and sometimes it was disappointing. Then again it was probably this ambiguous element that there's no fixed "otp" (one true pairing) known to the audience that disappointed the mass.It makes you feel unsafe to where the drama is going.

Ok now for the things that I like about Tsuki no Koibito (other than Kimutaku)

It's precisely because of such beautiful title screens like this that made me believe this drama has just got to have more. It's so nicely designed, look at the glow, the shades of blue. The moon differs with each episode, one point it made me wonder if they'll start with a crescent and then slowly going to a full moon with the last episode. (anyway they didn't) 7 episodes in, I'm still in love with the title screen.

Now look at this design studio, I so wana work in a place like this! So brightly lited, and just look at the set, all the tools and the mess like a design studio would be. Maybe they really did film this in a real design studio. Another reason why I think this drama shouldn't be bad, the production value's good.

One of the breathtaking shots of night scenes with the moon in the distance.

I really reallly like this minature moon carved chair! I can imagine, if it was a teddy bear with a moon shirt sitting there, even if it was cute, I don't think I'd like it as much. This chair is just perfect. hmm maybe I prefer hard toys.

You've probably guessed it by now, I've got a fetish for the moon too, like the characters.

Next week's gona be the last episode, I hope I'm right about this drama and see it finish with a justified and natural end.

Side note: It'd be great if adm can offer a module like: Asian drama history. I'd be the first to sign up.

Energy-zapping

2010-06-29T01:02:00.004+08:00

Somehow this kind of fatigue isn't something I felt when I was rushing tonnes of projects at school, sure I was tired but I don't remember dreading going to school. I was already sleepy at 1030! When just weeks ago, my earliest bedtime was 130. My nights are so much shorter now. Guess I can now understand my friends feelings who stay far from school.

Work has been okay, I've been learning things. Just that the workload has been increasing lately, well time passes faster too with more things to do.

Hmm I need to find more fuel to make my long train rides more interesting, other than picking up conversations on the way home. Will this be the kind of life I'll be leading when I step into the workforce officially?

A day with the Edwards

2010-06-20T22:15:00.007+08:00

Well namely Edward Moss and Edward Scissorshands.

With Edward Moss!

It was amazing to catch a live performance of Michael Jackson's dances as closest as we could ever get, even though it's somebody else who's doing it. The best impersonator in the world! At first I was skeptical about this show when potternuts told me about it, until I did a little youtubing and I was impressed. He was very nice and friendly the few minutes of interaction we had on the stage while taking this photo. He asked where were we from and thanked us for suporting him that day. He was really tall and I felt so small! I wonder how he feels impersonating MJ for so many years. After the performance I thought he'd say something to the audience but no he didn't. He seemed hesitant to speak, through the mic. Perhaps to preserve his performance of MJ? I thought that was quite thoughtful.

With one of the young amazing contestants who were impersonating MJ. Look at her! (She's a girl btw) Even posing like MJ when taking a photo!

Edward trying to pick up a pea with his scissorshands

And then it's Edward Scissorshands, caught this in the Esplanade library after the performance. A title that we picked up by chance among the shelves of dvds and something I had been wanting to watch for some time. It was a heart-warming yet dark and a little wicked tale. I was going awww at some of the Edward moments when he cut himself again, or looking at that sad face when he did something wrong that he didn't intend to again.

I love the set, the neighbourhood was in pastel colours and the neighbours even dressed accordingly. The soundtrack was beautiful too, by Danny Elfman, it felt magical, and touched me.

I think there's an Edward in all of us, don't we all just want to be accepted by the crowd?

Side note: This catchy song is now currently glued to my head.

I think it's quite rare that singers like MJ write songs that tell/reflects of the world so boldly, songs so universal that anyone could like it.

Mental note: I've decided to name my next favourite thing/thumbdrive/gadget/soft animal, Edward.

つまらない時はどうする？

2010-06-13T00:10:00.005+08:00

Tsumaranai toki wa dou suru? (What to do when you're bored) Handy handbook vol 1.

Watch out for the omoshiroi meter (interesting meter) to see if it's effective in curing boredom.

Boredom cured! Stay tuned for more remedies (if I ever feel bored again).

