having super duper mixed feelings about going back home, esp since I now know that the next time I probably will be returning would be for a very long time. having been away from home and all things familiar for a whole year made me realise that people do adapt and slowly but surely, we learn to make do without certain things. While I had previously thought that I might die without local food, I soon realised that it's not that big a deal, especially not that I have the chance to cook my own meals and have a taste close to home.

then again, the grass always seems greener on the other side. Back in America I wanted to come back. Now that I'm back home, I'm longing for the huge, clean and neat room I have in the states, the cool weather etc. I guess I kinda got used to the quieter and slow life in the states. Singapore seems super duper fast paced and everyone is so grumpy :(

As I soaked in my last remaining hours in Singapore, I learnt to appreciate the accessibility of things here. I know where to find my cheap stuff, the kinds of food, the small neighbourhood shops that practically sell every single genre of items that you will need in life. I'm such a sentimental fart. I don't think it's the lifestyle or qualities in Singapore that I really miss, but the nostalgia of the 19 years of my life spent here in this place. Watching Singapore change, being able to find the tiniest hints of my past in the small and colorful sugar icing biscuits, the smelly markets and so much more.

the scary thing about living in a foreign land is its foreignness. It's pretty cool at times (usually only when you can boast to your friends stuck back home), but at the same time, it doesn't feel very much different. I come home with hardly new and exciting stories to tell. I still lead the same kind of life albeit I have to be more independent. I'm in the states for school and so, I go through what you guys go through. I go to school, I get homework, I do them, I prepare for exams. sooo..why do people expect me to be different when i return? I don't see much of a change in them when i come back anyway.

anyhows...i think i've gained back all hte weight that I lost in the states within this one month. goodness knows the amount of food I've eaten back here :S

1. Hokkien Mee
2. Carrot cake (white)
3. Carrot Cake (Black)
4. Roasted Chicken Rice
5. Roast Duck, Char Siew, Sio bak rice
6. Satay
7. Otah
8. Chicken Wings
9. Stingray
10. Crayfish
11. Tutu kueh
12. Banana Ball
13. Ondeh ondeh
14. Laksa
15. Fishball noodles
16. Ban Mien (dry)
17. Ban Mien (soup)
18. Fried Rice
19. Ee mee
20. Chilli Crab
21. Kuay Chap
22. Cereal Prawn
23. Hot plate tofu
24. McSpicy
25. Mee Siam
26. Roti Prata
27. Roti John
28. Nasi Lemak
29. Char Kuay Teow
30. Fried Orh Lua
31. Mixed rice and dishes
32. Popiah
33. Goreng Pisang
34. Kueh Dadar
35. Sugar Donut
36. Mee Goreng
37. Naan
38. Taandoori Chicken
39. Masala Prata
40. Kaya Bread
41. Har gao
42. Siu Mai
43. Char Siew Sou
44. Yong Tau Hu
45. Curry Puff

etc etc etc. and even after listing all these down I still haven't eaten quite alot of things though every time it's time to go out for a meal my mind blanks out. next time need to write down :S

i don't think it's so much of a "oh-i-miss-eating-this" for most of them. it's more of a..."i-dont-have-a-chance-to-eat-this-in-a-long-time" kinda thing. lol. ahh..so fat naooooo

i can't believe my time in Singapore is close to an end :( it's been a rather eventful and I must admit, tiring holiday. too many meetings etc for my laid back personality. >.<

nonetheless, i am thankful to be back to celebrate my 20th birthday with the ones i love. the 3 girls from church swung by to cheat my feelings surprise me through cheryl's lie..making me EMPTY out the luggage only to be told it was a tool to swing by my house. I was kidadultnapped and brought tothe familiar jap food place that the 4 ladies at church during our internship frequented with great delight. I was superbly touched by this act where they tracked the shop down after we found out it has either closed down or moved. No presents required, but this was more than enough. I realised then that my first language of love was not words of affirmation, but acts of service. That love language never quite crossed my mind until amy teo pointed it out to me when I asked her about it. after all....I do whatever I can to please my loved ones. for one, i definitely do know that gifting is definitely not my love language. I don't like buying gifts nor do I particularly enjoy receiving gifts. I usually just end up either shoving them to one side if I don't like them, or hoarding it up (shoved to another side...but together with other treasures) if I loved them though of course the value depends on who it's from as well :p

being back after so long also showed me who were possibly going to be my life long friends. Meeting up with practically all my various group of friends, I found myself being tired out by some groups and lost amidst the conversations, reduced to mere sheepish smiles or superficial laughter that came out of courtesy. Nonetheless, I was delighted to meet up with the closer friends and realise that nothing has changed despite all these while. we could sit together and talk rubbish/serious stuff with nothing planned in mind or do the stupidest stuff that other friends would frown upon and dismissed as childish. I love my friends and if there's anything stopping me from leaving Singapore it's knowing that I'm missing them for a long time.

oh friends.....if there's anything in my life now that I can boast about without being ashamed of a single thing no matter how big or small, is that I have wonderful friends like y'all.

at long last

Finally got down to figuring this new blogger system and it's weird codings and special settings. In an attempt to make things easier and remove the need for knowledge of html, they made everything more microsoft word cut and paste but hid it in Widgets instead of letting things simply be coded in html in the layout form. So thanks to all these new categorisations, none of my previous html coding worked until now. Thus, I now have my links back up and my tagboard up again.

thank goodness I figured things out. OR ELSE I WOULD HAVE ABANDONED THIS BLOG. which would be kinda sad considering how long I've had this.

As I look back at my life, I realised I've been really blessed to always have a solid bunch of friends at every single stage of my life. I don't quite care for the number of friends I have but rather the quality of friendship. When I think about how I am able to just move on in life and let them drift in and out and take turns in being the top ranking priority friends, I do feel like I make a very lousy friend. It's like as though I do as I please and come and go when I feel like it or want to. I'm such a selfish, self centeresed ass.

There are days when I wonder how it would be like at my funeral. Especially when I have to take long flights back and you never know what will happen. How will my friends feel? How will they remember me by? What impact has my life brought?

Kinda makes you want to do more with your life doesn't it?

Just in case that actually happens. I want my good friends to decorate my tombstone/marble slab. I want people to look at my stone/tablet and smile. the random, childish and crazy life that I led.

With my "third" year of college/junior year starting next quarter, I'm constantly reminded of the need to network and get my name out there in the design world. it first started off with attending a series of workshops and industry talks with the professions in the industry, ranging from listening to the panel of editors at martha stewart magazines, teen vogue, baby talk etc etc etc, watching the documentary movie on Vogue's editor that Michelle made me watch with her, internship talks with seniors and NBC Universal etc and it pretty much went on a roll as I'm suddenly trying to catch up with this crazy fast paced industry.

it's scary because while my status as a junior student now puts me out there for internships and portfolios, all my other friends have just turned sophomores and although I'm supposedly 1 year ahead of them, it's only by credits and really, it's just general elective credits and the only graphic design class I had so far was an intro class :S it's like things are progressing so fast it's mind boggling and [very] crazy!!! I don't even have a good portfolio to start marketing myself with :S

the whole growing up thing has hit me hard and really put alot of things into perspective, like what I want to do with the future. To be honest, I'm not sure where I want to be in the future. the USA or Singapore. I do love Singapore. the accessibility, the familiarity of things, the food, the all year round constancy of things. and HERE in the big USA, there's all these big opportunities, big name design professionals etc etc etc. i don't knowwwwwww.

thanks to scad and momelove, I managed to get tickets to a design conference at a $70 discounted price and when i attended it I was pretty intimidated. I was there early and the lecture had not started and the cocktail party was going on. It was awkward being there because everyone else was professional age/in the industry/professors and being under 21, I can't drink, so i can't even look busy with a drink even though I dont drink at all. but whatevs. it was super intimidating cos I never ever envisioned my life to be anywhere near this cocktail drinking reception networking professional. This is another one of those times where I feel even smaller than I already am.

oh me oh my.

