Thursday, August 28, 2008
The start of a very epic battle
The time was 9.15pm. The estimated time to complete my 2nd assignment was by 4am. There should have been nothing but chionging through the assignment.. The assignment was to use a basic shape to create a rhythm (a string of basic shapes which shows motions), deformation (to create other shapes from the basic shape by twisting the contours of the shape) and a pattern (using both basic shape and deformation)I managed to finish it only by 9.30am the next morning. Spending a whooping 7 hours on the patterns, it was my pride and joy that it managed to turn out looking very nice. The rhythms took slightly shorter.. about 4 hours and the deformation, 1 hour with a bit of dozing off from the lack of sleep.
It was super tedious, and careful execution was carried to ensure minimal damage to the workpiece. Unlike soft copy, one wrong move on the actual piece and you can end up throwing the whole piece away.
When it is finally done, i cycled back to bunk by 10am. Took a quick shower and hit the bed. Spent about 2 hours of sleep, and up I was for the Critique session at 2pm. All I remembered was the pounding headache and how it sucks to have so little sleep.
The critique went smoothly. Most of us had interesting rhythms and patterns. Out of the whole lot, mine was one of the last few. Interestingly, the last few were labelled as the "Extremist club", probably because of the daring approach to defining what are patterns. Overall, I didnt really do a good job with the deformation and the rhythms unlike my other classmate. I was however, encouraged by the remark one of the tutors.
"This is the best pattern I have ever seen."
Labels: Industrial Design
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
When You're Stressed from all the work...
Labels: Industrial Design
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Singapore Youth Olympics Logo Competition 2008
From the extract for explaining my design to the Singapore Youth Olympic ManagementThe lion represents Singapore's identity as a lion city. Its red and white colours represent the colours of the Singapore flag. The red mane and tail are the end represents fire, and in this case, represents the burning flame of the Olympic torch. Based on Asian roots, the lion can also be seen as a guardian lion, with his right paw on one of the Olympic circles, hence indicating the security of the Youth Olympics in Singapore. The lion displays strength, strategy and perservance. It represents an athlete, a fighter, a winner. For a cub to grow into a dominant lion, it has to learn from its parents. Its parents will also ensure that it will grow into a mighty lion within the pride. Likewise, the potential that are unleashed among the youths all over the world will only continue to grow as they mature into adult athletes through the guidance of their coach and support from their family. The Youth Olympic is their stepping stone onto the World Olympics.
Spent the whole day constructing this figure of the lion.. I must say it is a well thought out concept that it would be interesting and humbling for anyone who can come out with a better idea. :)
Monday, August 25, 2008
My very 1st Assignment!!!
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Extracted from my preparation for this exercise
In the square world, everything is made out of squares. Anything that is not a square is also morphed into a 4 equal sided right angle polygon. It was on one of those days that I decided to bring some food from Earth. Gathering my 5 newfound friends from Square world, we had a picnic by the park in Square world.
In Square world, no one has ever seen fast food before. It was a creation that was ingenious only on Earth. So when I brought fast food into the Square world, they were very intrigued by its colour and appearance. Apparently, the Squares have never seen “red” in their entire life, while they could only comprehend “yellow” through the setting square sun. Perhaps red and yellow were so much of an opposite in their world that the colours simply couldn’t exist. (perhaps the reason why the sun remains in square world is due to the fact that there should only be one sun in the solar system, and that sun happened to be yellow). It was such a pity that the Squares have never fully appreciated the use of red and yellow. On Earth, these colours are associated with high branding value. Countless of companies other than the fast food chains have made use of red and yellow, such as Coca Cola, Vodafone, Ferrari, Shell and even DBS. Companies make use of these bright colours and its shorter wavelength to create a closer distance perception, hence attracting the attention of the customers. Perhaps that is the reason why Mac-Donald is able to earn higher revenue comparing with duller colour fast-food chains.
Even though there are 3 dishes brought over to Square world, fast foods come as a set meal (usually a burger, a side and a drink), and with the use of a few common colours among the fast food, there was sufficient for the 6 of us, each mysteriously having food for our own.
Intuitively, the Squares chose their choice of fast-food with accurate resemblances to their character. Each of them had a behavior that suited their colours and their appetite. Starting from the bottom left, I have decided to choose “Long John Silvers’”. Long John Silvers’ are famous for their deep fried fish and French fries. Since I came from a Teochew background back in Singapore, fish can be seen as one of the essential dishes for a Teochew meal. The fact that Long John Silvers’ is one of the few Fast-food chains that emphaysises on Fish, it further showed the huge difference between a Earthly being and a Squarely being.
