Melbourne 2012 Day 1

Lol, this is a super delayed post but I got here finally because I have photos!

What happened was that I brought my camera to Melbourne… but didn’t realise until I went though customs that I forgot to replace my battery in after I charged it. So I brought a camera… that couldn’t be used >_>

I decided to go on a trip with uni friend A – she had annual leave, and I still have a zillion days left to take - I took the rare opportunity to take just a few days off (it was only like 3 days) to go on a mini trip interstate. Well, in that case, it means I didn’t actually fulfill my resolution in 2011 since I went to Melbourne in January 2012, but I guess it’s close enough since I went on the 5th January, just after the new year.

We did a lot of research into which hotel to book, and what to do when we got there. I went to Melbourne in I think 2010 and it was too short of a trip to have done all the shopping I wished I was able to do! I kept hearing stuff from my colleague about awesome deals but I didn’t really encounter many – this time I was determined to snag some great deals. In fact, the whole point of this trip was to destress and spend money shopping – that was all, LOL.

I seriously already planned where to go, how long it’d take us to get there, how long we’d spend at the place and how we would get there. I had to organise it because we had a fairly tight schedule, and I really didn’t know my way around Melbourne, despite being there before. I really really was terrible with directions the last time, because I didn’t need to know – there was always someone else who knew the way, and I couldn’t figure out which street was which since they looked so familiar.

All photos were either taken by me or my friend – credits to whoever took em, she shouldn’t mind

We flew Tiger Airways, and it wasn’t that bad. It was the cheapest air ticket we found (JetStar came a close second), but it was still kinda pricey at $95 one way, $191 return. It could have been cheaper, but that price included travel insurance, and 20kg checked-in baggage TO and FROM Melbourne (we should have just picked like 10kg on the way there – but we actually didn’t need it… and on the way back we only weighed in about 12kg, so 15kg would have been enough for us). Either way, it works about about the price of petrol, but you get to Melbourne really quickly, about an hour and a half at most.

Photo I took with my phone whilst waiting for the plane at the Sydney Domestic Terminal food court.

Check-in for Tiger opens 2 hours prior to the flight, and boarding starts about 30 minutes-45 minutes before the flight is due. We checked in at around 8:10am (originally we made it for 8am but we were slightly late) and we managed to get seats next to each other, as well as plenty of overhead space. Check in early – you’d be surprised. We saw many people being separated from their friends and on the way back, there was limited cabin space especially if you board later – so get on board first!

Tiger will also not let you board another flight if you are late – so it’s good for people who are really punctual. We were fairly organised so that wasn’t a problem. The flight left early, even, because everyone was so orderly.

When we got to the Melbourne Domestic Airport (please folks, when buying your air tickets, choose Tullamarine airport and NOT Avalon airport – Avalon is kinda in the middle of nowhere – just search it on google maps and it will frighten you.

We pre-purchased tickets to ride the Skybus ($26 return for adults) but they sell tickets whilst you board. The Skybus is a shuttle bus service that takes you straight to the city centre (Southern Cross Station) and it’s a service that happens every 10 minutes, so it’s fairly frequent. It’s a cost effective way to get to the city, without catching a taxi.

A bus ride on the Skybus takes about 20-30minutes depending on traffic. They also have a free hotel transfer service – but we didn’t use it.

At Southern Cross we took a Melbourne guide book (includes a map and various coupons inside, so take one if you see one) and then went to the shopping centre above, Spencer Street Mall. The mall has a lot of stuff we have in Sydney, like Forever21, Wittner, blah blah – I didn’t get anything there, but we had lunch there (a salad and a juice – cost us about $15 each) and bought a bunch of supplies at Coles supermarkets, including stuff like muesli bars, water, fruit, toothpaste (we both didn’t bring toothpaste because we only brought carry on baggage on the way there and there’s a limit to how much you can bring – make sure to read carefully and pack lightly).

We then bought our tram tickets at 7/11 – the tram tickets are about… damn I forgot. Around $9 for an adult all day zone 1 ticket. Zone 1 is the city area and an all day ticket means unlimited travel on Yarra Trams, Metro Trains and the buses. We then hopped on a tram to get to the hotel – and surprisingly, it was a lot closer than what we originally thought.

We decided to stay at Causeway 353 Hotel, which is a 4 star hotel on 353 Little Collins Street. We booked a twin bed room for two nights, and I think between us it was $150, so $75/night, which wasn’t bad. I originally wanted to stay at Novotel because they had 30% off for booking in advance, but it worked out all the same – 353 was a bit cheaper, but the location was even better – litterally, we were about 10m away from a tram stop which took us directly to Crown Casino, which was amazing. It was like hitting the jackpot without knowing it.

There were many cafes downstairs where you could have breakfast (though we didn’t try those) – the worst part about the location is that it IS accessable only via an alley, but we didn’t think too much of it when we saw so many cafes along the way. But the inside was honestly a lot nicer than we expected, so we were fairly impressed.

Excuse the messy room, this was actually taken on the second night, trololol and all that crap on the bed is mine… I am so messy.

They had a lot of things I didn’t expect them to have – such as a microwave. I mean, I expected a safe and a kettle and hairdryer, but the microwave was a real bonus. There was a long desk, an ottoman, a chair, a sofa and a TV which we didn’t use. The bathroom was actually really nice and brand new, but I didn’t take a photo of it because we kinda really messed it up by piling lots of used towels on the ground as mats to make it less slippery (shower splashes water okay). The bathroom has a shower in a tub, so you can take a bath if you want, and the best part is that the water is actually hot. ZOMG. Maybe it’s because whenever I’m at a hotel or motel in Australia it’s in Canberra or somewhere where hot water is limited LOL – but even so last time in Melbourne, hot water actually stopped around 10pm… because I did take a cold shower once in the middle of winter >_>

There were a bunch of phone books, a safe. iron and even ironing board. We didn’t use the slippers or the robe because I think you had to pay for them (check the bar price list just in case guys!), and there was a Remington hairdryer, which surprisingly, did not suck. It was a good hairdryer. You’d be surprised at how crap some hairdryers are… they just blow warmish air and do nothing… but this hairdryer was a BEAST. Pleased, really happy.

ANYWAY enough about the hotel – checking in was easy and the room was really nice. We didn’t have a view, but overall it was fairly quiet, except in the early hours – I could hear people rolling out their wheelie bins and in the morning I could hear vans or trucks reversing, possibly to collect rubbish. Otherwise it wasn’t bad.  Aircon was controllable and it was fairly comfortable.

Our first stop was South Wharf DFO which we took a tram to Crown Casino to, and then walked for about 10 minutes. I was really looking foward to Burberry there because it was an outlet… I was pretty annoyed that Burberry in Sydney didn’t have 50% during Christmas sales (they did during July) so I was looking forward to seeing what they had.

On the way to DFO… and the dirty Yarra River lol… it was seriously yellow.

Bring your sunglasses. I didn’t regret it – it’s really windy and sunny at times, so you will need them.

This is the entrance of South Wharf, so look out for it or you’ll miss it. We almost missed it because the entrance was located in a fricken wind tunnel, but there were heaps of people holding shopping bags so we just traced back to where they came out from LOL.

They had a lot of sports clothing outlets, so you could get great deals like my friend who got 2 Adidas t-shirts for like… $25 or something? I dunno, it was really cheap from memory. Upstairs was just homewares and furniture, so we checked out the basement – full of clothing and shoes.

I didn’t get much from DFO because I bought myself a GHD hair straightener (though it wasn’t cheap or anything, I was just sick of looking) and we just kept walking and walking… we went into almost every store (that at least caught our attention anyway)… and then at the very end of the loop… BURBERRY. We did a hugeass circle and it was at the fricken end! Next time I go, I’ll go anticlockwise rather than clockwise… OMG. But anyway, my friend did buy from the other stores – like shoes… I think it was from ALDO (a pair of heels and they were only like $30 or $40 – really cheap) but Burberry…. @___@

Everything in the shop was half price D: And the best part was that most of the items still had sizes – I still regret not getting the pair of espadrilles there… I thought that I shouldn’t get them since I bought so many shoes last year… but they were only like $230 or something D: Sigh.

Anyway, I was more interested in their clothes – we each bought a jumper for about $135 (that’s cheaper than Lacoste okay) and I took my time looking for a trenchcoat. There were only a few to choose from but none of them really tickled my fancy all that much. There was a trench that was pretty nice, but it wasn’t waterproof so I didn’t think that I needed it that long… little did I realise, I managed to find the cropped jacket version of it… and I really liked it, so I got it. Half price makes me happy.