I am not ready for this.

so my host for my images shut downed and my blog layout is lost..

anddddd....i accidentally clicked on a template which means i lost my coding for my previous layout anddd...i can't remember how to read code sooo.......until i figure this thing out..bear with me...

The going ons in my life has been pretty exciting what with hollywood being right next door to my house. WHOOTTT...

to start off with the mundane, I now wake up in the morning to seeing the police on horses in my square :S thank goodness they don't poop there so it's fine. which makes me wonder...maybe you can train horses not to poop anywhere. c

os unlike the horses that drag the tourist carriages around, these horses do not wear diapers :S hmmm...

and fall also appears to be wedding season. there's been like 3-4 weddings held either in the square and/or at the nice little ceremony hall/centre next to my house. being a typical kaypoh singaporean...we look see la! and then we go congratulate people in wedding dresses if we see any while walking on the streets. hahaa. i like how people in america just randomly greet you or stop you if you're wearing something nice. (except this of course doesnt happen to me but rather..my friends)

and with weddings come the usual wedding carriage....

on a more exciting note, hollywood is down here filming a movie called "The Conspirator" Set to open in cinemas next year (to think they are still filming it now!!! CRAZY!!!). Robert Redford's the director and stars include James McAvoy (acted as Mr Tumness in Chronicles of Narnia), Justin Long (Voice of Alvin in Alvin and the Chipmunks and actor in those shows like the Break-Up and other shows consisting of the same group of actors), Evan Rachel Wood (Lucy in Across the Universe), Robin Wright Penn (was in Savannah previously for Forrest Gump), Alexis Bledel (daughter in Gilmore Girls), Kevin Kline (The Pink Panther), Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins) etc etc etc. not too much of a big shot, but still. Savannah being one of the older surviving towns in the US is often used in movies. YAY! and because we are in art school, we have access to them to "learn the ropes and gain exposure". YAY ART SCHOOL :D

so we've been having hollywood vans and several trailers around for the actors and crew and they've transformed the already historic savannah to appear more historic by pouring mulch all over the roads and sidewalks to make it more...olden day. as seen below...

Mind you..these photos are taken at NIGHT. at like 9pm and it's fall so it's DARK out. the lights are so bright they actually transformed the night scene into a day scene. that is sooo insane.

old days costumes, more horsies. just wonderful. and we had fireworks too cos they used it. FUN.

so there you go. abit of excitement in my life :) upcoming next month will be even more exciting with the film festival going on and big stars and directors will be down again. and the tiny savannah will once again be somewhat transformed into a red carpet thingamajig event :D

on a more boring note...work in class! haven;t posted these for so longggggg..these are mainly in class drawings so yeah. being short and constantly blocked by people on the drawing horses (no..not real life horses. you kinda sit on these wooden structures like how you would on a horse and you have this huge board in front of you and you draw. it's so uncomfortable but lazy people who rather sit than stand drawing use it..i rather stand for 2.5 hours then to bend over for 2.5 hours instead) HENCE....my first few drawings were always cut off at the shins.

in life drawing. we are trained with skeletons first. (look ma. NO LEGS!)

then we move on to blocking forms with the use or straight architectural lines keeping in mind the landmarks of the body and skeleton. (once again..NO LEGS..or feet at least). yes. the model was quite buff. his face not so nice though. hahaha.

then we move in to chiaroscuro. but we learn basic shadow blocking in. YAY.

as for drawing for design, i dun have a picture of my chairs because my prof still has them and after finishing it at 3.30 am in the morning i just went to bed without taking a picture of it.

here's the second project. learning how to draw through forms and subtracting from a cube. all those horrible construction lines and no ruler. all free hand babies! this was done in a very disgusting medium called carbon pencil. it's really hard so it's not smooth to use for drawing and it is so hard to erase. meh.

the third project was an analysis of images such as an architecture building, a free mason designed dollar bill, a painting and a graphic design poster. We looked at each and on acetate analyzed them for the use of rebated squares, root rectangles and the cool sounding part comes in...the golden section! yes. it's basically a rectangle with a height to length ratio of 1:1.618. it's kinda cool because it's the ideal beauty and this ratio can be found pretty much in ANYWHERE in nature. like the nice pretty shells, the growth pattern of flowers etc etc. it is of course never perfectly 1.618. that's really rare. and cos it's such a natural thing, it is an innate inclination to create works in that same ratio and compositional design. so even when designers and artist did not intentionally use the proportional system to design their works, analysis often reveals that it exists! for example, in my analysis of Caravaggio's The Sacrifice of Isaac, the golden section actually reveals how the focus areas are bounded by golden section rectangles AND the focal points follow a rotated golden spiral that cuts across the angel's pointing finger to Abraham's eyes to Isaac's face to the knife in Abraham's hand. cool right?!?!

so yes. drawing for design has been a pain in the butt yet pretty cool class to learn.

I honestly believe i might have made it through the toughest part of the quarter. the first few weeks was intense with the struggles with the chairs. on the bright side, it is now on display in the hallway and I got an A on them. in the end I was the only crazy person who re-did the project and other people just couldn't be bothered. ah well. at least my conscience is clear and I know i did what i could.

the cops here have started to get horses to ride around the city and it is rather a weird sight to look out your window in the morning and eating breakfast and seeing horses in your little park square :S kinda cool cos it gives you the country vibe. WOOOooo :D then there are weddings and banquets held in the ballroom next door so we get to join in the celebration by opening our windows and emily and i just sit there watching the whole thing. there was a jazz band in the square accompanied by a whole troupe of couples in tuxedos and other formal stuff waving white hankies. what that whole thing was about we have no idea, but it was definitely fun to watch. oh the loveliness of living here.

we might have started getting on one another nerves with 2 of the girls taking a stronger ownership of this house, bringing friends over till obnoxious hours and it's all so awkward because I do believe i'm the only international asian kid who actually lives with other white people. every other international kid i know lives with other asians. it's good though. the little tension we've been getting is mainly how the shared space isn't used respectedly. being on the one-man end of the whole deal i didn't have much to say until i realised emily too doesn't quite know the other 2 girls. amidst this similarity, we have banded together and have grown a pretty awesome friendship. it just sucks that her stomach is so sensitive that she can't eat alot of stuff.

speaking of food, i've started experimenting and exploring more and i invested in several sauces and seasoning while has expanded my meals. I've started eating healthier and yummier meals which has comprived of char siew chicken baked in the oven, sweet and sour fish fillet, sweet and sour tofu and shrimp and mushroom, curry, nasi lemak, cereal chicken (I was too poor to afford prawns :( ) but BEST OF ALL.... the discovery of more stuff in chinatown market. i am absolutely delighted in the treasures. i found tau gua and tau pok and the five spice seasoning which means i can make the yummy yummy five spice soup thingy that my maid used to cook all the time till we got so sick of it. HO HO HO. i also have the seasoning for singapore's chilli crab so all i need now is to go buy crabs and FEAST. MUAHAHAHA. upon discovery another secret compartment of the already secret chinatown market section, i gasp with great delight and held in my hands the yellow mee that i would need to make mee rebus and prawn mee and all things amazing. yummmmm

here for another one of my weekly updates (though hopefully it won't be this little).

quite eventful though things did seem pretty ordinary with a little burst of fireworks now and then. I had a research paper that i wrote published in the school's english textbook supplement and it got read by the dean of the writing department. The hilarious part of it all is that he wrote to me personally asking me to give writing as a major a try. Based on the fact that my writing is seriously pretty bad from the Cs,Ds and Es that i normally get for GP back at SA...one can only conclude that a) the standard here sucks or b) i've improved alot.

i think it's pretty much a bit of both because the maths here is really sec 1 level of algebra and factorisation but I am very aware that I've finally learnt what a thesis statement is and how to structure each paragraph and make the whole essay and also how to do research. I've absolutely fallen in love with the access I have to all these databases to gather information. If only we had that in PW. OH WELL.

