Read this story. Then please laugh.
Sometimes I wonder whether people are just plain obedient or downright daunted by the risk of failure. One thing for sure though, computer chips aren't any better than human brain ^__^; a toast to our cynical, idea-killing selves! May it be balanced out by our adventurous and more risk-tolerant selves...
Life is an adventure, after all. Just make sure you have a decent map with you in case you get lost ^^
I have a growing addiction towards wagashi, and more specifically to dango and hakuun-no-hotori. Yum yum stuff. They are really sweet and have a delicate texture, although they definitely aren't the sweetest confectioneries on earth IMO (the honour goes to those red-and-green gulali sweets sold in Kelapa Gading for giving me a sore throat.)
Other than being really nice to look at, wagashi has a delicate yet contrasting texture and feel when you consume it. It has a nice smell, too, which all adds up to a good dessert experience without being overbearing. It is said the sweetness dried persimmon fruits is one of wagashi chefs' culinary benchmarks.
In London, decent wagashi is available in Minamoto Kitchoan, which is located smack bang on Piccadilly. The store is neighbour to La Maison du Chocolate, another purveyor of fine and horribly expensive desserts.
And as a final note, persimmons grown in Israel are affectionately named Sharon fruits. Nice ^^
I love this song :))
Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
When the head of state didn't play guitar
Not everybody drove a car
When music really mattered and when radio was king
When accountants didn't have control
When the media couldn't buy your soul
And computers were scary and we didn't know anything
Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
When pop stars remained a myth
And ignorance could still be bliss
And when God saved the Queen she turned a whiter shade of pale
My mom and dad were in their teens
And anarchy was still a dream
And the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail
Oh, I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
Since there wasn't enough time for me to procure a French visa, I delayed my trip to sometime in late November (after I hand in my works) or early January. Sigh.
I went to Staines on Tuesday to stay over at my uncle's house (note that the term 'uncle' used here refers to the Asian concept of treating with respect a person with little or no blood relations to you.) I love the place! Not only the house is new-ish, the family was lovely, too. I wasn't time-rich enough to spend three nights at his place, but it was definitely a good stay. The food was a winner, and so was the bathroom! :D I'm going to stay over at his place during a no-class weekend, fingers crossed ^__^ I was also inspired enough to watch Dor and Omkara, two Bollywood movies with stunning frames that were thoughtfully shot. These two movies may inspire me, I believe :))
Staines (and the journey to London Waterloo station by BR) reminds me of suburban Melbourne and the commuting trips I used to take to uni. I would sit idly, perched next to a window, enjoy the sun and watch the world go by. The house in Staines has a couple of leaf-shedding trees around it (I could see one standing smack-bang on front of the room I slept in), so I think it's really cool. There are no trees on front of my house - why is the whole pedestrian walkway thing paved without a single hint of greenery!
Enough blab for now. I enjoyed the stay and the 50-minute trip to London Waterloo, anyway.
As for work, I am running around with lots of ideas but not enough materials to make things happen. I'm finding out the way I think is pretty weird for my class group. It might mean either I am not as weird as the majority of art/design students are, or I am significantly weirder than I have imagined myself.
That's all for now; gotta go and do so many things! (Sometimes I wonder where all these energy and time I need will come from. Would anybody tell me please?) Take care!
Dalam kelembutan pagi
Buana berseri
Dibuai bayu dini hari
Sejuk di hati
Kusambut pagi sendiri
Tanpa kau melati
Namun tak kulupakan dikau
Satu denganku
Padamu angin ku bertanya
Mungkinkah abadi
Bahagiaku kini
Ku pasrah Ilahi
The past couple of days for me passed in a flurry. It put me into an autopilot mode (not good!) Just to note one of my *stupid moves* today, I set off lugging thick books I was intending to return to the university's library. After visiting fabric suppliers and an art shop, I set out to the library by tube... only to find out I went to the wrong platform (ha!) Alright, it wasn't exactly the wrong platform - it simply meant it would be wiser for me to go to the embassy before I return the books.
I am hoping I will somehow make it to get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning... geez... what a sleepy-headed dreamer I am :p
I'm also planning to go to Paris before Christmas. I just realised that the Balenciaga exhibition (on which I have been setting my eyes ever since I was in Jakarta) is ending by the end of the year, so I better rush and make it before it's closed. It's a spooky feeling to realise one of the first art books I bought was on Cristobal Balenciaga - I bought the book knowing nothing of the couturier, simply thinking that the pictures looked okay. Mag was being a bit unreasonable to ask me to come along on the 27th since I have no Schengen visa on my passport (and that it is notoriously difficult to get a visa into France), but I will push my luck - it once took me an hour to walk out from the French consulate general with a visa on hand. We'll see how I fare. Fingers crossed! ^o^
I went to a friend's place for dinner in this oh-so-far-away-we-were-completely-lost suburb. Nicole (this girl I met at the English classes programme) now lives with two Indians and a Swede in a nice house that's got blueberry shrubs in its garden! To cut things short, the food was worth getting lost for. The music was good, too. It was a highly entertaining occasion, and we promised each other to do again when the term break comes around.
I also attended this lecture on spray-on fabric - interesting stuff. This Brazilian guy developed the product as part of his PhD, and now the Royal Academy of Arts is creating an offshoot company to deal with the invention and its commercial applications. Check out the Fabrican website for more technical information. It'd be cool to spray some clothing onto your body - no sizing needed. Oh, you'll need somebody to help you spray it onto your back, too, as it may get a bit tricky.
