Angkor Wat tomorrow! Will write about it all when I get back.
If I can get away with digging a hole in one of the UNESCO-rated Buddhist towers [a la Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love �������A], I'll certainly unload all my secrets from my jumbled-up head :)

Worrying info from their webpage:

HEALTH:

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and this means virtually no reliable medical facilities, doctors, clinics, hospitals or medication are available except in the capital, Phnom Penh. Even here, hospitals can be in very poor condition and badly equipped and medicines are often past their sell-by date or made up of local mixtures of flour and sugar.
If you become seriously ill in Cambodia and require urgent medical treatment....it is essential to get to Bangkok, or at least to Saigon.... On no account should you ever receive an infusion to treat dehydration, as people often die of septicemia which is caused by bacteria entering their blood during infusions. The same goes for blood transfusions....

SAFETY:

Cambodia is a country just emerging from a long period of civil war. The current situation is very uncertain and there may be more violence ahead. Added to this uncertainty, large areas of the country are still mined. It is therefore essential that you stay on clearly marked paths, preferably with a guide. Never wander off a path as you may stumble into a mined area. Never touch any mines, bombs, rockets or artillery shells. They may very likely be live.

Not the best place to celebrate New Year's Eve, is it?

Gotta luv Chinese movies when they're done right. I watched in the space of 3 days Infernal Affairs �o�g��, Zhang Yimou's Hero [english link] Ӣ�� and The Cat Returns, the latest from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli.

The average = The Cat Returns:
This one wasn't directed by Miyazaki, and it shows. Although visually it's thouroughly detailed like other Miyazaki films, the plot left a lot of gaps.

The good = Infernal Affairs:
Another good cop bad cop story, but it kept me guessing till the end. Funnies: the Mainland Chinese version has a different ending [more satisfying in my opinion] and rumour has it that you'll be able to chose how the film ends on the forthcoming DVD.

The stunner = Hero:
One story, with 3 variations and 6 tones of colour. Zhang Yimou's first martial arts film, starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Chung, Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi (of Crouching Tiger fame). The grandiose and lushness is incomparable. Need I say more??

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress:
An amazing little read about what it meant to be "re-educated" in China during the Cultural Revolution. The novel became a national bestseller in France in 2001. It's by a man who was re-educated himself, who later emigrated to France to study film. The book has been adapted to a movie, starring Zhou Xun ��Ѹ [who was also in Suzhou River �K�ݺ� ]

27 hours and three airports later, I'm finally home!
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Discovery + Dilemma No. 1:

My mum's uber-very-this-season, trendier-than-me Nevaho Indian boots, in suede (the material-de-jour), complete with pointy toe and fringey bits.
I had the same boots (but round toed) when I was 5. and I HATED them at the time.
Is it secret 80's nostalgia, or a semi-mid-life-crisis symptom? Or is my mummy's fashion antena plainly 10x sharper than mine?
And she bought technicoloured rabbit fur scarf things. I thought they were rather strange, but my mum claims they are the zeitgeist accessory...hmm...*unconvinced*
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Merry Christmas to all!
Hope you're not spending x'mas eve at home and in front of an emotionless monitor, jetlagged and rather sad like I am now.

New Plans for Ground Zero:

Be sure to check out the interactive special.
Personally, I'm torn between the schemes proposed by United Architects and THINK. I thought those were the most poetic and dynamic plans out of the lot.
Am quite disappointed by the Big Names' proposals - chiefly Norman Foster, SOM and the Richard Meier + Peter Eisenman + Charles Gwathmey + Steven Holl collective. Each group plonked what is essentially their respective signature product onto the site, which seemed to me a little insensitive given the context.

NY Times gave Foster's Towers a harsh, albeit wickedly true review:

"Norman Foster's design is one's favorite new hate. Sometimes it seems that when the British peer over the horizon, all they see is Singapore....Here, the twin towers are reborn as one, a Siamese twin of a skyscraper that would be the world's tallest.....The project has success written all over it. But why does it leave us with the impression that it would be far happier in Hong Kong?"

One more week to go, one more week for sorrow:
Must persist.....got mildly homesick today at the sight of all snacks Asian and familiar at the local Japanese grocery store *^*;
I miss the permanently overflowing kitchen at home. I always thought we have enough junk food to feed a small nation in famine. Alas, I shall not digress into the great debate of have vs. have-nots between developed and developing countries, but will go back to writing my boring, un-world-changing and overdue essays.

ITALY for the summer!!!

I'm so overwhelmed! My former research supervisor has just asked me to join her Puccini project @ La Scala for the summer =D [see Nov 13th entry]
Will be in warm, sunny Lucca (nr. Florence) for two months. Hopefully I'll get a nice Mediterranean tan, if I miraculously don't have to pull allnighters indoors 24-7 in some dark hole known as a computer cluster.

Keepin' my fingers crossed that this project will really take off : x :

My claim-to-fame in Architecture:

Got over-excited today in lecture. We finally got to the more interesting part of the course (which unfortunately, is the shortest part as it's at the end of the semester): Modernism. The lecturer mentionned Philip Johnson as the person who institutionalised the International Style (as championed by Mies Van der Rohe, Le Corbusier etc.) in America when he held an exhibition about it at MoMA.