on that note, I'm pretty delighted with the classes that I'm taking this quarter. my 20th century art hist prof may be a tad bit sleep inducing, but he's definitely very passionate about art and his knowledge of it is pretty extensive and up to date. it's been very enriching to just sit in class and listen though I wish he could be more perky cos his humor is abit dry. english lit class is another relatively boring class if not for the fact that I'm exposed to the new york times book review which i must admit, is rather fascinating and I'm pretty interested in doing more readings now. I am however, struggling with what this class is trying to do :S it's very unlike the lit classes we have back home. I mean...we look at 2 stories each 2.5 hour class and that's pretty much it. then we go home and write a response paper that is open ended. no question on theme or language or development of character or plot. I'm still not quite sure what I'm supposed to do! :S

drawing for design has been a very tedious, time consuming and very frustrating experience. well..at least the chair design that i was working on. but I must say, I've learnt alot about perspective and this has definitely enlightened me on how people can convert a building into various views. so while this exercise has been a pain in the butt hole, it was good in helping me understand the concepts of perspective. saying so...my chair looks like shit. i am disgusted with myself.

life drawing is a relatively interesting yet awkward thing. i thought I have gotten used to the whole naked person idea but apparently not. I found myself secretly blushing (ok not so secret when i blush) when the model stripped and it was just a female model :S i guess it's weird to see different body types cos when the fat woman stripped, it was pretty more of a mental idea that it's not going to pretty. so seeing like a normal person's body was like i don't know. didn't really know what to expect? and the male model little swingy pendulum still bothers me ALOT. i don't quite like the concept of sex and am now more abhorred to the idea.

anyhoowsss..my roommates had a party last night that consisted of only 25 people but it seriously felt like more than 50. popular people were here but the focus was more on the number of people doing the merlion in my house last night. it was so stupid how people just don't know how to control themselves. thank goodness my bathroom is hidden in my room so I only had people peeing in here and not puking. that would be disgusting. but yeah...my roommate got pretty drunk (couldn't walk straight at all) and so did her close friend who pretty much puked so much that she crapped in her pants too. Got so bad we had to send everyone home to call the paramedics cos everyone here is below 21 and underaged for alcohol. bad bad bad. so yeah. drama drama and very disgusting to have people puking and hearing about it...and smelling it :S

but i'm half impressed and half not with my roommates. for one, they didn't want to call the paramedics for fear of getting into trouble. i mean..HELLO. you're not going to be in that huge a trouble for underage drinking versus risking someone's life. but we did call the paramedics and nothing happened thankfully. but i'm very impressed with how they were very willing to help clean the friend up with puke and shit and stay in there with the kid. I don't know how far I would have gone if it were my friend but I doubt I would. it was gross. I'm not such great a person after all. then again..this will probably not happen to any of my friends. so it's chill.

drama drama. exciting night yesterday :D

i haven't died.

but i think I'm well on my way. I am officially on the deadly 4 classes a quarter stunt that few has dared pull off.

I am one brave brave soul.

or some might say. crazy/stupid.

it's only week one and i feel like i'm juggling a ton of things already and haven't quite had the opportunity to make house visit to friends. it suddenly feels as though having people back for the quarter is no different from the summer. except that savannah has tons of people all around once again. AND annoying freshman to add. URGH.

So in an attempt to do some form of service to God since I'm quite unparticipative in church, I did the info session for SCAD for Downpour, the bible study that I regularly attend. I got a free shirt and 2 water bottles and I met a new Singaporean to add to the measly list of us here. what was more surprising was that he was from a JC. what was even more surprising was that he was from hwa chong. WAH LAO. he is wasting his brain. hahaha. nonetheless, people like him make me feel less stupid about going to JC and then throwing all that studying away for the arts. lol. I see him now and then looking more like lost china scholar and today at the club and organisations fall fest, i saw him staring in awe at american kids running to the bouncy castle (yes. we are college kids. but hey! we are ART college kids. we do stupid/crazy stuff). I proceeded to look around at the clubs and when I got back, I found him seated on the grass by himself with sketchbook in arm, sketching the bouncy castle. what a nerd i thought to myself. and then i found myself smiling. :S I think I have a soft spot for guai kias.

anyhoos. having all these homework has definitely made me realise that i do love drawing alot. even if it's meticulous perspective drawings. I just love how professional it looks at the end with the underdrawings of blues. sort of like how animators at disney or pixar...or like interior designers and architects. life drawing is fun too as I threw away all careful, meticulous nature and throw in sketchy lines of gesture and it did give me a certain satisfaction of freedom. It was partially a break from homework while doing homework. yet, the knowledge of drawing 10 skeletons in proportion was quite daunting and I ended up spending 5 hours at Anderson drawing Mr. Bones. I am a slooowww worker >.<

i wonder if I will survive this quarter. I have a feeling it will flyyyyyyy by quickly :) YAY.

my roommates had a little party last night with several friends. I don't mind it since it's not like the house is brimming with people whatsoever and it was honestly interesting to meet people yesterday. For the first time in my life, I've witnessed how people act when drunk. lol :p it was definitely an interesting experience even if I mainly sat from my room and listened.

While most people when drunk just act retarded, i found out that one of my roommates is a SAD drunk. it was kinda confusing because you could hear her in the hall way half crying half laughing, but what I learnt from this episode is really what great friends they have.

it was 3 am in the morning when the party simmered down and only close friends remained and the girls were sort of wasted though not out. but the guys stayed with them and made sure the sad drunk roomie was alright and insisted to stay until she puked to feel better. These are the very same guys who have been helping us carry heavy stuff and drove the girls around places to shop for stuff etc. hearing how sweet they are definitely made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside as I sat on my bed and looked at my photos on the wall of my friends and I and I realised...

...how important friends are in our lives.

so to all me friends. thank you for being my friends and i love you all.

DO SMACK ME IF I'M AN ASSHOLE TO YOU.

YAY. all the roommates are back and it feels like the dorm again, with other people's music and noise in the background. I don't particularly like a noisy house, but small forms of other noises definitely bring a sense of comfort of knowing that you are not alone in the entire world. I feel connected once again and finding myself delighted in the company of others.

With all 3 other girls back in the house, the work of decorating and ordering the house is back and running. the house now feels more like a house and the interior designer and girly side of all the girls are out at work and play and the house is now a BURST of colors. looks like a 120 water color set just exploded and splattered neatly on every single thing, adding flowers and swirls here and there. Compared to their individual rooms, my room appears totally like a guy's. Monotonous with earthy tones all around. beige, brown, white and black all in various tints, tones and shades. In an attempt to spruce up my room without spending cash on pretty furniture, I've broken my tradition of having no photos on my walls. To be honest, I've never taken posters or pictures or anything else for that matter to paste on my walls but I figured why not try it out and I guess having them does make me feel a little more like a girl...a girl in school.

Perhaps it might make me more homesick staring at these pictures of my good buddies back home. my church mates, my brudders, my JC friends...in no specific preferences of course. i love you all. but as I dugged them all out from my little memory box, I felt like such a dooshbag and a lousy friend for not being as sweet about lil gifts and letters. As I looked through them, memories and emotions flooded through me as I figured....heck to the homesickness. a little pain now and then is worth it for all these warmth and fuzziness. so now...with all my beloved friends up on my wall, I can go to bed looking at them and feel happy falling asleep and waking up to their faces once again. As if I'm back home with all of them <3

Things by far have been going pretty great with the roommates, though admittedly, I do feel left out now and then considering how they're all good friends with one another and I am after all, a new person to all of them. they've been great though, introducing me to their friends and I'm happy I moved out of my comfort zone and it does feel as though my circle of life has expanded. I no longer have to worry about messy roommates and we've all been neat and clean freaks so we just wash each other's dishes when its convenient to and its all done in good heart.

i got to meet several asians the other day as well. Facebook is a wonderful thing. I met all the Singaporeans on it and that was how I got invited to their housewarming party where I not only met up with my fellow countrymen, but also fellow ASEAN people from vietnam and our neighboring malaysia. the taiwanese were less than friendly while the vietnams were a tad bit over-friendly and it was honestly quite uncomfortable. but Singaporeans...man...it's like a natural thing to find comfort in your fellow men. yes yes. so that makes meeting all the singaporeans here. It felt so good as I entered the house and saw a table full of food that screamed "HOME". crab, lemon crispy fish, curry, miso soup, pandan cake, fried rice and white rice, bubble tea and the one that made me cry and tear within was soy sauce chicken. it super reminded me of my grandma *sniff sniff*. but man..it was good food :D :D :D the two singaporean guys and I sat and talked and it's so funny, but we were ALL in robotics so we sat there and talked about it. this just goes to show how much of a nerd we all are >_<>

so with new found friends...here's a start to a brand new section of my life once again.....

