metal etch work in progress

and more pics of the work in progress... special thanks to Harry, Shiho, Gareth, Douglas, Mus & Harvey who made this possible!







and pepper for listening to me whine through my panic and flu...

triple rainbow

off topic but psychedelic enough to warrant a break from my updating spree.... I saw a TRIPLE RAINBOW! the 3rd rainbow isn't that clear in the photo but.... use your imagination!

McQ Red Velvet

A McQueen cupcake leftover from Press meet! The entire box was almost untouched and when they brought it in I thought it was a gigantic box of PIZZA! slightly chestfallen....

It's red velvet vanilla with cream cheese frosting and black dye for the logo that turned everyone into zombie mouths. Apparently the cupcake's from Hummingbird. I can now very safely say, I've finally tried Red Velvet and i hate it. It taste simply of food coloring and I got an upset tummy from the chemicals. lol! so much for a pretty thing.

But i must say i love love love it when there's someone's birthday here. We get Marks & Spencer double chocolate gateaus and because everyone's on fad diets and being really skinny, I usually get to eat a couple of slices. :P

of failed projects and which matters more?

tragic tragic handling of project management. I spent all my time on Sony and my job and instead and guess what? We didn't get shortlisted for Sony, I got a pay cut on my job for being slow, and I seriously hope I get at least a passing grade for Mac's brief. (T_T) That bad.

Fractures from Anxiety

σ_applied is the loading stress,

a is half the length of the crack, and

ρ is the radius of curvature at the crack tip

My cravings

Because I had serious cravings for Chey Tao Kueh. Black. UGH!!! With a cup of warm milo. hmmmmm..... and some Chinese New Year goodies. *runs around hysterically*

Of bikes and tired eyes

I smell of beer and cigarettes. It makes my throat itch and entertain thoughts of another organic tofu diet. Now if only tofu wasn't quite so expensive here. Shio was right. I am falling sick right after her.

Of Wills and Secession

Exciting! I hope the turn-out will be good. :D

Of Mozzarella balls!

Brick lane artwork on a construction plank!

And cheese lovers rejoice! Fresh mozzarella balls for only 40 pences each.
Maybe I should start cooking again... oatmeals only taste good for that long.

Sleepyman Reminds you laptops blink too

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Sleepyman.qtz
  

  stare hard enough and his eye twitches
  

  1024x768
  

  
  

  Instructions for screensaver
  

  1. download file to /Libary/Screen Savers
  

  2. open up System Preferences - Screen Savers and select 'Sleepyman'
  

  3. crank up itunes volume and activate screen saver
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Instructions for itunes visualizer
  

  1. download ivisualizer (Mac)
  

  2. download 'sleepyman.qtz'
  

  3. restart iTunes and select /View/Visualizer/iVisualize
  

  4. select /View/Visualizer/Options, click the + button and find 'sleepyman.qtz'
  

  5. Crank up volume and enjoy!
  
  
  
  
  

Oh Holy.... my god.

Oh my lord I am scared. I was wondering why I suddenly felt so so tired that last night I slept from about 1:30am to 11am today. Then I work up and realize it must have been a freaking freaking blessing from someone watching over me.

That photo above... if you can see the man in it, he's wearing a surgical mask and an apron actually. I can't tell if he's the forensic detective or just the clean up man. But he's taking notes and walking to and fro.

This is directly outside my window. This is where the forensic or clean up man has been walking to, bend down and then walk away again. Then I checked my phone and realize my flatmate tried to call me but I was asleep so she messaged that there was a dead body found at 3am so the entire area is closed to the police now. Guess where the dead body is?

Shit. Can you imagine if I was still awake, on my laptop, which is right by the window last night at 3am?

I'm going off to work later. I can't decided if I want to come home early and be safe or to come home late and stay away.

Of Canned Tuna and Darwinism

Dinner of canned tuna in sunflower oil. Dolphin safe and Omega-3 destroyed.

Was reading about Darwin's Beagle journey and how he came up with his theory.  It's quite amazing how throughout history inventions and break-through has always been a case of who presented it best. For each brilliant new theory or invention, there is always a series of people who has done it before albeit in slightly different methods and with different intentions but with the similar conclusion. And of these, some faded into oblivion only to be rediscovered long after their lifespan, some ended up looking like bitter and sore losers, some were beheaded and yet some just don't make that big an impact.

