Aidieation

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2011-06-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

Episode : Where do I go from here?

2011-02-04T08:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, its after Tekong now. I've been posted to be an NSPI in the police force. Yaa..I was forced (hehe get it..force, forced? Nvm..) to be in the police force now. Its been great here. I've enjoyed my NS life ever since as it is quite slack and I get to exercise my brain in studying Law and practice Design. But, enough about that. The reason I suddenly have the urge to blog right now is not because of that. I want to blog about something I came across today. I can't seem to sleep. I'm hoping that by blogging, it helps. Just hope no one reads this though..especially my gal. Haiz..here we go.

Lets begin with this. My gal went off suddenly to Melacca with her parents on my longest weekend from NS. She will only be back on the last two days of my weekend. How long is the weekend? Well, its Chinese New Year eve (half day) plus the two days of Chinese New Year, add Saturday and Sunday plus Monday and on Tuesday night I'm back to camp(off in lieu from New Year and Christmas). That is 6 days.

I was planning you know to go out with her since its a long weekend, however we never met on CNY eve, on CNY she had to leave for Melacca and be back on Saturday. (The fact that it was sudden piss my off abit.) By then, she'll be tired and on Sunday I guess its family day. At most we go out on Monday, cz Tuesday is book in day. What am I to do?

Well, on the CNY eve, I spent time with my family watching TV together. On CNY, we were off to West Coast for a family picnic so it covers the whole day. Today (Friday), I spent the whole day at home looking at screens. The TV, iPhone and my MacBook entertained me. There were great shows though. However, I felt the urge to go out with someone. Since my gal is not around, my family had no plans, and both my sisters went out. I resort to friends. I clearly have no best friend in a way when you need em and straight away they'll be free.

I do not like to go out with guys as it feels weird, unless they are Rusydi and Yuni. Other then that, I do not think I have any close guy friends. Truthfully, at that moment, I was thinking of going out with a gal. Who? Well, I have not seen Shabrina in a long time, Amelia Natasha was a random pick as I think she'll be cool to hang out with and Carolyn. However, all seem unlikely to go out with me. I mean, who am I (an attached man) to go out on a random date with these gals just cz I feel like it. And Shabrina have been missing, I havnt talked to Natasha since year 2 Poly and Carolyn is like celebrating CNY.

Wake up and smell the air Junaidi! The best time that I could have at the spur of a lonely moment is with my gal. Haiz..what am I to do without her? I guess, I'll be spending alone time again tomorrow. I gotta run some errands tomorrow, so I'll be out and about.

OR, I could just go out with some random girl, have some fun and not tell my gal about it. She would not know about it anyways. Hmm.... How bout it huh??

Damn it this blocked nose! I cant breathe properly, and I want to go to sleep. Freaking frustrated! Why can't I fall ill during camp? Instead, I'm having one during this 'holiday'.

I want my health back, I want my gal back and filled with some money and I want more time with her. Why lately my gal do not want to go out? Believe it or not, its because she had spent too much this month and run out of cash. So, I guess I won't be spending time with her at all this weekend. Cz she have no money. What an excuse. Oh well..if she thinks without money we can't have a gd time den so be it.

Hope that tomorrow I would bump on to someone and that someone shows me a great time. Well, lets just hope yea..

Signing out,
Aidie

episode: after 15 days

2010-06-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

I am back after a 15 days of confinement in Tekong. The first person that I went to see is my gal. She saw me in the uniform, different skin tone and my head, bald. Went home straight away and changed clothes, saw my dad at home, den went out to meet my gal again, give her my hugs and kisses. She is going off to Malacca with her family that day, so I can just see her for a couple of hours. Before going to sleep, I checked my email, facebook and others to update myself.

OK, what happened in Tekong? To summaries everything, its very hot there, without fail, everyday you would exercise(I went 15 days straight of exercise, can you?), it was tiring but improvements can be seen and almost everywhere we go, we have to march.

I still do not like the idea of NS, but its teaches me to be healthy. To me, no matter how much I like something or not, I'll do my best. All you have to do there is focus on your physical training. The rest is pretty much taken care of; things like hydration, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well that is pretty much it, I do not want to talk much about days in Tekong. Because 1,Im in SG now and 2, Im not suppose to blog about it, and if anything leaks out here, Im dead.

K, cya when I see ya.

Episode: days left before Tekong

2010-05-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

OK, enough with the Sissy stuff about me going to Milan and Tokyo. This time, Aidieation is going to take you into a whole new level. This time, I am going to talk about going to NS(National Service).

I had just left Poly life and is assured a place in National University of Singapore, Industrial Design. Everything seems great, especially with a feature of me in the malay newspaper (Berita Harian) about my achievements. That had placed a golden halo above my head to my future family and mine.

However, everything turns sour when I received my NS letter. I failed my NAPFA test, so I had to be enlisted to PTP(Physical Training Phase) for 8 weeks and BMT(Basic Military Training) for 9 weeks. I just failed on my pull-up, as I did not train on my upper body.

My take on NS:

1) It is full of crap

2) I find no point in being scolded for nothing

3) Im a lover not a fighter

4) No point in marching for miles, especially when in War, nobody marches. (they probably get killed if they do so).

5) I despise Army

6) I prefer Police

7) I do not want to see ghost ever in my life (Tekong is full of IT)

Call me whatever you want. A scaredy cat, whimp, loser, sissy..I just don't give a shit. The bottom line is, NS is a path that I do not like to go through. (guys find it a waste of time, girls suffer the years without their man.) People keep telling me to enjoy the experience. Well, I think I should as I need to buff up my body. But, I mean ARMY seh... Well, maybe I am fated to go to Army to become a soldier, as my name: Junaidi, means 'my soldier'. Whatever it is, it is plain TORTURE. Torture to the body and torture to the mind.

Remember the times when you see the ads on TV about Army? Where the ad shows you being a hero, saving the world, with counter-strike background and in the end it says: Be somebody. Sounds cool huh?!

Well, to the mat reps, it is time to be somebody. However, I am already somebody. I am a designer and I know what I'll be doing in the future and I will sacrifice lots to go get to my dream to be a designer..not a soldier. AND, can the ads be more FAKE?? I mean, come ON!! A hero? Saving the world?? Counter-strike?? Counter-strike is counter-strike, not Army. Puh-lease.. If I have the power over the ads, I would show the TRUTH. And the ad might sound more like this:

Imagine your lushes locks (after saving for years and years, the intention to get girls) got cut away.

Doing punishing push-ups, getting scolded.

March to the toilet, march to the dorm, march for hours and even march to your march. Shouting like mad people (I mean you can talk,why shout? To spoil your vocals and ear drums is it?) to do stuff.

Experience ghosts.

Treated lesser then animals, or even the ground.

And in the end, it closes with : Your nightmare, coming true.

Wouldn't it be truthful??

Whatever..I am just enjoying my time before going to NS. As there is no way for me to escape NS, might as well face it like a man. I am meeting up more and more with my gal. Get her hugs, kisses as much as I can. I have already splurged $200 just like that on DJ hero and completed it within like 3 days. Went out for BBQ with classmate and swim with nothing but my underwear(yes ladies..im hawt..haha), went sheesha and out with the guys, sleep until afternoon and eat as much fast food as I can. NUS seat set aside for me, Diploma with Merit, CCA points A with Merit and been in the news paper about it. Its been great. I think I am ready.

My approach to NS?

Well, I am just going to be quiet and observant. Speak and reveal my true-self only when asked. I would not volunteer to be the leader, however I would do my best at being a soldier.

Episode: the Tokyo experience (at Tokyo day 3)

2010-04-21T01:12:00.001-07:00

Ok, the next day. Today, somehow Shah and myself woke up late. I just quickly did what I needed to do, grab random clothes and wear them. The bus led us to...

the all famous fish market. You know the one you always see in TV the Japanese fish market that sells all kinds of fish. I thought that I was going to visit the place and see it for myself, but Ronnie told us that the place now do not let tourists to come in anymore as they would disturb their fish auctioning. I was really really upset as I really want to see what is happening on the inside. However, we get to visit the places outside it.

Oh ya, this is my random look, with random clothing. My hair is messed up. But I wearing MODE shirt inside..hehe. Shades were borrowed from Isa.

Here we are, not going in the fish market.

Snapping at nothing.

Look at those fish eggs and salmon. Really really fresh fish stuff. The Japanese are really particular with their fish and they would know if it is really fresh or not..Really! Hehe..

Giant fish!
Ok, since there is nothing much here and Shah and myself have not have our breakfast, we decided to check out Japanese McDonald's.

Had some hotcakes, and real happy about it. Don't look at my hair.

There is a smoking area within the restaurant.

I was expecting something awesome from the menu and I did! There is McPork. Cool or what. Oh ya, Mc there, people need to separate the rubbish accordingly before throwing them away. Like plastics with plastics, paper with paper. Cool, considerate people the Japanese.

Ok, its time to gather and head off the next destination.

Woohoo! Cherry blossoms at random places.

We alighted here. This spot is usually occupied by newlyweds when the leaves are yellow in colour. Why? Photoshoot! A wedding photoshoot would be awesome with the fantastic colours of the trees.

That's right Adli.

We have arived, to Tokyo Designers week.

Haha.

Series of awesome shots. Shah here.

Yusri.

Islam.

Isa.

Rendra.

Syafiq.

Safiah.

Aidie.

Ok, entry to the place costs us 2000 yen. In SG..you figure it out yourself.

Time to take a look around.

There are two exhibitions, the one outside are mainly students work. While the ones inside are some upcoming companies in the industry.

Real fun.

Some of the stuff here, we can buy. I bought stuff for my sisters here.

Its now time to get back into the bus.

Next: Shopping. Look at the busy Japanese streets.

Streets filled with DXPD.

4+pm and its getting dark.

Our favorite store. ABC mart. Hidayat bought around 6 pairs of shoes from here. The shop sells original shoes like a BATA shop. I mean who would not buy stuff from here? An idiot.

Oh yeah! Our next destination is Akihabara! The heaven of electrical and electronics stuff. Toys are here too. Rare ones especially.

Actually, the electronics here are sold at almost same price in SG. However, the variety here is crazy!

Well, we only explored a small part of Akihabara. There are more places. Next, we waited for our bus to arrive for our dinner. The bus did not come until some time, so some of us just chat while others...

Played classic Street Fighter games outside a store challenging locals and anyone who is up for the challenge.

This was the game. So classic la!

Ok, the bus arrived after an hour or so. We were very hungry. We came to this restaurant that Ronnie introduced to.

I am ready to eat eat eat!

Had eggs.

Some peas.

Salted squid.

Fried noodles.

Chicken!

Satayed chicken..I think.

Crab.

Nasi goreng.

I think this is Tofu. Or was it fish?

Some kind of mee.
Desserts. Moshi and Yam Ice-cream I think. I did not really like this.

However, this was awesome! Mango ice-cream with some crackers.

This strawberry ice-cream was damn nice too..

Another one comes in. I am really really full now, but its nice, so I just eat!

With our full stomachs, we had back to our hotel, transferred the photos and had fun in the hotel.

I can't remember which night, but one of the night Rendra(the one with the long curly hair) played a prank. We dressed him up with white blanket to look like a ghost and knock on our classmate's door. Some even cried after seeing the 'Ghost'. Haha.. I have yet to see that video.

Episode: the Tokyo experience (at Tokyo day 2)

2010-04-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

Had breakfast with my room mate Shah. I just ate what I thought was fine. Suddenly it tasted a bit different. Then I realised that it could be pork. Oh man. Only the 2nd day I've ate something not Halal. I stopped eating after that.

Oh yeah, since I am in Tokyo, I planned to wear something really different. I wore the jacket that I bought from Harajuku, with a topman shirt inside and a tie, and bottom, I wore shorts. Plus, I did up my hair. Now, I am ready to go out to the streets of Tokyo.

That is our bus.

Ronnie pointed to the direction of the bus.

We headed down to a park. I am not sure where it is but it looks nice.

We landed there and we just pose and take pictures.

Only after a while, we had to move to another place. The park was not the destination. So, we walked down to the actual destination. By the time we got there, it was time to head back to the bus.

Isa with dry lips.

Cool shot. The place looks empty and the road looks like its never ending.

Here is Team Ey! from the electrolux project. Carolyn, Glenn, Ivan and myself.

Next we go down to Tokyo midtown.
Had to past this park.

A debrief before they let us go.

Muji in Tokyo!
Design touch exhibition.

Structures there are awesome too.

Hey! Nice!
Look at this. It looks like a handphone, but it is a caller. This device will call us to tell us that our food is ready and we have to go collect it at the counter.

Pizza is ready.

Another 7-eleven store that is awesome.

Then, we head down to Design Tide exhibition. The place was fantastic. I do not know how many cotton wool they used, but it was like everywhere. Look.

I like this table.

Next, we were suppose to head down to design sight 21-21 and listen to Naoto Fukasawa give a talk, but he gave it in Japanese. None of us understand, so we had extra time to roam around the place.

In the bus again. It was 5pm, and it looks dark outside. Ronnie bring us to somewhere near our hotel to discover and have our own dinner.

LOVE in Japan.

This was the side of Japan that I've been waiting to see. Look, nice right?

With all the lights and advertisement, this is Tokyo.

Ok, time for dinner. We all split up and I ended up with Hentong, Glenn and Carolyn. We ate here.

A vending machine for food. Once you order, you wait until your turn to go in and then as you seat, the food is already prepared fresh on your table.

This was what I ate.
I have no idea on how to eat it, so I just mixed up everything (without the Coke) and ate it all up. The rest had awesome Ramen.

I wondered what this was, so I pressed the button. The next second the waiter came to me asking what I want to order. I thought that it was some slot machine, but I guess I was wrong.

My battery died off right after this. Well, after dinner, we find our own way back to the hotel. It took us some time, but we manage to find our way. In between that time, we played in some arcade and did some shopping.

Episode: the Tokyo experience (at Tokyo day 1)

2010-04-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Look at Ren. He is embracing the moment before going to Tokyo. It says it on his shirt.

Isa brought along his video camera. Awesome! We can make home videos..Oops. I mean we can record down what awesome at Tokyo.

One last photo before we invade the land of the rising sun.

Soon, we got on the plane and anticipate the 7 hours flight to Tokyo. Sitting next to me is Yusri and next to him is Wei Jie.

