hi it's been a real long time since the last post... as usual =) it's been the long summer hols... not too much of a hol so far. Was doing an internship at the same aki firm as last year for the last 2 months... working life is kinda like school cept that u get paid for it haha and erm u cant exactly slack off or watch stuff on youtube when u cant take the endless cadding within the confines of the windowless DDS no longer. thank God i sit super near the windows at work... with the view of the perilously close by condo next door ha. the bad thing abt work is the extremely long hours and the fact that lunch is prob the only break u get. but it sure honed my cadding skills and speed too. the deprivation of the net and youtube in general, coupled with the fact that the nearest intern frm my year is in the next dept and that i sit in this nice cosy corner meant that i was stuck cadding like a machine all day long. hehe till my "slavedriving supervisor" kindly takes me to meetings. Hallelujah! some breath of fresh air and something else to look at besides the balck screen with multicoloured lines =) but it was quite an experience on hindsight and i must say i learnt a lot. hehe it wasnt exactly slavedriving... more like workaholic i must make that correction =) but hey it was kinda fun in some way.

the best part was... it ended on a bang! the annual dept outing fell on my last day there! God is amazing huh? Such brilliant planning praise Him! =) yup it was like dinner on a cruise to nowhere hahaha and i got saboed to take part in one of the several embarrassing contests the cruise pple planned haha. had to suck fruit punch from a milke bottle but well wasnt too bad there were 4 of us doing it and the rest of the games were far worse =) thank God. anyhow other than feeling giddy like most of the journey (most other pple were too) it was pretty good i must say. nice touch to the end of the internship =) anyhow it was a pretty exciting nite... after the cruise it was straight home to bathe and get my luggage to leave for the... airport! pretty happening haha went to yunnan with my CG friends yupsie thank God it all went pretty smooth and i didnt miss the flight. so yeah was like too many things were going on and couldnt exactly sleep that nite either cos the flight was like at 3am. that's when the aki student sleepless training comes in pretty handy however wrong that may sound=)

yup so in a nutshell china was one big sensorial bombardment. Noisy, colourful, squeezy, smoggy(at times) salty,oily and fatty(erm the food that is) haha which was thankfully mitigated by the abundance of veggies in the dishes and the mouthsmackingly good la mian the resort we stayed in served for breakfast daily =) far better than ding tai fung or crystal jade =) so yeah that was great and so was the scenery and the prices haha. the traffic wasnt so good horning seemed to be the symphony of the roads. but the cute thing was that the rubbish trucks had the happy birthday tune as the signal that they were coming hahah how totally inappropriate. funny was also the signs in english that were literally comedies in errors.

Lijiang which is a UNESCO world heritage site was overrun with tourists but it was great. Stunningly striking both naturally in the mountains that were stuck in the clouds and architecturally with the 800year old shophouses with grey Chinese roofs all surrounded by the mountains. yups and the shopping wasnt too bad either. so yup. Thank God for protecting us and our stuff cos they tell us that pickpocketing is not uncommon.

now back from the trip and with like 3 weeks b4 sch opens its curtains again... i'm slacking. haha. shopping and surfing. and attempting to pack my room. erm haha. and watching this great k-drama "Coffee Prince' it's currently airing in korea but if u go to youtube some kind folks have already amazingly subtitled them in chinese and english so yeah go check it out. the princess in princess hours is that tomboy there! haha my fave K-actress =)

okie gotta go now!

Hi... I found this on facebook as one of the descriptions for a aki school group overseas. It's really funny esp for aki pple cos you'll realise how similar our very unique architortural education is with other aki schools. haha i picked out those that are most applicable & adapted a lil to our local context =) For the non-aki folks, welcome to some glimpses our amazing school life in its stark reality & full glory =) I feel that we're a brilliant & most exciting case-study for sociologists so there enjoy this =)

You know you're an architecture student when...