So what makes that perfect equation of Marketing + Idea + Correct Timing = Genius of the Century and how do you make sure you don't end up as some others you see at the end of the wikipedia page?

On another note, it's quite amazing how a bald monk who spent his entire solitary life staring at bean stalks and probably eating beans, one day decided to call us all BB, Bb, Bb. bb and the entire world nodded seriously in agreement. Isn't life logical!

The Greeks were probably doing the same when Socrates said that being born a women is the ultimate divine punishment. *nods seriously in agreement*

can you tell I just had a really crappy day?

Of understanding and what is that?

If someone explains something to you, do you understand or do you conform?

When a person of supposedly better knowledge of the subject produces reasonings and theories and talks their way inside your mind and it slowly dawns on you that you are agreeing with them. Does that mean you now understand? Or does that mean you just lost your own opinion?

Truth is, if you take it just at surface level, you are generally conforming. Moulding yourself to a shape casted by many others. Anyone who's been through school will have experienced that regurgitation of formulas, scientific facts (only so called because they have yet to be debunked) and whatever it is that they call education. But unless you take each piece of information and analyze on it, reflect and draw up your own conclusions, you are simply taking a very watered-down version of another person's intellect, isn't it? But come on, who in the right mind would be able to take that sheer amount of information piled on them and dissect each and every one? So that's it! Every single one of us is a copy!

Michael Bierut once wrote an article on his 'accidental' plagiarism of a Willi Kunz's typographic work. One of very first comment that popped up was by someone who feared this act of unoriginality so condemned by the design world that he refuses to read design magazines.

That's silly isn't it? It's like saying "I insist on being original and hence I will not study the dictionary or read any books". How on earth is he going to learn? Besides, it is not just Communication Arts or Grafik that are design related. Every single object produced by man is design related. That means Vogue, that crappy tabloid newspaper, receipts from the supermarket, the power socket on the wall... chances are whatever you're touching now has been through a design process. Now try avoiding all these and come up with something totally original. I'd give 2 pences (I'm broke) to bet someone else has thought of the exact or similar idea. Hah!

Going off on a tangent, my prof recently mentioned Design for Life the BBC series kind of like Project Runway for product designers. It's pretty crappy even though Philippe Starck is the big boss insulting British design at every episode's beginning. Not surprising the series has faded into the thermosphere of public consciousness. You can catch it on Vimeo if you have an hour to spare.

Of Hello and キティ!

Guess who I saw? Guess who was in my school? HELLO KITTY! Alright, not her but the lady who designs her! Yuko Yamaguchi was giving a lecture in school but I missed it as I was having class crit. By the time we sneaked in it was the last Q&A question. This is my best sneak shot of her giving autographs!

(from what I recall of the last question)

Q: As a designer, are you not bored of Hello Kitty after 12 years?

A: Trends change and there are always something new to try or do, so no, she will never be bored of Hello Kitty.

Evil Bao

okay. So staying alone with serious lack of sleep and thinking too much can do strange things to your brain... what else?

Things in London are different

1. The tap water stains turn milky white.

2. My cup of tea has flaky light brown stuff after a night.

3. The dust is visible.

4. Steaming hot water on one tap and freezing cold on the other. (turning both on doesn't give you warm water. It gives a jet of water that's half hot and half cold so you'll burn your left hand while your right hand gets frostbites.)

5. They love warm orange lighting for everything.

6. Wolfberries are called Goji Berries. And they don't come in packs for chinese desserts. They come in pills for men.

7. Salami and cheese are a lot cheaper here.

8. Make eye contact and say 'Sorry' or 'Thanks'. You are not to withdraw into your own cacoon or hide behind your shadowing bangs.

9. Most people don't wear heels. That is until they go clubbing and they suddenly add pilings.

10. Can you spell M-I-L-O? (Ovaltine and Horlicks are favourites though.)

11. Plenty of clay animation advertisments on TV.

12. "'You alright?"

13. 'Cheers' can be used for anything. Anything. Cheers!

