Quote of the Month...

Am watching webcast lectures, but hey,gotta write this down.... From Architectural Structures lecture:
"...ok so for structural pre-fabrication you can use either structural steel or concrete....You can get the catalogue from suppliers, they'll be more than happy to give you those booklets, and usually on the front page, is the picture of a beautiful woman, with all the steel sections..."

. . . . . . I wonder which one is more interesting for a hardcore structures guy. . .the woman or the steel sections? ;p

Conversation of the month...

Me: "Eh,see there...'If she's not married you still have a chance.' "
*****: "If she's married I also still have a chance wad.."
Me: ". . . . . . . . "

*Name is not revealed to protect the privacy and reputation of the person.*

Dear Readers.,,,,,

.....meet the Kindle:
As much as I wanna finish reading Emile Zola's Germinal, I can't resist blogging about this. K, so the Kindle is hailed as the iPod of the literary world... It's a...well...it's a digital gadget designed to keep e-books... And as a person who doesn't mind lifelong imprisonment inside a library...Well of course it catches my fancy...

I guess the question that immediately comes to mind is: will it be able to replace books? Hmm... I still love the feel and smell of paper books, the browsing amongst beautiful hardcovers in bookstores, and above all, I still need to be surrounded by a roomful of books to feel that a room is truly my own...

That being said, the Kindle has lotsa cool stuffs:
1. You can "carry" 200 books around with you at anytime. (This will eliminate the need to stuff my luggage with english books everytime before I go back to Indonesia...)
2.E-books are cheaper than paper books (though you can't lend the digital copies because of copyright issues.)
3.It is, of course, extremely environmentally friendly, and I think it can become popular based on this strength alone...as a book lover I probably shouldn't say this, but the amount of trees cut down to produce paper for wussy chick-lits is scandalous..
4.You can read while eating because turning pages take just one click...Fantastic!!! It's irritating to keep alternating between flipping pages and holding your spoon....
5.You can change the font size..which is really useful for those with bad eyesight.
6.You can read in the dark.
7. Amazon is in the process of building a digital library where if you subscribe you can ideally access ANY BOOK EVER PRINTED. How cool is that..

One part that I still have doubts on though.....because the Kindle can be connected to the Internet, reading a book can become a community activity... e.g. a "book club" can meet virtually and chat about a book while reading it at the same time, readers can add footnotes disputing/ agreeing with authors on the e-book (which is admittedly quite neat, say if you read a book about Christianity, it'll be interesting to read footnotes written by people of other religions, even atheists... and people can discuss biases or propaganda inside history and political books....) Furthermore, there is the possibility of subscribing to a book...As in, the author has access still to the e-copy of the book so that he can change the ending if he changes his mind, or even ask readers' opinion on how he should continue the chapter...

Wow...I mean, at least now when I re-read my favorite books I don't have to worry about the ending having been changed huhuhu... And for me reading a book cannot be a community activity... after reading, yes, it's great to discuss books amongst friends, but when reading it...I expect to be transported to another world where it's just me exploring the authors' mind, watching the characters at play...

Plus, it's not funny if someone hacks into my library and, say, turns Harry Potter into a gay.
Nope, so not funny.

Ah well, for now it's still in its infancy (and have I mentioned that it costs $359? Wa...shucks...)
Oh but they recently unveiled an even sexier version...Meet the Kindle 2:
...just in case some friends who are going to the U.S are wondering what to bring back for me... hehehehe...

Random stuffs here and there......

"There is no second chance to make a first impression."
(But thinking about it...Actually maybe it's better to just be ourselves everytime rather than try to tailor a first impression suitable for someone we meet. Well, an exception is when an architect is trying to nail a client....haha....)

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."
-Benjamin Disraeli
(How true...Those people whom I still hold dear even if I've lost contact or became distant from them, are those who brought out the good, the funny and the smart in me...No surprise that the easiest way to make someone attached to you is to make them feel good about themselves... It can be abused it so many ways though...huhuhu...*I think the amount of psychological stuff that I know is more than enough to manipulate people, and indeed, one of the pull to read these kind of stuff is to observe people in their behaviour.....but luckily so far I'm still on the straight and narrow path..so, no intentional manipulation...)
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Aside from cool quotes, I just read an article from New Scientist about brains..The cool thing: the male and female brains are so different that we can practically say the human species has two type of brains..(So far the belief is that the brain is basically the same for both sexes but upbringing and environment made them develop differently). The not so cool thing: a lot, in fact nearly all of the drugs that has went through clinical trials, are tested on male animals, as female animals have periods which complicate the researchr results.(Yeah, we females are waaaaaay complex ;p )
What's the big deal? Well, one example is that because of the brain differences women are much more sensitive to pain than men, but, to quote the researcher: "Women are the most common pain sufferers, and yet our model for basic pain research is the male rat." , which means the drugs won't work as well on women.
Hmm....Well it doesn't really affect me, as yet, but I'm just amazed that while I thought Science has discovered lots lots lots lots of things that all that's left are complicated stuff like stem cells, cryogenics, genetic manipulation, it turns out that we haven't even proven that the male and female brains are practically 2 different species.

