Right. as requested by nguci:

Chimo and a sleeping Molen.

finally. on the last day of 2008 managed to sort of complete a decent
attempt of a photo of Munich. will still need to touch up abit. but i'm happy!! for some reasons,
the lines are all slanted. maybe i need to correct my writing posture.

it's down to:

• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
• The Story of Art, and
• re-reading Man and Boy

i'm so proud of myself. lol. i did some sketching and watercolour today. and i finished the Marco Polo book. anyway yep the dogs:

Chi-ko (top) and Putih (below). i'll post the rest next time.

list of books to read this vacation:

• Travels in the Land of Kubilai Khan - Marco Polo
  
• A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
• The Story of Art - EH Gombrich
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft
• Detective Conan 44, 46, 47, 48, 49 and, if i get them in time, 42, 45 and 50. lol.

there's a really easy way of doing this. if take my mind off things, one day everything will turn out for the best. sometimes. lol. well, fortunately i'm home. anyhow, our dogs are so bloody cute.. will take some pictures of them when i remember.

lol. i think i'm going nuts.

went online at 6.30 am cos i thought i forgot to check the exam results. but turns out they're not out yet?? btw i found the detective conan comics!! so i'm reading them.

oh this is what i used to do. list of books to read this vacation:

• Travels in the Land of Kubilai Khan - Marco Polo
  
• A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon
• The Story of Art - EH Gombrich
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft
• Detective Conan 44, 46, 47, 48, 49 and, if i get them in time, 45 and 50 and 51. lol.

it's alright.
a happy Christmas to all who celebrate :)

might as well make a second list.overall i've been rather productive this holiday. yep. so important things to do:

• read the books
• make some earrings for my brother (i'm going to be paid doing this)
• practise watercolour

omg gotta break the list a while. whoa lucky met a friend online. so the results ARE out. er...except for History and Theory of Modern Architecture and Structural Systems, i kind of expected the rest. the History exam went quite badly so ya i guess it's okay considering that. Structural Systems went okay (i thought) and the projects' grades are okay so i was kind of disappointed. but oh wells. :)

the oral exam went not too well (as oral exams are bound to). but oh well it's over. at least i can now indulge in as many english songs and english books as i want. today forced myself to listen to german songs to get into the "mood". didn't really help, sadly. but but..it might have been worse...

flight tomorrow.

i'm getting anxious. yea why? because i'm going home soon. feels like there's a deadline. it's kind of like despair.

just saw this documentary on computer game addiction on DW-TV. what do you think of it? i think it's such a waste if you spend all your life playing computer games. sure, i don't know the joys (or importance) of playing. but i understand. i have many hobbies too (like lying down and doing nothing or talking on the phone). at least i remain conscious that these are a waste of time when indulged in excessively. the problem with the computer game i guess is that people stop thinking properly. you should've seen this "symposium" of like hundreds of people playing computer in this dark room. it's a freaky scene man.. as it is, my youth is passing me by and i haven't done enough!!

the problem with people, of course, is that there's no such thing as 'enough'. there's not enough time, not enough money, not enough everything. real worried about the oral exam. i haven't practised a single bit. lol. worse still, i haven't been keeping up with current affairs. i hope i get an easy topic.

will go home this saturday. zaterdag. this is awesome (makes me want to cry):

from many many years ago. lol. i'm a fan of boyzone still. of their old songs anyway. i'm going to post many. lol. since i have the time. one of my favourites: (and now i realise that the defect in the cassette tape is not just in mine!! lol. it probably affected the entire production line in asia or something)

Boyzone_Melting pot - Boyzone

and if you're free watch the live version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTD2y2aKaz4
and this one from many years ago. cool. the internet is a cool place. lol. things i never got to watch or hear at the time (because they were only released in ireland or the UK and stuff.)

you know, things happen. i don't know the details so i can't say much. but ya. this is the only thing i can say: "it's ok but it's also not ok. it's not ok but it's also ok." it may not be very good english but well that's that. it's ok because all sorts of things can happen in life, some good, some bad, just take it as it goes. it's not ok because every bloody event contributes to your life and contributes to the making of you as a person. that's what i think. and what i hope is that things don't make you a bitter person, that's all.

omg this is driving me nuts!! they say curiosity kills the cat. the cat is in a coma! it's eating my brain. i know half of it was already gone last year, but still let me keep what i have left..

watch funny shows online. it gives you good mood.

weirder things happened. someone ran up to me and gave me thirty bucks.

anyway i borrowed three german books from the library to read, hopefully before the exam. got to chiong.. my classmates said "too late lah.." and i said no, i think it helps lol. 'big mistake' is nice.. but this is my favourite song from natalie imbruglia. so bloody cool. yeah i live pathetically in the past. i listen to old songs, read old books, etc.



why the sudden. argh i'm so curious, but i shouldn't think of it. this thing called hope, it scares me.

this is real cool.



