Sunday, September 04, 2005
Merdeka... 7 times (a leper's remedy)
i enjoy reading the older issues of Majalah Arkitek very much. its just far more informative and critical in its topics. unlike the current one which just a collage of pretty pictures and bias writtings. the truth must be told! Architecture in Malaysia is in need of serious improvement.
was reading the '86 issue the other day regarding Central Market (a.k.a Cultural Market) in Old Town being the first major adaptive reuse project in the country. and realizing how the government can be so dumb to ever consider demolishing the building. to me Central Market until now is one of the most workable urban spaces in KL. ive been there twice myself and i absolutely love the place. its not something you see often around in KL or even in the whole of M'sia. looking back im really thankful for those people who really fought for the place, plus abit of luck as well in the economy. thank God there was the 1980s, the era of conservation. i insist everyyone, to visit the place whenever they're in KL. the energy there is just so splendid. KL has a real potential to be a pedestrian oriented place. and it will work. JKR should start picking up a Jane Jacobs book to read. and Anjung Selera/ Gaya Street or even Damai Plaza should start learning a thing or two from Central Market. i should really publish my "mat rock" theory into the MA.
other things i found out by reading the MA. Dato Kington Loo was a fellow Graduate from the University of Melbourne. beginning to see the similarities. LeCorb fanatics.
im writing a paper for my postcolonial studies on Petaling Street (chinatown). initially was intended to praise in the way it was run compared with the other globalized kitsh chinatowns in the world. however when i found out that they had plunge in one of those cliche arches at the entrance, i became irritatingly annoyed and decided to write the opposite.
sigh. theCultureofDisappearance. sigh. or more like, theDisappearanceofModernAuthenticity. sigh.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
no Tutorials... but lecture at 5
anyway, theres still a presentation coming up this thursday and i've yet to work out my thumbnail sketches and sections. with technology by my side, half of the work is done. SKETCHUP!!
other highlights during the past few days. dinner on saturday at auntie kiat and uncle mickey's place. it was fun! the food was in an abundance. and i did not require to lift a finger to help out. the aunties are so efficient. hehe. and one of them even made meat roles (the one mom makes in bulks), still i prefer it steamed.
the morning was Captain's ball... the aim of the game is to meet at North Court (uni) and walk all the way back to Vic Market for (big) breakfast. yum.
then on sunday was another dinner gathering. this time the ltc food i/cs for the retreat had a tryout session on the meals. yumyum. it was delicious and the service was... hospitable. and the crowd was... whacky. one of them has an ambition to become the Prime Minister of M'sia and then proceed to become the King of the world. speaking of which, Merdeka day is tomorrow. ahem...
Negaraku
Tanah tumpahnya darahku,
Rakyat hidup
bersatu dan maju,
Rahmat bahagia
Tuhan kurniakan,
Raja kita
selamat bertakhta,
Rahmat bahagia
Tuhan kurniakan.
politik kita
semoga tak korupt.
is Negaraku from a Hawaiian melody??
aku belum pasti nak pergi meraikan hari merdeka bersama diorang. ada assignment nak siap. lecehnya.bah! perut saya sakit! semalam pergi jogging sampai kaki saya penat, lagi buat sit-ups and crunches... bikin mati saje. gerak sikit put nak mati sekarang. tapi sekarang dah boleh rasa effeknya, semakin fit. haha. hmmm saya berestimat dalam tempoh 2 bulan boleh hilangkan perut besar saya ni. harap... harap.
medical students should read this... hehe. wonder if the word "platoon" would trigger Legionnaires disease...
Monday, August 22, 2005
green green grass by the river...
i mean, its just like the tennis balls paul and i collected at melbourne park. it was green. and green stands for GO in many countries. its an international sign of approval. plus, you wont say "the grass is always GREENer on the other side" for nothing. and w2 isnt a ganGREEN for no reason. anyhow, whats been done, has already been done. no turning back. hey its not like you would see AA magazines lying around everyday. it was the awards edition, then again there wasnt much of interest in the contents anyway. aiya, it was definitely free for everyone. just a matter of guts. like how w2 is so thick face of himself.
