WERHAUS

Meanwhile in Indonesia,

2012-01-21T07:27:00.000+07:00

a civil servant has just been arrested for posting a Facebook Status that says "Tuhan tidak ada" - There is no God. He was confronted with an angry mob at his workplace and was arrested by the police for 'provocation' on the base of UU ITE pasal 27 ayat 3 that bands insult through electronic document and Pasal 263 KUHP about document infringement (He wrote in his ID card that he is Moslem)

Sometimes I cannot help but think that this country is run and populated mainly by idiots. This is just my opinion though, and an opinion judged from their point of view on religion. It seems that it's not fair, but I think, why not? Based on the case above I'm doing what the ignorant mass is doing to the atheist. I am now going to judge them with their own way.

Isn't it odd when the religions in Indonesia (which is only 5) talks about God in a forum, they would talk about how, well the Gods in our religions are different so we cannot really talk about it, but we should really talk about how good and nice religions are and how we should respect each other and not call each other's Gods lame. But when a person, on his own Facebook page, says that 'There is no God', suddenly it is everyone's God. And suddenly God needs defending. Suddenly it is an act of insult to ALL religion when it's actually only a statement of what he believes in. Like when Moslems would write 'I believe in Mohammed SAW" or when a Christian would write "Jesus is God".

The atheist is charged with provocation with a legislation piece that suggest it a criminal act to persuade someone not to believe in God. (please visualize my hand gesture here) Facebook status … Moslem riot. Facebook status … burn a church on christmas day. Facebook status … terrorize a church for just being there. True, some of these cases are made a criminal act by the government, because they involve threat to one of the selected religion choice in Indonesia (there are 6). And isn't it odd when Indonesia is a democratic country, but you can only choose to believe in one of the 6 religions already chosen by the government? And if you believe in something other than those select few you are a criminal? Here we see the kind of disjunction that is created by meddling religions with democracy.

The Studio #1

2012-01-16T22:42:00.002+07:00

From this point forward i will be blogging about the contents of my current architecture studio project. The studio theme I took this semester is 'Anti Urban'. In a sense it is the exact opposite of what I learned last semester in which design starts from the response to urban context. Anti Urban is a less idealistic view on how to design in the urban context. The anti-urban idea is an architecture design that is indifferent to its urban context, rendering contextual considerations unimportant to its existence. Designs starts from its program development, resulting in an inward oriented design. It develops from inside to outside.

The instructor argues that given that the urban development in this city differs from development theory so often discussed in western books on architecture, the urban development in Jakarta cannot be solved or studied properly by using the same theories in which western architecture theorist have applied on western cities.

This studio aims to reflect or even explore ways in which architecture in Jakarta can exist with the disjunctive nature of it development but at the same time become a part of the urban thread that has made Jakarta, in all its imperfections, naturally, Jakarta.

A point that i wish to explore in this studio concerns with boundaries. How does a building exist within certain strict boundaries, without either dominating the urban scape around it or alienating itself and the surrounding area. To answer this question, I proposed for an exploration on the design scheme for a prison in the city.

Hey blue bird!

2012-01-09T00:59:00.000+07:00

Little birdie told me somebody is having a crush. Little birdie told me somebody is eating pasta at the mall. Little birdie told me its hasta lavista bon voyage! Little birdie told me he's sad that tomorrow is schoolday. Little birdie told me she is learning to sew. Little birdie says WOOHOOO! GOAAAAAL. Little birdie sense a football game somewhere. Little birdie told me that this (Ｔ▽Ｔ) is how her face is right now. Little birdie, please tell my friends about our plans! Little birdie is also an owl now. To little birdie she says hey you hypocratic b**ch can't face me in real life! Little birdie sense she talks like that to birdie only. He told little birdie MY PEN IS MISSING! Little birdie says OH NOOO! Little birdie told me he just met a good looking girl at the elevator, he hopes to get her number lol. Birdie told me smoothies are great, raise the roof! To Little birdie she says a prayer before bed :). Little birdie says 'im no angel child'. Little birdie says its raining! Little birdie says she cannot sleep.

'Turn off your screen'

says little birdie.

Thats a pretty good advice for a blue bird

no one looks back on their lives

2011-10-28T22:25:00.000+07:00

I've always wanted to make this: adding vintage effect to bad photo and then

putting up something in helvetica on top of it. voila!

there is this popular image in design blogs that goes like this:

"no one looks back on their lives and remembers the nights they get plenty of sleep"

those exact words written on a photo of an awesome party, with young kids doing

very cool and kind of reckless stuffs at nights.

That's all very kewl but I think it also very acutely describes the passion driven nature

of design schools and its students.

quickie

2011-10-21T19:17:00.000+07:00

This is the photography portfolio I made in order to participate in an architecture school competition. Its a series of three photographs. Most of them I took during my last holiday, equipped with my grandpa's old camera.

The Perks of Being Confused

2011-10-20T21:07:00.001+07:00

Why do you constantly try to get yourself confused?

That was the question my mother asked when she saw me paying for the new book i just bought. The title of the book was, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Her concern was understandable. Being a born-again Christian, the Catholic type, she feels offended instantly by the word "DELUSION" written on the same page with the word "GOD". Sacrilege, for her. Amusing for me.

I explained to her that I was currently reading this very nice book entitled "Mere Christianity" by a Mr. C. S. Lewis, a former atheist who wrote about philosophy and religion, and on the side, children's wardrobe adventures. And for some reason, I feel the need to expose myself to something contradictory to what I've been reading. Getting myself confused was in fact what I'd constantly do to myself. And by this time, everything to me is relative and i find myself answering a lot of "hmm maybe, it depends" to a lot of questions.

But mom, what's wrong with being confused?

That's what I said to her. Mom thinks being confused and having doubts about the divine truth is out of the question. She thinks I know what the 'right' answer is (which is to her, the divine truth) but i just decide not to admit it. To her this is just a rebellious act, a childish phase she just can't wait for me to get over. I should be more like her and skip the phase entirely out of ignorance. That said, there leaves nothing more to discuss between me and her, because we're seeing things very differently already, and there's no point of prolonging the argument.

But her question got me into thinking how being confused is a good idea. To me it's an acquired taste, the art of being confused. There is something somewhat peaceful about the state of being confused. It's as if time would wait, and when you finally had that 'eureka!' it would come to you as fast it would compensate that time you spent on being confused.

I could talk about what being confused means in Architecture. In an architecture school, the studio is the harshest and most competitive class the student had to undertake. It constantly demand something new and brilliant, therefore one cannot use only the resource one already have, which is our common sense and our memory of everything we know. Because doing so, we'd be repeating things over and over again, and eventually the ideas will run out and that's not brilliant at all. That's why in design studios, instructors came in and give us lectures, one after the other. Sometimes, in fact, a lot of times, they will contradict each other. Maybe they will even contradict our view.

There are two types of reaction to these bombardment of information: One is where you have that 'eureka!' moment and the other when you have absolutely no idea how to function, which is because you're confused. The difference between the two reaction is that the one that reacts with a 'eureka!' moment without first being ever slightly confused, will most probably end up with you copying used solutions to new problems. Sometimes they'll work, and sometimes they don't. Either way, they're not brilliant. Meanwhile when you start confusing over things, you stopped functioning, therefore you have the chance to step back and weigh up the different points of view, ideas, and solutions, to make a mental study on how it would and would not work, and at the end, you will end up with a specific solution to the specific design problem, which may or may not work. But brilliant nevertheless.

Being confused means being democratic about your view. You can't be confused if you think one point of view is right and the other wrong. Being confused means you are stripped out of prejudices and paradigm that holds you back, and lets you take on that adventure to an understanding that's truly your own.

Food for Thought

2011-10-20T21:06:00.000+07:00

The following are quotes from the ever awesome Douglas Adams:

Part of how we come to take command of our world, to take command of our environment, to make these tools by which we're able to do this, is we ask ourselves questions about it the whole time. So this man starts to ask himself questions. "This world," he says, "so who made it?" Now, of course he thinks that, because hemakes things himself. So he's looking for someone who would have made this world. He says, "Well, so who would have made this world? Well, it must be something a little like me. Obviously much much bigger. And necessarily invisible. But he would have made it. Now why did he make it?" Now we always ask ourselves "why?" because we look for intention around us; because we always intend– we do something with intention. We boil an egg in order to eat it. So we look at the rocks, and we look at the trees, and we wonder what intention is here even though it doesn't have intentions.

The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind of inkling of how that might have happened, it's just wonderful. And … the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned.

And now you think: here's a man who gives the world a thought one step further than most people does. The ever sophisticated, effortless, and brilliant things Mr. Adams says taught me something about being constantly curious about the world, and being unfailingly creative to feed it.

It Will Happen Again

2011-05-28T19:17:00.004+07:00

i just saw my semester grades.

2011-05-28T09:27:00.002+07:00

Goethe Wisdom

2011-05-22T09:57:00.001+07:00

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

feel like doing this

2011-05-15T10:57:00.002+07:00

Guest-ing (bertamu)

2011-05-14T23:05:00.001+07:00

There aren't many people I've met that could affect me so much as that certain Mr, Realrich I met today. The visit to his studio as our end of year trip was surprisingly enlightening. It never occurred to me that one could bring that much amount of playfulness into leadership and still function. The office/studio reflects the creative leadership the chief architect value so much, and it is creative leadership at its finest.

Painted driveway, pull up poles, a hammock, smiley face doorknob, round doors and custom made table tennis tables, javanese themed project briefings where everyone must bring about their presentations in javanese, treehouses, winerack where they put syrup bottles in too, porcupine office pet, styrofoam made pinups, valentines day 'discussion', free dental fee if they consult with the chief architect's girlfriend who is a dentist. His laid-backness and humility inspires his employees, and it shows. There seems to be an unprecedented low rate of ego in this young architecture firm and it is to me delightfully admirable. What a lesson, what a place.

20

2011-05-12T23:16:00.000+07:00

setelah perjuangan yang amat besar, terdengar juga tangisan bayi pertama di pagi itu.
ibu baru itu menghela napas lega, setelah melawannya selama apa yang terasa tidak kurang dari 5 jam.

lalu
maaf bu, sepertinya ada 1 lagi yang mau keluar!!

hah maksudnya?

ya, ternyata anak ibu kembar! Ayo bu, 1 kali lagi

ah gak mau! operasi ajaa!

and that's how i was born (:

Douglas Adams, 10 years on. Still thanking you for all the fish.

2011-05-11T18:16:00.000+07:00

How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet

This piece first appeared in the News Review section of The Sunday Times on August 29th 1999.