Annett Louisan - Dings

gestern traf ich dings
du weißt schon – dings - den kennst du doch
von früher noch
der war auch mal ganz kurz
mit misses schlaumeier zusammen
ach, ich und namen
die war auch mal
ich glaub, das war damals im mai
mal mit dabei
in dieser kneipe hinten links
du weißt schon - dings
dingsbums

da war der wirt
der, wenn er voll war, immer sprach
wie dieser - ach
in diesem einen film
mit dem schauspieler - wie heißt der denn noch mal
ist auch egal
ach mensch, den kennst du auch
ein typ mit ganz viel narben im gesicht
nee, der wars nicht
ich mein` den andern mit den drinks
du weißt schon - dings
dingsbums

der hat auch erst gesungen
und dann sein leben so verpfuscht
ist ja auch wurscht.
das war so´n lied
im duett mit einer frau - ich komm nicht drauf
ach ich geb´s auf
mann, die hat doch auch ´n kind
ihr neuer mann ist tierisch reich
jetzt hab ich´s gleich
wo war`n wir grade, um wen gings?
ach ja um dings
dingsbums

na jedenfalls...
gestern traf ich dings
er kam so auf mich zu geschlendert
und soll ich dir was sagen?
der hat sich gar kein stück verändert

lol. looking back, i've said innumerable stupid things. i must have been a real freaky person. i only hope the world is not like me, who keeps tabs on everything. so it wouldn't remember my follies.

lol. the university is a damned annoying place. where you can't trust anyone. where everything is so bloody lame you feel like laughing and yet you feel annoyed. to hell. when you look around you see people talking or discussing, sometimes the whole scene is just so bloody stupid. i don't mean the people, i don't mean the words. maybe yes they all are part of the inanity, but i mean the scene. makes me want to puke.

am drowning in a wave of cynicism.

whoa. the last post was a blunder. what's with me.. take it easy, dude. lol. 3 chapters to go. i have, about 5 hours ba.. hm.. if i want to be optimistic i'd say it's possible.

for the first time in life i don't even know the venue and time of the exam. lol. to think i used to poke fun at people who asked me such questions. lol. but well, i don't have a bloody timetable in front of me mah.. besides, i'm going to find out from the website now. such an inconvenient system.

today wasn't very productive. was thinking too much.

ooh.. BTW. i finished my second perusal of 'Heart of Darkness'!! finally, you'd say. i feel the same way. but guess what? i think i need a third one. lol. hold on there, i'm getting it. but i didn't. not yet. i got confused towards the end of the story. maybe because he wanted to confuse me (or anyone not serious enough in reading it), or because i was distracted by the bloody exams. nevertheless, it was a pleasant read this time. i've turned to the introduction in the hope that it will shed some light on the novella. havent' finished the introduction. but ya i don't mind reading a third time (not now). i'm thinking.. i think i should go re-read many of the books on my shelves. i think i read some of them rather pre-maturely, so i couldn't fully grasp them then. (maybe still won't fully grasp them now. maybe never. it depends on your experiences) because recently people have been telling me how they liked certain books and i said "hm... i read that a few years back and i didn't really like it." for example, Tony Parsons' 'Man and Boy'.

anyway. i'm starting on 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'. i'm generally more fond of fictions, though. so not sure how this will go.

i'm done with pf!! whoo. it's a pleasant surprise to complete part 5 in 1.5 hours. ya but i didn't do it properly. i just wanted to finish it. that's my bane.

anyhow.


this song's so geil (the positive "geil"). ulf does a very nice "Bekanntschaft" with the hamburg accent. lol. well he's a hamburger, isn't he?

Ganz Anders - Udo Lindenberg feat Jan Delay

Eigentlich bin ich ganz anders,
ich komm' nur viel zu selten dazu
Du machst hier grad' mit einem Bekanntschaft,
den ich genauso wenig kenne wie du

Ich hab so viel Termine:
In der Disko, vor Gericht und bei der Bank,
da schicke ich einfach meine Vize-Egos
und das wahre ich bleibt lieber im Schrank

Ich bin gar nicht der Typ, den jeder in mir sieht,
und das werde ich euch beizeiten auch alles noch beweisen

Eigentlich bin ich ganz anders,
ich komm nur viel zu selten dazu
Du machst hier bald mit einem Bekanntschaft,
den ich genauso wenig kenne wie du

du hast bestimmt ein falsches Bild von mir,
so was wie 'n echten Kujau
es tut mir Leid, da kann ich nix dafür,
denn mein eigentliches Ich ist um Urlaub

Am Schluss, da hätte ich noch ne Frage:
Wieso packt ihr alles was ich sage
immer auf die Goldwaage?
Das finde ich voll schade….

he passed his exam. told him "you're lucky already". lol.

omg. great big shock. i feel like entering a warm cosy hole in the earth to avoid the embarrassment. i've been duped!!

today was a learning day. in AR1221 lecture, there was this very well expressed point in the Rem Koolhaas interview. it was on the blurring of boundaries between outside and inside, between specificity and indeterminacy, which results in the outdoors being as constricting as the indoors. it is a very relevant issue, i think. in a sense because it makes you feel so small, like you, the individual, is just part of a determined system.