And finally, the song. It gives me creeps to hear this song being performed; it's as if my body automatically goes into 'battle mode', ready to perform. I do miss dancing a lot, and there aren't any clubs for either Latin/ballroom or capoeira at university, so I might have to find one on my own.
Take care!
Walaupun dirimu tak bersayap
Ku akan percaya
Kau mampu terbang bawa diriku
Tanpa takut dan ragu
Walaupun kau bukan titisan dewa
Ku takkan kecewa
Kar'na kau jadikanku sang dewi
Dalam taman surgawi
This is my best record so far - yay!
Now that I've reached a personal milestone [of a trivial nature], I'm burying my head in books. Another miscellaneous thing of note is it took foto.com exactly two days to print and deliver my pictures - a venerable time record indeed. I will definitely be using the service over and over again.
I was doing my photojournal when I came across really interesting pictures... one of them is this hilarious-looking watermelon. I love it ^^
This post is dedicated to... myself ^__^
I did this really nice tonal drawing at visual studies on Tuesday, something that I might have mentioned previously on my blog. I was labouring and hunching my back over it, too afraid to take out or leave too much charcoal marks on the paper, and came out of the class with a dizzy head. The drawing is something really spectacular, although it could've been better (I won't get too technical here.) It reminds me of Escher and his prints. Image of the drawing I did is located here.
At the end, it was a satisfying achievement indeed. Although Tuesday is generally a long day with two lots of studio-based classes, I'm looking forward to it! As for tomorrow, it's a day sheltered away in the library and the computer lab, as the weather for this weekend is going to be rainy (with some gale-force winds thrown into it.)
(I also did something pretty cool in 3D accessories class today, but I still need a card reader to transfer the files to the laptop. Will do it at uni tomorrow.)
The song was the picture's mood music - I am sooo not in a relationship! End of disclaimer :) Take care.
Remember the first day, the first day we kissed
Remember the first day we had an argument
We apologised and then we compromised
And we haven't argued since
Remember the first day we stopped playing games
Remember the first day you fell in love with me
It felt so good for you to say those words
'cause I felt the same way too
The way we held each other's hands
The way we talked, the way we laughed
It felt so good to fall in love
and I knew right then and there you were the one
I know that he loves me cause he told me so
I know that he loves me cause his feelings show
When he stares at me, you see he cares for me
You see how he is so deep in love
I know that he loves me cause it's obvious
I know that he loves me cause it's me he trusts
And he's missing me if he's not kissing me
And when he looks at me, his brown eyes tell it so
I find myself restarting my visual life once more. I will neglect my devart account no more, I am operating on flickr (finally!), and foto.com is one trusty place for Londoners to get their digital pictures developed. The price difference is staggering; getting 47 shots printed to a 7" x 5" size and shipped to my door costs £9.22, a stark difference to the financially burdening 80-pence-apiece option offered by photo developers around here. When I am doing a photographic journal, a lot of pictures are taken, and the cost difference can quickly accumulate. I'd rather spend the extra money on decent nice food or more colours for my art kit.
Happy birthday for DW, who is turning 17 (plus 7) today. Geez, you're old!
That's all! It's time to head off to uni. I've got an outdoor photography class, so I will be taking lots of pictures on an SLR camera... and I will need to shell out some cash to get them developed. The university has darkrooms, but their use is prioritised to photography students. Since I am a fashion student, hmmm... I wonder whether my photography/styling friend will help me gain access to these rooms, or better still help me develop the prints. Tee hee :))
Take care!
Ku kan s'lalu merasa terpana dan terpesona
'Kan kuberikan semua yang aku punya
Oh, sampai waktu kan musnah
Sampai aku pun punah
'Kan kucari tahu apa artinya...
Oh, cinta
Cintamu sungguh luar biasa
Seakan diriku berbunga
Kala kita di dalamnya
I finally found the memory card reader-equipped computer at uni. Mwahahahaha.
(Pictures rule.)
I took these two pictures a couple of weeks ago, but since they are interesting and rather timeless... they make it to my blog. A picture is worth a thousand words, two are worth two thousands [or more], so let's get on with it.
This cute puggy doggy is... ugly. Cute things are more likely to be ugly, it seems. I read this somewhere off the web that what is considered as cute are things/objects that look as if they are unable to defend themselves and hence project the self-image that communicates a need to be protected and cared for. A pug isn't a physically huge dog breed, which may fit into the above description, but it also seems like it's unable to see or breathe properly. This dog's normal doggy huff-and-puff sounded more like a massive person running out of breath, which is pretty loud compared to its size. Cuteness and weaknesses aside, this pug is black in colour, whereas the 'traditional' colouring of pugs are usually beige or camel.
Shorty cat: Hey you, what are you looking at?
Black cat: Cool down young man, she's just taking pictures.
Brown cat: Mommy, is she gonna poke our noses like those guys did?
Tall cat: No, dear. She's no mummifier, just a tourist. Now, don't be afraid and pose... she's got a camera on hand.
(Cats were sacred animals for ancient Egyptians, and temple-reared cats - like the ones we see in the picture - were mummified and given protocols just like members of the royal family. What a good time they had. Aah, I wish I were well looked after for flicking my tail around... but then, I have no tail "__" )
Finally, it's Benedict XVI's supposedly provocative speech. The lesson is to please, please, please practise common sense and do not make out-of-context interpretation on parts of somebody else's articulations. Any word or phrase has the potential to sound provocative, so there is no need to throw oil into fire.
Take care!
You are my strong melody, yeah
You are my dancing rhythm
You are my perfect rhyme
And I will sing of you forever