...you carry a toothbrush in your backpack.
...you hear the same song on the radio 3 or more times in one night.
...You are an expert and Photoshop, Revit, Sketchup,Archicad and Autocad but u don't know how to use MS excel
...you spend more time in studio than in your own bed.
...your parents are complaining that you're not having enough fun.
...you only leave studio/home to buy supplies.
...you've ever dreamt about your models.
...your parents have more of a social life than you.
...you know all the 24-hour food places in the area
....your non-aki friends get more sleep in one night than you do in one week.
..You consider 3AM an early night.
...everything you eat comes in single serving baggies. (or da-paos for us. eating in the canteen is a rare treat=)
...you're out on Friday nights in studio.
...you say "It's only midnight- I have plenty of time to finish."
...you ask what time it is, then ask "AM or PM?"
...you slice your finger, and the first thing you think of is if you'll be able to finish your model. ...You call some great architects as if they are you friends.err... Frank... Tadao.
...certain songs remind you of studio.
...Sister's favorite brand names are Prada DNKY etc... But yours are Daler-Rowney, Florence, Rotring
...you have to wait for breakfast shops to open.
...you wake up to go to school and you're already there.
...you bring your friends to studio to keep you company.
...you refer to outside studio as the "Real World."
..."going out to eat" is at Munchies or Holland V (in better times).
...you confuse today and tomorrow.
...concept of time is not forward, but a countdown from the time a project is due ("What time is it?""4 hours 'till").
...when you tell people you major in "architorture"
...when people tell you that they like walking around with you because you see things know one else does
... When you're not sure what day of the week it is
... When any flat surface is seen as a place to take a nap (underneath the tables in the computer room (that's where it is the warmest), in hallways, on drafting boards
... When the books that you read consist primarily of photographs and not so much of words
... When you have to ask your fellow architects to give you wake up calls
... When you go to studio and spend more time socializing than doing work
... When you tell someone in another school that you are architecture major and they automatically assume you have no social life
... When you skip classes because you have too much work to do
... When you use photoshop rather than microsoft word to do your non-aki projects
... When you have an inexplicable mark running off your page because you fell asleep while drafting
... When you wonder what it would be like to be in another major and the idea of going Out three or more nights a week is unfathomable
...when you start measuring all time segments in terms of project deadlines and studios on Mondays & Thursdays @ 2

AND

...when you know all of these are true, no exaggerations.
(credit: http://nus.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2209850497)

"... My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to my God in song." Psalm 28:7

hehe the epitome of the past week and the week before =) yupsie God is good indeed. last monday was like the day of reckoning in aki sch where the external examiners i.e. the pple from UK and the famous local architects will determine who they want to present the projects b4 them. Nothing wrong with that at all except that last year most of those chosen for the external crit failed. And if you fail the design module it means you have to retained and retake it again the next year. Considering the ardousness of aki in general and the length of the aki course and the subjectivity of design, repeating is not a pleasant prospect. As when the list came out ard 4 plus on monday the 23rd of april pple were kinda jittery, a lil hysterical (with joy when they see that their names aren't on the list =) and somewhat paranoid (when they see that their names AREN'T on the list and can't believe it's true) Sigh so sad huh people actually went to ask if there was another list coming out the next day... as for me I was like Hallelujah! thank God i can go to year 4 =) and the above verse was the one i read in the morning of the day the list came out! =)anyhow all the best to those who had to go... hopefully the outcome was good in the end =)

that day i also had a grp project submission... haha so it was like me, grace & melvin busy photoshopping in scalebar (due to a lack of airconned places during the exam period) trying to meet the 4pm deadline and after that gingerly opening THAT email with the list of names. htank God we were all happy heh =)

After that, it was the long wait for the next and our last paper (which was on this thurs) and we were the only ones taking it (from yr 3 aki that is) and it was the most un-exam thing i ever experienced. Knowing that you have like more than a week to study(for something I nv really looked thru prior to that heh at least i went for MOST of the lecs even the one b4 model submission) have having NEARLY finished the most heavy sem ever, you just dun feel like studying. so it was like studying + other distractions till the last few days. the exam was ok hopefully can still do good. oh well, its all in God's hands. =)

