Agenda for the Month

I haven't been doing anything much today. Was just feeling so freaking lazy. This kind of lazy is the kind where you know you can do the work but is just feeling too slacky to actually make the first move. And once I have made the first move, it turned out that I was not that lazy after all.

I slacked off the whole day but made it up at night, as of now.

In reference to the title above, I'm going to list all the things left to go this semester. Once I have ticked off every single item, it means it is time to go home, in Paris and Rome (Buble, if you didn't get it). Despite my mortification from the "BOOMB!" post, it so happens that the semester is not really cut short at all. Even if it officially ends this month, all our due dates are still in week 15. Whatever. I have already made up my mind to get it all done by the end of this month. Seriously.

Graphic Design and Typography
1. Packaging 75% done
2. Design Journal 30% done
3. Typo final assignment 2% done wahahhahahahahha

Illustration
1. Hari Raya "billboard" 30% done
2. Portfolio arrangement 0% done

Computer Graphic
1. Newsletter 0% done

Design Heritage
1. Bauhaus essay 95% done
2. Design journal 50% done

Design Management
1. Corporate Identity Manual 10% done
2. Design Journal 75% done

Photography
1. Final project "wet look" 50% done
2. sorry excuse of a journal 99% done like what is there to put in that stupid book??!

I have been note taking for DM journal. I felt so stupid coz I don't get what the notes are talking about. This has been the case for all the study subjects that I have taken since sem 1. It has been a long time since the last time I actually understand the contents of the notes I am taking. Argh! I blame it all on the lecturer. All on the lecturer.


edit Oct 21, 2008, 12.26 a.m.

TAGGED!!

Tagged by Tzeyee

My first tag in this blog! Should be fun?

Instructions: Remove 1 question (any from below) and add in a personal question, make it a total of 19 questions. Then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged. (since Tzeyee tagged only me, so I guess I am also allowed to tag only one? coz I really can't think of anyone who won't kill me for tagging them so near the end of sem)

1. What are your nicknames?
Hah.. unfortunately my name rhymes with penguin and some idiot see it right to call me fishy, why I do not know.

2. What is your most favourite thing to do?
Reading!

3. What would you give up in return to eat all you want in the world and not get fat?
Nothing. I don't really want that freedom.

4. Is there someone in your heart right now?
Definitely.

5. Do you believe you can survive without money?
No.

6. What are you afraid to lose the most?
My Family.

7. What do you feel like doing right now?
Eat.

8. If there's someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
No... I am too much of a chicken.

9. List out 3 goods points of the person who tagged you!
Loyal, friendly, and trustworthy.

10. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
Kindness and love.

11. What are the things that will make you think that he/she is bad?
Cheating.

12. If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Potato chips! Now I will be willing to give up something to have this constantly and not grow pimples!

13. If you had a choice to be rich or happy, which one would you pick?
Happy.

14. If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?
I don't want to be so stubborn and be a tad more humble?

15. How do you see yourself in 10 years time?
Successful and confident!

16. What is the one thing you love about yourself?
Knowing that I'm a good person.

17. If you can bring only one thing along with you to another world, what would it be?
Don't wanna bring anything.

18. Are you afraid of falling in love?
No. Looking forward to it, actually.

19. If there were no restrictions, what will your biggest dream be?
Travel to the most beautiful places in the world!

I tag... Chia Li and Jaryn! (sorry girls.. I know you're busy, we all are.)

Wet Look 1

This is Dylan. He is the guy I have been pestering to be my model and had to endure some of the crazy ideas I have for him. There is nothing for him in this, that's why I'm feeling kinda bad for imposing this on him.

Anyway, I'm shooting for my final photography assingment. It's not done yet, but I have a basic idea. My product will be LEVI's. The concept is wet look. The picture below is a sort of a photo montage I did.

Ah... hopefully I don't have to use this style. It feels more like digital imaging rather than photography. Hopefully all goes well tomorrow and I will have some good photos to show.

Have to take note of a few things though. Gotta ask Dylan to act tough!! Umph!

Progress Check 3

As of now, IT'S ALL FREAKING DONE!!!!!

Look at the print screen above, that's the number of craps I have to create. There's a folder titled booklet as well, with twenty-three pages inside. FREAKING TWENTY THREE!! Huh~ it's all so uninspired. I don't know.. just trying to get it done and then put aside. I'm sick of Barbies, sick at looking only at black, white, gray and pink.

But then it is not to say I don't like my whole work here. I love the glass packaging, which I have yet to unveil here, I love the Barbies I have costumed, and I like the overall concept.

I'm just sick of it. I love them, but SICK of them.

Will be aiming for final approval tomorrow. See what he wants, fix a little on what he wants, then put the whole thing away by Saturday. Will only go for printing when my friends are ready as well.

I figured it'll also be a whole load of work after printing, foldings and all. Sigh... a long way till I can officially call it done and dusted.

SICK SICK SICK!!

p.s: will be shooting outdoor tomorrow. Am kinda looking forward to it, at least it's no more Barbies.. cheers!!

Feature 003:Brylcreem Xtreme Design Contest

Hahaha.. yeah, I know. Still stalling.


Anyway, this post will be for a good cause. I'm naturally a selfish person but this contest is too cool to keep for myself (as if I'm winning, anyway, hah!). Check it out, click on the image.

Extremely, extremely cool prizes! And deadline is end of November! After all my projects, if I have the dedication I can actually attempt to join the contest. Anyway, check out the prizes. For drooling at this point.

Progress Check 2

No approval yet for the above poster but I thought it's about time to show off the finished Barbies. Yes, they are finished. I have no plans what-so-ever to add anymore accessories, tweak the costume or comb the hair. They are done!

I'm now still working on the final details of this project. I kept doing and doing and stuff I neglected kept cropping up. Maybe it was because others were doing six packagings and I'm only doing three that is making me insecure. I kept trying to compensate by doing additional stuff like souvenirs, box for souvenirs, and crappy items.

Now I have worked it down to these items: fan, booklet, certificate and box skin.

I know, I know. All these and she said working on final details. It seemed as if I'm only half way there, no? The remaining four items shouldn't be too hard as I have discovered after working on some other side items. Basically I have covered all the designing aspects after finishing the packaging boxes and dolls. From then on, I need only to recycle the designs and create a layout on different items. Pretty easy, actually.

These are the things I have accomplished so far: dressed three dolls, crafted three glass packagings, designed labels, boxes, a calendar plus cover, three ugly coasters, three boring flyers and the big poster you're seeing up there.

