Fries and Coffee

I guess i am in awe of people who can find the energy and effort to blog constantly. I would like to spend time writing and updating and talking about stuff but i can’t believe that i am actually busier than i thought it would be. Heck, i am busier now during the summer hols then i was during the semester! damn this Erasmus exchange thingy which makes you think you got the larger slice of the pie when you actually got duped into having some fun while other people are studying and stuck doing super amounts of work when everyone else is having fun.

Of course it is not really anyone’s fault or that exchange program is a bad thing. I’m just complaining cause i am stuck in Mcds or some coffeeshop day after day doing my stuff when the festivities rage outside all around me because it’s the city center and heart of the festival. And why am i in Mcds or some coffeeshop? Because the lousy internet isn’t working. It’s so crap. It’s so frustrating because it cuts efficiency into half. or less. You might infer that oh, no internet, no surfing = more productive but I keep on needing the internet for this small matter or other, and you have to collect all the things you want to do into a to-do list for the next day when you are finally again in a free wi-fi zone. Bah. And to think i paid 2 euro for each gig of bandwidth for an Internet Service Provider that isn’t working half the time, and now i have to pay some euros for fries or a coffee each day just to use the internet for a few hours.

 

Back in Ghent

I am back in Ghent safe and sound, except for a terrible toothache in the final days of the trip that was really the only bad thing about the past two weeks. The change in the city in preparation for the festival is palpable. The construction of great temporary stages of steel and plastic in marked areas of the city center, with the largest one constructed over a waterway of all places. A sudden influx of young people crowding the streets, and notable are the sudden increase of foreign faces and languages. Posters and flyers decorating walls and street lamps and just about everything, free timetables of the events being distributed to eager youths. Security is out in force too - extra patrol cars, key roads prepared to be closed, the presence of extra security personnel… all sorts of subtle reminders signaling the start of the festival.

It’s time to party!!!

*no internet access at home (again) which explains the short update.

 

Berlin

We’ve just arrived in Berlin, the last big (and my, how big) city of the trip, also the super highlight and climax of the past 11 days or so. For two nights we are staying in a huge youth hostel part of the Hostelling International chain, the same one we used during the first weeks in Ghent. It’s the first time we are actually sleeping in a proper room with our own beds - past nights have either been depending on the hospitality of Alex’s friends or in a tent.

Internet time is running out; bye

 

Stuttgart

I’m in Stuttgart now, the birthplace of Mercedes Benz, Porsche and the guy who made lots of hot-air balloons for traveling.

Last night we spent the night at a friend’s place where 3 out of 4 guys were named Alex. Alex Tee, Alex Schumm, Alex Lang. Talk about originality..

Wanted to post some photos again, but was 5 minutes late, all of them are in the external drive now, safely packed away..

Got to go!

 

Guten tag

About two years ago I was doing some research on the Commerzbank tower in Frankfurt by Norman Foster. Well, two days ago I finally saw it in real life. That’s one wish achieved…. I was gonna post some pictures of Germany, but in the end I couldn’t. Complicated story.

Anyway, tomorrow we leave Mannheim, where Alex stays and where we have been for the past 3 days and go erm, lots of places… First stop, Schwarzwald - otherwise known as the Black Forest.

An important thing i learned - the ß in the German language actually stands for ’ss’. So, schloß is not actually the German version of ’slob’, but Schloss; or castle in English.

Might have no access for internet for awhile, and I keep my phone switched off most of the time, so email me if you need me.. probably not.

I wanted to write more, but as usual i have been procrastinating and now I have to go to sleep… Early day tomorrow.

Guten Nacht!

 

Just a quick note

So i spent today poring over books in preparation of the Architecture History & Theory essay. A particular book which was interesting was about tourist-historic cities, which are the type of cities most people visit when they go to Europe. I bet you didn’t know that for different types of historic cities there are different types of marketing strategies used to milk the maximum profit from a bunch of musty old buildings and crumbling statues, just because some guy decided to do something there once that ended up being remembered by everyone. It seems strange and i have to admit that i never thought of looking at the “historic-tourist city” from the viewpoint of a functional and highly efficient money-making model.

 

Mundane Update #2114

Um, this is probably the last update for some time. Tomorrow we go to Luxembourg via Waterloo & Han-sur-Lesse, and I have then only Thursday and Friday to wrap up LOTS of things that are at hand before heading off to the two-week trip in Germany. Things to finish include laundry (how mundane), sending out the first batch of cvs and portfolios to offices in Edinburgh & London, print out a bunch of forms and have them signed by the people at the University here, get my results, clean my room (again), read and return the books to the public Library………….

