It's Neu Year's Eve!

well, i just know 2010 is going to be a good year! just know it! it's going to be an AMAZING YEAR. there's just this tingling in my spine when i think of the year 2010...GOOD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!

when i was younger i loved those new exercise books we got in the beginning of the year. ah, this year, THIS YEAR, my exercise books would not deteriorate into 咸菜. THIS YEAR, i would have A stars all over it. the first page would always have beautifully neat handwriting, the date would be written, the work would be impeccable...

ah well, you know the story...

BUT THIS YEAR, it's gonna be DIFFERENT!! cos i feel it in my bones, i feel it in my too-short hair: IT'S GONNA BE A YEAR OF CHANGE. Good change or bad, it's going to BE UP TO ME (and up to God, but I bet He gives me some leeway, and anyway, Him being in charge of my life, i bet if I do my best He'll do the rest.

soooo, I know I'm not very smart, I know I suck at a gazillion things, but 2010, it's going to be THE BEST OF MY 23 years. ever. cos 2010 is officially THE YEAR I DO MY BESTEST IN EVERYTHING I DO. with my heart and my soul and my strength and my sweat and my tears and so on and so forth. aye. do you feel the tingly's too?

and it's going to be a FANTASTIC YEAR, because eejia is back! (man, i really missed her leh) (i think i get through design because she pushes me, would probably die without her feedback, it somehow makes me feel better) (thank God for msn).

it's also going to be a FABULOUS YEAR, because i'm so not taking Jap anymore (yays, no more memorizing vocabulary every night, tutorials at weird hours, teachers speaking gibberish, me speaking real gibberish...etcetc

and i have only 3 mods this sem!! WOOHOOOO!!! 3 modules!!! and all archi related! so much more time to spend in studio for design...so much more time to pore over books on awesome eye candy buildings and connections and floor plans and sections and elevations and connection details and perspectives (okay, slight sarcasm here, but the very teeniest bit, very very tiny, nearly a micrometer squared) i actually like looking at these things, only the designing of them is a little difficult. but who cares? new! clean slate! i'm going to do the best i can this year! i hope i get a randy-like tutor (fat hope, for year3, but still can hope lah) and get to explore and have fun.

and now we get to the nitty gritty of resolutions. i never used to post resolutions before, because i figured i probably wouldn't do them, and anyway i was lazy to think of them, and it got forgotten anyway...but i think i will post them this time, and whether they get done or not, at least i made an effort, and the BEST EFFORT i can put in right now, even before year 2010 starts!

oh darn. not easy.

RESOLLUSSHIIESS:

1) Memorize the book of Proverbs. Just came across it during quiet time couple of days ago. (was attempting to finish Psalms in december, but currently i'm only at Psalm 68. fail.) (but you realize i managed at least 2 psalms a day? heh?)

2) Use the laser machine. (dyou know I'VE NEVER USED THE LASER MACHINE for individual design before?) (must attempt it this semester. FACE THE UGLY LASER MACHINE!!! even if i have to sit at the computer sunday night and book a slot the moment it becomes monday)

3) Use up all my old material. This might put my work at jeopardy, but I will attempt not to buy a single new material until i use up all my old material (i'm lucky i stocked up on basswood last sem. hahaha). This will save me money, and with the money i save...

4) Be better dressed. I know this sounds vain, and silly, and materialistic, and well, silly...but i've been strangely addicted to a fashion blog called the sartorialist and somehow feel like i want to have my own personal style! Well, we shall see. I'm a student on a budget, and most of the time clothes don't top my list of priorities (except when i'm depressed, then blowing my budget on nice clothes suits my mood...but i realize that even though i blew my budget twice last semester on two items of clothing that were a little on the expensive side+2 expensive haircuts, I spent less because I barely ate much supper! lol. Is a good thing, healthier.)

5) Budget. I need a proper idea of how much I spend a month and how I can cut costs on the things I really don't need. I realize if I plan my trips (because I spend ALOT of money on transport) I can really cut down my expenditure. Also, the occasional blowing of budget on unnecessary food items that will eventually be left to rot are nono as well. Suppers, even though they cost around the vicinity of a mere 2-3 dollars a day, will equal to at least 50 dollars a month, and there you go. (that is 125 ringgit leh).

