i dun advocate chainmails but...

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rowers. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid-off one rower, halted development of a new canoe, sold all the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.

The next year, try as he might, the lone designated rower was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles,) so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses.

Ford folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses...

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY

i really can't believe

that the Woolworth and Ground Zero are just outside the window.

I live my life for epic moments like this.

I am just a microbe gravitating from protostar to protostar.

Maybe one day i can help create galaxy events.

If its possible in Hollywood, its definitely possible in Singapore.

dun worry singapore

we will get there...


GFCI just listed Singapore as Asia's most important financial center, ahead of HK this year. Movie industry ppl are placing their bet on Singapore because of MDA. Movie stars and finance gurus are moving to Singapore cos of the weather. So, dunch worry lah. just be ourselves lor. and take more OT.

Uptown

New York Nocturne 1

Now the nights of one period are not
the nights of another.

Neither are the nights of one city the
nights of another.

-Djuna Barnes,
Nightwood.





Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1910

I fell in love on Broadway, at the very same spot, 98 years later.

What other city is myth like this?

my christmas was RUINED

at around 3:14:

phew. tired.

university applications are GRUELING.

sigh. u work so hard to get into good american universities. and then you work so hard to stay alive in them. its not like any of the hard work is ever going to end?!

If i didn't have to win bread, and if i could live for myself (you know, like be a privileged middle son or only one child out of others), I would be taking things easy and living life.

but at least i have a loving family. can't have my cake and expect it to do architecture for me.

life is one hell of a rat race. dun like being a rat in new york city right now.

lift yo head up hai

vanity. hunger. betrayal. jealousy. wrath. revenge.

the only thing i can do to distinguish myself is commit to my craft.

these sensations are juvenile.

there are other plateaus to traverse in life. and i will find more meaning at the end. when there will be something still going on when even human life is extinguished.

so here's to anyone who cares: at least i know what i want in life now. and i'm gonna get there. do you?

new york is really awesome. all my concerns in Singapore have been given a new perspective.

soon now, i will standing at the top of the rockefeller and shouting my arrival in the new world.

Am i walking in dreams?

took a walk in lower and midtown manhattan last evening without a route in mind, just gravitating from icon to icon. it was like retracing foot steps in the memory of a dream. you can't help but feel that you've been to these places before. you don't need a map when its already been mapped out in your mind over and over as a child.


wall street.


liberty park plaza.


rockefeller.


very dramatically ariving at grand central station and the chrysler.


bryant park.

rain rain go away

from one craziness to another: deciphering ota ward maps in tokyo whilst in lower manhattan is weighty stuff. i suppose i should feel privileged, not being under joe lim's breath now - although the internet allows studio stress to traverse great distances with great fidelity (audio and verbal haha).

auy! the rain and winds in nyc haven't been kind! they would qualify as a cat A storm in Singapore terms - when your umbrella is as good as useless - you know its rain at a whole nother level.

still eager to get out and see the city. meanwhile i'm contented working on my japan studies, uni applications (WHAT A PAIN) whilst having WTC outside the window. Its surreal watching news coverage about ongoing excavations at ground zero and then looking out the window to say, yep there they are alright.

Meanwhile, steel frame skyscraper construction has been delivered right outside the window for my perusal. i can see how metal decking is really being bolted to steel beams right now some 5 feet from my window. its a lot more primitive than i was expecting - or should i say, those construction diagrams in the texts - really as far as construction needs to get.

Not even my birthday yet

But... its not enough that i'm in the city of my dreams (my window overlooking world trade centre right now)... so i really wasn't expecting the video.

thanks everyone who took part, even the guys i don't really know yet... aaron tan - SHOCKED LAH.



thanks chia meng, you're the closest thing i have to a gor. even my ura colleagues thought u are my brother when u came to see the exhib in jul. want to repay you in kind when i get back in sg. kopitiam beer with naked tiger beer lady on the poster ok?

junfeng and xd got me cake. and we made laksa lol.

11:27pm now not even my birthday yet! (so i still have 24.5 hours to ENJOY OK).

everything has happened so fast since submission last friday. had debrief on saturday, exam on monday, move out tuesday and then last night woobok drove me for 5 hours down to new york, even though he was shit exhausted. we played carols as we drove through winter slumber land, until new york and the statue of liberty came alongside the highway. take care BUDDY i hope to see u in singapore soon.

i'm still in america ok! will stop saying thank you and bye byes and emo things.

turning 24 is wah lau freaking awesome!

OK

just help me look for

1. Hard Eight

2. Boogie Nights 2 disc

3. Punch Drunk Love 2 disc

all by Paul Thomas Anderson

shopping list

Dawn - Control (The Miriam Collection) (2007), I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (2007)
CM - I'm Not There (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (2007), Boogie Nights (1997), Punch-Drunk Love (Two Disc Special Edition) (Superbit Collection) (2002), David Lynch's Inland Empire (Limited Edition Two-Disc Set) (2006)
Alfian - Eduardo Galeano's 'The Book of Embraces'
Dong - Minolta Hi-Matic AF2-MD AF Motor Camera w/Flash from Goodwill
CY - 700g of supplements

and stuffs for all my frengs.

homeboy

Exciting to see Manny Pacquiao go from local Manila champ (at the time i was there in Apr 07) to beating Oscar de la Hoya over here yesterday!