These are the flyers you're seeing here. The reason they are boring is because of the layout. I'm at this point where I just want to finish it off. I don't want to think too much, thus the boring straight forward layout. But I do like the colour palette here though. These colours will be seen running through all my designs in this project.

Hopefully I will be able to finish these off by today or tomorrow. Then get final approval on Friday. If the print shop is open, print on Saturday. If not, then Monday. After that, that's it! Not touching this thing anymore. Argh.. there are works other than GD, you know. I'm afraid even if I aim to score an A here, I will then flunk the rest.

Need to get back to work. Blogging only takes up that much time.

Major

I used to harbour so much hope on this word. Before I came here, I got myself all excited just thinking about when the time comes for me to make the decision. Major.

Which major to choose.

There was a briefing today on the majors available for us when we go to semester five next year. There are two, advertising or multimedia. It didn't matter what they say. The only think I have truly learnt for all my time here is this: all fancy-pancy promises are rubbish. In the end, I will be better off making decisions based on my own judgement rather than those made up dreams and empty promises they gave us.

This is basically the summary of what they told us in the briefing.

Advertising
The important thing here is selling idea. Everything you do here is aimed at the ultimate objective: selling. The minor here will be marketing. As far as I am concerned, the pro is that this seemed to be an exciting field and there are all kinds of possibilities to the things I can pick up from here. The con is that the principal lecturer is a guy who looked as if he just graduated from the university. He stressed on how important verbal communication is but was a mess when he briefed us on this. I remembered seeing this man when he took over the class last semester from a lecturer who was absent. I thought he was new then because he looked nervous and actually stuttered when he addressed the class. This from a man who is supposed to be the head of advertising.

Multimedia
The gist of multimedia is that we will be learning an array of softwares that deals with web design, interactive and animation. We will no longer do 2D designing but instead expand our abilities to 3D. The principal lecturer who briefed us was better, he looked as if he knew what he was doing. I might be wrong, but after two years here, you can't blame me for not having the confidence that they will have capable people to teach all these designing softwares.

So let us compare this two majors:

Pros
Advertising will teach me things I can never learn on my own.
Multimedia will give me the opportunity to learn things I am dying to learn.

Advertising seemed to be able to fetch more money.
Multimedia have two tempting majors which are animation and web tech.

Advertising is all about ideas generation.
Multimedia is all about jamming all cool elements together to create one ultra-cool design.

Cons
Advertising comes with a lousy principal lecturer.
Multimedia's promise of really teaching us all those softwares is dim.

Advertising comes with a boring minor which is marketing.
Multimedia involves softwares that I can learn on my own, so why do I need to major in it?


As of now, I'm leaning more heavily towards advertising. Maybe I will change my mind. Maybe not. As of now, this is really the least of my worries.

Dairy Products A Harm??!

I got an email from my sister the other day. She's constantly forwarding me emails regarding scams that happened to women, dangers of women in KL or some sort of disease awareness thing. This time, the email she forwarded me made me start a little. Have a read, and let me know to what extent do you believe.

edit 16 Oct 2.20 a.m. I've cut short the post here. Even I don't want to read something this long.

Summary:-

1) Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from breast cancer.
2) The Chinese do not eat dairy produce!
3) Observation : Elimination of dairy products caused the cancerous lump to shrink within days

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant.

I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself. I am a scientist - surely there was a rational explanation for this cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK ? I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of the country's most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt certain I was facing death. I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to care for. I desperately wanted to live.Fortunately, this desire drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a handful of scientists at the time.




The conclusion we can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima , she would slash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half.Obviously, this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the environment is seriously increasing the Western woman's chance of contracting breast cancer.I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn't genetic.Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates of breast cancer approach those of their host community.The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely Western lifestyle in Hong Kong .

In fact, the slang name for breast cancer in China translates as 'Rich Woman's Disease'. This is because, in China , only the better off can afford to eat what is termed ' Hong Kong food'.The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as 'Hong Kong food', because of its availability in the former British colony and its scarcity, in the past, in mainland China .So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally, it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-class, Western lifestyle.


Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which one of us first said: 'The Chinese don't eat dairy produce!'It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and emotional 'buzz' you get when you know you have had an important insight. It's as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind, and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the whole picture is clear.

Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the cheese course at dinner parties.I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The tradition was to use a wet nurse but never, ever, dairy products.Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and milk products very strange. I remember entertaining a large delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the Cultural Revolution in the 1980s.On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could not be persuaded to change their minds.At the time we were all delighted and ate extra portions!Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food allergies. Over 70% of the world's population were unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency.

Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong food.

Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy cow.In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with 'good' bacteria.Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been implicated in ovarian cancer. Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them recorded in detail what they normally ate.


Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of my fifth cancerous lump with calipers and plotting the results. Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter truth.My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect - the lump was still the same size.Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to shrink!

About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as the tumour got smaller and smaller. And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the tumour's decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or remission) of the tumour.One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt for what was left of the lump. I couldn't find it. Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps - I had discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump either.On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London .

He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, 'I cannot find it.'None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty.My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my ideas with him he was understandably skeptical. But I understand that he now uses maps showing cancer portality in China in his lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients.

I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce, and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the health of my breast and hormone system, cured me.It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a substance as 'natural' as milk might have such ominous health implications.

But I am a living proof that it works and, starting from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action plan.

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant.


Understand why this article started me? Because my steady daily diet nowadays consisted of HL milk, pasta, biscuits, and yoghurt. Never mind the fact that I love chocolates and ice creams and slathering a lot of butter on my bread. All dairy products.

为了你的一句话

手先，我想要对王康蕊说“这全都因为你”。没有你的话我不会有那么高难度的跳槽。你说要我自己找出有些字的拼音。

penang 槟城
woman 女人
Chow Kok Quin 周国娟

原来不难但是没有想像中那么快。其是那此拼音不是全部都是我猜出来的。但是我并没有跑去问小露。这是我反给你的难题。你可以猜一猜我有什为法找出那此我不懂的拼音吗?我有一个办法比打字还容易。嘻嘻,想到吗?

