Our Body, is but a shell

i love my sculpture class..here's the latest project I did of the NAKED MAN.

Working in progress!! (posed) hehehe



My studio's works



That's my teacher Karen, always cheerful, really good artist.She just use her tools to touch my sculpture a bit and it will look way better than before!



A close up of my work.




Me and Thomas(smaller version)!







And today, I did "brain washing"..literally. I took a brain and washed it under the tap.


Oh well, and i just came back from an excursion for this sculpture class. We went to University of Hawai'i Medical school's anatomy lab. It's here where medicine students perform atopsy and learn abt the anatomy of bodies and perform mock surgeries to bodies donated. We were there to learn abt the bones and muscle groups but I learnt a lot more deal about life. Here's some:

1. After a person's dead,all's left behind is this lifeless body. Nothing else. Dead. To me, there's no memories I have of this person, so since they covered the face, it just leaves me with the limbs that seemed the most lively to imagine how the person lived, and the hands are the most expressive part of a person.

2. This strengthens my belief that there's nothing more after death, other than an empty shell. And all the more I should cherish this life time, and do more, learn more, help more, inspire more. I only have this ONE lifetime. think abt it, suppose i'm lucky enough to live till 75, i'm already 1/3 thru.

3. Don't stay in the city. 90% of the donors are cancer patients. Stress and unhealthy lifestyle are the primary causes of cancer. We were showed lungs and city dwellers have really unhealthy lungs from the exhaust and bad air. Those living in Hawaii country side has pinkish and spongy lungs. People living in San diego has less pinkish and spongy lungs.

4. DONT SMOKE AND DRINK EXCESSIVELY. Smokers have black greyish lungs and is stiff, not spongy. our lungs reaches max efficiency in early/mid 20s and starts to drop 1% each year till we die. Smokers never reach this max efficiency and lungs degrades 3-5% each year. There's a liver of a person who died of alcohol abuse. Liver is extremely regenerative but once it fails, it continues to try to regenerates but layers after layers fails. So eventually it will grow so big that it'll shut you down. Dont do damage to your body. You only have one.

5. DONT DO DRUGS. There's a brain specimen which was donated by this family of a teenager who died due to drug overdose. The frontal part of the brain dictates your personalities and the highs and lows of your behaviour. What I saw was there is large part of the frontal brain that got "eroded" away by drugs. And there's this gaping hole on the left brain that you can poke a finger into it. That's the effect of drug abuse. Meaning that you cannot expect that person to behave "normally", simply because his brain is not normal anymore.

6.The more you think, the more defined your brain grain will be and so will the volume. Steven mentioned how a guy got into coma after a drowning accident and has been in coma since 1985. His middle brain (in charge of sustaining life) kept him alive but the rest of his brain is but a mash. Makes me how many of us are just living in body, but not LIVING in thoughts.

7. Most important lesson of the day: Learning to inspire others to live better, and to be passionate about life. I am really touched and inspired by the director, Steven, who showed us around the lab today. He remembers EVERY owner of the pieces of organ or skulls he showed us today, from the day the person walked into his office offering to donate their body, till they die. He remembers all their wishes and special instructions and conveys them. He told us of this story when one day he was walking up a flight of stair back to his office and there was this lady with breathing tubes in her nostrile and a oxygen tank. He offered help but was kindly declined. 15 mins later someone knocked on his door and it's that same lady who finally reached his office. She was dying of lung cancer and only has 3 months to live. So she wants to donate her body for educational purposes to the University but has a request, that they showed her lungs to all the high school kids that visited.

Reason was: She started smoking when she was in high school and dies from it 28 years later.



I guess it's this kinda learning I sought after all these while, and I sure hope there's many more of such lesson in my limited time living. Chinese has this saying, " Mountain and land are mere dust, much less are the dust living within the dust". Humble, humble.

The Perfect X'mas Present for Quan and Mesh

It's part of my job to be up to date to whatever innovation there is in business.

And when I saw this



And I thought of Quan (remember his leg cast and how we all doodled on it?) and Mesh when he got into that bike accident.

The full article can be found at http://springwise.com/weekly/2008-10-29.htm#talkincrazy

Haha. Have a great week everyone!

MID TERM EXAM'S GONER

................i just had my mid term exam for one of the modules..and i think i'm a goner. I prepared for it and spent yesterday studying for it.it's an open book exam but the questions asked things which I have totally NO IDEA about.I dont remember it being even mentioned in class. I think I am to blame still, for not being the expert in the topics that's being taught which might land me a senior engineer job out in the market. WAHAHAHA..but seriously, it's a crappy module taught by a crappy lecturer with a crappy teaching assistant who aren't so prepared and totally bad at teaching.


or maybe it's due to having too much fun!!!for those who didnt check out my facebook, here's what I did last week!




