Summer

So this last 3 or so weeks of summer went by in a flash. My days mostly consisted of extremely unproductive activities. These included playing games, watching movies, reading mangas, travel books, novels, and of course dealing with visas and housing. Yes, I should probably be ashamed of wasting my time, but it's really nice to loose myself in these wonderful imaginary worlds after a harsh semester of studio. I really didn't think I was able to survive with the stress from studio last semester. Simply put, I have never experienced such anxiety which made something I used to love some thing I dread with all my heart. With that said, I did learn to manage my time better, though even so, hard work doesn't mean much to a certain extent in architecture. I think I need to go back to enjoying it more, give it more love. :)

Anyhow~ let's see, well, here's the list of things I have been occupying / wasting my time with...

Games:

-Zelda Spirit Tracks: At the boss level, but decided to finish side quest and catching all the stupid bunnies. This is a good game following the Phantom Hourglass, with more challenges and puzzles though the main theme is similar and you can control phantoms. If you are looking for something different than PH, then this is not the one.

- Zelda Twilight Princess: Searching for Poe Souls...Still have to fight Zant and Ganondorf. Haven't played this game in ages, forgot the wonderfulness of L-target. Though since I already beat the cave of ordeals, I must have been pretty decent...

Movies:

-Departure (おくりびと Okuribito): Great movie where a recent out of work cellist decided (or forced) into a new job as a Japanese undertaker. In Japan, the undertaker's job is to carry out the ceremony to wash, clean the deceased and dress him or her up for to put into the coffin. The ceremony has series of steps that both signifies a respect for the deceased and also refresh the memories of the deceased in the living. It was a very touching and meaningful, yet hilarious film. :}

-Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウソナタ Tōkyō sonata): Another great Japanese movie that reflects its culture, however this time taking place in a typical Tokyo family during the recent economic crisis. The movie starts off with the husband loosing his job and due to fear of shocking his wife, decides to pretend he is still employed while spending his day sitting in the park or looking for low paying jobs. The wife, the two sons later also faces their own crisis as the family begins to fall apart due to financial reasons. The movie examines how a regular family falls apart as each member tries to escape from the invisible roles of each family member as tension between each other and the society arises. Yet, ultimately each return to their home in the end after many turn moils as their efforts renders useless, and perhaps called to home by their basic instincts. This film magnified the tensions within a family and questioned what it means to be a family with hilarious and somewhat outrages turn of events. Great to watch with your family!

DK 1354

That's Denmark's postal code. Yup, today I mailed the registration form for the exchange program to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. It cost me $56 just to mail some docs and a portfolio...though the clerk in FedEx was already able to save me $30 bucks....sigh, well that's what you get for only mailing a week ahead, not two weeks.

I am super excited that this may actually work out, though it has been a huge ordeal (and still is) since I may be one of the first Berkeley exchange student there? I think because it's such a small and specialized school, it is not even listed as an accredited school. I was also able to find someone to sublease my apt. Now I just have to figure out the VISA issue, housing at Copenhagen, and $$$ problems....must power through! Thank you, for all that have supported me and helped me along the way.

Though, I think some people aren't quite as excited about me leaving. I apologize for my absence, but please find a small forgiveness in your heart and let me be selfish. :}

But until I get the complete "OK," let's just hope all will work out according to the master plan.

My Sweat and Blood

So I figured may be I should document some of my sweat and blood from studio, just to track what I have been selling my soul to. Looking back at it now, I really don't know why I spent so much time on such little things. Though I have to say, those projects reflects when I was doing "ok" in class, compared to now where I am quite behind and stuck. Somehow designing has been more pain in the butt lately than anything. However, after watching a video intently in ethics (without falling asleep since I actually got enough sleep for monday, for once, feeling much smarter today~) on the creative emergence of the universe, I felt much better.

The basic idea of the video is where the universe is this mass of creativity, where it has an urge to break through points of tension with creative solutions, thus the "emergence" part. Such "emergences" are when the first star was created, the element carbon, earth, eukaryotes, etc. The scientist / philosopher in the video brought up an example where the cells, in dealing with the massive amounts of Oxygen left behind by pulling Hydrogen form H2O, struggle and suffered millions of yrs before becoming eukaryotes. This "deep, deep ignorance and profound confusion" is essential to the breaking point, which then shows that the universe "loves ambiguity, and embraces the situation" in order to surpass it with creativity. That is where I feel I am right now, for the past two studios, this profound, ambiguous, ignorant situation in which I must embrace.

In short, I am stuck, but must plow through it yet again. Chances are, during the summer, I will see how foolish the whole problem has been and wonder why I was stuck for so long. That can only mean two things: one, I lack sleep and anything good to my health and brain during the semester and have too much on my plate. Two, I have learned something from that point in time. Preferably the latter one.

What would Aristotle say?<--Wrong blog!

{Yes, another one..risen from the grave...}

"So since my other blog looks rather similar...I posted it at the wrong blog.. something I am definitely capable of....

Um yes, haven't blogged in a long while...Well, life has been busy as usual with studio, though my super sarcastic professor just makes it even more "fun" for all of us. That reminds me of a wonderful conversation I had with him..

After class...

R: "Sigh, it makes me worried to see you guys have such horrible aesthetic taste..." (aka: your stuff is ugly)

Me: "Hum, I think it's a generation's problem..." (aka: we tolerate more ugly stuff due to various reasons such as tech., crazy forms + materials, and tech. Hence, we create more "ugly stuff")

R: *stares @ J* "What? So you're saying that I have to deal with a whole generation here??"

Me: *assertively* "Yes..and perhaps even more to come."

R: *stares @ J w/ a very annoyed face and walks away..*

Yay? Can't wait to see how this all turns out when we get desk crits instead of four hrs of discussing our work every Mon and Weds. (w/ often no sleep the day before)"

It's March... Where did Febuary Go?

{Yes, this is one of the many old posts that I have managed to revive... stored as drafts...waiting to see the daylight..}

"Feb. has been like a whirlwind of events and workload for me, everything happened at an instant and did not stop, not even now. As my firefox browser toolbar is filled with links to share, my life just jumps from one chapter to another, racing from page to page. Due to studio work, planning for studying abroad, entering a competition, and tons of paper (and possible scholarship opportunities?!) I could barely slow down to give myself five min. of free time to meditate or even just to stop thinking. So some news and updates...

Feb. 22- A night with Mimi Hoang of nArchitects
I went to Mimi Hoang's lecture at CCA (California College of Arts in SF) to remind myself how "fun" architecture is. (studio has quite tuned that part down a bit.) She is the partner at n Architects with Eric Bunge, who both actually have taught in UCB before?! Some of their famous works include the Canopy for the MoMa/P.S. 1 Young Architect's Program for 2004.

Their awesome diagram for the project.

Their VILLA-VILLA: Ordos 100 house @ Ordos, Mongolia is one of my favorites. It is part of a big project where 100 architects are invited to each design a villa at the new city center. The concept is that the inner house contains 60% of total volume and 75% of the area, in contrast to the rest of the space being the outer house. The inner house functions as a compact living space, while the outer house provides the protective enclosure against the harsh weather of the desert. When the weather is harsh, the occupants can choose to live in the inner house, which extends to the edge in personal spaces for a view to the outside. As the weather gets warmer in the summer, the occupants can start to inhabit the outer house, a much more open space in height and area with gardens and fountains."

the concept diag...

the house...

the outer house..

the inner house...

All pictures are a courtesy of n Architectes.

Bush Pilot

Fobby Moms Made My Day

A place to share about awesome Asian Moms and to prove that they are the best moms ever. :} They also have another site called, my dad is a fob.