We then headed back to the hotel to drop our stuff off – and I kid you not, Melbourne was freezing then, so I was pretty glad I bought a jacket to wear. We tried to visit Prada since it was just down the street, but by the time we got there (we took a tram 2 stops up), they were closed. This was at 5pm! Shops close at Melbourne wayyyy too early. And they open wayyyy too late!

So we then hopped back on the tram to Crown Casino.

We went to the Prada at Crown Casino, and walked into many of the shops there but we didn’t buy anything. The Prada there had a shockingly small collection of stuff to sell – or rather, the sales assistant didn’t even bother to check for us, or at least tell us if it was available elsewhere. She seemed like she was daydreaming.

We already planned in the first place to have dinner at Crown Casino, because I got a Melbourne Entertainment book and card courtesy of my boss and manager – they went to Melbourne in around July 2011 so the book/cards were still valid.

After walking around a lot and trying to decide on where to eat, we ended up on the first floor. We were tempted to try the one on ground floor, but we had no idea what Modern Australian cuisine was, and it was fairly cold so we skipped it. Well, *I* wanted to try the Buffet but it was fully booked, but luckily we didn’t go there – it didn’t look that nice to be honest.

We went opposite and found JJ’s Bar and Grill – which upon first glance sounds like a barbeque place, but it was actually fine dining, so that was really surprising. The interior was pretty grand and followed a racecourse theme. Throughout the night there was a guy playing the piano and singing classic songs (all of which my friend knew, none of which I knew) – he was so good that I honestly thought that I was listening to a CD until I turned around and saw him there D:

Photos are not allowed in Crown Casino, but these photographs were taken with the permission of the waiter at JJ’s - we asked before taking these. I guess you’re not allowed to take photos of the casino and gambling area – food is alright, I suppose?

The bar was pretty spectacular.

To start us off they gave us some bread and vinegar in olive oil. The bread was nice and warm and crispy. Yummy. This was complimentary.

The first thing that arrived was the platter we ordered. The platter is a platter for 2 – around $50. There were several items you could order from the list, but you choose 5 out of the ones they have listed. We ordered everything under the category of “The Ocean” except for the king prawns, which was exactly 5 items (I mean, if it was gonna cost $50 of course I’ll order all the seafood… lalala). Starting from the shell and going clockwise, the shell was scallops, then salmon, calamari rings, octopus and ham, and lastly, crab meat. I didn’t touch the crab since I wasn’t sure if I was allergic to it, but everything was pretty good. The paste in the centre was a tomato paste and it was pretty tasty.

The platter looks really small, but it also came with some bread (like pancake bread) to go with it – you can see it faintly in the top left hand corner.

I was actually pretty hungry by the time the food came, because my lunch was a mere salad and I ate that at around 12… it was about 8pm when we were at the restaurant, so I was starting to get stomach pains from not eating on time. That really did ruin my experience, and it was shame because the food was really good

I rarely stick photos of myself in here (esp with that hair – what/ why I do not know), but I had to include this because I was happy with my main. The surroundings were also nice as you can see. I ordered a pan-fried barramundi – it cost about $45 or so, but ohhhhh the fish was huge and it was the softest, juiciest fish I’ve had in a very very long time. Melts in yo mouth :Q___ Sat on a bed of I think mustard seed. YERMZ. Too bad I had to stop halfway and pause for a bit – because it was a really really good main. I did finish it, by the way. But I didn’t finish the mustard seed, just finished the salad on top and the fish

As you can also gather, we each got a glass of water – we were happily drinking that, until we noticed they were serving us Panna water which is a fricking expensive water they serve at high end restaurants. I don’t think they charged us because I didn’t see it on the bill, but we were like “omg what” – LOL. We should have known, I mean, we did pay quite a lot for this meal.

The two cocktails we ordered – at the beginning the waitress asked if we were going to have beer, wine, spirits or cocktails. We said cocktails and she took our glasses away

The pink one is mine, which is a Cosmopolitan. I still don’t know how I’m supposed to drink it, but it came with strawberries, a heck of a lot of ice, and MORE alcohol in that stainless steel cocktail shaker on the left. Couldn’t finish drinking it. The yellow one was my friend’s… don’t know what it was called but it was a pineapple flavoured cocktail… we each paid $19 for our cocktails.

Last but not least, this is my friend’s main which was kangaroo meat done medium rare. It looks like really little, but whoa, each slice of kangaroo meat was probably the size of a human tongue. This photograph does no justice to the size of the dish. There was a LOT of meat there. This main was also around $42 or so.

We declined dessert at the end… we were both seriously, really really full.

After using our Entertainment Gold card and giving what we thought was a reasonable tip, we each forked out $75 each.

I think it’s the most expensive meal I’ve had to date, but it was the first time I’ve actually went fine dining (yes, I’m slow, but well, I’m not a person who exactly likes to spend money on food). I’d say the restaurant is pretty good value for money. The food was good, atmosphere was nice and well, yeah. If I had to say what was weak, the food was a little slow and the drinks were a bit strange – I had lots of ice, my friend had zero ice – and funnily, I preferred drinking my drink with the ice. Otherwise I’d go again – no reason to not go back.

I was slightly tipsy on the way back (that’s what you get for trying to finish your alcohol in the last 10 minutes of your meal) and by the time we got back it was like 10pm. Showered, went to sleep. We were pretty exhausted.

Day 2/3 coming soon.

This post is already 3000 words so I’m going to cut this short. Lately I’ve been really hooked on Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, which is really amazing D: So much better than Flower Boy Ramyun Shop – really!

So much better than Dream High 2, which in my opinion makes no sense and features a bunch of emotionless, zombie actors/ actresses following a poorly written script. WHERE IS THE SUSPENSE. O THAT’S RIGHT. THERE IS NONE.

Another reason why I am ending this post is because I need to do my daily exercise in 2 minutes. Lol. Will be back soon with next segment of this super boring journey. Hope it helps persuade some of you to go to Melbourne, tho

Why I am not doing anything architecture related.

Happy singles awareness day – and Valentines to you

Valentines is just another day at work for me. But I need to thank all of you who are in love, you are the ones who consume, spend money and make my day at work awesome since you’re all pretty rushed for time and don’t ask questions I really hate or haggle over a few measly dollars. Valentines is awesome in that respect.

ANYWAY.

I thought that I explained myself many times before, but I guess I probably did that in real life but never in words on screen, so I was surprised when I got questions asking why I quit architecture and decided to do something completely different.

Like many people who like to romanticise several occupations, I was a dreamer who thought that I was ideally designed to be an architect. I got good grades when I was in high school doing technical drawing, I could draw (not well, but alright, but obviously not good enough – le doodle is okay), and most of my friends thought that I was pretty creative. I really actually did think that I could be awesome and design many buildings one day and take friends around the world, point out “I designed that” and proclaim it like a boss. Well, in reality, being an artist is not like being Picasso – more like it’s being a starving artist unless you really somehow make it big one day. I’m a dreamer, but I’m realistic. My personality is just like that – I just say it and think of it as it is. Forget the rainbows and unicorns – if it’s not going to work out, it’s not going to work out.

The subject that I studied (we all know it as architecture) I shall refer to as archi, which is what we all called it as. I’ve decided to use this abbreviated name so that you can distinguish between archi the subject your study, versus architecture the professional field. They are very similar, but not the same.

I feel that there are a lot of misconceptions about archi. I’m not saying it’s not a feasible direction to head to – oh dreams do come true. But to let you know, this is actually what we had to experience – and if you think that preparing a presentation for some marketing course is hard, you wait and see.

As archi students, we didn’t just design. We had to do research (note that most of the information we needed only existed as printed material in the library), write essays, write reports, do calculations (trigonometry, physics, yes – all), make models (computer and physical models) – out of several types of materials, do drawings (computer and hand drawn – includes technical, perspective and sketch/ diagrams), make presentation layouts (fill up the whole damn wall), do portfolios (graphic design?), design other crap that belonged to our design (industrial design, anyone?), make verbal presentations (communications/marketing?)… we, hands down, do more than the average student. This is why I absolutely think it’s ridiculous when people are so happy they graduated from like, commerce or something – dude, you ain’t seen nothing yet gurrrrl.

This list probably doesn’t just apply to archi – it applies to most design courses that involve time consuming activities such as making things such as physical objects (so I don’t think graphic design is quite as hectic).