mentoring. i honestly would agree that the body needs it. everyone needs to be loved and taken care of. and having a gangrene in the body just worries me. i really dont give a damn about this particular body. but i really do get worried for the little ones in it. just cant bare to see them get poluted/ mislead by the standards/ ideals of the gangrene (everytime i think of gangrene, i would think of the grinch. don't know why). well being in ltc really opened my eyes to see/ meet the others. seeing them, so naive and willing to receive anything/ everything that comes their way. sooner or later their gonna be knocked down by a train, and not know what hit them till they become paralyzed. everything the gangrene's been doing just seem to be like an oil spill. and to think some people apraise his hypocracy. who gives a damn about the gangrene's legacy anyway? then again, some people think he's right to leave his legacy... in that manner. stupid idiots.
mentoring. i can still recall my beingmentoreddays. ofcoz my ultimate mentors were my parents. the cain was my bible in everyway. but as well i had 2 other mentors from my ol' church at GT (which currently i truly despise. kidding). one mentor was my spiritual mentor, and the other was my lifestyle demeanor mentor.
i still remember the first meet up i had with my spiritual mentor. he took me to eat ICE-CREAM (earthquake!). whoa! we had 16 different flavours (i was keen on the 26 flavours one, but was abit paiseh to request). nevertheless heaven indeed. from there we discuss on whether i was interested to be his timothy and him being my paul. it was then we started the paul-timothy discipleship. my code name was timothy, and he as paul. and my first session was about how paul encourage timothy not to despise his youth in 1 timothy 4:12. the beauty of all our meets was that there was food involve. hehe.
on and off he would remind me about my timothy promise to him when i got abit neglectful on my actions. i respected him, coz he's lame. my sensei. okay, i think sometimes i am abit selective on the advice taken, i.e being in a relationship only when im 30, was a relative input, heh.
we never actually manage to finish our bs. i remebered him dumping a huge stack of bible study material for me to do. it was a whole series of paul-timothy study. hehe, until now, i've yet to finish it.
but i guess he could only cater to my spiritual needs hence the other mentor came in. the ever so fit and spunky sepet Ik Meow. all he bothers to do is to ensure my physical fitness level, mamak diets, a leader's demeanor, and BGR issues (not like i had any. hehe). i think i fared better than him with the girls... muahahahaha. coz i was young and cute!! sigh...
the story goes on and on. and i do miss them at times. Godly people indeed. worship lifestyle. confident. wise. strong in the word. passionate. loving. etc. everything i'm not or struggles to be. then again, atleast im cool.
EVERYTHING... is Arbituary
anyway. i'll continue this later.
"For every Philip Johnson or Frank Lloyd Wright in a generation of architects, there are countless more who work without fanfare on the everyday buildings where we work, live and shop.
Architects may spend up to seven years completing undergraduate and master's-degree studies, or up to three-and-a-half years in a master's program if they majored in another area during college. To be eligible to take the licensing exam, they also must log three years as interns working for licensed architects.
Architects with a master's might enter the work force with between $50,000 and $80,000 in student loan debt. But as first-year interns, they might earn only $34,000, the national median according to the 2005 compensation survey by the American Institute of Architects. Meanwhile, several steps up the ladder, senior architects earn a median of $68,900.
Ref: http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/15/pf/...g_pay/index.htm
Sunday, August 21, 2005
relationships... is tough.
well the good thing for the occasion, was my compulsory act to clean up the place before their arrival. during the steam boat, half my mind was totally worried on them messing up the place. kept my eyes everywhere, keeping close on all their fingers ensuring they dont wipe it anywhere besides the serviettes. never knew i could be paranoid about these sort of things. haha! atleast now my house is spotless... which probably only would be able to stay in that state for a day.
interesting, my housemate was telling me that it isnt good to refrost meat that had been defrosted. so once you've defrosted the meat, then it should be cooked. hmmm... mayb that would explain my occasional stomach aches.
i was asked to consider taking/ heading the mentoring program. err... ummm... ugghh. i dont know. all i know that its all haywire. there isnt a system to it. all they do is flaunt out names here and there on paper... assuming this / that. figuring out how to distinguish the high profile and not so high profile candidates. everyone has their own personal assumptions on everything and everyone. pushing him / her. wt*?!
well, when i see this whole thing being organize. i really dont wanna be a part of it. it probably boils down to the head of the ministry, putting his / her foot down. as what my tutor would say... "make a decision! make a decision!"
i dont know. i'm interested, yet at the same time not. maybe if w2 wasnt so itchy finger, then things wont be so complicated / *up.
anyway! the participants wants to play captain ball during the weekend, and i've got a whistle!! plus free dinner at auntie kiat's place!! prior to our VBS involvement. hahah... so rewarding indeed!!
