what i do know is how the Malay use to build their house themselves, having a big plot of land in the villages, and only removing a couple of trees, and planting them back after the house is built so that the house merge naturally with the environment. there are several steps in choosing a site for the house, it has to be near other villages, the right condition of the soil, and it has to approved by some ‘pawang’ that there is no ghost living there, and its safe to build a house on it. the house would take up to 5 years to build if its massive and decorative, but usually it would only take 5 months. so the time frame is not that long.

the process starts when the owner-to-be of the house choose a ‘tukang rumah’: the man who builds the house, should we call them the architect?they dont have that kind of specialization, if the person knows how to build a house, then he’s help will be seek for. well, i think i would call him the architect, because he specialize in building houses, so he has certain skills to put up a house. but he doesn’t draw up the house plan and sections, those are figured out on site. the architect would measure the wife’s body, to build up the proportion of the house, suits the housewife. as the woman will stay longer hours in the house rather than the male, they go out for catching food and harvesting food. this is a balance practice, the males go out to hunt, while the female takes care of the house.

i am sleepy already, cant write anymore, seriously want to go to bed

well, to be honest, iv only finished a couple of novels, but wait!i used to read tonnes of books when i was in primary school, when i was back in Dundee, the library is near to our house, i always borrow RL Stine’s book: either Goosebumps or Fear Street. Owh, those times…after i finshed one, i would go running to the library to get another one, i can still remember the library. It was at the edge of the street, only 5 mins away from our house. they had rounded staircase at the entrance, the front door is big (at least i thought it was big coz i was little at that time), they had their counter just before the room where the books are. well, i have the spatial characteristic in my head, but i cant be bothered to strain to explain it, even if im an architecture student who shouldnt have any problems to explain about it..hah

out of topic!back to what happens once you’v finished reading a book. well, until now i still remember some of the stories that i read from RL Stine’s, for example: the Cataluna (or something like that), the cover had a young lady in red short dress sitting on a red sports car, looking angry or fierce, deep sharp eyes, with a ‘botak’ tree on the background. i cant remember the whole story line, but i do remember there’s a scene on an edge of a cliff, with the car, someone was waiting for someone in the dark. that was the only scene that i remembered. and urm, i dont remember much of the goosebumps series, maybe its because the stories were too ‘kiddy’ like, and im almost 23 now, i think my memory erased some of the ‘un-grown-up’ stuff. but i do remember the cover though, the word goosebumps were written in goowey green stuff, like it was running down the cover, but i cant remember the stories it had inside the cover. owh!i remember one!it has a boy, with a cap, but only has half of his body, the other half had a bee bottom, with black and white stripe, with the sharp sting on its bottom.

it seems that i dont remember much of the stories, i dont remember the experience in between the covers, i only remember the cover. maybe what martin said was wrong, yes you wont look at a book the same way before you read it, but that is only for that moment, i think after 10 years or so, you’ll only remember the cover, and dont remember a thing in side it. so you had to be reminded of the story line than, you’ll pick up bits and pieces of the story.

gtg…nak g bukak pose…later i’ll think more about this topic

martin brought up the subject of how auckland museum was built in neo-classical temple form. where did the neo-classical come from?it is not in context with auckland, and the time it was built (not during neo-classical time, but during modernist-corbs’ era). why was it built in such a way?we didnt know if it was a translation or an interpretation. i think it was an interpretation, as the authorities (auckland council) at that time, coming from european or to be precise british background, seeing and thinking neo-classical temple looked powerful and gave a big impact to them when they enter such place (somewhere in europe), that they want to translate the same thing to this region. it is from their interpretation, that type of building would also impact others as it would impact them made the museum as it is. this was what i wanted to say to the group, but didnt had the chance, coz of language and inferiority (i do have that problem sometimes), so there, i said it here.

the other thing that i just thought of last night, was the Al-Quran, how it is an interesting topic to discuss relating to translation and interpretation. last night AUIS did a talk on Quran and science, how Quran, which was written 1400 years ago had all the scientific proof of this universe which was only found by human a few hundred years ago. ibrahim, one of the speaker, talked about how the Quran is only in arabic, then translated to other language, then interpreted by different people, either literally or metaphorically. he said that every body can interpret the Quran, not just scholars, even you and me can interpret it in out own way. well, i dont agree 100% to that specific point, because your interpretation isnt necessarily correct, if you dont have enough knowledge on it, and dont know the context of the verse (when, where, why,what, who at the time it was sent down), then your interpretation is questionable. the scholars would know more, so their interpretation might be right in comparison to yours. so not every body can interpret the quran, but they can read the translation, then interpret it first in the mind, then seek for others’ interpretation to make sure you understand it correctly.