As I look around the house, I am hit with the sudden realization in how Asian I am. or perhaps I have only just inherited my dad's stinginess and thriftiness.

With one roommate back, the house suddenly transformed to a bundle of color. New plates, bowls, fridge magnets, paintings (not her own, but bought), cushions, carpets for the carpet, frames, pictures and many more. day after day she's gone out shopping with her boyfriend, only to return with more decorations for the house or for her room at least. don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. It's great to have an interior design roommate to decorate your lil home and make it happy and cosy and the best part is, you don't have to pay a single cent! it does however, bother me that someone is actually able to spend money so easily for worthless stuff. ok. not completely worthless. A happy house does make a happy person. but I guess it does bother me to know that I am wasting money on such useless decor for my own selfish purposes. everytime I am tempted to buy useless stuff, I hear my parent's voice asking me if I really need it and it practically feels like my dad is right beside me judging me disapprovingly.

I don't think I was always this way though. Bring me to Ikea and it's a playground. Aside from the delicious swedish meatballs, ikea is a fun place to just imagine what it's like to live in an interior designed house with no clutter and everything is just so neat and clean. now that I think of it. even though my bookshelf back home is from ikea, it still looks like shit because unlike the display set in ikea, mine's filled to the brim with all sorts of stuff -___-

I guess now that I'm here, I've realised now that money doesn't come as easy as it used to. I guess it's the weight of knowing how expensive my tuition fees are and thus, I'm trying to cut costs. Cutting the air con and living off the remaining cold air stuck in the house has been sufficient. especially when I'm the only one in the house while the roommate is gone. I've also resorted to being totally auntified/housewifey to the expense of clipping coupons and signing up for membership cards to supermarkets to get discounts and savings and what nots. it's really strange to have such cards in your wallet. not only that. shopping at the supermarket has no longer become a delightful affair of splurging on all that you like and then hoarding it like a pack rat in a little drawer to take a sneak peak just for that glimmer of joy. nope. now it's going to the supermarket with a clear idea of what you are going to cook that week and buying only what you NEED. not only that. experience has taught me to examine each packaging for expiration dates to make sure that money doesn't go to waste just because I left it in the fridge for too long. I've also learnt that evil supermarkets hide the cheapest stuff at the lowest shelves where u're bound to NOT look. compare prices and look out for the discount/sale tags. now my delight in shopping is looking at the bottom of the receipt to see how much savings I have made through my coupons and discount hunting skills. in other words, I have been aunty-fied. thank goodness I don't have to go to the market or anything of that sort to bargain. God forbid.

now that school's out, I'm rotting at home doing absolutely nothing. Been very lazy lately and sleeping in till late. how can you not when the whether is nice and gloomy outside???? it's like the perfect weather to sleep in. it's not bright nor is it a great weather to head out. soo...bury urself another the covers and continue sleeping and enjoying the ridiculous dreams I've been having.

life with the new roommate has been pretty good, with a person to talk to and stuff. It's nice how as an interior designer, she really wants the house to look nice and so everything is always back in its place. I used to leave the dishes in the dishwasher to dry since it's much easier for me to get things out rather than having to tiptoe just to get plates with the fear that I might drop and break em. ah well. woes of being short. i need to invest in a little stepping stool to get to upper rung in my wardrobe and to the dishes and to the blinds adjustment thingies.

being short sucks sometimes. especially when u're in tall people land.

another strange dream....

not as clear as last nights but nonetheless STRANGE. i kept switching back and forth between roles and it had something to do with me watching them and then being a part of a group. like i was reading a news about a blizzard in singapore and then i got transported to this forest place with 3 caves (HUH??) and "i" took on the role of a mother and i had 2 like 20 something year old twin daughters who were half ang moh half asian. (WTH?!?!) and i was telling them how ridiculous it would be that a blizzard in singapore. next thing i knew i was covered in snow -___-

literally had THAT face. i turned around to brush myself off and when i turned back, my daughters were gone. so i hid behind a rock to see if they would come out and saw this big guy dragging them into one of the caves that had the sign "IN". another cave had a sign "OUT" so i tried to escape and save my girls and pressed the button for the "out" cave and it worked like an elevator, except it also sounded an alarm which alerted the guy. so as i tried to scurry in and close the door, he managed to climb in after "me" except now I am watching the entire scene. next thing i know, the door opens and the guy is unconscious on the floor while the mother starts sawing off his limbs. except now he;s not a guy but a mannequin. they were given to me and I had to bring it back for an event for a dance item or something. So i lugged it around feeling very uncomfortable with the fact that the limbs belonged to someone who was once alive though it was clearly a mannequin now.

brought it over to the dance team led by 2 gay men and got really pissed that they weren't needed anymore. and as I walked back, I had to pass this sporting event and they wanted a volunteer to punch the punching bags and since i was mad, they targeted me and i was so pissed I just ignored them. but the way down seemed to be never ending and with every "pillar" of the stadium I passed, the same guy and same punching bag was there waiting for me. it's like a scene from a movie of a dramatic dream. LOL. so damn weird.

the end!

i had a weird dream last night. wouldn't say it was a nightmare or anything bad for that matter cos I really enjoyed it. for a moment it felt like I was in love and in a relationship. but that relationship with the person already exists though it's in a totally different way.

I can't quite remember the start, but i'll write what I could remember.

I dreamt that i had a father and a young brother whom as usual....i do not know in real life. it kinda was like...an extract in a tv show or a movie, but they were poor and living in a rented ROOM not apartment in some old house run by a malay and dad and landlord were arguing about agreeing to paint the house walls grey. *WTH?!?!* but dad refused to sign the agreement form because he felt that grey would make the already gloomy house feel gloomier. SOMEHOW...i saw a patch of the wall painted grey and decided it wasn't so bad and convinced my dad to agree. I don't even know how my memory of the ARC room in the old IJTP building at thompson warped to look completely clean, neat and organised and very modern with cool grey walls. but that warped memory certainly made me believe grey was a nice color for the house.

anyhows. I wanted to hurry all that because I wanted to go to the zoo and even then, dark clouds were gathering so I hurried father and brother to go get ready so I could go to the zoo. while they were preparing, I was somehow transported to a swimming pool and petting a giant squid (WHAT?!?!) and i was so scared it was gonna grab my hands in it's tentacles and kill me or smth. but then it transformed into a squishy dolphin and apparently the dolphin only like good looking people and the trainer told me it had such a hard time with paris hilton and britney spears were in the water (WHAT!??!?)