NB to Americans – uni (university) is the equivalent of college in the States. A basic subject consists of 3 units (elective), but core subjects are typically 6 or 12 units. Each unit is about an hour at uni each week, and uni runs Monday to Friday – but is open 24 hours as we have access cards. Most local students tend to live quite far from uni (at least 30 minutes away), a select group of students manage to find university accommodation or live as close as 5-10 minutes away.

1. Being an archi student = no social life, or very little of it.

The amount of after hours work we have to do is probably like doing your commerce maths questions times by three in terms of time required. We do the same amount of units, but we have so few hours left over to actually do work. We have 4 subjects – sometimes 3 - (usually differently weighted, with design being the highest priority) and they expect you to do an extra 8 hours self-study for every unit you take. Design is 12 units, by the way, meaning they expect you to uses 48 hours of your own time working on design. And don’t forget the other 12 units. Working 48 hours on a project means that it is your entire weekend without drinking, eating, sleeping or socialising. Pure, non- stop working. That’s what they ask you to do.

Everyone you know probably is in your course. You rarely know anyone who isn’t studying the same thing. You lose contact with your high school friends.

Of course, most of us choose to prioritise our social lives instead of camping out at uni over the weekends, where I must admit can be quite creepy at night when it’s kinda empty and all. Obviously once you start choosing priorities over self-study, you end up pressed for time and find yourself rushing projects to be finished. Yeah.

2. Archi requires a high level of discipline ie. zero procrastination, steady progress – else you pull all nighters. Every single time.

That’s right -once you start to have a social life or you decide to let things dwell for a bit before actually working on your projects (which I am sure everyone does), you end up finding hours you normally wouldn’t have otherwise: time when you should actually be sleeping. You sacrifice your sleep in order to finish your projects.

If one night isn’t enough, then take two nights. When two nights isn’t enough, take three nights. Still not enough? Four, five. As many as you need, even if it means you have to hand in your project late.

I was not the type to hand in things late. I’d pull all nighters so that I could hand my projects in on time, and I’ve done that for pretty much all my projects. But you cannot imagine what it’s like to feel so sleepy in the middle of the night, you’re thirsty but don’t want to waste time drinking, your body feels like jelly and you really want to sleep. When you finally get to sleep (after staying awake for probably 30 hours or so, and napping for about 1-2 hours), your eyes feel like they’re on fire when you wake up.

3. Archi is unhealthy.

What do you do when you pull an all-nighter and you’re damn sleepy? You drink coffee or energy drinks. Take a smoke outside if you’re a smoker, so that’s extra cigarettes you wouldn’t have smoked if you were asleep.

Again, I wasn’t the type to drink coffee or energy drinks because I never really thought they were beneficial for health on the long term due to their high caffeine levels. My way of working around it was putting together an awesome playlist of songs that I’d listen to whilst I worked throughout the early mornings of the day. I did drink green tea – but unfortunately they were the packaged bottle types you grab from a local Asian supermarket on the way to uni (2 litre bottle) to last you the entire night.

If you’re hungry you’re probably going to snack on junk food or fast food. To save time, usually we had one guy go through all the levels and he would take orders for us since he was going to take a trip to McDonald’s. I really appreciated those times, because it means that we get food without wasting time to go out and buy it. The guys would wait until what was it… 3:30 or 4am to wait for the breakfast menu to take place. Most of us probably have McDonald’s several meals in a row especially if camping out at uni for several nights.

Many students don’t go home for as long as perhaps, 4 or 5 days. Sometimes even a week.

This means a lot of students don’t shower. We do bring face wash and toothpaste/brush to brush our teeth though.

We skip meals regularly if pressed for time.

We are dehydrated because we worry we drink too much water, and that means we go to the toilet constantly which wastes time.

Most of the time we spend is in front of a computer screen. Namely a dual screen. We get arm/ shoulder/ neck/ back/ butt pain for sitting long periods of times. Our eyes also hurt and suffer as a consequence. Usually the first thing I did was change the contrast and brightness settings on the monitors I was going to use, in order to minimise damage. Not sure if it did anything though. Towards the final year, I suffered extreme dizziness looking at any computer screen – bad enough I slept 4 days out of the few days they gave us to complete our project. I first used a computer when I was about 6 years old and never have I encountered sickness looking at a computer screen – until the end of 2010. I was 22 years old then, barely what I consider old. Clearly, my health was deteriorating.

We sleep with our heads on the tables, or sometimes we take down a board which we usually pin stuff to, lie it flat and use that as a mattress. Some students choose to sleep across tables. Some choose to sleep on the floor. Some bring sleeping bags or air mattresses. Sleep is generally considered a luxury, lasts ideally for less than an hour, and occurs once every 36-40 hours.

I don’t need to go into detail, but as you can gather, there are a lot of unhealthy habits associated with studying this subject, and it’s usually beyond our control. We don’t want to do all nighters,  but probably even if we didn’t procrastinate, we’d spend our extra 48 hours over the weekend doing the same thing over a period of 13-15 weeks. The majority of us choose to cram all 13 weekends into the final two weeks we get to prepare our final projects.

I gained so much weight by the end of my fourth year (still in the healthy BMI range, but it was like 8kg or something, JEEZ) so I went through a strict exercise regime in my fifth, which I detailed in my diet diary. I discovered most of it was water, since I dropped sizes really fast. All because I didn’t exercise enough while I was studying.

4. Archi is expensive.

Some people like to explain this by saying that archi(tects) are indulgent beings. I believe this is so, because if you didn’t have spare money to begin with, you couldn’t afford to study such an expensive subject such as archi in the first place -

Since you’ve all gathered by now that archi is a really damn busy subject, most of us didn’t have jobs. And without a job, income comes from…? Well, you can think about it.

Just to start the subject, I remember having to spend about $500 buying the “essential” items – possibly more because of textbooks. Thankfully, we never really had many textbooks to buy during the duration of the course – but when we did our research projects, we spent a heck of a lot of money photocopying and scanning stuff. A typical end of semester project would probably look like this: Models and material/ equipment – probably $500. Printed presentation – $300 to $700. Portfolio – $100. Archi was a really expensive subject. Don’t forget I didn’t include the cost of the interim submissions during the semester. ZING!

Because freedom was so seldomly enjoyed, whenever we went out for a meal (lunch, dinner, leisure), my friend and I would overexpend to compensate for the crappy times we had to endure. We ate probably twice as much as what we normally would, and spent probably three times as much as normal – to make ourselves feel better. It was a stupid habit, stupid and expensive habit – but it was nowhere as expensive as archi itself. Printing for a final project – easily up to thousand dollars or more.

And without a job, our income…? LOL.

There were a lot of students who did work part time jobs, but they were fairly organised and kept everything under control. I suspect they just were really good at organising their lives and they managed to fit everything in. The catch is that a lot of these students only studied part time, not full time.

I was a full time student for 5 years. I didn’t work a single job during that time. I was too busy to. I just couldn’t.

5. Archi is mentally challenging, tiring, abusive.

Apart from stating the obvious that if you can’t problem solve the design according to your beliefs andn the requirements of the brief, you’re basically stuck. If it’s shit in your opinion, you gotta fix it. And to do that, you gotta think.

That’s right, a lot of the time we are doodling and trying to figure out where to put what, how to do it and whether or not it fits or looks strange. Once we decide it’s alright and draw it to scale, we realise it looks freaking ridiculous and you forgot that you left out an essential part that is required, like the toilets or something – I dunno. Then you gotta start again – and fix it.

We go through many many trials – I think during the design stage I’m not surprised there are at least 10 mutations. Some students start completely anew (really unclever move – time consuming and doesn’t solve anything, just avoids all problems and ends up being weaker), some just can’t move on because they either don’t know what they want, their tutor can’t guide them further (there’s always that one kid who takes up a lot of personal tutorial time), or they’ve run out of time.

In other words, if you are intelligent enough to have an awesome idea, and can think of a brilliant way to express it, and is pratically flawless in terms of functionality and technicality, you’ve got yourself a winner.

Unfortunately a lot of us are just people who want to produce something we just want to present and be proud of it, because we worked our butts off for it – and ought to be congratulated for it.

Unfortunately again, we present to a panel of experts who really just like to concentrate on what’s bad rather than what you’ve managed to accomplish. Some aren’t really all that wide and accepting of quirky ideas and frown upon your design immediately. A lot like to feign ignorance because they didn’t listen to your presentation carefully and pretended that you didn’t explain it clear enough.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to get this point through – it’s discouraging. It’s stressful. It’s depressing. After spending so many hours, sacrificing so much sleep, risking our health in various ways to get things done and spending so much money, our design is presented in about 15 minutes max, and a lot of the time, if it doesn’t tickle their fancy it’s shot to pieces.