This is Shah. 1st time taking a flight. Must me scary for him. Haha. Look at his face..

7Hours and a few in-flight movies later..We landed at Narita Airport! Yusri,Yusri..so eager to get the fun times rolling.

Arrived!
Soon as we past the immigration check point, we were escorted to our bus for our tour and the next destination. It was cooler outside, but nothing I can't handle. I've experienced worse in Milan.
Ok, a shot of me with silly hair.

That is our bus man, our tour guide from Chan Brothers. His name is Ronnie. He is such an awesome guy. He is a Singaporean earning a living in Tokyo.

During the bus ride. I could not believe that I am in Japanese soil. Until, I got an SMS..you have reached Tokyo, overseas calls are...blah blah. I still have that SMS in my phone as it was really awesome. Just being in the number 1 country on my list of travels..the feeling is like, I keep pinching myself. So nice to be in Tokyo..

Yeah..That is the Tokyo Tower.

Two of my friends who are syked about being in Tokyo.

Tokyo, here I come.
The 1st stop was at Nezu Museum. We set foot there and all our cameras come out. Time to snap snap. Enjoy the pictures.

I watch Heroes and I knew that when I reach Tokyo, I had to do the Yatta! pose..so I did..hehe.

That's Nezu Museum for you. I did not take photos inside, as there was a no taking of photo policy.

Next, we board the bus again. And its time for lunch. Ronnie brought us to Ginza! When we got there, the lot of us were separated into two groups. The first group went out to eat 1st, next its our turn, the Malay's turn (as we need food that is as close to Halal).

Ronnie escorted us to our food.

On the way there, I recognised this. This Swarovski display is done by a famous Japanese Designer I met in Milan. His name is Tokujin. I did not get to go in, but I find the outlet to be fantastic. Great design!

Since we are here in Tokyo. Ronnie brought us to a Sushi cafe. A REAL sushi cafe in Ginza!

There is only one chef to make our sushi and the food are served on the conveyor belt. It was my 1st time tasting real Japanese green tea. It was BLAGH! But, tastes is not everything, I like how it eases the tension in the body.

Look at the Sushi lover Saf. I have never seen her eyes open that big. Especially after eating Sushi like this.
I'll come again. Just you wait.

Oh ya. We went in the actual Uniqlo store in Japan.

The stuff there are the same as what you can find in Singapore's outlets.

Me and Ginza! Oh ya, it was my 1st time dying my hair. Look at my brown hair. Nice eh? Wait, I have not styled it up yet.

While we were walking around during our free hour, we came across a vending machine that sells Japanese cigarettes. IN A VENDING MACHINE! So, we tried, but to no avail. We actually need a Japanese IC to purchase it.

They bought is anyways in a store nearby. They went off enjoying their cigarettes. Oh ya, in Japan you cannot smoke cigarettes while walking. Its the law.

Came across awesome stores on our way back to the bus.

Back in the bus again, and next to our next destination.

We landed at the famous Harajuku. A place where cosplay is widely celebrated.

Being at Harajuku, in Japan itself, you can wear anything you want. People would not judge you on how weird you dress up, because other people are dressing up weird too.

Since we were there to do ethnography, we went out in our groups. We walked here.

I was here.
This is probably where the Japanese get their cosplay costumes.

Hey a 7-eleven!

Lots to shop here. Especially clothes.

Oh ya..we went to Harajuku Daiso. 4 fantastic floors of Daiso stuff at 100yen each. Exchange rate SGD1 = 60yen. Around there la.

Here where Mabok and JK is standing, every Sunday, the cosplay people will be strolling around.
Guess what time is this photo taken? It is at 6pm. We went to put our stuff and settle in the hotel (Shinjuku Washington Hotel) and when we got out for dinner somewhere, it was this dark. One of the reason why it is call the land of the rising sun is because the sun rises very early, and my 5pm, the sun starts to set. That is why, by 6pm its dark outside.

We had dinner somewhere I can't remember.

I changed into something geeky. Who cares? It already at night.

We had some steamboat seafood + veggies. Not really nice, but food..so we eat.

It was around 10pm, the streets were already quiet. Plus, we were tired, jet lagged and we went to our rooms and hit the hay.

Episode: the Tokyo experience

2010-04-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Having lots of time now, I looked back at what I did in SP, in DXPD. I remembered the time we went to Tokyo. The trip to Tokyo was almost like a dream. The one country that I wish to go was becoming a reality.

The picture below are my group members. From left, Veronica, Bethleen, Yat, myself, and Shah. By the way, this is Shah's 1st flight, so he is really excited about it.

Thanks to my family who sent me off.

Thanks to my friends for being there.

Oh yeah, my dad, myself and Adli on the extreme right, made the Class Tokyo T-shirts possible. My dad is wearing it. His version of it is special. It is meant to be on white T-shirt, the word Tokyo in red and the rest of the graphics are in black.

I'm leaving my gal again for the 2nd time in 2009. The previous separation was to Milan and now Tokyo. However, she remains very supportive of me. Thanks dear.

Ok, its time to get on the flight to Tokyo! Here we go...

Episode: Money money money

2010-04-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

My handphone is almost 3 years old. I think for someone my age, I have one of the oldest handphone in Singapore. People usually use their handphone close to 2 years and they change it to a new one. For those who are rich, they would change their phone once every six months. The iPhone is a fantastic phone, however everybody is using it. I would love to have one, but I am eyeing on Sony Ericsson's Xperia. It seems great, but I have no money.

Currently, I have just ended poly life with a diploma and waiting for my NS enlistment letter to come. In between that, I have a class chalet to attend, an aptitude test to take then, an interview, plus my Bro's engagement coming up. Other than that, I am free. I am not sure if I should go out, find a job and get that $$.. One more thing, I need to know when am I going to NS, so that if I find a job, I can tell my employer that I can only work until then. For now, I cannot do much.

I still get pocket money. Its $50 for TWO WEEKS.. Its like $3.50 per day. Today is Thurday, 1st week and I have $10 with me. I always starve myself to get through the day. Well, I don't think I can starve my way to get a new handphone. How do I usually spend my money?

Well. I go shopping once a year (Hari Raya-which means I don't shop for clothes). 70% on materials for school work. The rest of the 30% I spend it on my gal and myself, which is not much.

Most of the time when my classmates go out to eat, its hard for me to join in. Why? 1) the restaurants that they choose to dine in is not HALAL..and 2) it is way expensive. Recently, the class went to eat at Novena's Brazilian Fiesta. I did not join because of the 2 reasons above.. To me, 40++ is way too expensive for a buffet per person. If I go, 2 weeks of my pocket money is gone in just a day.

For the rest of my classmates, its ok for them..Why? They are rich, or simply do not know their limit. I do not know why,(not to be racist or anything) the Chinese people tend to spend spend spend..no matter what their income may be. Maybe they are scared to lose face. It seems that if they don't show that they can spend, they are labeled as poor. And that is a BIG issue for the Chinese.

The Malays, seem to eat at what majority would say cheap places.. Places like fast food restaurants and kopitiams. If you ask a Malay where is the nearest fast food restaurants, 90% they would know.

For the time being, I'll just be thankful for what I have. And guys, if you ask me out regularly to restaurants, you know my answer. Oh ya..I wished that $ would fall from the sky for me..hehe. But only after my gal gets a job, and a seat reserved for me in NUS industrial design. Those are much much more important to me than any amount of money.

Episode: Oh, I have so see what my clique say 1st.

2010-03-29T04:40:00.000-07:00

Graduation show at Suntec had just ended. Next comes the graduation night, dinner and dance at Fort Canning. The tickets are selling at $40. I know that it is a little bit expensive, especially after some funding from SP. But, this day will never come again. Don't you want to celebrate getting your diploma??

The class as a whole is full of crap. I can understand if they are working, or even have some family commitments..but if you are not doing anything, why not join in the party? The cost of the tickets will never be too expensive than the experience you will have celebrating the completion of Poly life.

I got pissed off after I received the answer from Wen Zhen when I asked her if she is going to the dinner and dance. She said," Oh, I have to see what my clique say 1st. " I know that my response was straight forward, but I needed to say this as I can't take it anymore. I said," You cannot think for yourself is it?".

I know, if your friends are not coming along, there is one less reason to be there. But this is YOUR graduation night, if you want to have fun and celebrate your endeavor, just GO. You don't have to wait for people's opinion. They don't control your life..YOU do. This is the problem about this class that I basically am unpleased. It is never productive at all.

Well, at this time, I am glad that I am graduating. I don't have to bother about this kind of people anymore. People who do not have their own thinking, people who let other people decide their life. One thing I know, if they are continuing this kind of attitude, they will never move forward in life.

I am off to bigger and better things now. Together with MY opinion and by taking charge of my life, I will succeed. Just you wait..

Episode: ONLY ONE day back to school and some people start sigh..

2010-03-03T06:32:00.001-08:00

OK, I am guessing by now nobody reads my blog. Why was I missing for months here? I truly found something I love to do, something that never stops to amaze me. Doing design and paying attention to people's behavior, places and details to products and giving it a new experience. Its that thought of, that there is always a better way to do things. Milan did change me, and Tokyo seals it. I know in the future in certain that I will always do design. If I am an office worker, I will do design. I am a cleaner, I will do design. If I am an actor, singer, soccer player, my mind just can't stop being intrigued by things, places and people around me. I know for sure, I will do design in the future. And if I am not, I'll probably be dead.

There is something I want to let out my chest. I will miss school, wait NO..I will miss doing design in SP. Here in SP is where I meet great lecturers, I mean great people. People who I owe a lot of my experience in design to. These people are fantastic people. They are the best and they give the best. I will not however, miss the people in my class. They provide more trouble to me rather than help. I only respect, remember and look forward to seeing people who give their all in ALL of their work. And sadly, I only found a handful in my class, well in the whole of year three. If there is just one thing that I would want to have a better learning experience in my course, is that if and only if the people in the class were more into design. Well, I am not denying that as people they are nothing, I mean they can be fun and could provide a great company when not doing work, but when work comes, they simply want to get it over and done with.

The gradshow is coming, and I am doing and giving my all to it. I can safely say that 90% of my time I spend, I spend on it..I spend on the class. I hardly have time for myself, my family, for my gal (and I miss her lots, have not seen her since early February). I was really pissed of when I called up one of my classmate for their work and they never pick up. It doesn't stop there. When that person called my back, I asked why that person did not pick up the call, "Oh, I am watching movie". The other time, another person..the same thing, Oh, watching movie. I mean, I am busting my ass here in school, in the studio doing your work for you (because you do not bother to spend that extra minute on it) and you are out there having fun and did not invite me.

"Sigh!!!!!"...This was heard lots of times today. I mean come on. ONLY ONE day back to school and some people start sighing. What you guys are experiencing is nothing compared to what I am experiencing. I know that I volunteered to do this job, but really, I thought that I would have support (well a few did help). I volunteered to do so, because during that time of election, nobody dared to stand up, nobody dared to pick up that challenge. In addition, I believe that if somebody else were to do it, they would not be doing a good job. It a heavy responsibility and I am quite used to carrying heavy responsibilities such as this. I just want to leave and move to another design studio, in NUS probably. I am looking for a better environment with seniors who I can look up to and a great new challenge that would eventually push me to be a better and hopefully a great designer.

In conclusion,

1) I am Mr Aidieation, doing design to the best that I can and I am dedicated.

2) I will miss designing in SP, I believe it is great, its just the class people that pulls it all down.

3) Most of my classmates piss me off.

4) I am looking forward to a challenge that would push me to be a better designer.

Aidieation, signing off.

Episode: my story (how I came to design)

2009-09-04T00:55:00.001-07:00

Those who know me knows that I am passionate about design. Well, in this post i would like to blog about it, blog about how I came to be doing design.

At kindergarden, arts and craft was my favorite lesson. Probably because I was praised for one of my art pieces(its a hand print art, I remember). That made me feel good, out of all the classes(not many actually) this one brings a more than a smile to my face.

At a very young age, my interest were on Dinosaurs. My parents provided me with paper and crayons and I would spend time drawing dinosaurs. I liked dinosaurs so much, that when I draw it, I want it to be as perfect and as close as possible. Pages and pages of crayon doodles, until I am satisfied and what I see on books and what I drew couldn't tell apart. Well, I was 5 then.

I remember vividly that at the age of 7, when Spider-man was introduced to me, (Spider-man is still my favorite superhero until now) I started drawing it. Again, I drew it to be as close as possible. This time, I used a pencil. (Quite a few erasing were involved) My final piece was a shaded spider-man. It was so close to the real picture that not even myself, but my parents were amazed.

At 9, the school that I was in were quite encouraging on the arts. Everywhere in the school, there are framed drawings on the wall by students. I wanted that. I wanted my art, my drawing to be up there to be seem by many too. There was this time after art lesson, my teacher praised my full color drawing of Spider-man and wanted to hang it on the walls of the school. I was so delighted that I just gave it to her to do such. However, I walked around the school on the next day it wasn't there. I even checked on it everyday for the next two years but it still wasn't there. I was upset.

Anyways, life goes on. In class, during a boring lecture, I decided to pick up a foolscap paper and started drawing Jurassic Park 3 logo (at that time the movie had just released). I did it with a silver pen and a red pen to really capture the logo's essence. Out of nowhere, my teacher came to me and confiscated my drawing. Though I was sad, I did not cry. After the class, I had to go to her office and I expected to get a scolding. However, my teacher did not do such thing. She said, "Junaidi, I know you like to draw, but do not do this during lesson, ok? Your drawings are really good. Even I myself cannot draw like you can." I cried. I really did this time, no matter how hard I tried not to. Why I cried? Well, mainly because my drawing now is never going to be completed, and I cried harder right after she said "even I myself cannot draw like you can." I was 10.

In my early years of my secondary school, art lessons were one of the few lessons that I always look forward to. There was this one time when the whole class was given a photocopied image. The task was to imitate and draw the complete duplicate of it using pencil. I did exactly that. The next day,it was already graded and the grading that I got was 9.5/10. The teacher came up to the class with my drawing and made an announcement. "Class, this drawing is very similar to the picture, however, nobody is perfect so that is why I cannot give him the full marks. Come and take a look at it." "Huh?! Then, why you put the total at 10?", I said to myself. I find it ridiculous. The full mark is 10, everybody is aiming for that, but no matter how good it is, nobody can ever get it. This was when I was 14.