A couple of years or so ago I was a guest on Start The Week, and I was authoritatively informed by a very distinguished journalist that the whole Internet thing was just a silly fad like ham radio in the fifties, and that if I thought any different I was really a bit naïve. It is a very British trait – natural, perhaps, for a country which has lost an empire and found Mr Blobby – to be so suspicious of change.
But the change is real. I don’t think anybody would argue now that the Internet isn’t becoming a major factor in our lives. However, it’s very new to us. Newsreaders still feel it is worth a special and rather worrying mention if, for instance, a crime was planned by people ‘over the Internet.’ They don’t bother to mention when criminals use the telephone or the M4, or discuss their dastardly plans ‘over a cup of tea,’ though each of these was new and controversial in their day.
Then there’s the peculiar way in which certain BBC presenters and journalists (yes, Humphrys Snr., I’m looking at you) pronounce internet addresses. It goes ‘www DOT … bbc DOT… co DOT… uk SLASH… today SLASH…’ etc., and carries the implication that they have no idea what any of this new-fangled stuff is about, but that you lot out there will probably know what it means.
I suppose earlier generations had to sit through all this huffing and puffing with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle, printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this:
1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.
Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are.
This subjective view plays odd tricks on us, of course. For instance, ‘interactivity’ is one of those neologisms that Mr Humphrys likes to dangle between a pair of verbal tweezers, but the reason we suddenly need such a word is that during this century we have for the first time been dominated by non-interactive forms of entertainment: cinema, radio, recorded music and television. Before they came along all entertainment was interactive: theatre, music, sport – the performers and audience were there together, and even a respectfully silent audience exerted a powerful shaping presence on the unfolding of whatever drama they were there for. We didn’t need a special word for interactivity in the same way that we don’t (yet) need a special word for people with only one head.
I expect that history will show ‘normal’ mainstream twentieth century media to be the aberration in all this. ‘Please, miss, you mean they could only just sit there and watch? They couldn’t do anything? Didn’t everybody feel terribly isolated or alienated or ignored?’
‘Yes, child, that’s why they all went mad. Before the Restoration.’
‘What was the Restoration again, please, miss?’
‘The end of the twentieth century, child. When we started to get interactivity back.’
Because the Internet is so new we still don’t really understand what it is. We mistake it for a type of publishing or broadcasting, because that’s what we’re used to. So people complain that there’s a lot of rubbish online, or that it’s dominated by Americans, or that you can’t necessarily trust what you read on the web. Imagine trying to apply any of those criticisms to what you hear on the telephone. Of course you can’t ‘trust’ what people tell you on the web anymore than you can ‘trust’ what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants. Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do. For some batty reason we turn off this natural scepticism when we see things in any medium which require a lot of work or resources to work in, or in which we can’t easily answer back – like newspapers, television or granite. Hence ‘carved in stone.’ What should concern us is not that we can’t take what we read on the internet on trust – of course you can’t, it’s just people talking – but that we ever got into the dangerous habit of believing what we read in the newspapers or saw on the TV – a mistake that no one who has met an actual journalist would ever make. One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no ‘them’ out there. It’s just an awful lot of ‘us’.
Of course, there’s a great deal wrong with the Internet. For one thing, only a minute proportion of the world’s population is so far connected. I recently heard some pundit on the radio arguing that the internet would always be just another unbridgeable gulf between the rich and the poor for the following reasons – that computers would always be expensive in themselves, that you had to buy lots of extras like modems, and you had to keep upgrading your software. The list sounds impressive but doesn’t stand up to a moment’s scrutiny. The cost of powerful computers, which used to be around the level of jet aircraft, is now down amongst the colour television sets and still dropping like a stone. Modems these days are mostly built-in, and standalone models have become such cheap commodities that companies, like Hayes, whose sole business was manufacturing them are beginning to go bust.. Internet software from Microsoft or Netscape is famously free. Phone charges in the UK are still high but dropping. In the US local calls are free. In other words the cost of connection is rapidly approaching zero, and for a very simple reason: the value of the web increases with every single additional person who joins it. It’s in everybody’s interest for costs to keep dropping closer and closer to nothing until every last person on the planet is connected.
Another problem with the net is that it’s still ‘technology’, and ‘technology’, as the computer scientist Bran Ferren memorably defined it, is ‘stuff that doesn’t work yet.’ We no longer think of chairs as technology, we just think of them as chairs. But there was a time when we hadn’t worked out how many legs chairs should have, how tall they should be, and they would often ‘crash’ when we tried to use them. Before long, computers will be as trivial and plentiful as chairs (and a couple of decades or so after that, as sheets of paper or grains of sand) and we will cease to be aware of the things. In fact I’m sure we will look back on this last decade and wonder how we could ever have mistaken what we were doing with them for ‘productivity.’
But the biggest problem is that we are still the first generation of users, and for all that we may have invented the net, we still don’t really get it. In ‘The Language Instinct’, Stephen Pinker explains the generational difference between pidgin and creole languages. A pidgin language is what you get when you put together a bunch of people – typically slaves – who have already grown up with their own language but don’t know each others’. They manage to cobble together a rough and ready lingo made up of bits of each. It lets them get on with things, but has almost no grammatical structure at all.
However, the first generation of children born to the community takes these fractured lumps of language and transforms them into something new, with a rich and organic grammar and vocabulary, which is what we call a Creole. Grammar is just a natural function of children’s brains, and they apply it to whatever they find.
The same thing is happening in communication technology. Most of us are stumbling along in a kind of pidgin version of it, squinting myopically at things the size of fridges on our desks, not quite understanding where email goes, and cursing at the beeps of mobile phones. Our children, however, are doing something completely different. Risto Linturi, research fellow of the Helsinki Telephone Corporation, quoted in Wired magazine, describes the extraordinary behaviour kids in the streets of Helsinki, all carrying cellphones with messaging capabilities. They are not exchanging important business information, they’re just chattering, staying in touch. "We are herd animals," he says. "These kids are connected to their herd – they always know where it’s moving." Pervasive wireless communication, he believes will "bring us back to behaviour patterns that were natural to us and destroy behaviour patterns that were brought about by the limitations of technology."
We are natural villagers. For most of mankind’s history we have lived in very small communities in which we knew everybody and everybody knew us. But gradually there grew to be far too many of us, and our communities became too large and disparate for us to be able to feel a part of them, and our technologies were unequal to the task of drawing us together. But that is changing.
Interactivity. Many-to-many communications. Pervasive networking. These are cumbersome new terms for elements in our lives so fundamental that, before we lost them, we didn’t even know to have names for them.

oh santa..

2011-05-09T22:51:00.000+07:00

A long and winding turn of self perception

2011-05-09T21:37:00.002+07:00

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all. ~William Temple

This would be the answer to all my questions. How should we challenge our self perception. Apparently we shouldn't even be perceiving about ourselves. Think about how subjective we can get when we judge the people around us and imagine us judging ourselves and you see how unreliable we are. And then see how little others would know about us, and how in the same way we do they make preconceived judgements about us. Imagine how little we know about others, and how our understanding of others are limited with the senses of our own shackling body. What do we know of other people? What do we even know of ourselves?

A long and winding road of self-perception.

2011-04-22T23:25:00.002+07:00

Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it. ~Whitney Griswold

How do you challenge your self perception in the most grueling way? From a recent experience in the past week, I learn that campaigning yourself would be the best way to do that. I realized that an act of self-promotion would force us to constantly re-evaluate how similar are our presented selves and our perceived selves. Our presented selves being the way we present ourselves as means of our self promotion be it true or not, and our perceived selves being the way people around us already identify us with and the way we see ourselves (and the two of them alone can be very very different).

~ more about it after this week ~

Montage from La Notte on Film Exhibition Space

2011-04-18T22:15:00.001+07:00

Toto Les Heros (1991)

2011-04-08T23:28:00.000+07:00

Keeping Wit

2011-03-01T00:30:00.009+07:00

“I have a feeling my career has just peaked. My deepest thanks to the Academy. I’m afraid I have to warn you that I’m experiencing stirrings. Somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves. Joyous as they may be for me, it would be extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I get off stage.”

"So I’m going to do my best to be brief with my gratitude first for being on this extraordinary list of fellow nominees. Something quite formidable and possibly the greatest honor of this. All the crew and my fellow cast members, those who are not here, and those who are, Geoffrey, Helena, and Guy, whose virtuosity made it very very difficult for me to be as bad as I was planning to be. And David Seidler whose own struggles have given so many people the benefit of his very beautiful voice and Tom Hooper for the immense courage and clear sightedness with which he interpreted that. The men who finessed this to the screen, Gareth, Emile, Iain, Xavier, and of course, Harvey, who first took me on 20 years ago when I was a mere child sensation.”

“And all the people who have been rooting for me back home. Also Jessica Kolstad, my friend, Paul Lyon-Maris, and Chris Andrews for bearing with me through some of the less fortunate moments as well as the good ones and my very fortunate friendship with Tom Ford who to whom I owe a very big piece of this. And to the Anglo-Italian-American-Canadian axis, which makes up my family and Livia for putting up with my fleeting delusions of royalty and who I hold responsible for this and for really everything that’s good that’s happened since I met her. Now if you’ll all excuse me, I have some impulses I have to tend to backstage. Thank you very much.”

Colin Firth, winning his first Academy Awards, his wit and humility intact.

And My Government NEVER fail to make a fool of themselves.

2011-02-21T17:48:00.000+07:00

The new tax law on imported films in Indonesia has left the MPA, the sole exporter of western films to Indonesia, to boycott its export to Indonesia. The government, ironically enough, said that the move was only intended to protect the Indonesian film industry. Perhaps they were unaware, or they just don't have the capacity to learn it, that when they say "the Indonesian film industry", it means a spiderwebbed of economic system that could tumble down just as easily as, say, an actual spider web can collapse in a mere stupid flick of a finger. What the government has missed (as they most often do, miss out on the tragically important logic) The Indonesian film industry also means the Theatre companies, the DVD makers, the workers who work at the theatres, even the moviegoers who are the engine of this industry (and we are desperate!). This new law do nothing but hurt. It would hurt the economy, it would hurt the people of Indonesia, economically and politically. It would hurt the entire culture of Indonesia. So far the only consolation most people have on living in this rathole of a country, whose government can do nothing but make a fool of themselves, is the sight of a wonderful world 'out there' be it true or not. The only part of the 'local film industry' that could benefit are the film pirates, the pirated DVD makers! Bold move, government...

