thankful

For all the things that I have said, loved or hated about Melbourne, it has brought me friends that I am thankful for.

Is it really the curse of the 10 year cycle?

I am still getting over the last one.

Turning back

As much as I wished, I couldn't turn back to the time where I could have chosen to go to a better school; or did a better course.

on certain generalisation

I remember watching 'up in the air' and the character george clooney played said that it's more efficient to use steoreotypes to your advantage. I wonder if it's the placebo effect, i.e. that I unconsciously wait for something to occur, and then say, see, that's how that stereotype started.

I couldn't help myself sometimes because, I have to agree, to a certain extent, that that was how it is. Today, it was one of those days, and I just need to step back, and not listen to those sweet nothings, and just judge people by their actions. It felt as if all those years, running a team, amounted to nothing.

It is one of those experiences, in which you take a step back, and slow down for others, but then the other person thinks that you are that slow, when in fact, you were slowing down for them, and then they move ahead and think that they are so far ahead, when in fact, you have already been there longer than they have ever known.

being a heartless bitch

I love being a heartless bitch sometimes, only to move on from evil peeps, especially those that you go 'I am so glad I got out of that relationship'.

I found this new term, negative energy vampires, i.e. people who suck the energy out of you because they don't have the energy to carry on with your lives and just download all their negativities on you. I am just sooo glad I got out of that.

Private-public life

A friend told me that managing her personal life was far more important than her career, and I realised that when that was sorted out, everything else actually falls into place.

Happy 2010

2010 will be a brilliant year. I know it.

life is grand

and why not? whenever I'm in the downs, I think of my nephew's laugh. He's 4 years old, still protected from the perils of reality, but today I thought, why would we want to lose that and say 'life is like that', 'oh life is hard', 'oh, it's difficult'?

Life is grand, and happiness is hard work if you think it to be. It took me a long while, but it is really simple. Just be. Really, that's it. 'argh, it can't be so simple, there's mortgage to pay, there's a job to find'... i'm not asking to shed the responsibilities, less so, but that to think that there is a roof over the head, there's time to write this blog, or more importantly, there is something that I can do about.

Life, is as grand as can be.

Choices

It is hypocritical to have grand visions and to try to reach out and save the world when the homefront is at stake.

Silver lining

The roller coaster ride ends here.

Spring does make a difference.

Hiatus

I have almost forgotten about this blog. Taking up a design studio eats up a lot of time, in between coffee, bagels, design lab, unhealthy fast food, slogans, photoshop, indesign, paceway.

That aside, I loved my trip back and is still hungover by it. I miss so much about home, and it is tiring to be this transient.

I need to dock soon.

The year in review

I have a sketching and drawing pad now.

sepet

I've never watched sepet, but the recent turn of events in which the film director suffered a stroke led me to weep through the show. This is the same brilliant person who reminded us we all are born colour blind and that families are important through the many heart warming Petronas ads.

Unfortunately, 2 days later, the director suffered a tragic fate and left the world. RIP.

Completing the cycle

Looked for materials on the net and found this eye that took up approximately an hour plus.

RIP MJ

1993, I went to the MJ concert with my dad, and we waited, only to be told some 45 min later that he was not well to perform. We went back a second time, hopeful, and then he appeared. It was my first music concert (the cameo by Tommy Page in Plaza Pelangi does not count), but yes, my first full fledge concert, and I went with my dad who promptly abandoned me midway because he wanted to better view.

I bet he was as excited as me to see the King of Pop. RIP MJ.

major-minor

my first concert at the opera house. amazing. loved the second set of tchaikovsky piano concerto no. 2. brilliant performance by stephen hough.

What is your story?

Just came back from uni. In an attempt to finish an assignment, I could not find a seat in the library and wandered off to the faculty building but was freezing my ass off on the uncomfortable stool and thought the postgrad room was too toxic what with the designers' glues and stumbled into a students' photo exhibition.

Most of the projects were very personal, one spoke of his 20-year-old friends, another of the anniversary prayers, and another with a portrait and close up of their deepest fears, together with a survey of what they feared the most. I like most of the works and the storyboard and creativity.

What is your story?

Healthy living

I found out last week that my housemate's friend has high blood pressure at the young age of 27 and the doctor told her that she has to change her lifestyle or else.. so she and my housemate decided to live more healthily from Monday (15 Jun) by cutting down on cigarettes (him) and salt (her) and wine (them). And the spillover effects were that our household has also decided to do the 1 month challenge because we have just been eating way too much and not exercising enough, me especially since the month of May has literally become a month of eat, sleep, assignments and exams. Totally unhealthy...

So... 15 Jun shall be day 1!

How do you destress?

Guess who is so stressed from assignments that she has to channel her energy to baking / cooking to destress... Hey, it's a step up from drinking coke / coffee.

(No, I only made the sticky date pudding cake - ma housemate didn't line the sides so the crumbs came off..)

Very simple breakfast...

Presentation

In the midst of discussing the presentation format for our report, a coursemate used the following analogy:

As shallow as it might sound, if a guy wants to 'kao' a girl, he will see whether she is pretty first, i.e. to be attracted first, before taking the next step in getting to know her, if there is no first attraction, no matter how good the girl is, he will not be interested in wanting to get to know her better.

I think it's not about being shallow, but in knowing and working with the hard truths.

Merci!

My housemates' folks are here for a week, and we just had a 3-hour dinner made up of 1 Malaysian and 5 Vietnamese (with 5 nationalities split between them - Original, German, French (ex-Cambodian), Australian) and 1 French. Dinner was a spread of oysters, sashimi, garlic bread, spring rolls, steak, wine and bubur cha cha - almost as diverse as the nationalities, no points for guessing who made desserts! 

