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