That said the last week have been largely enjoyable. Pace of life has been blissfully slow - sleeping in, eating ice-cream and taking long walks through bookstores and shops, spending some time with work, chilling, beer and chips by the Graslei, Euro Cup accompanied with more beer & chips…..

I read somewhere that Ghent has a problem with midges and gnats because of the presence of so much still water. I have to agree. For the past few days i have to fight my way through the living room through mini clouds of insects. And then again from the kitchen to the toilet. We didn’t know why because we had a no-food-waste-inside-the-house policy so all the pesky flies should be at the garbage shed and not everywhere. Finally today we couldn’t stand it anymore and went on an insect-killing rampage armed with a fly swatter and some DIY flytraps. Along the way we discovered the culprit(s) - some bananas of unknown origin hidden atop the fridge, and an opened but unfinished can of tomato puree in the hard plastic bin.

I hate flies.

Watching football in the terrace - Wellingstraat 9. Clockwise from the guy sipping wine (me) - Martyna, Eliska, Pei Fun, Xevi, Wiert, Krzysztof, Andres.

 

The truth about the Internship and dates

Yes, i have to do an internship/year out/training/work for 10 months. No, i have not sent my applications out yet… I am aware that it take ages for replies (here’s sincerely hoping that there WILL be replies asking me to attend interviews) But seriously… I have my reasons. Mostly it’s because it doesn’t make sense. I have booked my air ticket to Glasgow for the 5th of August (because i have to go back eventually), and the lethal combination of fuel price increase and summer holidays have driven travel prices so high up that it’s unfeasible for me to make the trip across the North Sea more than once. Also, my family is coming to visit in September so i can only start my internship proper in October. Thus i am waiting until i get back from Germany on the 19th of July before sending out applications. Ideally, replies will coincide nicely with the date of my return, so i can then attend these interviews while waiting for my interim and final presentation and external examination on the 13th, 20th, and 21st of August respectively. Here are the important dates for the upcoming 2 months:

5th of July - Super Germany trip starts
19th of July - Return from Germany, Gentse Feesten starts
28th of July - Gentse Feesten ends, packing starts…
5th of August - Glasgow; time to look for a place to stay next year and to find a job
13th of August - Interim review date
20th of August - Exchange students’ Final Presentation date
21st of August - External Examination
8th of September - Family arrives (gotta find a house and a job by then)

One thing about this summer is that everything is spaced in blocks of two to three weeks, ensuring that I do not get too long a break at any time or that i would not be too busy at any time. The pacing is perfect, but it sucks that It becomes exponentially harder to get a part-time job.

By applying so late i hope to avert a few problems - the first being the likely possibility that even if a firm is interested and invites me for an interview, they’re liable to lose interest when i tell them that i am too stingy/rather go traveling than to go back just for an interview, like it has happened to Flora and Nicholas. Secondly i hope to capitalize on the fact that during late July and early August, many of the firms’ existing trainees who have stayed on beyond their required 10-month period to work through the summer will be leaving, freeing up spaces otherwise unavailable up till late June.

Well, I do really believe in the reasons i laid out and i do stick by them, but last but not least I am (conveniently) also only about 70% ready to send out my applications.. haha. Any excuse is better than none to pacify the feeling of uncertainty and pressure i get when people around me are all talking about interviews and jobs. I’m easily satisfied =p

Now stop asking!

 

In recent months I find that I have lost the ability to articulate my thoughts properly. I have an ever-increasing notion that whatever I am writing does not reflect my feelings or what I am trying to say. Normally i end up getting more confused. I usually have a few things running simultaneously in my head at any time, but when I start to type I often end up blank and/or typing something totally different. My fingers have always had a habit of acting on their own, but it seems much more worse nowadays.

It’s annoying.

 

To do or not to do

For almost a week a full-suspension mountain bike like the one above was locked to a post outside my school along the Zwartezusterstraat. On the second or third day, while walking past it i sauntered over to have a closer look at the bike. Upon going closer i realized that the owner was a real idiot because the lock was placed under the seat, around the top tube. Normally that would have been enough, but with a full suspension bike i reasoned that technically the lock could be removed by merely lifting it over the seat. So i tried it, and it worked - the lock came off easily.