One thing abt aki sch is that we're really happy during exam period which is like the time everyone else is most stressed. that's cos our biggest "exam" would have been over by then - design submission and final crit. exams pale in comparison to that, believe it or not. then, we can actually sleep a decent no. of hours, not worry abt printing, computer and hard disk crashes and other technical malfunctions. rather it's time to face the notes and lectures you haven't seen nor attended all (or most) of the semester =) but thank God it turns out ok always =)

anyhow now is finally the long summer hols ... time for some slacking and internships. I must say the whole internship thing is such a kiasu biz but thank God i've got one =) so yeah soon it'll be time to face the autocad & photoshop again =( but working in an aki firm is exciting so yeah hehe looking forward to it yeah plus some ONEstudio stuff and other wonderful surprises this hols will hopefully bring to my otherwise currently not-yet-so-exciting life =)

Have a blessed hols!

Hi. Hallelujah! Last, last Friday saw the end of our most excruciating aki sch experience to date... for the next few months at least. It was the day of models submission with drawings submission already over on Tuesday. Which essentially meant that the past 2 weeks was spent cadding, photoshopping and most recently cutting and gluing. Cept that it was far, far worse than it sounds.

2 weeks before submission is the messy part where everyone is scrambling to confirm their design and where the tutors, part-time tutors and poor external consultants the sch employs - engineers and architects - are desparately and kiasuly hogged by everyone. They're supposed to be there from 2-6pm for each session but i think the poor architects esp only end at 10pm on average. And of cos the queueing up for yr turn is a bitchy, thickskin process. But thank God it was ok in the end and I got pretty good help and all =) so yeah, that's just the beginning of the crazy what we call "production period" in aki sch. a time of emotional and design insecurities as we make the final decisions before we start producing. Of cos, many pple design as they produce heh but its a painful thing i must say. Suddenly, you are the architect, structural engineer, m&e engineer, interior designer, contracter all rolled into 1. And in the week or so to come, you have to be the draughtsman and model-maker too. A huge load on the emotions, the brain, the eyes, the back, the hands, and the sleeptime which bear the huge brunt of this whole process.

Then comes production week(the week before submission) Sleep essentially starts at 6 hours a day in the early part of the week then gets rationed to 4 hours perday from midweek onwards. Then the plan was to sleep a lot on Friday(which erm turned out to be 6 hrs) then work on without sleep for the next 2 nites till I hopefully finish by Monday afternoon, But sadly it was not to be so. Cos i was slow due to the depression of the early week I ended up not sleeping for the last 3 nites till I finished on Tues morn and thank God I could still print with 2 hrs to spare b4 submission. But it was scary, by Monday morn my eyes were all bleary and everything looked doubled. Occassionally I would nod off and had to quickly shake myself up. and the worst part is that in the midst of all that physical pain, it was the time to quickly produce GOOD panels. thank God i'm still ok =) sure was scary then.

Cos I worked in sch then it was a pretty interesting experience... haha i seriously think sociologists would have a field day studying aki sch students and their lives cos its pretty out of the world. we live in a world that has no nite or day (literally if u work in sch cos the digital studio has no windows) since sleep happens when u're too tired and not necessarily when nite comes. it's a crazy world. it works this way in the studio. when u wanna sleep, just tell a friend to wake u up at a certain time, then you crawl into some sleeping bed under the table at this nice corner of the studio and catch some shuteye. but somehow i can nv bring myself to do that. so i just fall asleep sitting at my comp or most of the time force myself to stay awake. the most part is the dirtiness. cos it was Good Friday and the weekend so there were no cleaners and the piles of largely instant noodle cups, macs and other tabao food and drinks just grew outside the studio. everyone looked increasingly terrible, bleary-eyed and all. er but dun worry most of us bathed and brushed everyday =) though i'm sure towards the end many just didnt have the time to do so =) Though the days, the poor friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, parents and all come a-visiting to allevaite some of the pain and to bring much need ffood that wasnt from macs, fong seng or the vending machine =) Thank God for my dear mum who did the honours faithfully for me =)

Then after finishing the panels (Finally! thank God the nightmare ended) its time to print. another source of heartache cos the queue is scary. and it takes 10 mins to print an A1panel of which everyone has 6. So I adopted the staggered policy (since I was slow) as I printed as I finished panels so it wouldnt be a mad rush in the end. I finished the last 3 panels ard noon of submission day and thank God despite the queue they were printed by 1 plus which left me time to finish all the other nitty-gritty stuff like burning CD and compiling the process folio etc etc b4 submission at 4. for some it was real nervewrecking. finished at 2 plus then rush to peace centre to print cos sch was too overloaded then rush back and hopefully be in time. argh why is aki schlife so demanding, so painful, so nervewrecking and body-wracking?