6) Save. Mom said that I should right now begin to set aside money for the future. I won't be supported anymore once I graduate, and if I begin saving now, that might help me out for the first few difficult months looking for a job and having to rent a place outside.

7) Time management+procrastination. I usually manage my time pretty well in the beginning, but after a while I start throwing everything all around, get depressed, burned out, mess up my schedule, and be a wreck at the end of the semester. So, I'm going to have to balance my play and my work, and make sure I don't burn myself out before I should. Also, I have a habit of procrastination. I realize I have perfectionistic tendencies (two people identified that in me, after I broke my model up for the fifth time in one night and refused to use the wrong color acrylic) (perfectionism is a bad thing when you refuse to start because you're afraid it won't finish well, and when you spend too much time on the details). The best way to fulfill this resolution is to plan ahead, plan for the semester, plan for the year, plan for the next 2.5 years until I graduate, plan for the next 5 years. 5 year plan. yes. good idea.

8) Facebook less. Haha. This warrants an entire resolution in itself.

9) Spend more time in the library. If I'm at the library I am forced to work, rather than facebook/sleep. So instead of heading back to hall immediately after classes (unless it's dinner time) head for the library instead (or head for studio). read more in the library rather than borrow. makes me actually read, rather than collect books that i flip through just before i have to return them.

well that's it for now. It's quite a basic list of resolutions, but i feel that these are quite do-able. There is a lot more I have suddenly thought of, but is okay, I begin like this first. :) And of course, God will be my guide throughout this new year, as He has been in the past and will be in the future.

It just occurred to me that in P1 last year, when i was rendering the panels in the dds (some of you will know how long that took) someone pulled the plug on my com by accident and the screen blanked out. i realized then that i had not yet saved the work. and it wasn't sketchup or autocad, which has autosave function, it was photoshop, which i think doesn't save work (it really doesn't autosave). shocked, i switched on the computer again praying furiously, rather numbed. and will you believe it, when i turned on the com, my file was still open on photoshop and everything was still there. and the com was really shut down. I still think it was a miracle. what do you think?

once upon a cellist

to-day i had a haircut. an rm15 haircut. she was very nice, the lady who cut my hair. i liked her. she chit-chatted with me. i still like her.

i think i am a little appalled by my hair now :( it's veryveryveryvery short. i clutch at the back of my head and there is nothing to clutch. i cannot even pull my hair to vent my frustrations. no, i will not show you my hair. you can see it for yourself once i get out (unfortunately, i have to go out sometime).

this brings me to my obsession with long hair (in guys) and cellists (and korean guys). well, the story behind it is that once upon a dream, i attended a philharmonic symphony orchestra at klcc with some like-minded form six friends ('twas fun, we dressed up, there was a dress-code, we felt grown-up in heels and long skirts). the instruments were on stage, there was the grand piano, there were the brass, the woodwinds, the percussion...and there were the strings...a cluster of violinists and a smaller cluster of cellists...

and among them was my dream guy, a tall, too-handsome-to-be-true young man with his cello. like a prince. soft, wavy hair. a sensitive face.

did i say like a dream? must have been a dream!

well then, so you know now why my obsession with men who have long hair and play the cello...

and i suppose i'll get over it one day. he may have short cropped hair and be insensitive and tone-deaf...but he'll be him. i hope :D

sorry, my mind wandered away. i seem to be obsessed with this subject nowadays. haha. and deep down in my heart i know the reason i do this is because reality is too harsh, and i fully understand that i simply have no time for a real prince, so i shall have to settle for a dream one, who comes and goes when i so desire, and i figure, if one has to settle for a dream, why not have a nice one while we're at it, hey? :D

Happies neuss years peoples!

