The Library Hotel

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Ok I needed to get that out of my system.. Was randomly browsing useless websites as usual, when I came across an article on Library Hotel....

I mean....

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!!

Always wanted to stay in a library hahaha.. so perhaps this can be somewhat a fulfillment of that wish.. Here's a piece of the review:

"Do you like books? Do you really, really like books? Then the library hotel is where you’ll want to stay if you visit New York City. Every floor and room is dedicated to a different category in the Dewy Decimal system. Each room is full of books from its category and is decorated specifically to match the theme. With sixty rooms in all there’s something for every guest, from philosophy to mathematics to erotic literature."




To be able to stay there and book a room-full of architecture books? or fairy tales? or adventure? or detective novels? Waaa....

Oh well it was recently crowned Best Luxury Hotel in the United States though, so even if I get to New York I'll need to have made it as a landscape architect hahaha... Still, it makes me really happy to know that such a place exists.. Who knows, they might decide to open a branch in Singapore! ;p

Here's the link to check out their rooms if you're interested:
http://www.libraryhotel.com/photo-gallery/index.cfm
___
"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."
- Jorge Louis Borges

On F*ck

Was reading about swear words (can't remember where though) and how they used to really mean something.. It was an article about a guy lamenting that, in his time, when someone used swear words, he will get attention right away.. you know that the situation was getting serious and that was a warning to tread carefully. These days, however, people throw around swear words like it's really nothing.. Another studiomate said before, swear words are like punctuations that should be sprinkled all over.. Still another said, 'F*ck* is supposed to replace noun, verb and adjective all at once. (As in, "F*ck you, you f*ckin' f*ckface!")

Hmmm... reading that made me reflect on how I'm so used to the F word now that I hardly give a thought if someone said that around me.. When I first came to Singapore *Ahh the old days when I was an innocent snowflake.. haih..* I would really flinch when someone said it.. Up till JC time, I was forcing one of my classmates to say "Fiddlestick" instead of "F*ck" in my presence hahaha.. Somehow, thanks to certain beliefs I held, I partly judged a person's morality based on their tendency to say the word, "F*ck"...

Fast forward to university.. And the climate in Architecture is such that there are just too many occassions that merits saying the word "F*ck".. From rejected proposals, having to stay over on weekends, spilled ink, injured fingers when cutting models, running out of model materials, three deadlines in a week, etc etc etc.. Even the tutors say it sometimes... I still remember one of the first nights I spent in studio, I happened to sit near two rather explicit studiomates.. And ended up hearing more "F*cks" than I've heard the whole of my JC life..

Oh, there was an occassion when I said it too.. Can't remember why, but it was year 1 sem 1 also.. The thing was, it was accidental, but the moment the word came out of my mouth, my studiomates went quiet (They knew my aversion to the F word) and with disbelief in her face, one of them asked, "What did you just say? Did you really just said what you said?"

Talk about impact..

I've progressed (regressed?) since then. I no longer think that the tendency to say "F*ck" has anything to do with one's morality (Unless that particular person happens to have what we call a 'f*ckface'...). I no longer flinch when some friends say 10 "F*cks" in 10 seconds (Oh yeah it happens...) I say it whether accidentally in my mind, or purposely when talking to someone I'm rather pissed with or felt that I had to show my "bad girl" side.. (Hmm.. I didn't realize how silly it sounds till I write it down.. Some self-reflection is clearly needed.. )

Reading that article, however, kinda makes me miss a time where I can take the word "F*ck" seriously, and friends went deathly quiet when I said it accidentally because it seemed it really meant something...

The article went on to say, that because now swear words have lost their impact and meaning, society becomes more violent... As in, if words lose their meaning, then actions will take their place, no? So, to show you're really pissed, just saying "F*ck" is not enough, you gotta go in and bash the guy!

Actually you know what? Starting this moment I'm back to taking swear words seriously.. I want my words to have meaning and impact when I say it, and I still want that reputation of "Don't f*ck with me when I say 'F*ck'!" hahaha..