其实有一个中文的部落格对我这比较会写英文的人来讲一点都不容易。很多想法想不到那些比较有意思的字来表突。只可以写出这些无聊的东西。

我的功课越做越觉得多。没有信心可以在计画中的时间完成它。一做好那部份突然间多出另外一样东西。现在没有心情要去想太多。只好慢慢的一步一步的走下去。哈哈,这真的是太短了吧。太难啦。但是是一个好玩的新常试。错字是一定有的啦。我为一的要求就是不要笑我笑到太大声哦。伤到自已我会觉得不好意思的。

就这样吧。

完。



Now for the English translation! Phew! Writing that much in Chinese was not easy at all, all thanks to a certain Ms. Ong Kang Rui who challenged me to it. This was after me asking her why didn't she keep up her Chinese blog. Okay~ you made your point!

I actually wanted to translate the whole thing into English but am feeling the task too tedious now. No worries, you have missed nothing. I cannot write anything worthy in Chinese to save my life with.

Back to work for me. If you're one of those who are browsing through here with tonnes of assignments piling but just need a breather, well, take a deep breath and dive back into those works. It's just gonna get bigger unless you do something to stop it from growing.

Ta!

Feature 002: Butterfly Award

Thank you, thank you, Yu Jean, for awarding my lil' blog here with the Butterfly Award! Awesome, eh?

These are the conditions, in which I can choose to do or not, if I were to accept the award.

1. Put the logo on your blog;
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you;
3. Nominate any number of blog you want to share this award with.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Let’s spread the joy of blogging and warmth of friendship through this Butterfly Award.Please accept the award and happy blogging.

Well, I can choose to do everything listed, meaning going to all my awardees and put a comment in their blog telling them they have been awarded and then asking them to do what I am doing now; or I can use that time to finish my packaging project. Hah, I'm in a dead end with the project anyway. And it's all in good sport, yea??!

These are the people I have awarded (I have awarded, haha, never really used these two words in the same context before). And also a little snippet on why I think they deserve it. (and you can just find their links at the side bar of this blog)

Jaryn for the funny little posts you have that just put a smile on my face everytime I'm there
Farah for challenging my vocabs everytime I'm at your site
Tze Yee for letting me understand a little bit more about who you are
Eichi for the cute crazy looking pink rabbit
Chia Li for making envious over your lovey-dovey relationship
Kelly for the incredibly good looking Chaplin header
Kang Rui for having the initiative to create a Chinese blog

I guess that's all. The people that I read are pretty limited. Ta!


ps: oh yeah.. now I have to thread over to these people's blog and tell them that they are awarded with my ultra problematic line today.. okai!

BOOOMB!

The GD lecturer dropped a bomb yesterday. Couldn't say I was surprised. There have been signs.

A normal semester consisted of fifteen/sixteen weeks. From previous posts, I have often stressed how I have six more weeks until the sem ends. Well, I sort of have a "breather" here. The sem is going to end early. Three weeks earlier. From week sixteen, at the most, everything is going to be pushed up to week thirteen. Everything. All submission dates. That means things that we have five more weeks to do are suddenly down to mere three weeks. As for GD, supposedly we have another final assignment after the packaging project, now this is going to be taken in as the final instead.

Quantity of assignments have been cut short. So has the duration.

When the lecturer was announcing this, everybody was shocked. It sucked to think that for the whole semester we only did two assignments for our core subject, GD and also typography. It felt as though they have cheated our money. The lecturer gave us the option of doing a petition if we are not happy with the situation. While I felt breathless over this, I can't stop thinking about my photography final, the one I am most dissatisfied over is him.

When I asked if we could possibly have a refund since our semester is cut short and the amount of assignments we had was not enough, he offered to give us another typo assignment. Hello?! That's so not the point.

Everything is going to finish at the end of October. I can go home then. Aih... I don't know if this is a good news or a really bad one. So many things to do and I still have time for afternoon naps.

*bangs head against wall*

Drama Review: I'm Sorry I Love You

First off, I want to say this to Tze Yee, "I'm sorry, I love you."

I'm sorry is because for doubting you everytime when you said that this drama is very good. I love you for giving me this drama to watch.

Oh man, this drama is so good! Maybe on the outside, it seemed like just any Korean tear jerker with the supporting actor being better looking than the lead. But just being quarter of the way into it, I was already entranced by the storyline and the lead actor, So Ji Sup. Haha.. me knowing the name of a Korean actor is a big lead into how much I love that person. The only other actor whose name I bothered remembering was Kwong Sang Wu (correct spelling, I think), whom I was introduced to in Stairway to Heaven, another of my favourite Korean drama.

This was my third attempt in watching this. The first time I watched like maybe five minutes and felt the chinese sub was too tiring to follow, so I gave up. The second time, I watched the ten minutes in the beginning, couldn't figure out what the story was about, then gave up. The third time, I finished the first episode, thought it was nothing special and didn't like the Australia setting that much. To get an idea on the story, I searched for it online. Got to Wikipedia and read the whole story plus ending. You can say that the ending was spoilt for me but it didn't detract any of the drama's appeal.

So, a very basic understanding of the story. Please bear in mind that the spelling for the names are not totally correct. The lead, was Mu Hyeok, or something like that, a guy who was abandoned as a baby. He went into a foster family in Australia but then ran away from that place. From then on, he sort of grew up into a thug on the streets, cheating tourists and doing all sorts of low stuff. In episode one, he met this girl, Yin Chai (haha, mandarin pin yin), who was the assistant to a Korean singer, Yun (this have to be right!). She and Yun were childhood friends and she had fallen in love with him without him knowing. Anyway, something happened to Yin Chai and Mu Hyeok helped her. This set the introduction of the two leads.

Mu Hyeok had a girlfriend who was getting married to a rich man. At her wedding, the rich man's enemy ordered sent an assassin. Amidst the gun fire, to save his girlfriend, Mu Hyeok shielded her and got shot in the head. He was lucky to survive but a bullet was lodged in his brain. It was told that at the most, he had a year to live. Driven by remorse, his girlfriend gave him money and asked him to return to Korea to look for his brith mother and not just die on the streets.

Upon returning to Korea, he found out that his birth mother was not a poor woman forced to abandon him as a baby. His mother was actually a wealthy woman and has a singer son, who was Yun. Mu Hyeok got very bitter at this discovery and plotted to revenge against this woman who was his mother.

That is the basis of the story.

The pace might be slow but you just don't get bored watching it. So Ji Sup was a very good actor, able to cry at a whim. I think this is probably one of the requirements for Korean actors, to cry. But the thing that made me really admire him was the energy he portrayed in those explosive scenes. When he was angry or hurt, you can actually feel it along with him.