At 15, Principals of Accounting and Design and Technology was introduced to me. These two were new to me, but somehow I knew Design and Technology requires drawing skills, so I picked that class. I did enjoy the lessons, especially the ideation phase as that is when I get to draw. The rest of the lesson was spent studying circuit boards, LED, LDR and all those technical stuff. Apart from drawing, I liked the model making phase of the class. Throughout my secondary school life, Design and Technology was the one class that I look forward to having. If was different, it was exciting and I can use the whole time (2hours of the class) drawing and not be scolded. Compared to other classes where you just look at books, listen to lectures, sit in class and study( boring........) Design and technology gets me to explore, think, draw and create products at the end of the day. Another thing that made me really happy is to see the end product throughout all your hard work. You can tell how much hard work was put it just by looking at the final product. Unlike studying, the end result, the grades are not usually parallel to the effort that you have put in.

When it was time to pick a course for Polytechnic, I already knew what I do not want. I do not want a boring course that requires you to study according to the book, and at the end of the day, the grades are not parallel to the effort that was put in. I want a course that has drawings, model making, and where your hard work is clearly reflected on your final product. I want a DESIGN course. But where? I heard that Temasek Poly is one of the most established design schools in Singapore. I put that as one of my choices. However, there was this new Design course in Singapore Polytechnic called Diploma in Experience Design(product and interaction)-it was called that then. It was SP, near to where I live and it has the words DESIGN and PRODUCT in it. Now, I am the pioneer batch of that course and enjoying it.

How can I not enjoy this course? It has model making, no exams or studying required, no book to follow, grades are almost irrelevant, hard work definitely pays off and most of all it requires me to do what I like to do, and that is DRAW. I can now draw as much as I like without a care. Unlike art, Design puts my drawings to good use, to help people to better their standard of living and most of all make them happy. I am truly in my zone where I truly should belong. I am in heaven. There is no other line for me other then the design line.

That is my story.

Episode: The overall experience to Milan.

2009-08-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

All of my classmates have ended their attachments and is getting ready for the first day of school. However for me, I was packing my bag for Milan. I was to join Outofstock Design a design company in Singapore for a design fair there for an exhibition.

The best part of going there is that a product where I played a big part in its design during my internship and it was going exhibited there.

I spent eleven weeks attached to Outofstock Design. The first nine weeks was spent preparing for an exhibition in Milan, which was known to be one of the biggest design fairs in the world.

The exhibition entrance.

With the Outofstock team.

During the nine weeks, I was given an opportunity to be part of the design process, where my ideas were considered and implemented into most of the products that made through to the exhibition.

I was assigned to design a press gift. In the end, the product was included in the company’s brochure as one of their collection during the exhibition. Named Offcuts ruler, the product was also displayed in the company’s booth at Fiera Milano during the six days exhibition.

Making the Offcuts ruler.

The the brochure.

The final product.

Setting up.

Besides being at Fiera Milano, I was also given time to visit the city, as fair was not only enclosed within the expo. From Fiera Milano, to another exhibition space called Superstudio to the La Triennale di Milano Design Museum, the city is the fair.

Design street Zona Tortona.

Superstudio.

Triennale Design Museum.

Tokyo Senseware.

Achille Castiglioni.

When not in the fair, I manage to get a glimpse of one of the most famous buildings in Europe, the largest Gothic cathedral and the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world (The Duomo).

Duomo.

Milan streets.

The reception of the fair was amazing and it was a great experience and opportunity for me especially having the Offcuts ruler among the ones being exhibited in the fair. The Milan design fair was really an eye opener for me. I wish to go there again someday, as an exhibitor.

Episode: tests

2009-08-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

I never liked tests. I had my Labview lab test today, I did not study but I depend greatly on how much I pay attention in class.

Why I do not like tests? Firstly, it is because you have to go home and spend hours on it to study. I never liked studying because it makes you pursuit good grades just to justify the hours spent on studying. Grading is never a good way to signify how much a person have spent hours to study or put effort in it.

After you get your test results, you tend to compare with the rest of your classmates. The ones who get high marks would boldly go around the class to compare with the rest, to boost his or her self esteem and destroy those who fail or get low marks. I hate those people. Test marks are not suppose to be compared, if you are those who get low marks all you will feel is depression.

I always think that tests and its results should be confidential, actually abolishing tests in the first place is better. Do not compare results, as you are not competing among your classmates, but against yourself; to better yourself. So what if you are top? What does that give you other than being a teacher's pet?

Tests and results can determine what kind of friends you are suppose to be allocated to. Have you ever notice the clever people with clever people and the slackers with the slackers? This intend doesn't do any good to those slackers who want to study. Or the clever people cannot be associated or even accepted by the slackers as friends.

After all, this is my say through my experience. Its up to you to take it or not.

Episode: work & dine

2009-05-18T05:21:00.000-07:00

20th April 2009(Monday). Below, the COOP supermarket that we visited.

Up in the morning, hardly have time to bathe, work starts. There were a few problems with one of the prototype and before assembling it up, it requires some fixing. Exactly what Luciano is doing.

Got to the booth for set up, then Gabriel and Wendy had other errands to tend to. So, I am left with the two Spanish guys, Sebastian and Luciano. They were fixing up one of the prototype while I painted the booth, giving it another coat of paint. Still, the rest of the booths have not set up yet.

When it was time, we left for the apartment, but before that we visited COOP. The two Spanish guys went around buying stuff for themselves as well as the rest of the team. There were so many things selling there, I did not know what to buy. I took a picture of this section, I find it nice with all the non-halal pork and lamb chops..hehe.

In the end, I bought myself some Pringles, milk, Oreo cookies and my very very favourite Kinder Bueno. I bought two as one is never enough..hehe. I got one original, and another Kinder Bueno white.

Ooooo..its damn nice. Hold on, I'm buenoing.

Still working on the set square and rulers, but it is getting closer and closer to completion.

Episode: the set-up

2009-05-17T17:34:00.000-07:00

19th April 2009(Friday). The first day of the set-up. This was my pass to enter the exhibition hall. Got up early and head down to Salone Satellite, cargo 5.

With the help of the GPS system Luciano brought along, we got to the place.

This was our booth. It was beige in colour, so since we got a white carpet for the floor, we had to paint the walls white.

With the white paint that we bought yesterday, we started painting.

The rest of the booths were slowly setting up too. There were a few empty booths around. I guess they have not arrived in Milan yet.

We just spent the whole day there, painting the place. Left the place at around 7 to go have dinner. Got to the apartment and I continued finishing up the set square and ruler.

Episode: the apartment

2009-05-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

During my stay in Milan, we rented an apartment. Located at Via Arona 14, it was opposite COOP, a supermarket.

This is the door to the apartments. The door is actually on the bottom right. On the right side is the door bell. Attached to it is a camera, so when someone rings the bell, you can actually see their face from inside the apartment itself.

The best part of the apartment to me was the vintage lift. It could only fit a maximum of 3 persons, but I like it a lot. Our apartment was on the 4th floor, so we get to take the lift quiet often.

When you enter the apartment, turn to your right and this is what you would see. The first room on the left is the kitchen, followed by the toilet and straight ahead is the bedroom.

Enter from the door and you are welcomed by the living room. This room has two sofas that can be flipped into beds. At night, 4 of us will be sleeping here, one on the floor, one on the sofa and two on the two foldable beds.

The TV is just hanging there.

Into the kitchen now.On the left you have the dining table.

On the right, you have all the stove, the sink, microwave and oven.

The toilet have no locking system. So, when there is someone inside, the door would be closed, if not the door have to be opened at all times. On the left is the tub, the right have the sink and mirror.

This is the toilet bowl. Why two? One is the toilet bowl, while the other is the bidet(bee-day) to clean your ass.

This is the bedroom. Two out of the six of us slept here.

Well, that was the apartment. For air-con, you have to open the windows. Enjoy your stay.

Episode: The day starts bright

2009-05-15T22:24:00.001-07:00

18th April 2009 (Saturday). 11am Milan time. 5am Singapore time. Milan is 6 hours ahead of Singapore. Usually, during the Milan fair, it would rain but this year seems different. The day was bright.

These were the prototypes that were with us in the plane. It includes two tables, a coat rack, a chair, tools, 800 brochures and of course the rulers and set square pieces are with me.

We were waiting for the rest for the rest of the team to arrive, but somehow we got to know that they missed their flight and won't be reaching until around afternoon. We had to do lots of stuff before we get settled. We had to get paints and stuff to set up the booth on the next day and had to get the rented car, so Gabriel and myself left Wendy at the airport to wait for the rest while we went out to get the rest of the stuff.

To get to the city center, we had to take a 45 minutes bus that cost 7Euros for the ticket. When I stepped out, the cold temperature hit me. It was as thought someone left the air-con out. Then, we took the Metro, had to spend 10Euros for the 10 ride ticket. Wah, already spent 17 euros = $34 on transport. Stopped at Porta Genova (Zona tortona) and we walked to a paint shop to get of course paints. The guy no speaking the English. Only Italian. So, most of the time we were doing hand gestures to show what we meant.

We did got the stuff in the end. With lots of time left, we thought of waiting for the rest to take us to the apartment somewhere along Tortona but after some time we got bored and decided to get to Superstudio to take a look at the place. Took this picture of the tram there. You don't get these in Singapore. Nice!

OK, this is Superstudio, another place where we were exhibiting.

It was for Elle Dekor, and when we arrived, they were still setting up the place. The location was not that good, as it was in the basement in one corner of the building.

Then, Gabriel and I wondered around Milan, since the rest were not settled yet. Up until late at night it was just the both of us. Went to Duomo and chilled there for a while before we went to Amendola (the station near to our apartment).

Got there, it was raining. Milan rain is like drizzling that last for hours. Soon, Sebastian(meeting for the first time) found us and we head down to the apartment. With all the prototypes at the back of the car, I had to squeeze in one place to sit. We soon reached our destination. The apartment was at Via Arona. (Via means street). As I stepped out of the car, I stepped into a puddle of rain water. I was like OH NO, MY NEW SHOE(converse original, Jack Purcell shoe that cost me $119).

Anyways, that was when I met Luciano. After settling into the apartment, we got out to a pizzeria and had a celebration dinner. It was great, we finally reached Milan with all the stuff we need and the prototypes done with only the assembling part to do.

I had my first Italian Pizza. Though it was just tomato with some garlic, it was great. The Italians emphasize more on the flavour of the pizza, so this pizza was cooked in a fire with thin crust. We each had a pizza and we finished it up.

Got back to the apartment, and I slept on the floor as there were not enough beds, but I didn't mind. I just slept.

Episode: Milano day by day

2009-05-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have some time in my pocket to spare to blog. Been busy with work. Well, at the moment I have done my part, I am just waiting for Shah. Even while waiting, I am doing some work. I don't want to chase after him for work as I can understand that he is working and if he is tired then, what am I to do.

OK..17th April 2009. It was a Friday. With my bags packed, and my shirt ready at home, I left for Gabriel's place to help him pack the prototypes to go to Milan.

In the end, I did not get to help to pack everything as, I remembered that I still have to go home, get my bag and change before going off. My family is sending me, so I need to get home early, which I did.

Got home, bathed and changed, grabbed my bag and off to the airport. There were some problems with the prototype as it was too big to fit into the plane, but somehow they managed to get it done.

Said my goodbyes to my family. It almost left me teary eyed.

And when I get into the departure area, I get to say my goodbyes to my gal. She was having her CCA at that time at Changi as a Changi Youth Ambassador. So, I got to meet her at the gate before I leave. Soon, it was time. My flight was at 8+pm.

Then, time for me to take my flight. It was my 2nd time flying. I am already starting to miss my gal and of course my family. Met Timo and Priss on the same flight.

We took Thai airways. The first flight was from Singapore to Thailand and this was the food that I had in the plane. It was not bad at all.

Reached at this new airport in Thailand after a two hour flight. We had to transit.

After a two hour wait, we took the 12 hour flight from Thailand to Milan. There were in-flight entertainment, but the one that was the most breathtaking was the view outside my window.

It was so beautiful. I kept saying beautiful several times.

As we get closer and closer down to the ground, the capital city of Italy can be seen clearly.

When we landed, it was 18th April 2009. Ooops, lets continue next time. Its Milano day by day. So, until next time.

Episode: dont care

2009-05-05T07:12:00.000-07:00

Recently, I just don't feel like blogging. Back to school, means back to being busy. My mood ever since coming back to Singapore just doesn't feel right. I am irritated by the freaking swine flu and how Singaporeans are so kiasu to go get thermometer la, hand sanitizer la, masks la and flu vaccines. Everything seems to be out of stock.

RP is really doing some cool shit. They are so rich that they got themselves the video temperature screening. That is one thing that I am jealous about RP. Students in JC are being fined $2 for not bringing their thermometers. Like HELLO..I know that this is Singapore(a FINE country), but they don't have to go through this even in school.

I don't know when I am going to blog again. Maybe during my free time(yeah right). But, in these few days, hopefully I'll blog about my trip to Milan, bit by bit.

Episode: I am back

2009-04-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey! I am back. Just got out of the plane hours ago. (28th April 2009,12noon Singapore time). Got out of the flight, my parents picked me up and went straight to SP for my GEMs. I got there 40 minutes late, but I did not mind, as long I get to see and get back to my gal(she is in the same GEMs class as me). After class, we went to IMM to eat together, I had forgotten that my mom had prepared me a feast back home, so all I did was to accompany her eat. Then, we went home.

Got home, lots to unpack and stuff to clean and gifts to send. I gave my family a gift each and they liked it. The rest of the day was just spent looking at the photos I took during my trip to Milan.

What should I do tomorrow?

Situation:

1) Really tired after Milan

2) Approved to leave of absence until the week is done(can skip school until the coming Monday)

3) Shah have been doing our group work alone

Should I just rest in bed or go to school to help Shah?

Episode: journey to MIlan

2009-04-24T01:18:00.001-07:00

I have been busy in these couple of weeks. My classmates had just ended their internships, but for me it was the begining. On the 14th, 15th and 16th and well as 17th, was busy at work finishing up the prototype of the ruler and set square. On 16th, after work, I met my gal and we had dinner at Breeks at Marina Square. It was her treat. That it really sweet of her. Went home at night. The next day, I sent her to work. Knowing that I am leaving for Milan that night. She was at the gate with me when it was boarding time. I am off to Milan. 2 hours flight to Bangkok and transit there to Milan. That took another 12 hours. Missing her already.

