Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Punggol End Experience

Back to basics was the name of our little field trip out in the opens. Planned by Jeff who misses the outdoor life and cooking of the Swiss Alps, we decided to hold a mini retreat for the church kids to celebrate the end of their exams. Together with Plin, we went about buying food and planning games for the big day to come.

Punggol End was indeed a quiet deserted area with sparse trees around the area, painting a calm and gentle scenery in the background. At the other end, Lalangs grow abundantly, portraying a wild side of the side of Singapore. The shore beats the white sandy shore with a peaceful sounds, and the Alfa Romeo is parked at a little clearing for the 2 tents brought by us.

We started a day with groups of 2; the red team and the white team. We later named ourselves the Roasted and Paper Plates respectively. As Jeff was leading the Roasted team to their 1st game, the Paper plate team was stuck in camp. It was pretty humourous to see the youngsters camping inside the tent, roasting themselves alive under the scorching heat of the sun. I, on the other hand, went around to take a breather before reminscing the lighting of the fire, just like back in the old days in scouts. There was a very nice dead log beside our tent, and in a matter of minutes, everything came back to me and the fire was up and burning. Later, Stanley erected a pole and hung a paper plate and soon it became our team's altar.

When it came to our turn, we were led into the fields. Basically, we were to catch "flower pokemons". By walking near the flowers, the gym leader(which is Jeff) would ring a sensor indicating that the pokemon is near and upon capture, our team would have to play mini games to win the round. Being the younger team with more youngster unlike the auntie, i mean, roasted team, we beat them to the games by 10 minutes. Although the winning team would have noodles and the losing team, bread, we ended up sharing food.

We spent the remaining time cooking the meals and the food that we have prepared. It was kinda saddening to see some of the kids leaving the site. Perhaps they find it too boring or the condition out in the open too harsh. Kids nowadays are unable to appreciate what the outdoors provide them. Cocooning in their homes with their electronic devices, I wouldnt be surpised when that day comes when they cant even light a match by themelves.

With the remaining so peeps at the campsite, PA and AI came over with a bunch of soft drinks and more food. By then, the majority of the people were playing by the sand and chilling out, Andreas was attempting to sink the ants with his sand digging. When all of the sudden...

I spotted dark clouds bringing shower of rains. And it was heading to us across the horizon.

"HEY!!! GUYS!! ITS GOING TO RAIN!" The reaction I got from the crowd stunned me.

"Rain? orh.. okay.." and they continued to play with the sand.

Nevertheless, when the first few splashes of water became to splatter, there was a mad rush to the tents. I was glad it was over in a matter of minutes, and Thank God for washing my car as well! When the sky cleared, we continued to cook our food, with PA as the main chef. The food we brought in were fantastics. There were Shitake Mushrooms, hotdogs, Pineapple rice and potatoes.

We ended the day with smiles on our faces and filled stomaches. The only problem was whether if we can turn up for church tomorrow or whether our stomach can handle the digestion properly. Apparently, it did. :P

















The crazy people in the tent


















Nice Fire~!

















Chucking potatoes in ember will get them roasted nicely!


















Mushrooms and hotdogs!


















Me and my pineapple























Murdering the pineapple



















Traditional pot vs more modern pot



















Campfire fading.. campfire fading...


















Team Roasted


















Team Paper Plate


















Cup noodles, anyone?



















Photoshot of the scene when it rained.. pretty artistic huh?

Thursday, October 09, 2008
The Ultimate Breakfast Combination!

Obama looks friendlier~

Thursday, October 02, 2008
Buttons Mania

Our next assignment was to investigate the use of buttons. The buttons that we are referring to are those operating buttons of machinery/equipment, and the interesting thing to note about them is that these buttons comprises of pressing, pushing, pulling, rotating, flipping etc. So at the end of the day, how one of my tutors put it across quite clearly, what is a button?

Initially, our team had selected the piano key as one of our buttons. It was interesting to note that different piano keys create a different tune when being pressed. However, we were dismayed when our tutor rejected it as a lever instead of a button. So going back to the drawing board, a brilliant idea of using the PEZ sweet was created. In fact, it was way more interesting to work with than the piano keys. We set about selecting it as our model to work on.

Preparations were made before the presentation day. HK and Sean went out to find the actual PEZ sweet. Surprisingly, the sweet has declined in its popularity, making it available only at Toys-R-Us. Other preparations were made as well, such as the sketching of the exploded view of the toy, the discovery of the ergonomic (mechanical function) and the sourcing of pictures to xrepresent the looks of it. I was solely in charge of the layout and presentation of the project.

It was an impressive piece.. Perhaps too impressive for the likings of the tutors. The background was mainly eye distracting, pushing the focus away from the people looking at it. Too much of everything good sometimes would result in something bad.

In the end, I had to redo the layout, making it simpler and easier to read. At the end of it, space management was a lot better and it was
clearer to read.

Lesson learnt : Do not be too elaborate with the background. A simple background should do the trick, and let the content speak for itself