The next square above me is a wealthy square. His skin is able to reflect against sunlight, hence making it in comparison with a similar shade of blue called “Aquamarine”. Aquamarine is also known as a gem which is under the same grouping as Sapphire. When Aquamarine selected the fast food, he decided to go for Pizza Hut (Red, black and a bit of yellow), and it so happened that Pizza Hut was the most expensive meal out of the six fast-food.
The next square is known as “midnight blue” since he had a darker shade of blue on his skin. He was the kind of person who stayed up late in the night doing his own work, ending up with little or no sleep at all. Instinctively, he picked out the Mac-Donald’s meal, perhaps not knowing that Mac-Donald’s now has outlets opening 24 hours daily.
Moving on is Cyan, the fickle minded square. It is interesting to note that although Cyan has a certain amount of blueness in him, he also has the equal amount of greenness as well, making him indecisive on whether he should be a blue square or a green one. He chose the MOS burger set. Similarly, MOS burgers sell their burger in a “fickle minded” way. Being famous for their rice burger, the creators of the rice burgers was stuck with the Japanese lifestyle of eating rice and the Westerners lifestyle of eating burgers, so they decided to combine the both together, just like how Cyan looks like.
Being the smallest square, Baby blue clearly shows the youthfulness and childishness of a kid. He chose the KFC meal. Although KFC and MOS burger almost have a similar set of colours, KFC has a slight beige to its lighter portion unlike MOS burger who uses the white background. Other than MacDonald’s, KFC has also adopted a mascot concept in line with their meals so as to cater to the children. This was why Baby Blue picked up the Chicky Student Meal, which is smaller in comparison with the rest of the meals.
Finally, Azure is the last square friends who joined us for the picnic. Azure is commonly used on Earth to represent the clear blue sky, hence he adopted similar traits of being environmentally friendly and healthy living. He chose Subway, knowing from the package that Subway does not use polystyrene materials and uses recycled plastic bags as their carrier. Subway is also one of the healthiest fast food out of the 6 meals.
From the picnic, I have learnt that sometimes, Colours and people have a link with one another in terms of purpose, emotions and perceiving distance. It can be used to represent an object, or even used to enhance the appreciation of a particular object, simply by understanding the nature of the colour. In conclusion, when colours are seen at face value, it might all be in a complete mess, but with the clarity of what square represents, it will become clearer why the square is in that particular colour and size, and the whole mess of squares will then turn into a picnic with 5 square friends.
Labels: Industrial Design
Sunday, August 24, 2008
mm.. Yummy Sunset Grills
What a treat to find a hidden restaurant tucked in the middle of Seletat Air Base. I would like to thank my PC for giving me the opportunity to explore Seletar AirBase, so much so that getting to the restaurant was not much of a hassle. It's really difficult to get it. Perhaps a map from Google map can show you an idea..
View Larger Map
Upon arrival, I was impressed by the good customer service. We were directed to an outdoor tentage with the staff attending to us eagerly. We even had a mosquito coil under our tables so as to ward off the mosquitoes. The food came promptly as well, with the exception of the main course due to some cock-up in the kitchen, but it was okay, because..
THE FOOD IS !@#$%^ GOOD!!!!
I'm not kidding when I say that. Our 1st dish was button mushroom coated with a thin layer of batter. With every crunch on the mushroom, the juice tucked in the mushroom explodes in your mouth, sending a savory aroma throughout your whole mouth. The Clam Chowder was equally amazing as well. Thick and starchy, it had chicken and bits of clam with every spoonful of soup. We also had mussels cooked in white sauce and white wine. I must admit that although the mussels were a little tough, the broth was very addictive. Even the garlic bread had a taste of its own unlike any other garlic bread, and dipping it into the broth was just heavenly...
When the main course finally came, we rushed for the food with eager anticipation, and we were not disappointed. Out of the whole dish, the half chicken was the ULTIMATE. The whole chicken was marinated with barbeque sauce, and not one bit was dry. Even the breast meat, which should be the driest was soft, tender and juicy..! The spare ribs and the fries deserve special mentions as well for their taste and perfection.
Overall, it was a satisfying saturday evening with the family. The food, ambience and staff was good. 9 out of 10 other than for the stupid mosquitoes and smoking couple besides us. Perfect place to bring your date to... that's if you know the way there... hahahaha~
Saturday, August 23, 2008
A dead body...
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
2/10 and modelling class
My cube scored a 2 out of 10. It started off with a loose corner at the side measuring... 99.2mm.. And that caused me to lose 10(100-99.2) = 8 marks...