i was then suddenly re-transported back to the father's house where my dad was putting on a diver's suit in preparation for the zoo. (huh??) and as I hurried them into the car, i realised that I had forgotten my camera, so I told them to meet me at the entrance of the dorm while i ran back to go get it. I had forgotten my id but i pretended to hear the security guard wrongly and ran in anyway. apparently there were orientation games playing and people kept mistaking that I was part of the group, dragging me to play humans vs zombies. and I was really annoyed cos I was in a hurry and these people were stalling my time!! !@#$% how many times do i have to convince people that I am NOT playing and trying to explain why I have the human zombie manual when i wasn't playing! then this little malay boy wanted to make me participate in another game and i refused and he started being really annoying at the stairway and he had climbed up from the outside, so he was hanging on the other side of the wall from the railings in the stairway. After refusing, i turned around to leave only to feel the back of my shirt ripped and my bra unhooked/cut and that made me furious and i picked him up a threw him a couple of kilometers away and took his shoe and threw it hard at his face. of course i looked like a jerk then but I was seriously pissed and I called his mother and complain (WTH)

at that time the skies were seriously about to pour heavily and I doubted the chances of me going to the zoo and it was also like 6 something in the evening which meant the zoo was gonna close any time. So i went to my room and grabbed my camera and I was about to leave when my dad came around the corner to tell me he had a surprise for me and we should go star gazing instead. excited, I went to go get bobo and it seriously felt like I was a guy and her boyfriend and I took her hand while she was all oozzy from love. hahahhaa. I arrived at the "star gazing" place which was really, the top of a building except instead of seeing stars, we were wowed by the scenic view of Singapore at night (WHAT?!?!). suddenly this group of thugs came and demanded to know what we were here and SOMEHOW...i had grabbed a gun instead of my DSLR :S i had no intention of using it though and then my dad came up behind him with a LARGER GUN. and though it was obviously a tensed and serious moment, i felt light hearted and said I should go down and get my camera instead and so i did.

what a strange dream.

ok. i spent the entire day working on my graphic design project and zomg...i am tired with a backache. my room was a total mess and so was my desk. paper, mat boards etc. it was embarrassingly disgusting. nonetheless, i'm quite happy that it turned out pretty decently and i'm quite proud of the final result of the collage. esp the stuff that i hand drew on the water color paper with my beloved tombow brush markers. haha. i think i'm starting to fall in love with using markers. they do produce quite a remarkable result i must say. very nice and bold.

still...i haven't fallen in love with collages though i must admit, i do enjoy the fun and happy effect combining kiddy cartoons with ridiculous proportions of photos. plus....the song that I chose involved a happy and sweet relationship between a father and son and since it was a country song, i got to enjoy searching for hot hunky cowboy daddies and adorable little boys. ahem...it's hard to find good pictures anyways. i had to spend some money to buy stock images in the end. BUMMER. on the bright side. i didn't go out buying scrapbook stuff as i had initially expected to cos i was too lazy to travel all the way out to savannah mall. so i did save myself good money in the end.

oh...one of my roommates, maddy, is back in savannah. I got the chance to meet her family and go out for a pizza dinner with them and a few other friends who live around the corner. like literally around the corner. it's INSANE how near all their friends are. i am honestly jealous of it. it's like getting cheap and good housing with the amazingness of the dorm friends and company.

anyhoos. it's great having someone back in the house but at the same time, having lived alone by myself and getting used to it makes it hard to readjust back again. WHY IS THE GRASS ALWAYS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE???? but yeah. it was kinda weird when you have to announce when you are home or greet the other person when they come home. well..not formally, but like "hi". i don't know...i guess i don't really care if you're home or not and it's kinda weird that you have to tell the other person that you're going out or smth just so they won;t think u're home. how come it was never like this at home?? where on earth does all these requirements pop out from???

on the bright side, literally bright side, there's been more color in the house. not just from having more people around, but also cos maddy, being an interior designer and typical female college student, brought and bought ALOT of random stuff for decorations. from cutlery to paintings to magnets and a carpet for our carpet. can't wait for finals to be legitly over so i can relax with maddy and friends and play scrabble and what nots. ooohhhhhh....i'm quite ready for the quarter to be over. i hate my grds class for shiz....

man. this weekend practically flew by with the work that I had at the trustees theatre this weekend. On the bright side, I realised that my bosses really like me and I've been given priority for smaller events so that means MOOLAH :D there were 4 comedy shows in total and i worked a total of 17 hrs, with 12 hours on Saturday alone. it was kinda insane, kinda cool because the show was filmed for comedy central, which meant big tv cranes and all that jazz. very funky to be a part of it all. Got the "wonderful" task of trying to move everyone to sit together which meant i worked with the tv producer of shepherding the flock and got a thumbs up for it. WHEEEEEEE :D the feeling of being in charge felt good and kinda reminiscent of the good part of being arc president back in the days.

i realised after working at the trustees that i make a pretty good service person. smile or apologise, be patient and take things chill. There has been a few nasty people to serve, but it's been otherwise fun to serve people with a smile and get good service back in return. My colleagues on the other hand don't seem to do things the same way and they've been serving customers very rudely which kinda annoys me.

anyhows...so here we are at finals and i'm down to one last speech (thank goodness) i absolutely hate public speaking, but it has also kinda been quite a fun experience. I realised for one thing that when I'm nervous, I channel all that energy and it becomes more like enthusiasm. but i'm really just trying to cover up the nervous shaking. hahaha. it definitely helps! my most recent speech was a persuasive one and i spoke about Singapore and how it makes a wonderful destination. it was fun to hear all the comments that i got as my head swelled with pride from the positive comments. hahaha. apparently i make such a good advertiser and persuader that I can convince people that killing puppies is a good thing and even get supporters for it. hahahahhaa. fun :D of course. i will never kill puppies.

bible study on tuesdays has been a challenge to go to as I try to clump all my work and finish it early for Wednesday so I can go for bible study at night. It's been rather successful I must say, though it requires discipline. I got the priviledge of meeting a Westin chef who was a friend of Jimbo (the pastor) and Lindsay (his wife) who prepared our dinner and taught a few of us how it was done. might try it out and see. I don;t think i'm going to invest in all the different spices considering how i don't really know how to cook using all those spices which all look the same to me. it's been actually great at bible study just being out with people once again in a relaxed setting to socialise and what not. definitely realised that no man is an island and we all need to get out now and then. so yeah. bible study definitely saves me from having to cook dinner and socialise. so it's all good :D

i've done my researching on pet therapy for my final psychology paper and oh man...reading all that seriously makes me want to get a golden retriever now. hahaha. but i want one that doesn't poop or pee. but i think i could just potty train it to do so in a toilet bowl. build a ramp up for it and stuff. HAHAHAHA. than i can just FLUSH it all away without a care :D dunno. reading this kind of stuff makes me wonder why i threw away the decisions of being a veterinarian or a social worker *shrug* why am i always interested in jobs that make no money in Singapore???? wth......

new logo design for my third graphic design project. this was actually a redesign of bad logos in savannah. lol.

Go Fish is a shop operated by a bunch of Christians who go out into villages and buy the artworks and crafts from the artisans there and then bring it over to the states to sell. Basically the mission is to provide these artisans in village a stable source of income without exploiting their labour. Nonetheless, Go Fish is not a christian shop, just a shop operating on Christian principles. i got abit of flak at first for eliminating the Christian fish symbol, but i had valid reasons for doing so anyway. The Christian Fish was too clean to represent the indigenous style of the shop and its products and i found myself veering away from it to other styles of creating a fishy.

after much sketching and designs, i finally settled for this >>>

it's a double image, with a hand grabbing the "G" for the positive turquoise form and a fishy in the white negative space made by the hand and the G. also. if you know sign language, the form of the shape represents the letter "G". I decided to not go with the traditional fishing rod concept as most people would, with the hand grabbing a fish a better choice to illustrate the personal touch in how Go Fish's merchandises were obtained, also reflecting the mission and Christian principles that its owners operate on.

my classmates complained that the font made it too fish tackle shop in the beaches but both my professor and I found it appropriate as a design choice and as a representation of the company. They preferred a more....typewriter scrapbook font (American Typewriter/Problem Secretary) but i stuck with my original Creaky Freaky because it created a unifying style with it's bold forms, like the fish, which imitates the broad chunks of paint stroke in indigenous artworks. colors are mainly of natural elements like wood and water, which reflects the materials that the artisans in the village use for all the craft sold in the shop - cotton, wood, shells and the like.