A little context - bike thefts are rampant in Ghent. The general idea is, lock your bike or it will be stolen. The prevailing rationale for the would-be thief when they come across an unlocked bike is if you don’t take it then someone else will. Moreover, as bikes are more a mode of transportation than something for recreation (as they are in Malaysia and i bet other countries), the majority of bikes are simple and functional but ugly and usually something is broken (most bikes in Ghent operate with only one brake from what i can see). So it was quite a rarity to come across a full-suspension bike.

I have to say that I’ve nicked a few things before, but never something that could cost up to 500 or 600 pounds. It was a real struggle between my conscience and the kleptomaniac in me, but in the end my conscience (or the bright daylight) prevailed and i left it there for the time being. I considered it for a couple more days but I didn’t make any decision. Johannes told me sometimes the police leaves traps, and Flora and Nicholas told me not to do it. I couldn’t decide because i know how sad the owner would feel (unlike if it was, say, a typical half-broken old bike) but then again, it’s a brutal world, =p and it was there for my taking, however morally wrong it is. Like it or not, it was a valid opportunity, particularly so in a place where it’s almost expected that if you don’t lock your bike properly it’s likely to be stolen. Plus i couldn’t understand how someone who spent that kind of cash for a bike like this couldn’t even be bothered to keep it secure.

Earlier tonight I went out to have a few beers. When I returned the bike was gone. The only thing left was the lock, still locked to the post.

I don’t really know how i feel now; I suspect there’s a lesson to be learned here. But which? In the meantime, I feel like I’ve found 400 Euros on the street and walked on.

 

George Carlin

George Carlin died. He was 71. The first time i heard of him was a few years ago when i came across one of his quotes. A few years it might be, but when i first read that he died the quote immediately surfaced… and i suppose it is my duty to share it with everyone =p

“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating in a spa with central heating and you finish off as an orgasm.”

He was ridiculously funny and one of my favourite comedians. (Not that i had many or knew of many)

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
How is it possible to have a civil war?
One nice thing about egotists: they don’t talk about other people.
If God had intended us not to masturbate he would’ve made our arms shorter.

Google him for more!

 

17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st June

Yesterday we met a Malaysian who had been working in Aalst, Belgium for the past 20 years. Over a long lunch in a Chinese restaurant (a rarity for me) in the heart of Brussels he shared with us many of his personal experiences. He started with “the pitiful European life” because he said “in Europe you eat bread for breakfast 365 days a year”. It was interesting because many of his tales relates with the working-class rather than with students, which we’re used to, or with the filthy rich which are boring and likely to elicit a head-shaking response from me. It was also interesting because he had some good jokes. Also, over the past 20 years he somehow became a repository of random knowledge so that made for interesting conversation. Against a backdrop of police bodyguards and sealed-off roads for a convention of presumably EU delegates and ministers he filled us in on how changes in European politics have had an effect on the life of a typical Malaysian immigrant.

For all his 20 years, we had something new for him too - I convinced him to go with us to the Palace of Justice to nearly sprain our necks gawking at the awesomeness of the interior space. I was there with Maarten earlier in February but it was a Sunday so we couldn’t get in. (However that time we managed to sneak into a really cool abandoned railway station so it was a good day anyway) This time we got in 2 minutes before closing time so that was a bit of a dampener but it certainly had a lasting effect anyhow.

Speaking of Palaces of Justice, a day before that I went for an exhibition by Bronek’s girlfriend Hanne at Gent’s own palace (justitiepaleis or gerechtshof in Dutch). She recently received her Masters in Textile Design and was presenting the bulk of her project. It was really interesting for more reasons then one. First was of course Hanne’s textile designs, second because the new (or nieuw as they say it here) justitiepaleis was a rather nice building designed by Stefaan Beel. (He is a rather prolific and prominent Belgian architect. He builds so much here that sometimes i think he is the only architect in Belgium.)

Also, today we went to Kortrijk for a day trip and stumbled upon an exhibition of industrial design. All these exhibitions are cool because when you see all of them you soon view design from more perspectives than just that of architecture. When you exhibit tables and glasses and chairs in a design exhibition they suddenly become “cool”. Andy Warhol was certainly a visionary.