this would be a good argument in the discussion we had in the sun with the design group, because they touched a bit on the bible, how it was changed lots of time because it was interpreted according to the time, to the context of the reader. on that point, it is clear that the bible (now) is not the word of God, as it has been interpreted by man. in contrast with the Quran, it is the same since 1400 years ago, the same language and form, it is taught and read in arabic, then translated into many languages. later the scholars would interpret it so that we could understand better. so my argument here is that translation is a word to another word, and the word is put into sentence in order to interpret it, to better understand it. but the person to put it in the sentence need to have a background or prior knowledge to that word in order to make it a sentence. meaning that if you dont have prior knowledge about it, you dont know the history (with the small h), then your interpretation might be questionable. yes, i cant deny that you can still interpret it, but the question is, is your interpretation valid?is it true?yes, if your good at convincing people, people would be convinced by it, but what you’re putting forward might not be the truth, and you are spreading wrong words to the world, it would be alright if the thing you’re spreading doesnt hurt anyone, but if it does, if it kills someone, then it would be scary and you’d be the one to blame (more specific if it related to faith, then its dangerous to spread the wrong word). but if it design, i think wrong interpretation would be cool (ok), because either way, if its right or wrong, it would still lead to another innovation, leads to another new idea, and that is how idea grows, by interpreting.

get back to the topic, im here just to post a short entry on virginia woolf. she was my suspect @ subject for the weekend, we had to investigate about the subject and object (a picture which i dont know of the title + black and white+ relatively small to interpret with my unartistic eye). we are to present it this monday, which i dont know the presentation structure, but i’ll just present it: suke hati ak je. im writing my current reaction or feelings or thought towards virginia woolf, it may change in time as i only real the wiki and one review of she being an autobiographer by Daniel Albright.

virginia lived in the era of world war 1, she was from a big family, widowed mum and widowed dad, both with children of their own living together in a house and making more children. the father was educated and a critic and writer, which his daughter virginia turned out to be (writer). the children of stephans were givin good education, but not all menjadi. both her parents died when v was still young, plus two of her step brothers raped her or had sexual intercourse when she was little so that messed her up. most of her childhood memories were on the summer they had in another house in the country side, not so much of the life in the city. she was an autobiographer, writes diaries and memories of her childhood, but she was different than other autobiographer, in her writings, ghost her self out, she used kata nama ketiga to refer to herself, and doesnt include herself in her stories. she is always talking about her surroundings, the people around her, her atmosphere, in a way, she is talking about herself, on how she feels in situations she faced, on her thoughts on issues happening then, but what she didnt do is comment about herself, her presence there. which i myself dont quite understand what im talking about, this is due to my lack of knowledge on autobigraphies. i dont read that much either, so i cannot comment much on her writing style.

i can certainly comment on her messed up and ruined life. first and foremost, she married to a jew (not that its wrong, but i dont really prefer jews). v said they were the happiest couple ever lived, which i think is a lie. cheating on the husband doesnt portray happiness, especially in the case of v, having sexual intercourse with a married lady. v is a lesbian, and one of the lesbian communities looked up on her or something like that…i cant remember how it goes with the lesbian communities, but they are taking v as their idol. i think it would be really, i mean, really weird for that kind of thing to happen in that time, this deosnt mean that gays are right in this era. well, i dislike her being gay, because i think it is certainly against human nature, man are made for woman and woman area made for man, what ever reason that i hear from the mouth if homo on why they are what they choose to be, i wouldnt listen to any of the craps, its all nonsense. (yesterday i saw on TV a dad giving birth, turned out that the dad used to be a lady, and the mum used to be a guy. the world is really messed up!the baby would tell his friend that he was in his dad’s womb!messed up!…teringat what i saw on tv3 yesterday).

this v woman was fighting for woman’s rights and so on, why are the woman in this world in this time fighting for the equal rights to mans?that is not correct, woman should have equity, not equal to man. it is clear that man is better being a leader than woman (man with kindness and all the good quality in him that is~). i think i didnt get much in this part of v’s life yet. but i know that she committed suicide after thinking that she cannot bear her life anymore. im not sure what was her real problem, was it the jew husband who didnt treat her well, or was it because she had been sexually abused by her step brothers during childhood, or was it the consequence of both of her parents dying when she was still young. but even combining all the reason stated, death is not the final answer, only the weak think of that. committing a suicide is worst, as you will constantly repeat the painful act over and over again until the day of judgement, and the creator will give the right consequence on the act of not thankful of the precious life He had given, as the body is not ours, you’ll have to return it sooner or later, but only the owner decides when to take it back.

i think i might have put my emotion in this first review, but that is what i am, i will not hide of what i think.

from now on i’ll put my end-of-day emotion as the tittle of the post.