Japanese grill restaurant! serves EXCELLENT beef that you have to grill yourself.



It was to celebrate Tani's birthday! hehe..NICE! Drinking from the pitcher gave me brain freeze.



KARAOKE!! WHAHAHA!!Mad screaming and throat tearing!



And that's the result of too much beer. HEhe...seems like drinking is the primary event, eating, singing and games are secondary here in USA.


This is what took my saturday! It's for a Halloween display at the Bishop museum in Honolulu. We are suppose to make these and they will be on display (for a long time i heard) and kids will dress up and take candies from the holes in that green oogy-boogie! It's really fun! from tracing to cutting of wood to making of wooden frames to painting! hehehe...


Oh well on saturday night after making the halloween prop, we went party crashing to a 16 year old birthday bash! Janice has this friend who threw a "sweet 16" birthday party in a club at Ala moana hotel! I was thinking "Oh man, i might have that kinda money to book the place for a birthday party when i'm 50..."WAHAHAHAHHH!! So there we went, a group of old geezers crashing a sweet 16 party!!!

I heard most of the kids there are 14 and they looked easily 18! and it was really funny cos they tried to "club" and tried to behave DRUNK from drinking coke and perhaps ginger ale. So it was an excellent eye opener for me, not just that it's the first time i'm attending a stranger's sweet 16 bday party in a club at a hotel, but i went in berms and basketball shoes and GPU bright yellow singlet, and seeing how the kids behaved! HA! it was exhilarating!

It was SO FUN, especially the part when they started singing birthday song and cutting cake and the old geezers tried to blend back into the background and RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT Biwen knocked over a glass and caught us all the attention we needed. WAHAHAH...they must be thinking "Who the heck are these totally out of place people? especially that guy in yellow singlet and basketball shoes??" WAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Then was another bbq party at Reid's place and other than food, the main show was BEER, BEER AND MORE BEER. There was this game called "beer pong" so it's basically a two vs two game. a long table with 9 cups on each end. Opponents throw ping pong balls and if one lands into a cup, you gotta drink up that cup. Let's play this game when i'm back to Singapore!! HWAHAHHA CANT WAIT! So it's my second time playing and I won against the pros, credits to Jack, my partner! hehehe.. It was highly entertaining:)



perhaps..all that can explain why I will not do too well in my mid term exam.WAHA!

CLUBBING! whahahah!

Wow!!My friends invited me to clubbing and we had SO MUCH FUN!! and it was indeed an eye opener! hehehee.. this is like the fourth time i've clubbed in my whole life and I still hold the stand that clubbing is only fun with friends!


"BEEBEE" my good friend Biwen!



Dance Dance!(if you call that dancing anyway)



Wah laoz!!my friend snapped me like i'm a dancing king!hahahah, thanks Amber.



Yet another entry into the album "MMWBSPOM" (My Mum Will Be So Proud Of Me)Oops! Janice's face got cut off!





hee..And the next day Janice and Biwen took me for a sumptous Meal at this japanese place that serves GREAT food!!! Zenia will definitely be taken prisoner by it.
Their specialty, called "SakeTini", nice tinge of strawberry in sake with condensed milk! And the interior deco of this restaurant is really good!



Our dessert, Honey vanilla cinnamon toast!



Sushi pizza! With nice green chilli in every piece



Unagi Rice in a Jap-Korean fusion



Big sail plate of Calamari Salad! NICE!



Rainbow Sushi!!



Janice and Biwen!





Of cos...not forgetting every little kindness(ELK) that I have received from others. There were many much more case of ELK but here are the pictured ones tho..
Some REALLY nice wanton. I think these might just be the BEST that I've eaten. Biwen stole some out from her house to feed this poor bugger with no food in studio! hehehe and the vegge is home grown!




Homegrown Mango from Daisy!! Daisy's this really nice elderly lady in my sculpture class. These are the SWEETEST home grown mangoes!! In fact..I never tasted anything as sweet as these!! GOSH!!



I just briefly mentioned that I loved vitasoy, which tasted like normal soy milk here in Hawaii so Janice was so nice to bring me this Korean soy milk!! tasted like heaven!