And whose to say that the Indonesians can do without its little bits of western influence? What harm could the western films ever do? Western films has only always become an inspiration for Indonesian filmmakers to make better, more rounded films. With it gone, with no competition and market with standards, the Indonesian films could only descend lower and lower in the standards of taste and intelligence. What do you know, maybe these are the films that government people watches. I wouldn't say it surprising.

What the government had thought wrong was that they think they could bluff their way out of this. The MPA, a big bully, well, most probably is, and Indonesia, (the government, not the people) a petulant child who is suddenly learning how to take a stand. But the thing is, taking stances are only admirable when it doesn't cost us anything, and we win. But taking a stance and getting a blow, that is just pathetic.

A Feast for the Eye

2011-02-12T09:37:00.000+07:00

The King's Speech

Will Never Rest

2011-01-29T08:17:00.004+07:00

until I own one.

Film Review: The King's Speech

2011-01-28T21:42:00.000+07:00

There is always a charming prospect in watching British films. To me it's that they would convey as much emotion as it is enjoyable without the inconvenience of being overwhelmed by it. I find their films very much like their homemade bitter orange marmalade. Sweetly bitter. Or vice versa.

In its own very orange marmalady way, The King's Speech was a triumph. One can see the filmmakers took what simplistic plot they have in their hands and took it into rare depths the film industries are yearning to see again. It tells a story about a stammering monarch, unconfident and uptight, who seek help to a goofy speech therapist, Lionel Louge, played by Geoffrey Rush. He reluctantly took over the throne after the abdication of his brother. In his quest to master his own voice, Bertie began to open up, unaware that as he did his speech bettered. The film, very simply, was about finding a voice and the courage it took to realize the importance of it.

The hero in this film, of course, was Bertie himself, Mr. Colin Firth. "Mushy" was the word that first occurred to me when I first saw him. I'm still not sure what "mushy" meant but the sound suited quite well. He stammers so beautifully, as the also Queen had said about Bertie in the film. There was impeccable commanding of a scene in Colin Firth's performance, which is hard to do when all your character do is look sour and worried half the time and losing his temper on the rest of them. But there was more to shouting and eyebrow curling in his performance. There was no way Bertie would ever let audience feel sorry for him, for in his melancholy, there was this bravery that carried him throughout the film. Looking at the film again, it is unthinkable how the film would have flopped (despite its incredible script and crew craftsmanship) had it not been because of Mr. Firth's tour de force of a performance.

And the rest of the cast did their fair share of brilliance too. There was Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen, who must learn to fight her own arrogance. And there was Geoffrey Rush as Lionel, who delivered so well the witty and charmingly peculiar lines of this film. And of course there was Michael Gambon as the formidable King George V, whose minute presence were both intimidating and moving.

All in all, although there is everything classic about this film, and everything one should expect in a historical drama films, there is something modern about this film that made it beyond the levels of its precedents. The honest (not necessarily true though) characterization, artistic editing and clean cut scripting makes it a spot on feel good film you don't have to be ashamed to like.

How to: Keep an Expressionless Face

2011-01-12T20:42:00.000+07:00

Immediately stop whatever you are doing.
Take a small breath of air in through your nose. It is important to aid in your silence that you not inhale through your mouth. Because you are not going to be speaking, you don’t need to fill your abdominal area with air. You are not going to be making any rich sonorous tones.
Hold the breath. By holding your breath, you are slowing down your heart rate as well as focusing your thoughts, so that you are in total control of the situation.
While still holding your breath, relax every one of your facial muscles. Visualize your forehead relaxing, along with your eyelids, nose, cheeks, lips, jaw, and chin. From the top to the bottom of your face, feel your muscles relaxing so much that your face becomes expressionless

take it from me. it's not how i do it, though. Edited out from here.

Worry

2010-12-20T22:08:00.000+07:00

You started of with a little thought. One little shining light at the locomotive of your train of thoughts. Then it gets longer. It gets longer and longer, and you wonder when it would stop. It doesn't. You just get distracted

by another thing, another measly little thought. A surprise discovery, perhaps, that takes up another line of trains, which gets bigger, and longer, which bends and intersects, with your first line of thoughts. You wonder if it's getting you anywhere. It doesn't. Then you try to distract yourself

by anything. Reading, sleeping, chatting, TV. But those two trains are going to blow its horns. Because worry, like envy, jealousy and fear, all infantile qualities we are so embedded with, are like a petulant child. It demands attention, and it must have everything NOW.
And the only way to deal with them was to tell them that they don't run the world. And that you've got more important things to attend to.

Holiday oh holiday

2010-12-17T19:29:00.002+07:00

3 down, 5 more to go! I wonder if in the end I'll ever regret dreading school this way. I would, eventually, because I secretly kind of enjoyed it. It seems kind of masochist in a way, if I say that I 'enjoy' being tortured to late night model making, which often results in cuts on various body parts due to combination of sleep deprivation and a very sharp cutting utensil. Or even being harshly criticized by instructors and juries, and seeing your weeklong project being torn to pieces by a very itchy jury hand. No, it was torture to me. But the creative process of making things, inventing, then getting things just perfect and eventually getting the satisfaction of taking pride in your work. That overshadows all the agonizing distress of the design process. In the end, we designed for happiness.

Finals tomorrow.

2010-12-05T20:10:00.000+07:00

2010-11-22T22:22:00.000+07:00

How do you choose between friends?
I think it depends on how you chose them at the beginning.
What was the common denominator?
Was it something real or
The only thing you had in common was that you didn't really
belong anywhere else.
Which doesn't necessarily mean
you belong where you are now.
Or was it just you who just didn't belong anywhere else.
And you were the only one who was a problem.
And you feel invisible.
Or maybe you feel undisguised, decoded.
What of feeling sure of oneself, and where you are, and where you are going.
Doesn't happiness count?
At least over false camaraderie?

Argument

2010-11-18T22:54:00.000+07:00

I remember the eve of every Eid Al Adha celebration in my country. Every loudspeakers of every mosque roaming its prayers loud, only to be overlapped by another louder voice in a loudspeaker, one after the other. And it would go on all night. Until dawn marks the festive day and the roaming stops, replaced by mass sacrificing of goats and cows. As an Indonesian, I've grown used to hearing roams of mosque prayers. If you've grown up with those sounds 5 times a day every day, those sometimes off tune, incomprehensibly foreign, songs, if you like, would become, unnoticeable. In fact you can go on weeks claiming you've not heard those sounds, but it was there. It becomes a second nature to us (or maybe it deafens us a little)

But there is a different point of view in the mind of my former teacher, an expat from US, the land of the free. And I think he may have a point. Which is why it's kind of unnerving when everything he's got to say is slammed by irrational comments that is more ready to judge him defensively, (something he did not do to the Islamic people when he made the initial comments) instead of providing open, valid arguments.

Center For Brain Health by Frank Gehry

2010-11-09T22:52:00.000+07:00

but how can it be. when it looks like you can have your brain damaged by looking directly to it?

Film Review: Social Network

2010-11-07T22:07:00.005+07:00

I didn't know what to expect from a film based upon a social networking site. But this is exactly what drew my attention to it yesterday after the unfailingly stressful service learning session at the rehab facility. My also incredibly tired and gloomy teammates (a normal reaction to being inside a rehab facility for 3 hours) decided to reward ourselves and bought movie tickets. We needed to see something face paced, and cool to have our minds forget the images we've seen at the rather morbidly depressing rehab facility. And what do you know. We gave rehab patients art therapy. We rewarded ourselves a film therapy.

There were doubts as I decided to go on and buy tickets for this film. First, I normally wouldn't be interested in watching films about people that aren't dead yet (or even recently dead). Second, I didn't think that a film based on a currently booming social networking site has any goal other than make money, which would make films only cheaply entertaining. Third, I didn't like the facebook hype.

But eh, what the heck.

The film was, should I say, quintessentially Hollywood. It was fast paced, impeccably scripted, and well casted. It grabbed our attention from start to finish, which is exactly what Hollywood film's about. Although the structure of the film itself is rather unclear at the beginning, with a lot of flashbacks and forwards from one scene to another and the audience clinging to the actors' costumes to determine which timeframe the scene's currently in, but there was never a single time when the filmmakers let the audience, 'astray' from the story they are trying to tell. The story was revealed layer by layer, in a clean cut manner, and effortlessly done. Much like what Christopher Nolan did in Inception, but in a way in much simplistic manner, it took advantage of what only films as a media of story telling can do easily, which is jumping from one timeframe to another forward and backwards. Maybe this is the filmmaking trends of today. As the film goes on you decide to ignore the nagging questions of its authenticity to the real 'history' and just go on to watch regardless.

The film tells the story from the conception of facebook to the realization of it. The film made rather an unsettling potrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. It portrays him as a genius but socially challenging (to other people of course) IT student at Harvard. There were numerous times in the movie when the character would be called an 'asshole'. And in the beginning of the film, there was a line which his ex-girlfriend said to him:

You're probably going to be a successful programmer and you would go on through life thinking that girls don't like you because you are a nerd. But that's not true. They don't like you because you're an asshole.

Is this what the screenwriters decide to be the base concept of this film? To portray Mark Zuckerberg as an asshole genius that would undoubtedly make a name for himself in the programming world? To my observation, this is almost what the movie's about.

I'd say this is worth your 2 hours and the price of a weekend ticket. As a generation deeply affected by the information era and its current main player Facebook I can safely assume that you yourself is at least a little bit curious, right?

Vanity Complex

2010-11-04T21:32:00.001+07:00

The vanity complex is sweeping the nation! And the world! But more importantly, the nation! The use of Facebook and Twitter accounts have soared accountably. In the same way, we gradually see the heightened celebration on the 'self' in our society. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter gives us what in the past only the distinguished or celebrity clans have the privilege of having: the exhibition of self.

On the Facebook page, you are asked 'What's on your mind'? Twitter, asks you 'What is happenning' (to you), previously 'What are you doing?'. All of the sudden, a sense of individual entitlement to 'self' is encouraged. In this respect the need for recognition and acknowledgement, grew. This way, more and more times, the 'social network' has become less social and more, one might say, self absorbed. This is where the problem starts.

We live in a society where younger generations, most users of social networks, have lived their lives with the nurturing of the modern ways, which is generally speaking, with the encouragement of confidence and free-thinking in mind. Now imagine childhoods, although not all, filled with praises, trophies, and acknowledgement of your being and the importance of it to the world around you. This is not bad. But wait. Think of what would happen if that 'world around you' expands. (This is what the social networks in the internet does, it expands your social circle. For instance, you befriend (on facebook) that acquaintance at school whom you know just because you're in the same year and suddenly, you know places he'd been to, stuffs he'd ate, girlfriends he'd been dating and what he thinks about the latest volcano eruptions.)