11pm: went to pn.siti’s hotel room(grand hotel) for the second time on the same day

9.15pm: ran from linda’s place (anzac ave) to esquires sky city (vic’s street)

4.45pm: balut hadiah + farewell + birthday party husna & shak at linda’s place

4pm: at whitcouls buying gifts + a craft book for me also (just like looking at it~ $10 je..amik je lah)

2.45pm: went and borak with pn.siti at her room

2.25pm: meet mimi at the interview place at the grand hotel.business suite.

1.50pm: took the bus from linda’s place to skycity to meet mimi.meet some random malay tourist at the library, looking for the clock tower, i pity them, auckland has nothing much to offer

1pm: arrived at linda’s place and had a few popia..very the sedap, n its making me hungry now

12.30pm: bought cake with linda at gatau’s place (q.st)

11.15am: jalan through q.st shop for a bit, bought 3 shirts (total= $30 only)

10.45am: waited for mimi outside the hotel in the strong wind.sejuk. . .

10.30am: walked from house to skycity

8am: cleaned the house + watched dr. oz show + wrote previous blog

6 am: woken up by my housemate’s cartoon show she was watching

at the end of the day, after walking to so many places and talked a lot (i mean a lot) compared to days before, weeks before..heard lots of stories and stuff, but still i dont really like today.malas nak tulis why.dah ngantok.nak tido,esok lg byk keje kene buat.

stomping on rec center’s veranda = finished

the Bersatu = finished

house cleaning = finished

we got bronze yesterday for netball..it was a pity coz the gurls worked so hard for it, and i think we were better than other groups…but well, bronze is what we deserved. it was really funny looking at the players and cheerers get so emotional at the court…shouting and cursing at the opponent team, ‘number 21′ really got IT by our team,everywhere she go the guys would shout at her..hoho very funny. i wonder how it would be like to be in her shoes. shivers..i wouldnt want to think about it, being such a drama queen on the court, they gave her the best actress award..haha thats what you get if you behave that way, if you yourself dont control your emotion and always wants to win and xpuas hati at other people, then you’ll get what you’ve asked for. haha #21

BOOOOO! i got that not once, but x2 on the court from the whole crowd…(well the opponent’s crowd) during the game with the #21 team..it wasnt my fault that the two girls fell, i was going my way, they bumped into me and they were lembik..sape suruh?then bile jatuh..salah kan aku pulak…but i didnt go emotional about it, just helped the girls up, they were fine, and didnt blame me..its just the crowd, sometimes the supporters make a big deal out of small things, the players were fine, but the supporters would go boncus on little stuff. well that livens up the game.

enough about bersatu..i only took one picture yesterday, but ive deleted it.haha so no picture at all from the bersatu. the slr was just in the bag laying on the ground. i dont know why i was so malas to pick it and click it nowadays, not too passionate with it.

so this is the only picture iv got of bersatu ’10..iv already threw out the pamphlet.

i got back home from the games hungry.really2 wanted to eat spaghetti with the white sauce, but didnt have any milk to make the sauce, so i improvised, using what ever that i have in the fridge. this was what i had:

sour cream

feta cheese (goat)

seafood (campur2)

mushroom

cellery

and so i thought i can replace milk with sour cream, and parmessan cheese with feta. but it turned out really bad. i mean really really bad. the smell was like..expired milk, this came from the sour cream+feta.i dont know whats with me and cheese, all the cheese we bought was the worst!we just bought blue cheese a few days back.i thought it would be nice, coz all the cooking shows were using blue cheese, but it turned out to taste like, urm burnt plastic?xsedap lansung!eewww i will never buy pelik2 cheese any more…

i didnt have a picture of the dish i made, but i got a better one!a beautiful purple coloured vercimili rice (bi-hun)..haha thats right!a purple one..canteek!it was on the counter for a couple of days.not that long though, amazing purple bacteria cultured there.hoho

nice right?i think its a piece of art!haha

i think i need to go out now. going to join mimi n linda for prezzy hunting!nyebok makan at linda’s house..i hope mimi havent had her interview yet..i wanna go and kacau her at the hotel..

lol no conclusion, im really bad at it.i had all the things i wanted to write in my head while cleaning the house, but malas to write it down. why cant they create an gadget that can write down what ever your thinking instantly?leavin!

that you’r not welcome to play the game?