I was lucky to have never had such a bad experience, but I’ve seen it happen to others. Once, my project was taken away for evaluation because it was considered a good sample – they never returned it to me. That presentation cost me about $700. Probably all gone to a recycle bin.

All that effort for that single moment of glory… is it worth it? Yeahhhh I guess so. But after a while, perhaps not.

Have I given enough reason to justify why I decided to not continue with this field?

Let me speed through another bunch of reasons that are plaguing society today:

* Bad economy. Few firms are hiring. They’d hire you… maybe for free. Most firms require 3-5 years full time experience. As you can tell… what experience?! I didn’t have any time for that.
* Bad economy. Few projects are actually taking place. No jobs to do… no jobs for you.
* Bad economy. Australian dollar is too damn high. Go overseas (ie. ASIA) where the money is.

A huge reason why I didn’t want to continue was because of my health. I did mention severe dizziness. I experience it now even. I was never a super fit or super healthy person to begin with. I get tired easily. I can’t get stressed easily. I will really seriously ka-boom. Although I merely described archi side effects, it’ll be the same whilst on the job – sitting in front of computer, all day – overtime. It’s not really all that different – except you’re given less time to do stuff and you have to do it, because it’s a job, not a uni project.

Also, I am, afterall, a girl – or if you like, a woman. My hairdresser used to ask me what I studied at uni, and I’d tell him archi – he’d then reply every single time, “ah, you want to be superwoman huh?”- little did I realise several years later, he was right. Architecture to me couldn’t be a long term job. If I wanted a raise, I’d have to wait for those in a higher position to retire before I could fill that position. I am (hopefully) going to get married one day, and I can’t possibly work a job where I have no idea whether overtime was waiting for me at the end of the day or not. I can do this whilst I’m young, in my early 20s… could I do all nighters when I’m in my 30s… 40s… 50s…? I really don’t think so. Archi was never all that family friendly to begin with – I got into so many arguments with my parents because they couldn’t understand why I couldn’t be home to have dinner, or why I couldn’t be home to sleep. They thought that I was like a stray animal without a home… and sadly, I agreed.

I’m not saying being an architect is bad or wrong, and that studying archi is a bad choice – I learned a lot of things and as a result I can do a lot more than the average person probably could. I do have friends who have successfully entered the field and are doing well in their work. I’ve seen a lot of people transfer out of uni because they couldn’t handle the pace and just couldn’t fully grasp the subject – that’s perfectly normal.

But I just wanted to say, I experienced all of the above for 5 years, non stop, and that was during the years of my life which were supposed to be the best and most fun. Simply put, five years is enough – and selling jewellery is kinda cool.

PS: Did you know – when you are tired and sleepy,  you have a higher tendency to make mistakes? Well once I was so tired, I sliced my finger open when I was trying to cut a piece of cardboard. Completely missed the cardboard, totally could open my flap of flesh. Please be careful.

Random tidbits – life is anything but normal + Graduation Exhibition

Here is what awesome dancing should be like

Tis Jay the dancer member of D-NA. Only 14 years of age and as robotic as ever. What was I doing when I was 14? I do not remember

Doesn”t matter how many times I look at it, only one thing is certain – woah.

Apologies in advance – another week of house arrest

I’ve decided to dedicate the next week to improve myself and take some time off to rest. I’m still physically fatigued and I need to rectify my sleeping patterns. During this week of staying at home I’ll be sure to try and get my exercise back on track, and I’m eyeing a few places to send job applications to. Having said that, I still feel that it really doesn’t take that long to process a job application and now I no longer know where I actually would look forward to working at. What happens if I start working and then my dream job is offered to me?! #stresses – I’m clueless and I just hope that my first preference (which is going to change fairly soon) will just say yes and then all is happy.

On that note though, I’ve started to take some photographs and I’ll be reviewing Etude House stuff fairly soon. In fact, I’ll give you a date for it, and it’ll be Tuesday the 23rd of November. And in fact, I might have more than one post coming that day considering I have a large order coming in tomorrow. I’m essited and can’t wait. Rest assured I’ll be doing another order soon – not with my money though (in the sense that I’m going to take money out – no way no way – I haz insufficient funds), I should have a gift certificate coming my way.

Final Year Graduation Exhibition 2010

On the 19th Nov 2010, we held our exhibition at Sun Studios Alexandria for the Master of Architecture.

To friends who are reading this and are like “WUT WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED” – I’m really sorry! I actually didn’t tell anyone about it (well I told one student in first year, but even so I haven’t actually met her so I don’t even know if she came or not D: hmm) because I wasn’t too keen on hoping that any of you would be able to make it, being a Friday night and all. I was also pretty convinced most of you were still busy from uni work or whatever, and lastly the location of the exhibition was not what I thought was the best – that is, I checked the bus timetable and the last bus to get into the city or Eastern Suburbs was like, 7:30pm, and considering it started at 6… lol… do the math and you know what I mean. The only means to get to the exhibition was via car or taxi, and I just really didn’t want to bother anyone since it was a bit tricky to get to.

If it’s any consolation whatsoever, I’ll bring the catalogue next time I see you so you can have a look through it!

We had 10 studio classes this year, which is a LOT. Each studio basically did their own different building type, and our grade is massive I suppose, with around 120 people. The catalogue itself is quite thick (bookish) and well – what more can I say?

The exhibition lasted for less than 24 hours actually. The Friday night had celebrations – friends, family, guests were invited and basically you were in for free entry to free flowing booze (aka some type of sauvignon blanc which was undoubtedly higher than 12.5% alcohol content or beer) – if not, water or orange juice. There was actually more alcohol than food going around (lol) but the food was mostly beef on skewers, pineapple and potatoes on skewers, strawberries dipped in chocolate and then dipped into dessicated coconut on skewers or spinach pies in finger serving sizes. Needless to say, no, I wasn’t full from food lol. But oh well

I actually arrived early at 2pm to set up my display and boy it took a really long time, surprisingly enough. My tall tower model still had troubles standing up (I THOUGHT I FIXED IT) and in a last minute decision I decided to attend the night party so I took the bus home to quickly get changed. I was trying to fix my model to its base using a hot glue gun, and guess what – I ran out of glue, so I had to go home to get more glue.

I practically jogged from the bus stop back to my place and crazily went through my wardrobe to find something that looked neat. To my surprise, the dress I bought in Melbourne from Bardot on sale actually wasn’t too shabby, so I just threw that on – I actually thought that there would never be a day the dress would see the light of day or lightbulb. Hair was messy to begin with so I attempted to curl it and make it look intentionally messy. I then quickly did makeup – completely forgetting how to apply eyeshadow. It’s seriously been about 2.5 years since I wore eyeshadow so I completely forgot how to even apply it. Silly me though, there were instructions on the box but I was in such a hurry I didn’t bother looking at it and just did whatever that looked half decent.

Then I rushed back to the exhibition and found that my model was still standing up perfectly =_= Why must you torment me?!

This was the atrium space. The exit/ entrance is just beyond the white balloons, which housed projections of the projects by the digital studio.

Most of it was people taking photos and taking in the atmosphere of the exhibition. Apparently the model in the centre of this image cost almost $400 to build. Yes, everything is expensive in this exhibition!! D:

As soon as I reached my group’s exhibition space I was pulled into taking photos with the rest of the group lol. I won’t post the picture up, but it’s amazing awesome etc – there was a white background and since it was a studio, the background setting and everything looked SO PRO <3

This is our site model. It’s of the Opera House, Hyde Park, Circular Quay and then to the Rocks. It’s huge! About 3x2m large! I inserted my leaning tower of Pisa into the slot LOL.

This is our group model – the one I spent like 3 days of my holidays building with the rest of the team. I’m pretty sure this entire model cost OVER $400. >_>

Night came fairly quickly (time went by, and I think this photo was taken at around 8pm – that’s why it’s so dark), and this was the area where the drinks were. The interior of Sun Studios was actually really cool and they even had a strip of courtyard at the back.

The music was way too loud so if you wanted to ask me if anyone asked about my project or whatever, I can tell you no I didn’t stay with my presentation – I was mostly walking around. To be precise, I did two entire loops of the exhibition showing 2 different people the exhibition OTL – and a lot of trying to find people and stuff so yes, my feet sort of died that night.

Here’s me with my presentation. WEARING: pink chiffon top ruffle dress by Bardot (it’s actually NOT SHORT! \o/ and has a lining. I will definitely wear again if I can find a reason to), black blazer – ZIPIA.net, Navy and gold heart buckle elastic belt – Gmarket, grey ribbed leggings – Gmarket (the $13 ones – and btw, THEY ARE TOO SHORT FOR ME), military inspired platform heeled boots – Flor Hermoso, Gmarket. Bag is by COACH.