I had an unbearable urge to scream: "I met him at his Glass House!". Too bad decorum and logic overruled impulse.

Two years ago, I was interning with an alumni, Hilary Lewis, who was writing her second autobiography on PJ (who is now 96 and still working, bless him). As part of work-shadowing, she brought me along to New Canaan, Connecticut to one of her interviews with PJ at his private estate.
Back then, I was an ignorant lass and had very little idea of the significance of the meeting. Anyone with any knowledge of architecture history would have killed to meet this man. He is literally the Godfather of American Architecture, post 1950. (see the Seagram Building: [1][2], a Manhattan skyscraper Mies and him collaborated on) But no, it was me who got to meet him.

The Godfather is a fragile-looking, but dignified old man. He had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, like a conspiring little boy. He also had the coolest glasses - round, black bakelite ones with straight arms and no earpiece. (Later on, after seeing more eminnent architects with cool glasses, I've come to the conclusion that cool glasses are a contributing factor in the making of a successful architect.) He also has two big fluffy Keeshonds - the cutest and friendliest dogs I've ever "met". (They liked me so much that they dribbled all over me and my stuff.)

My brief exchange of words with the Great Man went as follows -

Hilary: This is Chin Yan, an aspiring urban planner from MIT.
PJ: [in despise] Oh, you're one of those, are you?
me: [embarrassed smile]

Sheer stupidity + exhibitionism can be so entertaining. (via uberchick)

Cartoons for everyone:

For runaway sex slaves - actually not as kinky as it might sound but still brilliantly cliche. Supreme soundtrack too.
For sociopath wannabies - Bart Simpson is a goodie2shoes compared to this kid.

Seeing the portfolio of my fellow classmate made me feel grossly incompetent and directionless in whatever I'm doing.
How did I manage to waste 3.5 years at this Institution?
I've taken one or two art classes here but it's nothing like this.

ps/ I'm thinking of popping over to that tiny speck of an island known as Great Britain circa Chinese New Year. (31st Jan - 3 Feb)
Key deciding factor: nevermind my family is gonna be there, but will I make the SALES?

pps/ Please send your brandname ideas to my school email. TA. [see Dec 1st entry - I've given up on the programming behind my psycho permalinks]

I am feeling shamelessly self-involved and self-indulgent. All I want for Christmas:

1. White chocolate massage bar
2. Minimalist dangley earrings (oh the oxymoron)
3. Ghetto blaster tote - I'm an 80's child and proud of it.

too bad both wardrobe and bathroom cabinet are already overstuffed and overflowing. When will I learn to stop?!

Doing my annual prezzies list is an excellent way to procrastinate, (I'm not shopping for myself, honest!!) and to think "profound" thoughts. (Nah, she's been a bitch this year...nah I'm too broke to get anything he'd actually use)

What's this monkey doing to my home?
One country, two systems? Yeah right.

Grow your own petri dish cyber pet!
The group responsible, Singlecell also does more generic interactive art. (via Shortfuse)
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it was a record-low -8'C this morning. I walked out with wet hair, and arrived at school with crunchy, icicle-like hair in just 7 mins. Am dreading January.

Some sarcastic folks at school are taking the piss out of a pretentious school art publication and LiveJournal

If I were a glam rock star:

I'd be called Scarlet Baby. Rrrrouge...
Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Best musical movie ever made, tho not necessarily the best drag queen movie - have to say it's a tie with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I dig Aussie Abba fans more.

Call for hip & vibrant, European-sounding brand name for a pan-China jewelry chain store:

As some of you may know, I'm now "working" for my mum, helping her out with design & marketing ideas for a costume jewelry business. Since my lil' bro's departure, my mum's made a career move into design consulting for this mammoth costume jewelry enterprise. She's asked me to ask all of my friends to think of a good brandname:

Dear Large Kids,

Mother needs a wonderfully attractive BRANDNAME to start a new jewelry-related chainstore in southern China, and hoping U can come up with a really good name for this new business. This will be used in HK as well! So it should be easily impressive, with a hint of vibrant young European feel and the sound can be written into a good Chinese name. .... I have been given instruction to help do a new younger lower-end chain which I need a good name for!

Ask Ur goofy friends for suggestions! Collect any good advert, postcards or visuals U see in this world and send them to me. I have an office e-mail which has large capacity to store graphics. Just send those to

Mum said crisp sounding names are good (ie. less than 4 syllabols), pretty-sounding flower / people's names in any European languages are good too. THX, cy.

Food for thought on Turkey Day.

1st snow!!