that no body cares about your presence?

that your position can just be replaced some other random person?

that you can be tossed some place else?

that you dont belong in that group?

you feel like crying…but you cant…coz then you’ll have no pride

you feel like drinking a whole bottle of frizzy drink, or a whole cake….but u cant…coz then you’ll get fat

you feel like flying somewhere else but here…but you cant…coz you dont have money

you feel like screaming your lungs out…but you cant…coz your housemate is sleeping on the couch

you feel like running around the domain…but you cant…coz its cold outside plus its already dark

you feel like watching a really good movie to get your mind away from this…but you cant…coz there’s nothing good on tv

this is really annoying…please take me away from here…to a place where there’s free of problem…free of people…free food!

i’ll just lay here and cry to a sad song…soooo pathetic…who would care?

this writing therapy is not helping me, i thought it would ease me down…but it hadnt..so im not going to write any more..bye..

this short post is a reminder for me of what i heard at the musollah just now. we prayed isya’ and tarawih at the common room downstairs, they had a speaker connected to the surau. in between tarawih, sheik rafat gave a short tazkirah.

here goes,

it was in the zaman of the Prophet Musa a.s. It hadn’t rain for so many days, so Musa asked Allah directly why it hasnt rained, and he is worried if it continues to draught, then all the people would die. then Allah said,” there is a guy among you who are doing sins, it will not rain until that guy leave the clan”. So Musa went to his people and asks the sinner to get out of town, as it would not rain if he still remains there. but nobody responded. Musa continue to beg. but still nothing came out of it.

then a few days later, it started to rain. Musa was confused and asked Allah why did the rain came down eventhough no one got out of town?Allah answered; the guy repented, he asked for forgiveness from me, sincerely, and I accepted it. Musa wanted to know who the guy was.

this is what the God replied (not the exact word): why do you want to know this guy’s identity?i covered his identity while he was doing bad stuff, now he had repented, he has bertaubat already, why do you need to know the guy’s name?iv covered for him then, and i will cover for him now. (tutup aib)

what i got from this is, human, we are all human beings, we can never elak from sinning, we are helpless, we are weak, compared to the all Mighty God, but He, who is the most merciful, when you were doing sins, he covered up for you, and after you have bertaubat, he still covers up for you, it shows that He still loves you. He would accept repentance, a sincere repentance. there is always a chance for us to seek His forgiveness, dont ever think that you xlayak for asking for one, you’ve done too many sins, then not asking for repentance with the reason that Allah will not listen to you, He would ignore you, you are not brave enough to ask for one. this is not the time to be shameful of asking, but be shameful of the sins that you did, and ask for His repentance, as Allah is always waiting for His servant to talk to Him and ngadu to Him.

this is a reminder for myself, as i hilang semangat to doa to Allah cos thinking that i have forgotten about Him for a long time, then dont want to talk to Him, afraid that He wont listen.

Take action, then its up to Allah to accept it or not, but if its from the bottom of your heart, isA Allah is most Merciful.

-the end( for now, got to get back to my drawing of Kate Edger!)-

The first of a long forum about what happens to Architecture students. All students of architecture started architecture school because they wanted to make cool things; and initially they do, informed by nothing other than raw talent and personal vision. But, after the first disastrous crit, the student is faced with A) There must be rules to design, how else could it be judged good or bad? B) Somehow there must be a way of obtaining these rules and methods to inform design as this lecturer must obviously be a master of them. C) His personal vision and talent is not good enough and therefore the rules must be followed. This puts in motion a fatal downward spiral. Trying to obtain and understand these rules just gets him nowhere faster as inquiries into the matter is usually greeted with more empty confusion. The answers that can be distilled are normally from other disciplines such as geometry, science and physics, but nothing that would inform the thematics of design. (or at least nothing that could be applied to change a – this is crap, to this is great project) Confidence is bruised and self doubt sets in as the problem just get bigger and bigger with every project resulting in les and less interest and vigor from our student. Ultimately our student has two choices, A) Accept that he is useless and crap and drop out, B) Accept that he is useless and crap but pushes through school with the hope that practice would be better, but by that time his confidence will be so bruised that he will indeed be crap and useless, C) Realize that there are no such rules and keep on making cool things, which is what he set out to do in the first place, i.e. impresive BS.

The point is that unlike science and other disciplines, no hard and fast rules can be distilled as architecture is objective and supposedly creative. Unlike math 1+1=2, now and the next time, always, in architecture 1+1=2, once but 1+1=2, twice is old news! And that, my friends, is how you break a passionate, bright, rational student of architecture.