But alas, out comes a secret formula. Seriously got to thank Austin for the little cheat tip..! :P
We had a modelling class in the afternoon. It wasnt how to do a cat-walk down an aisle, but using the engineering modelling program to create 3d models on the com. It was pretty cool stuff, and obviously a little boring..
Monday, August 18, 2008
My baptism!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Finally, its done...!!!
You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small,
And make the hills like chaff.
16 You shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away,
And the whirlwind shall scatter them;
You shall rejoice in the LORD,
And glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Friday, August 15, 2008
The killers!!!
Today we had a safety model workshop in the morning on handling the machinery in the workshop. Some of them looked like the machines in D & T in secondary school, others are brand new, and pretty cool. It looks manageable, except for the heaty machines. I guess i can never get rid of this phobia of handling hot stuff..Finally completed my 1st assignment! Its a study of what writing material goes well with the writing material you are using. We had to create 24 different panels of material. It was gruesome, but manageable, and by 8pm, I was done :)
Nevertheless, the killer came earlier. The 4th assignment rolled in shortly, this time on patterns.
The 2nd killer was the jog I had later in the night. I had no idea NUS was so big... Planning my way around for an overall downslope jog, I took longer than expected to cover this route. Perhaps I was not familiar with the route. But its okay. I'm sure I can hit the timing of 45 minutes for sure!
View Larger Map
Hope my legs and back wont give up on me tomorrow :S
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
1/2 hour of school..
Alright.. the 2nd assignment rolling in.. We had our ID1111 modelling module wif PC. He looked like a very experienced teacher, teaching us the basics of how to cut with a pen-knife and making a jip so that our models will be 90 degrees to one another. There were plenty of equipments used, such as the metal rule, L rule, Set square, pen-knife, gip, fixture spray etc. So much so, it felt like a lesson of D & T.
And then, that was it. We started at 9.30am and by 10.10am, we were done.
Spent the rest of the time socialising with my ID peeps. We ate at the FASS canteen, hence I bumped into a few people; such as Jiayi and Yixuan.
Did a bit more diddly-daddling at my bunk before leaving for artfriend, however, I got sidetracked by the National Library. I was in search of a few ID books, so when I have finally found Shimizu Yoshiharu's 2 books, I rushed off to the copiers to get a copy of it. It's pretty rare and expensive to have one book, so for $10, I felt accomplished. :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
1st day at ID
1st day in ID1103 was very interesting. Unlike sitting in a tutorial class watching the teacher drone about a certain subject, we were already tasked to do our 1st assignments. We were asked to collect 30 different colours from our surroundings. I went to walk around, picking leaflets and postcards along the way. After cutting the 20 odd squares, Christianen then instructed us to arrange our squares based on groups of 8, whereby each of us had to attach a reason to why our groups were in this way. We later were asked to arrange them in terms of brightness, and later, based on their saturation. It was pretty cool to have done all of this, but homework was pretty crazy. We were to collect 100 of such squares, every square being of a different colour. Sounds.. challenging.
ME2103 was pretty boring. Our lecturer looked similar to a certain cartoon blue cat with a magic pouch on his belly. He was pretty boring, and I couldnt help but took a snooze halfway during his talks. One thing good was his comprehensive collection of lecture slides, examples and instruction on his personal slide: http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/mpeleeks/personal/index.htm
Friday, August 08, 2008
A satisfied customer
It was a birthday gift..and it was a really cheeky one..
Well.. he was happy:P
Its a ragging good time
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
BACK FROM THE HONGKONG
Upon arrival on 30th July, we checked into their hotels; Mexan harbour. Comparatively, it was a lot bigger than any HongKong hotels, especially those in
We later went over to Tsim Sha Tsui via MTR. We each
We later made our way down Temple Street, the land of the night stalls. It looked
Came back at around 12am, only having to have dinner at 11.00pm. Surprisingly, public transport work late in the night. So do the eateries around the MTR; it seemed that the Hongkongers dont sleep at all.
Wong Tai Sin Temple was rested in between residential area. Catering to the buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, the temple had 3-4 altars, each holding a particular god of the religion. Devotees would carry their joss-sticks offering thanks to these gods. It also had a garden for devotees to relax in. With an artificial garden and water sprinkler for the flowers in the garden, the temple is certainly making a lot of money from the donations poured in. Before leaving the temple, I was able to witness a mysterious practice which worshippers practice, which is unique only in Hong Kong. Using a open container of chopsticks to tell your fortune is a common practice in HongKong. The devotee will form a question in his/her mind, and slowly shake the container until the 1st chopstick sticks out and land on the floor. He/she can verify whether if this is what the Gods are really speaking by throwing 2 stones in midair. If there is a stone resting on its curved surface, while the other is resting on the flat surface, then the facts on the chopstick is true. If however, they fall on the same sides, the devotee would have to repeat the process until she gets it right.