Those were excerpts of what happened in the past few days. If you have problems reading words and need to see pictures you can find out what happened on the 17th by clicking here. On the 18th Tristyn and Boris came to visit. On the 19th it was Nicholas and Angeline. I’m tired of repeating all the things i learned about Ghent for the 4th time, after Alex and khaiyong in March.

On an ending note, i know sometimes i use the term we without actually mentioning any names. It’s because i am too lazy to write down all the different names who went to different places on different days. Suffice to say just accept that each “we” used in this post refers to different people.

 

Take Some Give Some

Twice in the past few days I shared the breakfast table with an elderly French couple. I remembered enough French from one semester of “French for All” to understand the gist of what they were saying. It was strange because it felt as if i was eavesdropping, since they couldn’t possibly have guessed that i understood what they were saying. Then again, was it meant to be a private conversation since it was said in a public setting? Anyway they were merely talking about mundane stuff like the weather.

The Rock Werchter Festival (www.rockwerchter.be) is playing from3rd-6th of July, and is one of the most well-known rock festivals in Europe, with Lenny Kravitz, Radiohead, The Chemical Brothers, Kate Nash, KT Tunstall, Kings of Leon to name just a few from the highly impressive lineup.

On the 5th of July, the date of the best lineup (Radiohead) I will be on the train bound for Mannheim early in the morning..

The Gent Jazz Festival (www.gentjazz.com) starts in mid-july and features jazz greats like Erykah Badu, Diana Krall, Herbie Hancock among others…

Likewise, on the day Diana Krall is performing, one of my all-time favorites, I will still be in Germany…

Damn damn damn!

If you are looking for updates, i am currently saving like hell to be able to go the extra mile (literally). It seems wrong to live normally and still go traveling when times are (generally) harder. This means doing only things that are free (like Euro cup sans betting), cutting down on food and beer, and generally muck about at home or go for walks.

And you thought mamak food was unhealthy… just look at what constitutes cheap food here =p. Alongside Turkish pizzas, they cost the least if you’re not cooking. Talk about the rising cost of oil (pun intended).. and by this i mean blood cholesterol levels.

This post goes on to say that you can’t have everything. You take some, you have to give some too in one way or another. And this sentence means something more but I don’t know what to write about it now. Next post maybe.

 

Snowy Evening

One of my favourite poems by Robert Frost:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Simple, beautiful and perfect

Why can’t life be like that? aha or can it?

 

Japanese Curry

Last night i went to Yoshi’s farewell party. He will be flying back to Fukuoka next Tuesday via a circuitous route - Charleroi to Paris to Hong Kong to Fukuoka. I bought a chair for 60 cents and a packet of Japanese curry for 1 euro in Yoshi’s farewell auction. I consider them a good buy, at least a better one than Nagore’s 5 euro purchase of a magazine or Xevi’s 7 euro purchase of a lamp. =p I was late because I was stuck in a wild-goose chase in the middle of nowhere of Belgium. We barely caught the last bus back to Ghent. It’s depressing to walk for an hour under the rain. If you thought Scotland was gloomy wait till you come to Belgium. What was worse was that i just bought myself a copy of The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture Travel Edition at half price, and now the cover has a fucking indelible water stain because rainwater seeped through my backpack!!! AGH

The crit is now over, and it was terrible. Not my presentation itself, which was good i suppose, but the whole mess of juries and tutors and rankings and whatnot. This has to be the worst studio i ever attended. Which is a shame because it also contained so many memorable experiences. I have to say i learned nothing from this tutor except that i should never depend on tutors so much (something someone told me earlier but i didn’t really grasp the meaning at that time). Believe me, i gave him every credit i could, gave him all the benefit of doubt and was the most lenient in criticizing him when compared to my classmates but still i have to say that i learned nothing of use from him. This is not to say this semester was not a great learning experience, which it was, but suffice to say he was excluded entirely from this learning experience and that is not by my choice. And that is a real shame because it clouds this otherwise great semester.

Today is the first day post-crit that i can really sit down and read stuff, think about stuff, and ultimately write them down here (or in a draft).. so you can probably expect a few more posts on the way. If you don’t you’ll know i got tired of the computer and went out for a walk.

 

Change we can believe in?

Barack’s Obama commencement address at Wesleyan University, calling for service, and other nice-sounding stuff.

http://obamabarack.blogspot.com/2008/05/barack-obama-addresses-wesleyan.html

oh my, the words.

If a local politician said anything like that; what would be the overwhelming reaction of the Malaysian public?