Episode: choke

2009-04-13T03:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Edwin who helped open the workshop today for me to use. It was really really vital that work gets started today. Erik was a big help too. Anyways the workshop was not the highlight of the day.

The highlight of the day was my performance during the freshmen orientation week. Today was the welcoming day, and I can see that Kelly was rushing here and there for stuff to be done. At 1, I had to report to the MLT1 for a short practice before the actual thing. Among the Group Leader(GL) are Gareth and Natt, they were my freshies when I was GL last year. It was great to see them.

When the crowd came in, I know that show time is getting closer and closer. At 3pm, after an introduction, it was time for me to sing. The karaoke version of Hey There Delilah was playing, I sang, but in the next verse, I choked. I messed up my lyrics, yet again(what's with me and lyrics? I just can't get them right). I requested for a repeat. It was so embarrassing, but Natt said that nobody would actually remember that incident as I had only introduced myself once to them. On the 2nd try, I had my lyrics right in front of me, though I tried not to refer to it. It was much better this time. Can hear the crowd singing with me. That was great! I am still embarrassed about the choking though. Thank Kelly for the opportunity.

Right after my performance, I got back to the workshop to complete work. I am quite sure that by tomorrow, all the stuff that I need to cut is done.

8/15 pieces done, 7 more to go..(it still needs a few hours of sanding off..haiz)

Erik was there with me until 5.30pm, I am sorry for eating up his time, but then again would like to thank him for his help. Got home at 6pm.

Episode: last free day

2009-04-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Less than a week left until Milan. I met my gal at 2.30pm today. Head down to Cineleisure first, then we went to Bugis street. I wanted to search for some clothings. After going out of the place, I bought two shirts for myself. A total of $66 spent. This was really the first time I bought a shirt for myself and I am glad that my gal was there with me.

Then, we went to this new mall at Bugis. I think it is called Iluma or something like that. The place was really nice. The shapes of the mall was consistent. The escalator there took us from 1st floor to 4th floor. It was such a long escalator.

We walked around there just to see what is available. Lots of shops were not open yet, but I do feel that it would be a great place to shop. There was this cinema on the 5th floor. It was not Eng Wah, Cathay or even Golden Village, but Film Garde. A new cinema. I was quiet curious on how the cinema works, so someday I am going to visit this cinema again.

Before going home, we made a stop at Vivo City's Banquet for dinner. While having our dinner, Yana and Rafiq came. The last time that we met them was at this place. They seemed happy together. Then, after dinner went home. I was home at 9+pm.

Episode: close

2009-04-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

This happened yesterday(Saturday,11th April 2009) Recently, I have been quite lazy to blog, or maybe these few days is not that interesting. Anyways, today I cannot remember what happened except when in the afternoon, I was waiting for my parents to bring me out to eat. I thought it was soon, but turns out it was at night. I was fasting just to eat out.

At around 8pm, we went to Al-azhar restaurant to eat. This place to me brings a lot of memories. I met Ali while I was eating there. Turns out that his family is going to have dinner there too.

With nothing else to do, at night, I played games on my PSP and went to slip after I got sleepy.

Episode: use to

2009-04-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

This happened yesterday(Friday, 10th April 2008). Nothing much happened today, just went out with family. First went to Ayer Rajah Food Center. I had Chendol and Grass Jelly for drinks, and Mee Goreng and Nasi Ayam Penyet. I ate that much. Then went home. At around 8, we went out to McCafe for some sweet treats. After that when we got home again, we watched Money No Enough 2 on Mio TV video on demand. We got to watch two movies every two month for a year. The movie was not that bad.

Episode: gather before go

2009-04-09T21:31:00.001-07:00

It was time to get back to work. Knowing that tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday and the following Monday the workshop will be closed, hogged the CNC machine for the whole day. I had to CNC 15 wooden pieces. I had two with me for the day. Within two hours or so, both wood was completed.

Each wood took an hour to finish. By 2+, I was waiting for the rest of the wood pieces. Gabriel soon came at 4pm with all the woods. With only an hour left, I quickly set up the next wooden piece and let it run over night(collect it on Tuesday). With 4 wood pieces done, 11 are left. That would take at a minimum 11 hours. I just hope that I could finish everything on Tuesday, but I think it would be impossible. If I could use Wednesday, I would definitely be able to finish it.

It is 5pm now. Kok and Lun was in SP as well, and since we had a class gathering at 7+, we went there together. Off to Dhobby Ghaut, Plaza Singapura's Manhattan Fish Market. It was such a long wait and most of us are very hungry. The best part was when we met each other, we talked and asks about what we were doing now. Just catching up. Celebrated Carolyn's 20th Birthday at the same time.

Kok, Lun and myself came up with this to b given to Carolyn and a gift. Though it is simple, I just like the smooth boomberangy shape done by Lun(yeap, the wooden piece was done at the workshop using the laser machine).

We ate so much that by the time it was to eat the small piece of cake, we could not take more in, but I was the one that finished it. Time to settle the bill($375). There were lots of complications. There were about 18 people there. To settle the bill, there were shortage, but in the end everything was paid for.

Went straight home after that. Then slept early, as I was too tired.

Episode: tired, but have to rush

2009-04-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

This happened yesterday(Wednesday, 8th April 2009) At the workshop all day. Most of the time was spent waiting for Kok's product to finish CNC cutting. Only at 4pm the CNC finished the stuff. Then, it was my turn. After the setting up, I had to resort to letting the CNC machine to cut overnight. At 5+, I left the workshop. Met my gal to have lunch at Causeway's LJS, then head on home. I was quite tired, so I went to sleep after that.

Episode: disappointing

2009-04-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

Got to the SP workshop today and the stuff I had left overnight had done.

It somehow did not cut all the way through. I wonder why. I did set the cutting path to cut all the way through.

I helped my gal to register her GEMs today. With one click, she was in the class that we agreed on taking. I was happy for her, but I still have that French GEMs and I could only wait to change it on this coming Thursay. Then, out of nowhere, SP sent me a message on my hand phone, saying 'Due to system bug, you were not able to register a GEM yesterday. you can now go online to register GEM between 9pm-7am next morning'. With this, I have a time slot for today at 9pm to register a GEM, since in the message is says I have not registered in one.

Anyways, Thierry came soon after. Gabriel and I asked him if the CNC machine can cut Corian. Thierry say it could take a very long time to do so and had not tried using that material before. So, I told Gabriel about the MM side. They have huge CNC machines to do stuff. At around 1+, I brought him there.

We asked the technicians there about us wanting to use the machine, but they themselves do not know how to use it. Why? They are new machines. Just bought. So, nobody knows how to operate it yet.

So, we head down to NP. Gabriel seem to know the technician there. He is Mr Tan. This guy is the most hip technician that I had ever met. He gladly help us to cut the piece of Corian.

I believe that this machine behind him is the best. It cuts Corian about five times faster then the Charly Robot in SP cuts wood. I could hardly believe at the speed that this machine is going. Just imagine, the Corian material is much much harder then wood, this machine is about more than two times smaller than Charly Robot. It is able to cut Corian like a knife cutting butter. The Charly Robot is like the opposite, like butter cutting knife. hehe..

Then again, the technician, Mr Tan, is an extremely helpful guy.

So, we got back at 4.30pm after visiting NUS for awhile. We set the materials and the Mayka model to be cutting the next piece of wood. By then it was 5.30pm. Hong Guan is waiting for us to leave as the workshop closes at 5pm. I asked him for 5 minutes if he could help set up the CNC machine to be used overnight, as I could collect it the next day. He simply said no. I mean, it would be more efficient if we left the workshop with the slow machine running overnight rather than wasting daylight on it. Just 5 minutes, and a NO!

A day was wasted. 4 working days left to Milan. I am not sure if the product can make it on time. I am very disappointed with SP. NP has great technicians and even greater machines, but SP? Well, design in SP is still an infant school, so there are still lots more to improve on.

About GEMs, I logged on to SAS today with my heart beating rapidly. The page loading of my laptop took such a long time, and I was afraid that I could not get the GEMs I wanted. I saw that there are 4 seats left. I took them, but I had forgot to drop the previous GEMs I had took before. So, all that canceling, processing and researching for the GEMs I wanted took such a long time. But, in the end, I got it. At least an upside for my day. Yey!

Episode: work shop

2009-04-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sent my gal to work before going to SP today. I was there to do some of my stuff. As I walked towards the workshop, I saw Thierry. He was back from Canada after visiting France and Malaysia. He has been traveling a lot. It good that he is back, so that I can have some help with the CNC machine that I will be using. I saw this too. It seem the cafe had been built up to almost completion. It looks nice.

Hong Guan and Ricky was there at the workshop. Hong Guan called up his friend who is an expert in using the CNC machine, but all I got from him was how to use the Mayka model program. Then at 12, they left for lunch somewhere far I guess, as they only return at 4.30pm. They just left me there to figure out the CNC machine all by myself.

During that time I am suppose to choose my GEMs module. I was aiming for Investigating social behaviour GEMs, as it was interesting and not much studying is needed. I had forgotten about my time slot, by the time I login, it was 15 minutes past. So, I did not register for GEMs, yet. It was very difficult to get the GEMs you want, especially the whole of SP is registering.

In the meantime, it rained heavily. The workshop doesn't seem to have a roof from the looks of this. The rain water was leaking from the ceiling.

Soon, Kok Kit and Wei Lun came. It was nice to see them. They were doing their stuff too. Thierry the savour came at 3.30pm to help me set up the CNC machine for use. It started to cut the wood at that time. Just imagine, from 9am in the morning, until that time, time was wasted.

The funny part of today was that the ceiling of the workshop really give way to the water, creating a few seconds waterfall indoors. Nice.

Anyways, Gabriel came soon after. At around 4+ nearly 5pm, he arrived. SP workshop was closing, so we left the wood to be cutting overnight. Gabriel and myself left SP for NP. He needed some help from the technician there. In the end, he got their help.

After NP, we went to my future school(hopefully). At NUS, we did some wood sanding to see the true surface of the worn out wood that Gabriel got from factories.

Got home, got ready. When it was 9pm(my next time slot to register for GEMs), I was already in the SAS website, clicking on registering GEMs. Guess what? 9:00 and 30seconds had past and all the seats for the GEMs I wanted had closed. I had other choices, but not as great at the this one. I tried and tried for more than 30 minutes non-stop(ignoring the closed slot), but still could not get it. In the end, I just filled in my GEMs with understanding French culture and language.

I still want that Investigating social beahaviour GEMs, I am praying that at least one person changed his or her mind and drop that module for me to take it.

Episode: hi bye

2009-04-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

I was already up at 9+. My mom and I went to my grandma's house. The intention was for me to collect the parcel my aunt had left for me. It was a sweater for me when I go to Milan. At around 12+, I went home.

Then, the rest of my family waited for my dad to get home. We had planned to go to Johore to visit my grandma there and have a family feast and prayers for my late grandfather. My dad got home at 3+, but we went out at 5+. My dad needed some rest before he drives us there.

Dropped at some places to buy some stuff for the feast.

Reached at my grandma's house at around 7pm.

Guests started coming soon after. There we lots of neighbors and family members I do not recognize. After the prayers, we had a feast. I helped to distribute the food and drinks to the guests.

At the back of the house, there were more food.

Well, basically it was nothing much. After that, we went home(my parents, my sister and my aunt). Got home nearly 2am in the morning.

Episode: up and active

2009-04-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

It was a very hot weather today. Me and the guys intend to meet at 9am, I reached the place at 9.30am. In the end the rest came at 10am. It was my first time playing after a long absence of playing soccer or even exercising itself. Match after match, we lose. There was only one game that we win.

By the time we stopped playing, it was 12+. Only at around 1pm we made a move. I accompanied Rusydi to get his salary at IMM before going home.

Reached home at 2+, then I watched more Mind Your Language. Then, at 3.30pm, I got ready. I am still not sure at what time to meet my gal. Then she messaged me to meet at 4.15pm. Met at that time and then head down to Far East Plaza. Went looking to get myself a shoe. A proper one for me to go to Milan. At Far East, met Nurasyiqin with who I think is her husband. Then along orchard road, saw Dian Diana(my cousin) with a guy. They were holding hands, so I assume that guy is her boyfriend.

Anyways, back to the purchasing of shoes. After some time thinking through, I decided to buy it. The Converse Jack Purcell shoe cost me $119.90. For the first time, I am using my salary to get me something. Something to pamper myself.

After that, my gal and I went around town. Before the day ends, we went to eat at Cineleisure KFC. Got home at 10.30pm. This is the shoe that I bought.

So nice! Hehe..ok, cant wait to wear it when Milan comes.

Episode: anything?

2009-04-03T05:55:00.000-07:00

Work was work. I sanded down a stool to be sold to a client, that took be the whole time from the time I reach work until it was time to go for Friday prayers. Then, I took a bus to the mosque. Somehow, I took the wrong bus and I ended up here. At Serangoon.

But then, I did find my way to the mosque in the end. After prayers, work again. It was only at 7.30 that I went home. I would take the MRT home. This time it was different, I took the train in the middle platform(it is usually closed). Thought it was nothing much, but something new changed the experience of getting home. I liked it.

Got home at 8.30pm. I am here blogging at 9pm. Though I do not like to take work home, but I guess I will be doing some stuff to submit to Gabriel later at night.

Episode: stay

2009-04-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

This happened yesterday(Thursday, 2nd April 2009). I somehow was watching mind your language on youtube so much that I had forgotten to blog yesterday. But, I don't really recall what happened yesterday. I all remember was doing some stuff on Rhino, while the house was polluted by noise. I took a look, then there were these. Gabriel had just put up some new wardrobe and cupboards in his house.

It was quite nice.

At around 6+, Honfay and Cici came over to do some stuff together with Gabriel, but by that time I was getting ready to go home. I did not go home today without leaving with two planks of wood in my hands. These wood planks are for some product that was handed to me to do for Milan. I have to get my hands on SP's workshop to do the product.

Bacially, I went home at around almost 10pm. Wee Tyng chat with me to tell me that there would be a dinner meeting for a few of our classmates cum Carolyn's birthday. It would be on a Thurday at Manhattan Fish Market. I am not sure if I am going. I would love to, but I am always getting home late due to preparations for Milan and Manhattan Fish Market is not Halal.