Christmas weather has arrived early in Boston. I wish I can show u a pic. It's been snowing continuously from 3am, and getting near 6 inches.
Tried and not-yet-tested: the snow is perfect for snow fights. I packed a snowball today but had no one to throw it to :(

I'm driven nuts by this school. It's OFFICIAL.

had a series of very scary dreams last night:
1. My parents were getting a divorce - in my dream I couldn't help sobbing;
2. I was calling M.Ko in dire need of some venting but couldn't find her;
2. Then by some mysterious ways I was at some gay-lesbo orgie, snogging a blonde; [<= was Dolan?!! i swear i've been watching way too many artsy-fartsy films]
3. I was then arrested by the police for being at the orgie;
4. Amongst the policemen, one was an elementary schoolmate whom I used to verbally abuse. [Mok Ho Tsing to be precise, for those who went to SPCC]

A definitive sign that China is up and coming:
[From Wallpaper*] Armani is planning to move in and get a share of the ever-growing pie. New stores are planned for Shanghai and Dalian {<= ?! - you'd think Beijing would be a hipper location} and a new flagship is opening soon in HK Landmark.

Thxgiving: so near yet so far....
The thought of spending this precious break on campus again is killing me. Can't get to a tropical destination soon enough....

Have an enormous sense of well-being from last night. It's been almost 2 years+ since the last time I danced my head off & 2 years+ since I went clubbing with Jen. Girl, we've still got the groove on ;D
Post-clubbing sushi @ Ginza...hmm...=> instant source of euphoria.
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Watched What Time is it There? �A����X�I by Tsai Ming Liang ����G. Am deeply moved. I really identified with one of the main characters; Tsai envisioned her as someone "rigid and suppressed but ultra-sensitive. She is a city woman who is afraid of loneliness, yet she is content with being alone." In her I saw myself. Mary once said to me that I looked so vulnerable when she first met me. I never understood; I always thought I'm strong and independent. Perhaps that's what I'd like to be, but not what I am.

I realised how much resemblance there is between my own videos and TML's movies: they are all really slow, filled with mundane situations and activities, but the characters are fragile and somewhat unpredictable. Of course TML does it gazillion times better, and I still have a long way to go in perfecting my story-telling methods.

went laser tagging yesterday as a mini-celebration for Mike's 21st. Felt like a 15-year-old again.
Witnessed what "suburbia" really means too - we were at this massive gaming warehouse type place in Somerville, and I've never seen so many white trash / townies / homies (or whatever you call them) in my life!! To me, King of the Hill-type hicksville people only exist in some vague hinterland...

As to why that man is so cool....he's the one who brought us The Rejection Line and Black People Love Us, as a series of viral media projects to study how ideas spread.
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the permalinks in my blog always lead to the wrong entry and I don't know why....arg. Can't get with the program(ming)

I just had a phone interview for an internship with this man , without knowing whom I was speaking to until the very end. I acted like an unmotivated passionless bitch too cos I was in the midst of writing my crappy essay. Totally killed my chances of working with a cool man.
DAMN.

Actually managed to do OK on dire midterm. Have urge to pat self on the back for remembering 8.01 freshmen physics, but hesistate to do so, as everyone else seems to have done much better => me: 85%; the rest of the world: 95%+. Hope that doesn't put me in the C range.

Now if only I can finish this uninspired & overdue essay [on the architectural qualities of a non-descript school corridor known as the Infinite Corridor] and ace the first half of my Bldg Tech midterm by 5pm tomorrow, I'll be all set for the weekend.

Am suffering from tidal waves of CLC-related nostalgia today, for no apparent reasons. Wasted the afternoon downloading tunes we used to do dorm sing-alongs to, when we were in 1's and 2's. We had way too much time back then, and we'd make up dance routines to Abba songs and show them to the whole house.

My repertoir of English karaoke songs are really telling about my age:

ABBA - (hard to admit but it's everything....)
New Order - True Faith
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Freddy Mercury - There's more to life than this + Bohemian Rhapasody
Blur - Parklife + Charmless man + Song 2 + Tender (must be more than these cos at one point I was made to listen to them 24-7)
Pulp - Common People + Disco 2000
Oasis - (just about everything up to 1996)
Verve - bittersweet symphony

Would highly recommend everyone I know to see Frida. I'm not sure how true the movie was about Frida Kahlo's life but it definitely cast her in a different light other than the "victim" blurb you usually hear from art historians. You really get a good picture of what a passionate person Kahlo was, and of her antagonistic relationship with Diego Riveria.
The movie was shot on location in beautiful Art Noveau Mexico (oh I HAVE to go back now); they also used subtle but fantastic special effects, blending Kahlo's most well known paintings into her dreamscape and her life in reality. Like Mexican culture and Kahlo's dress sense, the movie is saturated with lush colours.
Last but not least, Salma Hayek is stellar, and hot enough to turn a straight woman into a lesbian. The tango (?) scene in the movie with Ashley Judd screams sexy without showing too much flesh.
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On Pottermania:
As a Potter fan myself, I can't say I was that thrilled with the new movie. The SFX are great, but the scriptwriter churned out some really corny lines towards the end. (ran out of inspiration?) I still think Daniel Radcliffe needs to broaden his expressions vocabulary - ie. not just the grin + "I'm so stunned I've got a small gobstopper stuck in my mouth" look.