Friday, August 19, 2005
mother's birthday...
and yes i do struggle in communicating my ideas/thoughts in TEXT format... sometimes. i use the word sheepS in a plural manner. and i know no shit between verbs and adverbs. okay this is bad. however but in some strange way, i still manage to get through my theory & history classes that required only written TEXTs. then again, it isnt that hard to anyway. all i have is just bad grammar. thats all. and nothing more. i hope. *gulp*
well atleast i know how to spell ARCHITECTURE. and that is all that matters for an architect. the true shame of an architect is when he can't spell the word- ARCHITECTURE (woohoo, i got it right. twice!). this was actually the first thing we had to do during our first year. to spell the word correctly. how sad is that? and that sort of might determine your future in this profession. do or die. then again, with modern tech. i.e. microsoft word, anything is avertable.
sadly today we had no slide show. but i was enlightened on the history of the radio. our tutor thinks we're amazed by how capable the radio was. but really i was more intrigued on how long he's been around for.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
HOUSE

i love the show. its so far the best medical show i've seen. i personally hate hospitals, im afraid of needles, the clinic/ hospital smell gives me the creeps, and doctors aren't to be trusted.
but somehow i still enjoy watching HOUSE. i've decided to limit myself to one show during the weekdays ( weekends depending whether there's a good movie on). and the choices i had from were Cold Case (hot chic), Law & Order: SVU (interesting cases), CSI (somehow you'll get glued to it), and Numbers (i love cop shows with a twist). in the end i picked HOUSE, due to the fact that its on a wednesday (my midweek break day), my GF is a med student (i can so relate to), Dr House is cool, and i love the whole guessing/suspense thrill of it.
i think Dr House is cool, and i love his obsessive behaviour towards his profession. hoping one day i would be as obsessive and compulsive towards my field in Architecture. not really i way of trying to give the client the best, but just to satisfy my complacent ideals of how things should be. And in some strange manner, i'm enthused to break my limb just so i can walk with a cane. then again, i take that back... taking pain killers for the rest of my life aint really the sort of routine i would like to live in.
okay, back to reading my article on 'Transcendental capitalism & the roots of paranoid nationalism'.
oh! and i cant wait for tomorrow... we're having a slide show in the studio. i love slide shows. being able to guess if i remember/ know the buildings makes me feel gifted.
oh, and heres a trivia for you architects...
who designed the Rialto Building a.k.a the tallest building in Melbourne?
someone told me that it was I.M Pei, but apparently it isnt his work.
SMAP... idea
anyway, highlight of the day would be going back to the studio to finish up on the site model. so what have i learn in studio for this week... hmmm, how to mix the rubber cement and solvent together to form glue!! mamamia! well the outcome is you get a sort of glue that has a UHU glue texture but a mounting spray's sticking quality but only stickier. and the fume smells wonderful!! woohoo... i get a tingly highness everytime i run the bottle by my nose. well... thats probably how architects be able to come out inspiring designs, just like rock musicians with their heroin.
other highlights for the week... tomorrow's studio class, wonder what other interesting stories would our tutor share with us... well there is this one story he told us regarding one of his projects.
It was when they were working on the Peralta college at Oakland around the 1960-70s. the team was coming out with various schemes etc, and one day this british fella just showed up in the office and asked for a part time job at the firm. he was having his summer break then and decided to visit the states. and so since he was already there and the extra hand would always be useful they hired him just for the Peralta project. so for weeks they work on the project, the brit boy did skecthes blabla, and everyone was having fun at the same time getting to know the fella. until after a few weeks, the brit boy say he had to leave to continue his tour around the south region. and so he did, but by that time the project scheme was almost done.
weeks after the brit boy had left for mexico. suddenly, he turns up at the office. he had finish his tour around the states and was returning home. but decided that he had to come back to the office, because something had been bothering him and it wont be nice to leave without telling the design team. he told the design team that he was actually a second year optometrics student in london...
okay, this story was probably very boring to all of you. but to me i thought it was pretty interesting when he told us about it.
anyhow! friday's highlight... we will be discussing about australian aborigins during our postcolonial class, and bible study with ltc participant at 3pm and 5pm with jon. okay okay... i better scoot off to uni now.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Buzzer beater...