A truly distorted way (but probably not far off from the truth) of looking at the democratic process is that people vote for the people saying the things they want to hear. It’s an interesting question that if these words are said to the Malaysian public, would they or would they not fall on deaf ears. One’s answer depends on the level of cynicism in one’s outlook i suppose.

 

Stabbed to death by vector lines

Ok I’m bloody tired. More than 14 hours spent rearranging and editing plans punctuated by only two 20-minute frisbee breaks and 2 meal breaks is enough to kill my back and neck because i have a stingy landlord who doesn’t believe in buying good chairs. Or it could be those endless mess of vector lines constantly stabbing my neck like needles.

molz - landlords should invest in good chairs for their tenants damnit says:
stupid chair

Joh. - malaisian tenants should not complain and just be happy says:
no bitchin’ to me eh

molz - landlords should invest in good chairs for their tenants damnit says:
you spelled Malaysian wrong

ok that wasn’t how the conversation went exactly but it’s not too far off.

I need a break from words and lines - so here is the second picture post in the 19 months or so history of this blog. muahaha.

I totally forgot i had to do some sort of week-by-week studio documentation project until a few days ago, so i am belatedly snapping photos of the process. Pre-crit weekend:

Wiert the 3d visualization artist

Workstation 1: Johannes & Wiert

Workstation: 2: Me & Eliska the 3d modeler. I’m in charge of drawings and panels and whatever that needs to be written.

Johannes the modelmaker. Now why didn’t i get one of those in Malaysia? It’s so convenient i almost cried when i first used it.

Old test models. The one in the foreground was one of the earliest ones. The one in the background was the most recent one.

Final model in (single-handed) progress. That’s the DLR track. Johannes is about a thousand times better than me at making models.

 

Self

Ignoring all other aspects, a huge problem with the communist ideology was probably the loss of the “self”. When everything is conceived as one entity the parts that make up the entity immediately loses all sense of self and becomes part of a bigger whole, like a colony of ants. That i suppose is the worst thing that can ever happen because your character is possibly the only thing you can call your very own. Ayn Rand paints a seriously gloomy picture of the world in The Fountainhead if the human population were made up of ant colonies (haven’t got to reading Atlas Shrugged yet). We all know the importance of a individualized style, especially for designers (and students of design).

So what happens when people work in a group to produce a work that requires lots of brainwork? Without a strong leader, I think it’s inevitable that one of two things happen; either you debate to an ultimatum and sour faces appear, leading to an early demise (of the group), or one (or more) has to give in. Groups may work when roles are clearly defined i suppose, either by strengths and weaknesses of individual members or by responsibilities or other types of role allocations. Otherwise, you have a ticking time bomb that is liable to detonate when stress levels rise.

But to work purely as an individual slows both productivity and efficiency, as well as a gradual narrowing of perspective as one loses the big picture. Friction between different opinions and constant critical appraisals between group members makes it easy to conceive of good ideas, and progression moves faster because of all the different brains working on the same problem.

To have completely submissive teammates is counter-productive as well. Productivity increases of course but in essence it’s merely the work of one person, albeit one with extra arms and legs. At the end it doesn’t make much difference if you worked on your own. It gets worse if everyone in the group is equally submissive.

To have a leader who is by far better, smarter, more experienced and more capable than the rest of the group may seem a workable answer, but if you have such a group the leader probably wants to leave that group for a better group, or the rest of the group prefer members on similar wavelengths, unless if the better individual is merely looking for extra arms and legs, which then restricts the ability of the rest of the group to grow.

Tolerance and compromising may seem to be the only win-win answer. And to sacrifice your (individuality) for the greater good (the eventual completion of the work on time) seems sensible.

Yeah but it makes one feel like shit. Argh.

 

About Me

I added an about page, just for the heck of it. Link is on upper top right corner! May change if my mood changes..

 

Medusa Tower

Ok, i know right now it looks like Medusa had a bad hair (snake) day, complete with flattened snakes. Believe me, I’m working on it.

I love Vray for Sketchup. Ever since I’ve installed the plugin last night I’ve been rendering non-stop and marveling at the remarkable lack of effort needed to achieve nice renderings. and conveniently ignoring work. whee.

 

That’s history for you

The last Hindu monarchy, in Nepal has been abolished and Nepal is now a republic.

It’s the first time in a few thousand years that there’s no more Hindu monarch reigning anywhere in the world.