I'm wondering whether or not i should contact the actual shop owner and offer them my logo design for a price. heh heh. nonetheless, it felt good to be "professional" and going the extra mile of actually doing proper research of the shop, going into the shop to analyse their style and understand the story behind the shop to make a proper logo that represented them well. :D

a kid in my class did a logo design for a fortune teller/tarot card reader/crystal ball etc u get the idea. and it got the entire class going on about these spiritual activities and I soon found myself in the midst of all these people who wanted to try it out and i just sat there in horror, not wanting to say anything amidst my very intimidating graphic design class mates :S

finals are up and on as we gear up towards the final 3 weeks (OH YES!). speeches, collages, exams, projects and what nots. my final graphic design project is rather intimidating with no use of the computer and mainly hand work and we all know how clumsy i am with my hands. for my final project I have to create a wrapping paper out of 6 panels that represented a song with a layout based on a grid system that reflected certain words. ACK. no computer, cut and paste and the need to travel out to the malls to get materials. gggrrreeeaaatttt. this is one time consuming project alright.

ah wells.

back to work!

mid terms are ovvveerrrrr. 25 more days left of school!! then break and back to school again. hahaha.

mid terms are always the time to hear good things about yourself at mid term conferences. haha. I've never been so appreciated in my life to simply just pay attention in class and be there. apparently, my habit of anti-change works for the professors who can always find great comfort in finding me in the same seat smiling (i dun even think i smile for no reason..i only smile because they are SMILING AT ME FIRST). i think there's been only one class so far in my entire few quarters here that i've kept changing positions and that was CMPA class. but even in studio classes, it's been a great habit to just stay in the same spot. which i guess annoyed my professor because we were supposed to try out different positions. BUT BUT BUT...he also told us to come in earlier to grab the best spots and it so happens that the best spot is always where i've been standing at!

anyhows. back to mid term conferences. so.....apparently teachers here have a strange habit of starting off with "I have bad/distressing/terrible news for you" when they talk to me. and being the kiasu singaporean i am, i check black board every day for my grades, so i know there is absolutely no problem with my grades that i have to worry about. but nonetheless, i play along and act worried. i've heard reasons like "I need to fail you because you are too good and I want you in my class (sounds so creepy stalker-ish)" or "I can't let you leave this class so i'm afraid I'd have to hold you back" or "gloria..you're a great and wonderful student...but you're not top in class" lol. i don't really care about being top. so long as i'm doing well and doing the best that i can, it's totally chill. which i'm quite surprised to find myself thinking that because i would think i'm quite competitive in some areas. but i guess just knowing that im somewhere on top feels sufficiently good enough for me. haha

ah well...i'm both half happy and sad for this quarter to be ending soon. for one, i really enjoyed the classes and the suitable balance of workload. ok...it was damn slack. but that's the whole point. haha. the professors have been wonderful and so has the people in some of my classes. ah well. but there's something to look forward to...next quarter! gonna be back to drawing naked people with a wonderful professor who is a wonderful artist...i've seen his portfolio and i am so inspired and excited for his class. PLUS....he is good looker...and...so is my art hist professor. hur hur hur. it always helps to have good looking people to brighten up ur day..esp for boring classes like art hist. and i'm taking lit from my english composition's prof's new husband. awkward.

my past 2 consecutive nights of dreaming have been an odd mix of taking care of sunday school kids complete with stun gun tagging game and traveling on an entirely brand new mrt system to places i've never heard of. but it sure was convenient and fast. last night's sunday school dream involved escaping some evil murderer or torturer and i had to lead the kids to protect themselves and we were racing cars to escape and stuff...pretty funky. i love my dreams. they enable me to do things i'll never get to do in life. heh heh. fun!

i'm missing the life i had in the dorms. 

not the whole messy and disgusting room part, but rather, the constant noise and life around. I miss being able to barge into michelle's room or have people banging at my door, or banging at the walls just to annoy the people in michelle's room. 

i miss having people to talk to when you are down, and having people to rant and complain about your bad day or the things that happened, or share a laugh or even make fun of. 

maybe i'm an extrovert after all...secretly. 

i guess being in the dorm with all the people around never gave me time to think at night or feel empty like i do now. walking home alone, with all the quietness to think and the silence to remind me that no one is around. and yet it's not as though i'm alone. it's like i have close friends all over the place. and that's the problem. they are all over the place. just not where i am. maybe this is how God feels when we ignore Him. 

ah wells. 

i had another weird dream. this time it was something along the lines of a competition, like the amazing race. except you go around and get objects instead. and we were doing very very very well getting the objects until there was a task. and this task had something to do with being in the water and staying underwater. and SOMEHOW...phua chu kang and rosie were there in the middle of the pool, chained to the edges and they would be lowered as time passed and we had to save them or they would drown!! and to do so i had to take their place of being under water to keep them above water. and we all know how i hate being underwater. i like being able to breathe thank you very much. so i obviously refused and every dip into the water lasted only 1 second or less and it was a painful moment that felt like forever. 

needless to say, i got dissed by everyone in my team for being such a selfish coward jerk. :'(

our next segment was cooking and with everyone still angry at me for refusing to suffocate underwater, everyone ignored me and refused to let me participate. anyhows, i thought i would help so i turned down the fire abit thinking it was for another part of the stove. next thing i knew the prawn in the pot came alive and tried to escape. NEEDLESS TO SAY...everyone panicked. next thing you knew the other animals in the pot came alive too and tried to escape. we had a screaming cockatoo trying to fly out of a pot of boiling water followed closely by a pigeon or some sort of bird. and mind u...they had their feathers on still. 

it was honestly rather disturbing. 

oh brain...u are one strange strange creature.

i realised i haven't been putting up pictures of my works. haha. but then there's not been anything very interesting. chrystal inspired me to put up more of my work here at scad because it makes her feel warm and fuzzy, so here it is. dedicated to you chrystal!! feel my love as a good and wonderful friend!! 

here are my first 2 graphic design projects. 

this was our pictogram project where we were supposed to design pictograms for 10 different places in a city. 

then for our second graphic design project we had to incorporate an element into a word to convey its meaning. My word was fresh. 
yep. our next project is a logo design where we get to go around town scouting for the bad and horrible logos and give them a make over. this requires the combination of the first 2 graphic design projects. woohoo..fun-ness :)

anyways, i realised one thing about several classmates. i found it rather annoying that all of them try to be "original" and "different" through the wrong ways. Graphic design is a practical job and though you want to stand out of the crowd, it has to fit what the project requirements demand and function. during many critiques I hear alot of them saying that they chose a particular color because most street signs were whatever color like green or blue or that they didn't want to use whatever color because other people were using them. It's one thing about doing something different, but do it not for the sake of just standing out. Although i used a basic green for the street sign and remained boring, it's because these are street signs and they need to be clear and visible for drivers during both day and night. it's not just the color green, but you have to consider the tone and shade in comparison to the surroundings. these people are really annoying me...grahhhhh...just had to rant....

on another note, despite it being mid-terms, things have been rather slack. i guess it helps that my graphic design studio class has projects off the usual mid term schedules so all i have to focus on are the exams for psychology and speech. 

