khow's milk

Multiply

2007-05-24T14:13:00.000+08:00

Recently got on Multiply to take a look at this new space of connections.
Another one of those internet seductions.

One can tell how bored I am.
Or how I tried to survive as a temp.

I listen to Rosie Thomas.
Like the kite that she promise.

The farther I go.
The more I don't know.

MTP Finals!

2007-04-19T02:55:00.000+08:00

These are photos taken by Pris...Thanks to her for capturing such great shots of my project! Finally its over!

My Thesis Project MTP

2007-03-09T20:37:00.000+08:00

These images are manifestations of the lack of posting these few weeks... killing me softly... the route to graduation.

The Question of Life

2006-12-07T03:08:00.000+08:00

Just back from a Kopi session with a few friends and the question of life, aka, what is your goal in life pops up.

It sent ripples of uneasiness all over me. Yah. so what's up next after school life? Its going to be a big step into the society.

I told them I want to be an architect. For reasons, I still am not quite clear yet. From my own hunch, I think I intuitively see that as a possible avenue to find my life worth in this short life span on earth. Being an architect itself is quite a task, to some a chore, to many a slave. I think I want to be a responsible one. At the very least, a critical one not bowing down to the lure of money. Tay Kheng Soon is quite a role model, despite his idealistic lofty ideas, he still makes things happen.

Ultimately, I think I just hope to make things happen. Sustaining the positive energy around me. Make life bearable for many others, most importantly myself. Most importantly, I must always know my limits before i can break it. that's as responsible as i can be. And of course my own happiness as the moral principle of my life and reason as the only absolute of life and myself as an end in myself, not a mean to any further end.

The Future of Singapore CBD

2006-10-31T13:40:00.000+08:00

I can't help but to post this on my website. A suggestion by Talkingcock.com...
Might be valuable to the future architecture of Singapore.
You never know when you will get this...

Life tidbits

2006-10-23T09:06:00.000+08:00

Being in school so early in the day.
A cup of tea in my hand with the donut, spinning already in my stomach.
I decided to listen to jazz. Sway to jazz. Sing to jazz. Simply a nice morning and a jazz.

This room is quite special.
I'm loving each minute of it when it passes.
Of course, only when the air-con is back on.
Not the days of holidays when its stuffy and hot.
Not when those people continue to burn their green forests.

Sometimes I really wonder what life is really about.
Is it a perpectual lamenting of how dreadful it is
Or a simple appreciation of how beautiful it can be.

Like a quiet morning.
A cup of tea.
A spinning donut.
A swayful jazz.
A mind of thesis prep.

Enjoying every minute of it.

Bad Aura

2006-09-28T01:36:00.000+08:00

Sometimes I really wonder what goes on in people's minds these days.

For some strange reasons, I get easily irritated by people's behaviour nowadays. All the bo-chapness around me are really making me frustrated. They suck so much energy out of me. A good friend of mine in NYC told me to run it off. I must admit the merits of sweating out those "bad for health" bad energy i absorbed from my surroundings. But still.....that doesn't solve the problem does it?

Perhaps it is simply me acquiring a more sensitive skin to this old allergy of mine. I simply cannot understand why people can be so indifferent to things that goes on around them everyday. It simply irks me to talk to people as if I am talking to those teenagers depicted in juvenile delinquency movies shouting cliche phrases like "whatever", "so what", "I don't care".

I think I am like that sometimes. Seriously. But I think I hate being that if I know I am behaving like that. To close my eyes, ears and mouth to things happening around me. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It seems like that's the way to stay alive in this society. JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. That's the motto of life.

I think I have no more energy in trying to create synergy. I think synergy is now a myth to me. Like ..... mermaid. Perhaps merlion is more realistic. No one really bothers about sharing anymore. To grow through sharing of ideas, visions, common goals. Nah....those are myths. The truth is, wait for people to tell you what they have to offer and gain out of it. Take it and zoom away as fast as you can. That's the way to live. That's the way to maintain the so-called energy in you. Be sucked or suck.

Be a Singaporean!

2006-09-08T17:11:00.000+08:00

Guys, This is a MUST-SEE movie.

Pls support local movies. Besides, this is a story that is really close to heart. Still remember why you are a Singaporean? The movie tells you all about it.

Bitter sweet and really amazing how it strucks the deepest chords in you. You can listen to an interview of the directors Woo Yen Yen and Colin Goh from Talkingcock.com here.

Be a Singaporean! Watch this! Support local movies! They need 3 million to just break even!

