had food exchange with MF again.

there was carrot and broccoli soup because "it's getting cold".

got some of his homemade kaya - made by steaming eggs, sugar, and coconut milk together.
with added cinnamon! it should be good.


and i decided to try growing a plant, by not eating this old baby potato.
it refused to have its picture taken, so the photo is blurry.
i shall name it "Button".
potato plants flourished in the kitchen cupboard when Sz and I were in Korea, so i hope Button will grow well in the corner of my room.

bad start to the day - saw Mr M and thought i could let my guard down by showing a bit of willingness to chat, because the last time i saw him, he was happily talking to a lady and didn't try to contact me.

today, i realised he is one of those megalomanics because he was trying to antagonise me about my non-belief in God.
i said i wasn't interested to go to church with him, i have no faith, etc, and he got all worked up and lectured me about how feelings are not involved in belief.

and this was when i had just woke up to do my laundry.

am really annoyed, but have to learn how to deal with such people.

handed in the research proposal today. to formulate, justify and plan research for a question/problem that we had to find ourselves... it was the most difficult thing i have undertaken for a long time.

my classmate didn't turn up today, so i messaged her about how to hand in the assignment, and then she told me she will quit the whole course because she realised academic writing was not her forte... instead, she will focus on her interior design work.
so, i'm like, damn, am i doing the right thing? .....  but not really.
even though i can't articulate ideas for nuts, i don't want to give up. even though i don't know what i will do with myself in the future, i like learning artsy fartsy stuff.


in the tutorial class, Dr G told us to devise and carry out simple experiments to get inspiration for our projects.

he gave examples of methods about serendipity and randomness.
situationist stuff like meandering slowing in a busy urban space to annoy the people rushing to places, getting well and truly lost in places you won't expect to go to, misusing pre-existing material to subvert their (ideological) function...
i liked the one about Acconci's Following Piece, 1969. he basically tailed people until they entered private space. it suits me because you have to give up your goals, your sense of time and space, to follow the other's goal.

anyway, i performed my experiment in class, by making people take pictures using my phone, while i'm still holding it. got 2 pictures taken of me, 2 of the class lights... Dr G wrote on the whiteboard, "[Dr G] is the best teacher" and took a picture of that.

he thought this one was of interest because it revealed the greenish cast of fluro lights that we can't see with the naked eye.

hmm i didn't even notice that. i mean, i saw it, but it didn't register as anything extraordinary.
my project is about how to see things differently, so this is one of the skills i need to upgrade.

my parents called me earlier because i had not been blogging.
good to know you read the blog, mom and dad!

i just finalised my draft for the assignment due tomorrow. this morning the tutor said my writing is too fluffy because my focus wasn't clear. yes, i feel suffocated by it too. luckily i still have time to do some more editing.

spent most of my time trying to complete assignments. there are about 4 more to go, so i will be busy until mid-june.
i did leave my room for free food. there was a burger night - the housing provided us burgers and veg.
and today, i went to check out my classmate's house after class. no free food there though.

here are some pictures from last week's workshop assignment.

part of the assignment was to present the 3 models we made for the theme: "nature and built environment". we put our 3 models on the table in the workshop. the tutors went around, asked questions and gave feedback.

these are my 3 models.
they were developed from the drawings and photos researched for the theme.
mostly spirals and round things.
the feedback was okay.

i managed to wake myself up from an awful dream at 6.20am and was incredibly relieved that it wasn't real.
might be have something to do with watching Once Upon A Time In America last week because the dream involved gangs and violence in Singapore, but honestly don't know how my brain conjured up this nightmare.

there was a part in the dream where i was fleeing a HDB flat after witnessing the double murder of 2 gang teenagers who had hacked each other to death, and noticed the unusual passageway at the common stairwell area.
it led to a gate seemingly guarded by a statue of a distressed horse, where the poor horse's chest had been ripped open and its insides gone.
beyond the gate was a outdoor walk-way hemmed in by thick Egyptian blue pillars.
the ominous and satanic aura emanating from the area beyond the pillars was amazing, made even more creepy because it was an old HDB building.

i made it down the stairs to the ground floor of the flat where the authorities had done beautification work in the housing estate - there were bronze wall panels of horses galloping, surrounding a small and simple fountain in the middle of the common passageway.
somehow, i realised the area i saw was the home of a demonic priest.
i looked with new eyes at the residents of the estate washing their hands in the fountain, and saw their facial expressions - they were like that of the horrific horse statue.

i was impressed by the soup flavor i created for my noodles so i am writing my recipe down.