I simply love this movie. I only did cry a bit at the last part. In the end, all the characters simply endeared you to them. This was another worthy thing to note. Some of the charcters may seem stereotypical at first but as the story evolved, you see their change and that made the story richer.

Love, love, love this movie! One of the reasonsthat deterred me from my assignments. :P

p.s: To Hooi Fong, you remembered when I asked you if this drama was good in MSN? Though you haven't watched it you commented that So Ji Sup was not good looking. I guess this was one of the reasons you haven't watch this? Well, he might not be handsome, but he is certainly attractive!! Watch this, watch this, and I dare you to disagree with me, haha...

END OF BREAK.

I really can't think of anything worthwhile that I did besides screwing up my sleeping time. For the past few days, I have been sleeping at 7am and waking up at 3pm. When I felt sleepy at 9pm just now, I was so happy that I hopped into the bed at once, thinking I won't be an insomniac before class tomorrow. What the heck, it seemed that my body just wanted a nap. I woke up again at 12am, three hours later. For goodness sake! I felt refreshed! And for once that is a bad thing.

Nothing I can do now except prepare for the stuff to do tomorrow. And blogging. When the break started, I listed things I would do. Let's see how well I have done them all, or some.

1. Research Malaysian art history. I tried, but the site just wouldn't work! I'm prepare to just crap for this assignment.
2. Look for glass suitable to be used in packaging. Done!
3. Finish dressing up the Barbies. Done!
4. Design secondary items for packaging. Half way there. I have a style for these items that I am sticking to and that makes the designing process easier.
5. Look for lights to be used in packaging. This is so not happening. A good idea though, might keep it for future projects if the workload not as heavy as this one?
6. Do photo montage for Photoshop. Done! Just need approval by Elson, my CG lect. If only he will reply my mail quick.
7. Think of ideas for Typo assignment. Didn't even enter my mind. Sigh...
8. Outline Ramadhan sketches for illustration. Did only two and haven't outlined yet. I have a lot more to go and have to show them to Ernesto on Tuesday. Argh...!!
9. Design a box for packaging. Not done yet but as of now, I have already started on the glass packaging. Maybe after tomorrow I can get the measurements down for the box.
10. Learn Flash. It was impossible. Hah!

All in all I think I did okay for the break, huh? I didn't utilize my time perfectly, but at least I didn't do nothing!

I had a lot of freedom during the break. It was a time I couldn't recall with regret but filled me with remorse when I think of it being over. I'm already too slacked for my own good. Have to revive the engine for the remaining six weeks. Six weeks until I can go home!! Yeah!! Called home today. Ethan can now call me, and can say lots of stuff and iut has only been two months! I miss that big head baby so much!

I finished I'm Sorry I Love You, a Korean drama. One of the best Korean dramas I have watched. Will blog about it later.

Will surf around for a while, hoping sleep will come soon.

Goodbye break, I'll miss you. But the end of this short holiday means the distance between the big break and I is getting closer.

Home. :)

Movie Review: Mamma Mia!

My Gosh!

I haven't watch such a happy movie in a very, very long time. What would have made the experience even better will be watching this with fellow tc09ers.

Guys, if you're reading this post, you would have remembered the late night chat we had on MSN. It was such a rare thing for all of us to gather online at the same time (minus Ms. Ong, who had her TGIF and couldn't be bothered with us). I had such fun talking about trivial stuff like make ups, catching up on songs and movies, best of all, drilling you-know-who on her new love. Rui must be ecstatic to hand over the hot seat to the poor new victim. Consider yourself lucky, you-know-who, I doubt we gave it our all that night. Haha..

I guess watching the movie after having the virtual gathering was what made me connect to the movie so much.

Okay, a brief background update on this. I think, without a doubt, many will recognize this as the on-screen reproduction on the famous broadway hit. Yes, go into the cinema expecting them to break out into songs and dances, so if you're caught unaware, please stop the groanings that will spoil the movie for other musical lovers, such as your faithful here. The movie began with a girl, Sophie, sending out three letters to three different men who might be her father. She wanted to meet them to find out who her real father is so that he can give her away on her wedding. This gave a shock to her mother Donna, who didn't expect three of her past lovers appear at her doorstep, or goat house, if you're very particular about the details. This is a movie on relationships and loves. Love between a mother and daughter, between age old friends and lovers.

I love this movie. Prior to it, I read from Kookie Jar that Pierce Brosnan couldn't sing to save his life. Evelyn confirmed by saying though he didn't neccessarily have the voice, he sure do have the Bond charisma to make up for. It came as a no wonder that I was dreading the moment Pierce Brosnan will open his mouth to sing. And when it came, though nothing to go excited about, I thought it was okay. Not very, very bad. But not bad. And he did look good on screen.

Evelyn also warned me that one will have the tendency to sing along in the movie for the songs are recognizable. Spot on, Eve! I wanted to sing out loud so much, thanks to the English subtitles at the bottom that to me, made the big screen seemed like karaoke in Red Box.

Love the songs. Love, love, love the songs. Though the way those back ups seemed to crop out and the dancing looked corny, the songs were the best!

The whole movie was so beautiful. The location, the seas, and rocky cliffs. The location they chose where to hold the wedding was so breath taking and romantic. It made me day dreamed that if I were to marry one day, I'd like a ceremony at just such a place. And then I thought of all the old aunties and uncles I had to invite and doubted they could make the climb up. Oh, well.

As mentioned, this movie was made so much better for it reminded me of the friendships back home. Sophie herself had two best friends who came especially for her wedding. Her mom, Donna, had also two old best friends who she asked to come for the wedding. The way they reunited and talked about the past and the easy caramaderie made me miss my friends back home so much! All those gigglings, teasings and crazy singing out loud remind me of you girls.

Hooi Fong, Adrienne, Kang Rui, Evelyn and Chia Yinn (ms ong, when i said singing out loud, i meant you). Yes. You girls.

Another thing that moved me was the love between mother and daughter. This reminded me of my mom. Dank... I'm too home sicked for my own good.

I laughed from the beginning till the end. I enjoyed every corny dance, sang along in my mind to every song, feast my eyes on every setting and left the cinema with a warm feeling despite the cold in the cinema.