We were young once...

2006-09-06T15:46:00.000+08:00

We were the young ones....

*notice the WERE.....gosh....3 years seems long ago!

Blew My Top

2006-09-05T19:25:00.000+08:00

I blew my top yesterday.

For reasons I'm still trying hard to understand.
Perhaps there's simply too much under currents in me,
all accumulated and released at one shot.

I almost can't recognise myself yesterday.
Or I think the 11.6% amsterdam beer took the cap off me.

Goodbye to my lovely "twisted" bottle from Hong Kong.
Thanks for the sacrifice.

The Kitchen I miss

2006-08-23T11:24:00.000+08:00

The feeling I miss when I wake up every morning.

The Monkeys

2006-08-21T13:58:00.000+08:00

Amazing Dialogues

2006-07-31T17:39:00.000+08:00

Mr J told me to post this short account.

It was on a sunday when i was woken up by streams of high pitch yakkings coming from the living room.

To my surprise, there were actually a big group of relatives in my small 4-room HDB flat comprising mainly of aunties.

It was 3pm when i woke, therefore, lunch was one of the first thing that I did and below is the account of the dialogues that went on during this short period of 15 min.

Aunt A: "I want to sit down and watch him eat." (telling one of my other relatives)
Aunt A: "So how come you eat so late? Your dinner how?" (to me)
Me: "Can lah, dinner will be at 7pm anyway. still got time."

(Aunt B came along and sat down beside me)
Aunt B: "You eat your lunch so late, how you going to eat your dinner?"
Me: "Can lah." *can't really be bothered to reply the same thing again.

Aunt A: "What meat did you braised with?" (pointing to a blackish drumstick in front of me)
Me: "Ummm.....chicken I guess? " *amazed by her inability to recognise a chicken drumstick. "My dad did it."
Aunt A: "This kind of thing cannot eat too much. Will cause cancer." *I wonder at the source of the information.
My mum: "Oh no lah, we seldom eat also, right?"
(mum was walking past to the kitchen and looking at me for support in her statement)
* I smiled while scooping more rice into my mouth.

Aunt B: "Wah, this fish very big. Looks costly. How much is it?"
Mum: "Eleven dollars. quite meaty isn't it?"
Aunt A: "Yah if it's $11, it is cheap. don't you think so?"
Aunt B: "I not sure, usually my husband go buy. Wait I call him here and ask."
(she left the kitchen to get my uncle subsequently)

Uncle: "ok lah $11 for that. Average."
Aunt A: "wah you very good life ha, your husband cook for you and you no need to go market."
(refering to Aunt B of course.)
Aunt B: "oh no lah he is better at it that's why."

*I quickly finished my last mouth of rice and left for the sink to wash my bowl.

And the whole gin gang left the kitchen and back to the yakkings in the living room.

Sometimes I wonder, what ticks a conversation like that. It actually lasted my whole lunch. I wonder if it caused the indigestion in me. I guessed they were bored in the living room. After all, there's only so much to talk about to my sick dad. Besides, he can't respond too well with his hearing impairment. [khow]

Ice-cream Factory

2006-07-05T13:46:00.000+08:00

A clip of the past

2006-07-02T15:07:00.000+08:00

Dug out this old newspaper when I was packing my room...

What is wrong here?

2006-06-30T00:40:00.000+08:00

Recently there was a result after a survey on the average home income of singaporeans. Which had increased over the last five years. 92% of singaporeans owned their home in singapore.

I wonder how many of us really see that report as something worth celebrating for. I wonder what it means to be the owner of a HDB flat. Will I feel proud of it when deep down I know I can be relocated almost anytime the government wants the piece of land my flat is situated on?

Everyday I lived, yet I feel like I am not living. I don't feel excited over things around me. I feel like travelling to other countries all the time. I wonder what does singapore mean to me actually. Do I feel for it at all? Perhaps I am just taking things for granted over here. Is that the problem of me only or everybody around me? If it is, what is wrong? Sigh.....

Is that our money?

2006-06-13T14:03:00.000+08:00

I refer to the program telecasted on national television on the 12 june 2006. The only female speaker said something like that," ... the government's money does not consist only of taxpayers' money..." She's refering to the "surplus" revenue that our government managed to earn after investing in the GICs. The question is, are those taxpayers' money too? OR do they belong to our government? Are we that separated, the people and the government?