Ah, and the article also states some myths about human behaviour, amongst which:
1. Men aren't emotionall tuned in
Actually, men do remember emotional stuff, but their brains are tuned to remember the gist, while for women it's the little details that are important. (Hmmm but in Architecture, practically all the guys take care of details...I wonder how to interpret this fact...hahaha....)
2. Women are more talkative than men.
Don't believe this....Both men and women say on average 16,000 words a day. (And I've met quite a lot of guys who love to gossip...geez....)

Lastly, still on weird science....I found a video of a Soviet experiment where a dog's head was chopped off and kept alive separate from its body...Yup you read that right...Man the things one can find in Youtube... (No I wasn't searching for "sick scientific experiments", honestly...)
Oh well, WARNING: ONLY CLICK ON THE VIDEO IF YOU WANT TO SEE DOG'S HEAD ON A PLATE LOOKING PITIFUL.



For all the things I love about Science, I hate the fact that humans can do whatever they want with their fellow living beings... At the same time, these creepy experiments fascinate me just because there's someone sick enough to think of them....

"Infants have their infancy. And adults? Adultery."
-Deflating the Myths of Monogamy, David P. Barash

(Just read some bits of this book...Hmm.... Interesting but needs some thinking over...Based on biology alone, yes, most biological theories will tell us there isn't that much incentive for humans to be monogamous. But humans are never just biological creatures. We've got souls, we've got emotions, we've got conscience...All that jazz...)

"Just cut my chest into two along the sternum....
From the manubrium to the xyphoid process
With a table knife so it's slow and painful
And take that heart...."
(This is what happens to people who study medicine.... ;p )

Words of Wisdom

"Time is precious, but Truth is more precious than time."
- Benjamin Disraeli

It's easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.

The number one destroyer in relationship: expectations. When one has no expectations, just a servant heart, everything becomes easier.

You can choose to be bitter, or to be better.

There are lots of hypocrites in church, that's normal. Don't point to others since you're one and I'm also one. We're humans.
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Bits and pieces of the sermon today... would be enough to mull over for several days... but yeah, "try not to be a hypocrite" is a very good (and non-confusing) goal, but it's a very difficult goal as well.

On Memories

"When you are with another person, all your memories are invested in that person, like a bank account of shared memories. It's not that you refer to them constantly. In fact, for people who do not live in the past, you almost never say, "Do you remember that night we...?" But you don't have to. That is the best of all. You know the other person does remember. Thus, the past is part of the present as long as the other person lives. It is better than any scrapbook, because you are both living scrapbooks."
- Frederico Fellini

"Our memories are the only paradise from which we can never be expelled."
-Jean Paul Richter

Memories... Lately I've come to realise what an important part memories actually play in human relationships.. Ever heard phrases like, "It takes seconds to fall in love, years to forget." or "One never forgets the first love", or even phrases like "scarred for life"? All have to do with memories...
In the case of relationships, amazingly it takes as long, or even longer,for a person to "recover".. I've known people who had a one year relationship and took more than one year to forget, or even jst several months together which caused 3 years of misery... That's how strong memories are, and I wonder why...

Maybe it's because memories are the only thing we can hold on to after we've lost someone, so we hold on to them even tighter..Replaying each scene over and over, re-living each laughter and re-weeping each sorrow...Sometimes to the point that those memories become so idealised... It's scary how we can choose to remember and alter events in our minds, say, remembering the happy memories passed with a person again and again till we become convinced we were really, really, really happy in the past and could not be as happy again. How do I explain this....Hmm....say, I was 60% happy when I was with someone, but after that I could not meet the person again, in my mind I might exaggerate how happy I was with him/her that in the end when I remember that person I've convinced myself I'm actually 90% happy with the person. (After all it's always easier to remember good things about someone when they are not actually around.) That's when you get the phrase "Living in the past", which, I think, sucks but sometimes cannot be helped.