On the funny side of things, in the Architecture department saying "F*ck you" will not generate much reaction, but what will get people's attention is if you put an architectural term behind the F word.. As in, "F*ck context!" , "F*ck Modernism!", "F*ck Corbu!" (Oh yeah!)

Now that will have an impact for sure!

Falling Slowly

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me and always fool me
And I can't react

And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
The moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black..

- Falling Slowly, Glen Hansard

How deep is your love

Msn conversation between me n an archimate, ** (Name disguised but I have asked his permission to write this up..)

** : "She just sms me.."
Me: "Hooooo...."
** : "That's the most impt thing happened today.."
Me: "Hooooo...."
** : "Nothing else matters...."
Me: "lalalalala..."
** : "Not even architecture..."
Me: "Hoooooooooooooooooooo..... am so gonna put this conversation in my blog!"

The situation is indeed serious =D

Paris 26 Gigapixels

Paris... Ahh... Ok ok I'm still content to be in Singapore (am planning some summer trips anyway haha..), but it still feels good to ogle around the amazing roofscapes of Paris...

Paris 26 Gigapixel is a photography project where one can see a very high resolution of a panoramic photograph of the city, and I gotta say the result is amazingly detailed.. I can see the little lanes with the cafes, the intricate domes of the monuments, the Eiffel, of course, and just rows and rows and rows of those chimneys I fell in love with while in Paris..

Check it out: http://www.paris-26-gigapixels.com/index-en.html

And now, back to work...

CAPOEIRA!

Ah, capoeira.. (For those who don't know what it is, go and find it on Wikipedia!)

Been coming to the NUS capoeira club for about 6 sessions now.. and love every minute of it! The irony is that I only thought of trying out capoeira because I read about it in a comic before, and the club schedule happens to fit mine..

Hm.. Even though I was so excited to write about it just now, I can't seem to start anywhere now hahaha.. But the mere fact that it's all at once an art, a dance, a game, a fight... The history of the game.. The music.. The energy.. The camaraderie.. Aaaaahhh I get high just thinking about the roda haha.. Roda is the the circle of people in which 2 in the middle will play capoeira and the rest will make music.. Even watching from the side is rather addictive! (As obviously I am at the lowest level of the ladder yet ;p )

Oh well, since I can't seem to write properly now, here are some videos just to show what capoeira is all about.. The first video is a 'light' glimpse to it - a scene from Ocean's 12. The actor who played the scene, Vincent Cassel, is an actual capoeira practitioner. The second is capoeira, Angola style, which means the game is played more slowly, with more emphasis on feints and planning ahead the moves. The third one is an actual capoeira roda, regional style, where the 'fight' aspect is more emphasised and the game is much more fast-paced.

After watching the videos, I think some people's reaction will be, "Waddahell was that??" At this point allow me to say that: capoeira rox!! And I'll try to explain why in the next few blogposts =D







Capoeira não sai da minha cabeça
Capoeira não sai do coração
Capoeira quem joga é mandingueiro
Capoeira é jogo de irmão

(Capoeira won’t go out of my head
Capoeira won’t go out of my heart
Capoeira who plays is a mandingueiro
Capoeira is a game of brothers)

Some ass-kicking...

..that, honestly, I really need to hear. Got "slaughtered" by my tutor yesterday because, after a good beginning analysis and concept, I had no development. The gist of it:

"Don't talk. Design. Don't try to do so many things. Focus on the studio."

Hufh.. A well-deserved slap on the face.. I want to be so many things, that's true, but before all that.. I want to be a designer.. 1.5 years left and I can't afford to fool around.

A quote by Michael Leboeuf:

"When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools."

And some by Anthony Robbins:

" ...it is your decisions on what to focus on.. that determines your ultimate destiny.."

"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want: we never direct our focus. We never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular."

"Goals.. are simply a tool to concentrate our focus.. direction.. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term. It's who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting self-fulfillment."