had korean bbq for dinner at JM's crib and it was marvelous. it's always convenient when you have non-stick. well, next weekend its steamboat at my place. reason for having it at my place... cause they've installed a new intercom buzzer!! i have been living without one for about half a year, and its great having a buzzer coz you can let your guest in without the hassle of running all the way to the front door for them. hehe, so by having it at my place, all the LTC facilitators can use the buzzer... ooohhh! im so excited!!
the committee extracted a new member from my cell which they had actually just assign her to me last friday. what the...!? well it could be that she wanted the transfer. i mean my cell aint that hospitable anyway. the girls in my cell are just not friendly at all... actually no one is, i suspect its probably because she was msian. and i thought cell was finally going somewhere.
another thing to worry about is my other male cell member.... might have doubts of OCF... maybe... i dont know. i wont blame him anyway. who doesnt.
last saturday at LTC, we had a guest panel of senior OCFers talking about yours truly... OCF. cept... what the heck was Wang Wei doing up there?! anyhow, it was interesting that some of them had their doubts in staying, yet still did. all because of my driving force that somehow compels them to stay. im still deciding whether or not i should as well. i was keen on leaving, but because of the power of ONE... i decided to postponed. however now, if that one leaves... then should i? where would i go? ahah! interesting question... where?! mayb i should start my own SCF.
well, im currently helping out in LTC (JM's ministry). its a course where we try to turn these little imps into (potential) leaders. exciting place. this might give me wider perspective on things at OCF maybe. atleast my partner is keen and dedicated, that for one is encouraging for starters. now we'll have to see how these little brats will do.
chatted with an old college CF friend- Noah. he wasnt really a good friend of mine. but he hung around with me coz he was interested in Jenny Choo. haha, i can still remember those times everytime Jenny tried to avoid him, it was slightly creepy. worse still, he had a twin brother who was as well vaguely interested in her... haha. funny stuff. anyhow, he's into TV production now, asked him to recommend me when does get to produce any movie. wont mind trying my luck in the entertainment industry. hmmm... *slurp*
Friday, August 12, 2005
Heterotopian culture...
And you thought Frank Gehry was the only one who could do weird tectonics. btw, Gehry is apparently going to collaborate with Brad Pitt to design a 1930's sports center... what the..?! wonder who the engineers are going to collaborate with... Britney Spears?!( hit me baby one more time indeed.)

Apparently, Gehry's Ground Zero's Memorial was scraped. and so calatrava inserts his many collection of monsterous anatomy structures.

Something i might had done for my Rompin Project. hmmm.
friday. the last day of the week/ classes, and my postcolonial studies day from 10 to 2pm. im blasting JM's Smap CD (if u don't mind)... i have no idea why im so seduced by their sparky music, adding to the fact that don't understand a single word they are saying. they rarely use words like Arigat-to... Sayona-ra... Koni-chi-wa... sumi-maste... et cetera. so hard to relate to them in a lingual sense, sigh.
im supposed to tell the class a theoretical problem i'm interested in exploring for my essay topic for postcolonial studies. i have no idea. but context wise... M'sia probably.
well i better get cracking.
FFT: Australian Architecture = Kiasu Architecture
Monday, August 08, 2005
week 3...

studio is going to be interesting, i hope. we'll begin model making, erecting up the 1:500 site model in the studio. and our lovely studio leader will teach us how to make quick models... apparently its possible to built up a model in 15 seconds, however, i wont be surprise if it was a box. doing work in the studio classes is good, and if everyone is force to do it together right there right that instant. things feel like its being done, finally we're going somewhere in our process.
later in the evening, sector steamboat. exclusive meeting with the other cell leaders within the sector.
currently reading "the cyber cities of Malaysia: Realising the Vision" by Azman bin Haji Awang. and i think ICT is stupid and rediculous, especially when it'll probably affect the architectural aesthetic industry. if no one is going to move out of their comfort houses... might as well we just built a front facade pasted on our sterile white box buildings. heck, nobody's gonna use it anyway. portal frame factories would re-replace the deserted shopping malls. my personal oppinion, Putrajaya sucks... the planning system is so yesterday. and to think that it was designed by a chinese.
malaysian architectural concepts:
KLIA- airport in the forest
KLCC- tower next to garden
Putrajaya- City in the garden (garden city)
ken yeang buildings- green skyscrapers/ groundscrapers (bushy buildings)
etc...
my point? no idea...