As the world around you expands, and the result of your childhood rearing kicks in, exhibition of selves becomes more and more 'public' to be recognized and the need for recognition grows. This is where Twitter updates starts to be posted in every minute and every single idle minds gets to be posted on Facebook walls for other people to comment on. All these to feed the ever growing need for acknowledgment, which is easily attained through the use of social networking utilities.

This is where vanity becomes. It is the addiction to recognition so much, it beats the other purposes of our actions. It becomes the goal, and everything ends up as being merely an exhibition.

play us a song aymee

2010-10-31T18:04:00.000+07:00

Happiness is a Human Sized Teddy Bear

2010-10-25T22:48:00.000+07:00

Happiness is a cold-nosed buddy

Happiness is getting this picture

Happiness is a picturesque fog

Happiness is adventure

Happiness is a happy coincidence.

2010-10-17T21:20:00.000+07:00

Is it normal if
I feel revulsion towards
superficial politeness
or unnecessary sympathy?

but what difference does it make whether politeness is superficial or sincere?
and is sympathy ever necessary anyway?

I think i should stop thinking like this.

you know what happens when you hit that subject button when writing a new email?

2010-10-02T19:39:00.000+07:00

These comes out:

Absotively Posilutely
Busted, cold dusted, hot dog, with mustard.
Jeremy! What have I told you about the correct way to butter crumpets?
Moisture is the essence of wetness...and wetness is the essence of beauty.
he who laughs last always has the last laugh
Oh no! Not another learning experience!
Flossing with angel hair pasta
Vacation? I'm leaning towards Pisa
memory is the greatest trick we play on ourselves, after reality
How about never? Is never good for you?
BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!
Oh, I get it. It's very clever. How's that working out for you?
Charleston Chewy is Chewy, Louie. But not too chewy.
The sushi boats are in the harbor for the night
My dog has no nose
Are these edible?
Do Not Read
All your platypus are belong to us.
Aux armes, citoyens!
Wake me up when it's time to go to sleep
Re: mummification?
My brain is not large enough to destroy the entire world when unfolded.
Pity the worms!
I hate eating breakfast on an empty stomach
Dang! That's the 10th Commandment I've broken today

Religion Fetish

2010-09-14T22:34:00.002+07:00

It takes a quick scan over our society to learn that Indonesians love their religions. A 10 minute car ride would be enough to count up to 5 shiny mosque domes. And of course, you can't miss hibab wearing ladies that range from toddlers to the elderly. But it's not just the majority's Moslem who are seen flaunting their love for religion. Car stickers saying 'Jesus Inside' or 'God Speed', Jesus this and Jesus that, they love their stickers. That came out rather sarcastic.

With a society so seemingly faithful and, nice (a label everyone puts on the faithful), one wonders if faith actually means anything in this society. Indonesians are very much 'trained' to be faithful and religious, according to my observation. Aren't we 'taught' religious studies at school, and do we not pledge to faithfulness to God in our Pancasila?

Indonesians like myself grow up oblivious to concepts of atheism. We know that there are 5 religions, and chances are, everybody in this crowded country fall into either 5 of the category. Either you're a Christian, a Catholic, Moslem, Buddha, or Hindu. Even if we eventually know the concept of 'atheism' we know it labelled with a 'communism', 'fascist', 'evil' tag. Atheism is haram, and in fact in the 60's and 70's you could even be sent to prison for that.

At school teachers like to pretend to make us think critically (it's the game they love the most). They'd ask questions like 'Why do we need religion?" and we were made into answering "because without it people would have no conscience and would become evil" (just a paraphrase). But if the base of our yearning for religion is some sleazy and not to mention cliched labeling of people without faith, then there is no need for further questions as to how much faith means to our society.

Very little (just in case you didn't get it)

This is the sort of thing that made the nature of religiosity embedded in most Indonesians. The indifferent kind, the unquestioning one. Like this story from my sister about the sort of religiosity her friends have. Her friends are discussing about going to Sunday church on a Saturday night when she brought up this conversation:
Fiona: What if we don't go to church?
Friend: What do you mean not go to church?
Fiona: Don't you ever think about why we have to go to church?
Friend: We just have to, it's Sunday!
Fiona: But just because it's Sunday?
Friend: Well, in MY family, my parents make sure we're used to going to church. I just have to, it's what I'm used to.
Fiona: But why, what do we get from church anyway?
Friend: *gasped* Fio...

To the every man in Indonesia, religion is non negotiable. It is a way of life to the indifferent mass, but a subtle brain-washing technique to the 'free thinkers'.

Growing Up

2010-09-05T22:30:00.000+07:00

I realize that I haven't really posted something better than 140 characters of sarcastic (more cynic really) remark or a picture of a cute guy with sleazy shallow comments underneath or witty quotes someone else said about something currently relevant in my life. I realize then that I haven't been thinking straight these days. Holidays are over, come studio days. Studio days make me think so hard, I can't really have an opinion about anything else other than how I'm going to survive the course. It's just the opposite of how I used to be when I was in school, I was so bored I could have an opinion about anything you could think of. Which is, come to think of it, annoyingly precocious.

I've also realized, that it is possible that the more you understand about things, the less you've got to say. Maybe this is what post-adolescent phase does to people. You realize that the whole time you've been blabbing out the obvious, and now you look at things around you and well, you've got nothing more to say than: it is what it is.

A Prayer

2010-09-04T19:37:00.001+07:00

Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen.

Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.
~Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer

Studio Instructor Guide to Survival

2010-09-03T18:36:00.000+07:00

Step one:
Be as vague as you can be. Let the students wonder whether you're plain crazy or pure genius.

Step two:
When giving a desk critic to a student and not know what to say, flip the model to any side you want and say it's better this way.

Step three:
When asked a question you can't answer, say it's the student's job to find out.

How Stupid

2010-08-23T21:16:00.002+07:00

It is no use to grumble and complain;It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice; When God sorts out the weather and sends rain -Why, rain's my choice.
~James Whitcomb Riley

Religious people say the darndest things.

You're So Pretty

2010-08-04T21:03:00.003+07:00

Numb

2010-08-03T22:57:00.003+07:00

Everyday we pass by those faces. Those dirty, sorry faces. We watch them from a distance. But we were in another world. Our cars are like a fish bowl, where we can watch the world around us, but remain completely detached from it. We are tempted at times, to slide down our windows and give the occasional kindness, but only to feel good about ourselves afterwards. At another times, we simply were numbed. Numbed, by our fear. Fear that we might be harmed, who knows. Or fear that policemen might have been around. The government said it is illegal to give to the poor, condemning it in-educating. The worst state we could be in is when we find ourselves believing it. If that's so, we're numb.

No Wonder We're So Effed Up

2010-07-30T20:10:00.001+07:00

The Roots of Violence:
Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principles.

- Mohandas K. Gandhi

Something to think about

2010-07-25T19:43:00.000+07:00

to buy or not to buy?

2010-07-24T23:36:00.000+07:00

500 K. Is it worth it?

Yuhuu

2010-07-22T07:13:00.002+07:00

The Way the World Is

2010-07-20T21:16:00.004+07:00

When you awaken, when you understand, when you see, the world becomes right. We're always bothered by the problem of evil. There's a powerful story about a little boy walking along the bank of a river. He sees a crocodile who is trapped in a net. The crocodile says, "Would you have pity on me and release me? I may look ugly, but it isn't my fault, you know. I was made this way. But whatever my external appearance, I have a mother's heart. I came this morning in search of food for my young ones and got caught in this trap!"

So the boy says, "Ah, if I were to help you out of that trap, you'd grab me and kill me."

The crocodile asks, "Do you think I would do that to my benefactor and liberator?"

So the boy is persuaded to take the net off and the crocodile grabs him.

As he is being forced between the jaws of the crocodile, he says, "So this is what I get for my good actions." And the crocodile says, "Well, don't take it personally, son, this is the way the world is, this is the law of life."

The boy disputes this, so the crocodile says, "Do you want to ask someone if it isn't so?"

The boy sees a bird sitting on a branch and says, "Bird, is what the crocodile says right?" The bird says, "The crocodile is right. Look at me. I was coming home one day with food for my fledglings. Imagine my horror to see a snake crawling up the tree, making straight for my nest. I was totally helpless. It kept devouring my young ones, one after the other. I kept screaming and shouting, but it was useless. The crocodile is right, this is the law of life, this is the way the world is."

"See," says the crocodile. But the boy says, "Let me ask someone else." So the crocodile says, "Well, all right, go ahead."

There was an old donkey passing by on the bank of the river. "Donkey," says the boy, "this is what the crocodile says. Is the crocodile right?"

The donkey says, "The crocodile is quite right. Look at me. I've worked and slaved for my master all my life and he barely gave me enough to eat. Now that I'm old and useless, he has turned me loose, and here I am wandering in the jungle, waiting for some wild beast to pounce on me and put an end to my life. The crocodile is right, this is the law of life, this is the way the world is."

"See," says the crocodile. "Let's go!"

The boy says, "Give me one more chance, one last chance. Let me ask one other being. Remember how good I was to you?" So the crocodile says, "All right, your last chance."

The boy sees a rabbit passing by, and he says, "Rabbit, is the crocodile right?"

The rabbit sits on his haunches and says to the crocodile, "Did you say that to that boy? The crocodile says, "Yes, I did." "Wait a minute," says the rabbit. "We've got to discuss this." "Yes," says the crocodile. But the rabbit says, "How can we discuss it when you've got that boy in your mouth? Release him; he's got to take part in the discussion, too." The crocodile says, "You're a clever one, you are. The moment I release him, he'll run away." The rabbit says, "I thought you had more sense than that. If he attempted to run away, one slash of your tail would kill him."

"Fair enough," says the crocodile, and he released the boy. The moment the boy is released, the rabbit says, "Run!" And the boy runs and escapes. Then the rabbit says to the boy, "Don't you enjoy crocodile flesh? Wouldn't the people in your village like a good meal? You didn't really release that crocodile; most of his body is still caught in that net. Why don't you go to the village and bring everybody and have a banquet."

That's exactly what the boy does. He goes to the village and calls all the men folk. They come with their axes and staves and spears and kill the crocodile. The boy's dog comes, too, and when the dog sees the rabbit, he gives chase, catches hold of the rabbit, and throttles him. The boy comes on the scene too late, and as he watches the rabbit die, he says, "The crocodile was right, this is the way the world is, this is the law of life."