Oh my lastest design project, in case you didnt see it in my facebook.suppose to be black background but the printer in school refuses to let me print unless i pay US$96!!It's all about the money, so i had to change the colour to white based.i do hear that if i print outside school, i might need to pay US$4-500 tho. So dont complain lah. Fyi in Singapore, it's just S$40 to print, with lamination at sunshine plaze near bras basah.That is a cheque given to me by the Vice dean of architecture department, REALLY! whahah, he was clearing the gallery and I asked him if i can have it, and he GAVE me!!! hehehe



My tutors..Rudie and Geoffrey :)Nice guys!!



Alright,hope everyone's having great fun and healthy

More Pics!!

Wahaha! check out the photos!!! AT first I thought, aiyah, so short only..TILL the moment i reached the edge, there was a feeling of hunger pang but I just leaped off without thinking!!!!!!

"Must find the highest point, after I came all the way here.."



floating sensation



WAhahahah it was really cool!!! I landed straight but think butt too big so felt a pain in the ass!!whahah but it went away rather fast.

The was swimming with the fishes and girls (a lot of girls,ok guys are not within my sight)




Ice Kacang! US$3.75 :) hehehe quite expensive eh? that's why I said Siong's idea can work here in Hawaii.



Hehe, a close look at the Ice kacang (and me!)

"My Mum will be so proud of me"

WAHhahaha it's been a long time ago since I wanted to start an album titled "My Mum will be so proud of me". The idea is to compile an album of photos taken of just me surrounded by 2 girls or more! I think I better start before I start losing track. WAHAHHAAHA!


Yesterday my good friend in studio took me out for a day of fun and laughter in this vehicleI was flabbergastered!Gosh!a VolksWagen Beetle!!! Then I nearly fainted when my friend said her car costed her US$7000. I flipped in my seat.

Hahha Evon must be SO SO envious,cos that is her dream car!!!heheheh

Then met another friend and they took me to a morning market, where people just set up tents to sell drinks,vegge,bread,cookies,honey,etc etc. Then we went to pick up another friend and went North shore! One of the pics to be included in the "My Mum will be so proud of me" album:
North shore is like the tip of O'ahu island where Honolulu city is in.The sand is so fine and the water so clear!!! And then we went cliff jumping! like OBS quarry jump,just that this time,there's no safety procedures at all. WAhahah and it was really fun! we jumped off the cliff and I felt myself floating in mid air wat felt like 3 seconds before hitting the water! haha!

Oh and before that we had lunch at this place famous for it's Garlic Shrimps and it was SOOOoooo delicious!

Then was a famous treat in North Shore called "Matsumoto Shaved Ice"..it's Ice kacang lah! Ice Kacang with ice cream below and red beans with lotsa colour flavoured syrup! I had cotton candy,rootbeer and banana flavour!hehee..and it's amazing how many people queued up for it! I tell you, they must have made a windfall selling ice kacang in blazingly hot Hawaii! To Siong, I think your ideas of a pushcart Rojak business will flourish here man!!! These people are suckers for simple stuff, so long as it's different!

For dinner, one of my friends jio-ed me for Shabu shabu with her friends and of cos I went!haha,she came to pick me up in school (yeah,all the girls have cars and i got picked up and drove around) and I met another group of fun people. The soup base for the shabu shabu was so nice that I would have finished the whole pot if I wasn't eating too much! haha then we went pubbing till late! haha when I reached my studio, I just took my pillow and fell asleep. I think I drank more here in Hawaii the past 1 month than I ever did the past 5 years since army days...WAT A DAY!

SHOPPING TIME!!

oh well,since now i have a lot of time to spare, I went shopping!! Check these out!

A PerryEllis Jeans!! (eh Nae Kun, this is famous brand here ok..dont play play ah!) Easily US$70-80, I got it for US$19.99




Nike Basketball shorts!Original retail price=US$30, i got it for US$11.99




A really great looking belt,was at US$25, but i got it for US$9.99




A Reebok Dri-fit,was US$31, got it for US$9.99


WHAHAHAHA this is the same place i got my basketball shoes!!it's called "ROSS", they sell off season stuff and it's like treasure hunt! you get off season stuff at great condition and even better price!! WHAHAHAH! I spent only US$54! it's less than 4 days of rent,which I saved over the past few days!! GOOD JOB!




hhehe and I just finished drawing an assignment for my sculpture class,let me share with you all







it's for my sculpture class,we have to learn the human anatomy and sketch them too! that is our homework, then will be a weekly test to sketch and name all muscles and bones from memory!! whahah but as time goes by,some of my classmates just absent themselves, and skip the tests! ha..direct chinese translation "road long then will know horse's strengths"

My New Room!!