ingredients:
1 serving of shrimp-flavored dry noodles
1 clove garlic
1 slice bacon
1/3 can of canned chickpeas
periperi powder

method:
boil 250 ml of water
slice garlic thinly
throw noodles and garlic in
boil on high heat for 1.5 mins
microwave bacon for 30 secs
throw it in
empty can of chickpeas and its liquid into pot
boil for 2 mins
take off heat, add some periperi powder to taste

key points:
boil noodles in as little water as possible.
canned chickpea liquid is salty and good for making things tasty.

doing research for my assignment, where i have to find my own topic and describe the research topic, research question, background, methodology, objectives, etc.

thought i could focus on using Sartre's optimistic view of empowerment as my framework -  the subjective choice by which each person makes himself a person; i.e. makes known to himself what he is.
 
but no.
how naive of me.

after finishing the book on Donald Hall book on subjectivity, i now have to consider Lacan, Foucault, post-colonialism, and technological implications. 
mastery of the self is just an illusion. everything is complex, fragmented, multi-dimensional, and fluid. 
omg.

this new knowledge has severely disrupted my plans and now i have to re-formulate my research topic.

"o(▼皿▼メ;)o"ﾁｷｼｮ→!! 

 woke at about 5.50am. cycled to the venue. sit-bones still hurt from previous cycling and i had no strength to cycle uphill. it was also about 10 degrees. thought i was going to faint from over-exertion, but reached the park on time in one piece.

 didn't notice the sunrise, actually.
there were about 200 volunteers in all sorts of duties like marshaling, retail and handling bouncy castles. what a big event.
 went to food tent to get assigned a duty. was put in sandwich wrapping station. mmmm bacon and egg sandwiches.
 admired the small, big, beautiful, funny dogs from the food tent.
 was wandering outside the food tent during break and got to take photos of nice white dog.
 and nice big dog. super chilled.

Read more »

i'll be volunteering for the RSPCA Million Paws Walk tomorrow.
it's a fund-raising event for the RSPCA - they care for abandoned, neglected and abused pets.

will be helping out at the food stall.
hope i see a lot of gorgeous and happy animals out and about!

i went to the workshop wanting to make a block of wood into sphere.
thought there was some automated machine that can do this, but no.

technician helped to prep the cube for the lathe, which spins it around.
then he taught me to hold a chisel(?) against the wood to carve it into a sphere.
 

and i got a free mask because the wood shavings were flying everywhere.
eyes, ears, nose, mouth, all protected.

the lathe is all engine and levers, very old-school compared to the computer-aided cutters.
and standing there, trying to control the chisel as it cut into the block, was enjoyable.
almost like a mediation, because i was concentrating on going very slowly and carefully.

did you know that wood shavings smell faintly of peanut butter?

anyway, blocky is still in the lathe. have to continue on monday!

 MF invited me and another Malaysian friend, G, for dinner.
he made potato curry and dhaal, and heated up frozen prata and chapati.

Indian style potato was so gooood.
fry the cumin/fennel in oil,  add onions, curry leaves, turmeric, chili powder, steamed potatoes...
recipe courtesy of his Indian flatmate, so you know it's authentic.

 an array of Indian spices from their kitchen.

G loves his sweets.
he brought over lemon & passion fruit tart, sponge cake, chocolate cake, pudding, yogurt, and soda.
and he opened all of the packages of dessert! and shared it with us! woah!
it was awesome.

"I believe that art is the only form of activity in which man as man shows himself to be a true individual. Only in art is he capable of going beyond the animal state, because art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space. To live is the believe; that's my belief, at any rate." (Duchamp 1975, 137)

 
Duchamp, Marcel, edited by Michel Sanouill & Elmer Peterson. 1975.  The essential writings of Marcel Duchamp : salt seller = marchand du sel. London: Thames and Hudson.

have to learn the pronunciations of these names.
why?
so that i feel less stupid. 
i may not understand what they write about, but at least i am not mangling up their names. haha

Barthes

not "Barthes"
but "Bart"

Nietzsche

not “NEE-chee”
but “NEE-chuh” 

Sartre

not "Sart"
but "SAR-truh"

Kierkegaard

"KEER-kuh-gard"

Baudrillard

"bo-dree-AR"

Heidegger

"HY-deh-gur"

wanted to take a break, and decided to go cycling at noon. haha.

the guild house provides free bicycle rental, along with the helmet and the lock.
the penalty for cycling without wearing a helmet is $50!

the bike was a Shimano. the brakes were soft. and the seat was too high.

i cycled for 12.2 km. it was 22 degrees and the sun was shining hard.
it was okay since it's very easy to cycle on the pavements with only a few people around.

after the cycling business, i met someone in the laundry room who taught me about how the gears are like the gears in a car.
so that's why it was so exhausting! i cycled the whole way on 1st gear. 