Used to watch WWF (back when it wasn't WWE) with my grandpa as a p6 kid. I guess i grew up and realised that they were all just ACTING. but not manny pacquiao - the only person more famous than politicians in manila. talking about the Philippines, did u know it used to be the second richest country in Asia after Japan?! What happen?!

I WANT TO EAT SUSHI... and.. and... ok i shall compile a list:

1. Hokkien mee downstairs
2. 328 Laksa
3. Wanton mee downstairs
4. HK Island Beef Brisket Noodle (aiya i want to go back hk)
5. Hainan Roast Chicken rice at AMK S11
6. Hotel Miramar eat all u can Japanese buffet (salmon salmon salmonella!)
7. Long bar steakhouse Pot Roast at Raffles Hotel
8. HK Cafe East Coast Road
9. Hans on Upp Thomson St (lousy food, favourite place in singapore)
10. Thai Restaurant on Seah St

0. (ultimate) drink teh si hot in a kopitiam off some beaten trail.

Sigh! I am staring at my pizza now. YUCK.

wthhh

i got top design for fourth year. wtf. i almost didn't even show up.

they said the "idea was so weird" it won.

my tutor told me that they were having a huge debate on it in the morning - when i was in between emo and seh on my bed. auy.



Final review suddenly converged on the notion that schools should possess distinct methodologies. i guess the exchange schemes were really so different. The Dutch designs had 1:20 technical sections (can see air lock cavity all). and my design was probably as un-NUS as it could be. I guess u could tell us apart from american students. Xianghua, the Singaporean in year 5 also won top in level. So apparently Singaporeans have been spoiling market in CMU since the days of Yu Hsien - who is also working in URA now. Xiang Hua is with JTC.


My tutor Hal.


Walked outside into a winter wonderland. Goodbye College of Fine Arts!


Goodbye Hammerschlag Hall!

I have a headache from eating too much snow. why does snow taste sour? its probably polluted right?!

YOU WIN, PERFECT.

Nick has rebalanced his chi - SHORYUKEN!



Andrea! I found the Harrods' Hamster.

i'm up.

you can just hear edina of ab fab hovering in the subtext, "rich sparkle diamonds diamonds glamour-shot, skyline, pan, pan, tableau, dramatic city shot, give-me-gorgeous, construction worker, sparkle sparkle aaaand next shot, next shot darling."

or you could just be hearing the soundtrack to new asia bar.

isn't it amusing how 'city views' begins with a shot of shanghai completely choking in smog?

i must be an urban planner.

at crit today,

"this project is so humanistic and everything is woven in with so much grace."

but also,

"oh my god i can't believe you're recreating 9/11. do you realise what you've just done?!"

ah.

nick meets abrasive critic from new york, noo yawk dammit. they loved it and hated it.

3 years ago i got stage fright talking to a british drama teacher in school. today i argued with a bona fide architectnista from new york. if people just aren't going to cut you slack, you can stare them down (when you're already up) and be all like, "so?". and they will love you for it. hell yea.

severe disorientation.

when i go home and sit under the coconut trees, what will things that happened abroad mean anymore.

why leave in search of dreams while reality changes beyond recognition back home.

my reservoirs and upp thomson kopitiam will not be the same.

i will have to find my way around again.

4 months of being with new people only reveals the same old me to myself.

i miss home.

but i want to run away from singapore.

maybe i just want an island somewhere. destress. destress. destress.

woobok, john and i gonna drive to new york as early as tuesday i hope.

whats that - a hint of excitement?

no lah, just some confused hormone.


wasey i have never been so confused before.

come back i show you my american accent.

4 months of work

My panels today









model


kitchen

scheme got selected for exhibition.

meaning i have to present to the whole school on saturday.

sigh.

not looking forward to new york.

miss home like mad.

just wanna sleep in my own bed and wake up from this dream.

feels like a half life.

my routine so f***ed up.

dunno when i'm hungry or tired anymore.

cut myself this morning.

my blood felt like tears.

hello, vitamin d supplement? someone get me some prozac. i need antidepressants.

RIP uncle hansong.

the funeral will be same day as my crit.

i'm sorry i didn't get to say goodbye.

walking in the cold at night is always difficult. no amount of protection can shield you from the arctic winds. (i'm serious, that's where they're coming from). and the skies are the dark red of impending storms. (well, thats just the colour of snow clouds in this country).

you look up and the skies are boiling.

but then it suddenly starts to snow.

standing on the kerb i saw snow flakes rippling off the asphalt. that was when i noticed that they had christmas lights in the trees.

sometimes so much shit happens that they become irrelevant to the mere act of observing.

and breathing. and being alive.



and i already have my panels. what could possibly go wrong?

stupid shows

one year ago pek shuxian jiayi and yanghan and i* designed this. it went to london and Opera Magazine said, "the best Barbiere I have ever seen".

now that i'm in America, i wish i never saw this.

after submission, i'm going to new york, and then to tokyo. i don't want to come home.

*because jia scold me