Episode: hype

2009-04-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

The minutes tick by towards Milan. The nearer it gets, the faster we have to get our stuff done. There was just quite a few stuff that I had to do during work. So much so that I hardly take a break. I know that I should eat, but I am not satisfied if my work is not done, especially the way I want it to be. I am just in the zone(just like Isaac Mendez in Heroes). The cool thing today was that I did the 1:4 model of the award winning Naked chair. It looks great! Too bad I can't really show it here.

Episode: rush

2009-03-31T07:27:00.000-07:00

Got to get this done, and then that. We got only two weeks to Milan left. Have to get things done. Go to carpenter, make the product. Do the brochures, do videos, do corporate gifts.

Hope to see the light after all the rushing.

Things yet to do, even after going home late just to complete some more work. Got home, still some work need to do. I know better. If work is procrastinated, the quality is not there. And quality is the one that separates the best from the rest.

Episode: what did I do?

2009-03-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

Work starts at 10am today. Got to the living room and for the whole day did work over there. Honfay came over. He came to do some interior design work with Gabriel. Today, called the travel agency and guess what? Today was the last day to purchase the flight tickets. I told my mom, and she made the payment there and then. It was only at night when she told me that she ran through the rain for me to make the payment. Thanks a lot mom!! At around 6+ went home. The first thing I did when I came back home was to switch on the TV and watched Ben 10 Alien Force.. I like Ben 10 and I think the new one is not bad. For the rest of the day, I just watched youtube videos learning how to speak the Italian language. Ciao! Buona notte(Good night). Fino al domani(Until tomorrow).

Episode: rest

2009-03-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Asked my gal out for some time together. I just wanted some time with her, so there were no intense activities. All we did today was to go to Island creamery for some ice-creams. We met at around 3pm and then got there soon after.

She had her favorite Horlicks flavored ice-cream, while I had chendol ice-cream.

Ordered a mud pie too. It was very delicious! These were the sweets for my sweet..hehe.

It rained heavily though, but the rain did not affect us, as we went home a few minutes after the rain stopped. We we not out for long. By 6+, we were home. The rest of the day I just watched iRobot and then slept, as tomorrow there is work.

Episode: day and night with family

2009-03-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 8am today. My mom woke me up. I wanted to go back to sleep, but she needs to go with me to do some stuff at the bank.

On the way there, I noticed this. This could hopefully prevent passengers from crossing over the yellow line. Ok, from this picture, people avoid the heat from the sun. So, as you can see, people are standing way behind the yellow line, which is good. Its our human behavior to do so.

This is what it would like if the 'Aidiea' is implemented. Neat huh?!

Anyways, my mom and I was at POSB to transfer the bank book amount into another and terminating the one which has no amount. Then, my mom helped me to get a GO! card. Finally, at 20, I have a debit card. Quite excited to have it..hehe.

Then, we went to Jurong Library. I saw this there. Nice.

The intention there was to borrow travel guide books for my trip to Milan. Spoilt for choice, but I only borrowed four books.

Then, we went around the Jurong area before going home. At around 2+, after my sister got home, my parents together with her went out. My dad drove us to Joo Chiat where the Hajah Maimunah restaurant is.

The feast was on me. It was my treat since I finally got my salary. It was my second time( I still remember) eating here. The first time was with all my cousins.

We just ordered plain rice and we chose the dishes that goes with it. In total it was around $30. It was at a very affordable price. I was planning to treat them around $100 or so, but maybe next time.

The food was nice. I like the fried chicken, as they poured some kind of sauce on it as flavoring. It was my first time paying for a meal for the whole family, so this was an experience for me.

Look at the publicity.

After eating, we head down to Vivo city, but not before getting some ice kacang. At Vivo, my dad returned the SCV's set top and terminated the SCV subscription.

Then, we made our way to a park to enjoy the ice kacang we bought earlier. But it seems that all the parks are full and the car parks fully occupied. So, my dad brought us to his workplace. There, we just chill before going home.

That was not the end of the day. The day was wrapped up only after we went bowling. Got out at 8+, played two games there and then reached home at 11+, almost midnight.

Ok, now it is the end of the day.

Episode: here and there

2009-03-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

In the morning, spent the first half of work at Gabriel's house doing some Rhino stuff. Then, at 12.30pm, I went for prayers. At 2+, I went to Wendy's house to to some prototyping. It actually quite fun. Then, my mom messaged me that 8pm, we would be having dinner at West Mall's Swensens.

It seems great and all, but I was not sure if I would be on time to pick my gal from Changi at 10pm. Anyways, I just completed the prototyping as fast as possible because I had to go home early for the dinner. In the end, I was released at 6.40pm.

I was on the way home when my parents walked past me. They said that they would be there first, while I put down my bag at home and meet them there. So, I got ready and left for dinner. Got there, my parents and my sister was there. I was just in time to order the food. Not only food came to our table, there were gifts too. It was my parent's 21st anniversary today and my dad got my mom flowers and a present. That is sweet of him.

Back to the food. I had an ice cappuccino.

We had some muscles.

Some BBQ chicken.

I had the 'Mac' and cheese. It was alright.

After that, at 9,20pm or so, I left for Changi to pick up my gal. Met her at 10.15 or so and then we head down to some book stores. I wanted to buy the Lonely Planet: Milan, to read about the place first before going there on the 17th April (Friday). It is confirmed that I would be going there from 17th to 29th April. I would not be going anywhere else except for Milan. We were on the way to another bookstore and we had to go to the 2nd floor. It was my first time at level 2 of Terminal 3. Looks nice!

My gal told me to go check out the urinals there as she heard that the urinals there had a fly sticker for people to 'aim' at it when doing their business. Well, I just took a look. It was nothing new to me, as I had seen it before.

Anyways, the bookstores there doesn't seem to have the book that I wanted. Even after I asked them if they had it, they said(after checking all the outlets at Changi) that the book is not found there, probably at Suntec. I might just be going there in the afternoon, so those who want to bump onto me, here is a hint of where I would be tomorrow.

After knowing that, we went home. On the way home, saw Nasrul. I did not talk to him much, as he was with a friend and I was with my gal. Reached home at midnight.

Episode: Look at I can do with my Mac

2009-03-26T04:35:00.000-07:00

Today's entry is going to be a short one. Well, I sent my gal to work today, then I head down to Gabriel's house. I showed him what my Mac is able to do now, ever since my brother helped me with some stuff.

I showed him that my Mac, it can switch from Windows...

To Mac by just clicking a few buttons. It could switch back at anytime I want it to. With this, I could use my Rhino, even though I am using Mac. My brother also got me the essentials like the Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash on Mac. I also have Word, Powerpoint, Exel and Entourage in it. Neat huh..

Working up until 6.15pm, then head home.

Episode: Mac at McD

2009-03-25T09:04:00.001-07:00

I went to Gabriel's house for work today. At around 10+, he left for a meeting and I went to Wendy's house. We all soon gather at Wendy's house. I was sleepy during work, especially when it was after lunch. I could not take it, so I went to the toilet to rest my eyes for a while. Finished work at 6.30pm today then I went home.

At 7.30pm I reached home and when I was about to blog, my brother called me. He was around the area and wanted to see if I am free to install all the necessary stuff on my Mac. At that time, I was free and then at around 8+ we met at MacDonald's (he was with his gal) and help me install all the cool stuff in my Mac.

Thanks to him, I have learnt so much about my Mac. My Mac is damn powerful now. Muahahahahaha!! Before I knew it, it was already 10+. I called my gal instead of messaging her. She picked up my call with a sleepy voice. Soon, we put down the phone after spending some time on the phone.

By the way, early this afternoon, my dad picked up my Acer laptop from Acer building. He called me and complained that even choosing not to repair it costs him $50. He then complained to the Acer people that the laptop was previously repaired and that was when everything went wrong with my Acer. After that, the cost was discounted to $30. Is there such thing? What a rip off. My dad is now officially in the 'I hate Acer' club.

Words of advice: DO NOT BUY ACER! IF YOU HAVE ONE..BETTER SELL IT AND GET A MAC..

Episode: expensive

2009-03-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

I barely made it to Wendy's house. It was raining very heavily, but all I got on me was a few drops of rain water.

Today, we had to finish some stuff for the client that we were going to meet later in the evening. We did some experimenting on casting shadows. I was typing 'shadows' on youtube and searched it, looking for inspiration(hehe, its funny that, that is what most of my classmates do in the studio. I had never done such things). I was surprised at how inspiring watching videos on youtube is. I found out how to make a projection. With that, I suggested to Wendy on implementing this idea. So, I made the model.

Nice eh?
It really worked! Now, I want one of these in my room. Soon, Gabriel came and then after an hour, we left to meet the client. The client owns a restaurant named 35. Its a high-end restaurant. So, we took a cab there. It is somewhere near Dhobby Ghaut.

We were to design some stuff for him. When we got there, I used my camera to take pictures of the place. It was for work. The place was still plain. But, I could feel the expensiveness of the place.

After taking pictures, we met with the owner and proposed to him our ideas.

It all was wrapped up when it was around 7.30pm. Then, I head down to SP. Why? Earlier this afternoon, I got a call from the ITP centre about the grant. So, I was heading there to get the cheque they approved. I was at SP at 8.15pm, took the 1.5k cheque and left. I myself am carrying a Mac, with Adobe, add my phone, my Lumix camera and my sketches. If you add the cheque in, I am carrying more than 5k with me. So, I rushed home.

I could not believe that I have a cheque that would be my ticket to Milan. It was my first time holding a cheque. So, it was awesome! I got home at 9pm.

The plan now is to go to Milan on the 18th to the 28th of March, the 29th March to 2nd May I will be at Sebastian's house at Barcelona for their(Outofstock) annual meeting to do some work. So, all in all, I will probably miss 2 weeks of school. And I would probably miss more than that. Much more.

Episode: woodust

2009-03-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

Working, then at around 1+ Wendy cooked lunch. I wonder what it was as it smells awesome. She took sometime to cook though, so when she came out, this was on my plate. See those things on my fork? Those are rice. Wendy told me what it was, but I seem to forget what it was.

Did some model making at around 3+.

Then at around 4pm, met Gabriel who was waiting in the cab for us. We went to Ah Kiong's place to consult him about our designs and also check on the ones we had sent to him. Can't upload much photos as they are confidential stuff. This would be in Milan along with other stuff.

The workshop which was at Defu lane 3 was filled with wood dust. After sometime there without wearing any masks, I started to feel giddy. The place was in a mess, but I liked the mess, it shows that they are busy at work. Took a photo of the floor.

Working bench.
Only at around 7+, we head home taking a cab.

Got to Wendy's house to bring back some stuff taken from the workshop. Only after that, I head home. I was on the MRT home at 8pm. I did not go home straight, instead I went to meet my parents for dinner at a food court. I only reach home at 9+. Alright, I am tired now, time to sleep. Oh yaa, my parents seems to agree on paying for the flight ticket to Milan first before getting the grant. Yes! But now, I have to learn basic Italian. Ciao!

Episode: relax

2009-03-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

The only day that I could snooze off until afternoon, today. I woke up at 2pm today. Just chill and did my work as I am very effective that way. Met up with my gal for a while under my block. She drove to my house with her mom, so that she could get the documents printed by me. Met her mom. It was very rare, but these rare things are those I feel that would get my gal and me closer. Anyways, spent the rest of the day ripping music into my Mac. No downloads, only from original albums. I really want to take care of my Mac.

Got the bonus garage band file from the bonus section of Folie a deux. It was cool to see their work in that folder, the stuff, bits and pieces that makes up the music.

At night, I finally got to see the Matrix Revolutions. That was my first time watching it, I finally know how it all ended(or begin). Going to work early tomorrow morning, so adios for now.

Episode: shopping!!

2009-03-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

Got up early in the morning, and sent my gal to work. I had work too, but mine would start at 10 am. So, after I sent my gal to work, I head down to Ang Mo Kio's McDonald's to just chill and read the newspaper. At around 9.30am, I head down to for work. I ask to end work at 1pm, as my gal wanted to go to the Adidas warehouse sale at Expo. At 1.15pm, I was released, but then at around 1.20pm, my gal had arrived at City Hall to meet me. I brought extra cash as I wanted to get her something especially after I had my salary. I met her at 2pm, Sorry dear for the wait.

Then we head off to Expo.

Got to the Adidas Warehouse sale. There were not many people, but every item there seems to be crowded and blocked my people. It was not really a good place to shop. After looking around a while, we left.

Went to the hall next to it. There was this Halal convention where everything at that hall is Halal foods. Finally, a wide variety all in one place.

I bought some prawn Takoyaki.

And some Donuts. Bought six, get two free. All using my pay.

There was this thing here, where we could guess the number of donuts in here and submit our answer and probably get a prize of something. I have no idea on what the prize is, but I just entered for the sake of it. Anyways, I guess that the answer is (A) 500+(I forgot the actual number(there were 3 options, A,500+, B,600+ or C,700+). What's your guess?

We settled down somewhere and ate our Takoyaki and a donut each. We were saving the space in our stomachs for dinner at Pastamania. That brings us to our next destination. City Hall.

Got there, we ordered the Tri-mushroom pizza. Got the ten inch one. It was alright. Again, I used my pay. While eating, I met two people. Jibby and Isa. Najib was with his mom and Isa was with his friends. What a small country Singapore is.

On the way back, we had to pass by HMV. Since I kept playing the song 'All my loving' in my head, went up and ask one of the staff about the Across the universe movie soundtrack. He went searching for it and found it. It was the only copy left. After thinking for some time, I decided to get it for myself. It costs $28.50 out of my pay. Before going home, since my wax had finished, I bought one along the way to City Hall MRT. In the end, I was carrying quite a few plastic bags. The CD, the wax and the most bulky was the donuts. It was a though I was shopping.

Got home with my gal and had some time with her before going home. I got home and then transferred the songs to my Mac. The songs are awesome! This is the album cover.

The CD.
The poster inside.
It is a nice romantic movie in musical form, with the tracks from The Beetles being re-sang. Do watch it. I was online with my gal while ripping the songs to my Mac. My sister helped me get the album art on the iTunes as I had no idea on how to.