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
things you do on wednesdays...
02. shower... etc
03. pass control to carparker
04. get a hair cut
05. find HY to burn photoshop CS
06. site visit (building heights)
07. prayer meet (1-2pm)
08. errands (after hours carpark, bookshop, bills)
09. Library (read up for multicultural/ postcolonial studies, and check out journal-Place)
10. Tennis with Jun
11. Shower
12. prepare/ cook dinner
13. finish up on Bauhaus building analysis
14. gather/ compile information for thursday's studio
15. read "other" resources (tentatively)
16. sleep
ah! which reminds me, i have not confirm my air flight back. and i've got City library books/ cds to return.
Monday, August 01, 2005
full house...

its the second week of the semester. having girls in a design group is very useful, very hardworking and always in a paranoia state of mind. they will do all the administrative and calculation work. working out everything in great detail. me being the guy... will ofcourse do the "manly" task... which is... moral support.
anyway i'll continue to read up my reader.
photo: guess whos a medical or architectural student. (background: parliament building)
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Best of You...



the song just keeps singing in my head... "the bes... the bess... the bessst of youuuu!!!!" since the day my brother introduced the song to me. not having a radio just cripples my updated music info. well apparently its THE most popular song now, i hear the song playing everywhere i go... in the music shops, allen's music shop i heard one of the staff singing the tune, pass the construction site i hear them workers playing it on the stereo, on the street people humming the tune, my laptop, and from my very own mouth. everytime i hear it... i feel like bursting out to sing along. but i cant, its indecent, not a conservative asian thing. dave grohl is a real genius, genius to the bone. just like my funny bone, which compliments my awesome humour. okay... that was pretty redundant. goes well with my L-bone... okay... another irrelevant remark.
Anyway, i've settled my subject controversy, decided to opt out from the philip goad seminar and sign up for multicultural/ postcolonial studies. by doing this, i end up with only one off weekday, instead of my previous 2 days off. atleast i get wednesday off, which is a good mid-week break for my "heavy" schedule.
i actually had something to blog about but its totally slipped out from my mind.
but regarding the new spencer st station [pic], i realise theres a meaningful reason on why its built it that undulating manner. finally the building has meaning, well sort of lar. what is it with aussies and undulating ceilings.
last words... FOO FIGHTERS kicks arse.
Monday, July 25, 2005
first day... of misery
then after the selection i went for my next class, which apparently turn out to be a masters standard history sub. its terrible!! the subject itself is interesting, but the workload is crazy, especially for a guy who is beginning to drift away in his mental realm.a thesis paper in one semester!? i might as well just camp at the faculty building, besides since we do have an allocated studio space for our own, i might as well just do that... :-( i better reconsider taking up that subject, really hope theres space for the sculpture workshop.
later that, i realized that now there is another problem. another time table clash... again!!
okay, im not complaining...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Fat and Lazy...
been checking out this new comic- Blade of the immortal. its a pretty good manga. one of the best graphics ive ever seen (i still have no idea why ppl go gaga over Naruto, i personally think it sucks). the pencil rendering/ sketching is superb, has got that sort of edgy rough touch to it.
the story line aint to cliche as well. the action and killing is so unpredictable. aint like the sorts like samurai x, new macross, dragonball GT... etc, where characters rarely or never meet their doom. this is definitely in my list of best manga graphics and story... along with dragonball Z, SlamDunk. i think the drawings surpases the other previous 2.
apparently it won the Will Eisner comic industry award and the Media Arts Award. i think slamdunk won the media arts award before.
oki the storyline is basically where the men are slaughtered and the women raped. but the rest of it is pretty interesting.
cant wait to find out who the Mugai-Ryu assasins really are. exciting.