Is this movie recommended? You bet it is!

p.s: Xiao Lu er watched this with me. She thought the whole thing was boring. I guess this is another reason why I miss the company I missed. :)

Movie Review: Jodhaa Akbhar

When I was doing my research for which historical queens to feature in my packaging, I came a cross this Bollywood movie. It is a historical depiction of a Muslim Mughal Emperor who is to marry a Hindu Rajput Princess. Back then, it was a big controversy for a muslim to marry a hindu, especially for the emperor. It is a marriage of alliance. Hritik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starred in the roles of the Emperor and Princess respectively.

My lecturer told me to do a research on Jodhaa Akhbar for it is reputed that she contributes a lot to her husband's kingdom. Thankfully I really did dig further, and only then did I find out that this story is largely mythical. The movie itself is like the typical Bollywood romance and didn't exactly touch a lot on the historical aspect.

I love Hritik Roshan. He's so good looking. I especially enjoyed watching him in this movie. Another thing I loved are the costumes and posters. Just look at the costume Aishwarya Rai is wearing. It's so elaborate and detailed. The posters are designed very attractively. I especially love the colours and how dramatic everything looked.

The movie was four hour long. I watched it in a span of two weeks. I watched one vcd a day, taking long breaks in between. I guess this is one of the problem of the movie. There is no rush for me to get back to it quickly. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed the attraction between this two main characters.

Besides the relationship between the emperor and princess, there is really nothing much worth noting in this movie. The way the emperor being depicted was too ideal. I guess he is honourable to a point where it is a bit hard to swallow.

In terms of Bollywood film, this is certainly not one of the best. But it definitely is a good eye candy to feast upon Hritik Roshan. Haha...


p.s.: Hooi Fong, if you're reading this, I know you're itching to borrow the VCD, hehe..

Book Review: The Face of Death

I have just finished a thriller that really shook me.

For friends who knew me, you read it right here. Yes, thriller. Not romance. I read romances so much that there was one time I blurted out loud, "Ugh, I'm sick of reading romance!" Rui within hearing distance exclaimed, "Ah, finally!"

Well, romance is still my favourite genre. Anyway, the reason I deterred from my preferred genre is because I ran out of books and am low in cash. Xiao Lu er bought this thriller together with me but didn't managed to read it yet. The reason is simply she doesn't read. Hah!

This thriller I read is actually just the second from the author, Cody McFadyen. I have no idea how to pronounce the last name. The title of the book is "The Face of Death". There were a few complaints I have for the book after reading it and one if it is how run-of-the-mill the title is.

To start things off, I don't read a lot of thrillers. The last one I read was my first real taste of Stephen King, "The Dead Zone". Though King's style of writing is undoubtedly more refined than McFadyen, I had trouble picking up the momentum reading King's.

Anyway, as I said, "The Face of Death" is a stand alone book though it featured the same protagonist from his first book, "The Shadowman." The main character is a female FBI agent, Smoky Barrett. The first few chapters touched on her background story. The thing that struck me here was how McFadyen didn't show any hesitation in making his protagonist's life miserable. You know how in most books the main character didn't suffer as thoroughly as some side characters. Here, Smoky Barrett's life was so messed up that I couldn't help but cringe at how anyone could have overcome it.

This book is about a team of FBI agents hunting down a serial killer named, "The Stranger". "The Stranger" has been tormenting this 16 year old girl since she was six, first killing her family and then anyone whom she has loved. She was kept alive by this killer but nobody believed her story that the killer existed. When "The Stranger" killed her latest foster family, the girl held a gun to her head, threatening to blow her head off unless Smoky Barrett met her. Being not really good in supplying a short recap, I have copied below a description of the book"

“I want to talk to Smoky Barrett or I’ll kill myself.”

The girl is sixteen, at the scene of a grisly triple homicide, and has a gun to her head. She claims “The Stranger” killed her adoptive family, that he’s been following her all her life, killing everyone she ever loved, and that no one believes her.

No one has. Until now.

Special Agent Smoky Barrett is head of the violent crimes unit in Los Angeles, the part of the FBI reserved for tracking down the worst of the worst. Her team has been handpicked from among the nation’s elite law enforcement specialists and they are as obsessed and relentless as the psychos they hunt; they’ll have to be to deal with this case.

For another vicious double homicide reveals a killer embarked on a dark crusade of trauma and death: an “artist” who’s molding sixteen-year-old Sarah into the perfect victim -- and the ultimate weapon. But Smoky Barrett has another, more personal reason for catching The Stranger -- an adopted daughter and a new life that are worth protecting at any cost.

This time Smoky is going to have to put it all on the line. Because The Stranger is all too real, all too close, and all too relentless. And when he finally shows his face, if she’s not ready to confront her worst fear, Smoky won’t have time to do anything but die.

The book is filled with gore. Very graphic details on how the murder took place. It is like the writer's head is filled with too much sick stuff and he doesn't hesitate at all to make any character of his choosing suffer.

I'm not so infused with romantic plots that I do not know what to expect from a thriller. Though I know the victims are going to die a horrible death, I couldn't help but dread the outcome. It was such a roller coaster ride in some scenes that I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I cried and snivelled through them. His writings of gore simply touched me.

However, there are some parts that seemed a bit too good to be true. I guess the contrast between this and what is bad is too stark that some times I have a hard time buying it.

The ending was a bit of a let down for its predictability. It was as though he ran out of energy at the end after writing so exhilaritingly.

Anyways, I love this book. I'm thinking of buying it from Xiao Lu er at a highly discounted price and have my mom take a go at it. Hehe, it makes me happy to provide my mom with a good read.

Oh yeah, if you're interested in what I have said, do check out his website: www.codymcfadyen.com

Progress Check

Umph.

Making the clothes for the Barbies turned out to be easier than I thought. The problem now is to find the materials I need to make the packaging. I will be going to Petaling Street tomorrow to scout for those materials. If I came back empty handed, it will be time for Plan C. Plan B is to think of Plan C. Hah.

Shall we have a little progress check on what I have done so far?

My workspace.

Little trinkets I plan on sticking on the dolls.

This is Queen Nur Jahan, an Indian queen.

This will be my Egyptian Queen, Hatsepsut. The only Queen who dressed like a Pharaoh.

This is Empress Wu Ze Tian, my Chinese queen. She's blonde, I know. This will be where my black marker comes in handy, ekekeke~

I need to really work it during this break. I would love to get things settled by this week. Keeping my fingers crossed! :)

Movie Review: Painted Skin

I watched "Painted Skin" today with Xiao Lu er.

I heard the review on 8tv quickie . It was said that the film is one of the most horrifying films of the the year. Being a sucker for good reviews, I was really fired up to watch this film. Donnie Yen in the starring role only made me want to watch this all the more. I thought he was fantastic in that kung fu film, dragon tiger something.