my sit bones are very very sore now.

yesterday, the guest lecturer was talking about the PhD students he supervised.
one of them was a Singaporean who wrote his thesis on cultural development in the Singapore 'Renaissance', which is part of the plan to transform it into a vibrant global city of the arts.

the guest lecturer was saying Singapore is "Disneyland with the death penalty".
guess he was referring to this article by Gibson, who wrote about our wonderful repressive blandness.
he said chewing gum is allowed, which is true for medicinal gum only. import and sale of gum is still illegal.
and he said homosexuality behind closed doors is allowed. no, sex between men is still criminal.


anyway, here's an extract from Woon Tien Wei's thesis:
"While Singapore appears more liberal, these steps can seem merely 'gestural' as the
government remains cautious of 'disruptive' works, and through the National Art Council and
Media Development Authority, has exercised control over the outcome of art works and
programs" 
 

it's hard to look at which parts of my identity resulted from my being Singaporean.
but i definitely need to look into that sometime.

here's a picture of a formal stuffy lecture theatre at Curtin.

we had a lecture in there because:
lecturer T had to go cover for the sick colleague, so our 3-4pm lecture and the 4-6pm tutorial class was cancelled, but we could still get a lecture if we attended this one at 4-5.30pm, held to cover the absent lecturer.

it was kind of ironic that lecturer T sacrificed our classes (for this colleague's class), when there was a student strike held today to protest the cut in education funding.
none of my course mates went on strike.
like flatmate said, a student strike isn't effective because it just shortchanges the student.


anyway, during tutorial, lecturer T made everyone tell the class about their significant statements for the research assignment. then he would give his feedback.
so i tried to talk about my draft topic, and then struggled to catch the advice and ideas being thrown back at me because he is such a mega-brain.
luckily, classmate recorded it all on her phone and let me listen to it.
i sounded like .... wow. like a baby who just learnt how to read. :<


but still, i am pleased to report that so far, i have passed all assignments for my 4 units. 
there was one returned yesterday, and another one today. both cases, the tutor said that there were people who failed. glad it wasn't me!

for my core units, my lit review assignment (returned a few weeks ago) was poor, but my methodology assignment (the one returned today) was above average. wo0t.
for my electives, 3D Tech is doing worse than 3D Process.

there are a couple of major (50%) assignments due around the end of the month, so i'm trying to work on those.

had another exciting encounter with an intruder in my room - this time it was a spider.
on my ceiling.

okay, it was just a small spider about 1.5cm across.

i've heard things about the spiders in Australia. oh yes.
so my first instinct was to kill it.
but then, i paused.
i thought about Charlotte's Web, which was my favorite story book.

when i held my camera phone close to it, it didn't try to jump on my face, which was reassuring.
so i decided to stand on my chair and trap it with an empty bottle.



then i released out on the back stairway.
the end.

i don't want to admit this, but i made bad decisions when choosing clothes to bring to Australia.

shouldn't have packed
- down jacket : useless because it's not that cold, and it's rainy in winter. and it looks like crap.

should have packed
- rain-proof boots, which i have
- more long-sleeved tees
- etc

i also don't want to admit this, but i went and ordered an ASOS pea coat (50% wool) online.
it was about A$41.
probably won't be much use in the rain, but hopefully it will make me feel good when i wear it? /sad laughter

happy mother's day!

this is another nonsensical post.

situation: want to eat brownies and drink thai-style milk tea.

problem: too lazy to go to the shops to buy brownies or evaporated milk.

solution: forgo the brownies and d-i-y the evaporated milk.

problem: making evaporated milk out of normal milk will take 1.5 to 2 hours of cooking milk.

okay, bye.

my brain is melting from doing research... i don't understand what the heck i'm reading at all...

then i check out google news and find some classic "uniquely Singaporean" headlines.
good for a laugh, i suppose. -.-

Police reminds organiser of protest at Speaker's Corner to comply with laws here

 

FT article on Shane Todd is "inaccurate" and "mischievous": Police

yesterday i went to volunteer to wrap presents at the big fancy shopping center, Carousel.
it's a Mother's Day event and it's a $2 donation per gift wrapped.
my partner was also a Singaporean. a high proportion of Asians do volunteer work, i noticed.
she did business at Curtin and is working now. ii na.

for the first hour, we had nothing to do. but for the next 2 hours, it was pretty much non-stop wrapping.
under pressure, i went slightly crazy with the fancy-level for the first few, but learnt my lesson - don't try to be creative, just do it quickly and neatly.
i liked wrapping the handbag and heart-shaped wall decoration for a young dad with 2 young daughters, because they were so kind and smiley.