My attempted conversation with the French granduncle were just hilarious. Even though we were seated next to each other, it went round the table starting with him him showing me his four-faced buddha pendant that he bought from Bangkok and then speaking to his wife (in French), his wife relaying to my housemate in Vietnamese, and then her to me in English before I looked back at him and nodded my head in delight. 

Despite the language barriers, the universal love for good food was shared. Dinner was great.

Time

I've been reading Time Magazine since I was 12. Although it's been an on-off relationship of sorts, I've always felt an affinity to the magazine, even though it is very US-centric. I don't however remember most of the writers as I am very much a content seeker. Today I picked up the magazine again and decided to resume the affair and pay more attention to its contributers. 

Image source: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20090601,00.html

Overtime

My 5-min rule ran overtime last night and I just need to run to the top of a hill and release the balloons of angst. Constant reminder to self: Don't waste time whinging about things / people you can't change, analyse and acknowledge the risk before making any decisions and don't try to convince yourself the risk can somehow disappear on its own. 

My 5-min is up, another brand new day beckons. 

Image source: http://elissestuart.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/balloons.jpg

Soup

Yummy French Onion Soup...

I'm a soup person, and on days when things are rough, nothing beats a warm bowl of soup to remind you that things will only get better, just like the josh scene in the west wing (Yes, I quote a lot from the show, I think the writers are the most brilliant ones around and I miss such shows, and am severly lacking them in daily conversations). 

Again frustrated with the tennis syndrome (will not elaborate any further), but have to constantly remind myself that I have no one to blame for the (good and bad) decisions that I make. 

It is still very frustrating. On a happier note, French Onion Soup was great, and so was Italian theme night! 

Cookout

Yes, I realise that my blog has been rather dull. So the next best thing is just to put this: 

wagyu!

ma first spring rolls (okay, done together with da housemate)

da housemate frying da spring rolls

oysters in xo sauce grilled!

ta da.... 

I can't wait to finish....

You know you're in for the shits when you start saying 'I can't wait to finish 'insert activity'. 

Rhyme or Reason

Recently I've been addicted to 'R' words... recycling, resilient, ra-ra... no, that's not true, I don't have a favourite letter in the alphabet, oh, I do, it's 'J', for obvious reasons. I have 6 weeks to go before end of semester. 

6 weeks is like a magic number to me now since my urban planning venture. So I need to get through this. If May is the month of assignments and June is the month of exams, then July will be the month of decisions (Semester 2 courses, where next, travel plans). It's the cross-roads again. 

Home

I think I may be ready for a decision by Winter. 

Image source: http://dryicons.com/files/graphics_previews/winter_swirls.jpg

Work in progress

I was looking at my friend's photos which was set on a dark grey background and loved the effect, and so I'm still fiddling around with the colours / fonts on this blog as a break from my essay (again, I'm writing at a rate of one word per hour). 

I think the whole irony is this is an essay on sustainability and the rate I'm going, the efficiency of this essay-writing is killing more trees and emitting more carbon dioxide. But otherwise, it has been really interesting. 

Ghosts of past girlfriends

In a spur of a moment, because I cannot write another word on my essay anymore, I went off to watch a chick flick with my housemate. 

Call me shallow and what have you, I am past the phase of heavy weight films, having indigested a few doses of shows like revolutionary road and rachel getting married, which, yes, are thought provoking - I may have linked revolutionary road with automobile dependence and the whole concept of suburbanisation at an earlier entry - but gosh, I needed days to recover from the show. There are enough dramas in my real life, I don't need anymore from reel life. So yes, I now watch movies (not films) for relaxation. 

Matthew McConaughey was an absolute sleazeball, though I tend to like ahem, long-hair guys, that gay pirate look for so off. Storyline was predictable and half of this.

Anyways, I am absolutely flat out from my multiple attempts at completing the sustainable essay. And I'll be revamping this site over the winter holidays, gonna dig out those creative skills that I've been shelving for ages. 

Reason

只与有理的人论，不与无理的人争；有理的没有对手，无理的不是对手

This is so apt - took it from a friend's FB status. 

You Kara, I Oke!

Yeah! I get to sing my James Morrison song - You give me something. 

Over MSN:

Ex-colleague: I thought you didn't like to sing. 

My reply: I do, I prefer English songs and some Chinese songs. 

Truth be told: 

You need kakis to sing karaoke, someone that knows the song you're singing, and can boogie crazily with you. My karaoke sessions used to be with colleagues: mostly older ones, so have to sing the retro type: Teresa Teng, ABBA, Bee Gees and the like, and the younger ones mostly choose Chinese songs (Jay Chou, Sammi Cheng, Jacky Cheung and, oh crap, I can't name them). Anyways, the long and short of it, I've enjoyed some of the songs and the sessions have been fun, but I've never really sung a lot of my songs because they don't really gel with the people I go with. Maybe it's also coz I had to somehow maintain some level of professionalism, work mah...

Anywaylys, I've gone for two karaokes here so far, and it's been fun! I get to sing the songs and dance and just be oh, myself! Woo hoos, the crazy, dancing, ra-ra girl, as opposed to the uptight, only-sing-the-songs-that-people-know girl. And I get to sing James Morrison - I'm so in love with the song! Current favs (mostly for karaoke) also include hot n cold, who knew, love story, and there were even some high school songs (Read: Backstreet Boys - okay, it was more Uni for me). 

Yay! Back to essay now....