Nothing wrong with my face, cept this photo looks exceptionally warped for some reason. I look really short in this photo and I do not know why maybe because I look pudgy IDEK >:\ I would have been about 175cm wearing those 10cm heels. OH WELL.

I also realised that the way I dress is the same for pretty much every single outfit I post up. Hmm. Methinks it’s time to introduce some more stuff to provide some variety.

I stayed at the exhibition for a grand total of 4 hours and I was surprised that my feet although hurting slightly, weren’t actually too bad. When I woke up the next day however, that was a different story. I HAD BACK PAIN T_T I also had to sleep with a pillow elevating my feet D: 4 hours in 10cm heels – do it at your caution girls. Looks good, but will hurt. Then again there’s always the saying “no pain no gain” only… “you want to look nice so you don’t want your life” lol.

Anyway, it was awesome and I’m starting to feel a bit nostalgic. Five years went by so quickly – that’s almost the length of high school, but it felt even faster. I enjoyed uni for the people more than anything else and just yeah! I sort of wish that I spent my five years a bit better, but there’s not a lot I can do.

I’m still young (22 – will be 23 next year) so I’ll just have to have my fingers crossed and have a positive attitude, which isn’t that easy for me. What does it feel like to have graduated with a Masters degree at the age of 22? Hmmm. I don’t know lol. Is it an accomplishment? I suppose so. I remember when I was younger and saw people in their graduation outfits and I thought “oh wow they must be so smart to graduate” and I thought they looked so mature and intelligent. Now that I’ve already been through that, I’m not really sure what to think.

Anyway, cheers, kanpai, congratulations to everyone. You all worked hard – enjoy the summer coming up and be safe if you take any travels overseas, interstate and treasure every moment as you begin a new chapter in your life.

And please don’t take me too seriously! Consumeristic bubblesauce of Misa will return shortly! Until next blog

Nothing is certain

Currently feeling mildly depressed over a multitude of things happening in my life. Worries – I haz ‘em.

Had a great time seeing M again on Saturday - she’s probably the first contact with civilisation (apart from design studio people) in probably 2 months. We met over a set lunch at Mizuya and then peroused the new Westfield at Centrepoint, which really was a mini version of Melbourne Central. Dessert at Azuma was the finishing point of the day – and I hereby conclude that Azuma’s Iced Matcha is a rip  ($6.50) and tastes nowhere near as good as a Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino ($5.50). I also felt like my day was concluding on a pretty high note because I found $2 on the ground whilst I was waiting for the bus. Usually I’m the type of person to not really like picking things up from the ground, but for some reason I did it that day.

Monday came around it was time to clear out the locker and return locker keys early in the morning. Needing a bus ticket into the city I looked into my wallet to find that I couldn’t afford a MyBus 2 Concession ticket ($12.30) and was starting to feel sad. Then I remembered I found $2 and – voila – suddenly I could afford the bus ticket. I received my last ever payment on Friday, so that was the last bit of income ever. My uni life has now come to an end, and same goes with money – it’s really time to start finding a job.

Handed my assignment into the office – my last ever University assignment. Ever. Then with A we went to Westfield (yes, again), and then had lunch at BBQ City to satisfy our deprivation of Korean food. We went to Kinokuniya and I think I offically bought my last Japanese magazine of the year with the little money I had left. We then sang 3 hours of karaoke at Big Echo and sadly it felt like time just passed too quickly; so many songs we didn’t get to sing, even though it was just the two of us.

We then had dessert at Meet Fresh. I’ve been hearing about it every now and then but had no idea it even existed – it has been too long since I visited that part of Chinatown, so I am clueless.

Why so many people lining up… on a MONDAY and raining =_= – line continues outside, by the way.

It’s a Taiwanese dessert place which, judging by the (Chinese) name and television clips, is supposedly good for their taro balls. Apparently though, it’s not actually all that popular in Taiwan (just like how Easy Way and 85 Degrees aren’t that popular over there), but there has consistently been a really long line for it.

The line actually isn’t that long; it’s just that the place is extremely understaffed. More people are waiting for their food than waiting to order. A lot of the stuff is also “Not Available” on their menu, not because they ran out of a certain type of topping, but because it has been proven to be popular and they want to earn an extra 60c from you wanting to try their toppings on top of the rather bland, crappy default toppings on the menu (eg. peanuts is a default topping. RLY? PEANUTS?). Not really good in my books because they’re ripping you off, but here’s what I got anyway:

Herbal Jelly No. 5 with Fruit Jelly, Pearls and Red beans. As you can tell, it’s just a scoop of each topping phwacked onto the jelly.

For $5.50 I ordered a bowl of herbal jelly. The fruit jelly isn’t too bad – it tastes like pineapple. The herbal jelly is good (doesn’t taste gross and it’s in one big piece, not in chunks, plus it’s smooth), the pearls are soft enough and slightly sweet, and the red beans – well – I can’t say much about them, it’s not possible to screw up red beans. All of this looks quite large, but in fact the herbal jelly is only maybe about 1cm thick and everything sits on top of a small mountain of syrup crushed ice.

It’s actually not bad, and it’s a great dessert. It’s actually good for you and it’s not overbearingly sweet. In fact, I rather pay $5.50 for this than a drink at Easy Way any day. The only problem of course its that seriously, it takes way too long for them to prepare it, and there are no taro balls – I’d have to pay 60c extra for maybe 6 taro balls (toppings = one flat scoop with a small ladle) so in my opinion, that’s just really not worth it. Apparently the taro balls didn’t taste all that exceptional anyway. I’m happy with my jelly I suppose.

All desserts (not the crushed ice one of course) can come hot or cold, so order wisely.

I couldn’t hear the cashier and I just answered yes to everything – but I’m pretty sure she will ask you if you want it cold. I’m glad she asked that – if she asked “do you want it hot?” I’d feel so confused upon getting it. Hot dessert just means the syrup isn’t ice – it’d be warm soup.

Anyway, this place beats Kingsford Mochi Cafe any day and I’d probably visit again sometime. If I can find someone to share with me, I’d order a crushed ice dessert with several toppings. The mountain of ice they give you is huge and it’s actually quite pretty – only you can’t eat it alone. It’s too much.

I missed out on Sculptures by the Sea. I’m sad. Very sad. I wanted to go and wear my straw hat, but alas I had nobody to go with, which makes me feel even sadder.

I’ve sent in 2 job applications so far. I’m starting to worry because the job I originally was going to apply for was taken offline and is no longer available – so in other words, I let that opportunity slip because I had too many things to worry about ಠ_ಠ – uhuh, boogie man is looking at you, life.I’m crossing my fingers that I get my first preference in terms of jobs even if it’s just a casual retail job. I really really want to work there, and I’m hoping they’ll hire me. In any case, I’d still be upset if they didn’t hire me - it’s the first time I’ve ever handed in a job application so they should say yes! I’ve had so much education too. Sigh. I’m going to sleep it off because I know it’ll take maybe several days for them to even review my application and think about it. For tomorrow, I’ll just continue to apply for more jobs and see what happens. Considering I know people who have been looking for work for 2 months before actually landing a job, I might actually be a bit too over-ambitious and hoping I get a reply so soon. Maybe it’s just me who likes to reply fast…

Onto other random news, I’ve been watching lots of drama – but it’s not coming out fast enough for me to watch. I’ve finished My girlfriend is a gumiho, Personal Taste and Playful Kiss. I’ve also watched the first 3 eps of Mary stayed out all night, as well as the first 2 eps of Jungle Fish 2. Sigh – lonely and sad days are to come.

Until next emo post!

PS: Sasa is alive again – order away. They finally decided to dispatch my order after 1 month and 1 week. UHM, Y U SO FAST? And I have Gmarket coming in soon. 7.5kg of it. Early Christmas – I C U. Now early Santa must give me a job, so I can make up for it. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE SANTA!

So, what’s up in my life? [In more detail]

Final presentation

As I wrote earlier, it was okay. Everyone I bumped into at the end of the day would ask me how it went, and I’d say “okay”, never “good” or “alright”. To me, it was just “okay” and I guess that’s the best way to describe it. I don’t want to go into it any more but it’s over and I think it was okay – so that’s that.

My presentation. Photograph courtesy of my friend, E.