then in GEK tutorial, i realised that this module is going to be the one that will give me the artistic direction to pursue. not the design module. not the 1221 (Ideas and Approaches to Design). not structural systems. because through all the "past thoughts" of these "past architects" i learnt so much. and yet the thoughts and the architects are timeless. and today the one that struck me was what the term "modernity" in architecture means. it is an entire paradigm shift.

something real funny from da vinci's writings:

"Men born in hot countries love the night because it makes them cool, and they hate the sunlight because it causes them to grow hot again; and for this reason they are of the colour of the night, that is black; and in the cold countries everything is the opposite."

man.. but i just realised that maybe five hundred years ago that wasn't such a ridiculous idea. in fact, it might have been a rather smart comment. i dunno.

secondly, i'm carrying on with my second perusal of 'The Heart of Darkness' and it only occurred to me now that it's actually pretty funny at some parts and i didn't see it then!! i thought it was dark dark and dark. but now i see some lightness in it. wth that sounds quite stupid. nvm.

man.. i turned the alarm clock off. so woke up way late.

anyway the thing about research is, you get to find cool stuff, (which i can now share with everyone through this blog haha):

Warhol's comments on the appeal of Coke:

What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.

– The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: (From A to B and Back Again), 1975, ISBN 0-15-671720-4

that is brilliant. really.

i'm staying over in studio again today. geez so tired. but i'm happy. today we did like 4 sight reading pieces and my sight-reading has improved by leaps and bounds (i think). compared to, say, 4 years ago. lol. i'm thinking, maybe it's to do with the brain.

happiness comes from being free. that's what i think. being free from having to be in the company of people whose company you don't enjoy. being free from caring about what other people think. being free from fear (which is obviously impossible, but we can try).

Firenze has been under my possession for a week now and it's flourishing, i'd say.

i just read the Bertrand Russell essay 'In Praise of Idleness', though it has been lying around in my computer for approximately two years (it's in the ki 2006 folder. lol).

some parts are notably funny:

"Broadly speaking, it is held that getting money is good and spending money is bad. Seeing that they are two sides of one transaction, this is absurd"

"I read recently of an ingenious plan put forward by Russian engineers, for making the White Sea and the northern coasts of Siberia warm, by putting a dam across the Kara Sea. An admirable project, but liable to postpone proletarian comfort for a generation, while the nobility of toil is being displayed amid the ice-fields and snowstorms of the Arctic Ocean."

this is true though: "Peasant dances have died out except in remote rural areas, but the impulses which caused them to be cultivated must still exist in human nature. The pleasures of urban populations have become mainly passive: seeing cinemas, watching football matches, listening to the radio, and so on. This results from the fact that their active energies are fully taken up with work; if they had more leisure, they would again enjoy pleasures in which they took an active part."

honestly, i can't tell which parts are intended sarcasm and which are genuine propositions.

that speaks a lot of my reading and comprehension skills. lol. but ya maybe i should email mr thompson and ask what he thinks. i'm really quite curious.

our aerial screw doesn't fly!!!! i'm so disappointed. the two parts functioned so convincingly on their own, but when combined.. haiz. well. but in the process, we had fun.

a friend from another studio said: "this thing can't fly because.. there's gravity." LOL.

but anyway. if i can't make the human world less gender-oriented, i shall at least not bother giving plants genders. so Firenze shall be an "it". description: variated green-and-pale yellow leafy plant.

back from celebrating tammy and lyg's birthdays. it's crazy. i didn't do any work ytd. so today must slog. and if the new model doesn't work again...

i had a dream. i dreamt that our prototype for the aerial screw worked. lol.

i knew ytd was going to be a good day. i just knew it as i was walking down the stairs into the mrt. lol. except, tuition wasn't very good. God bless fabian for his monday exam. lol.

received a mail from tante inge and it's now Herbst and she attached a picture of the garden turning yellow. so pretty.


no cause for too much happiness. our aerial screw doesn't work! doesn't fly! we spent the entire day building this model based on the gasing principle. doesn't spin fast enough.

i thought Firenze sounds male too.

so the new design assignment is on da vinci's inventions. interesting idea, i'd say. but the problem is, most of his "inventions" either haven't been tested or do not work.

happy Hari Raya to all.

1221 essay finally done. it's sunday. which means.. the term break is over and i haven't rested! wth!! amfufu.

amanda will be back in singapore?? in a few hours' time? see you soon.

halimaw = monster. lol.

man.. this is tough. lol. when again? someday. Alles zu seiner Zeit. and even then, what now? time changes people. people change people. "The only constant is change." who said that? (checked online, i think that's by Heraclitus). i've come to the end. there's nothing to regret, there wasn't anything i would change. it wasn't my decision alone.

it's like your body. as a baby there was a first you. and then there will never be the same you again. you learn to stand, and fall. learn to bike, you fall. try to be funny and you get knocked on the head. the world changes you. the same with your life.

i don't forget. it may not matter, but still i hope you know.

i was a very happy person. lol. ya hor..

i guess this is one thing i enjoy doing: giving tuition to fabian. though sometimes it causes terrible headaches. exam in just a week plus' time.