14. Can you say 'crips-ss-ps'?

15. Umbrellas are ridiculously expensive for a rainy country (no 100Yen stolen umbrellas stands?). Wear a hoodie. Or look cool (i.e. stupid) and walk in the rain.

16. They either love cold food or have something against selling hot food... which to them means rice and curry, potato and curry, or sausage rolls.

more to come!

Of Gunshots, Fireworks and Pegion Poop

Graphite and brown pencil (acrylic for the poop)

Ugly is such a lazy thing - Project on the River Thames

"When you are disinterested in something you lose control of your mind and fail to see beauty. Ugly is such a lazy thing!" clara.

I finally heard gunshots today! Not like that's a particular occasion to celebrate but at least now I know how to distinguish between gunshots and firecrackers. Firecrackers goes "pop-pop pop" quite rapidly and the more obvious ones crackle and whistle at the end. Gunshots goes a quite deep "pop" pause.... and "pop" and is usually followed 10 minutes later by police sirens.

Not too big a concern unless you start to hear people screaming which fortunately hasn't happened. I just need to know how they sound like so I don't pop out happily for milk and eggs at Tesco thinking they're celebrating Halloween with firecrackers. 

The majority of Singaporeans would never have encountered a gun and so am relatively clueless what in the world you'd do with one. My classmate told me gangs usually fire it into the air to mark locations, threaten (I'm thinking howling at the moon doesn't go down well with macho-looking hoodie man) or celebrate birthdays. Woah, they sure know how to celebrate in London! And here I am thinking only Countries and the Queen gets gunfire salutes on their birthdays.

Of Autumn and Black Fur

It's winter but only starting to finally look like autumn. A quick sketch of a guy who's originally staring at the paparazzi chasing an unknown British star (at least unknown to me). But hey, that doesn't fit in the romantic surroundings!

The dust here is strange strains of short blackish thread or fur like things. I thought they descended from my coat but realise there's no way threads from my coat could magically float into my bathroom and settle on the basin or get stuck up my nose when I'm not wearing it. But that's too much information.

I'm sleepy, but I need to work harder.

Brick Lane

Found this lady along Brick Lane waiting for people to exchange portrait drawings with. It's really interesting! We have to hide the sketchpad under the table and stare at each other across the table while drawing a portrait of each other. Not sure if you can see it well but on the left is my portrait of her, and vice versa.

What's strange is that we're complete strangers but drawing requires such intensive focusing on the details that it would've been really awkward if we weren't both preoccupied. Can you imagine staring at a stranger's lips for a prolonged period of time? Anyway we must have looked pretty funny to others since what they see is two people frowning at each other over an empty table. If I remember correctly, her idea was to use this project as a way of getting strangers to know each other. I hope it goes well!

Which reminds me of my lesson today! My animation lecturer, Katerina said people are born to draw yet as they grow older and gain oral and written skills that somehow eliminates drawing and for some people, it stops forever. Strange isn't it? How we ignore an inert ability and re-categorize it as a skill only certain groups of people have.

Did anyone read Children's Britannica when they were younger? I loved it! I read the entire encyclopedia set back to back several times over. One of the stories under 'D' was a poem about a girl who dreamt of all the dolls in the world but was awoken by her own doll which got jealous. Okay, it sounds freakishly like Freddie Kludger when I put it this way. But I deviate. Saw this ancient Roman doll at the British Museum and it's the exact same doll illustrated in the Britannica! It's not exactly surprising since the Britannica was published in London but the exciting bit is seeing something from your childhood come alive!

めrci beaucorp!

My door finally has something pretty! And my third wisdom tooth is growing. I hope it doesn't give me any trouble.


I found a plastic bag floating by the hedge of my hostel last night. It looked like it was stuck in a air current well, spinning and fluttering in mid-air. Apparently that's bad Feng Sui (anyone watched My Lucky Star?). Or maybe it's a zone of zero gravity and the plastic bag got caught in a constant eternal orbit in the tiny space. Or maybe it's ghostly...


When I woke up this morning it was still floating there and I very excitedly pointed it out to my flatmate. She took one look and said, "It's caught in a spider web." 

So much for adventure. Back to my breakfast then. For a mould update, 4 slices of bread I meant to have for lunch has gone half white with bluish grey crust. I didn't even keep it for that long! One week perhaps?