And what is the sadness of love unrequited, if not the sadness of not having a chance to create memories together? When we say, "It could've been with him/her..", do we mean, "I remember the great times we've had together and how I wish we could create more memories together..."

Memories gain strongholds in our lives and color everything we do, how we think, how we relate...Memories precede feelings, and as memories fade, feelings go away too...I'm convinced of that, that's why it's important to create new memories with people you care about. As a person with very strong memories regarding some things (and 100% forgetfulness regarding other things...I call it "selective storage"....), I still don't think being able to forget some things easily is a blessing.. I am grateful to say I've had no serious bad memories so far, Life's been great in the sense that my memories read like an adventure-comedy-lame-deep-sometimes-surprising novel..

Well, I wish it would continue to be like that, maybe with more emphasis on the adventure and deep part and less on the lame, but we'll see....

"Good days are to be gathered like grapes, to be trodden and bottled into wine and kept for age to sip at ease beside the fire. If the traveller has vintaged well, he need not wander no longer, the ruby moments glow in his glass at will."
- Freya Stark

Me: "So how's your design coming along?"
K2: "Cannot...... I'm going to Chinatown later to find inspiration....eat dim sum...hmm....'
Me: "Hahahaha....that would be nice if we can just eat chinese food to get chinese inspiration...maybe I should stop eating japanese food so much, if not later my design gets influenced by japanese style hahahaha..."
Ry: "Hmm....Then I should go eat Chinese food also... Oh,NO! I should eat kebab!"
Me& K2: "Huh?"
Ry: "Yap..because my building is spiral mah.... goes round, and round, and round...just like kebab! Then, the outer parts are sliced also, like kebab!"
*Banging the table while laughing with the rest of the studio. And here I thought I'm lame.*
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Dang would love to get this t-shirt... Was thinking about Schrodinger's cat sometime back.. Read about this paradox in one of my favourite novel and kinda thought about it since... How we are all in a "Schrodinger's cat" situation each moment before we take a decision, and actually that's the most exciting moment because there are still so many choices, which would influence the next choices, and the next, and the next, and so on.....

So do you think the cat is dead or not?

Me: "Is that a new model?"
Ry: "No, that's just pieces of cardboard..."
Me: "Ok..."
Dish: "You call this pieces of cardboard? Hah!"
Ry: "Is that a new CAD drawing?"
Dish: "No that's just a random arrangement of lines."
Ry: "Wow that's a very neat random arrangement of lines!"
Me: ". . . . . . " *ok some people definitely needs coffee...*

K2: "Wah last night I had a weird dream because I was thinking about design...."
Me: "Yeah? Hahahaha I fell asleep thinking about design too...where to put the lifts..."
K2: "Well my dream was about this alien, like E.T , that came to kidnap humans, and they came to a building and the whole building was turned on the side but not destroyed, then it turned into a rocket, and flew off to another planet..."
Me: "Wooooow...."
K2: "And I was thinking, wow how does the structure of the building work, how come it's not damaged even when it collapsed on its side..."
Me: "......An architect even in dreams huh...."

Hmmm...somehow these days there are so many lame conversations going on in studio...I think part of it has to do with the people who make up my studio (Yours truly, included..). Not that 'm complaining, in fact it makes staying in school so much more appealing =)
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I want you so bad
but
It's bad to want you
and
That's really too bad
cuz
I really want you
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Buy Indonesian!

Hm....Kemaren ngobrol sama temen anak ekonomi, dan katanya sih emang bagus keputusan ini, kalo bisa diterapkan....Tapi gimana nerapkannya yah....Ngebayangin percakapan antara 2 pegawai negri:
Bapak A: "Wah Pak B, bajunya bagus yah, eh, tapi kok, kayaknya itu buatan Cina yah?"
Bapak B: "Eits, jangan asal nuduh dong! Ini asli buatan Garut kok! *uhm Garut harusnya terkenal dodolnya yah...ah cuek deh...*
Bapak A: "Lho tapi kok itu ada gambar naganya?"
Bapak B: "Uhm...uhm...yah, karena naganya migrasi aja gitu loh ke Indo...Mosok orang Cina udah mulai masuk Indonesia sejak jaman kuda gigit besi, tapi naga gak boleh ikutan pindah...."