went home exhausted and made this.
butter, garlic, carrots, rice, canned lentils.
rating: 4/5 for unexpected edibility. canned lentil water was a key ingredient in the taste. lol
MF fed me fish and potatoes cooked in tandoori sauce because i helped him buy kailan.
this was from today - i made fettuccine in the morning for breakfast and lunch.
butter, soy sauce, tomatoes, cheese.
rating: 3/5. proud that i got the al-dente texture right, but the sauce... meh.

got more photos after the debriefing. i volunteered to be photographer so i took these pictures on the group camera.

from the abandoned town of Gwalia.
some nice volunteers fixed up the houses so that people like us can go and experience history. really cool stuff.

can't imagine making a home on this red desert soil.
 the interiors all had furniture - B had a shock when she peeked into this room - she told me to saw out for the face. i was really scared to look but it turned out okay.
just a "guy" chilling on the bed.
lattice work
 pimp my ride.

we took some funny photos in the doctor's house where the medical equipment like stir-ups and forceps were lying around.

 this is the much-loved and ever-popular pool table in the youth center. there's an xbox and wii too.
oh how the children played. professionals i tell you.
 some of their names to remember them by, since we can't take pictures of them without their permission.
 mmmm i miss the buffets.

 this is the main shopping street of Leonora. a very very sleepy town.
people go there to mine. R said it was more prosperous than the other remote indigenous town she visited.

 kangaroo refuge!  the baby joey had to be bottle-fed.
i held it for a while but i think i preferred to be carried by B. its fur is sooo soft!

the couple told us their story- she was from England, and she went to Australia for a holiday. she met the man and met him again by chance when she went to Australia again! crazy!
then they got married in Australia. he does prospecting while she takes care of the animals.

the lady gave these adult kangaroos different names and she can differentiate all of them. :)
 we played with 3 border collier pups XD
they were so playful and rambunctious.

leader brought us to this rock for the final night - she was saying she would only go there when she really bonded with the group.
i agree, my travel mates are super epic - oh the stories, you'll never believe!

 i was walking home and noticed this tree had started browning so i went to take a picture.

a Malaysian friend passing by was like, "hey! what you doing?" and i was like, "taking a picture of the brown and green leaves," then he said, "yeah, autumn is here."
then he talked about how tired he was from staying up to watch the Malaysian election results.

i don't follow the news. heck i didn't even know that there was an Iron Man 3 until recently.

anyway, he wanted the opposition to win, but they didn't.
he described how there was blackout during recount, then a 3000 vote jump after the blackout, and how 60-seat states published their results so much faster than 5-seat states, and how there were dozens of chartered private flights on the ruling party's account just before the elections. and foreigners could vote twice, escorted by police.
wow. /shakes head


for dinner, i made an awesome comfort food out of potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, rice and a slice of bread. 
condiments: salt, soy sauce and periperi powder.
the soup was good enough to be canned, but some of the veg skins left a bitter taste.
flatmate said it smelt good, like smoky ham, or beans. oh yeahh

 i randomly decided to go to the Subiaco Station Street Markets because they are ranked the #1 attraction in Subiaco on tripadvisor.

had to walk to the train station from the bus station and decided to explore St George's Cathedral along the way. it was built in 1888.

first i went into the small side-building with a kitchen.
two nice old men in red dresses - priests - asked if i needed help. i said i wanted to look around and they smiled and said sure.

this side-building had a kitchen, dining area, and at the back were music stands and bookshelves.
there was also a side-room with bay windows where the priests had tea and put on their robes.

 then i entered the main cathedral from the side door - the high arches and gorgeous stained-glass panels were breath-takingly nice.

 the choir was rehearsing. i went to the small soldier's chapel adjacent to the choir section and took a picture of a lady lighting candles on the main altar.
there was a pretty arched metal gate dividing the choir section from the rest of the building - it made me think of the gates of heaven, with the choir being the angels.

 there was an organ with big pipes at the back.


was it okay to take so many pictures in a place of worship? i don't know but i tried my best to be respectful. anyway the service had not started yet.

 i sat and waited for the 10am service. it was slightly surreal to see the walk-in ceremony of the priests, the choirs and the other people hoisting the cross and the book.
the choir was not made up of little boys, btw.
they were young men and women. some had nerd glasses on. their singing was quite lovely.


left at 10.30am and went to the Subi street market. bought cheap veg. there isn't much there actually. lol i thought i would find many hip cafes...

then just now i made roasted carrots with butter.
roasting with canola oil gives me chest pains but roasting with butter results in yummy caramel and sauce.
butter for the win!

look what i made - baked eggplant!

waiting for it to cool before i can try it.
hope it tastes okay.

also, what's so fun about kissing?
by the way, they call french kissing "pashing" in Australia.