Being mid terms at art school, it's technically supposed to be the sleepless week and hence, my psychology professor gave us the task of keeping a sleep journal to record down our sleep patterns and our dreams. 

the first night alone, i had about 10 - 11 hours of sleep throughout the night. which is seriously more than what i need. hahaha. plus...it felt so good cos i had an epic dream. 

i dreamt that there was this super microchipped tooth that i had to save and apparently it was grace teo's. haha. WTH. anyhows. i saved it from the bad guy who had evil pet monkeys like in the cartoons. and i brought it back to the base where grace teo was. and the two of us were awarded with power ranger status. WOO HOO! so we went around rescuing people. hahaha. 

anyhows. second part of the dream, i found myself in a wheel chair even though i can walk. i guess it brought me around places faster. haha. and i could fly in it. so one day i was chasing after this bad guy and i ran on my wheelchair so fast that i flew, but i couldn't control it. but anyhows, i caught up with the bad guy..except for the fact that his badness was rather ambiguous. like he was after something or had good intentions but i thought he was after me and i tried all means and ways to get rid of him, including an epic pen battle in a tunnel air vent where i stabbed him multiple times in the chest and tried to skewer his kidneys with a pen :S it was kinda gross, but i had to do it for protection. so i left him and his weak body in the vent to die but he didn't and he ended up in jail. I went to visit him to make sure he was caught and mocked him but then next thing i knew he had escaped!! and btw. these jail cells were like EPIC SPACE JAILS. they had those automatic air tight doors like in space ships and u had a long tunnel/chute that led up to the cell. apparently this guy broke through the door and was out running to make his revenge on me!! *deng deng deng dennggggggg* 

so i panicked and ran and tried to hunt him down or hide and i saw him running behind me so i ran into the library in the jail (WTH?!?!) and they had to see my ID so i showed them my ez link card but they wouldn't accept it cos somehow my photo had missing parts! so i frantically dugged my IC out but it had the same problem. and they let the evil man in. apparently he shrank to the size of mini me and he was now bald too. he was originally tall and wearing a black suit...like men in black. hahaha. anyhows. they let him in because he was short and below the height limit for ID check. WTH!!!! so i held him by the head away at arms length so he couldn't attack me! oh gosh...

haha it was so fun. i felt so alive and excited when my alarm rang. hahahaha. i love my dreams. night time is adventure time for me...WHEEEEEEE :D :D :D 

on a side note, my primary 3 form teacher found me on facebook and sent me a msg to say hi. WTH?!?! PRIMARY 3 leh..that's like....11 years ago?!?!1 OH CRAP...i am old. -___-

ok. so i've been pretty lazy about updating but not much and not little has really happened. with school going on, life's been pretty much a blur, going so fast all the time. In fact, mid terms are next week! doesn't quite feel like it though :S

anyhoos, highlights of my life included 4th of july, which meant fireworks. I don't have a tripod so most of my photos came out blur and you can see the zig zag of the fireworks in some even though they're supposed to be straight. lol. the picture below is possibly one of the worst in terms of blurness which is kinda sad, but i put it up because the fireworks was HUGE. 

it was kinda cool bustling around americans gurgling beer down. i mean...free beer. who wouldn't grab some if you were of legal age?? (ok..i possibly won't. the place smelt terrible cos of the beer. ack). it was super tear jerking when the fireworks came on and the song "God Bless the USA" came on and people starting singing emotionally. oh my gosh...that made me want to be american for that moment. how many national day songs can we sing so enthusiastically huh??? esp the songs nowadays. or maybe it's cos we no longer have national day sing-a-long sessions in school which kinda made the song strange and foreign and less patriotic to sing. forth of july fireworks was breathtaking, but it would have been better if i had someone to share it with :( boo to summer and everyone being gone. then again...it was also because i was all alone that's why it was easy for me to squeeze through the crowds to get a front row seat for the fireworks. HUR. 

in addition to that, I've also been very privileged to watch a nest of lil birdies grow up, from egg to flying little things. they grow at a rapid pace! like within one week, they transformed from egg to ugly pink alien creatures to cute furry chicks to normal looking birds with abit of small stray feathers here and there. it's pretty amazing. meet my housemates half grown up! this was them at their cute fuzzy chick stage.

gonna miss having them around. sob. 

classes have been going pretty decently too. my psych class is uber fun and we had a recent group project and i actually enjoyed it. Personally, I hate doing group project works because i can't make a decision fast because people will disagree la dee da and we'll make a few rounds before coming to the conclusion etc etc. and the results are usually half assed anyway. this time however, being in a psych class, our professor had very nicely came out with a grouping system that went according to our personality results so we all had balanced groups and it was easy to work. people did their work and we had so much fun. minus the fact that my house was a huge sticky mess from the spray mount and i ended up having to mop the entire floor. kinda reminds me once again of why i am not very hospitable as a host to guests. 

Psych class is teaching me quite abit as well, as i learn about my personality and all that jazz and I realised that i made a good choice coming here because I am not able to reach my creative potential had I stayed in the stressful environment in Singapore. yay. class is also fun with the chance to play with play dough and color brains and do our exams in groups even though it is multiple choice. haha. yay art school. to think i went through all that A level hardness because it "prepared me for college"...it probably did a little too well...way above what i needed. lol. we even got to do role playing as cell bodies and dendrites and neurons and earn smarties for that! lol. yay to the USA's rewarding education system. >.<

speech has also been going surprisingly smooth, though i am slowly counting the number of speeches I have left to get this class over and done with. Professor Lancaster, a theatre and speech professor is super fun and entertaining and class is more of a sit back chill and listen to a comedian time unless it's speech day. I've also realised that in my great bout of nervousness, not only do i shit alot, but my throat goes really dry and my voice either goes very low or high...and i sound super hyper :S i guess it's just trying to cover up the shakiness. haha. so even though i'm so nervous that i don't remember a single thing of what happened during my speech, apparently I do so well that my fellow american classmates are afraid of me :S quoting one of them, "shit, we just got owned by a foreigner". *shrugs* i love being an international student. u can fake stupid. HAHAHA

graphic design on the other hand has been ups and downs. I go to class feeling shitty about my project because it ain't very good to me, but i go to class and i realise i'm not that bad after all. apparently, the way that i think and work through my designs are the exact same things professional graphic designers do, which makes me, a natural graphic designer. HAHAHAHHAHA. innate instincts. WOO HOO. 

some of my classmates in the class have been rather annoying. I felt really bummed during the first project because i spent so much time racking my brain to find a solution to designing the street signs. It was such a simple project but because of that, it's even harder to come up with something better yet new and refreshing yet practical. I got annoyed that despite staying up and getting only 2 hours of sleep, people came to class with sloppy drawings that seriously showed little to no thought and during hte next critique, i saw that many had adopted my ideas and elements that i used for the signs. boy was i pissed. it made my original idea look ordinary. pfftt..but it's ok. the professor's been pretty pleased with my work so at least I know i have it in me. 

we're on our second project now and though it's another one of those acky projects it's fun to see what people came up with especially since half of it was based on our own choice. we got to see part of the professor's personal collection of inspiration stuff which I have been collecting too! so its kinda cool. i thought it was only common sense to do all that research... apparently not. nonetheless, i came out of class excited because i discovered a whole load of new sources to scout for paper and print samples which would be highly useful in the future :D YAY ME! (oops. too much london tipton from the suite life of zack and cody!)

school has finally started and time has definitely zipped it's way around me without me knowing. the first week was crazy, rushing from class to class thanks to the stupid scad bus schedules. i can't wait for my bike to be ready for me to collect at walmart. (haha yes. walmart seriously sells everything. i recently got a all in one printer/scanner/copier for 35 bucks there too. 

during the first week itself i was pretty much pounded with work and i found myself staying up till 4am in the morning and getting only 2 hours of sleep before i had to wake up for non-stop classes. and to top it off i was let off late from one of my classes which resulted in me having to run in the HEAVY rain. bah. 

thankfully i managed to survive, being surprisingly alert and not feeling sleepy at all. on the flip side, I found out once again, as I've always been stupidly doing, that I stayed up late for nothing. why? cos not all of the work was due. just half. GREAT. and to top things off, by the time it reached my turn for my critique, i was given a mere less than 5 minutes, in which my work was brushed off by EVERYONE including the professor because everyone couldn't wait to leave Z__Z awesomeness. 

ah wells. thank goodness i like my classes or i might just die. 