There is no explanation you can give that would explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! You'll never explain it. You can try gamely with your formulas, religious and otherwise, but you'll never explain it. Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense out of it. For that you've got to wake up and then you'll suddenly realize that reality is not problematic, you are the problem.

Well Said

2010-07-19T20:50:00.002+07:00

Quoted from iLOVE

How To: Weight Loss

2010-07-16T18:58:00.004+07:00

Having gained 5 kg through the school holiday, naturally my self esteem is in down low. I could literally feel fat hanging around my body. It's like I could just feel the weight of my flabby stomach all the time. As I sit down, when I walk. Now everything is just weighing me down. Usually I just cut down everything I eat. I lose weight almost always effortlessly: stress at the beginning of school year, dreadful assignments, sickness and until recently, grief, usually comes with loss of appetite, which then leads to weight loss. I know it sounds unhealthy but that's just how my body is. But now I couldn't wait till school arrive, I really need to get healthy. And also, I know it sounds stupid, and possibly anorexic, but I feel like I really need to lose that extra weight, I know I'd feel healthier then.

So I did a little research and found numerous ways to get healthy/lose weight:
1. Go Vegan: I'm not sure if it can help me lose weight, though I'm pretty sure it can make me healthier.
2. South Beach Diet: Addi's doing it with great result. But I'm not sure Mum would let me do it. In her book: diet=anorexia=failure of her own parenting.
3. Starve myself and drink lots of water whenever I feel it unbearable: the stupidest thing I'd ever do, It's what my cousin did when he magically and quite horrendously drop 10 kg in a week. He ate one teeny tiny meal a day and then nothing else. He can never eat much after this or else he'll throw up. Which is nice isn't it, like a guarantee you'd never gain more weight? No...
4. Keep reminding myself of the dread and woe I'd face by next month when school starts so that I'll lose my appetite: great plan, but it turns out just reminding myself of it doesn't work magic. Maybe I'll just grieve over how planet-sized my belly is now and that'll throw away my appetite.
5. Exercise: right...
6. Cook whatever I want to eat: which would taste bad and I won't survive after two bites. Yikes.
7. Or better yet, Completely cutting myself from anything I like. Which is a lot of everything. Maybe I should eat nothing else than oatmeal porridge. Breakfast lunch and dinner, like in Charles Dickens' stories. Yeah, that's a great plan. Should work in a week. I'd probably even lose more than 5 kg. (contemplatively rubbing chin)

Uniform Project Dresses

2010-07-13T19:46:00.003+07:00

What does it take to wear the same dress for a whole year? A whole lot of creativity.

check it out

I want you...

2010-07-07T21:58:00.003+07:00

We're Sharks

2010-07-06T21:36:00.004+07:00

A quote from the film 'Up in the Air":

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.

I stumbled into this beautiful picture and was reminded with that awesome narration from the film 'Up in the Air'. I realized I haven't put that in my blog, see. I usually use this also, to put in things I want to read over or pictures I like, but I don't want to save in my computer, because it's not the sort of things you save in your computer. Know what I mean?

Please Please Please

2010-07-02T23:32:00.003+07:00

Let me let me let me

get what I want..

2010-06-01T17:52:00.001+07:00

Bach Invention: 3

2010-05-31T13:43:00.001+07:00

2010-05-31T13:08:00.002+07:00

“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

David Harkins quotes (British Poet and Painter b.1958)

Acknowledgement by John Coltrane

2010-05-21T11:47:00.004+07:00

An impulsive and contemplative saxophone solo with a searching foreground tune and steady background pattern. From the album 'Love Supreme' it is a love letter to God, acknowledging, searching, reaching, higher and higher.

Scattering white element contrasting the surrounding environment, all heading towards the same direction represents the dominant force of Coltrane's saxophone. It is supported by thin almost invisible lines representing the veiled timbre of percussion that goes on throughout the music.

Advise for Studio Sessions

2010-05-21T11:33:00.001+07:00

Come What May. H o l i d a y .

2010-05-19T23:15:00.004+07:00

Finishing off my first year at university, I've sadly and begrudgingly buried two things I loved the most: watching films and reading. In my profile I've described myself as a 'compulsive moviegoer' and a 'book lover' and that WAS true. Note the capitalized 'was'.

Films don't thrill me as it used to be. I don't become 'alive' when I discover a good film, and I don't watch them over and over again, even if they're good. And with books, I don't inhale words like I used to, getting lost in an ingenious plot, buried in my own imagination, sweet madness of a bookworm, oh, no more. I don't do that now. And it's sad, but not that sad. It's sadder how willingly I let it go, gave it away.

Therefore this holiday I'm determined to discover new interests, if not, bring back the enthusiasm I've had for my old ones. And these are my plans for the holidays:

- Learn film photography.

- Learn a new language, preferably Japanese or German.

- Learn AutoCad

- Read at least 3 books and watch rare films.

- Go hiking, perhaps camping with Fiona.

- Travel

96 Days Counting

2010-05-14T20:20:00.005+07:00

96 days counting until the new term begins. Just over 3 days since it's all over: the first year of university life. Naturally I would feel that this would be a perfect opportunity for me to make a grand conclusion of my, what's-it-called, recent past.

Well let's face it. University life, is so much better than school. I mean, anyone who say that school is better than university must either have a mild case of Peter Pan disorder or has chosen the wrong course, period. Why would school be better than university? School is oppressing! There are too many rules, most of them pointless. Like in my school, even the lengths of your hair is dictated by the rulebook. The color of you shoes, hell, even the way you wear your socks is written. And uniforms, oh where do I start? Uniforms are justified by the want of an unprejudiced society. But unsurprisingly, having to wear uniforms don't make the people in our school less prejudiced about one another, it doesn't unify them better, we are yet still fragmented into groups we don't necessarily belong. And then, there is this very strange mindset implanted in most of the educators in this society that has made education became something more of a mere crowd control, and less about learning itself. What do I learn in school? Except for basic maths and language, I've absolutely forgotten most of what I learn in school, which means, I learn nothing in school.

There is a different case in universities. The educators leave the learning stuff to us. WE decide what we want to learn and why, we even decide whether or not we want to learn at all! This is very different with schools, where we are all involuntarily put together, doomed to learn all the same thing, whether or not we are interested in it. Or maybe it's just because I'm not school material. Some people enjoy it. Collecting grades like adults would collecting money.

Or maybe it's just because I'm too happy being in Architecture school. Why not? It's the coolest thing you could learn. Say if there's ever a dictator that wants to build a new regime, what does he look for first? Why an architect. Let them build him something so monumental, so oppressive, it can remind the people he tyrannize of the sense of intimidation it feeds on. So sinister, I know. But in history I learn, the importance of a field can be seen through the vasty damage it causes. And from this standard, architecture can be seen as one of the most important things that shape our society. And this is what interests me.

I know we haven't learn much about building architecture this year, but I feel that we learn enough about the importance and capabilities of architecture. I can honestly say, despite the series of architectural torture I went through, with a few meltdowns, one tear jerking event, a lot of Cs, a tormenting teamwork with even more tormenting dramas, a mounting sleep debt, a sore middle finger and panda eyes, you might be surprised to hear me say that I'm absolutely in the right place, and I'm happiest I've been in many years. It's strange, even to me. Maybe this is what right feels like.

Birthday Present. Love it.

2010-05-13T22:04:00.002+07:00

Thanks, Grandpa!

Architects are Mean, They're Just Mean Spirited

2010-05-01T21:25:00.004+07:00

I thought I had my fair share of verbal abuse from instructors and reviewers I've encountered this early on my architecture study. I was taken aback when one of my designs were called 'unarchitectural' and 'decorative', and I thought that was the worst that could get from there. Turns out, it wasn't. These are a few examples of remarks some students get from their instructors and reviewers:

Your design is like masturbation, you want to know why? That is because only you yourself enjoyed and like it.
Is this a … structural… glob of glue?”
“When I went to school, at a different school than this one, there were students who would present projects like this one. And they would fail.”
Are you, in interior design? (this is by far the worst comment architects could get)
“Hey, everyone, gather round this project, come in close…because this is a great example for everyone of exactly what NOT to do..”
“This drawing isn’t worth the paper it is printed on.”
If you build this and after 10000 years the aliens see it, they would understand why humans extinguish
“Have you ever considered a career in accounting?”
“Your theory is bullshit. You don’t need that”
“You have good sense of humor but architects don’t…”
“Anyone got any matches… so I can burn this”
“I like where u put that balcony, looks like a good place to jump from after setting eyes on this horrible building”
“Do u draw with you mothers eyeliner”
A Girl brought in a model she had finished with plaster. When she entered the room, students and crits thought it was a cake and started singing happy birthday. Needless to say she was devastated.
This girl presented her project, and at the end of it the tutor asks her how long she spent on it, she explains that she spent all night and worked really hard on it… He tells her that she’s lying because she’s wearing make-up, and if you have time to do your make-up, you have time to work more on a project… He then proceeded to fail her

as quoted from here.

A Book All Mothers Can Write

2010-04-26T20:10:00.001+07:00

2010-04-22T18:08:00.001+07:00

Nice one

2010-04-18T19:57:00.001+07:00

Taken from Pile's tumblr, which I love by the way (:

I bold my favorite part.

"Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it."

Mother Teresa (via kari-shma) (via quote-book)

Cruickshank's in Architecture: Mayan Sacrifice Ritual

2010-04-16T23:16:00.003+07:00

The victim would be brought at the top of the pyramid temple, where a curved table stood. The victim would be laid there, with his chest thrusting. He would be held by four men, and the fifth man would be the one holding the knife and stab the victim below the chest, where he would cut open a wound.

Then with his bare hand, he would put in his hand and take out the still beating heart, dripping with blood, this precious blood.

The victim, painted blue, the color of sacrifice, would then be thrown out of the top of the pyramid, and would land in the bottom of the temple.

There, he would be skinned. This fresh bloody skin, would then be put on the shoulders of the priest to a cheering crowd.

This said much enthusiasm and no disgust. I don't get it.

A Foolproof Guide to Essay Writing

2010-04-14T17:57:00.007+07:00

If there is one thing I learned in High School, it would be the art of essay writing. Okay, it's very posh and exaggerating to call it 'art'. It really is just a formula, a trick!

Ever wonder why some students in your class just aces writing tests, when you know you're better at the language than they are, or that you find that your essays have stronger points and more brilliant arguments? Well it's because they know what teachers see in essays. And that is: order.

