pesky interns...

as of late there has been a sudden influx of architectural interns. this is probably because NUS is having their mid term break. boss has imposed a new policy for hiring interns instead of a proper interview / application. Now interns who are interested in working for the office only need to walk in together with their portfolio and if offered the job should just make their decision on the spot. no more going home to think about it etc. its either you take it or leave it.

i find the interns rather unhelpful and further more irritating. i know i sound pretty mean. but its rather true. everytime i was asked to assign the students a task to do, my mind goes completely blank. and with that i just ask them... 'what type of task are you capable of doing?'. they would then paused and think very hard... and then tell me... 'i can make models... but not very good at it actually.' knowing my boss when it comes to models, he wants all the models (be it just a mere study model) to always be in top quality standards in terms of workmanship quality.i always find it rather ridiculous and insensible. but boss can be quite a whacko nut.
However, at the end of the day, when the quality and workmanship of the model turns out poorly... he would blame it solely on the architect in-charge of such failure. so i always avoid making models if i know that i do not have the time and patience to do so.
back to the interns... apart from model making... they cant really do much except whine and walk around the office chatting with one another. ask them to do authority submission drawings and all i get is a blank stare in return. its not impossible for them to do... but who is going to be there to sit down with them an explain every little thing. definitely not I for sure.
another reason why i dislike these interns is their attitude towards being an intern. they dont' give me the impression that they are here to learn. ofcourse when you ask them why architecture, they can go all night talking about how passionate they are and all that crap nonsense and be all dreamy about it. but when given a task... all i hear is grumbles and they don't shy away in showing how unhappy they are and how much suffering they have to endure. and they call me a slave driver?! damn the angmoh is more of one than i am lar.
i remember when i was an intern... i only had one motive. that is to work and learn and take what ever i'm thrown at. unlike these interns i wasn't concern on being friendy with the other staffs or expecting everyone to be free and happy. in fact i remember being rather anti-social and just glued myself in front of my desk and computer screen. ofcourse perhaps i was much more fortunate to be given more exciting things to do. i had a better task giver than i am to them. well i did offered them to do some design work... but they didnt seem pretty excited anyway. nevertheless at the end of the day... who am i to judge these interns of their passion and interest. After all, they are only interns and still learning the meaning and essence of Architecture and all that bullshit stuff we architects do for a living. and perhaps i was just an exceptionally anti social intern then.

in the evening, boss came up to us and told us not to give the wrong impression of what Architecture is about to the interns. the interns are not to have the idea that the life of an architect is a bed of roses. so we should give the students more task with proper instruction and a deadline to finish the work. no doubt Architecture is indeed a busy profession. but unfortunately that is the reason why we have not the time to give the interns task with proper instructions. further more our deadlines are always pretty impossible to meet.

love isn't blind... it's retarded.

it has been awhile since i last step foot in the office over the weekend. unfortunately today isn't one of them. but sometimes its good to work on the weekends because theres limited distractions apart from the occasional small talk with the other colleagues around or the bosses, which of late has been busy match making me. the worst part of it is that all her candidates are above 40 years old. "its all about marrying a rich old lady" she says. i'm so much younger than them that i probably be better off marrying their grand-daughter instead. but ofcourse they are all single old ladies.

finally managed to watch kung-fu panda. its really a good end of the week wind-down movie. super hilarious and brainless at the same time. i laughed till i cried and if the movie had gone on for another hour... i would had dirtied my pants as well. thank goodness it didn't. before the movie, i decided to have dinner at Crystal Jade Kitchen. Apparently its a different type of cuisine from the other crystal jade restaurant. i was hoping to eat some "dan dan mien" instead it was towards a HK-ish sort of menu. nevertheless still viable for me appetite. but i tell you, the set dinner's portion for 2 was huge. pretty decent price for a set that can be eaten by 3 person or even 4. but next time i must be more well prepared for the feast.

i think i writing nonsense. i was intending write something about something but i can't seem to remember what it was. this is a sign that my brain has gone into sleep mode. which is not good because i intend to continue my work at home.
my computer is dying on me as well... my CAD has suddenly hung an di can't seem to print out the drawings. sigh.

wee small hours...

discovered that i was featured in the latest issue of FORM magazine. during our lunch break, one of my colleague came up to me with a magazine in her hand pointing at the photo with my face on it. i was thrilled and immediately bought a copy of it. cheap thrill indeed.
I've always wondered and had wishful thinking of being featured in the people section. always been interested as to how these people get to be in the limelight. their known to be the so called 'beautiful/ funky/ happening' people at some event/ party. and so my first ever feature. pretty nifty. haha.
the irony of it was that it was a photo shot of my office group... and both of the principle partners were no where in sight. my colleague advised i shouldn't let the boss know any of such magazine. he'd be furious if he finds out his face was not featured. but all of us who were in the magazine, when and bought ourselves a copy. sad people we are.
but i must comment, some of the girls from IP:LI architects are quite pretty. haha. just an observation.

i've purchased my air ticket to return back to KK in October. but i've yet to apply for my leave yet. just didnt seem like the best time to do so. i am walking in thin ice if i were to hope he'd approved my leave. okay just cross my fingers and hope October isn't a busy month. The culprit owes me big time for this... i'm sacrificing 3.5 days of my precious leave for him! why on earth did he choose to wed on a non public holiday infested week?! and it so happened that 2 of the public holidays fall under the same month! puzzles me... but he is a rather strange man.



went to visit the Singapore Art Museum over the weekend. It was the second last day of the Giacometti exhibition. I guess Switzerland wasn't enough. however, it was rather a disappointing trip. for S$8 it really wasn't that worth it. perhaps given the fact I've already seen a large quantity of his works and collection in Swiss. a Big "DOH" i would say. haha. but it felt good reading through his chronology and skimming through the images of his important life's work knowing that I've seen more than half of it in the flesh. i still find this rather amazing.
Not all was a waste to say the least. i thought his lithography of Paris collection was interesting. I love his sketches, so wild and loose yet so vivid in its meanings and its intentions.

i must sign up for gym membership. i feel my body becoming gradually unfit and turning into a piece lump of fat by the minute it horrors me to think i might just fall dead anytime.

designer's block...