After the submission it was time to collapse into the bed I nv saw for 3 nites, for 14 hours. Then it starts all over again... only now its models (which is funner for me =) Aki students in the upper years generally "employ" what we call elves to help us with models -which come in the form of juniors, friends and family. For me it was my dear parents! I cant believe it oh man I feel so blessed my parents actually overnited with me the day before submission on thurs nite and helped me with my model =) if not i dont think i cd have finish on time. and it was great to work at home after the gross experience in sch. at least stuff is clean and all haha bu the living room was filled with all sorts of paper,cardboards, plastic sheets etc etc.

On Friday after a sleepless Thursday and a 4-hr sleep on Wed, i went to sch with the nearly finished model phew! and found out their wer many pple still struggling to finish! so i guess my theory that u work faster at home than in sch may be real. then it was time to plant the trees and put in the model pple b4 submission. After submission we were supposed to pinup all our drawings and arrange everything models and all for the crit on monday. And for poor pple who have been sleep-deprived for weeks and cutting thru hardboards and plastic for the past days, having to think how to arrange furniture and sweep up the place was a somewhat tiresome task. but we did and thank God it was finally over. the corridors of the studio was like an open rubbish path with all the junk pushed out from the studio into it. but my mond it shd be clean =)

so now, the most painful part of the aki sem has fianlly ended... we now to go for crit on monday and hopefully avoid the external crit the following week (which is random), other than that only 1 exam on the 20th and then most are done with the sem. I have an exam on 3rd may cos I took another mod this sem but still its ok. but b4 all you pple from other faculties say insensitive things like wah so good only 2 exams, only take 3 modules this sem!!! pls read all the other stuff b4 this and u'll be thankful that you're taking that 5 modules with that 5 exams. cos the effort and the pain for my 1 design module alone counts for 3 times more than your 1 in terms of grades and is prob equivalent to what u have to put in for all 5 of yours. so pls dun infuriate us by thinking that we have such privileged lives. yours are far better in terms of levels of humaness. so dun complain. heh sorry for being bitchy, but too many of us have encountered such pple and worse still when some of these are friends that dun understand nor care to that aki life is a whole different ballgame from the normal. Thank God for understanding friends few as they may be but nvtheless precious =)

Anyhow in all this insanity, my greatest Friend was Jesus =) God was the one keeping my sanity, my body, my mind, emotions and patience. If not, I dun think i cd have pulled through. He provided everything I needed to ease me thru the process. from printing on time, providing help and great emo support thru parents, finding that paper to make the paths when i forgot to buy any and finding the roof plan even though i forgot to print it etc etc, they were all great evidences of His love and greatness and faithfulness. =) Thank You Jesus =)

and here's the verse that carried me... if you're in the midst of some trial, take heart trust in God and He'll be your Helper.

"When I am afraid, I will trust in You.
In God, whose word I praise,
In God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal men do to me?" Psalm 56:3-4