We had a small gathering afterwards with the entire cohort, and I ended up talking to a guy named C whom I’ve never met (though my friend thought we knew). It was a rather interesting experience because I honestly was so isolated and knew so few people – I didn’t know who he was, and he didn’t know who I was either. It was like “huh?!” – this proves how socially isolated we architecture students are :\ Later I saw my friend K who I haven’t seen in quite a while and the first thing he noted was that I was slimmer/ skinnier and he guessed it was because of stress. I told him it was most likely from the exercise I did before – because when I’m stressed, I don’t lose weight – it was 4 years of accumulated stress water retention (I told him the beginning bit, not the latter obviously)

As I mentioned, we had dinner at a place on Pitt Street named Mr B’s which comprises of alcohol (it’s a bar, restaurant and club), Japanese and Thai food. You need I.D to get in (even if it’s dinner because there’s alcohol being served). I was silly and I ordered 2 entrees – to be fair, one of the ones I ordered looked different in the menu picture. I apologise in advance for the bad picture quality – I was using my phone. I completely forgot to take my camera with me.

My takoyaki – 6 balls of takoyaki for about $7 >_>

The  deep fried fish bits (this was like $8 >_>)

I thought the fish would be a large piece deep fried, but it turns out to be shredded fish *headdesk*. It tasted alright at first, but then when I added the lemon it was so salty and I don’t know what to say. The mains looked really big and awesome though – sort of wish I ordered those instead. But I’d like to go back one day. Staff are friendly and the atmosphere is okay – it’s loud though, because there’s a club downstairs, but for a bar/ restarant, the toilets were quite nice and clean.

In conclusion I really enjoyed design studios this year – not necessarily because of the studio itself but the people who make it. How often will you be able to come to class and be able to talk to almost everyone and look forward to seeing everyone each week? How often can almost the entire class go out for dinner after class on not one or two, but several occasions? This is the first time I’ve been in a studio like such, and I truthfully am grateful for meeting and working with every one of you.

Thank you so much for just being yourselves!

Giddiness

Album of the moment: Saint O’Clock – 2AM (I enjoyed probably 70% of the songs on the album, and I’m nostalgic towards ballads, so this album gets to shine in my Windows Media Library playlist)

Song of the moment: Butakhae, My Bus! – Jang Geun Suk (Mary stayed out all night OST Part 1)

Comebacks to anticipate in November: Orange Caramel, Kahi solo, Kara, Big Bang, One Way.

Bringing you back to yesterday: I for You – Luna Sea – this song was the first ever Luna Sea song I listened to. I also told my friend to use this song for her multimedia project in which an apple was rowing a boat. It gave me mega lulz to this day – it’s a pity because it’s a pretty good song LOL. I share the same birthday as Ryuichi from Luna Sea. Just sayin’.

Dramas to watch: Mary stayed out all night – I’ve been waiting for this for a while! It made me want SKKS to end but at the same time I was enjoying SKKS so I was torn. Now that SKKS has ended, it’s best that I enjoy Mary stayed out all night as much as possible! JGS come back makes me uber happy. CANNOT WAIT. On that note, why is Jang Geun Suk so perfect? He’s handsome, tall, can act, AND can sing and has a great personality. I just cannot comprehend. Why do not more men like him exist??? He sings not one, but THREE OST tracks. He is perfect. Purrfekt. AND THIS DRAMA AIRED LAST NIGHT. WOOT! (originally this bolded bit said “aired tonight” but I was a bit lazy and didn’t blog/ publish :S)

As usual, yoinked from Omonatheydidnt

He pulls off the long hair look quite well. Le sigh. Please stay awesome <3

I am currently suffering from Sungkyunkwan Scandal withdrawal symptoms. Why must it end?! Admittedly I felt that the last episode wasn’t as epic as I had hoped for it to be. Seemed a bit rushed and a bit like “???” but nevertheless it was a good drama and it was fun watching it. Speaking of which, I declared myself a Chunface fan until I noticed that the JYJ album is going for about EIGHTY DORRAH ON GMARKET. Limited edition or not – HELL NO. For the few amount of tracks – you gotta be kidding me. $80 can get me 4 jackets thank you very much. If not, 2.5 (yes, the half is there) coats. OR A CRAPLOAD OF ETUDE STUFF. NO.

Fujifilm Instax Lovers will love this commercial. A hint to all romantic guys out there – do this for your gf and she will SWOON. It’s a bonus if you’re Song Joong-Ki, btw.

Joong-Ki, you are too adorable. Stay precious. And you’re quite pretty too, Byul.

Here is Onew from SHINee being flawless and singing Jay Chou. Unrelated to Song Joong-Ki. I think. But here it is anyway.

Only thing that bothers me is that this clip gets cut short

Forget about Jang Geun Suk, Song Joong-Ki or Onew or anyone for the meantime (including my ridiculous admiration for T.O.P) – this guy is gorgeous sweet amazing baby etc.

Why so lovely? Come to me nao ._. /wrists
Img src: This awesome tumblr

This lovely guy is Noh Min Woo, who acts in My girlfriend is a gumiho. I’m looking forward to his new drama (only 4 episodes where he gets to play a famous rockstar – biography style) which airs sometime this month. I JUST HOPE SOMEONE SUBS IT.

I kid you not, I’ve seen photos of this guy before I started watching My girlfriend is a gumiho (mgiag) but didn’t think of it too much (though he did persuade me to want to watch MGIAG), and I was literally frozen when he came on screen. Why so lovely? It’s not too terribly often that I’m affected by what I see on screen. But this guy is just so lovely ;_; And what’s that? Someone older than me too. I can worship the guy! That way I don’t need to worship idols who are younger than me and feel like I’ve achieved nothing in my life *sadface*. I’ve gotten used to his face and I’m a bit sad he plays the evil dude.

And onto related matters, I am addicted to this song. Best part of the drama is that this song really fits in and makes it so tear jerking :’( Damn it. I’m turning into a softie.

I felt that a lot of the success of the drama owes it to this song, seriously. Didn’t feel the same way with SKKS’s OST.

Handed in my last ever essay yesterday afternoon

I’m hoping it’s alright because I honestly didn’t have enough time (I also didn’t ask for an extension – my friends did though, but I think that’s sort of cheating because technically you don’t actually need the time, more like you want to have more time so you can hand it in later if you know what I mean). It’s a real pity though because I actually enjoy writing essays more than building computer models of office towers and doing the graphic work (well photoshop is okay, I enjoy that, but I just really don’t like a lot of stuff associated with waiting and then having to edit and the model lags – argh). If I had an extra day or two I’d spend it at the library and gather more information. But for now, that essay will just have to do.

Etude House reviews to come fairly soon

In general, my view on the brand is positive (did I write this already?) – it’s not often that I find products that don’t mess up my skin within a week of use, so I’m fairly impressed. Notonlythatfreebiesaresexy-as in, they seduce/ tempt me into buying. There are some things however which are not as awesome as people have made them out to be. I will go through them one by one. There’s a fact though – I’m definitely an Etude House convert. I have yet to explore their skincare (will do, I have confidence in it) and I’m generally impressed by their makeup.

For those who are still itching to get their hands on Etude House stuff in Sydney, Lovely House Campsie (on Beamish Street – turn left as you exit the train station and keep walking and cross maybe one or two lights – it will be on your left) is closing down this Sunday and they are having 30% off.

Not a particularly awesomezomggonnapeemypants discount, but I’m assuming they’ll be moving most of their nice stock to their Chatswood branch. *shrugs* I’m just posting this here since they went to the trouble to send me 2 SMSes to let me know. As you all probably have guessed by now, I rather buy from Gmarket.

For now, I am going to keep watching My girlfriend is a gumiho and chillax. Today I cleaned out my room – well actually, the living room. It’s quite amusing even though there’s only one photograph taken in regards to it. I’ll be sure to post that up soon. FIVE YEARS OF STRESS OUT THE DOOR. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I feel so lost now. What to do? My poor money supply is going to be cut soon and I will be poor. Very poor So when I go out with friends and order salads, it will not longer be because I’m trying to lose weight, but because I want to save money Sigh.

Anyway, that’s it from me now. I’m going to remove my hiatus notice because… I’m sort of back. I still have a thing or two due in, but it’s nothing to stop me from blogging regularly. My next post will most likely be about cleaning up my room – if not, it’ll be an Etude House eyeliner review

Until next blog! (which will be very soon. Like – tomorrow.)

Back from the dead

Hi everyone!