This morning I found a pink "Lucky Neighbor" sign on my door. Not sure if it's a prank by my not very courteous neighbours, or by sympathisers down the hall.
Reason is as such: my neighbors are extremely shaggaholic and they are randier than rabbits. Not only are they at it daily, they are very vocal and are definitely shameless about it. Lately the schedule has changed from late night to early mornings, to my great annoyance. Since I moved here I haven't needed an alarm clock: in place of builders' loud swearing and noise from construction machinery, I now have orgasmic screeches.

Shitty day was recompensated by the sweet sweet, but waaay-too-short Thievery Corp[oration] gig @ Axis. I thought the gig would last the whole night, so I went in late with Yao. Too bad it lasted only just over an hour. My amateur review:

Fantastic live. TC had their full crew: aside from Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, they had two vocalists, their MCs Roots and Zee, percussionists, guitar and sitar players. The visuals playing in the background was lush and globally sourced just like TC's music, showing everthing from 80's ghettos, historical portrait engravings, ancient mosques, masked gherilla fighters, Gurus doing yoga, fighter jets, space travel and naturally, a snippet of their music videos.

The music: mostly from their new album Richest Man in Babylon, twisted to show off the MCs' old skool Studio One raggae style. They also played some of my favourites - Coming from the Top for one [total firestarter], plus some old tunes that I didn't know, like 38.45 and Focus on Sight.

The crowd: on the older side for some reason - are college kids too "in" for chillout? Most people weren't dancing but merely bopping their heads, apart from this short dude in front of us who was dancing all over the place as if he's at a jungle / d'n'b gig. Which was mighty convenient cos it made breathing + viewing space for us. At the end of the gig, MC Roots & Zee were pulling ppl in front onto the stage, and it made a music-video-perfect party scene.

A totally irrelevant sidenote: Eric Hilton looks like my video prof, Joe Gibbons, from a distance - the skinny mature-looking dark-haired White Male.

Whenever anything vaguely good happens to me, it's immediately followed by some unnatural disaster.

I couldn't study all of the material in time for my midterm for Building Tech on Tues, so I skived so it can be rescheduled. Today I walked into the classroom thinking there'd be some uninspiring lecture, but no, there was the SECOND HALF of the midterm!!! Almost died of a heart attack but it'd be too obvious if I walked out. The bloody test was on classical mechanics. I might as well have been mown over by a bus. Haven't touched 8.01 physics since freshmen year. Moments?! Concurrent forces?! Why would an architect need to know this anyway??? Isn't that what civil engineers are for?

ARG. It's a miracle I haven't jumped off the Green building or burnt myself alive in the dorm room in this school. I hate this fucking place - IHTFP, is actually the unofficial school motto and it's on every class ring.

Interviewed today for a January internship at a startup. Dressed like a corporate bi-a-tch today (think dark suit + camel coloured long coat flapping in the wind a la John Woo movies), the first time in...4 years? The last time I was in a suit was for college interviews. *~* gettin old. Interview was a roarin success. *hurrah* AND they say if I do well in Jan I'll be hired for spring + summer. *double hurrah*

The implications are serious - Will I finally become a useful organism on this planet??

Hope Boston won't be butt-freezing in January [wishful thinking], cos the dude was like, "Do you have problems with commuting to Alewife?" (it's a good 1/2 hour ride on the T + 30 mins walking in total) "Will you be able to work continuously for 2 to 3 weeks?".... I said yes to all so there'd better not be any blizzards.
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Met up with my former supervisor Flavia, who's now starting her own business and having a schmashing time around the world + in Italy. Flavia was awesome to work for. She used to abuse her Media Lab credit card to feed us top notch food whenever we worked late at lab. But that's not the reason I worship her. This Superwoman is a total brainiac: she's an expert in the Classics, mechanical + electrical engineering, comp sci, photography to name but a few fields; she collaborates with all sorts of cool people: choreographers, circus acrobats, architects, museums; she rides her motorcycle for fun AND she's a savoir vivre. (tho she's usually too busy to do what she preaches to us about having fun)

She was telling us about a commission she got from La Scala, Milan. (Imagine!) If she gets her own way on this exhibit, it will be unmissable. Milan, 2004 - I'm gonna go there!

I also like Yoshitomo Nara. I lotteried for the art loan programme at school so I can borrow one of his works for a year, but alas, I couldn't even get a spot on the list.

More on cuteness:
I like all things kawaii, like artwork by Takeshi Murakami. So does Marc Jacobs apparently. Louis Vuitton is collaborating with Murakami next season to bring die-hard LV slaves some of that Japanese cutesy-fruitiness. I hope Shenzhen would be quick enough to whip out the knockoffs so I won't have to suffer from handbag envy.

Murakami's work isn't all about cutesy though. Some of his most sensational work,Mr. Lonesome Cowboy, Hiropan and P.Ko2, play on the sexual overcharge in manga and anime imagery. I like both for their pop art sensibility.