Think of that!

Other than that, world (and local) news remains mostly grim.

good news, where art thou?

I often wonder if journalists just stay away from reporting good news because bad news is more readily available or sell more papers or good news comes in different, unreportable ways or what. One day i will sit down and think about where the hell did all the good news go.

 

Fruitful discussions

Discussions in the studio, an illustration accompanying the earlier post that i forgot to include. Maybe will post more pictures of the studio later.

 

How Fitting

Over a series of unrelated events today i came to the conclusion that people and things don’t change, only the perception changes. By perception i am referring to both our perception and also the perception of the people/objects that are being perceived. Yes i know objects can’t really “perceive”, but i mean that in a very liberal sense so please expand your semantic limits to accommodate the liberties that i am taking.

That by itself is of course a rather general statement that may seem “obvious as hell”, but i think that understanding that phenomenon is a key factor to a happy life. I have to admit that i don’t understand much yet and therefore suck at all sorts of interpersonal relationships. It may seem to be an interesting topic to explore but i am too tired now to think anymore about it.

It’s not only this incident, not by far, but the turning point in realizing this was after spending 5 hours in a very unfruitful discussion at the studio. At this stage in the project, with deadlines nearing and tempers flaring, it is almost impossible for anyone to get anything through to the same people they were discussing concepts enthusiastically with a month ago. It seems to me that at this stage, people only listen to what they want to hear, and what which does not want to be heard is ignored no matter how important it is. This creates a situation where the one with the fastest words and the loudest voice wins. It is a problem for me because i am not so good with spontaneity, preferring to think things through and not say anything until i have given the problem sufficient consideration. It makes for awkward situations when two members argue to a standstill and ask “What do you think Alex?”, hoping of course for me to take a side when i am still unsure that the topic at hand is worth arguing about. Then i answer: “I seriously think this is unnecessary discussion”, which of course doesn’t make anything better. To add salt to injury, all four members (including me) in the group do not speak English as their first language, causing huge problems in communication.

Make no mistake, this is an immensely good experience; especially when all four members also apply different methodologies in almost every aspect of the design process, right up to preferred software and presentation styles. But right now, it is just causing mega problems in communication and efficiency. When i look back to the early stages of the project, it seems that now we use 90% of discussion time to solve 10% of the problems when a month ago we used 10% of the time to solve 90% of the problems.

After that stressful afternoon i went home to discover, among other things, internet access (how magical) and a quote sitting in my igoogle page by French author Anais Nin that summarizes everything i learnt today. More importantly, it emphasizes my point perfectly because the same quote would not have had any effect on me yesterday, and don’t tell me that the quote “changed”… The quote: We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.

How fitting.

 

Mysterious Electives

My internet access was cut since Wednesday night, and will be cut till midnight Tuesday. So obviously, no forthcoming updates till then. I am now in the only McDonald’s in the city center of Ghent with a borrowed laptop to check my mail, but somehow Gmail doesn’t work so i am blogging. The internet bandwidth meter works in mysterious ways. In the evening i have 1175mb left, as an example, and at midnight i might have 2170mb all of a sudden, or none. The latter happened on Wednesday night, and even more mysterious, they have decided to block my account until midnight Tuesday. There is a bandwidth meter FAQ, but it’s in dutch so it’s gibberish to me. Johannes tried to explain it in English to me but he might as well have been talking in dutch for all the understanding it accorded me. It’s like living on the edge, not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

-_-

Lame jokes aside, i have gotten tired of the daily headaches i have been experiencing so i have decided to kick my 5am bedtime habits once and for all, and sleep before 1am from now on. This is the third day; so far, so good, but of course it’s still too soon to say.

The final presentation for design studio is on the 4th of June, but for the first time there are so many things to do after that it doesn’t have any ring of finality about it. Mostly it’s things i have to do for Strathclyde - Academic Portfolio, some compliance document for some accreditation thingy, an essay, some booklet or i don’t know what, a couple of papers and presentations for the compulsory “electives” which is a seriously stupid term if you ask me. I mean, they even took the liberty to register those subjects for me.

That’s all for now.

 

Wah!

Waking up every morning with a headache brought on by fitful sleep due to the sunlight streaming in early early in the morning… a headache that gets worse during the course of the day because i am cooped up in my room, facing the monitor the whole day busy with all sorts of different projects…. ah, life could be better.