Order in essays is this:
Paragraph 1: Introduction + Thesis Statement
Paragraph 2 : Point 1 & reasons
Paragraph 3: Point 2 & reasons
and so on until
Last paragraph: paraphrasing thesis statement.

And that's that!

So, when I'm making an essay, this is what I do:
1. Make the thesis statement.

So first I think about the topic of what I'm going to write. If I'm supposed to write a descriptive essay, what I do is I think about ways of how I describe the topic. For example: An apple is red, small, and edible. An informative essay would be like this: An apple is a fruit, it is grown in where, it can be made into a pie. If you're asked to write an analysis essay, then analyze something in 3 or more ways. The same thing about argumentative essay, give your point of view, and then give 3 or more reasons why you think that.

2. Explain my points in each paragraphs. This gives me each paragraphs specifically for each of my points. The great thing about this is that this lets you concentrate on each of your points and keeping it in order at the same time.

3. Use thesaurus for my vocabulary. Don't say 'not good' when you mean 'unsuitable', don't say 'bad' when you mean 'cruel'. Be specific in what you want to say, open up your dictionary. You might have a lot more to say than just with the words you have in your head.

My Dashboard Garfield

2010-04-12T18:12:00.000+07:00

Justification

2010-04-04T19:42:00.005+07:00

After a monthful of abstinence (I have my witnesses) I'm proud to say that I've successfully gone through Easter without whining. Some people may disagree, but that just depends on what they define 'whining' as. I, for one, define 'whining' as complaining with feeble and petulant sound (apple dictionary). And I'm sure to say, that I haven't done exactly that in this past month (I know someone who does all the time, though... Addi). Well, that and feeling sorry for oneself is what I call whining. Some people also include constructive complaints into what it's called 'whining', and those are the people who still think I whine all the time, but I think they're just confusing criticism with infantile grumbling. That's why for this past month I've also refrained myself from openly and willingly complain about things.

So if there's anything I've learned in this past month, it would be that complaining is important. I have no idea why and how people could go on day to day without giving bad comment about things. If we can give good comments and not mean it, why can't we give bad comments and really mean it? It doesn't even have to be the truth, it just have to be what you think. Isn't it better to just say bad things and help than say good things that are useless. Because more often than not, bad comments are more useful than good ones. Take my studio instructors for example, they always say 'if you ask if it's right or wrong, it's always wrong', which means everything we do is always wrong for them, which means they are masters of complaining about our works. Our works get complained about, and sneered at, and made fun of, and possibly thrown around, but in the end, all they did was cultivate us, and in the end, cultivate our works. A fine example of how complaining works.

Another logical way of seeing this is to see it as a formula. The relationship between problem and complaining is like factorial algebra. An unsatisfying situation is made out of: Problem + Situation = -Solution.

What complains do is it factors out Problems. Complain strategically and you factorize the problem (having locate the problem, you'd have a better way of dealing with things). Complain to the right places and you move solution to your side, making it: Situation + Solution. Rub it on the face of everybody who gets in your way from finding solution makes it:

Situation + Solution = - Problem

It's simple mathematic solution.

But then again, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that this world is built on complains. Complaints generates solution, analyzes current situation and figures out a better future for humankind. Okay, maybe that's just on a grander scale. But think about it. Complaints are what ends the segregation in 1960's USA, and the South African Appertheid, what gives women votes, what ends absolutism in France and a lot of other countries. Complaints gives us the freedom we celebrate every year on August 17th!

So think about it. The next time I complain about the lighting in the studio, or the workload our instructors gives us, let me be. I may be saving your eyesight, and all the while paying off your sleep debt.

One Down, Another One To Go

2010-03-17T19:57:00.003+07:00

I'm really excited about tomorrow. But all the same worried. What vague assignment would our instructor whip up for us this time? Who knows. Take it from me, always expect the worst. In fact, don't expect anything. That'll take your mind off whining (if like me, you have a stupid habit of whining away your reputation).

Well anyway, I suddenly ran out of ideas of what I was going to talk about. It's been a hell of a ride lately and as you can see, it resulted in my severely degenerating linguistic skills. Back in high school, I'd always have something to talk about. There's always something that I could write about, even in the middle of useless classes and horrendously boring routines they call 'the school system', I'd have something to say. Well now, though I wouldn't say it to be the peak of my youth, my life is much more exciting than it used to be, and I have nothing to say about it!

hmm, maybe this is what they call having real life. Oh well, then I should pride myself (nyeheh).

Okay, this is what I really want to talk about. Assignments.

So my Archi friends and I have been really laid off in the past couple of days. We didn't have any classes on tuesday and tomorrow we're going on a field trip. It means, no studio stuffs for the week, and that, is HEAVENLY. But at the same time we also get to worry. See, we know that next week would be, the week of DEATH. We'd be back in our usual mode: practically no sleep, lots of caffein, INCREDIBLE amounts of whining, a pool of tears and a desperate need for a facial. It is our life. This is what we do.

But there are other kinds of Archis out there, I've actually befriended a couple of them. They're ones who are able to start working early, and they keep on working little by little, to avoid the complete and utter physical and mental messes other architecture students usually put themselves into.

If I want to be defensive I'd say: Hey I NEED the highs and lows. That's how I'd learn!

or say that not experiencing the torturous design process and fighting to meet deadline would be a sign of lack of passion. That could be true, but it doesn't matter. Why? Because we're killing ourselves people!

With the rate we are (I am, why did I use the word 'we'?) living, I'm sure we'd not even pass the Indonesian national average age, which is about 60! So!

It's my job to find out about how these revered students manage to keep their cool in this architectural hell.

In the Morning Garden

2010-02-06T22:29:00.003+07:00

I just love the 7 o'clock sun here in Jakarta. And the pink sky? Love it.

Crying Over Stupid Matters

2010-01-30T19:24:00.016+07:00

I'm going to tell you a little story about what happened just a few hours ago. You know, everybody have those stories, stories that are distressing, embarrassing, but also funny all the same. I've had my fair share of collection of those stories. I am rather far from being cool, see. And, I could just as easily embarrass myself in front of everybody. But that's okay, I've gotten used to it.

So this time, it includes my dog, the stupid, treacherous, dim-witted, dull and unentertaining dachshund, Becker, whose records of running away from home is just about as high as, I don't know, Meryl Streep's oscar nomination count ... times eleven. Anyway, there I was having my afternoon nap on a sunny saturday when he woke me up with his whining he'd improved so well over time. And then I felt sorry for him, cos, even though he had the whole yard to play with all day, all the people who pass by to bark on, he still didn't have enough time having fun in his black and white world. So even though the australian open final is on tv right now and the last game is on its way, I chose to gave him a walk, because he is my dog and I love my doggie.

I was high in my sleep and I didn't realize that he wasn't wearing his walking collar, the chain choke collar I can't live without. Okay, it's my fault I didn't realize it. I took him on his usual route, the shorter route for whenever I take him on a walk alone, because the longer route would include meetings in other bigger fiercer and smarter dogs than Becker is, and they would beat him up for sure. So there I was walking Becker in his stupid yellow banana collar that doesn't match his colour, and I was apparently in my sleeping boxer short I forgot I was wearing. And as usual he was hard on me, he would just nag and pull up on the leash and I would try to restrain him. It's all the usual business. But then suddenly I don't know what happened, Maybe I was pulling him forward and he was pulling himself backwards, that his collar and leash came lose and he was freed.

Now this is never good for any master of Becker because the dog, once he realized that he was free, and he realized pretty quickly usually, would charge like a mad mustang away from you and he would not come back on his own. I don't know what his problem is, either he has a deliriously low doggie IQ, or a schemingly high one. So I chased him, out to the main road where where the main river/sewer is. i was dead afraid he would jump off to the muddy and disGUSTING river of people's poo and pee, but he was just seen smelling the grasses and peeing on the trees that was sitting beside it. I chased him, down the road, and back, and when I got him, we were quite far away from home. There I was sitting in the grass right beside the crowded street, and people were staring from their car windows, and their helmets, and from their bikes. I was able to hold him, but was unable to put the collar back on him. So I decided to carry him back home.

It was hard. I know how to carry him, but usually not for this far a distance. He was about 10 kilograms, not a small dog exactly, but he was just enough in size to be carried (thank God). But when I carried him, His legs came out to my hips, where my boxer short is hanging. And he would clime up on me, pushing my short down and down, until the whole neighborhood could see what color of panties I'm wearing. So I got down again, sitting on the grass, holding him tight, while trying to restore my dignity by pulling my pants up again. Then I got up, and the same thing happened over and over. So I got down again, kneading him on the one hand, trying to pull up my pants and tightening it up on the other, two things I thought I would never do at the same time ever. This I had to do about 5 times before I could walk again, far enough to reach the nearest security post.

I took a rest at the security post where the security guard was kind enough to help me put the leash back on the stupid dog and held it as I tighten up my pants again (so embarrassing but it was needed to be done). Then I thanked the security guard wholeheartedly and carried my dog like a baby all the way home.

When I got home, I tied my dog in his usual spot, and I screamed at him for a few seconds and then I got inside and went to my room, slamming every door beside me. And then I cried, like a stupid five-year-old over a popped balloon. I didn't care, anyone who was forced to expose her panties to the whole neighborhood was entitled to cry like a baby. Then my mum came and asked my where I've been (because apparently I've been missing for quite some time) and then I cried again like a stupid five-year-old over a birthday cake that fell on the floor, and then she freaked out. So I had to explain what happened in my crying voice (which was hard) and she hugged my and went to my dog to scold on him the worst scolding he'd ever have (yet).

But I gotta say, crying over stupid matters like this, matters that would probably wound your pride for years to come, do help. I mean right now, I could easily laugh at this over dinner with my mum.

alive

2010-01-28T20:41:00.002+07:00

As much as I hate having to do freakish assignments in a freakishly short deadline, I always love how I feel after I submit my work. Whether it be a good one or a more usual lame one (forgive my super duper lame vocabulary tonight, I just got off the hook, don't want to think too much), all I need to know is that I gave my thousand and five hundred percent into it, and the rest is, well, que sera sera, kun fayakun, let it be, you name them. This is the only way I can be happy going through my design class.

I wasn't always this positive about the class. I could get really depressed and cranky about it. But if you can't be happy about something you've tried too hard and put too much into, what could you ever be happy about? So lately I've developed a theory to help me make sense of things. And that is if you're still not happy about it (the design, concept, the work), it means you haven't put it all in.