Scary Stories: ugly but cute. Beats Disney's Stich: I prefer technicoloured terrestrial pets.
Handsome Hook [lost a leg] is the feline (?) equivalent to my dog Molly. Molly is a grey Shi Tzu. She gets mightily scared whenever I try to take her on a walk, becomes a mop-like heap of fluff and refuses to venture out of her territory. That is, the 200 s.f. concrete patch behind my house.
She once had both of her hind legs broken - we suspect the Philippino driver didn't like her and kicked her very hard. She had to wear these tiny casts, and her legs looked like chicken thighs with all the fur shaved off. It was sad, but funny in a melancholic way to watch the poor sod gimp around.
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For the longest time, I thought Chezzz is the only person reading my gibberish. Thanks People, luv u all.
Mary, glad I can entertain you. I didn't even say "Happy Birthday" when I saw you in September! It should be me apologising.

If how you spend the anniversary of your birth is a definitive judgement on your character, I must be a failure:
Got up late, ditched class due to mildly inclement weather [the second time I've intentionally cut a morning class this term], talked to parents on phone, lied twice [about what i was doing], slumbered some more with my teddy-cow piled on top of me. Dreamt about being a press member / UN rep at the filming of Harry Potter IV in New York, meeting Madonna in her gettin-ready-for-a-concert shopping mode, and becoming gal-pals with her. All done without changing out of my sleeping attire of dressing gown, tank top and track bums. I know I'm on the brink of insanity but this is just NOT ON.

The Post Mortem of this dreaded day:
1. 5 e-cards (of which 3 are from my mum. Mum I love you and all, but what does this say about my social life?)
Want to see what she sent me? They are really funny: 1, 2, 3.
She actually said it would be nice if I'll get a boyfriend. Like, how?
2. 1 chocolate cake, with an eye-dazzlingly-large number of candles on it. (Thx Jen & Mike)
3. 2 cool pressies thus far (and more in the post)

Don't want my blog to be all narcisstic and self-involved. I'll write more interesting things after I work away my lack-of-achievement.

Responses to comments [which are almost all by KK] -
Don't stop writing cos I love reading your comments! They are a source for reassurance for my meagre existence in cyberspace!! (and possibly in real life)
Is sad how I'm dependent on unpersonal electronic media to keep up with people. Someone please invent teletransportation - sans the accidental genetic mutations as in Flythe movie. I know you think of yourself as a roach sometimes in the midst of a Darwinian biodiversity struggle, but I really don't fancy myself as a non-mammalian species, esp. of the bug sort.

and re: B'day plans - [omigod don't want to get any older]
Have for a fleeting sec thought of self-termination, or staging my own death as an accident, cos it's so much better and more romantic to die young. (see James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, River Phoenix etc.) But it would be too ungrateful towards my parents, friends and family etc. Plus it's wimpy not to face aging with grace and dignity.
So actual plans: will invest in anti-wrinkle creams (thx Hermione for all the samples);
and am still debating whether I should take off to Providence / Montreal for the three day weekend, inspite of ass-whooping midterm right after Veterans' Day.

watching Michael Vartan coming back to life on Alias + drinking super-rich hot chocolate at Burdick's = instant spiritual healing

ps/ Didn't know Michael Vartan is originally French. No wonder he's no ordinary pretty boy - definitely has a je ne sais quoi charm besides his clean cut looks.

Winter's kicked in out of nowhere with November, and am already as frozen as my tub 'o Ben & Jerry's at -2'c. Brrrrrr.

had a major emotional crisis yesterday, induced by a chai on an empty stomach. I must have gradually become substance-intolerant over the last month... was feeling all icky, restless and nauseated at the same time, as though I had too much coffee - but it was my daily chai!!! What's wrong with me, can't take caffeine or alcohol?? Totally defies the purpose of being legal drinking age.

Can't tell which was the cause of the depression attack:
- the daylight-saving-time winter blues,
- my recent inferiority complex re: not graduating on time,
- my lack-of-social-activities 2 nights in a row (Halloween + Friday nite = I have no life),
- the dire sense of anxiety / urgency re: turning twenty-something, getting older but not any wiser or more responsible,
- the state of my laundry basket + cleanliness of my carpet,
- or not going to Christian fellowship with my friend Joyce as I said I would for the gazillionth time.
[It's definitely not PMT, cos I had that mildly 2 weeks ago. Is it possible that I'm getting PMT & Post MT?? Geez that would suck.]

