The Trees - Philip Larkin

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

All the world's a page!

This year, project RLH (read the update here and here) is on again! Been reading some good books lately since the end of studio, and the book list for April will be up soon.

Holidays + rain + books.. I can't be happier =)

Stair-y eyed! *.*

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how my house stairs will look like when I get to design my own house =D

View from above:


Ain't it grand?

Bits of April....

Somehow a lot of thoughts are swimming around in my head.. I guess this post is just cataloguing them in an attempt to organise my messy, messy mind haha..
___
Studio has ended! Wow! Honestly I have mixed feelings.. Feels like it just passed in a blur, at the same time, that it has dragged on for so long.. I feel relieved because it has ended, frustrated because again I didn't learn anything much, confused because I wonder if it's my fault or my tutor's fault that some periods of the studio were just a mess, and that not much came out of it in the end.. Still I'm glad that I did what best I could.. I fought, fought, and fought when giving up was the easy option. (At one desperate point I calculated whether my CAP would still be ok if I just slacked and aimed for a D grade..Haha.. It would! But am glad I didn't take that easy way.) In a weird way this semester taught me to be humble, because it was just so difficult to grasp what's happening in the studio, and to predict my tutor's reaction, that I had to throw away any confidence I have in my design and even myself. Well studio might not have been great, but yeah ok maybe with a bit of a stretch I can say it was good.

Still, one of the jury for the final critique panel was my old tutor who inspired me so much.. His studio was the time when I stayed in school the most often, usually two, three days in a row even on weekends, yet I felt so much satisfaction at the end of it.. When he was sitting there amongst the judges I felt like just kneeling down and begging him to accept me back to his studio hahaha.. Oh well, but even if I'm not on fire for studio, I do enjoy learning about plants and landscape, and I'm looking forward to working in this field. Guess that settles it.. One more year of struggles!
__
I'm 24 now! Hm.. I don't feel any different ahaha..(Though the other day someone said I have "blossomed".. wooow.. such a compliment!) Should've posted something on my birthday I guess but that was in the middle of final design, assignments etc. Glad for my 24 years so far.. Been a really good life, blessings upon blessings.. cliche as it is, I guess what's left is to be more of a blessing for others.. Make 'm laugh, as I've often tried to do =D
__
Official capoeira training is now limited to once a week in headquarters, no more NUS session (About the only bad thing in this long-awaited holiday), and I feel rather restless.. Too much energy during the week though come Friday I'll sweat and pant it all out! Still need lots of practice with the basic kicks.
___
Wonder if I put too much private material in this blog, though I'm ok with people reading it. The weird part comes when people whom I don't think I know well, or know me well, starts talking or chatting to me about things I write in my blog.. (In case you're sensitive, if you were amongst my secondary school friends, JC friends, architecture friends, french friends or ex-travel partners, if I've talked to you about personal problems before, then rest assured I don't mean you). It's just weird, because for me, reading someone's blog and knowing that person well is really not the same thing, and asking personal questions without knowing someone well is a bit too much.
__
Love the weather these days. Perfect for sleeping, reading, and night swimming.

If - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
___
We all need something to reminds us again, that being noble is worth the trouble! (Well, mostly..)

It is What It Is

What it is

It is nonsense
says Reason
It is what it is
says Love

It is unhappiness
says Caution
it is nothing but pain
says Fear
It is hopeless
says Insight
It is what it is
says Love

It is ridiculous
says Pride
It is careless
says Caution
It is impossible
says Experience
It is what it is
says Love

Erich Fried

Archi stuff from a non-architect..

Supper after capo-training *rest well, poor legs..* and a senior was talking to me about the book The Fountainhead by Ann Ryand. Will hunt the book tomorrow, but this is what he said,
"You know, after reading the book it feels like now I know a lot about architecture.. She said, If you design a building and one person out of ten likes it, you are successful because that is design. If you design a building and nine out of ten people like it, you fail, because that is mass production."

. . . . huhuhu it just adds to the complexity of becoming an architect!