i've registered for b2.5 exam preparation course, which means i'll be taking the b2 Pruefung this december. so exciting! i need a goal :D

okay tonight must really really finish the AR 1221 essay.

borrowed my brother's bag and came across this:


man.. how long has that bag not been cleaned? lol. but anyway, this is cool artifact! from november 2006. i think that's why everyone needs a sibling. that ticket was pretty. i miss those days. rather miss being in tjchoir. the constantly high feeling. (not true. but i remember only the good bits. there weren't many bads.)

we rocked.

managed to extract the german songs that andrew burned like two years ago, now that i have a dvd drive lol. some are pretty cool.

i lost my sense of identity. lol.

that's how i felt. so i took a pair of scissors from my brother's room, steeled myself and went to stand before the bathroom mirror, and cropped my hair. that makes me sound positively unstable, but i assure you i am more or less sane. i just have this impulse to cut my hair when i feel restless or upset. this is not the first time, so i know what i'm doing.

i'm sorry callista, i saw your NO only after i did it. i may have postponed it or something if i had seen it earlier.

this is what i think: man lives and dies alone.

these days i don't know whom to trust. your friend suddenly becomes enemy and you realise you've been thinking with your, what, nails? stupid prejudice and some of your "friends" are no friend. happened once, twice, thrice, and that's it. chances GONE. lol. of course i'm exaggerating it. that's why i write it. lol. but anyway it doesn't only happen to me..

i thank some people who have been really nice. i wish the world was like that.

i forced myself to turn on the computer so i can rip my cds into the library. desperately need songs. this com is technically empty. anyone with songs to share are welcome to send me some :D

leaving some cds unripped though. there's something about playing cds in your discman, forcing yourself to sit (or stand) through the ones you don't like, and having to repeat twelve, thirteen songs three, four times a day. the sacrifice you have to go through to access the good bits.

break is halfway over and still doing work. lol.

i love this photo.


must save money so i can go back there and visit my "Land of Wonder". very pleasant memories indeed. to me it was like a dream. like i hadn't seen enough and suddenly i was overwhelmed by wonder. everything was awesome. and then the people i met were great. and it was different from like a holiday, because i was living there like a normal life, cooking, washing, watching football, doing grocery, walking around the park.

oh man...

anw this is funny: "The New Facebook is now the only Facebook." lol.

i've decided i'm going to write a book someday. when i'm really free. in this lifetime, yeah. it's going to be a fiction. and it's going to be a cool one like the Catcher in the Rye or Othello or something. it's not going to be categorisable other than under 'Classics' or 'Cool' probably. LOL. and it's going to be a bit funny (ok fine fine i'm seeing rolling eyes here).

crazy over Aerosmith's 'Crazy'.
"what can i do, i feel like the colour blue."

totally different context, though. lol. i dunno why. i wish i weren't such an emo person. man.. scheisse. i think i'll bring Danke to studio. she's going to talk to me, and make funny pleasant noises. and i'll buy a flower. no amount of triggerhappytv can put me back to track.

the thing i like about blogging is.. i can be (relatively) self-absorbed without being self-absorbed, really. at least i'm not imposing it, i mean, only people who want to read will read. ah but this is bad so i should just write elsewhere private, really.

busy week. busy relaxing and playing. lol. oh man.. term break is here! good.

anyway some impactful parting words from fong:
"it will love you back. ... People will disappoint you at some point, but that which you have created will always be yours."

i think it's true. anyway. i want a pet. or a flower. maybe another Lobelia? ok i've decided, i'll buy a pot of flower one of these days. i need to talk to somebody.

i don't know you. i don't know anyone. i fear the unknown.

disillusionment.

again. i've been wondering.. is it possible to be disillusioned over and over again? not sure. but i feel like i don't know anyone. in short, i feel quite upset with the fact that i'm in this world. but nvr mind. i don't want to emo lah..

i've been flipping through my phone folders and found these random lines i used to write when i had nothing to do. they are so lame. like:

Someone with pride will not fall into general stupidity, but in avoiding this, excess pride may lead him to greater stupidity.

The fate of a child is such that he is indebted, but he does not remember that he chose to be hired.

The world has 6 billion human beings, while you only have one world.

There is just so much malice in the world - mosquitoes need to feed, but they do not have to cause itch.

i'll save the rest for when i don't have anything to write.

First I came up with this line:

Life is governed by tensions and compressions, impulses and inertias.

Screw my impulses and inertias, because the latter caused me to stay in bed thinking and talking to myself for approximately half an hour, and the former made me go to my com and type this this moment. It is 4.53 am on my com’s clock. And of all nights it has to happen the night before the 9am PF lecture.

Anyway, this was how it started. I woke up at about four and came up with that line. After coming up with that line I had to find an example to follow through. the example was when you feel like you need a haircut and yet you tend to postpone. ok what kind of pathetic person will come up with such an example??

anyway.. i deleted the rest of the post that i wrote this morning, nvr mind.

so yesterday went to kampong glam for the frank ching workshop and did two sketches. the area is quite pleasant. i've never been there before this so i was quite happy with the bit of sense of adventure that gave. it was also first time sketching outdoors so it was FUN with capital letters. except that i feel like some AA person sitting by the pavement.

try Pokka's Milk Tea when you get the chance to. it's nice. not too sweet.

damn, i feel uncomfortable bordering on THREATENED. lol.

came across this line while researching on Secession style in Wien:
"To every age its art and to art its freedom."

"Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit."

that line is amazing. it was, according to wikipedia, carved above the entrance of the Secesssion building. this line honestly sounds better in english. lol. but anyway the german version is cool cos it so happens all the nouns in this line are feminine!! wow. die Zeit, die Kunst, die Freiheit. anyhow, i realise i missed out many buildings while i was on my trip. like in wien, i did go to the karlsplatz station (to change train!!) but i was only underground! can't believe myself. tsk. but anyway didn't see much of wien lah.. it was only one short (rainy) day.

i wasn't talking about myself, btw.

thanks to the frank ching workshop, i am having (possibly) the slackest week ever. \ and yesterday fabian did his homework! and we managed to revise elimination and cover substitution and some statistics. so i was in very good mood. yeah. i hope he keeps it up.

just got home. finished structures submission part 1. history essay looming ahead, due in two weeks' time.

fawesome.

sunday. and i went to school. man.. well of course that wasn't part of the plan. the plan was always to finish by saturday. lol but hm.. at least i was done pretty early. the worst part of having to go to school on weekends is that... only mcdonald's is open!! so we have to eat that. real pathetic.

of course people change. it's not an important question at all, so long as the change is not for the worse. who defines "worse"? certainly not yourself. that would've been too convenient. i think, hm.. i think, it should be the people who matter most to you. screw the rest of the world.

i think something's wrong with the blog.. not the blog per se, but ya the blog.

anyhow, i don't care. lol. hm, today accidentally met zhongshan at the sde/engin bus stop. which was really a big coincidence. btw i forgot to take photos of my book before handing in.. so ya, no pic! stupid me. i liked my work a lot man.. so i hope they'll return them after grading.

next week i'm (well we all are) going to meet prof Frank Ching. it's like meeting one of the architecture gods. lol. so it's a big deal in the department.

been reading some german blogs of 14, 15 yr olds. content quite lame especially cos i don't even know the people (so i feel like some kaypoh person), but entertaining nonetheless, and besides, oh man just because they're writing in german the posts sound so poetic! okok yes i'm biased. lol.

the best line i've come up with in months:
Life Kills.

lol. well anyhow, happy teachers' day to all. there's nothing much to update other than on work. so it will get boring. after some time you'll realise that i'm having no life. so i can have nothing to blog about other than how pathetic my no-life-situation is. (which is really not that bad, actually.. it's just, yea, no life). well, the extent to which this is affecting me is evident in my vocabulary. it's getting quite shitty. lol.

the only module i'm (quite) getting is History and Theory of Modern Architecture. yap. the rest .. hm i just go through them hoping something good comes out of it. Had fun doing a Spatial and Visual Communication assignment. it was totally relaxing (almost as if i was pursuing a hobby or something). will upload a photo of this fun thing when i have time. the best part is.. i was actually "doing work"!! this is the ideal thing, man..

my biggest worries are piano and deutsch. they're.. let's say.. rolling down a freakily steep slope. i can only hope that typing on keyboard is actually some kind of finger agility exercise (fat hope). and well.. i've started a wortschatz book,but dunno how long i'll stick to it.

haircut. acrylic. lettering. Deutsch. blog. piano. room. home. thoughts. subway. photos.

that was today. in no particular order. ok i guess i got lazy. lol.

this passage struck me as i was re-reading 'The Heart of Darkness'. (btw i stopped re-reading cos i have absolutely no time now).

"It was paddled by black fellows. You could see from afar the white of their eyeballs glistening. They shouted, sang; their bodies streamed with perspiration; they had faces like grotesque masks - these chaps; but they had bone, muscle, a wild vitality, an intense energy of movement, that was as natural and true as the surf along their coast. They wanted no excuse for being there."

another thing that kept running through my mind was:
you have great ears. you always had, and i don't forget that.

let's just say my life is kind of sucking right now. lol. i have to redo and redo and redo assignments. and do things other studios don't have to do. my studio mates call this "bullying" (tutor abusing his position and making us do unnecessary stuffs). nah, i don't think so. i call this "bad luck". or maybe "good luck in disguise". or whatever. this is my principle: i don't do things that harm others or myself. anything else, i'm free to do. what the tutor asked us to do was i think within limits of education in architecture. it's not like he's asking us to give money. besides, i think that there is a hierarchy in life. as it is, he's the tutor, i'm the student. assuming the HRD did their job, the tutor knows what he's doing and it's for the students' education.

in any case, although i am actually rather enjoying myself doing the assignments, this is bad lifestyle. it's bad for health, and bad for the wallet (having to get all the materials and tools ourselves).

in short, i wouldn't mind another 8 months' break. lol.

recently, the only quality essay i've been asked to read was 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' by TS Eliot. it was, i feel, the first coherent, comprehensible and articulate essay i read since the beginning of my life in this department.