So much to feel bad about. Whatever happened to the optimist in me?! Recently read How to be Good by Nick Hornby, and thought I felt as pathetic as the main character in the book....my spiritual self has just as much life as a flat battery. I feel guilty about so much, yet I'm not convinced that religion would be of any consolation. What to do?

was reading a book review in Print mag today on The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping [edited by Rem Koolhaas et al.], a 800-page collection of papers that thouroughly examine the history of the shopping malls and their design, complete with �bercool graphics . There was a witty observation on how malls are disregarded as "high architecture":
- "High architects" are usually boys. Shopping is girly. Therefore high architects "don't do" malls; even if they've done them they'll never put those projects on their resume. Those who have publicised theirs (like Gehry and Venturi) have a history of being asked to do "urban utopia" projects

Does that mean I'm doomed? If I'm going to be an architect, I'm *positive* I won't say no to a shopping mall project... In that logic I'll have to go back to urban planning to gain any respectability.... eeeeks

Chove chuva
constant is the rain
Chove chove chove chuva
endless is the pain

- lyrics from Chove Chuva by Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66

One of the few reasons why I like Boston: (yes, in spite of the -15'C winters)
The legendary jazz artists who play here annually. I just saw Herbie Hancock LIVE. Absolutely amazing stuff, even for a jazz-outisider (moi for one). To see the funkster in his black O' Neill's (or Killer Loops or whatever his cool shades are) is the sort of experience that just won't happen in Hong Kong for less than US$100. He's still got the groove on, even if he temporarily lost his music at the beginning of the show. As one dude sitting behind us said, "The Seventies never left him."

O the architectural history writing TA is so hopelessly cute. I'm not usually big on Caucasian guys, but he is *o* <= wordless CY
had a meeting with him for the first time today about my paper rewrite. He looked a little shy, but made constructive and intellectual comments, amazing seeing how my paper was for a lame assignment where you compare two antique vases. The dude seemed a bit nervous - his hands were shakey when he waved them about to explain a point. A quiet sensitive type maybe?

Mrs. DePiro, my English teacher in 3's once said, "Isn't it exquisite when fifteen year olds blush?" Never mind my paedophilic English teacher, but this was exactly what popped up in my boy-crazy head when I attempted to think of a less pretentious intro for my essay.

the downside: he's a tad short :( why o why are cute guys at MIT always short?? Anyway, would it be wrong to try to date a TA who won't teach you again?

Ben Katchor's A Date in Architectural History:
a short, brilliant, slap-in-the-face comic for architectural historians!

am fully feeling the consequences of teaching my dad how to use Ebay. Now my room is inundated with antique cameras and lenses of all sorts. (believe me 2 portable accordion cameras and 3 70's SLRs take up enough space to bother me). Now that he has no kids at home to harrass, he's re-invested his last traces of fatherly love into photo equipment. My mum's told me he's totally addicted, glued the comp at all waking and semi-conscious hours outside of the office. And he no longer has enough cash to pay for sundries. What have I done?!!!!

Now it just seems inevitable that I'm a shoppaholic.

o i'm so terrible with this procrastination...instead of doing reading for building tech, I'm trying to sort out my blog for the discrepancies between IE & Netscape. What an unproductive use of time.

can't believe my tiny 130 s.f. room just hosted a sleepover for 3 over the weekend. What a re-definition of true compact living. It was nice in a cosy way, since I haven't made any contact with human civilization for weeks (e-mail & icq really doesn't count). Scary what my addiction to my comp can do. Now I'm back to solitairy living mode :(
It'd be nice if we had more opportunities for college-family get-togethers. It's intense now that Chin Yee, Jason, Jess and Geoff are all here in the Boston / New England area, plus Evelyn who comes to see Jason every now and then. Can you believe our families have been friends from our grandparents' generation? I'd love to have my kids play with Jess' or Geoff's, just like we did when we were little. Jess and I have a baby pic of us together in a bath tub!!
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Coming soon:

BMW' s new promo movies for the 2003 Z4 Roadster by John Woo, Joe Carnahan and Tony Scott.
Luuurrrve their slick stuff - the cars are nice, but their short movies are just as beautifully and precisely executed. The first season featured the likes of Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, Guy Ritchie etc. And oh, the cooler-than-thou, subzerolly-poised Clive Owen as the laconic Driver. Getting paid to drive all those dream machines - can it get any better ?

Dude... was trying to look for a January internship through the alumni network listings, and I found this:
There's actually an NYC rejection hotline number you can give to dodgy stalker types (!!) courtesy of Eyebeam Atelier. Can a prospective employer be any cooler??

Mind you, Conde Nast, Pixar, Aardman and Sotheby's are still on top of my dream job list.

My mum gave me two avocado seeds to grow way back in September. They've been sunbathing in tiny glasses of water on my window ledge for almost two months now, and they ain't done a thing. Must chant to meself: "patience is a virtue....."

Yay! Wallace and Gromit are back! The coolest regional-accented inventor & his brighter-than-your-average pup :) Did I mention one of my dream jobs would be working at Aardman? [prospective employers please take note]

Took my dad to the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA to see the glorious New England fall foliage. I had such perfect memories of the place from my first visit, when Another Man took me there, that I secretly wished to avoid what would be for me, a nostalgic trip. I was a little scared that the usual bickering between my dad, my brother and I would ruin what I remember as a Perfect Place, where I shared a quietly happy, blissful day with the Other Man.
My dad wasn't staying in Boston long enough to go anywhere further away, so there we went, my brother getting on my nerves all the way.