So yeah =) I'm glad i've Him... it's been an emotionally and physically draining sem but thank God its nearly over =) so now when its exams for everyone else, its time for us to rest a lil. Aki sch really changes yr perspective on life... in more ways than one indeed =) So those of you non-aki pple just try to understand us more k? That'll lessen some of the pain =)

hi it's been a real long time now. haha dun really feel like writing nowadays. cant say i dont have the time cos aki sch has been busy since the start and i used to find the time to write this. hmm oh well i guess ever since i got on those Korean dramas and variety shows these days haha i have no inclination to write whatsoever (nor time for that matter) argh i shd stop =)

ok school has been the same i guess except that now its like design takes up prime time since there are few other mods. sigh sometimes its a depressing thing. Sometimes its like i thank God i'm doing this =) i mean it's great cos its so fluid and creative and u can do it in many ways and so many things. pen, colour pencil, computer, pencil - whatever u wanna use. make models - bristol, wood, cardboard etc etc. basically u can do what u like, use waht like. just need to justify haha. but also cos it's so open, it means that u spend inordinate amounts of time on it. there's no real ending. it aint like engineering or sci or even arts. just finish the sums or tutorials or essay and u're done. here is like the design can always be further developed, the photoshop can always be better, the rendering can be more realistic etc etc. and u can think for hours but it doesn't necessarily mean u'll come up with something. basically it goes against the premise of our edu sys haha - study hard and u'll do well. erm of cos u have to work hard in aki but but results are another matter =) oh God's grace is sufficient for me for His power is made perfect in His weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Amen =)

ok on to the slightly more newsworthy things haha. my group did Tan Quee Lan Suites for the aki construction mod. its essentially 6 shophouses that had their facade conserved with everything else demolished and rebuilt in designer like residential units with shops on the 1st 2 flrs. it was real great timing really thank God for that. they were filming so we could get access to the units which wd otherwise been not so possible since there are pple living in there. haha and guess who we saw? kym ng and chew chor meng! haha even exchanged plesanties with us =) and of cos we got to see the units too. woha's stuff's always nice haha. even the fire escape stairs are nice =) and plus the architect was real nice to entertain us students so really thank God for a great project =)
haha just b4 CNY the whole aki had this wear black day organised by the society. erm i guess it wasnt all that successful but the poster is pretty erm interesting haha. but the target of much criticism. here take a look yrself.

haha told you aki sch was a tad more exciting than elsewhere. sometimes a bit too exciting =)

anyhow ever since goong(princess hours) i've went seriously into Korean shows and stuff. haha really bad actually watching all these shows till late and in the midst of photoshopping and cadding and drawing. argh. but ok i've just finished Full House so yeah gonna stop here and back to full time architecturing again =) last laps of the race. till early may that is. but erm haha to share with you this new found entertainment of mine, X-man is a great variety show far better than any of our local ones. yeah u can find cuts or some episodes of it english subbed on youtube. too lazy to type out what its abt =) hehe and Hwayobi is a great singer with a great voice. plus she can sing in good english too! =) which is rare for koreans. haha attempting to learn korean now. erm cy is my partner in this haha since she has a thing for languages =) haha oh well.

ok that's all for now. when tmr comes, its back to the drawing board. like in the literal sense =)

good nite then and God bless! =)

hi it's been long and i think pple are not even reading this anymore haha but i feel like writing now - which as u can tell is a rare occurence these days. its not like i'm particularly busy... in fact this sem has so far defied the norms of aki sch in general being pretty much slack (of cos still more demanding then the arts pple *ahem* haha pardon the friendly joke =) actually it feels kinda weird. but oh well things are hotting up with the interim crit coming up on thurs. they intentionally had these series of interim crits to keep us on our toes which i guess will be good for us eventually since this time it's a sem long proj. but thank God its been nice and manageable so far, a huge contrast frm last sem. haha its like when u suffer 1st u can appreciate the good things when they come better =)

anyhow last thurs was the time to drag out the "cost a bomb, weigh a ton" portfolio once again... and this time it was so impossibly heavy even dragging it down a corridor was terrigible (for the girls at least) it was kinda hilarious actually cos now my studio is in a "landlocked" position - need to pass thru another studio to get in argh so silly man. it was like we had to drag the thing thru this impossibly small gap, push it thru and with a big unglam heave, dump it onto the table. oh well haha but the funny part was when i took a cab home that day with it. the taxi driver was like. "Architect!" the moment i boarded with that ungainly thing. super uncle he kept talking and talking. apparently he did tech drawing like 30 yrs ago and he was like what u all have to do hand drawing for the 1st 1 and a half yrs? wah those profs need to change their mindset man! it was so funny haha cept that i didn't agree on that =)

ok i gtg for lunch now. but b4 that i just wanna complain that the engine canteen is like supper flooded with pple now ( i suspect from arts - er no i dun have anything against them hehe) ever since the arts canteen closed the the temp arrrangements pale in comparison. so yeah argh lunch is worse than ever. alreadt without them it was crowded now its like man. haha ok will stop complaining now. thank God at least the engine canteen is still nice and open. so need to share with the others who dun have =)