It's torturing at times, I know best. Going home from campus knowing that you're not going to sleep tonight, putting up with the lecturer's jokes on your work, skipping weekends by cutting up cardboard heads and limbs, leaving you feel the utter most weariness you thought you could ever feel, bones stinging, head throbbing, eyes blinking uncontrolably. But isn't it all worth it? Isn't it all worth to look back on and say I've gone throught that. And isn't it all worth it that afterwards, all the bone aching, head throbbing, eyes blinking would all be gone and you feel the almost complete and utter happiness and content? Like the feelings of a child who had just won a spelling contest, or a cast wrapping up the curtain calls in their opening night, it's just how I feel right now.

I'm Up In the Air

2010-01-22T19:11:00.001+07:00

Thinking about the film 'Up in the Air' and what it's saying. I'm not quite sure, actually. The film says a lot about relationships, and how it weighs you down. As an 18 year-old, this is how I usually think about relationships and settling down. I could get seriously depressed about the thought of marriage (which my friends sometimes talk about so indifferently). Maybe I think too much, maybe I'm just plain strange. I always ask this question when the thought of 'marriage' and settling down come to my mind: what's the point? And then I also thought of the sight of Ryan Bingham, grey haired and alone asking the same question. What's the point? I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be that grey-haired spinster asking the question what's the point and then realize that there are no points, and this is just how everything is. Maybe this is what the film's about.

"The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over. " - Ryan Bingham, 'Up in the Air'

Love it. Love him. Aww

2010-01-20T21:22:00.000+07:00

Writing About Arriving Early

2010-01-20T16:59:00.033+07:00

from writeoneleaf tumbleblog.

I never knew why I could never just do things early. Arriving early, is never part of my goals, it usually came to me as an accident, like most people would think of arriving late. Lateness, now, that's what I do. That's why I found myself staring blankly at the empty class this morning, wondering where everyone else is. I went over and over, scanning through my schedule, this is it. I'm early. I walked in because, well there's nothing else to do. It's rather nice to choose your own seat, so I grabbed the one near the window. Why didn't my friends ever save me this one? As I walked in, my footsteps gave an echo. Yes, that's because the class is so empty. Hurray for me! I checked my watch, it's 7:30. Doesn't make sense. The class should've started by now. Hmph. Sluggish mob they are, I thought. I took out my books and pencils, and I arranged it ever so nicely in front of me. I feel smart already. You could tell I was feeling pretty good about myself, that's just before I checked my watch again, and saw that it wasn't ticking. Just then my phone rang and I picked it up to hear my friend saying, "You moron!"

Oh well, stupid watch.

Transcripts

2010-01-11T19:42:00.016+07:00

My transcripts came out and I just wish that I could put a plus on all my Bs, or rather replace it with an A. I should've worked harder on those 'liberal arts' courses. It's something I'm planning on doing this semester.

Speaking of things I'm planning on doing this semester, the first draft for my new year's resolution is doing quite badly. Particularly because 'getting involved' in my university is almost unfashionable. It's rather hard to do something none of your friends are doing, you'll end up losing them. And it's not like there's anything cool and prestigious like in my sister's school, so I'll enhance my other (said with a posh British accent) resolution. And that leaves me taking on the 50 book challenge myself.

I'm going to be blogging about it, through tumblr. So here's how I'll do it. 50 book a year means at about 7 days a book. That means I'll be reading 4 books a month, and each month I'll be following different genres. For example, I've set up January for murder mystery book, and my first book would be one of Arthur Conan Doyle's books.

Care to join me?

Puppy Smirk *rrrrr

2010-01-08T13:52:00.003+07:00

I feel like I'm stuck. But indeed I am. I got so hateful towards a person so hateful. It's like poison, a cancer. The only thing to do was to get away, but I can't. Is all I could do now is to watch myself become the person I truly hate?

I could read her like a book, but can I really? Sometimes it came to me as much so that I'll end up questioning myself. I should just ignore it, I suppose, and ask myself the one question that defines almost every human relationship. Is it worth it?

Can't Think of A Title So I'll Just Write This Like One

2010-01-07T00:02:00.020+07:00

I'm hating myself for forgetting to take a picture of all my old friends I've met this holiday. Even more so for particularly forgetting to snap bits of a certain mister Jean Gabriel who has developed a considerable interest in fashion over the last few... weeks? That last one is a pity, cos I already brought my camera, it was in my bag, and it was yellow and shiny and impossible to miss, but still I forgot to. It's one of those 'darn it' moment, see.

So we spent the evening (not exactly an entire evening, well just until we called it a night) roaming around PIM store to store, as in clothing store. It's something we'd never ever thought of doing a month ago. It's rather amusing to see how we've changed so much. Of course, I didn't buy anything (I did my share of shopping spree in the holiday season, it's quite enough), and he just had too much opinion about the prices (apparently almost everything is cheaper in Christmas Season Singapore). So we ended up laughing at stilettos and shiny leggings and leather shorts (which reminded me of that time when Ross wore leather pants and got stuck with his own sweat, haha) and that purple-flowered blouse that was actually made for men (something my dentist would wear). Come to think of it, we didn't even get to a book store. Which is strange because it was always where we'd go!

Okay then that's it for now. It's so uninteresting without the picture I know. Which is why I'm making a note to myself. DON'T FORGET THE CAMERA.

Hello 2010 :)

2010-01-01T00:39:00.016+07:00

Happy New Year!
It's such a cliche, I know, but well, live with it.
I really don't have anything dramatic to say about it. All I can think of is, let's hope it's a good one.
You know what? That's is a good line. So this year, let's all be hopeful. Cheers!

Hold the Fireworks!

2009-12-31T23:30:00.006+07:00

It's 11.25 now, and I'm waiting for (actually dreading for) 2010. I don't know why my neighbors think that new year's eve is the night when they could make as much noise they could make and not get shouted at, but well, they do, so, it sucks. And that's why they've turned this usually peaceful Jakartan suburb into what sounds like a ground zero of an armed war. What's with the fireworks? It's been going on for 2 hours! And it's not even the new year yet! Can't we just WAIT in peace? jeez

Just tonight, Mum held a wonderful new years eve dinner party. On the menu was a Dutch-Indonesian style Shepherd's Pie, chicken roasted with thyme and onion, and pan-fried sliced Wagyu Beef in Mustard Sauce. Dessert was some Grilled Bananas and ice cream my uncle made. Refreshments: Mango Cocktail. Lovely.

Have a good night everyone. I think I'm going to play the sims now. Have a great new year!

A Revelation

2009-12-23T21:46:00.009+07:00

Happy holidays, everyone. It's still 14 days till school and I've already gained about 1.5 kilo over the past week. How time flew by. Seriously it just sped up, and it isn't fair.

My brother and sister came home for Christmas as usual and we had time to catch up with everything. I realized that I just really really ... MISS them (surprise!). It's probably why I've been so strangely melancholic this past months. Anyway, listening to what they're talking about (and they talked about student organizations, hiking teams, conferences), it made me realize how useless I've been. And not in a way I like it by the way. In a way, I've been kind of a nerd. All I did was go to classes, do assignments, then go home. It's not who I want to be. I'm a robot! And, I'm not supposed to be.

I think this is why lately I've never even had a decent blog post. All I did beside going to classes and doing assignments was trash talking with my friends about certain people we unanimously hate, which, in my bible, is a sin. (Not that I'm THAT religious).

This revelation led me to think about my new resolution. And how beautifully it coincides with the perfect time to set one: the new year. I had to get out of this 'system', it's not living. And as George Clooney in 'Up in the Air' trailer said: Moving is living. And having thought about it, I think it's true.

Well here goes, who needs a new year for a resolution?

- This year I'm going to learn to drive myself to school.

- I am going to join a club!

- I'm going to take on the 50 book challenge.

Okay then, wish me luck!

Another Film Worth Posted

2009-12-21T17:05:00.001+07:00

Euphoric Phase

2009-12-17T20:50:00.027+07:00

The holiday is upon us, and wooohooo for that! Okay, no words can describe how HAPPY and FREE I feel right now. It's like I'm SO ALIVE! THIS is what I live for, the holidays! Christmas! Christmas! Okay maybe I'll come up with a better blog post when I'm not feeling this euphoric.

This is just another project showcase. I'm particularly happy about this one. I just like to look at it, to me the sight of it is quite comforting. It's been criticized, in fact just this afternoon. And quite harshly... it seems that I've done it all wrong (when I was up there doing the presentation of God knows what my concept is, it really reminded me of Project Runway, haha) But oh well, what's done is done. It's not like I can do anything about it. It's submitted, graded. It's my final project of the semester and I feel great about it. I'm happy :)

I'm going to Bandung tomorrow. No, I'm not coming with my mother with her gang. I'm coming to visit Fiona! See what she's been up to. I do hope I get an adventure out of this!

My Mum on Life

2009-12-13T23:54:00.003+07:00

You see those people that never change their hairstyles? Look how boring they become? Go on cut your hair, change it all. Sometimes you'll get it right, other times, you don't. So what? It'll grow back anyway.

My not-so Grown Up Christmas List

2009-12-12T20:24:00.002+07:00

'Theatre' by Somerset Maugham
NO ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
A pint of good Hagen Dahz chocolate ice cream...
A good haircut.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S DVDs
A dog training book
A beautiful new journal for next year
Origami book!
A study lamp....
I think I need some bookends.
More time on the holidays!

My First Model, Compulsive Bingeing and Free Time

2009-12-08T10:37:00.012+07:00

This is the model I've slaved for last weekend. Seriously, now when I say 'slaved for' I REALLY mean slaving. As in I woke up at 6 to work on it and I slept at 4 IN THE MORNING AFTER. And guess what? It's not even finished by then! Maybe I'm just a slow worker, or maybe it's just TOO HARD! It's not hard, actually. It's just so... time consuming. Really. It would really be appreciated if I had some help, at least to massage my back every hour or so (mum, if you're reading, which I doubt because you don't even know I have this blog although I've posted it on my Facebook wall). Okay, who cares now that IT'S FINISHED!

It's not the best, I know. And I didn't even do anything about the exterior space (many of my classmates made beautiful landscapes around the house). This is actually a house in winter. No I'm kidding I just didn't have the time to do it, it's a tropical house. But doesn't it look like it's winter? The leafless trees and everything? It's just the christmas spirits in me... I may want to learn about managing time more wisely though. Everyone else seem to have the time and I don't? There's even one friend whom I know have less time than I do that coped better than me. What's wrong with me?

Anyway, after submission yesterday, it felt like heaven. Though I know I do have tons of other work to do, but boy do I have the time to do it! A week free! A week of getting up late and sleeping early! A week to abuse! hold it. Not abuse, but to use wisely, Amanda... For free time!!! Hold it. This is why I end up doing everything at the last minute. I really have to learn to manage time. I really do.