It was spectacular. It was windy, but the sky was a cloudless blue after a miserable weekend of fog and rain. I love it when the maple trees turn firey red on the edges when the leaves near the trunk are still green. I love not being able to hear civilisation, just for a short time. No construction workers, no machinery, no cars. Just the wind rustling the fallen leaves and the occassional bird cry.
The sculpture park was as lush and as beautiful as I remembered it. I walked towards the lake with my dad, down the trail shaded by golden trees. It reminded me of my time at CLC - our housemistress Mrs. L-G used to make us go on country side walks, to 'take in some fresh air', with our green wellies we'd be stuck into her Volvo. (and if you're not fast enough, you'd be stuck in the boot with Prima, her drippy white English Sheepdog which had really bad doggy breath) It made me happy that I could do this with my dad, who never had enough time for us when we were little.

After a pared down lunch at the museum cafe, I went to the room where His group put on an installation. 1.5 years onwards, the gallery room now has paintings by contemporary Boston artists, in place of miniscule video screens in bird cages.The closet behind the glass door is still there, though now locked. The image of Him, lanky and double bent, sitting on a disproportionally small milk crate, monitor inches in front, quietly debugging the program with muted frustration. (the program crashed often and would undisirably show Windows 98 screens on the installation....)

The trip brought back the memories, of Him and other things, but it also made new ones. The new ones are just as perfect in their own way. If I had a sound track for every place I go, DeCordova would be cheesily labelled as Perfect Day.

Spent the cold, rainy afternoon oogling at glossy modern houses in glossy modern architecture magazines in the not-so-glossy but very Modernist architecture library. Learnt that students can take old issues tucked behind the 'secret' flipping magazine shelves. [my excuse for not knowing this for the past 4 years] Must exploit these resources, afterall my tuition => glossy modern architecture magazines, thus should take a small %age of my tuition back, instead of forking out more $$$ for glossy architecture magazines in some overpriced poseur book shop.

New object of desire:
a Microflat by Stuart Piercy & Richard Connor in London. Very chic yet afforable Tokyo-salary-men-style modular housing [note the oxymorons] in Hoxton at a mere 10, 000 - 15, 000 euros. I can either start saving up, or consult parents on potential purchase.
Upon 3 seconds of thoughtful consideration, the later option is preferred. I am a brat.
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The radiator hasn't stopped making banging noises since I switched it on three days ago. Inefficient facilities ppl haven't got round to it yet. I hope it won't explode on me, and cald me to bits of steamed cha siu. *ewww* But it is getting on my nerves. I couldn't go to sleep cos every hour or so, I have to switch the knob one way or another to stop it banging, for an hour. *Grrrr*

Nerd Pride:

The truth about crop circles -
They are made by MIT course 16 (aero astro) students with too much time, too much resources.

Just took my senior portrait for the school yearbook. Crap.
The reality of being a senior just hasn't set in - I'm sleeping in a bunked bed like in freshmen year, I'm taking classes packed with sophomores, and I still get asked if I'm finding my way around OK.

The photographer asked if I wanted to take the pics in cape and gown. I politely declined - just doesn't feel right, since I won't be graduating anytime soon.

Something bizarre-
I found Lego Porn when looking up Sweet J Presents on Google
Are childhood toys / memories not sacred anymore??

Had an indoor picnic with Yao in my room today. Haven't seen her sans boyfriend in.... 3 months? (Has it been that long?) So we had a nice, long, heartfelt conversation. Nothing electronic can beat face-to-face catching-up. Her mashed sweet potatoes are highly addictive :d
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Went to Screenblast.com to check out my fav webtoons, only to be disappointed!! Sony has changed the site to an advertising thingy for its multimedia editing suite.
For a sense of that it used to be: check this out.
My favs were Sweet J Presents and Paul Frank's Julius and Friends under Comedy, and Lenore (by Roman Dirge) under Horror. [not a fan of horror movies but this is a goth-cutesy-gross cartoon]

DJ Shadow's Six Days music video by Wong Kar Wai

Can't wait to see 2046 - Chang Tsen (? Spelling) looks so good, tho not as cool as he was in Crouching Tiger
He has that Johnny Depp drifter mystere that's so magnetic......*o*

Amazing what a bit of furniture rearrangement can do.
Now my room has virtually doubled its size, and I can *almost* roll around on my 6 x 9 carpet. (Not that I want to - the ol' rag needs a good vacumming which I'm reluctant to do)

I was soooo mad this morning. To the point where I was tearing.

Got into a war of words with a fellow student, after reading his pro-war-on-Iraq column in the uni's newspaper.
Basically he was repeting the typical American "bellicose rhetoric" (as acurately described by Lib Dem party leader Charles Kennedy).
He said a lot of other things dismissing the whole Islamic culture and also the Muslim nations, which can be boiled down to, "We don't need to understand Islam, let's just bomb the shit out of these Third World proletarians."

I was at an utter loss of words. Seems like four years of tip-top education has been fruitless on this man. How can a student here come up with such insulting and irreverent words?

Then I found out the author is the nutty black loner rapper around campus who rhymes to himself. I'm not angry any more. There's just no point getting all worked up, trying to reason with a nutter radical who has no audience.
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On a lighter note, my mum told me that my lil' bro felt sick after having the breakfast that I cooked for him. :P
He felt like throwing up all morning, after I dropped him off at a family friend's house to take off for the airport.