.......Pikir-pikir lagi.....Jadinya pegawai negeri gak boleh ketangkep makan yang impor2 dong... Trus gimana yah kalo mo makan buah...Buah2 di Indo kan banyak banget apel australia, pir cina, mangga thailand, durian monthong, jeruk sunkist etc...Jadinya mesti makan buah2 aneh tradisional semacam gohok, srikaya, kedondong, jamblang, rambutan.... Well nggak jelek juga sih hehehehe...

Dan setelah dipikir lebih panjang lagi...Gile aja apa iya sih bisa diterapkan, terutama buat istri2 pejabatnya...Tau sendiri kalo orang2 kaya Indo masih suka nunjukin status dengan beli barang2 bermerek macam LouisVuitton, Prada etc... Trus kalo ke salon, apa pakenya Sunsilk sama Sari Ayu doang? Trus kalo sakit, cuma boleh makan obat generik? *Atau manggil bakul jamu aja sekalian wahahahahah..."Sini, sini mbakyu..." *

Cuma satu hal yang pasti nggak ada masalah: mi instan! Setelah kenal Indomi, siapa sih yang mau makan mie instan produk negara laen...Meskipun dengan resiko keracunan MSG, orang2 Indonesia, nggak di Singapur, nggak di Prancis, nggak di Spanyol, tetep aja makanannya Indomi.

Indonesia, Indonesia..... Enggak merasa punya akar di Indonesia, tapi mungkir juga kalau aku bilang nggak sayang negara itu, dengan alamnya yang keren mampus dan bahasanya yang mantep abis...Belum makanannya yang enak gila....

Oh well, liat aja deh gimana nasib Indonesia 10 taun ke depan....
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Some studiomates showed me several interesting videos... Keuntungannya tinggal di studio: saling menukar hiburan..Hahahaha...

Hitler and Singapore's ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) woes...


Indian restaurant M1 ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2TORg62sn8&feature=related

Ok I know everyone in Singapore practically has seen and commented on this one... But...Classic...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks2YNdDuJJ8&feature=related

French and the French...

The French intellectuals with whom Franz had entered the ballroom felt slighted and humiliated...the Americans, supremely unabashed as usual, had not only taken over, but had taken over in English without a thought that a Dane or a Frenchman might not understand them. And because the Danes had long since forgotten that they once formed a nation of their own, the French were the only Europeans capable of protest. So high were their principles that they refused to protest in English, and made their case to the Americans on the podium with their mother tongue. The Americans, not understanding a word, reacted with friendly smiles. In the end the French had no choice but to frame their objection in English: "Why is this meeting in English when there are Frenchmen present?"

Though amazed at so curious an objection, the Americans acquiesced: the meeting would be run bilingually. Before it could resume, however, a suitable interpreter had to be found. Then, every sentence had to resound in both English and French, which made the discussion take twice as long, or rather more than twice as long, since all the French had some English and kept interrupting the interpreter to correct him, disputing every word.
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

Reading a book about life in Prague, I'm surprised to find this paragraph taking a jab at the French.
Well to be fair, the image that the French only wants to speak French is a rather outdated one. The people I've met mostly has a good proficiency of English and does not avoid speaking English. If anything, I think some of them would rather speak English than hear non-french people massacre French grammar and pronounciation in an attempt to talk to them...Hahahahaha...

Still, the French really has a lot of stereotypes attached to them, and I still smile at the good times I have in Paris merely testing whether they conform to the stereotypes I've read. Well most of the books I've read are written by Englishmen.....but aren't the opinions of our "enemies" about us often much more interesting than the opinions of our friends?

Little Conversations

Me: "OOOO! There's an ant in my model! It's exploring the spaces! woooooo...."
Ry: "Yeah, the first living inhabitant of your architecture...."
Me: "Mmmmm......."

Do: "I tell you ya, if you put a pen knife, a metal ruler and your wallet in studio, the pen knife and the metal ruler will be gone first..."
Me: "Hahahahaha...."
(This is quite true though usually it's not because of malice but because we just absent-mindedly use whatever is on the cutting table...)

D: "Shiela, do you have doors on your drawing?"
Me: "Huh?? Of course I have doors on my drawing!"
D: "Aiyah no time...can I not put doors...."
Me: "C'mon be a decent architect and put in the doors!"
D: "Do you have carpark in your building?"
Me: "Uhm....I just assume that people will park their car in Funan mall when they want to visit the opera huhuhuhu....."

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The little conversations that make archi life a bit more exciting...Talking about archi-nonsense that only archi people think is funny.... But I love these little conversations that are so archi-lame!

Love, Unconditionally

You will lose your baby teeth.
At times, you'll lose your faith in me.
You will lose a lot of things,
But you cannot lose my love.