Alone Again (Naturally)

2010-06-12T01:40:00.010+08:00

终于正式找到工作了，在一个print company当实习生！拜一开工。想到因为要早起不能在这种夜深人静的夜晚里，听听歌写写心情，聊聊天看戏就觉得有点sian. 但还是庆幸能找到跟本行有关的工作，希望能学些什么。

～

Song of the night: Gilbert O'Sullivan's Alone Again (Naturally)

今天又被问到单身的问题了。该说什么呢，不是因为人家长得帅或有钱就应该凭条件考虑吧。我也不太相信一见钟情。。。我也相信爱情不是你坐在这里，天就会掉下一个命中注定的白马王子出现在你面前。爱情大概还是应该靠自己去争取的吧。看了那么多的偶像剧，空窗了许久，好像没认真的去想过自己理想的恋情。因为不想要有任何失望的期待吗？呵。

世上那么多人，有几个真的投缘相识能和你无所不谈，兴趣相投，心灵相通？如果有大概就是对的人了吧。无所不谈有些难吧？自己也不算是个喜感十分的人，平时也不算多话。兴趣相投？I'm probably a girl geek in watching shows, reading words, art, design and media. Not to say I'm deeply learned in these areas but to be able to reach a good discussion, requires a person with some knowledge in these fields and an interest too. Sheeesh. 怎么觉得好像在寻人启事似的。

不管怎样就算没有爱情，一个人也可以快乐啊。靠自己的能力为人世间制造更美好的事物，留下证明自己存在的痕迹，大概也是我对这一行工作热爱的原因吧。这样过生活也不错啊！

New experience

2010-06-11T00:48:00.006+08:00

Well there's finally been a reply to the resumes I've been sending to companies all these while for a design intern position. But whether I get it or not, only the next day will tell.

These days I've been visiting exhibits and museums-

Pixar Exhibition @ The Science Center trip with the fixers.

Ramayana Revisited, Peranakan Museum, Notebook Vol 1. - Begin @ the Substation

and the National Museum Singapore with ntuco-ers.

It's interesting to be visiting musuems with nonadmers, seeing their point of view and surprise surprise they're even more knowledgable and interested than I do! It was nice sharing all these discussion we know about the topic because we come from different backgrounds. I'm glad I decided to be involved in a club other than things related to adm and then somehow finding a link back to my study interest again. Being in the Chinese Orchestra all these years sure have been a fruitful experience!

I think it's so easy to just get yourself totally submerged here in adm, constantly working on your works, [because there's never enough time and the teachers are so strict] If I hadn't persisted in getting out of that sunken plaza once in a while, I wouldn't have known all these interesting people and wouldn't have even gone to Taiwan. It was hard making time during the semester but looking back now, definitely worth it.

[And of cos I still do love the people in spco!]

慧玲今日报

2010-06-06T23:18:00.006+08:00

11.18pm

报１：I watched a total of 2 good movies today namely "How to kill your Dragon" and "The Prestige", and 2 ending episodes to 2 dramas I've been following for about a month now.

报２：I discovered that I share the same birthday with one of my favourite directors, Christopher Nolan! (who directed Memento, The Prestige, Batman: The Dark Knight) Awesome!

报３：I jogged around the Gombak stadium, cycling alongside with my Brother who's jogging, training to prepare for army. Probably my favourite 2 hours of the day, feeling that I'm breathing and riding across the beautiful neighbourhood greenery.

报４：看了＜倚天屠龙记＞让我有些失望的大结局，又看了韩国的Personal Taste的大结局。。。

说穿了，最近我很闷。闷到快发疯了, 看着msn不知该找谁聊天。I guess until I find work to do this holidays, these days get rather depressing. 是职业病吗，除非又出国旅行，不然总觉得这样的每一天都过得有些愧疚，好像没有把这个暑假过得充实些，没有在学东西。

Come on, can something more exciting happen in my life please?

-------------------------

12.50am.

While discussing about the movie, my friend has just told me a bigger secret (not gona spoil it below) about "The Prestige" that I failed to realise and seriously think about upon that last shot before the credits rolled because I was so harped up on Mr Borden's trick. O.M.G.

I can't watch those scenes again because it's night time and thinking about it is making my hair stand. Maybe tomorrow. This movie is sooo good, it is freaking me out and everything made sense. Like the theme reflected in the show, this movie is "The Prestige" of a magic show, a super duper one. Oh am I in awe.

Serious mindboggling, these mind thrillers. I feel like my head's been disassembled and assembled again.