The consolation: he didn't actually throw up. And he said the breakfast was quite good.
I'll just blame his indigestion on the butter overdose.

career-scare part II:

the thing that gives me this fear?

My peers. Most of my friends are either doing their masters, or gonna be filthy-rich corporate types, or both. At school, it seems like I'm surrounded by people in dark suits off to interviews. And me? I'll prolly become a new age hippie / uni drop out loser if I don't get my act together.

On the otherhand, I don't want to become a corporate bi-ae-tch (yet). So there.

I am mighty scared.

it's always been a timebomb tick tocking away in the back of my mind, and lately the ticktocking is getting louder and louder.
I don't yet have a vocational calling.
So Uncle Kai, one of my dad's loonier friends, gave me this sound advice: if you're not reputable in your field by thirty-five, you might as well forget about the whole career thing. Say I need 8-10 years to build up my career, I'd better know what I want to do by 25 / 27ish. Which leaves me three / five years+ to find out what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Chilling thought, since I've been trying to find out what I want to be since 16 and I still haven't come up with anything more than a semester-long fad.

Fields I have thought about:
1. biochemistry (not ever again since my teacher predicted a D for my Chemistry A Level, which promptly made me drop the subject)
2. Novel cosmetic brand (after reading too much glossies in high school - particularly articles about ppl who came up with Hard Candy, Philosophy etc.)
3. city planning (decided I'm not totalitarian / confident enough [see Corbusier or Robert Moses], so I'd never get my way with cities anyway)

Fields I'm still thinking about:
4. film making - tho I can't imagine myself being a bossy director, and making anything besides Bridget Jones-esque documentaries / incomprehensible pretentious art things
5. architecture - guess what my mum's been trying to tell me all my life what NOT to become
6. advertising - mostly creative jobs. But my thoughts have been quivering a bit after one week at Saatchi's. Maybe it's just the way chilled Brits do things - ie. indifferent to interns.

and the job that every little girl wants to have:
7. I still like to imagine, deep down there's still a seedling inside waiting to be the next John Galliano / Rei Kawakubo .

exercise in narcistic behaviour:

Why Cumulo Nimbus you ask? (or I'll pretend you asked)
[in a geeky nasal voice] Cumulo-nimbus is a type of cloud, the thick dark ominous looking ones you see before thunder storms or heavy rain.

Ever since I was a kid, my mum thought she should name me Cloudy if I should ever get an English name, cos I'm so clueless all the time.
Things haven't changed much, except that I've been getting more teary as I grow up.
When confronted with figures of authority (usually people who want me to work harder, people I can't stand, or people who I get frustrated with), any traces of decorum plus my will to control my tear ducts simply vanish.
I'm hoping I can be more like Cirrus, the wispy feather-lite clouds you see when it's sunny and bright. So that's my ICQ nickname.

it's plainly obvious I'm not meant for geeky techy hobbies
I wasted 3.5 hrs trying to figure out how to put in a blog roll
*Hmmmph*

this nonsensical babbling is rather addictive....but not as good as chocolate.

I brought back *nine* bars of Galaxy and a box of After Eight's. When I was checking out at Sainsbury's, the lady working at the till asked, "A bit of a chocolatey lady, are you?" :P
I told her it isn't all for myself. She laughed, unconvinced.
I wasn't lying. I'm gonna prove to my friends on this side of the pond that English confectioners can kick Hershey's ass anyday.

Check out what I found on Google- Chocoholics Anonymous.

got back from London, capital of global hipdom.

Am truly happy to see all my old friends from my Cheltenham days - especially Claudia, Emily and Kaman. It's been 1 1/2 years. Everyone is changing yet everything is the same. It felt like going home.
Weather was a bit on the cold side tho, and the tube strike took an aweful lot of energy out of me.
But I got to walk in Hyde Park and enjoy the crisp autumn morning - such a luxury when I was meant to be in school slaving away over problem sets.

Took my lil' bro out for exeat - my only sisterly act in all of his life. I actually cooked a full English breakfast for him, beans, eggs and all. I used to think I didn't have enough estrogen in my bod or something, but I guess I do have a maternal side buried deep down.

I experienced the tremors of an EARTHQUAKE in London, of all places. It was 1am, and the house squeaked and shook a little. I thought it was a couple at it hard or something, but guess what I heard on the news the next morning.

Work experience at Saatchi sucked. but what the hell, I happily became a victim of advertising during my stay, burning pounds sterling away.
Finally got new trainers! Puma Mostro in blue metallic Synthetic. Super comfy. I left my Acupuncture Miss Julie's in the service apartment. I hope someone would be nice enough to adopt them. They have serve me for three trusty years, and I loved them to death, but they have also been worn to death. *sigh* why can't your fav trainers last forever?

god damn my laptop battery
this could have been a witty & meaningful blog about shopping, architecture and good music in London
but since this is now the third time I lost my blog I kinda lost my patience.
It'll get better I promise.