At the same time, my gal sent me this e-mail for me to print(her house printer ran out of ink). There were many problems in doing so. My home printer really wastes a lot of paper, by printing things other than the ones needed. I tried so many different times and many different ways. The printer moved, but it seems that the ink either doesn't come out, or it print some computer language. I conclude that my home printer had run our of ink, or is just crazy.

Anyways, I enjoyed my day with my gal today even though I had to carry my heavy laptop around for the whole day.

Episode: importance

2009-03-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

I got up late today. Straight away, I called up my gal. I told her to go to work without me, as I just woke up. Anyways, I suppose to get to work at 9.30 at Wendy's house but then she called me to go to Gabriel's house instead. So, I head down to Gabriel's house.

I had just alighted at the bus stop to Gabriel's house when Wendy called me. She called to tell me to come to her house instead. Its a good thing that I had not walked to Gabriel's house yet. After 10 minutes or so, I reached her house.

Got started at work. For the whole day, I just did up Rhino 3D modeling. At 6.30pm, we got out of her house and made our way towards SP by cab. The cab ride cost was around $24. It was because we called for the cab using phone, it was during peak hours and the cab took a longer route(the short cut was in a traffic jam). Then, I led her to our year 1 studio. She gave a talk.

During the questioning session, she asked me whether all are year ones. I answered with a swing of the cup that I was holding. There was no more juice, but the melted ice spilled on the pants of this girl sitting next to me. It was so embarrassing. As usual, the class was very quiet when it comes to the questioning session. Anyways, other than the year ones, Rui Hon, Ivan, Pei Yu and Carolyn was there.

After everything, they all went for dinner. I did not come along, as I went to Changi to fetch my gal from work. Her parents were not picking her up, so I thought that I would accompany her instead. The train towards Changi was empty, I had the whole cabin all by myself.

Got to Terminal 3, I went to Candy Empire and bought these. This cost $12+, but it was on offer, buy one get another free. I gave one to my gal, as I know she would like it.

Got home, my dad saw the chocolate and then asks me for it. He tasted one and he liked it. Then, he took a few more. I may say that this chocolate taste nice. Why wouldn't it be. It cost a lot.

Episode: work lo

2009-03-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

I was rushing when eating my breakfast at McDonald's. Then, Gabriel messaged me to ask me to come at 9.40am instead. Only then, I took my time. Got to work after some time, did nothing much but to do Rhino 3D modelling for the whole day. Oh ya, I got Rhino from Gabriel and hypershot too, but I do not know how to crack it. I almost slept in front of Gabriel when at work today. I was very sleepy. At around 4pm, made a move to Wendy's house. At 7.30pm, I left for home.

Episode: 1st and last

2009-03-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

I booked a time slot to self-certify my macbook from 9am to 10am. In the morning, I sent my gal to school, then I made my way towards Dover. At 9am, I reached the place. I was the first to be there. Little that I know, by the end of the day, I was the last to leave. Just imagine, 9am to 5pm. I actually miss work when I am doing this.

The technician guy in the morning shift was really friendly. Syafiq was with me when I was doing the first of many stages of the self-cert. I did up until one part when I need the macbook DVD. I did not bring it with me, so I had to go home and some back to the place with it to install. When I came back, it was the afternoon shift guy. This idiot, was very lazy. People who are blur like us asking him obvious questions about technical stuff and he does not even bother to answer nicely. All he did today was to help a bit, be sacarstic, curse at my laptop(my macbook gave him problems) and watch movie online. On top of that, he was very rude. I can see that the other students like me there hated his attitude.

Anyways, results are out. Syafiq and myself waited until 9,30am for the results to some out, but it somehow only came out at around noon. I got a few As and one distinction while the rest are Bs. I did not mind the number of As of distinction I got, but what was important was that I improved on my Grade Point Average(GPA). Last year, I got 3.6. This time around, it is 3.7. I am very glad.

At 5pm, I finished the self-cert and I had to install Adobe CS3, as well as Rhino. Steven was not in the office, so Rhino could not be installed, yet. Then, I called up Maniya, as she usually have the CDs for CS3. She told me that it is with Nas from year 1, so I called Nas. Its a good thing that Nas is in the studio. I packed my bag and when I was walking out towards the studio, the handle to my bag snapped. Like so. What am I to do but to pick it up in my arms.

Met Dennis first to give Syafiq's mouse to him(I borrowed Syafiq's mouse for the self-cert). I looked at Dennis's sketches, I might say that I am impressed with him improvements. Anyways, got to the studio, met Nas and the rest of the year 1's. The year 1's studio was set up for a visit. That visitor is Wendy. Anyways, I got the CD from Nas, and installed it at home, as they were going to esplanade for The Sally's performance. I wanted to go, but I am quite busy. Nas told me that he saw me on Juice's section on Fall Out Boy concert. He said that it was on the one that has the Ting Tings as the cover artist. On the way home, I asked my sister whether she had seem it. Then she said yup, she has it in her room. When I got home at 6pm, I searched for it and found it.

I am there somewhere at the front row. Get the copy to see where I am. I am actually the guy wearing blue. I am there. Look closer.

At night, around 9+, went to the supermarket with my mom to buy some household stuff.

Watched American Idol at night. Messaged my gal and when it is around 12+, I got ready for tomorrow and then before I sleep, I blog here.

Episode: Hello

2009-03-17T05:45:00.000-07:00

It was about to rain when I almost reach Gabriel's house. I still have some time before work starts, so I got myself a Sausage McMuffin(my favourite McBreakfast). When I got out of McDonald's it rained, quite heavily. In an attempt to get to work on time, I ran to his house. I got myself wet. Then, Gabriel offered me one of his dry and clean shirts. It was kind of funny, as the shirt has the print Hello on it. I find hello to be an interesting word, when spoke in different tones, it has differernt meaning.

At work, I did some 3D modelling and some prototyping. It was the same throughout the whole day.

Then, after work, the 3D model that I had done was shown here to consult for a very possible manufacturing. This place is located somewhere at Eunos. Basically, they deal with metal sheets and other things about metal.

Took a look around the place, it was interesting. Another address for me.

I was dropped off at Serangoon station, and it took quite some time to get home. When I came home, nobody was in. At 9pm, my familly got home from their KL trip.I wonder what they got for me. Hmm...

Episode: appraisal and my 1st pay

2009-03-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

Out to work, and I saw this in the morning. A tree near my house was struck by yesterday's lightning. It really shows how crazy yesterday's weather was.

Got to work with my gal today. When at work, I felt very sleepy. Gabriel was away and I was doing some 3D modeling on his laptop. During this time, my eyes felt very heavy and I took a 2 minute rest. I was really really sleepy. But after the short break, I woke myself up.

At 2+, Gabriel came with Wendy. We started work. Showed them some of the stuff I did at home and they were quite pleased to see it. Somehow today, we got around four concepts down. One of them we just thought about it today. It seems very productive.

The Acer people called me up to update me on what was wrong with my laptop. They told me that the mother board or someting like that has problems. I could not recall what was the problem because, once he told me that the cost to repair it cost $680 without GST, I was left shocked. I would tell him my decision later, I would have to tell my dad about it. At night, my dad told me the obvious answer(do not repair). Haha.. This is what happen it you use Acer. I mean, it is really ridiculous.

It was past 6pm, but I did not mind staying. Only at around 7.30pm, I got home with Wendy. She had to go the the post office, at the same time her parents are picking her up. So, I got to get a ride to the nearest MRT. I reminded her about my pay, soon she withdraw some money. Gave it to me. $400 for a month work. It is not much, I know but I am glad to get my first pay ever in my life. In fact, I had never held that much money in my hands.(I know, I have a sad life)

Got home, I saw a letter on my table. I wondered what it was, so I opened it up and surprise surprise, I got a sports award(certificate of merit) for my contributions for my CCA (Sepak Takraw) at SP.

Today is such a great day. Just wished that I have this feeling everyday.

Episode: Unlock

2009-03-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

Got up early today, probably around 10.30am. Why wake up at that time when I can have the time to sleep? I have no idea. For some reason, I woke up at that time. I washed the dishes. Why did I do that? Well, since my mom(who does all the chores at home),is away on Holiday, I had to take care of the house. I woke up alone this morning, slept all alone for yesterday too. The house is under my care.

Some other things that I did that I don't usually do are water the plants(willingly) and washed the toilet a little bit. Then, I took the time to watch Across the Universe on watch-movies.net. The song Come Together by the Beetles is in my mind for a while now, and it reminds me of the movie Across the Universe(Gabriel introduced it to me) which has lots of their songs in it as a musical. I watched the movie, but at times I do not quite understand it, but the songs were great!

It rained very very heavily while I was watching the movie. At one point, the booming thunderous lightning cut the power to my house. I called my dad on how to restore it. I mean, I had seem him pushing a nob to get the power back, but I did not know which one. I managed to get the power back online. Then, I took a peek outside. This was the view.

It was crazy. The rain splashed everywhere and the wind blew strongly, up to a point where the stem of one of the potted plants in my house broke. When I wanted to close the door, it seems as though someone was pushing it against me. It was that strong.

After recovering the electricity, another lightning stroke. My house had no power again. Again, I had to restore it. Only after that, I get to enjoy the movie.

After that, I did some work on some product that I had to 3D model. By the time I finished it, my dad called me up for lunch. After lunch, I just watched TV up until around 1am. Now, my dad left for work, and I am left at home all alone yet again. I am sleeping all by myself. Wished that my gal is right beside me, or would wish me good night. She is away with her family to Nilai, Malaysia, and is getting back home today. Looking forward to see her face when we go to work together tomorrow.

Episode: Birth

2009-03-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

My dad had just sent my Mom, two sisters and my brother off to Vivo City where they would be taking a coach to KL for their four days trip there. It was 9am in the morning, I had to get up meet up with my dad. We met at home, and soon after reached Suntec City for the IT show. We were there at around 10am.

There were already a few people there. I saw people queuing, but I am not sure what for.

Then, we found out that the It show opens only at noon until 9pm. My dad and myself waited there. While waiting, we played some games on my dad's iPhone.

Soon, it was time. We entered the place and then straight went to the Apple store.

The intention of going there was to get me a Macbook. In the end, my dad bought it for me. Thanks lots and lots dad! My Macbook is the 13.3 inch
1) upgraded the 4GB DDR2 Memory from 2GB (+$59)
2) 120GB hard drive
3) NVIDIA GeForce 94000M graphics in a White polycarbonate shell.

On top of that, it comes with
4) 1st year warranty for the service and parts, 2nd and 3rd year of service warranty
5) Slip case
6) Screen Protector
7) Keyboard Cover
8) Crystal Case
for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Now, it is packed. The only thing is that now, I must get used to a Mac, install Office(Words, Powerpoint) myself, install the Adobe Creative Suite, install OSX Rhino(where to get it?) and everything else.

At 12.30pm, I made my move towards Novena to pick up my gal from work, while my dad went home with the Macbook. Met up with her, we planned to eat therem but both of us were not hungry yet. We totally had no clue where in Singapore to go and spend time together. I suggested quite a few places, in the end we went to City Hall.

The crowd starts to flow in now.

My gal wanted to see the IT fair, but look at this. The crowd was like crazy. In the end, we decided to go to the Esplanade. No matter what, we had to go through the crowd.

On the way to the Esplanade, we walked past the Birth SP school of Design gradshow. We decided to stay there and look around. It was their catwalk time, so it was interesting to watch. Met Paul, Edwin, Kok and Wei Lun there. After the last part (which was the dance performance) we left.

Got to Esplanade. I thought that the Nokia launch of the new phone was on, but it seems that it only lives up at night or so. I wanted to get my hands on the awesome T-shrit that they are giving away.

My gal and myself went to the end of the area and saw the floating soccer stadium. It looks nice.

The time is almost 5pm. With our stomachs grumbling, we decided to go to Mad Jacks to eat. We went to the one near Coronation Plaza. It had been a long time that I went there, so I brought my gal to the wrong end of the bus stop, but then she corrected me with evidance of the the bus stop's pathways.

Anyways, we had a great dinner. There were lots of fries in our meal..hehe, it seems too much. After that, we head home.

It was drizzling and my gal bought an umbrella with her, so she sheltered me from the rain. Soon, we parted. I met my dad at the food court near my house after that. My dad ate, but I did'nt as I was still full.

We then, head off to CDANS to watch the Manchester United Vs Liverpool match. There were lots of people watching the match, but as many as bowlers there. United scored first, but mistakes by Vidic(was sent off later in the match) cost United two goals and another by Evra. It was sickening to watch a match decided by stupid mistakes, hardly any open match goal. My dad and I went home early. Around 10minutes before the match ends.

Got home, I set up my Macbook.

Opened it up, and put in its crystal case, screen protector, keyboard protector and lastly the soft case.

After all of that, I switched it on. Read instuctions and lots more.

By the time I blog here, it is 1am. Today, everything was great. From getting a Macbook to my day with my beloved gal. Except for the soccer match. Anyways, Liverpool deserved to win and Manchester United deserved the spanking.

Episode: don't feel like it

2009-03-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Got up at 9.30am. Suppose to have work at 9am, but Gabriel let me off in the morning to go to Acer building to send my laptop for repair. That is exactly what I did in the morning right after I woke up.

At Acer, I just queued up and straight away I got service. The guy take one look at my laptop which switches on but seems to have no display, said that he would have to open up my laptop and check what is wrong. It all ended at 10.30am. I went to Ang Mo Kio for lunch at McDonald's. Only after that I made my way to Al-Istiqamah mosque.

After that prayers, went to Gabriel's house. We went to the site to take a look at the developments and also take about business. The house looks a little bit nicer now.

Got to Wendy's house to do more work, but somehow, I am not in the mood. When it was 6pm, I felt that I wanted to go, but there are some other work still needed to be done. Only at 7.30pm, I was released.

I went straight to City Hall. I wanted to take a look at the SP school of design gradshow. At City Hall itself the first person I met was Shah. It was awesome to meet him. He got tickets to Oasis. Well, that is way cool, but too bad I am not a Oasis fan. As I walked down further, met Rui Hon and Carolyn. They were from the gradshow. If they had contacted me, I would not have gone there alone. Maybe I should have contacted them..hmm. Anyways, I missed them lots! Hope to see them soon.

This was the entrance to the gradshow called Birth. There were lots of people as at the same time there was an IT show going on.

The place was filled with great works. Lots of them, I recognise so it was nice to see my seniors.

There is even two panels for my course even though my course have not have any graduating students yet. Well, it puts there, coming soon.