Lethargic lethargic lethargic..

Yup, it’s that time of the semester again.

 

Superpork

This is the Super Ultimate Germany Trip as planned by Alex (Schumm). Total length ca. 2600-2800km (including additional touring), resulting in a gas(or petrol, if you prefer) bill of ca. 280euro.

My only comment is… i will be broke after this. The plan was to start at Mannheim, where Alex lives. (look for the marker)

Post title refers to an joke that was made in Edinburgh. It was the only other travel experience with him. (aside from Ghent)

 

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For Justina.. haha.. not exactly a picture of my face, but yeah. Anyways, no change in my face, just older and fatter. That’s me having an extremely romantic picnic lunch on a wobbly piece of wood in Dinant, somewhere in the south of Belgium with Natsuko, Yoshi, Yu, Eliska and Flora. The last two are not in the photo..

Internet access is fixed, (and partly because i can check my mail easily even if i don’t have proper internet access) it was a shock to realize i miss reading the news and google more then i miss anything else.

 

General notice

I suspect the router next door is broken. So, i have no internet at home for awhile. This means,

for friends & general readers: limited updates
for some friends: no email replies
for family: no email replies or updated travel plans
for me: incredible annoyance because i need it so much to do research

it’s worse than streamyx because they dont reply the freaking messages, emails or answer the freaking phone.

 

Week in review

Haven’t updated for more than a week, so now i give you two posts because i am not in the mood for any sort of schoolwork. Last week was finally a week where i felt like a proper student after all the idling. Presentations, tutorials, and so on, and then the obligatory mid-week party (last week’s theme was Balkan. I didn’t know how to dress like a Balkan, so i didn’t do anything. Xevi slicked his hair back with gel and called himself a Kosovo refugee. wtf?). Thursday i cooked dinner for 11 (9 Belgians and me and Flora), and there was a major disaster with rice because the rice cooker couldn’t fit that much rice!!! argh. Friday i sat by the Graslei and had some beers, and that’s fast becoming my favourite activity. On weekends and on good weather the Graslei (a promenade by waterway) gets so crowded you can’t even find a place to sit. Saturday i went for a day trip to 2 cities in South Belgium, Namur (Namen in flemish) and Dinant. Sunday i sat at home and moped and wondered nostalgically how this city reminds me of my hometown. In other words, a productive week. You can wait here for pictures, but it’s more likely you will find them on Flora’s blog.

There you go, updates. Now i can go away for sometime because the internet connection at my home is jerky and erratic and i never know what surprises the stupid ISP will pull on me next.

 

Omg they’re demolishing the Bok House!

Just to clarify following the last post, i am actually against senseless demolition and development… i just think many people miss the entire point of preservation. In my opinion, it’s not so much the authenticity of the facade or the accuracy of the ornamentation that should be preserved, but the intangible character and the atmosphere (the preservable manifestation of this, i think, is usually the function) behind the building that should be preserved. That way, the (preserved) culture really lives on via its new incarnation. If you turn a 19th century cathedral into a casino, it kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Or, closer back to Malaysia, if you turn an early 20th century shophouse into a mini boutique hotel like those in Melaka or where ever, what exactly are you preserving besides tacky ornaments?

Studying here in Europe I’ve seen many examples of preservation that really makes sense - whether technically, aesthetically or functionally etc - but you don’t have to go halfway around the world. Singapore has many examples of sensible and successful preservation. Just drop by the URA Centre (Urban Redevelopment Authority) at Maxwell Road to have a look. My school here, i think, could be an example - it used to be a monastery a couple of centuries ago. Monastery - a community of monks bound by common vows, spending their days making beer and cheeses, living a similar life under an abbot. College - a bunch of students bound together by a common purpose under a dean or principal, also living a similar sort of life. It’s subjective of course, but it seems to me that in a sense we’re using the same spaces in the same ways people used to 200 years ago, albeit in an updated 21st century version. Doesn’t that make the preservation more sensible? I may be babbling, but my point is when you limit the preservation entirely to the walls and roofs or just for the sake of keeping old things around as it were before it becomes redundant. Some things should be updated for the future, and some things should just stay in the past. I don’t think many people call for a return to horse carriages and bullock carts…

If you disagree, feel free to share your views. I’m rather dumb and i don’t always make sense. As for the title, I’ve always been unclear on where to stand on regarding that issue. I still am…….