You may lose your appetite,
Your guiding sense of wrong and right.
You may lose your will to fight,
But you cannot lose my love.

You will lose your confidence.
In times of trial, your common sense.
You may lose your innocence,
But you cannot lose my love.

Many things can be misplaced;
Your very memories be erased.
No matter what the time or space,
You cannot lose my love.
You cannot lose,
You cannot lose,
You cannot lose my love.

- Sara Groves

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At a time when I'm just back from purposely breaking a lot of boundaries, the one message that Christianity has touched me again: that there is a God who loves you no matter what you did, no matter the mess you've gotten into. And it's true that my ability to reach out to people now, to try to see the best in them, to smile and trust strangers.....to put it simply, maybe too simply, belief in a loving God has expanded my heart and enabled me to love others better... A friend in church was praying for me using the story of the woman caught in adultery, where people wanted to stone her to death and Jesus said, "Let him who has no sin cast the first stone..", and how that woman is forgiven by God himself when her fellow humans would have loved to condemn her.

I wonder though how come a faith that seems all encompassing, truly forgiving, and accepting could seem so exclusivist and fanatical as well....Somewhere in between Jesus who came "not for the healthy but the sick" and the doctrinal wars of "If you are not baptised by immersion, in Jesus' name, speaking in tongues then you are going to hell", I get disillusioned by religion.

There is no denying though, that there is a very real sense of peace and meaning I get in my life because of my beliefs, in a sense, He is still the source of the things I give out to other people - easy acceptance, trust,honesty, laughter,patience, tenderness,willingness to sacrifice....

I wish I could have a special Q&A session with God where I could hear clearly all His answers to my questions...Ufh....Hopefully one day in the future....

"We still have to live even if we're unhappy, so might as well try to live happily."
-C's grandma

"I'm trying to read more, and how I think is this...for things like brushing my teeth, bathing, even when I don't like it I have to do it anyway, even if it takes 30mins, 45 mins, so why can't I think reading is just like brushing my teeth...."
- C

Ry: "There are some things money can't buy.... Sleep is one of them..."
S: "Hahahahaha...."
Ry: "And concepts...."
S: "Dang too true....."

s: "What you mean we have to re-CAD all these?? but why??"
Ry: "That's the way people learn in NUS mah....you do the most to learn the least..."

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Wah the last one sounds so pathetic siah...

Tentang Hujan dan Rumput

"Cinta, bahwa ia membawamu ke alam mimpinya, namun bukan dalam pelukan tidurnya."
-Fira Basuki

"Fun is only fun when you have a place to rest from it."
-Wimar Witoelar

Beberapa waktu lalu sempat hujan deras... Hujan deras pertama sejak aku tiba dari Eropa! Langsung deh, jiwa melankolisnya kambuh hehehe... Nggak ada cuaca yang lebih enak untuk bernostalgia selain hujan deras.....

Ahhh.....Eropa....Sejujurnya, yang aku kangeni dari benua itu sekarang adalah.....rumputnya....
Hahahahaha.....rumput yang lembut, sejuk, yang bikin hati tenang dan rasanya "Nyesssss...." aja kalo berbaring di atasnya...Sejak balik dari Paris aku belum lagi berbaring2 di rumput2 Singapur..Selain karena belum sempat, juga karena nggak begitu selera huhuhu.... Satu2nya hiburan adalah pikiran bahwa di sana toh sekarang lagi musim dingin dan kalopun masih ada rumput pasti ketutup habis oleh salju.

Ufhh.....Gak ada ilham untuk nge-design (yah buntut2nya sih pasti masalah arsitektur lagi... meskipun enak juga punya dunia di mana masalah paling berat adalah: "Form building nya enaknya gimana dong??!! gimana??!! Enakan mirip uler atau mirip kipas yah??!!" )

.....Haih....

On Toilets

(The post below is loosely quoted from a very inspiring talk given by Prof. Tse regarding toilet design.)

"Good toilets are discreet... When you don't need them, you don't see them, but the moment you need them you can find them right away...
When you go to malls, public buildings, you must notice that good toilets have no doors...universal design! So handicapped people, people holding stuff, mothers carrying babies can go in straight away...Eventhough there's no door, but there are turns and bends before the entrance, so you can't see anything inside.. Bad toilets..the moment you open the door, you see everything and the smell all comes out...."
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Wow I never did notice toilet design is so interesting..but based on this standard all the mall toilets in Indonesia are primitive since we still use doors...Huhuhu... Had a conversation with a fellow archimate today that rings true: we love studying architecture because it allows us to pick up things that other people normally won't even notice.