Singapore is transforming

2006-06-11T15:17:00.000+08:00

I happened to venture into a few exhibitions this weekend. The NUS city exhibition at Marina Square, the NUS architecture year one studios' "Still" exhibition at SAM. Finally got myself more actively going to exhibitions which happened to be more nowadays in singapore. Perhaps still living the life in London. Just a different place...

There were of course a few forums too. I don't know why but it seems more happening this week. Went to the one at SAM, the TAP! forum of "Architect in a bottle" and lastly the "Save the buildings" series of Rojak.

Out of all these, the more notable ones are the forums of Rojak and TAP! Perhaps more notable because they reminded me of the current book that I am reading, "Multitude". Both forums, despite different in topics and nature, were equally informative and raised a certain awareness of what-goes-on in our society. Perhaps our society is really changing for the better it seems.

The forum at TAP! started at the National Library at around 7pm with 3 guest speakers and one moderator. All are architects. Of course, with a topic as "Architect in a bottle". Responses from the floor came from a variety of members from the public, there were practising architects, students, professor from NUS economics department, foreigners from India, engineers etc. All questioning the role of Architect, especially in the context of Singapore.

On the other hand, Rojak was more of a presentation of 10 creators from different fields of design, be it architecture, film, graphics, product design, etc. It was more of a sporadic nature and attracted a larger number of crowd in an old-fashion event room at the modernist building Golden Mile Complex. It was a very informal sharing sessions. Sharing ideas, process, jokes and of course drinks.

Upon comparison, TAP! appeared to be very open and appraochable to the public with a strong agenda as compared to the adhoc and less publicised ROJAK presentations. However, internally, it seems otherwise. The forum of TAP! involved mainly architects who are still very much concerned with a more elitist approach of architecture, despite their emphasis of architects as a facilitator. The speakers did not fully explore the opportunity of inviting ideas and participations. In fact, speakers from the floor seemed to be more aware of the situation and in sync with the agenda of the forum. ROJAK, despite its appearing elitist nature, seemed to be more open and approachable. Different presentors shared their creative works and feelings towards their works in a more honest and direct way. Such sincerity was felt in most of the speakers and most ideas are communicated freely with no barriers of social responsibilities. Questions flew across the room very casually between the presentors and the floor audience (literally FLOOR audience). ROJAK in a way seems to have more potential as compared to TAP! in achieving a participatory approach to social activism.

Anyway, kudos to both. For at least they are doing something in Singapore. For at least they dare to speak and dare to act. Singapore is transforming.
*visit www.farm.sg for ROJAK and www.reallyarchitecture.blogspot.com for TAP! a.k.a. RE:ACT

What next?

2006-06-08T22:59:00.000+08:00

The cure for cancer?

2006-06-01T13:02:00.000+08:00

For some people cancer is like the end of the world. To me its the beginning of a journey to a new knowledge.
I set myself upon the path of knowing about more of this new enemy of mine (other than that of the invisible plague that's been around since society's birth), ever since my dad contacted this new found battlefield behind his nose.

After a introduction into raw food, I realised that we had been doing vegetable injustice by eating them cooked. it seems that they are able to keep us healthy forever if only we eat them RAW. yes. RAW. Till now I still can't really imagine eating brocolli raw though. Perhaps its a matter of habit.... Apparently, there's this alternative treatment for cancer. Eating vege RAW. Someone told me to eat a piece of RAW garlic a day and the doctor keeps away. That reminds me of the apple. Perhaps, it is true for the apple as we never eat cooked apple? hmmm... even though I remember I ate cooked apple to cure myself of the asthmatic problem I had as a child.

Anyway, dad keep up the good fight. Even though I know you might never venture this far into the virtual world to read this. I will and can only feed you this new knowledge I know. The rest is up to your body.

The Story of the Khow

2006-05-25T20:17:00.000+08:00

Perhaps it is by chance that khow decided to thread his hooves into the virtual alleys. Not knowing what the past meant to him, not clear of what the present is, not sure of what the future holds for him. Here he is, threading with his hooves. Recording what had been the past or the present or vision of the future.

Man A: What's in your bottle?
Khow: Milk. Squeezed from my very own udder.
Man A: Why do you collect your own milk?
Khow: Don't you think it'll be sad when one day you forget what you can produce and you produce no more.

Man B: Where do you go from here? With your bottles of milk?
Khow: I don't know. If I remember, I'll give you a bottle.
Man B: What are they called?
Khow: khow's milk.

With that, khow stood up and started to move away in a melancholy manner.

Man A: Will you be back?
Khow: I'm always here. khow's milk is here.

He began his journey and disappeared among the mist of the dark virtual alleys.