General Stanley McChrystal (runner up to TIMES person of the year) (OFFICIAL suddensongdelights person of the year from the TIMES person of the year)

General Stanley McChrystal is a humble man, self depreciating, does the right thing even if it hurts him, is concerned for the people and not himself (everything he says shows him to be a very controlled and honorable man, even the reporters could not mar him as an individual), has strong convictions and sticks to them...he'll be a very difficult man to live with, but he does great as a General.:D

But what a man! He sleeps four hours a day and eats a single meal a day. look at his face now! and look at him as a young man! i suppose all that lack of sleep does age people really fast! he was very handsome when young (sans the weird hair). he is still ruggedly handsome now. if he had taken another path his face would be less thin, and he would look extremely distinguished...

hmm, i think i don't mind marrying a toned down version of a man like this (but i'll make sure he sleeps and eats properly...only men like these are destined for singlehood, somehow...and i'm sure he probably won't let me make any decisions for him, which is why i said 'toned down' @@) but i really admire him for his discipline, his humility, even his ascetism (a melancholic trait haha, i can actually relate)

what a man! such men usually end up single for life however, precisely due to their ascetism...

what a man! (sorry, i am very impressed)

okay, sans that i also admire nancy pelosi, another of the TIMES person of the year runner ups (i do not really understand what Bernanke did, so i mention more of the other people, despite he being person of the year). she was a mother of 5 children, a stay at home housewife who entered politics at the age of 47. now that's a rock solid lady of steel. life don't end at fifteeehhh

i will need a project to do when i'm 50. retiring is for wimps. i refuse to retire...i will rot and die.

a simple googling of the word architorture led me to a blog called quiet observations from archi-hell, written by a master's student of architecture studying at carnegie-mellon. he writes poetically, movingly. he is as much a master of the written language as he is of space and form. i find his writings inspirational, especially the earlier posts, and my interest for architecture has suddenly been revived again. i remember torturous nights in studio with strange fondness...hunger pangs punctuated those quiet hours with walks in the cold air to nearby fongseng for hot coffee and a prata or two, off-color jokes and random interjections made funny only because we were tired and any excuse to laugh was welcome during those wee hours of the night. and then there is the fun (and loneliness) of being the only person working in studio (because you get to wander around and feel like you've entered the twilight zone...like a dream and yet not a dream).

i will enjoy my final 2.5 years of architorture in archi-hell, and when i graduate i will miss it, but i will never regret these years! how many people get to experience what i experience? it is amazing. how many people get to pursue their interests with such abandon, and insert anything they want into those interests, mixing and matching and making and wondering and feeling! i am glad there will only be a single project this coming semester. :D 3 last semester made it difficult to pursue anything very far.

btw. BUCKLING. CAUSES. DEATH.

cinnamon christmas

meet mr pumpkin!

well, here's a christmas post! i must have one! i love christmas! i love december! december is my favorite month! it's full of festive joy!

there are five people whose birthdays fall in this vicinity whom i love very much! mom's birthday is on the 27th of november, so i'll just count it in! daddy, sis esther and bro isaac are all december babies! and Jesus, my Lord and savior, has his birth commemorated this month as well! december is a lovely month! (plus i'm home most decembers :D)

today was a busybusy day! attended kurisumasu service this morning at church! was nice, although i feel somehow a bit separated now from this church i grew up in...perhaps it's because i've been away so long, and many of the people i knew and loved from this church have left also, due to studies, getting married, migrating, etcetc...the church has changed so much! but change is good! it's good! lets hope the leaders of this church know that!

well, we had a lovely christmas lunch where i caught up with some old friends, many who also have just returned from other places to celebrate christmas at home. the food was awesome, cooked lovingly by many of the lovely older (but lovely!) ladies of the church who always serve faithfully behind the scenes and i believe are some of the most important strands that hold a church together.

i baked alot to-day! my feet hurt because i walked so much around the kitchen, running to the oven, the kitchen counter, the dining table, the wet kitchen...because i baked three things to-day! that's a record for me :P it was fun! and i bet the running around burnt more than enough calories for me to eat it all guiltlessly!! :D

dear all, meet mr. pumpkin (you may have seen him before)! it may be the wrong season, but that is okay, mr pumpkin is pleased to meet you...he turned into sweet, home-made pumpkin puree for the occasion. (it is sweet! very sweet! the ants in my house attested to that...we have an ant infestation @@) (i am really beginning to despise ants!)