After Wong Tai Sin, We went to Lok Fu to spot another temple. Unlike the Wong Tai
Being lost souls on the street, we wanted to find a place with good
Having being filled to the brink, we left the eating area of Kowloon and headed back
We visited the Cultural centre, space centre and Museum of the art. Pretty boring place to be in. The avenue of stars was a different thing though. With many
An interesting thing to note about Hongkong would be THEIR LACK OF TOILET FACILITIES. Can you imagine when you're at high tide and you cant find a single toilet anywhere at all? Not even in the 5 star hotel facing the sea(im particularly mentioning Sheraton hotel. DONT YOU EVER GO THERE AGAIN), nor the shopping centre that has all your favourite goods. If there is any place that deserves recommendation for being a life-saviour, that would be the 24hours McDonalds. It was the most urgent and yet satisfying pee I ever had for a long time. We spent the rest of the night in Ladies Market, another hot spot for Pasar Malam goods. Comparing with Temple Street, Ladies market had more variety of goods and it was
3rd day was a little more exciting. We were off to the magical land of HongKong Island. Being advised to stay over there right from the beginning, I started to regret my decision to stay on the mainland. HongKong Island was a modernised Hong kong, with towering glass buildings and new edge technology everywhere, like the electric trains, cleaner parks and bigger brands. YongTeng and Yap went on their seperate ways from us, so as to look for their swedish brand, H & M. Their ulterior motive would be to look for HongKong Girls.
I dunno about you, but according to Zh and YT, they are claiming that hongkong girls are generally prettier than Singaporean girls. I dun really see any difference. I mean, a chinese girl is a chinese girl, regardless of where she is staying in. I guess the only reason why these hongkong girls appeal to boys would be their better sense of dressing, most of it coming out of their own pockets. It is quite a common sight to see them dressed in Chanel sweaters and carrying Gucci bags. I guess its a common statement Hongkongers like to make, that they are rich enough to buy their clothes but still sitting on trains on the way back home. Another observation I would make would be their use of make-up. Unlike most Singaporean girls(though it is a rising trend), Hongkong girls would apply their make-up anywhere, and somehow this dolling up would drive the boys crazy. Ok, i must admit, i notice a few eye candies as well. May God forgive me such that i do not have to pluck my eyes out.
Zh and I, however, were on our ways to the fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime experience
When the birds started singing again, we grabbed the opportunity and raced down to the biggest rollercoaster in the park.. THE DRAGON!! It was pretty okay, cos we were sitting in front, so we didnt have much of the g-force in us. I guess the cool part was being to look upside down as we were on the loops. THE ABYSS(aka free fall dropping
"ORD LOH!!!!!!!!!!" (trying to put a happy thought in my mind, can?)
Part 2 started at 5pm. We met Yongteng and Yap at the Charter park before setting out to the Peak Tram station. Apparently, Yap and YT bought plenty of clothes from H & M, each carrying at least 3 items. When we reached the venue, we were shocked to see the number of people queuing up for the tram. It took a total of 45 minutes before finally having the chance
We took a good one hour to get down to the foot of the hill. With the long jam at the tram, we were only left with a bus alternative, which took equally long curving down
Day 4 was a dedication to the shoppers in our group. Mainly, the 4 of us. We went on the ultimate shopping expedition. Leaving the place at 10.30am and reaching Tsim
$72!!! FOR A RAW SELVAGE JEAN OF SUCH QUALITY. It was crazy for me not to buy such a pair of jeans. If Topman was selling their average jeans at $103, then surely Uniqlo jeans was more worth the money.
After Uniqlo, we went to Esprit outlet where we bought presents for the church gals. We headed to Mongkok once again. Somehow, Mongkok seems to be the centre of all the shopping. We visited Langdam Place, the reputable shopping centre of great heights. With a total of 15 levels of pure shopping, you got to admit even Suntec
Being the last day of our HongKong Trip, I did not want to end it with shopping, so
We tried a little shopping at Allied plaza, hoping to find YT and Yap's berm. YT eventually bought a berm over there less than $30, even though it was a little tight at the bottom for him. And to end the 5 days 4 nights with a little goodies to bring back home, we were transported back to the same old airport, getting ready to fly back to Singapore.
The trip has been fun. It was certainly "the last ditch attempt to go overseas" just before uni starts. I didnt regret going for this trip. It was definitely fun!
Now back to the mugging.... ( =_______= )|||