Xiao Lu er was not keen on watching this. She did not like the idea of watching horror movies at night. Furthermore, she was bored by all these movies by China which constantly ran around the same style. Anyway, I managed to persuade her to go watch it with me (nevermind the fact that there are limited choices in the Mines TGV).

This story was one of many in "Liao Zai" (I have no idea if this is the correct pin yin), a Chinese compilation of stories regarding the supernatural. Basically it was about this female demon who wore a skin and needed to eat human heart to prevent the skin from rotting.

Not that I had very high expectations on this. The film didn't disappoint but it didn't leave me in awe either. There's nothing horrifying about the movie at all. In fact, it seemed more like a romance drama. I was kind of let down not seeing Donnie Yen in some high flying kung fu stunts. Plus, he was not really the main character. The title role went to Zhao Wei, who acted really well.

The make up of the ladies in this film were very light. They all appeared to look pale yet attractive. Maybe it was due to me just finishing my photography assignments, I really appreciated the different angle shots here. Some of the scenes were beautifully shot.

Considering this being a Chinese film, I was elated to find that there was no artsy fartsy nonsense here. Nothing such as long quiet still moments all in the name of art though I would prefer a faster pace.

I had a good time watching this. Not bad but still left a lot to be desired.

There is Nothing

Nowadays I can't help but feel my own limitations. There is nothing to learn. For every project that I have, I take what I already have and try to expand on it. There are no new skills or new approach to work. I try and try to come up with new things everytime but it feels as if I am just expanding my own limited skills and not absorbing anything new at all. It is frustrating to know that I pay so much to study here but I got nothing worthy in return. What I have are lecturers who don't care, project after project, a lot of useless and senseless classes. It doesn't feel like I am going to school. It is like I am going through a circle studying on my own. I go to class, get briefs, go for tutorials, do the work, submit, get grade. Their job is to teach. All I want is to learn. It's not supposed to be this... confusing. I am not supposed to feel this... helpless.

Those Days When I Once Studied

I have just finished this TVB drama series: 尖子攻略 starring Bobby Au Yeung. Hahaha.. the drama was very funny and touching. The whole drama concentrated on getting three talented football players to achieve good academic results as well. I think their standard is equivalent to that of SPM. The thing I liked best about this drama is how it brings back all those memories of how I studied for exams last time.

Ah... the good old days. Being a student in graphic design now, the least of my worries is studying notes and memorising facts. All I have to be worried are on screen execution and quality of finishing. The last time I really studied for anything was in STPM.

There were times when I looked at the way Hooi Fong and Evelyn studied that I envied them. They are still getting together to study and motivating each other. They still have text books and the opportunity to study boring subjects like TITAS, a reminiscent of Sejarah. Many people have told me how they would like to relive secondary school years. I never shared their sentiment. But if you would to ask me now what is the thing I missed the most about those times, I would say the preparations for exams.

I remembered staying up late to study Biology. During SPM, I studied last minute for all my science subjects. At that time, I had a bottle of cold chocolate milk to keep myself from falling asleep. After all that, Hui Jing actually told me drinking milk will instead put me to sleep. What the...

Ah... I miss group studies. I miss shooting questions at one another from the Sejarah book and guessing at which part of the subject will come out during exams.

Evelyn once asked me if I missed Math. I do. So much. Math is like a complicated person that I have figured out a long time ago and was proud of the knowledge. But after merely two years, I now look at Math and struggle to remember the most basic of things. What is Theorem Phytagoras again? I cannot a remember a single sin, tan or cos equation. I cannot recall! I feel so inadequate now to be thinking about Math. I really want to pick it up again just for fun. I want to solve Math equations just like how people solve Sudoku for fun.

When I think about studying, I only think back to when I was in Form Five. The truth is, I doubt I truly studied in Form Six.

Ah, the joys of studying. I miss it so much. Text books, science note books, sheets of lined paper, liquid paper and ink stained fingers.

A Break?

Semester break is here! One week with no classes, no more chasing buses and no waking up at 8.30 in the morning.

I guess everyone is excited over this break. It's a chance to go back home, take a break and hang out with friends you haven't see for a long time. But I'm not going home. I want to so much but this break is an opportunity to finish up my work. I have so much to do. I know that if I were to go home, nothing will be accomplished. Not to mention, it is impossible to buy bus tickets now.

These are the things to do during break. Let's just see how much I have accomplished by the end of it.

1. Research Malaysian art history.
2. Look for glass suitable to be used in packaging. edit 2 oct: Done
3. Finish dressing up the Barbies. edit 2 oct: Done
4. Design secondary items for packaging.
5. Look for lights to be used in packaging. edit 2 oct: Give up
6. Do photo montage for Photoshop.
7. Think of ideas for Typo assignment.
8. Outline Ramadhan sketches for illustration.
9. Design a box for packaging.

And if possible, I would love to do this.

10. Learn Flash.


I miss home so much. Going home now is only going to break my strive. These are the people I miss the most!




These silly kids each with their own antics. Ethan has now learnt how to walk! When I go back in November, I wonder how much they have all grown.

防不勝防

I had a pretty free day today. One would have thought I would seize the time and use it to do my work. Instead, I slept off a good four hours from it.

I was blog hunting tonight. I didn't know what else to do. There was nothing to see on facebook, nothing of interest on deviant art, even the drama series I have been chasing after is getting boring. The thing is, nobody I already know update their blog. So, to blog hunt, I went to people I already know and clicked on the links they already have there. The result? A growing list on the left side of this page.

I was pretty hung up on this song by Eason Chan. I kept listening to it over and over again. More than ten times, I think. But this was nothing compared to the time I listened to Hins Cheung. More than twenty times back to back! Anyway, below is the lyris of that song by Eason. This is the kind of love story that never failed to touch me.

防不勝防
曲：張繼聰 詞：黃偉文 編：王雙駿

為何喝過 那杯咖啡 無故 失終了
家裡卻 彷彿 增添了 數本新書
為何你那 床頭玩具熊 再找不到
花樽的花 偏偏 天天 轉色

* 也陶o刻你 仍然 岩 發覺 家中有 這一個 訪客
時時 漫] 冒昧 探你 將瑣碎東西帶走 然後又放低
# 在你的唱機放低唱片是我
算是暗中 一起分享過首歌
從你的套房帶走被單是我
你睡過的 至少我都 睡過

為何那個 故障手機 無故 修好了
梳妝台 怎麼 這麼快 沒有香水
為何有雨 門前就突然 有一把傘
相簿的相 偏偏 天天變少

Repeat * #

從你工作間帶走廢紙是我
照著你的筆跡寫封信給我
在你抽屜中放低戒指是我
你就算知 也不毽Q 是我

Some parts of the lyric is faulty. I can't type in chinese, so I can't fix it.