you know how there are many times in your life where you worry whether or not u are in the right job? like halfway through you find yourself scared that you may be wrong all along about what you want to do? that has happened to me MULTIPLE TIMES, but ever since i stepped into my intro to graphic design class and look at my beautifully designed and layout-ed work sheets and project guideline sheets, looking at beautiful looking powerpoint slides and I am DELIGHTED to be in this field. and then i realise with great joy, that I have made the right choice. excitements :)

psychology class was super fun too, with it being pretty much like a leadership training camp, what's with all the personality quizzes and just getting into groups to talk. it's fun learning more about how people work, what kind of person you are etc. it's scary though cos you feel that everything you do, from your body language to the things you talk about, is under scrutinize and analysed by your psycho psychology professor. but it's just cool it feels like one of those church camps with a speaker who prophesizes over people and you're just sitting there going "OH ME NEXT ME NEXT!!!" thanks to my professor and her making us play icebreakers, i feel very comfortable in that class, being able to talk and express my thoughts, which is unfortunately not a very normal thing for me. my only gripe that i have with this class is how my psych prof loves to get SUPER DUPER CLOSE TO YOU. like I found myself in situations in which she was literally 1 inch away from my face. ahem. personal bubble thank you very much. kthxbye haha

i had to very sadly drop art history as my 4th class even though that would screw up my entire college plan :(  ok not really. HAR HAR. ahem. but i had to. for 2 very good reasons;

1. unorthodox teaching method. she was way toooo deeeppp for my understanding. one of those professors with a phd with a very strong opinion about the definition of art. her readings were all about that and i don't care about that. I just want to know the styles of a period etc, not the social background whatsoever. sure no exams, no tests, no essays. easy. no thank you. I don't think my money was put to good use and I don't feel secure about getting a good grade. I'd rather work for it. 

2. since it's heavily discussion format, chances are we will never be let out early cos my class was seriously annoying with some super strong and opinionated people. JUST SHUDDUP ALREADY WILL YA!!! 

goodness gracious me. this is the difference between singaporean students and american students. people here aren't afraid to air their opinions and argue about it. intimidating and annoying. it's kinda cool if they have cool view points, but they should not go on and on and engage in heated debate. RUN AWAY FROM CONFLICT!!!

ok. enough slacking. back to work for graphic design....

amidst all this boredom i find myself blog surfing randomly, before stumbling onto few of those famous people blogs. or rather. people who got famous through blogging. no wonder they got famous. it's too juicy or uber entertaining. their famous lives enable them to be involved in so many cool events, travelling to various places and what nots.

after seeing more pictures, I am more determined to go visit Paris and London and all the other places that we learn about in art history. It's fascinating how other people either learn about the various tourist spots from the history of rulers and wars and yet here, as art students, we have the opportunity to study these wonderful architecture and works in art history :) 

suddenly art history doesn't seem so boring after all ;p

i'm seriously considering keeping my 2 art hist electives for the off campus trips so i can travel down using my school's discount. hur hur hur. ;P

anyhows...i went down to the mall today in hopes of buying the nice clothes su hui and i saw the other day when we went down. i was glad to see bigger and better sales, but disappointed that all the clothes that i liked were no longer there :( oh darn the new seasons. 

on the bright side, i treated myself to a massage to ease my aching muscles. perhaps i should do this more often....after all.....the last time i went for a massage, i was told to do so more often for health reasons. hur hur.

oh. and in an attempt to further educate myself on the art world, i started surfing for various artists and have decided to put JARED SHEAR (http://terrapeer.blogspot.com/) on the spotlight. brilliance in photoshop, terra used a series of photoshop brushes to create a brand new landscape. 

cool eh?

my younger brother emailed me on facebook for some advice. hee

so cute.

for all his 14 years of life. i think this is the first time i feel like a proper elder sibling *blush*

ho ho ho

makes me want to ruffle his grassy palm tree hair <3 

anyhows. i can't wait for school to start so i finally have something to do. i hung out with my professor yesterday (yeah. i was THAT desperate. ahha). actually it wasn't so bad....if you ignored the B.O. and farts that i pretended to not notice. but yah. it was interesting to talk to her and give my opinions on improving the syllabus and hearing about her life story about designing costumes for clowns and stories of clown college (yes such a thing actually exists. FASCINATING)

apparently in clown school, you learn how to ride elephants, how to create gags, how to trip and fall (yes. anyone up for clown college now??? sounds mighty fun!!)

su hui came. su hui's gone. now i'm back to square one of being all alone. for someone who is introverted, this entire being alone episode is kinda torturous. sure, people tire me out, but having lived in the dorm for a whole 9 months, growing up in a noisy house for all 19 years of my life, this whole be alone by myself is horribly eerie and quiet. :S 

ah well, nonetheless, the time with su hui was pretty well spent, though most prob not to it's maximum capacity. for the first time in 9 months of being here, I explored savannah. having su hui here as brought about a good excuse to go on house tours, visit museums and tourist spots. it was a good experience having someone who won't get bored at museum trips, who won't think savannah has nothing to offer. Su hui for one is amazing. she paints a picture of savannah that would probably make anyone come visit me. with her, i realised the importance of visiting and exploring spaces, of just being interested in practically every single thing (except stupid predictable movies...that..i still won't quit). 

having su hui around chased the boredom away though sometimes I felt bad because I knew not what else to offer her here in savannah. after a while, i had nothing left to impress my friend with :( most of our time was spent sleeping and watching movies on netflix. ah well. but thanks to her i watched a few pretty good movies though some just made me want to stab myself multiple times *angry stares at su hui who just laughs*

and to prove that I haven't died from my cooking..here are a few pictures of our meals. 

NASI LEMAK :D the soy sauce chicken actually turned out pretty good even though i just tikam tikam with the seasoning and what nots. LOL.

sweet and sour pork was amazingly and surprisingly good. su hui was doubtful seeing the way i cooked it. coversation was something like this:

su- eh. you sure you know anot?

glory- aiyah. tikam la. just put in anything i think it has. haha.

not the bad sia :)
and roast chicken from krogers. yeah. i can still get good delicious chicken without going to J.O.s to eat oily food. :D and only $5 for a whole roast chicken!

steam egg, potatoes with meat and onions. YUM :) more seasoning could be done though...i wish i had chai poh with me here :(

chicken rice! ok. despite having those prima packets to make it...we didn't really have a full success. us and our bad instruction following. haha.

yummylicious udon :D and last but not least...BAN MIEN :D

also met up with hsing ting and joy (the other singaporean) where we had dinner in my house and we made goreng pisang. HAHA. doesn't look or taste anything like it, but it was still yummy. WOO HOO! horrible cleaning up to do after that though :S took alot of soap to clean out the pot full of oil :S acks. 

cooking ain't gonna be fun anymore for just me myself and i. not to mention no help with clean up :(

oh well.

YAY! su hui is here to accompany me on my would-have-been-lonely summer. 

i found a cheap way to get from the downtown to airport. just a dollar for the bus as compared to the horrible 30 dollar plus tips taxi ride. it was a good moment of catching up and it felt as though while we all went our separate ways around the world to study, time stood still for us and now time is running again. we have changed, things have changed, definitely, but it felt as though in our friendship, nothing has changed. it feels that way with my friends back at church and I am very thankful for that. 

it's strange how there are certain people in your life in which the lack of contact will result in the drifting in relationships. in the end, it comes to nothing and you look back and wonder what had happened. yet there;s another group of friends, that you can't bear to leave, worrying that you guys will drift apart, going separate ways etc etc. but I realised, far away from everyone, that although life continues going on for each and every single one of us, it feels as though our friendship has merely hit the pause button and when we return and reunite with one another, we'll hit the play button and there'll be no need to start all over again. 

sleepovers, movie marathons, laughing and musing over the past, roast duck etc etc etc.

it's scary how we now contemplate about the future. realising that it's really not too far away ahead of us. I realised with great shock and horror that after graduating in 3 or 4 years, i'll be married in another few years (hopefully) and next thing i know, i'll be taking care and worrying about my family :S 

it's hard to picture all of us all grown up, each with our own families. will we still be the same way as we are now? 

interesting food for thought :)