Anyway, went to browse a bit on toilet design and turns out there are so many amazing designs... The most fun ones are urinals, though..Hiks... Like this one below:
It's called the "piss-screen", where you can play a racing game while peeing...Apparently it's installed in bars to reduce drunk-driving... Goes like this, when your car crashes, a message flashes on the screen: "Too pissed to drive? Take a taxi!" This one is another cool one:

Yep, you can draw while peeing....

Dang I so want to be a dude!

Chinese Opera

This semester's project is to do a Chinese opera theatre, and while at first I had my doubts on whether
something can really come out of it (me being a Chinese descendant who has totally no attachment to my roots..), it has turned out quite exciting. Gotta say that it's a really, really beautiful art form... the movements, the costumes, the voice modulation, the face make-up...

Am really impressed by the two videos below..one is on what is called "water sleeves", really long sleeves that performers use to express graceful movements, and the other is...well...it shows that perhaps Chinese opera is best sung in Chinese huhuhuhu.....





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Never knew that theatre design can be quite complicated..hufh...but, as always, it's what makes architecture interesting.

Oh, the things they say....

Was getting sleepy last night so I browsed through some archi groups in Facebook...and found this thing about the things tutors say during crit session...(short for "critique", and there's a good reason it's called that...) Hmm...it's true that one of the unwritten requirements to be an architecture student is a strong mental ability to stand back up after the tutors verbally stone you to death... Well they do say, "It's not about you, it's about your work. Don't take it personally." But that doesn't make it less psychologically damaging...huhuhu...I gotta say that I learnt to gain so much more confidence after repeatedly facing archi tutors....Definitely good training....
Anyway, here are some comments:

* “Why are you here? Don’t come back next semester.”

* “Here’s a quarter. go call your mom and tell her you’re not going to be an architect.”

* Your design is like masturbation, you want to know why? That is because only you yourself enjoyed and like it.

* Your design is very tasteful… … for the tasteless.

* “Is this a … structural… glob of glue?”

* “When I went to school, at a different school than this one, there were students who would present projects like this one.
And they would fail.”

* “Your project looks like something that’s been through a trash compactor”

* “This space that you’ve designed is the type place where beggars and dogs go to die”

* “Are you in interior design?”

* “Why are you studying architecture if you’re producing things like that?”

* “Hey, everyone, gather round this project, come in close…because this is a great example for everyone of exactly what NOT to do..”

* “This drawing isn’t worth the paper it is printed on.”

* “This (model) is great…..just don’t let your dog play with it next time.”

* If you build this and after 10000 years the aliens see it, they would understand why humans go extinct.

* “Have you ever considered a career in accounting?”

* “oh, so it’s like some kind of orgy pit!”

* “So your parents are pay $20000 a year for this.”

* Prof pointing to part of a model, “Did you chew this?”

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Source: Archinet

Time is Money

Renewed appreciation for the above-mentioned phrase.....Well, regarding money matters, I usually don't pay much attention, but yesterday I read something that kinda stuck in my mind: people earn money by using their time, effectively their life, and so when they spend money, they are actually spending bits of their life that they use to earn that money. It made me look at spending and receiving money from a new point of view....It should've made sense from a long time ago, but somehow only now do I really realize it....

Say I'm buying fried rice. Usually I'll just pay the vendor without thinking, and that's that. But now I'll think, "Hey, I'm not only buying the rice, ingredients etc, but I'm actually buying a small portion of his lifetime, the time he spent preparing this rice for me." T-shirt from China? I'm paying for a portion of lifetime of a Chinese factory worker... Buying a book? The price includes the lifetime that the author spent to think and write about it, the time the editor took to edit it, the time a driver took to transport it, etc....And the money I receive from my parents? It's bits of their life that they use the earn that money... Freaky.....For some time I was calculating the value of things like, "ok this book cost about half a day of my dad's life, and...uhm....my travellin around Europe cost about a month of their lives combined..." Uhhh...Thank goodness they deal a lot with assets (i.e. passive money-making... the smart way to make money, really..) or I will have a real guilt trip coming huhuhu.... Really makes one think twice before dealing with money... (Well, for some days anyway..)

Which actually leaves my wondering....Why am I paying NUS Architecture while I'm the one who's spending a significant portion of my lifetime working my ass off? In a prime age, no less....

Ah well, the world works in wonderfully weird ways.....