What a slow night tonight.

Shooting A Model

This is my model/housemate, Angela.

It turned out that I have nothing much to worry about after all. All my worries about awkwardness and not being able to get enough lightings were unneccessary. Angela was not shy at all about modeling. Any directions I gave her she took it with good sport. As for the lightings, I managed to get to the studio rather early so I got all the lights I need. As a result, I finished my shoot pretty fast.

I'm feeling a bit ambiguous though. Should this be a personality or fashion photography? Any ideas? A mistake not starting off with a firm concept. I just shot.

Thank you, Angela, for all the fantastic help!!


p.s: This is it for the photography assignments this time around. All that is left is the final project and I think I have some ideas..

Still Life

It took me pretty long to get the lights right. But in the end, the pictures that I took were not as flawless as I wanted them to be. I tried gettting a neat image of the glass, meaning no unwanted reflections on the surface. It seemed that I can only achieve it by using brighter lights. Supposedly I have to measure the exposure, but in the end, I fiddled with the knob according to instinct. Still, a lot of my images were not sharp enough.

I Fear And Dread

I fear photography.

I have never been good in it. The still life I did in the studio the other day proved it.

I dread photography.

Will have to go in for the still life shoot on Monday, again.

I fear taking bad pictures.

Taking pictures have never been my forte. I simply do not know how.

I dread awkwardness.

I screwed up the still life. I do not dare imagine what's gonna happen when I shoot a model who I don't know and who seemed reluctant to help me.

I fear barbies.

I have spent too much simply buying the materials.

I dread doing the work.

The confidence of my last post when I first mentioned this packaging project is gone.

I Fear.

Too much.

I Dread.

Too much.

And I don't believe I can't tackle them all.

The Real Thing

To finally hold the output after weeks of dreaming, drawing and executing. It was satisfying. I like it.

This is how much I have spent for this crazy project:
Paper buying Round 1 : RM30
Taxi : RM5
Paper buying Round 2 : RM20
Petrol : RM20
Colour printing : RM70
Black and white printing : RM48
Perfect binding : RM40
Hot Stamping : RM8
Gift for the book (not used) : RM15
Taxi : RM23
A whopping total of RM279!!

Is it worth it? I don't know. I have spent too much and some times unneccessarily. (sorry mom, I know how hard it is for you to earn money)

Hehe.. presenting the FIRST book I have ever designed. I believe the same opportunity will present itself in the future.

Enjoy!

The packaging for the book. I have chosen purple and black SKIN paper to make the box to give it a touch of elegance (not very effective here if you ask me.) And I suck in tying ribbons.

A cutout of the logo and a motif using black sticker. Trying to achieve the UV spot effect.

Some people say the unpacking experience is a very important process. I take that opinion seriously here.

The colour printing quality is good. And expensive.

I printed the frame on transparency. So the reader can admire the illustration without any hinders.

See my face??!!

That's it! Conceptual Book project finished! Done and dusted!!

And Coming Up...

Now that the first project is done (well, almost), I would have thought I will get a breather. But no, even before the first one is to be handed in, the second one is already being given out.

The second project will be packaging. We are to find a brand and repackage the product. Supposedly, this is a pairing project. But a couple of my friends and I wanted to do this together, if not, one of us will be left out, so we formed a three people group. After that, the lecturer actually allowed this to a one-man show. Me being me, I'm incredibly tempted to take up this challenge on my own. So, in the end, I'm going to be doing this project myself. A total of six products to repackage.

Apparently, a lot of my classmates are doing this on their own. I don't blame them. It's really so much easier to work on your own. Recently, I find my own patience hanging by a thread. To secure the friendships around me, it is best that I do not do any group works in the near future. Tensions working in a group will only hinder the work. Unless unavoidable, I'd prefer to work on my own.

I'm really looking forward to what everyone is going to produce. I like listening to people pitching their ideas to the lecturer. I can defend myself saying that I'm interested so that our ideas will not clash, but the truth is, it's a way of checking on the competition. On the other hand, it really irritates me when people interupt when it is my turn with the lecturer.

There are all kinds of ideas that has been pitched so far. There are Gatsby, Nestle, IKEA, Radioactive, Converse, BearBrick (or BrickBear, I'm not sure) and so on. For some of the brands, the lecturer proposed my classmates to carry out a campaign as well. It will be a step above merely packaging the products.

As for me, what will I be doing? I was just complaining to Tze Yee and Stella how I was always doing stuff for kids. Like last semester, I did a CD packaging going with the concept of childhood toys. Then on my last project, I did a conceptual book on children's fairytales. For both of this big projects, I did a lot of illustration. I didn't want to do something like this again for this project.

I don't know if it's fate or stubborn coincidence. We were handed briefs and in those briefs, there are brands in which we can consider. My eyes dropped on the brand "Mattel" and my heart started pumping and my brain began churning. I did try. I swear. When I was mind mapping, I considered a lot of other aspects like Faceshop, Elianto, lingerie, drinks, liquor. But the mind map I did for Mattle toys alone was twice the size for the other mind maps!

Initially I wanted to do liquor. I really wanted to try a hand in doing something classy and elegant. But then again, it will be hard trying to find the bottels. Furthermore, due to the lack of technical resources, my ideas will be limted only to the labels of the bottle. I can't do anything about the material, shape, colours or functionality of the bottles.

Anyway, I was sitting in front of Sathish, my GD lect this sem. He looked over my mind maps while I talked about what I had in my mind. The moment I mentioned the name "Mattel", his eyes flashed! He got so excited wanting to mention something to me but restrained himself, urging me to finish before chipping in his own suggestions. Hesitatingly, I continued on about how I have done a lot of kid's works but if I were to do something on Mattel, I will instead take it from the grown up aspect instead. Then, I started listing the kinds of products available in the grown up line: Magic 8 ball, UNO, Hot Wheels, Barbie Collectors...

Chink chink chink chink chink! JACKPOT!!!