Aloha family and friends! haha this is the 2nd day I've staying in school as my new place of residence (wonders if I should change my address in the school's database to the school's address:)

Oh well due to projects,for the past two nights,there are people staying in studio till late and I needed rest badly. How resourceful I am to know the password to 2 rooms (by peeping at my tutors as they open the door and I'm always early for class).

So here's picture of my room, spacious and air conditioned, jealous?haha



So far it's been great!! i have a lot of time to do my stuff, surf web, write mails, do my work,read, go gyms, games and all! haha I'm even learning new softwares such as Indesign and Illustrator for interest! Gosh why didnt i do this earlier?!

And I concluded that I am not going to learn much from school anyways..so I'm going to explore Hawaii more!! I decided that I will go to a new place every weekend!!! and be more proactive in joining my friends as and when :) (drinking only,no weed!)




Oh well,just to voice out some things that's on my mind. I realised here, there are so many people that over-promises and under-delivers. I have met so many people that's really good with their words,but it stops there. If work is undone, there will be hell lot of excuses (note:not reasons)and a lot of them just say how big their plan was and how they will get it done soon. But very often they hardly do that. Somehow they "simply had to do other stuff first" or "No time".

I mean..I dont believe in the word "No time" anymore. It simply isnt in your priority. So if it's not in your priority, perhaps you shouldn't pretend to have so much passion abt it when you most probably will replace it with something else rather readily.

If you think "smoking" people is bad enough in Singapore, wait till you are here. I see smoke screen everyday when people failed to get their things done. And somehow there's not much consequences. If my Archi friends are reading this..during submission day, only 3 out of 12 people have their panels printed out. And only 2 have complete submission. And even till the crit day,someone actually presented entirely on powerpoint! Somehow I'm thankful that there are rules and regulations enforced in NUS Archi department, cos that really makes one more competent and responsible. Then again, perhaps that's just in my personal context and opinion. Everyone can choose how they want to live their lives.

And there's this person in my studio..somehow is really pretentious to be friendly to me, always checking out what I am doing and copying. Mr Chen ChiaChee, my A maths teacher once mentioned "Copying is the highest form of compliment." but I seriously dont like this kinda compliment that comes under the shadow of "friendship". But the good thing that came out of this experience was, I start to reflect what is the ingredient that separates competency? I think I am the "market spoiler" here in UH, so it made me think what is the same thing that creates "market spoilers" in NUS? And I concluded it's seriously abt streamlining of work flow and thought process.And reading and understanding, is one of the aids for the less talented in a particular field (i do believe people excel in different fields,so long as there's passion)

There's another person in my class...work is always bad and he dont work hard at it,tho he kept telling the teacher how he's going to work at it, and what big plans he had. So in the end during submission, it's always unfinished work and he will say it's due to his other work and stuff. I feel you can say as much as you want, but actually your working attitude shows more that what your mouth can rattle. So he was absent for a class and told the teacher today that he had stiff neck and couldnt even get out to see doctor. I was holding my urge to tell the teacher that, after class that day, I was getting lunch and I saw him running across the road perhaps for another class. So it was so bad that he can't even get out of bed for our lesson eh?

i think it's this kinda things that sets the criteria for me to choose my friends. There must be some basic criteria that a person must have, for which if it's lacking, I will set up a big psychological barrier.

Anyways..if you are overseas next time, remember not to write the value on the custom declaration form more that S$400! cos my parcel got detained and the ICA is not going to release it until I pay like S$60 for TAX. imagine that..TAX for souvenirs I'm getting for my family and friends. Blood suckers.

To commemorate~

yo Guys and Gals,today I officially moved out of what I call "personal room" (note:not home) for the past two months. To commemorate this event, let's have a quick run thru of the place which i stayed in!


This is what you'll see as you cross the overhead bridge! notice the rack of pesticide cans at the car porch in front of the house? it's placed by my landlord to prevent people from parking there and he was hoping if someone moves the rack, the cans will drop to alert him!



This is a barricade set up by him to prevent people from walking around the house.



This is the living room,when you first enter the house. Zenia feeling better?whahaa



View from the other side.



The toilet.The floor has never been washed,just mopped. The flush is spoilt and the door jams.



Never used this unless emergency. Interesting how the landlord said I'm a person who "didnt like cleaniness".



This is the kitchen with a lot of obstacles along the way



My stove "issued" by the landlord to prevent me from spoiling his more expensive one:)



ME!glad to be away!!!WHAHHAHAH




hrm..if not for the relatively clutter free personal room I have on the first night I arrived in Hawaii..I will not stay in this house man. But still, it's a great experience! haha