some particularly well-expressed lines:
"Tradition ... cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour."
"[The poet] must be aware that the mind of Europe - the mind of his own country - a mind which he learns in time to be much more important than his own private mind - is a mind which changes..."

anyhow.. today two random lines were stuck in my mind (these were my own lines):
why do i make sisters?
no hurries, no worries.

i'm so glad that Hendra Setiawan/Markis Kido won the gold medal yesterday. cos today is our national day! lol. i watched the game, and it was at times so fast that the shuttlecock speed beat the human eye. anyway... congratulations to the pair and also to Lilyana Natsir/Nova Widianto for the silver. and also to the other medalists :)


thank goodness there's Mustafa around the corner. cos i forgot to get clay and wire for tomorrow's session. so had to go there tonight.

i bet the entire singapore is watching the table tennis match now.

this one bloody assignment took me around twelve hours to complete. if the guy doesn't like it.. well too bad. i'll catch up in the next assignment. but i'm actually really glad he asked us to redo, cos i'm feeling much happier with the redo. i guess ya, the ultimate test is your own satisfaction. i'm really not satisfied with my last diagram,, but i was too tired to think so i just did it. if i'm getting some lousy grade, i'm blaming it on the last diagram, and ultimately myself.

a friend summarized my thoughts well: "the weirdness of this course is pissing me off."

so now Indonesia's chances in badminton golds lie with mixed double Lilyana/Nova Widianto and men's double Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan. all this while dear callista is more concerned with Phelps' golds. lol.

am real tired. school has only started for a week, but it feels like an eternity. i cannot believe it was only last week that i went on flag day and watched rag and like still in holiday mood. i must have aged by thirty years.

singapore's 43rd national day. i'll go to the 30th storey to watch the fireworks later.

around two weeks ago i was so surprised (and kind of pissed) that i came back from germany and found crunchips PAPRIKA flavour on cold storage shelves!! the horror! it's not that it tastes bad.. just that it reminds me of how (almost) all the chips there are paprika flavoured. it's quite a shame. but then again, i'm actually eating it now. haha.

ok stop eating chips.

'the mathematics of the ideal villa' is such a bore! i couldn't understand anything!!

anyhow. today's review is 'Botchan' by Soseki Natsume. it was written in 1906. it's really good!! it makes sense that people compare it with The Catcher in the Rye cos the two narrators have similar style - direct and personal. in a way, the whole book sounds like a person ranting. it's really funny it makes me laugh and giggle (in public) which makes me look really ridiculous. having read 'I am a Cat', this Botchan didn't disappoint me. it's lighter and shorter (with no haiku exchanges to confuse me). no wonder Soseki Natsume is one of Japan's greatest modern writer. i guess your enjoyment of the book has to depend on how well you relate to the character of Botchan. the funny thing is, Botchan's real name is never revealed. i think 'Botchan' explores the issue of change (both on his personal level - from childhood to adulthood, and in Japan's society of that time), 'modernism' and its impact on society's values, and also the tension between the individual and society - the last one being the most important one. i shan't go on about this and bore uninterested parties, but if you feel like and have some time, do pick it up!!

four thumbs up for 'Botchan' (that includes the toes).

today's review: DAISO

it's an amazing store where you can get many things from plates to socks to toys at $2 apiece. appearance-wise the stuff are really nice, quality-wise.. not sure. haha. but i imagine they're not that bad. lol. i've personally used a number of things from daiso and they've lasted me quite some time. i should only warn that there are some things that are actually worth less than $2, so think closely before you buy.

p.s. the Vivocity branch has greater variety than the Plaza Sing branch.

The Dark Knight

i enjoyed it. it was kind of "stretched" in length to accommodate the twists and all (what with the joker having to escape the cell and burn rachel and dent, and start another chase). 2.5 hours if i'm not mistaken. but i quite enjoyed it.

some uncomfortable parts. but ya, i don't like dark movies, books, etc. so that's just my taste. not too bad cos it was after all optimistic in the end. (or maybe not so?) 369 votes for murder (i made that number up, but it wasn't far). i'm not too happy about that. but then again, what can i, someone who hasn't been pushed to the edge, say about that?

oh i'm not too worried about spoiling it.. it's been playing about two weeks now. most people would've already watched. but hm, there were still many people just now, so yea. i'll shut up.

i liked the acting. heath ledger was cool, he even sounds quite different. he spoke clearer, too (which is good, cos i usually have problem with trying to catch his words). that was A LOT better than his acting in '10 things i hate about you' ten years ago, or even 'i'm not there'. it's quite funny how christian bale also acted in 'i'm not there'. he's pretty good here, too. oh i know nuts about acting, but i liked it.

watch this. it's the Visit Indonesia 2008 TV commercial. man, i want to travel all round Indonesia. i haven't seen enough.

i'm leaving this town in half an hour's time. :( really sad. this morning went to the market. i've never been in town on saturday. today the town was like filled with people. amazing. there was even a choir outdoor performance :D anyway i don't have time anymore. oh wells. i hope i'll get to visit this place again. went to Mannheim yesterday. nice city. but i don't have time/mood to blog about it now.

tschuess! and auf wiedersehen.