Yep, what he had in mind and making him all excited was Barbie Collections. He said how some people have done this before and what good work they were. One will have to come up with a theme that will be great to work on. I was so fired up by the things he said. Even more so by how huge and hard this project will be if I were to decide to take up on this Barbie brand. The challenges will be to come up with an amazing theme, makeover the Barbie all over acccording to the theme meaning the hair and costume, create a packaging and not to mention, the kind of money this project will cost.

Supposedly, this will involve packaging six Barbies, meaning I have to go out and buy six Barbie dolls. However, he suggested that I only package three dolls but also diverse my project to making a campaign. It's not a real campaign, but a virtual one. This means not only do I have to do the packaging, I will have to make campaign materials like posters, brochures, calendars etc. Anything that's involved in a campaign.

He was very supportive on this idea. The thing I am most interested in is that if I were to do this REALLY good, it's going to look really good in my portfolio.

After the tutotial session with him, I was walking around with a heady feeling. I wanted to do this SO much! That was how enthusiastic I was. I am going to do this!

But I did something this morning that is dousing my enthusiasm appropriately and putting my feet firmly back on the ground.

I was doing some last finishing touches on my book. I made a box out of the SKIN paper I bought. I wanted to make something classy to put my book in. After that, I also made a sticker cut out of the Penguin logo and some motifs to decorate the box.

IT WAS HARD.

It reminded me on how much I screwed up the last time I did something big and crafty like this. It was my Seni project for STPM. I had all these ideas for the interior design of a company. I dreamed big and fell hard. The prject was a disaster. Largely due to me procastinating and losing confidence along the way. The moment I start to lose time and seeing how my execution does not reflect my ideas, I got very demotivated. The thing bombed. I got a D that I will never forget. This was a lesson I never want to forget.

And I am remembering it now.

But I will still be doing the Barbie collection, remembering it. This time around, I will finish all other works and focus on doing this thing. I will work on it not only dreaming about how perfect it will be, but also knowing how hard it will be to be perfect. The fact that it will be hard will make my efforts all the more worth while.

Doing this project will be risky. I'm afraid I have bitten more than I can chew. It's really Do or Die. I have never even thought of fashion. Now, I will have to think of a theme and make clothes for the dolls! Not to mention the packaging and accessories involved!

It will be hard. This project is going to be huge!

I know I will be tempted to give up half way, or even before that. Maybe, in the end, this thing is going to crash and burn. But maybe, this is going to turn out to be something I will smile like a fool just looking at.

I don't know. But I will be moving forward.

Sleepless nights lie ahead. Pimple breakouts, starvation, headaches, shoulder aches, empty wallets, phone calls to my mom to ask for money, rushing to print shops, knife cuts, blood and tears. All these lie ahead.

And I'm oh-so-looking forward to it. :)

Conceptual Book - From Beginning Till End

A lot has gone on since the last time I posted. At my last post, I have just finished illustrating. Now, I have actually finished the layout of the whole book plus printing. Hooray!

Will share here on what I have done so far.

Illustrations

What I have chosen to show on the previous post were not of the right quality. I forgot for web I have to switch the mode to RGB. Those files were in CMYK, that's why the colour were so off.

These are ten illustrations I did for the book. They are The Emperor's New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, Princess on the Pea, The Nightingale, Snow Queen, Little Matchgirl, Red Shoe, Bottleneck, The Staunch Tin Soldier and The Ugly Duckling.

I was regretting my choice to illustrate in the beginning. When I started it, I hated it all the more for it felt as if all I knew was illustration. I wanted to do something different. I have been doing the same thing for many of my major projects since last sem. The result was satisfying for some of them. None of it turned out to be what I visualized it to be. I figured my visualization was too detailed. Getting the details right is something I have yet to learn. Once I have mastered the skill, I hope it will provide a different depth to my skills.

My favourites were the Snow Queen and the Bottleneck. I love the former for the illustration and the latter for the complimenting colours. These two are the ones I look at now and are still able to put a smile to my face. I believe it's the same case for a lot of designers/artist. The value you have for you own artwork will depreciate a little for every single time you look at it. So, for me to be still satisfied at those two, it means they are really something. (big head getting bigger!)

I hate the Matchgirl and the Ugly Duckling. Ugly colours, both of them. I don't want to do them anymore. I am most disapointed over the Little Mermaid. I tried many times, but it didn't turn out the way I want it to be at all.

Layout
I did a three column grid. I kinda like the way the block of text is positioned. The white space is meant to add a touch of elegance into it. I don't know.. I just thought it looked nice. Have any lecturer read my rationale here and my marks can just get flush down the loo.

Overall, my book is 90% text and 10% pictures. What a boring book, I know. But then again, I thought the whole thing looked kinda nice and elegant. The concept I have for the book is that it is a collector's edition. That's why I'm striving for a minimalist posh look, if you get what I mean.

Jacket
This is something which I have yet to get approval from Lecturer. I doubt there will be any problems getting the green light for this, so, here it is! The oh-so-important cover that can be left to rot until the very last minute!

Postcards

Since we are integrating both typo and GD, we are required to do a series of five postcards to promote our book. Not just any postcards, but typography postcards. For my series, I opted to use Andersen's works to promote his own biography. Therefore, in the title "Fairytale of My Life", which is the title for the book, I have modified them using elements found in some of his famous works. Paper
For this assignment, we actually went to a paper company just to buy papers to print on! Not that I am complaining or anything, truthfully, it was a wonderful experience. I never knew there were so many kinds papers! It really opened up possibilities and experimentations for future projects. From now on, printings are not restricted only to card/normal paper and gloss/matte. There are papers like Conqueror micro laid, Curious Collection Metalics and totally smooth satiny paper called Skin. Papers are not retricted only to whites but there are kinds like cream, brilliant white, transluscent, iridescent, gold, pearl and so much more!

Printing
Like always, this was a nerve wrecking process. I couldn't help but feel that all my weeks of hardwork is in a make or break situation. If fallen into the wrong hands, all kinds of printing mayhem could happen. My knees almost gave up on me when I found out the errors on the printed copy of my book. Not only do I have to go buy paper all over again, I have to also reaarange the pages. But luckily, the damage was not as bad as I thought it to be at first.

So, in the end, the book is printed!

All is left is binding. Perfect hard cover binding. Something that is going to cost me RM40. Something I have no control over. Somewhere I have to leave my book for three days without any idea on what has been done to it. Tomorrow. Something and somewhere is tomorrow.

Wish me Luck!