Just a post to say that I’ve finally finished my final project. The presentation didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, because the jurors kept asking me questions about things that I thought I had already explained. It was a bit like they weren’t really interested in what I had to say, and then when they realised how interesting it actually was, they started to ask me questions. I also got one or two really stupid questions because the questions weren’t valid in the first place (for example, why would you divide up a space parallel to a corridor? You divide spaces perpendicularly to a corridor… I mean, duh?). I got cut off quite early even though and I didn’t get to talk much about perhaps 70% of the things in my project. It was overall positive I suppose, so it wasn’t too bad. I just wished that it could have been better? I worked quite hard and put absolutely everything I needed on my panels. I was lucky that some other jurors came to my defence and pointed out like “oh wait, this image shows it”.

In the end though, I think everyone in my class did quite well so I think it’s safe to assume that this is indeed our last project? I’d cringe if I had to go through it again.

A few other studio groups had a lot of harsh comments. I’d prefer not to write them down, so yeah, maybe if I see you and we’re talking I’ll be able to tell you what they were.

I got scammed by my studio friends and ended up going out to dinner with them. Lol.

We ate at a bar named Mr B’s on Pitt Street, which was alright. Wish I ordered something else (I ordered 2 entrees), because the mains looked huge! I was hungry because it was already 9pm…

For now I still have an essay and I need to do my portfolio after that. I will definitely be back in a week and a half. Just a little bit longer and I can write more random crap for people to read

PS: I’m in the process of testing out Etude House’s Collagen Moistfull and generally it’s good. I will review that in depth later.

As the sands of time dissipate and aslghalhdahalkjaeywioshdlz. Spider on keyboard.

YGE releases an MV for my favourite track off the 2NE1 album on Halloween

My favourite track off their album! Seriously. It’s because it’s such a lovely track and they all can sing so well. I was honestly sad they didn’t promote the song in their three-MV-quick-release-em-quick frenzy, but I’m glad YG have decided to make an MV for it. GOOD JOB. The MV kind of made the song ten times sadder, and I’m really digging Bom’s hair, because I have Bom-bias, personally love straight hair, and still want my hair to be blue. Perhaps not so greenish tinged as Bom’s hair, but I wanted blue hair since I was in high school.

Before that however, I will need to dye my hair gasp orange because G-Dragon makes orange fun:

G-Dragon for Gmarket. All dem gees together making more gees. How gee.
Img src: Gmarket?

Most people probably remember my abhorrence towards the mere thought of anything coppery or orange in nature in relation to hair. On second thoughts, orange as a hair colour isn’t bad – what’s bad is dyeing your hair a particular colour for it to turn orange. So it’s not like you’re purposely dyeing it orange, but it’s more of a “whoops I ended up with this colour somehow but I’ll pretend I look cute with it even though I really need to colour it again” faded orange. Yes, I discriminate between colours of orange – GD, your hair colour is awesome. Now I wonder if I can muster up the required courage to dye my hair anything lighter than a block of normal milk chocolate.

Architectural studies leads to a rapid deterioration of health. Seriously.

The past 3 days of working on my project I experienced extreme fatigue (I had to sleep for 15 hours a day) and lots of dizziness. Namely feeling like my eyeballs are rolling out of focus and that things seems to be spinning. I’m not kidding at all – it was exactly like that – it honestly felt like my eyeballs couldn’t focus and rolled and focused on other things. And when that happens, you close your eyes and refuse to open them again. I’m not sure what exactly caused it – it could have been stress, paranoia, or the fact that I have to use 2 machines and constantly going back and forth between the two machines isn’t very easy on the eyes. Either way now, I think I ‘m a lot better (at least I don’t feel dizzy or the need to sleep).

Although I am thankful I am feeling better and ready to work, I feel quite the guilty person since I am still sleeping and resting for 12 hours per day. I only am limiting myself the next 48 hours to get my panels done – and it doesn’t look like I have a terrible amount of content on it. I can only hope that my machines do not overheat and can work like menial workers just that bit little longer.

I actually spent a night overnight at Uni (namely Thursday night) under the impression that the rooms would be empty and that the computers would be fast. Unfortunately, the labs were still full, and the  computers were still ridiculously slow. It was faster than my previous adventure which required 5 minutes to erase a line – so I was impressed by that much. The great thing about it was that a whole bunch of people who I knew were working there, and working there overnight albeit with little productivity (since school computers could only render to a width of 1600 pixels – enough to print A3, but the bigger the better, yes?), I didn’t feel sleepy at all since most of the night was chatting and laughing away. Good times indeed. After talking, looking at what other people were doing, resting and generally easing my mind off stressful matters pretty much bid my dizziness goodbye. I hope it doesn’t come back.

Trio JYJ’s Ayyy Girl MV is out in HQ on Youtube.

As much as I like Chunface on my screen, WUT IS THIS EXACTLY.

I sincerely hope they don’t release this as a… just no. Throughout the whole thing I was thinking how bad Yoochun’s eyeshadow and hair was when it was untied. Seriously, tie that hair, please. It’s a lot nicer tied T_T

And one outfit, it looked like Jaejoong had breasts I’m not digging Junsu’s bib either.

Overall though, I’m still like “wahhhh let’s support these guys!” – but if the costuming concept is going to be like that, I’m going to have to pass on buying their album. I wanted it just for the photobook and a few of their tracks (remixes especially if it’s the LE edition).

Nice try, but for an effort you get an Ayyy girl.

Effort only.

This is how Korean entertainment screws you over and bloats women’s expectations and concept of men, making you all cry, scream or laugh for no apparent reason: it’s an epidemic – THERE IS NO CURE.

Yes, even the Japanese are feeling it.

After I started to watch Korean dramas I couldn’t turn back and watch anything else because I was so used to everyone looking so pretty. Eurgh. That aside, here are some of the fan comments I’ve translated just watching the video. In case if you can’t understand Japanese, it’s Big Bang’s fan meet which is held in a bookstore. It’s a Hand Shaking Event, and it’s limited to the first 2000 fans. There are 5000 fans lined up for the event, so you can do the math.

“I’m seriously gonna die, like really, have a nose bleed!”
“They were so cool [NB: also can mean good looking - I realise I wrote this twice but it's because 2 people said the same thing]!”
“They’re not human, they’re GODS, GODS! (would you wash you hands?) NO WAY! Nobody can touch my hand!!”
[Wiping eyes from tears] “They were cool [NB: also can mean good looking]“
(Do you have any message to send out to them?) “No, it cannot be put into words – just seeing them is enough”
[Crying girl] “I’m so nervous, I love them the most in the world”

(All translations were in the order of appearance)

Gods, huh? Sadly, I would have to agree. WAI SO PURRFEKT?

Sigh. T.O.P being perfect, even with funny macro caption.
Img src: Some ridiculously awesome procrastinator from Omonatheydidn’t

I’m going to end it here. TURBO MODE ON. I’m gonna make a rush to finish this presentation panel in the next 36 hours or so. 12 of which I will be asleep. Guh. Wish me luck.

Until next blog!

HI, DYING HERE

Only 4 more days after today…

Not… enough time. Especially after I started to feel sick and dizzy. I almost halted my working pace… if I’m not sleeping for over 10 hours I can’t seem to do anything. Dunno if I should be worried or not.

Well, I suppose at least it looks pretty.

Oh no, I’ve dug myself into a hole I won’t ever be able to get out of

… that hole is named “Korean pop culture” OTL.

My general well(?) being

My arms are currently lacking energy. My right hand used to hurt to the point I found it hard to hold chopsticks. How did this come about? Holding a knife and hacking through very very thick cardboard. I hope that the time and energy is worth it. I really hope I get this done on time. Cutting it close. But I think I can do it.

At the moment I feel very groggy and I want to sleep. I’ve been having terrible sleeping patterns lately – super tired

Sungkyunkwan Scandal

What is this??? Drama wiki (click)

Allow closed captions for the translations and uncessary translator’s comments

CANNOT. GET. THAT. WINK. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD.

Now I need to find a gif of him doing the air kiss. >_>

This is what I watched over the weekend. It’s currently still airing/ being translated.

If you have seen You’re Beautiful or Hana Kimi, you will enjoy this, provided you can overlook/ endure all the political stuff going on in the background.

If you want a summary of thoughts from someone who can’t read subtitles fast enough or understand what’s going on, my mum has made a string of awesome comments which effectively will reflect anyone’s thoughts on this drama:

• Their hanbok is cute! (Referring to their hats)
• IS THAT A GIRL? (Actually, it was Song Joong-ki :S)
• Everyone is so good looking *_*

The basic premise of the story (I found the online summaries to be a bit misleading) is that a girl (played by Park Min Young) has been dressing as a man (namely taking up the identity of her physically ill brother) to copy books, write novels, and other stuff. By chance she mixes up the person she’s meant to be delivering a pre-written exam essay to, and accidentally attempts to sell the said essay to a super anal guy played by Micky Yoochun. He’s the type of guy to always abide by the rules – no cheating allowed, no rule breaking – he generally only believes in “facts” without contemplating the possibility of other things.