3-2 for deutschland. they didn't play like awesome, but the goals were quite nice. and it was an exciting game overall.

haven't seen this many people at the same time, in the same spot in this city.


which explains why the other streets (ones that do not have Kneipe and eiscafe) are empty.

ok since i'm leaving the city soon, i'll write an entry on it. i'll miss this place. it's a nice place to live in. we went to the park to walk around today and everyone agreed that this has been worth every penny. and they were telling me that it's worth the money getting a single room. well, i'm not in any position to disagree with that lol.

anyway this is the Stadt Plan by the roadside. if you bother to click on the image to magnify it, you'll see this street called 'Wilhelm-Meister-Weg' right up in the "north". that's where i stay. the goethe institut is in the u-shaped building somewhere below this street, on the street called 'Am Spitalbach'. the pedestrian zone is bullshit. the CITY BUS goes through these roads. ya but fewer vehicles. the area between the marketplace and the river is the city centre, where most shops are, except the supermarket (which is on the other side of the river).

i don't know why i'm writing all these. lol.

went to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber yesterday. er.. not to my fancy. too touristy. in fact, the number of japanese tourists is so high that anyone asian is considered japanese. probably. cos i went into this shop and the salesperson said "Konnichiwa". -.-

good thing is, i got to get souvenirs, which are hard to find in Schwaebisch Hall. but they're kind of pricey as well. anyway. this shop sells the things usually found in christmas markets. this is june, so obviously there's no christmas market. the shop is for tourists. nice stuff. but kind of expensive. don't go to the Kriminalmuseum. it's not worth it. lousy display.


i went on a walk to Comburg on my own today. about 4 km there and back. er.. the church wasn't open for sighting this morning. so i could only view the exterior. i'm currently smelling of the sun. it's really sunny outside. not complaining.


this is the view of Schwaebisch Hall from the Kocher (that's the river). i took a pic cos i'm leaving soon. :(

went to watch Mozart's Zaide at Stuttgart Staatsoper. we didn't know it was going to be a modern interpretation. well, i'm not big on the interpretation and the story. but the singing and the orchestra were good. the music was enjoyable. and it was only 1.5 hours! i expected it to be like 3 hours. weather was good, so we walked a bit along the main road before the start. overall an enjoyable performance. i could appreciate it much better than yesterday's play.

must try Kinder country. it's really nice. lol.

omg i missed a freaking fantastic goal..

the play was totally not my type. so ya. it was also quite funny cos during the play people were making hand signals to the other side of the stage. so i knew it was 2-0 at that point. anyway at 9.50 or so we had intermission. i think 3/4 of the audience (including me) switched to becoming football audience at the nearby gelatteria. lol. i could still catch the last 40 mins or so. i didn't return. i find the game more worth watching than the play.

anyway fortunately i could watch video highlights on the net. watch it here:
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/2060973

is Podolski left-footed? he seems to kick a lot with his left foot.

Sorry. yea. The score. 3-2 for germany.

this piece is cool. haha.



germany playing tonight against Portugal. quarter finals. hope they go through. i hope i'll be able to catch at least the last half an hour of the game. i've to read the 'Merry Wives of Windsor' now.quick. watching the play tonight. hopefully not too long.

went to watch football at an italian eiscafe. the rest of the people watched football at the stammtisch in some bar, but we didn't cos we don't like the crowd. it was funny that angela merkel was there (on tv, not in the eiscafe). and then during the break there was a news report on her being in poland and she was wearing the same suit. so we went like, she went directly to watch the game?? ok. Deutschland 1 - 0 Oesterreich. sad that the goal was a free kick. but okay at least they've now secured a place in the quarter finals, so we can go on more footballgamewatchingsession. that's Anglizismus. no that's a joke. ok no that was a "joke". and this morning in class we discussed (the teacher said this) how weird it was that angela merkel gave frans beckenbauer a hug. cos usually for the chancellor it's fine, but for a chancellorin.. and before that she hugged bastian schweinsteiger first. so it was kind of surprising to our teacher.

ok the joke was based on this german tendency to create very long words by connecting two or more words together. for example "Lebenshaltungskosten" = cost of living. but i guess it's not funny now that i've explained it. not that it was funny in the first place. ha.

i watched the indonesian film 'Gie' on youtube on friday. it's a movie on the life of activist Soe Hok Gie in the 1960s. the movie is quite recent, though. Nicholas Saputra acts okay.. but i think his voice makes it freaking boring. i can't comment much on how good it is as a movie, as i don't know much about Soe Hok Gie myself. nevertheless it was okay-enjoyable, though very long.

the soundtrack is really really nice though. so i'm posting it here.

went on an 8-km walk with two japanese friends. about there. to see the "BIG TREE" and back. it was a nice walk although it drizzled halfway. and then we had a great lunch. haha, but i still hope i burned more calories than i took in.