and i to think that good comics would never exists nowadays.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Blade of the Immortal...
i've just sent out an application to one architecture firm located at St. Kilda. not putting high hopes on it, just pushing my luck on everything that comes by now. having said that, i wonder if there would be anymore jobs coming along when the sem starts.
a friend of mine called me 2 days ago, asking me if i've got a spare bed for him in august. i'm not very keen on this guy coming, being the precedent incident last year when he came to stay at my place (slept in the same room as me), had a hard time aiming for the toilet bowl... which he got it 6 inches shy of the target (aint got enough pressure or strength in the morning maybe). and he's got serious body odour, that can get to you from a mile away. and his specialty is chatting... loves to talk about practically everything that mostly have to do with him. hmmm... i asked him to check out other options first, but he seems to try and lead everything back to my crib. heck, i'll just have to tell him that my taiwanese housemate is a racist, and he's colored blind. oops.
speaking of taiwanese housemate, im suspecting now that he smokes in my toilet while he poos. clues? the bathroom window is wide open, my toilet roll thickness is decreasing, and my towel smells of tobacco, oh! and there shit remnants in the bowl... which doesnt look like mine (mines dark chocolate)... ooookay no one really needed to know that. but damn its irritating, it was much better when he was gone, or before he went back.
next thing to worry. July camp. am really uninterested in going, far away... for a fee. i would had no doubt in moving my ass miles away if it was paid for. sucks being a cell leader... "duty calls" or maybe not. i think maybe i shouldnt be there, let them cell members of mine move with them own 2 feet and not cling on each other, get to know them other hipo peeps. whoa, im convincing myself that this IS going to be my last semester there. nomore hanging out there after that.
hmmm but i cant move to parkville. found out that the Mak's son goes there... spineless prick. anyway!
oh. the whole household is here...
Friday, July 08, 2005
Howl's moving castle...
pls check out my photo album. just posted up some food photos. yum.
we decided to have tea before we headed back to the city from Chadstone. and i had mars bar cake with a mochacino... the slice was huge! as big a slice as the one they offer at Westin. i had been eyeing on the cake since we passed by the cafe several times as we try to find our way around. all day long i was thinking of the cake, wondering when i be able to eat it. it wasnt as great as i'd expected, but still the slice portion was enormous, it lasted me all the way till 10pm.
after conquering Chadstone, we realize that we were way ahead of schedule, and decided to visit the Casino at Crown. we strolled around the Casino observing all the poker faces giving their best luck. then we were offered 10 dollars each for gambling for free. excited we were. so we agreed that we should use the voucher to win our dinner meal. we walked around all the black jack tables trying to find the right dealer that we think would make our money's worth. we decided on this asian lady, heck! we had nothing to lose anyway. 10 dollars... dissapeared right in front of our noses in less than 50 seconds... how humiliating it was. thought we would stand a chance, thinking luck would be on side for our first try. not only did we lose the money, we did it in 5 cards... 25 points... greedy idiots. should had taken our chances when we were at 15.
suckers.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Today...
we took quite awhile at melbourne park... since it supposed to be very historically important, oh says paul. after that we just bum around the city, and went supermarketting before we headed back, and got lucky too... managed to catch the city circle, even though it was after 6.
*okay im trying to persuade anton to come down melbourne.... hope this would work out*
and dinner... paul VOLUNTERED to cook pasta goreng... which he insist that his meatballs is worth challenging Jm's. anyway, i'll post them up once i got my food album going.
this reminds me... time to reload my calling card. the parents should be wondering by now, why hasnt their boys called.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Lazy saturday afternoon...
however, VBS was fun. the kids were a hazard. they really think they could get away with things using their cute-sy charms... well they managed to. they are like little flies flying around buzzing everywhere, never staying still in one place for more than 30 seconds. one moment here sitting on the floor and the next they're over at the other end stealing balloons from the game props bag. i would say, 80% of the kids at VBS were boys, and they are a real rowdy bunch, just makes u wish you could be able to tie them up somewhere just to keep them still. Crazy!! no longer am i gonna get myself involve in games anymore... maybe next time i'll be a kitchen helper. but the kids were pretty adorable, and i've learn to use all the fruits of the spirits all at once...
plans for tonight: Crown Casino
sam is handsome! says Paul