After slaving away in the weekends, I got home feeling incredibly famished. I really didn't remember eating the day before, strange. Bottom line is, I ended up bingeing over brownies and fried snacks my grandma made, then I finished that chocolate bar I really didn't have the time to eat, then some yoghurt and biscuits, some steamed cassava with melted sugar (which was rrreally good), banana pancakes... It's just surprising that after all that I actually lost a kilo. Really what is wrong with me?

No, I'm not coming with you on December 18th.

2009-11-26T19:17:00.003+07:00

Okay Mum, first off:

I don't like all those church people you're always mingling with.

No, I wouldn't want to spend A DAY with them, let alone SPEND A NIGHT with them let alone A ROAD TRIP with them.

It'd be time consuming and as an architecture student, I KNOW how precious time is.

It's YOUR business with them, NOT MINE. If I'd known that your spending too much time at that fellowship would affect ME, I think we should've cast some votes.

To be honest, I'm still questioning my faith, and those people DON'T HELP. If anything, they do exactly the opposite.

I'd rather become an atheist than having to do all those stuffs and end up being a person I wouldn't like or want to be.

Here's Something Positively Better than Twilight

2009-11-25T18:16:00.003+07:00

Nine, directed by genius of musical adaptation Rob Marshall and starring Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Marion Cotillard, Fergie, Penelope Cruz and Sophia Loren.

A Thought

2009-11-19T18:15:00.003+07:00

Bad habits I realized I had:

- Say things I didn't mean

- Do things nobody in the right mind would.

- Forget almost everything important that would lead me to changing the course of my plans and ruin the day.

Project Showcase and Free Dinner

2009-11-19T07:17:00.006+07:00

It was due date last Tuesday and, as usual I got confused on how I should feel about it. Because of course, we all want to have enough time to get things done (and hopefully even well done) but there's also a thought that goes like this: imagine, by afternoon today, you'd be FREE. On Wednesday, it's a holiday! Come ooon tomorrow! But then, if the day passed on as quickly as we wished, we wouldn't be able to get our assignments done and we'd be getting bigger trouble. Now you get why I think relativity of time is God's cruel joke on us?

Anyway, that aside, I had a great wednesday yesterday. Sure I had to go to the dentist and got my teeth drilled and poked through with a needle. But the doctor was especially nice yesterday, and as always, flamboyant. If I remember it correctly, I think he was wearing a maroon red shirt studded with millions of big-eyed bumble-bees and topped with a black party suit. I'm used to it, of course, but I'm still wondering what his sons think of him. I wonder what his friends say when they saw his father coming to school to get his report card dressed like that? He's like ... a far more flamboyant and gay-looking version of House. Hmmm

Okay, that also aside, I also went to a wedding reception yesterday at Ritz Carlton! Of course, I came for the food. It was my cousin's cousin's wedding (so I think that makes him my twice removed? I don't know, could someone explain to me how the naming works?). And naturally I expect some good food and free flow wine :) that family always have wine in their parties. I got what I expected, there WAS free flow wine and good exotic food stands, but what I didn't expect was a SOUR SALLY frozen yoghurt stand! I got pretty much 'hot and cold' yesterday, as in, first I got cold entering the ballroom, then I ate pasta and got warm, then sushi and got cold, then wine and got hot, then some chocolate mousse and got cold, then some more wine and got hot, then pumpkin soup (which was my fave) and got rreally hot and then... a cup of fro-yo from Sour Sally for free! and got cold again... I was going to drink some more wine but Mum had that look...

Now I'm waiting for a class and I'm just ready for the day I guess.

Cerita Studio Lagi

2009-11-12T19:07:00.002+07:00

Kelas studio itu adalah kelas yang paling: capek tapi mengasikkan, seru tapi memuakkan, lama tapi sebentar (loh? penjelasan: relativitas waktu. Kalo studio kita lagi perlu banget waktu karena banyak kerjaan, waktu berjalan fast forward. Kalo kita emang lagi gak ada kerjaan, waktu berhenti. BENCI gak sih? Time is God's little joke on us).

Karena kita paling banyak berkutik di studio pada semester ini (dan mungkin semester depan depan depan lagi sampai kita lulus), naturally hal-hal yang terjadi di studiolah yang akan (antara) 'make' or 'break' our day. Gua udah pernah ngalamin: dapet nilai C berturut-turut, disuruh ngulang kerjaan berturut-turut tanpa ngerti apa yang sebenarnya dosen mau, begadang sampe tidur cuma sejam untuk ngeliat besokannya karya gua dipretelin sama dosen, ngerasain dan melewati masa-masa sebel dan iri sama orang-orang yang bisa aja berjaya di studio, melihat karya gua diketawain dan diejek-ejek sama dosen. Tapi juga gua pernah ngalamin: gimana rasanya dapet A (minus sih, tapi yaa, lumayan...), mendapat 'Eureka' moment, dapet dosen enak yang siap membantu, dapet adrenaline rush untuk nyelesein tugas, dapet temen-temen yang bersiap kompak di studio.

Hari ini gua bener-bener baru nyadar kalo gua beruntung banget dapet Bu Yeni jadi dosen gua. Jadi di studio itu ada 4 dosen. Kelas arsitek yang kira-kira 60 orang itu dibagi jadi 4, dan stiap setengah semester ganti. Kebetulan, setengah semester pertama gua dapet Pak S, dosen super abstrak yang terkenal... menyulitkan. Gua ngalamin dapet C berkali-kali sampe mau nangis sama dia. Sekarang udah ganti dosen, gua dapetnya Bu Y, yang katanya dosen paling baik di studio. DAN MEMANG!

Dalam seminggu ini, entah kenapa, Pak S yang selalu dateng telat itu jadi dateng pagi-pagi, jadi sebelum gua sempet semangat untuk bikin apa-apa, dia pasti dah keliling-keliling studio, datengin mangsa untuk dipatahkan semangatnya dengan kata-kata TAJAM dan MENGEJEK yang diberikan dengan senyum tulus... Ya, hatinya baek sih, maksudnya pasti 'noble', tapi karena 'delivery'nya salah, jadi useless.

Contohnya Selasa ini dia bilang: Ah, kurang ekstrim, gak enak dilihat!

dan hari Kamis ini dia bilang: Kurang menyatu nih, rangka sampingnya jelek banget.

Dan setiap kali dia udah pegi, rasanya gua tuh bingung, down, capek, BINGUNG, setres sampe kepala gua kesemutan. Yak, gua kalo terlalu bingung, kepala gua kesemutan.

Tapi, setiap Bu Y dateng tuh, kan gua laporin dia, Pak S dah dateng dan bilang gini gitu, trus dia tuh baek bangetttt, membimbing gitu, ikut mikir, sampe bingung sendiri juga, trus ngasih-ngasih ide yang gua bisa ngertiin.

Haaaa, I'm so grateful.

I Want to Watch

2009-11-11T11:56:00.003+07:00

Heaven Help Us - 1985

A comedic and dramatic account on Catholic Education in 1960 brooklyn. Can't download it anywhere and I'm sure it's not available in any pirated DVD store.

Howard Hughes

2009-11-09T18:42:00.005+07:00

I just finished watching 'The Aviator'. And now I'm crazy about him. Aviation mogul, hollywood producer, mechanical prodigy. See how appealing madness is sometimes.

2009-11-08T12:34:00.001+07:00

A Day Well Spent

2009-11-07T15:30:00.006+07:00

The day started with a migraine. Then a quarrel. There was no way I'm going with those lot. I thought being 18 means that I'm finally free of my mother's orders. Go there, see here, do this, say that. Beside, I sense that there's some thing wrong about visiting orphanages. I think it doesn't actually help the kids to visit them. It just gives them an idea of what they're missing, what they don't have. I finally took on the job for documentation, which is the best way to contribute and still get a chance to look at things from the outside.

Something magical happens when you're with a camera. Point your camera to a person, and it's a soft 'Hello, how are you?'.

199th Post: 25 Random Thoughts

2009-11-07T06:06:00.003+07:00

At the suggestion of my friend Hun (who apparently is starting this new trend by tagging people on their blogs), I'm writing my own 25 random thoughts. It'd be random and stupid for sure.

1. I think I may have ruined my eyesight.

2. Why is my mum sleeping on the top bunk?

3. I need to bathe my dog.

4. Oh yeah, there was a mouse in her room last night.

5. Hmmm, kapan ya gua bisa mencampur bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris dengan lancar?

6. 25 huh? Banyak sekali itu...

7. I may have an idea of what to make for my Studio assignment.

8. I've no idea when to make it though.

9. It's getting brighter in my room, I like it.

10. OH yeah! Happy anniversary Hun and Ezra!

11. Why isn't there any good movies in the theatre?

12. I don't think I have 25 random thoughts racing up to me.

13. Anjingku bisa nangkep tikus gak ya?

14. My neck and back hurts, that's why I couldn't sleep.

15. When you wake up with a migraine, you know you'd be having a rough day.

16. I've been waking up with a migraine for 3 days now.

17. I shouldn't have skipped yesterday's tennis session, it would've cured my headache.

18. I need to get this over and done with.

19. 25 is too much, isn't it too much?

20. I need to practice my piano

21. Pengen tau rasanya ngekos? Fio ngekos, apa tukeran aja?

22. I'm loving the new look in my blog.

23. Speaking of loving things, udah lama gak ke McD Alam Sutera di Jumat sore.

24. That mouse in my mum's room last night, it was standing on top of my mum's wardrobe, staring at us. I have to admit, it was kind of cute with that big old ears hanging out of that stupid little face.

25. I need to get a lot of things done today. Luck be with me!

Why I'd Kill (or at least hurt someone) to be Spongebob

2009-11-06T17:03:00.004+07:00

I'd kill to have his passion. See, here is a sponge who gets up and puts on his carton box pants every morning to fry some patties. He works with Squidward, the bestest co-worker to get you passionate and spirited ,and still with a cheap crab of a boss.

I'd kill to be that nice. I'm not a nice person. I may seem nice but, there are thoughts, racing thoughts I can't control. It's not so much of a feeling that I have, it's cynicism, envy, sarcasm, and I hate it. I'd hurt someone to be Spongebob nice (but wouldn't that be quite beside the point, though?)

I'd kill to have his house! Come on, a pineapple for a house!

I'd kill to be that joyful. And also, I can never get a good picture of me jumping and he does it so nice. I'd kill to be that confident with two rabbit teeth hanging out of his face.

Okay, Amanda, please stop.