he endured the slicing..."it's alright" quoth he "Jesus went through so much more for you, when He died on the cross for your sins! mine is but a little sacrifice"


and endured the heating and food processing...


and became pumpkin cookies!! i adapted the recipe and these weren't like cookies at all @@ they tasted like little pumpkin cakes because they were really so soft! sis thinks it's cos although the recipe called for 1.5 cups of white granulated sugar i put instead .25 cups of white granulated sugar, .25 cups of brown sugar and a tablespoon of sweet molasses! the molasses gave the cookies a very special taste, but i suppose it made the batter too wet and thus i got soft cookies instead!

i made some pretzels too, but they had nothing to do with mr pumpkin. the yeast was really active! i was supposed to glaze it with butter and cinnamon sugar...but it already tasted quite nice by itself, so i decided i better leave out the calories...haha


he sitting pretty on the pumpkin biscotti!


fat pretzels! the yeast went crazy!


and more pumpkin puree went into a pumpkin pie!
for the crust instead of .5 cup of olive oil i put in .25 cups of olive oil and .25 cups of pumpkin puree...tastes quite fine...but then i'm not too sure how pumpkin pie crust should taste like! haha

i still have loads of pumpkin puree, at least 3 cups...what to do? any ideas? :P

recipes linked below!

pumpkin cookies!!
(it says moist...i suppose the american cookies are soft! haha)

pumpkin pie!!

cinnamon sugar pretzels!!

do try them yourselves! it's really funfun!! :D

he sneaked in and wished me merry christmas
sorry for the knees

みあさん、メリークリスマス！:)

of new years

i do love this blog anyway. and i love to write. i suppose you never know how much you loved something until you let it be for a while, and then you realize you love it too much to let go...(should attempt this with people, then i'll know who i really care for, and who i can do without)(haha)

so this blog is getting a lot more attention than i thought it would have when i started my new blog. tumblr is nice, but i love this blog, because it's more me than the other blog, but i love that blog for the ease of posting links and pictures of things that interest me.

this blog is for memememememe!!

tumblr seems to me to be quite an impersonal blog, which is why my feelings for it has not run deep. it could be also because it's new. lol. i have a penchant for old things. this blog holds memories, holds ideals, holds friends, holds thoughts, holds laughter, holds pain, holds loves and hates...this blog is for close friends who have spent time with me for so long ever since i begun this 2 years ago, and who have taken the trouble to find this blog and read it and commented and encouraged and helped! love you all.

i wonder how people can break up after being together for years...are there not enough happy memories to sustain the relationship? what happened? may i never know...or maybe i should. i dunno!

it's hard enough leaving good friends.

the new year is coming, results have come out (God has been so gracious and maintained my cap!! my cap was never that good to begin with, and i really expected very bad results this semester, but somehow, miraculously, my cap did not go down! Praise God! He is so good to me) I have much more to learn, and my new timetable isn't exactly the prettiest (four hour tutorials? @@ siao) like design mod liddat...but i bet it'll be better compared to my jap. jap really ate up an awful lot of my time, added to the fact that languages (and music) are not one of my strong points. (archicon has never been a strong point either, though) Archi structures sounds interesting, and i see that they have replaced a PF module with another Archicon mod. I wonder if alot of maths will be involved. @@ my maths has rotted already.

next year, i resolve to do quite alot of things. i may even write them down here. ever since i begun my impersonal blog this place is suddenly becoming like my dairy to me. haha. my personal space, which only a select few can read! :)))

Just a quickie

i have moved:

suddensongdelights.tumblr.com

this blog is just for the emo posts

the results are not as bad as expected, although my cap went down (boohoo). there is so much more i have to learn, especially in design. so much to learn. i will focus all my attention on design in the coming semester.

jap is comfortably s/u-ed thank God.

eh, i did my calculations and after s/u-ing jap my cap is strangely exactly the same as last semester @@ wow. thank God! He is amazing.



this is a beautiful song, specially when it's sung by jason wade of lifehouse!