Looking at their portfolio and stuff, I feel that much more motivated to do a better job then them.

I mean, the works there are awesome! I particularly like the creative media design side, as they have fantastic prints. Look at this one. A portfolio in a form of a newspaper. Hands down,its THE best.

At around 10pm, I headed home. Spoke to my dad about getting a Macbook, and probably, I am getting a new one. Either at SP or the IT fair tomorrow.

Episode: taste of Italy

2009-03-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

Got to Novena, sent my gal to work. Then, I head off to my workplace. I was already there at 9am, but then Wendy called to confirm that I was to get to work at 10am. I just spent the time reading the newpaper that I had bought.

At 10am, I did sketching up until it was lunch time. Wendy prepared this dish. Well, its pasta with cheese and other vegetables. Well, I was hungry so I think that the food was nice.

By then, Gabriel had arrived and then after that I spent the rest of my office hours sanding the furniture. It took me a lesser time this time around. Exactly at 6pm, I head home. Got home an hour later.

Episode: pushed

2009-03-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

I thought that we would be going for the Karim Rashid Talk at EXPO today, so I wore something nicer to work. The first task that I had to do was to sand off some furniture that they were designing. It took me hours to sand it to make it look presentable. By the time, it was 12+. The talk was at 2pm, so during that time I was looking at my watch to see if we could make it. Wendy made lunch today. She cooked some Shitake mushroom and Udon with sesame sause. Well, it was ok quite nice and it is my first time eating Udon. It was a very thick kind of mee.

Then, after lunch, it was already 2pm. I am guessing that we are not going. Then, did some prototyping and sketching before my work ends for the day. My gal called me up today, she said that she would be at Cineleisure with Alifa so just in case that I am going home, she could go home with me.

When work ends, I called her that I am on the way to meet them at Cineleisure. Well, we just spend our time there talking and chilling until about 9+pm. It was great! Then went home with my gal.

Episode: a leap

2009-03-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Today, Edwin came over to check on how I was doing. We met at ThaiExpress for a lunch meeting. Gabriel and Wendy were Edwin's junior in NUS, so it was like a reunion and they seem to have a lot to share among each other.

I know I should not eat this, but I just ate it. I have no idea what is this, but it is something like beef Kuay Teow.

After the lunch meeting, Edwin came over to look at my workspace and before he left, he signed my logbook. Then, we carried on with our work. I did some sanding to remove some lacquer on a piece of wooden furniture. It took me until the end of my work.

The awesome part of today was a message from my lecturer. He asks if I could bear the rest of the cost to go Milan if SP were to give me a grant. I replied yes before my parent's consent. I messaged my parents after that and they said it was alright. Soon, I received the OTIP form. I filled it up and printed it. I stated there that I would be going to Milan for 10 days, from 19th April to 28th April. The rest of the Outofstock team would be going there two days before me, so when I arrive, I would have to find them there.

It would be fun and an experience that is very useful to me, but I would have to be independent in a foreign country find my way there on my own and that is a bit scary. I am letting my parents sign it now. Hopefully everything would go well. Milan, here I come!

Episode: Rest in Peace Kirara

2009-03-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

It came to me as a shock when Kirara died. It was only about two days old left the world without even seeing it. It was sad to know. My sister was devastated as she was the one who was taking care of the kitten all this while and the one who found Kirara dead. Rest in peace Kirara.

Anyways, I was at work when I got the news. Today at work, we were spending the time developing on our ideas. Then went to the workshop at Defu Lane to get some materials done. We got back and did some prototyping.

It rained the whole day. It was kind of chilling. I don't know why I was not myself at work, but I was quiet at most times. Maybe because I was thinking at how my sister is feeling especially when Kirara died. I got home at around 8pm. Chill for a while and then went to bed. I was quite tired after today.

Episode: outdoors?

2009-03-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

It never did rain today. Maybe the raining had stopped for now. That is good news because now probably I can have fun in the sun next week. But how can I have fun in the sun if the only person that I goes out with is unable to due to fatigue? That was it today. I just stayed at home. I was bored of course, but come to think of it who else would want to go out with me? Its not like I have a best friend that I can go out with. I only have her. If she is busy or tired, there goes my weekend. With my laptop down, hardisk unable to be read, nothing good on TV and only one game in my PSP there seems to nothing that I can do to entertain myself at home. I wish to go out, but here I am blogging about it. I am not hoping that a guardian angel would hear or read this and pity me, but I just wish I could be like a normal guy, go out and have fun.

Episode: new member

2009-03-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

Its name is Kirara. This new born kitten was found by my dad yesterday somewhere around my block area. After a very long wait, finally there is a cat in the house.

Anyways, woke up this morning at around 12 noon, read the newspaper and guess what, my ITP company(Outofstock) are in the news. This was yesterday's Business Times.

This was today's Straits Times. The article was about the FDA(Furniture Design Award) announcing them as winners for the open category of the competition. Their winning piece was the Naked chair, thus the title of the article. As you can see, those two on the left are the people I am working with(Gabriel and Wendy). On the right are Cici and Honfay, one of the finalist.

I am really happy for my ITP company and proud to be working with them. This motivates me even further with them as great examples. Do visit their website, www.outofstockdesign.com. Well for the rest of the day, I spent it watching TV and playing games. I did not even step out of the house today.

Episode: FDA

2009-03-06T22:47:00.000-08:00

Today is the judging of the Furniture Design Award at Singapore EXPO.

The day started out when I sent my gal to work.

Then, from there, I made my way to EXPO.

I arrived at the place at 9am. All I saw was this. What I did today was to give some of my classmates a call(I know that they are at work) and tell them about the FDA(Furniture Design Award). It felt as though I am disturbing them, but they have to know about it. I called Theirry, but he was in Malaysia at that time(I know as he called me back to tell me). I thought that he would come down and take a look here.

Here is the Naked Chair.

The judges(one of them is Naoto Fukasawa) were listening to all the presentations by the designers who took part and got to the finals(here).

After the judges had listened to all the presentations, they went to have lunch and discuss about who should be the winner. I just walk around the place and took some pictures.

There were the students category, the young designers category and the one that my internship company joined is the open category.

Soon, we had out lunch set up like a buffet.

Then, the announcement of the winners. I do not know why, but I was the one feeling nervous for Outofstock(my internship company). All was well when we were announced the winners of the open category. I look at Gabriel and it seems that he does not feel too excited about it.

Anyways, one of the finalist were Honfay and Cici.

Had to stay there for a while so that the press could take pictures for the newspaper.

Then, we were waiting for the designers cocktail. The time was 3pm, and the cocktail is at 7pm. I called my sister early in the morning to pass me my camera, so when I was at Burger King with them having lunch I was waiting for her to arrive. Soon she came and gave me my camera.

Then, we spent about half an hour to do some sketching work. Came out with very interesting ideas. After awhile, we head to Gabriel's house by cab. Over there, I did some development on the idea. At 7pm, took the car and get Wendy and got to the EXPO again.

At EXPO, I recognise a face there. Edwin was there! Talked to him and stuff. I talked and network with other designers there too. Wendy asked Edwin weather Singapore Polytechnic could sponsor some expenses for me to go Milan with them. Edwin said that it was possible and he would help. Wendy said that she would ask Design Singapore to come up with the rest of the fees. If I am able to go there, I would be estatic!

The night was spent talking and interacting and of course getting feedback by great designers like Naoto Fukasawa.

At around 9+, everything ended. Since my gal was working at Changi for her CCA(Changi youth ambassador), I waited for her at EXPO until her work ends. When her work ends, we met at EXPO's platform and went home together. Reached home at around midnight.

Episode: the day my laptop officially died

2009-03-06T22:15:00.000-08:00

This happened on 5th March(Thurday). The first thing that I did when I came to work is to get out to Kelantan lane to buy some screws and washers for the Naked chair(an Outofstock product). We went around searching for the most suitable ones. Wanted to get those white rubber washers. When we asked around, it seems that nobody in Singapore does it. When all hope was almost lost, we found this shop that speciallise at doing such stuff. All we need to do is to order and it would be ready about an hour and a half time.

Gabriel needed to be at EXPO to get queued up for the photo-taking session for the furniture design competition held at EXPO. But before that he had to return some sample back to a shop. He drove us to the shop and told me to return the samples and make my way back to the shop to collect the rubber washers, while he queue up for the furniture design competition's photo-taking session. I was left here to make my way there.

I hardly know the place. With my laptop on my back and the hot weather, I made my way to a location where I hardly know where it is. I relied on my memory to find the place. While I was walking, I discovered the awesome pasar lane. It was my first time there. The place have a lot of cool stuff.

Anyways, I was walking and walking when I finally found the Kelantan lane. I walked ahead to check weather the place was infront, but in the end I had to head back to where I was as I had past it. Got the washers soon after and then I had to walk to Bugis MRT. I was very tired after the long walk that on the way back to Gabriel's place, I took a nap.

I was back at his place after a while. Gabriel was not there yet. An hour later, he arrived and we went for lunch. The lunch I had was Chicken Murtabak at the infamous RK eating house(due to the NO PORK video at youtube). Had the biggest Murtabak of my life. Then, Gabriel and Wenday had to go for the photo-taking session and as for me, at 6pm, I had to go to Peace Center to print the boards for presentation of the furniture design award on the next day. The dropped me at Haugang MRT and I made my way to Master Colour.

The printing finished at around 8+, and by that time, Gabriel and Wendy was on the way to pick me up and take a look at the board. Then, we head to Gabriel's house and picked up his gal and went to AMK hub to eat. When we arrived there, they were quite shocked that there were hardly any Halal food stalls. I just bought a Kebab there and had dinner with them at Pepper Lunch.

I got home after the dinner, I wanted to blog about today but when I switched on my laptop, it only gave me a lighted black screen. I tried to reboot it again and agian, but all my efforts doesn't seem to bring anywhere. My laptop officially died today. I was going to sleep when my sister came into my room and chat with me. In the end, I slept at 4.30am.

Episode: squeeze every drop of juice left

2009-03-04T06:20:00.000-08:00

Got to work at 9.40am. Went to Wendy's house. I was not late, as that was the timing that they want me to come. Work was kind of relaxing today. I just fixed up the chair that they designed and then did some photoshop. Anyways, during lunch, Wendy and I went around for food courts that have food that are suitable for me. She found out that it was actually difficult to do so.

By the way, I saw this awesome toilet sign. Look. Hahaha, tak boleh tahan!

The sign says not to hang bird cages here, but still people do so.

People are resourceful. This guy hung his bird cage using the cables of the light. A good example of the relationship between people and the surroundings.

Then, at 3+, Gabriel came to pick us up. Wendy and him are going to meet a client who owns a restaurant. The restaurant are those high end ones, so they would provide the guests(us) for an expensive dining. Too bad for me that the restaurant is not halal. So, Gabriel was driving there and when we arrived at Suntec City, I had to go off. I head home after that.

With work still needed to be done, I got home switched on my laptop. The worst thing today, my laptop seems to expire. I still needed to do my work, so I persistently switch it on when it hangs. In the end, I did my work up until 10+. I am really squeezing every drop of juice left from my laptop, until I get a new one.

Episode: what went wrong?

2009-03-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

I don't feel like blogging today. I mean, work was alright, went to town for lunch and then to art friend to buy some stuff. Visit the construction site. When I came back to check on my laptop, it was on the key in password page(it seems that it restart). It means the rendering that I left my laptop to do is gone and so as to other works.

I checked my external hardisk. It was not detecting at all. I tried at Gabriel's laptop, but still the same result. Got of work late at 7.30pm reached home at 8.30pm. Met my parents for dinner. Then when I tired my external hardisk, it still was unable to work.

I was just doing other stuff on my laptop, then it started blinking several times. After a while, it restarted. Then, I realised that my hardisk was infected because during work, my laptop probabaly did the same blinking thing and restart when my hardisk is still inside.

Now, all my files and I mean ALL is unacessible. I have to go to seagate to check it out for me. Hopefully I can get back the files. Once that is done, I am probably going to get a new laptop(knowing that my current laptop is blinking at me as a warning sign that its life is going to end).

Episode: a message

2009-03-02T04:02:00.000-08:00

It was my gal's first day to work. So, I got up way early in the morning and got ready to send her(on the way to my work place). Well actually, I alighted first. So, it seems that she was the one who was sending me to work.

Anyways, I was very early, so I took a joy ride on the bus. I took the longest route to my work place. Even so, I was early by 30 minutes. So, I waited around the area. At the same time, I clean up my desktop of unwanted shortcuts. Soon, Gabriel messaged me to meet at McDonalds. By the time I reply him, I was already on the way there.

As I was sorting out the files on my desktop, my laptop hanged. I switched it on again and this was the result. As you can see(ok it is blur), there are two battery icons on my desktop. One says that the battery is full, and the other says that the battery is dying. Which one should I follow?

Soon, Gabriel came. The funny thing was that he came on a bicycle. He is such a chilled out guy.

We went to the food court to have out breakfast. Since I had my breakfast, I just ordered a soya bean drink(as I always do) and bought myself a curry puff. During work, I felt giddy for no reason. Then I just realised that the mug of soya bean drink that I had was not cleaned properly. The mug that I used was a Carlsberg mug. It was a good thing that I did not finish my drink. I usually do, but somehow a huge ugly fly came and dived into my soya bean drink. Hmmmmm, maybe that fly was sent by God,to prevent me from drinking that toxicated liquid.

It was 5pm, my gal had gone home first( I know, as she messaged me that she was feeling tired). Then, as I was about to clock off, it rained heavily. I was just about to walk through the heavy downpour when Gabriel called me.He wanted to pick me up and send me to the MRT station. Well, he was running some errands so for the last hour of my work, I was working alone. Thanks Gabriel!

Reached home at 7.45pm or so. It has been raining quite a lot these past week. I should bring my umbrella(ella, ella, ella) to work tomorrow.

Episode: day out to the park; HortPark

2009-03-02T01:46:00.000-08:00

This happened yesterday(1st March 2009). It was a Sunday, my gal and I went out to HortPark. We have been anticipating for this day. After three weeks apart from each other, this was our first outing together. So you can imagine how much me missed each others company.

I brought her around the place, as it was her first time there. I brought along my Lumix, so we took quite a few photos. This was one of my favourites.