The Process

2010-06-05T01:32:00.005+08:00

I spent most of my time today looking through the publication stuffs I did for NTUCO and other more recent projects, uploading them onto my website. http://windglide.webs.com/portfolio.html

Yes yay, I finally have a decent portfolio website that I worked across last semester for the web module. (hire me now pls!) Though I'm still working on the front page which doesn't quite feel right yet.

Surprisingly, the largest sub folder that occupies the most space in my com's the poster section in my NTUCO stuff that contains at least 20 versions of the concert poster. 4.89gb. I remember the crazy vetting emails sent through and fro making modifications to alignments, positions, colours, design etc. Here's to share some of the versions I did, (giving them some light before they get tucked away in my hard drive) :

One of the first few posters I did and rejected.

I still like it, I can almost imagine the instrument motifs forming a patterned wallpaper now. I like the simplicity of it and it kind of feels like a visual representation of the orchestra, well to me. But sadly it was rejected, I remember a friend telling me maybe because it doesn't look like it's been put much effort. I did spend time cropping those images out especially the yangqin, those holes! Anyway in the end I used those graphics for the T-shirt instead. So those photos taken by Zeig were not wasted :)

Then I remember after reading through my AAH notes on China paintings, I came up with this. Too brown.

Above is the final outcome of all the suggestions and voting, which isn't really my favourite out of them all...

This was my favourite then, but looking at it now, I think there's something weird going at the left, that wind tail there. WR made the curving lines which I felt was a gentler touch than the blue brush. Oh well it's over now.

My butt has been stuck on this chair for at least half a day I think. Other than organising my stuffs, I did spend a good whole day yesterday with my sec sch kakis for a great as long as you want it K session at B's house! Feels great to be singing to my heart's content and learning new songs as well.

Mm, time for bed.

Publications

2010-05-31T20:38:00.008+08:00

Sorted out my projects today and uploaded them onto Issuu. Questions or comments are welcomed.

Here's Tea for the Soul for Typography Class.

Open publication - Free publishing - More tea

And my illustration book, "A Conversation with Time"

Open publication - Free publishing - More time

This site is awesome in showing off publications online, you can flip them like you're flipping real books and the quality is good! I've explored the site quite a bit today browsing other people's stuffs, reading magazines online. You can check it out.

Browsing all these publications today, I'm wondering if I can make something out of my Taiwan Trip photos. Seems like after this trip, my mode of written language has been switched to Mandarin and I'm kind of finding it hard to switch it back.

台湾追想曲

2010-05-31T00:56:00.002+08:00

随着掌声的结束，一年一度的SPCO Concert 也圆满落幕了。Which means Happy Summer Holiday May is ending and it's been a month since my last paper. 明天要做什么呢？

回想

2010-05-26T02:04:00.005+08:00

不知不觉地都已经1.45am了。翻了翻在台湾买的ppaper杂志，只读了大概10页吧。但感触良多，毕竟在台北也大概待了8天。读到了路名会去想那8天里有经过那条路没有。

其实能读到并了解除了英文以外的创意杂志，感觉很兴奋，并且庆幸自己是bilingual。能有机会去了解台湾人的想法。挺新鲜的。总觉得用华语好像总比用英语多了个亲切感。亲切大概是整体台湾人给我的feel吧。

记得在行程的第二天，我和两位女性朋友在往回酒店的路上迷路了。就因为走出错的地铁出口。但就算走对了出口，离酒店的路上还得走个10分钟吧？Anyway,当时时间也不早了，在夜深人静的凌晨12点多，大概全部的店面已关门了，店外头的灯多数也都关了，只有路灯，还挺暗的。我们这三个女生就这样战战兢兢的走着，试着回想走过的路，但好像还是没走对。于是只好问路人咯。还好有位像是刚下班的小姐往我们的方向走着。就走向前问问回酒店的路怎么走。

“回酒店？！”她一幅很震惊的样子看着我们。原来该说回“饭店”才是指hotel的意思。

酒店大概是花烟酒地的地方吧。呵呵。

就这样，好心的路人姐姐主动地带我们走回饭店的路。走着的路上还聊了不少，在该分头走的时候还主动地offer我们她的联络号码，如果还是找不到饭店可以call她。或要找个本地人带我们到台北走走也行。

我们犹豫了一下，就说没关系，没拿号码。就这样，感谢她陪我们走了一段阴森的路，找到回家的路，以一句晚安道别了路人姐姐。。。

月恋

2010-05-15T01:34:00.006+08:00

By now I guess I've pretty much gotten back to my usual drama routine and really enjoying my holidays. Been busy with co practices this whole week for the Taiwan trip and reading up, watching the new dramas this season! Yes picking up my hobbies again!