Schwaebisch Hall from the top of the hill.

walked through a village. this house has freaking pretty flowers!!

the "Grosser Baum". right. we walked freaking 4 km for this?? there was a tree this size in front of my primary school!!

but oh well it was fun. besides, there isn't much else to do in town on a sunday. everything's closed. and it was a good way of experiencing nature. so ya, i don't mind going wandering again some other day.

today we went to a trip to the region of Schwaeb. Alb. it was crazy cold. about 10 degrees. that, to me, was real cold. anyhow. we set out at 7.30 am and reached home about 7.30 pm. 12 hours. hm.. well overall i liked the stuttgart trip better. haha. this one, well not too bad towards the end but the first two stops were.. not cool.

had 3 stops. 1. Schloss Lichtenstein. i checked this out online. it's nowhere near Liechtenstein the country (with e), which is next to Switzerland. and it's also nowhere near Lichtenstein the city, which is in germany but in Saxony (and we're in a different province, Baden-Wurttemberg). anyway, for the 2.5 hours journey we went through to get there, it wasn't worth it. there wasn't much to see cos we were only shown like 4 rooms?? looks quite cool from the outside though.


2. Baerenhoehle. this was the lowest point of the trip, cos we were so hungry, and so freaking cold. if it was 10 degrees outside, imagine, it was probably like 6 freaking degrees inside the cave. i wasn't so big on this because erm.. i HAVE SEEN a stalactite-stalagmite cave. besides the guide spoke with quite a strong accent and quickly, too, and with technical terms, i understood nearly zero. plus my brain wasn't thinking with all the cold. so it was really unimpressive. there were bear remains though (as seen below).


3. Schloss Sigmaringen. it doesn't look very nice from just outside. but this was the best part of the trip cos the interior was cool, albeit more "recent". and the guide was clear and informative. some really cool frescos, too. unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photographs within the walls of the Schloss.

freaks. look at this person's backyard. it's full of flowers!! (i think they're all roses. i think). the white and peach ones are bigger than my fist. it's really pretty. i hope the owner's not offended i took this picture. lol.


yesterday we watched this film called 'Das Wunder von Bern' about the 1954 world cup which germany won (which they see as really important in the re-building of the nation's confidence after the world war II). film was nice.. quite easy to understand, also because i could just concentrate on the subtitle. (german, of course, otherwise we'd be learning nothing.) as usual i find the ending far-fetched. but overall it was quite enjoyable. then, as yesterday was Bill's birthday (in blue), five of us went to "celebrate" at a Kneipe. then Turkey won the match against Switzerland and the roads were as noisy as they were on sunday when Germany won.


i met a madman yesterday. he talked a lot and was quite annoying but maybe i should consider that an opportunity to put my german to use. fortunately i wasn't alone so it wasn't so bad. we got a new teacher today. he looks like einstein. really. a bit. so far i like the old one better but i guess it just takes getting used to.

went on a day trip to Stuttgart yesterday. we visited the Mercedes Benz museum. the building's cool. you start at the top level and walk down. it's supposed to capture some historical stuff too, but i think it's like 95% on mercedes benz and the company history. and here and there, they throw in random bits of historical events. and that's only on the wall displays. i must have passed a thousand cars in there. all Merc. ya i was only interested in the early motors and the middle parts was kind of boring to someone who's not a car-enthusiast. but having said that, i must add it was okay enough to make me spend 2 hours plus in it.

i was totally not interested in the racing cars.

this one's cool man. it was made in 1991!!! it's so ahead of it's time.

well then we went to the Stadtmitte and walked around a bit. i had macs cheeseburger for lunch. costs 1 euro, so it's like double the price home. it tastes the same though. the Schlossplatz is cool..

i'm obsessed with toilets. this one cost me 30 cents. i'd say that although the idea of the all-automated toilet is cool, (and it looks cool) it's still kind of dirty.

ok it's actually still 6 June. it's 11.30 pm. i just came back from watching a local high-school theatre production with the other students, where i understood nearly zero. the play was called "Fruehlings Erwachen". after the intermission i totally blanked. the school was so far from the city centre.. and it was an upward slope all the way. (which fortunately made the return trip easy).

on the way back we passed by this cherry tree. and they all picked some so i did, too. well i picked ONE. lol. from the nearest branch. a friend helped me pick more cos i was too short to reach the other fruits. yes, and they are edible. i ate them without washing.

Erdbeeren!! from my Japanese classmate Emi, who got this from her friend. she must have thought i got depressed after not buying those strawbs at the market or something. haha anyway they are really nice. hm then i asked her how to pronounce my name in japanese and turned out it's "Ou Keishi". what kind of name is that??? lol.

my classroom. i sit where the blue bottle is.

i am so glad nothing's awry with my Lobelia. cos yesterday it looked... well, not promising. but maybe it was just the weather. cos today the sun finally shined again!! and it's warm (in a positive way). pretty weather.

so since the weather's friendly, i went to the post office and then to the general store to buy chocolates. and to walk around and take photos a bit.

the Goethe-Institut building. it was formerly a hospital.

St.Michael Kirche. the big staircase is also used as stage for outdoor theatre performances.

where i stay.