First of Many.

So, Kaled. I dedicate this post to you. 

LOL. Honestly speaking (or writing... which ever one you're most content with) I miss blogging! I miss the days where I  could type out a post without a doubt, and to completely disregard the contents of my ramblings and what people might think about it. (Not that I do care NOW, but y'know what I mean.)

I don't mean for it to sound like an excuse, but life has been pretty hectic for me. I mean, my friends studying architecture warned me about this when I told them I was transferring to it from medicine, but heck... NOW I know what it feels like!

And according to them (and my lecturers) this is NOTHING compared to what lies ahead and that I should not be too surprised when my hair starts falling and shizz. Errr... I sincerely hope that doesn't happen. I'd like to keep all my hair please. The ones on my head la, armpit hair and the hair *cough*cough* down there can fall all they want. 

Heee.

And as you can see, I changed my blog name. Simply because... I felt like it. And because its true to the fact that this blog is all me. Yeap. True that, homie.

So yeah. I think I should update you about... what else? My college life! I am being point blank FRANK when I say college is taking over my life. Slowly... but pretty surely. 

If you've been following me on Twitter, you would know that I was super stressed out the last two weeks. All for what? For this;

(Photos watermarked with Photo@Gary are all courtesy of Gary Chong)

So basically, what we had to do was to construct an installation based on the LRT each of our group were assigned to, and we got KL Sentral. Hence the video I shared with you in this post. AND the installation needs to be interactive, meaning that people should be able to interact with it. 

LOL durhhh obviously. INTERACT-ive. I apologize.

Our initial plan was to build a life size model of this:

The idea was suggested by a lecturer, so we decided to go with it, but of course, still integrate our own ideas in it. 

Making the prototype.

Prototype 1

Prototype 2

Basically the idea was to construct a three layer wall that when viewed from the front looks like a bunch of lines intersecting and making connections with one another. In the middle of it all is a red door that people could walk through. This door symbolizes KL Sentral as the absolute CENTER of all the mode of public transportations (including KLIA and LCCT). Thus all the lines going through this red door are made to represent all the different railways and such that passes through KL Sentral.

Okay. Sorry for all that mumbo jumbo.

Lecturers loved the idea, but they wanted us to really think about HOW we were going to construct it. With what material. Yadda yadda. While WE, being the amateurs that we are thought that this was going to be a piece of cake (albeit a little challenging, but possible nonetheless) and went with the idea.

Thus, we began;

Measuring the corrugated board in preparation for it to be cut to the desired measurement(s).

Cutting the board.

Chillin' because we finished in record-breaking time (PFFFT). 

Skipping Islamic Studies. Chilling in the studio.

Beginning to construct.

Me being bossy and disregarding the fact that I am not the leader of this group.

Work done on the first day.

Already mega exhausted.

Second day.

Another group.

We are all very busy people. *scoffs*

Pretending to sleep.

Really sleeping. 

-_________-

There exist no boundaries regarding to where we would lie down.

Same goes to where we have our supper.

Final results by Day 2.

Slept over Maureen's (AKA the girl to be credited for all the photos with the date / time / strange numbers on them) apartment.

The vicious rabbit who tried to bite me when I attempted to offer it freedom.

Choices of breakfast.

Camwhoring. Sempatttt.

Weird kitchen. You can't cook in your underwear here (bummer) coz people walking by the hallway outside would see you.

Shermayn fixing up her breakfast.

Breakfast for REAL motherf------ champions.

Luscious blue swimming pool that I plan to swim in. 

Where I had lunch on the third day. Beautiful! And so calming. Shermayn says it was her best lunch ever, LOL!

The only 'proper' meal I had all the whilst finishing the installation. Proper here meaning food that is NOT from a mamak's. The above is Ohana's seafood carbonara, which is yums.

And eating on this swinging chair thingy reminds me of Egypt, when I ate at Chilli's with The Biscuits. MISS. :'-)

Sturdy-ing the installation.

First sign of insanity.

Purchasing metal bars from an operating hardware store. Which is pretty hard to find on a Saturday evening.

Metal bars with the initial purpose of holding up our installation.

We spent more than half the night trying to make our installation stand up... but to no avail. We've tried a number of times before, and I had my groupmates confide in me about their worries and their obvious fear over whether or not this thing would be able to stand come presentation day.

And that was only one of the worries! We hadn't even thought about a way to make the whole thing weatherproof and resistant to wind and rain!

I tried to maintain optimistic all throughout, and pushed my other groupmates to still believe in the possibility that this thing WILL stand, but I think around three in the morning, was when I truly gave up. 

There was just no way this thing would be able to stand up! Its definitely not impossible, but for someone of our calibre... its a bit too much. 

So that night itself, after much shouting and crying and laughing at the same time due to a cooped amount of stress (I truly believe Shermayn and I went mad that night), we came up with a last minute idea and decided to just trash the old one.

But still retain the idea of connections and whatnot.

Trash.

Sad... but,

Goodbye b*tch!

There were only three of us left at the time this was demolished. Shermayn and I went straight to work on the new installation we had in  mind, while Maureen rested coz she was the one who worked towards the very end in ensuring our first idea stand up... but the whole thing just literally broke apart and so did her patience.

So we told her to cool off a bit, and let us do the dirty work.

Mind you we only had the whole day Sunday left before having to place the installation at our suggested site on Monday morning. 

So everyone was all work, and no play. Okay that was a lie. There will still be play.... but work will still continue.

Me looking deranged. And cutting through polystyrene. A friend came up to me wide-eyed and told me to take a break. He said I was obviously damn exhausted that I couldn't even pull a silly face. 

But ffff how I look like, weh! All I was thinking about at that time was to finish my part and just have everything completed come Monday morning. Granted, it already IS Monday morning... but yeah! By eight o'clock!

And I'm happy to inform that we... SUCCEEDED. We completed everything in time for presentation!

It was GLORIOUS.

Our installation was soooo simple, yet it managed to attract a lot of people. And that itself made us felt all those sleepless nights were worthwhile.

Was supposed to grab lunch, but ended up just sitting by the stairs with Shermayn (coz the others left for the library to catch up on sleep) nearby our installation and just looking at people enjoying it and interacting with it.

A group of friends taking a photo with our work!

We had the multi-talented Murshid provide us with a live soundtrack. 

No kidding this kid is talented! Plays every instrument possible BY EAR and is awesome in the art of self-defense and whatnot. Love of his life; Hello Kitty. 

To explain the reason behind our ideas and what kind of interaction our installation invites would be a bit time consuming for now, coz its already taken me hours to get to THIS point of the post, so here's a copy from our presentation board;

(click for larger image)

The verdict given by our lecturers; Good. Especially for something so last minute. Plus, I'm pretty sure we have a good chance of placing Top 2 in our whole class, thus granting us the opportunity of displaying this at Pavilion (yes that shopping centre in KL)!

InsyaAllah... if God does not forbid. :-)

As a conclusion, this assignment really drained me of all my energy, but the end results of it was so gratifying, I forgave the universe for making me go through one hell of a time. This is one of the many things I love about being in architecture.

All of us complain, but in the end, all of us still find a way to fall back in love all over again. We constantly kill and revive ourselves with every new assignment. Its kinda beautiful... in a way. It also helps that we're all a fun-loving bunch, so we're always capable of enjoying ourselves amidst all the stress. 

Till next time then!