With the Taiwan trip, Tsuki no Koibito airing this season starring my favourite casts, this month will be awesome!

drama guru hat on/

Tsuki no Koibito 月の恋人　stars

Kimura Takuya, Shinohara Ryoko, Matsuda Shota, Kitagawa Keiko and Toshinobu Kobota who sang La la la love song 14 years ago for Long Vacation is singing for Tsuki no Koibito's opening song! This is enough to get me excited.

This drama has been in the limelight since March/April, with the Taiwanese model Lin Chiling in the cast as well. Playing with the words 月九(getsu kyuu- a short form to term the drama slot that airs every Monday at 9pm) and 月恋(getsu koi, 月 has 2 pronounciation one is tsuki meaning moon and it can also mean Monday, getsu(youbi) ) , nice title I'd say. For the past few years, Kimura san's been trying different roles from Mr Brain, a neruo-scientist to a prime minister, and now finally back to the role he has been famous for-the love lead. How will Kimura Takuya be different in this role as Regolith, an interior design firm's president? All the publicity this drama has been getting as a love centric drama, and with Kubota san singing the opening song, will this drama spin another wave of drama movement like the legendary drama that Long Vacation was?

So far 1 episode in, I think it's great and I've watched it 2 times already. I'd say not a second of it is boring, it's a great start and the characters are interesting. I really like soundtrack, it's got a stylish groove to it and gets into your head easily.

I guess being a viscommer I can't help but notice the little things that packaged this drama with its theme. One of the best parts that I liked is the opening title. It transitioned from Renzuki standing up from his chair and the groovy music theme plays, with the words forming from what you see are three moons, then slowly it forms the title of the drama. 月の恋人. Really like the graduation choice of colours here and the shimmering water I suppose, that floats past the screen. Beautiful!

That curious little chair there too, like a little teaser to what's the story's gona be unfolding. I like! Whoever did this.

After a 2nd time watch, I felt more towards the body language of these characters, especially with the eye contact, Shinohara Ryoko is a master. Be it from the interactions between the side characters, or towards Renzuki, she's a character that watches from the sidelines a lot. I look forward to see more story undfolding.

Reading so many comments about Lin Chiling's performance in the show, initially I thought her acting was worked very hard. (in a good sense) Certain scenes did bother me a little with much exaggeration in her actions. Like the car scene where she had her mouth pressed on the car window, who would do that? Even for a worker who's on strike. Other than that, her character is still likeable. I like the scene whereby she tries to explain with actions and her limited Japanese to what 猪脑蒸豆腐 is.

As for Kimura san's character, so far he gives a slight resemblance to his other roles in his dramas. The cool, seeming bad boss but actually has a soft side kind of guy? Oh well this is only episode 1, we'll see how it goes.

So much for trying to write a decent review of a show.

Windglide

Pause

The Artist

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

On New Year's Eve's Eve

Recap 2011

Sore Eyes

现实世界

Kaseifu no Mita

In the mood for exams

有点热血的一天

年轻只有一次

When you think too much

Panic button Not On

感慨

What if

On studying

Gou

working with words

Leaky Sponge

What if

labyrinth

Goodbye July.

華麗なる一族

Looking for new things to like

Even with time,

西部的天空

幸せになりますか？

School vs. Work

Insomnia monologue

Of long bus rides

Summer Holidays

JIN

夢の心臓

感触良多

Encouragement for my future self

Paper vs Screen

Off-night Wednesday

Blue Sunday

Crazy for once

元気出せ！

自由是不务正业？

Time for a change

The reserved fangirl

台上十分钟，台下十年功。

Post conference thoughts

A venn diagram

Hallyu Wave!

Me Time

最近比较忙

幸福，哪一站？

Hey

Photosynthesis

不忙不忙

跟自己打战

Merry sweet Christmas

Confessions, 告白

Western Film Recap

RGB

Cheer up

Monologue.

Unleashed

Things to do this weekend

Cindy said

一点感触

What I'm trained for

お誕生日おめでとう！

Wine tastes better with age

细水长流

拍照

So N or NW?

Gomenasai no more

男人女人

Goodbye Sadness

Mid Sem Review

Light up

Happy Children's Day

Next One

笑傲江湖

Blurp