We planned to go to Henderson bridge and then walk all the way to Vivo City. Guess what spoiled the day? Rain. It rained with thunder and lighting, so we had to change our plan.

Its a good thing that I told my gal to bring along the umbrella(ya, you can sing "ella, ella, ella") that I had bought for her when I was in KL(the LV umbrella). With the shelter of the umbrella, we head down to Harbour Front to have our meal. I was complaining on how hungry I was, so I was like in a rush to fill up my stomach.

We had Pastamania. Nice! Ordered the Chicken corriender pizza again.(I think that pizza is the best pizza ever!!) We even had pastas for ourselves.

Left the place with a filling stomach.

Next, we went to Novena. My gal wanted to take a peek at her work place for internship. We got there and got to know where the place is and then we had no other idea on where else to go. Since it was early, we walked around the Velocity Mall. As we walk, we came across Sri Wahyuni Jaes. Then as we walk forward, we came across Hafiz from Police and Thief. Well, I shook his hand as a gesture or saying hi. He was an SP student too, saw him around SP a couple of times. With nothing else to do, we went home.

As soon, I got home my parents asked the whole family out for bowling. At 9pm, my parents and myself went to CDANS to bowl. My sisters were busy and could not come along. Well, I actually came not to bowl, but to watch the Carling Cup final between Tottenham and Manchester United.

When we arrived there, Abg Iman(also known as Ross from Revalina) was there too. He and his mom and some of their friedns are ther to bowl.

When it was 11pm, I went right in front of the TV and watched the match.

It was suppose to end at 1am, but Tottenham somehow kept Man United until the final whistle. The game even went past extra time. To penalties, and by the end of the penalties, Manchester United won. I was so delighted, but at the same time so tired and sleepy. Got home, the first thing I did was to sleep.

Episode: what do you do when you are spending the whole day at home

2009-02-28T09:49:00.000-08:00

I was at home for the whole of today. Yea I know, I expected it to be boring. Well, what I did today really filled up my time. The beauty of having time for yourself is that you can do anything that you want at any time. Well, I watched some shows on the net. Went to one of my favourite websites and watch some movies. Well, I watched Spongebob first.

Then I watched Big Stan. I would give it 3/5 stars. As you can see, the type of movies or shows that attract me are those that make me produce endorphins(happy chemicals). Well, mainly of course comedic movies. I found out one thing today. I found out why I was gaining weight recently.

Usually, I would skip breakfast, skip lunch and always waits for my mom to prepare dinner. That is when I would eat a lot. The reason why I skip meals was because most of the time I am busy with my work(school work).

Now, I am working(real work). Every morning, I would wake up very early(the distance from my house to my work place is very far; so do the math) and with the extra time in the morning, I would have my breakfast. There would always be lunch time at work. So now, I am taking my lunch. When I get back home, I would have my mom's cooking. Suddenly, I have time to eat.

Especially when I am at home, with all the time in the world, every time I have nothing to do, I would go to the fridge for food. There was this one time when I was looking for food, I realised and said,"What am I doing?". I have so much time that I want to spend it doing something(eating).

Anyways, for the rest of the day from around 4pm until 2am, I was on Designboom.com. I find the history section very interesting. Then when I feel like sleeping, I slept. That is the beauty of having time. When I woke up, went for dinner with my parents. Then, I got back to Designboom and found a couple of historial pages in the website was taught to me by my History and Theory of Design lecturer. So, that was where he gets his materials.

Do visit Designboom.com. Click on history section. You will definately discover new things.

Episode: big proportions

2009-02-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

Every time I come to work, I have to look at these beautiful houses. Everyday as I walk past them, I feel like owning one in the future. I know that it is very very expensive, that is why I have to work hard to get what I want in life. I hope by then, that owning a house like this would not be a problem for me.

Work was work. Break time came to me when it was 12.45pm. I head off to the mosque and then got back to have my lunch. I had this Murtabak for two days now(yesterday and today). The serving was very big. After eating this, my stomach is satisfyingly filled. The taste was not bad at all. The place is at Serangoon Garden, R.K Indian Muslim eating house.

I was waiting for 6pm today. That is when I finish work and that is when I am going to meet my gal for the first time in three weeks. We agreed to meet near Cheers at Ang Mo Kio. I arrived first, so to kill time, I went in just wondering around. After a while I went out. And there she was. My gal.

The first thing was hugs. I smiled and she seems bubbly as ever(maybe because for exams are over and probably its me). All the way home, I felt so warm. Being with her is what I had missed so much. Thankfully, she was there. Actually, she was the sweet one. She came just to pick me up from work. It was the first time that she had ever done so(I mean pick me up from somewhere). The rest of the day were just normal daily activity.

Episode: mirror

2009-02-26T06:17:00.000-08:00

The first thing that I did when I got to work was to continue on doing the work I did yesterday. Well, actually Gabriel wanted some minor changes, so I just completed it. Then, I did some electrical planning on Rhino on one of the interior projects. Gabriel left for a while to visit another interior design project's site. I completed the task and then went off for lunch. Met Wendy at the Indian stall and we had lunch together.

When Wendy and I got back it was around 12+. Soon Gabriel arrived. Then, after discussing about the Milan project, Wendy went off after an hour or so. I somehow feel that Wendy was forced to come to somehow babysit me. Anyways, continued on the electrical thing until it was 6pm. Head home straight. This time I had my PSP with me. the journey back home really felt shorter.

Episode: lateR

2009-02-25T04:40:00.000-08:00

I do not want to talk about work, as it was the same as usual. Today, I spent an hour more than I used to at work and in the end I got home late. When you get home, its a homey feeling if someone is in the house, but today it seems that everybody is out. So, I am here blogging alone at home. There is not much that can be done alone at home, so I just think about them since they are not here. Thinking about my loved ones, I seem to miss my gal a lot. I know she is busy with her exam so, what am I to do but to give support. I am really looking forward to the weekend, as I hope that my gal is free(she must be as her exams will be done by then) and then we could go spend the whole day together. I already have plans, but I am not sure if that is where she wants to spend her time at. Until then, I am just counting the day.

Episode: something new; an addition

2009-02-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

To work again. Most of my time was doing this. Currently, we are doing a work on an interior of a house together with Honfay. So, I did the electrical bits of it. I did the lights, the TV, switches and stuff. Lots of changes were made, but it was alright. From this, I start to learn and understand when designing interiors.

When it was lunch time, we went off to here. Its western food. I know that I am not suppose to eat here, but I just ordered anyways. I had fish to be on the safe side.

After lunch, we were back to what we were doing. Did other things as well, but time seems to fly by very quickly and by then it was already 6pm.

I was on the way home, when the train stopped for about 15minutes or so. The train in front of the one I was in had some problems. In the end, it was towed away backwards by another train. Out of all people, I met Zai in the train. Chat with him for a while and then went home.

Episode: to work

2009-02-23T05:08:00.000-08:00

Well, nothing much to say for today except that I went to work. Well, the whole day was spent doing ideation sketches. Honfay was suppose to come today, but it seems that he came after 6pm; after my working hours. I wanted to stay for a while, but I had to home. On the way home, I randomly call up my classmates to check how are they doing on their ITP. Reached home at around 7+, then just chill.

Episode: the life

2009-02-22T06:33:00.000-08:00

Its a Sunday. The first thing that I want to do is to have my sleep. I woke up at around 2pm, then switched on my laptop blogging about yesterday. Then, I went to watch movies.net and searched for slumdog millionair. Then, I watched it with my mom. It was a very interesting movie. I really enjoyed watching it. I would give it 4/5 stars.

After the movie ends, I got ready and went out with my mom and younger sister. We head to West Mall's Pastamania to eat at 4+ nearly 5pm.

I had some crayfish. It was too nice, too nice. It was fantAstic. Mind blasting! (phrases taken from Russell Peters the stand up comedian-Red White and Brown) We also had some pizzas and some chicken.

When we got home, I watched Russell Peters on Youtube with my mom. Though I could not find the whole show, but clips of it already made me and my mom laugh.

With nothing else to do, I went searching for another movie to watch online. Click on recent movies and then watched Push.

Well, the movie was quite confusing and its storyline was not that interesting. Other than the super powers the people possed, the movie was a let down. I give this movie 1/5 stars. Its just that the whole movie went very fast.

Got to get ready for work tomorrow. I wonder when is my Liason Officer coming(Edwin). Maybe I should ask him. But for now, I good night sleep is needed.

Episode: my cousin's birthday

2009-02-22T00:09:00.000-08:00

This happened yesterday (21st February) Got up early in the morning. It was hard for me as it was a Saturday. Anyways, I had to go to the ICA building to get my new passport. It closes at 12noon, so I got out of the house at around 8.30am. Reached there, went to the second floor and everything went smoothly. This was the queue number that they were serving.

This is my queue number. There were around 47 people ahead of me. I though that it was going to be a long wait, but after about less than half an hour, I was called up. Got my new passport; the one with the chip embedded in it.

Got home, slept until it was 12noon. Then I just played some games on my PSP. At 2.30pm, my mom and myslelf made a move to my grandma's house. We were there waiting for my younger sister. When she arrived, only at 6pm(the rain had stopped;it was raining the whole day), we made a move to West Coast Park. We took a cab there.

It was only my second time there. The first time was with my family just to take a look at the place.

Went searching for the rest of my cousins there.

When we arrive and met up with the rest, the sun was setting.

Pitched up a tent there. Soon after, all the guys in my family got to the field and played soccer. We made two teams, one are youngsters and the other are oldies. I am in oldies together with my uncles. Anyway, the match ended when we could hardly see anything. The oldies won, thanks to my goal. It was the only goal in the match.

At night, we all took pictures when it was cake cutting time. One of my youngest cousin's birthday was celebrated. She got roller blades as her birthday present. i guess she turns 6 this year, but then again I am not sure. Then, the guys wondered off towards McCafe. I was with them. The playgrounds over there seems to distract us on our way to McCafe. In the end, we reached the place and chilled there for a while.

Then with our stomachs filled with Mc foods, we went to a playground and went on the spinning thing. We spun round and round to see who would vomit first. We did got dizzy, but nobody vomitted.

Then, my aunt called for an offer to go to Swensens and eat some ice-creams. So, we packed up and head to Holland Village's Swensens. It opens for 24hours.

Had the earthquake. Well, we had two regular earthquakes and we finished it both. It was awesome!

My dad came soon to fetch us up. Got home at around 1+. I am not that sure, as when I reached home, I went to sleep.

Episode: learning at work

2009-02-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

Focused on the Milan fair's products today. So, we sketched and almost finalise the ideas. Did more sketching. Gabriel taught me about being original in your works, and the importance of doing so. He also mentioned that when doing any project, it is also important to listen to people's perspective and also not to always agree on people's idea, but if you feel that the idea that you have is good, then fight for it.

He did introduced me to many design links. It was an eye opener for me. The links are not to search for new ideas, but instead to check if your idea is an original.

At 12.30pm, I head out to a mosque for Friday prayers. I had my Friday prayers here at Al-Istiqamah Mosque. The place looks old, it smell quite funny too. But, it was nice to see the use of technology in Mosques like theses.

Then, I head back to Gabriel's. Before that, I had my lunch. It was quite chillin, as I was eating alone, only me. Work ended at 6pm, reached home at about 7+. I still need to do some sketching for the Milan fair and then post it for the rest of the guys to see.

Episode: play at work

2009-02-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

Got to work at 10am today. It was not because I was late, but it was Gabriel's request. Anyways, I was doing my work, doing some sketches for the Milan show then Wendy came. At 12+ we went for lunch at McDonald's. It was awesome talking to them about design and about other things not related to design.

Then, went to some shops to run some errands.

When we got back, Wendy pinned up some pictures that are for the Milan show on Gabriel's wall. Out of nowhere, we started to move the tables making space for the pictures. After moving the tables, we moved to cleaning Gabriel's room. In the end, we found lots of interesting things.

Things such as these IDEO method cards.

It was great to have these cards. I look a few of them. Basically, its a deck of inspiring cards that would help to jolt out some new ideas on our own.

These and more are Gabriel's collection of design books. Well, I have them too, but it is just a few. Mostly mine consists of magazines and exhibitions that are free(except for the NUS "id's in the idea" I bought that for 18bucks). I intend to start a collection of my own.

Then, we did some exhibition design for the Milan show. I did the 3D rendering and rendered in in Hypershot. It looks great. It was sent to the rest of the team online. Hope they like it, so that it could be implemented.

Went home when it was 6pm. I took 73 home as I always do, but when I took it, it seems to be going somewhere unfamilliar. In the end, I landed at Toa Payoh. Then, I had no choice but to take the longer way home by train.

Episode: the reality

2009-02-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

Got to work from a different way this time, but it was shorter. Met my aunty in the MRT today. She gave me a namecard to redesign. That namecard was for my cousin's(her daughter) business. Well, let me see if I have the time. Anyways, got to work and Gabriel planned to take me to visit a renovation site, so we got in the car, took Wendy with us and went there. Before we go there, we had to take some catalogs from SMRT building near town. It was left at the reception counter by Honfay.

I was the one who took it. Had to walk this path to get to the reception.

Got to the renovation site soon after. It was somewhere near Ivan's house. They were designing on one of the shophouses there. It was damn cool.

What was interesting was that there were many parties involving in the redevelopment of this shophouse. There were architects, engineers, designers(us), electricians, air-con installation guy, staircase people(people to install the staircase uh) and window people.

From the site, I took this picture. I call it looking back. Well, it is a picture of a future shophouse looking at the current shophouse(which is still quite old).

Plenty of discussions and conflicts. For example, the engineers want it to be this way, but the designers say it should be the other way. Usually, the engineers are very practical people but thier practical ways are usually boring, that is why most engineers think that designers are somehow like pests that irritates them. But we as designers thinks that engineers should loosen up more.

Discussing about the how the staircase handles are to be placed.

About what materials to be used.

Some samples given by Patrick.

After everything, we went for lunch. At first we went to a chinese foodstall, but then they realised that I am a muslim, so they found an Indian Muslim stall to have lunch. The servings there was quite a lot. But as usual, I could finish it.

Then, back to Gabriel's house and then to Wendy's to do other work. Maybe the heat of the sun got to my head and also drain out a lot of my energy, that was why I was tired at the end of the day. I also had a slight headache, you know the ones where you tap your head and it will feel giddy? Yaa, those.

When I got home the first thing I did was to find my bed and got to sleep.