Weekend in Batu Pahat with the family was interesting. So many new faces and old faces that have grown older during the years of my absence.

To prove the extend of my terribly long hiatus. One of my cousin came up to me with his plaque infested teeth bombarded right at my face. He asked me if i had noticed anything different. without looking at the obvious, i kept staring at his hair wondering how was it different from when i last saw him. in the end, i just couldn't make out what the change was. with great disappointment, he replied "my braces has been removed!". I paused for a moment, trying to picture him when he had braces, but couldn't. Then i realised that i wasn't even around when he wore them. I was completely absent during his braces years, and that's when it hit me of how terrible a cousin i am.

but i must say. i really do not see any resemblance to this teh ping hui fella. i finally managed to see him on TV and don't see what all the HOoHAa is about. i reckon i'm more of a Takashi Kaneshiro or even the Brad Pitt sort. ya? but i do like Teh Ping that's for sure.

I took the whole day off on Monday. Trying to catch up on my sleep regime. I decided to call in MC when i started to feel a slight tingle in my throat the day before. This insistent on staying at home was due to the recent epidemic of this estranged virus being circulated around the office. Just today, 3 of my colleagues have called in sick. I further discovered that this virus apparently goes beyond the 4 walls of the office. I received a call from my landscape architect, and she sounded so sick that i wasn't sure if she was sick or in her dying breath. She sounded so terribly sick, i was tempted to exempt her from attending tomorrow's meeting. fear of catching her virus.

Anyway, i think i should forget about finishing this report tonight. my brain has ceased to function.

lately i've been thinking. If one day i should return to KK. I want try nominate to be the Mayor of KK City. just a thought.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!! i just discovered that the P.Ramlee musical has already made their rounds in Singapore! and the kuala lumpur show till 14 June is the last!!! and i booked my bus ticket a week late!! OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! why didnt anyone warn me! oh no!! can somebody just stab me in the heart please! i've no will to live. i wanna die and cry...

falling slowly...

i have decided to not expect too much from the current company. its a plain fact that the bosses are just terrible listeners. they are just so self absorbed. its probably my fault for even asking them how their weekend went. it was the "official" lunch with the 2 big bosses. the purpose of the lunch was the bosses' effort to catch up and see how the staff are doing in the office. in actual fact is just to check if the remaining staff have any inkling feeling of leaving. but i do not see how one session of "so... are you doing okay in the office?" going to determined whether plotting to leave the office or not. not everyone is as vocal as they are. but unfortunately the lunch turn out to be more about them then it was of me. for them all they wanted to hear an "okay... im doing fine" and that was it, before i could say my 'buts...' they rattled on to some other topic. well atleast the food was tasty and very expensive. 

at dinner time, i decided to have it with one of my colleagues. its unfortunate that he falls under the soon to be leaving category. but all the more i did not mind sharing to him my thoughts about the lunch appointment. everyone assumed i was getting a promotion or even a raised. but sad to say it wasn't in fact it was hardly about anything at all. a well spent $50 meal. after talking to my colleague and hearing his perspective about my view of the office. i dawn on me that i might be making a huge deal over nothing. i guess it's true that at the end of the day i am still young and in-experience. and in any case, i should not expect so much from the bosses knowing where to place me in the office, when i myself am not planning to stay for the long term. i have already begun planning my next endeavor in the next 5 years. and at the end of the day, my purpose for being in the company is get my share of experience. i am fortunate to be given so much opportunity (gosh, i suddenly remember that i owe the committee my write up for the designer's forum!) . all i need to do is to prove that i deserve to be given such a chance and to make the most of it for my own benefit. once i've had enough of sucking the companies resources. then i shall bid my farewell and be gone. haha. better not speak too soon. who knows i might be stuck here for the next 10 years or so.

anyway, i bought a new CD. its the soundtrack from the movie- Once. pretty good actually. and it really sounds very good when your in a melancholy mood like i am.

managed to catch "Sex and the City" the movie over the weekend. don't ask me why. Even i can't explain it to myself how on earth i got dragged into watching it. i wanted to watch indy jones... the manly stuff. but it seems like im the last person on earth who have not seen the movie, thus im "kaki-less". But it was 2 and 1/2 hours of girl fantasyland torture. its actually pretty sappy. but not to totally write the whole thing off... i did find the funny scene quite funny.

damn you sarah jessica parker! i had to look away from the screen a few times just to try to keep my emotions in tacked. goodness me... i still think its better off left as a tv series rather than be made into a movie. it's the sort of show you'd accompany your girlfriend to watch in closed doors, i.e. at home. weird... totally weird.

here's the lyrics one of the songs from my newly purchased... very nice.

Falling Slowly

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You've made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody

I'll sing along 

So glad i've found my musical/theater/concert buddy. well, its him and his wife, so its the 3 of us. pity i have to give Steve Tyrell a miss this coming weekend. well family comes first i guess. 

Sonny Rollins concert was superb... well he was great, but i didnt think the same for his band members... they were good no doubt, but i was hoping it was solo concert. well, atleast i can say i've been to one of the last great musical legends.