Having failed to sell her test paper she is facing an unwanted marriage with a local Government official who is a shark loaner on the side, since she can’t pay the debt plus the 10% interest. Getting desperate with time ticking down, she attempts to do it again at the retest, only for Yoochun’s character to suggest she actually sit for the exam since it’d be a pity if she doesn’t have an education with her literacy.

Using her brother’s identity, her essay is selected by the Emperor and she is sent to Sungkyunkwan University. She receives money from the book store owner she’s been working for, which is enough to pay her debt. With her student allowance, it appears that all her family’s living expenses are covered, and despite the thought of having serious consequences for lying to the Emperor and entering the school as a girl (SRS CONSEQUENCES), she goes anyway.

At Sungkyunkwan there are a few key characters – mostly it’s divided between “seniors” and “juniors”. The “school captain” figure is an evil guy with an entourage of extremely unattractive sidekicks who do nothing but relentlessly bully the main characters.

The other 2 main characters are played by Song Joong-ki (ie. the guy who winks in the above video clip), who is made of gorgeous and is only 3 years older than me – HAI DERE who plays the promiscuous womaniser with a large stash of illegal books (ie. pron) in his room. He is also the only character who flaunts his wealth by wearing different outfits throughout the entire series, and even claims that “if you steal an accessory from me, you might as well take the matching clothes for it!”.

Flawless pout. Cept face looks a bit strange in the soju campaign – I blame the hair ._. He’s also the guy with UEE in the sports thingy campaign thingy asgsdkljhsd – he was on my harddrive for a few months already without me knowing – I want his varsity jacket. Img src goes to the awesome peeps at omonatheydidn’t

Seeing him in the COOL campaign with UEE makes me like him more lol. He’s so pretty ;_; Though I think he actually looks better with the traditional dress *avoids flying tomatoes*
ONEW LOOKALIKE ANYWAY. AND ONEW IS AWESOME.

The other main character is played by Yoo Ah In, who plays the poor architect internship/ trainee in He who cannot marry who attempts to date the girl next door. He plays the rogueish character of a Government Official who refuses to accept the Government as it is and constantly risks his life to get his message across.

Yoochun is doing a good job – he’s converted me into a fan.

So what’s so great about the series apart from eye candy in terms of girls and guys? The negative is that a lot of bits are slow and unnecessary – school competitions… zzz… bring on the pron cute flail inducing romance scenes already. Jk. Well, the tension of knowing she could get into really big trouble for going to Sunkyunkwan, the possibility of the Yoo Ah In character being captured and gaoled, and the love triangle going on. There’s a lot of “ore wa homo janai!” only unspoken and angsty and in Korean. It’s really quite funny – I can’t wait for the next few episodes to come out I just hope that the ending isn’t rushed. I’ve seen 16 episodes already and it doesn’t seem to be finishing o_o Yo, it’s only FOUR HOURS of screentime – plz don’t rush it to finish and have a crap ending ;-;

Personal Taste

So I decided to continue to watch this. I personally feel very sorry for Lee Min Ho because he’s still douchey in this, but at least he doesn’t have that mess of a curly mop on his head. I also have a soft spot for architects of course… for obvious reasons *cough*. But seriously – “MR GAY,  YOU’RE THE BEST!” LOL – so gg embarassing. Poor bb.

SHINee – Lucifer (the album, not the song)

WUT IS THIS. THIS IS AMAZING. GO LISTEN TO IT IF YOU HAVEN’T. I’M ALREADY SO 2000 AND LATE LISTENING TO THIS.

Onew… is… flawless. And so are the other boys.

There’s still some facepalm Engrish in this album, but the refreshing tracks make up for it. Best music/ album released in a while apart from 2NE1′s album, seriously.

JYJ – The Beginning

Don’t ask me why. I quite like this song. The other tracks aren’t bad either – esssited. MVs plz.

I made this joke already, but in the song Ayyy Girl there’s a bit too much Kanye West in it, but I guess he’d be saying “Imma let you start” – uhuh. You do that plz.

I wish SME would lay off JYJ and let them release their album already – I’d seriously buy it! Even if it’s just for the photobook :S Nah, I kid, the album is pretty good and I do want to support these guys in some way. I wasn’t really a DBSK fan, but I feel that I need to do something to go against SME. You have SNSD and Suju and they’re pretty much ranked top groups (though I admittedly like neither group that much) and they roll in the money. LEAVE THESE GUYS ALONE >_>

Co-Ed School

I’ve been a bit slow lately but this group debuted fairly recently. The thing I like the best about them is that they have guy and girl members, which potentially makes singing a complete bitch since you have to do extra coordinating with the music, but I do admire their talent. What I hate is their autotune, as their vocal skills are evident in their ballad track. I feel that they’re trying a bit too much to make an image (and I’m not sure what they’re trying to convey) to the point it’s a bit messy. Hopefully though, no autotune no more!

I watched this MV over the weekend and this is the song that has been accused of plagiarising GaGa’s “Telephone”. Sort of. But not really? It’s a really annoying song in the respect after you hear it you’re like “what did I just listen to??” – but as a track on your music player, it’s admittedly not bad, despite all the blasted autotune which people need to stop using.;

Seriously, what??? But song can be catchy if you close your eyes and ignore whatever it is they’re doing or wearing. And ignore the fact it’s infused with MSG known as autotune. May contact traces of nuts. Listen at your own risk – you will either like it or hate it.

=============

That’s it from me for now.

Khuntoria Ep 18 was subbed and is out – hope the next episode is better. This ep was a filler episode and it wasn’t as good as the previous one

Last thing I want to say is… Sasa.com SUCKS ie FAIL. They took my money and they were packing my order and then decided to delay its shipment because they were moving warehouse. I mean, fair enough, but if you’re going to move warehouse, why not… DISALLOW ORDERS OR REFUND MY MONEY SO I DON’T HAVE TO WAIT FOR YOU? I’m SERIOUSLY considering taking my business elsewhere. The only reason why I like them is to get my cotton puffs from them, and even so, they limit the number of packets I can buy, which is DISGUSTING. I believe I should be able to spend my money however I like it, and buy as many or as few items as I like!

They have had some great stuff going on, but that’s not the way to do it Sasa. It’s been way too long. Even an email with a courtesy code for a bonus gift with my NEXT order isn’t going to please me. Your samples and freebies are stingy and scarce. I’ve been a consistent customer for the past 3 years or so, and never have I received a cash voucher or anything of the sorts. STINGY. I don’t even know if I want to buy stuff from Sasa in HK if I go to HK!

Oh well, I’ll just wait it out. If my mum is a SK-II convert I’ll have no choice but to stay with Sasa, but otherwise, I’m very disappointed. That’s not very good business ethic, seriously. They are so money hungry they rather make their customers wait and keep the money, than to return money and let customers not worry about it.

Until next blog! The next blog post will come next week. I’ll be in robot mode from now on. See ya!

Rant

I rarely rant about things because I like to keep my blog informative rather than being obnoxious, but I can’t help but complaining – our computers are so slow.

I came to uni because I wanted to be productive. Instead it makes me about 5 minutes to erase a line, or rotate the model, or whatever. I seem to be doing the SAME thing over and over – clicking and clicking and it does NOTHING to the model. You don’t know how frustrating it is to have this kind of situation happen when something which should literally take about 5 minutes to do is taking me over and HOUR to do. I’ve been here for about an hour and forty minutes – did I make any progress? Absolutely NOT.

Time is super precious to me at this moment because time is ticking down and fast. I need to get this done not by the date of the presentation, but ideally TWO days before presentation, so it means that I absolutely do not have any time to spare.

I am very disappointed that I am paying what, like $3750 in school fees and to have a piece of crap of a computer like that to use. Seriously, the university makes plenty of money – even my laptop and desktop are faster than this junk. A high quality computer bulk buy (desktop) could very well be about $700 only – wtf – stop cheaping out and get us some DECENT computers to use.

FFS =_=

Onto other matters, I’ve been receiving positive feedback and I am on the right way. I’m making good progress and I’m not going to let this crappy computer business stop my progress. If it weren’t because of the abundant Internet, I wouldn’t be here.

I am so leaving by 2:30pm. Cannot afford to lose any more time.