God bless and hopefully i'll feel like writing again soon =)

Hi so sorry for the long gap from the last entry. hmm actually exams ended last last wed (praise the Lord!) but was really lazy to blog haha. Oh well, this past sem has been the most painful so far thank God it's finally over... nv thought I'll get thru it... i did... by His grace and mercy =)
Design was heavier than very b4, more painful than ever b4 and despite the fact that i'm taking fewer mods than ever b4... it's as or even more pressing than ever b4. Actually i thought it was just me but apparently other pple feel so too. Ah the pains of growing up =( oh well. Actually the 1st half of the sem was ok... really fun even cos design was grp work and ther was the tropical aki workshop. of cos it wasnt always smooth going but at least there was something to look forward too and I was happier. 2nd half was like oh man full of tears! sigh all the way to submission and even for the exams. Thank God He brought me thru. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. =)

The good part of P2 i.e. the 2nd design project for the yr was that the site was Ann Siang Hill. haha always liked the ecclectic feel of the area... haha but little did I know that it wd bring much pain and regrets. On hindsight, actually it turned out ok but then it was awfully painful. So never choose a site that slopes in 2 directions, that is small cos u have to build up (i.e. have more flr plans which means more work) and all this coupled with a tutor as ascerbic as Simon the judge and obssessed with production (i.e. plans, sections and elevs and model every 3-4 days) made life real terrible. Finally I understood why pple want to be tai-tais. haha. but it sure wasnt funny at all then. But I agree that this awfully intensive push did make me work harder than ever b4 and did train me. But I'm not sure if such harshness was healthy nor really all that worth. I mean, there's life beyond design yeah?

Anyhow, I survived by God's grace, really really... my only hope thru all those tears and pain. Plus my dear mummy haha who was a real great source of support too. =) thank God for her =)

Somehow, thru all these I managed to turn 21 (it's time to grow up already =( cram in the work of my other modules - yes they do exist, unfortunately design tutors choose to ignore that fact -and erm, haha sneak in Princess Hours in the few precious windows of downtime that amazing appear. For those who dun know, its a Korean drama haha. I love it. haha. with all these dramas and thru working on design in the fish tank dds for all those weeks (which is half populated by the Korean exchange students that come every 1st sem) I really want to learn the language now. haha plus their landscape is so beautiful... at least from what i see in the show yups. wanna go there someday. haha mb shd have gone on the Korea exchange? and this sem wd have been so blissfully different, mb? Oh well, ok actually I dun regret staying here. Will be more prepared for next sem plus the 1st half of this sem was actually not bad, plus all the visits to places like the kiln, bollywood veggie farm and shatec were real great opportunities. and of cos not forgetting the talk by Frank Gehry!!! haha that was worth staying bk for haha. Hai too bad this country appreciates economics more than design so we're not getting him for the Sentosa IR =(
A great loss I must say... but mb they dun realise how great an architect he is and how great the privilege of getting him to offer himself as yr architect is. What can I say? nothing politically correct so I wont say anything more.

Ok gtg now. I hope the length of this entry will appease my dear critics =) haha all I can say is that I'll attempt not to be too lazy abt blogging in the future. And to be less long-winded =) Ok I shall leave u guys with the words of this song which I think sums up the past sem and how God faithfully saw me thru =) Enjoy.

You are forever in my life
You see me thru the seasons
Cover me with Your Hands
And lead me in Your righteousness
And I look to You
And I wait on You

I'll sing to You Lord
A hymn of love
For Your faithfulness to me
I'm carried in everlasting arms
You will never let me go
Thru it all

Hallelujah