I was thinking about it on the flight back, and I thought the best description would be that it’s a whole world wrapped into one small package.
It is at once a country and a continent. It’s landmass is bigger than the whole of Europe and yet its cities are densely populated. It is modern and yet, it stays true to its aboriginal roots. It is blessed with so many beautiful beaches & yet, it also experiences the world’s worst droughts.
I suppose Australia is a country that has just about everything and I really wish I had more time there.
The past 2 weeks have been a blast and I couldn’t have asked for better friends (okay, maybe there are… Lol. But let’s assume there are none in the spirit of undying friendship alright? Grinz ) to do this trip with.
So this is to you, Jac, Teck, Corn & Carol… Love you guys loads & be safe for the rest of the trip yeah.
And JAPAN next year yo. =)))
And I finally got to do my light painting trick!! Cool bananas.
Up until that day, life was a playground, and I was at recess.
It sucked not being able to wake my dad up. It sucked more to choose a casket for him, and it was pure heartbreak to see my dad’s form turn to bones & ashes.
Death has a way of reminding us what really matters in life.
I never got about thanking my friends, but I’m really thankful for the love & support that friends & relatives have showered upon us for the past 3 weeks. I told 3 people about my dad’s demise, but somehow, just about everyone found out. The JC guys, the UBC gang, past & present project mates, my Army mates, & even Pierre’s parents dropped by to check on me, buying me food, taking me out for a quick bite, offering their aid in any way possible.
I’m really glad to have friends like that. We may drift apart from time to time, busy with living our own lives, and even if we meet up, we will tease & make fun of each other, but when disaster strikes, I know that they will come lie on the grass next to me, holding my hand & telling me that everything is gonna be okay.
Haha, damn, now that Eng Teck has graduated, I am, by default, the designated powerpoint designer cum printing bitch.
I was pretty burned out after our 3 hour Strategy meeting, & I decided to mess around with our deck (slides) & one thing led to the other and after 30 minutes, utterly useless but abstract Powerpoint art was created.
“Eh Kenny, by the time our first slide play finish, our presentation time is up.”- Cornelius.
The idea that we had, was to photoshop Pierre (the guy on the far right, who has recently gone to Canberra to do his Masters) into all our pictures, & tag him on Facebook, so that it seems that he’s still around hanging out with us.
I kinda stopped after 2 pictures because:
It’s disturbing to trace your friend out and stick them into pictures.
Pierre’s friends on Facebook will just think that I’m very weird.
(Above):Us getting Shengjie drunk on his birthday.
(Below): Us finding out that David was on Cleo’s Top 100 bachelors.
1) I went to Hong Kong
Revisited my roots in HK with my cousins & family. Met my grand uncles & aunties for the 1st time in a while. It was a great trip except for the fact that I did not manage to eat a single plate of dim sum.
I know…It’s very sad. It’s like entering a Krispy Kreme store & not eat a single donut.
The reason for this is because my grand relatives kept insisting that we eat at their place, chit chat with them, & since they own a pretty famous roast duck/goose restaurant, we ate nothing but duck & goose for a week. And maybe it’s a Chinese thing to be hospitable, they insisted on seeing us everyday as well.
They are v.nice folks, but you know, being tourists, you would want some free time to sightsee & shop. But it was quite a hassle to factor in mealtimes with them EVERYDAY & as such, I was joking to my cousins that our 7-day Free-and-Easy should be renamed 7-day Difficult-and-Impossible.
2) I tried wakeboarding
It was fun! Although I sucked at it. The trick (apparently) to getting & staying up is to relax & be gentle. But maybe it’s a guy thing, I wanted to use brute force for everything. To me, it’s like having a dog on a leash. When you feel that it’s trying to run away, you stand firm & pull hard. Except in this case, it’s a speedboat in full throttle instead of a chubby cutsey little puppy.
I slammed into the water, face first, for how-many-times-possible in 40mins.
It must have been tragic to watch. I didn’t dare ask Xiaopei, Miranda or Amanda that. But it must have been like watching a guy run into a wall, fall, get up, smile, and do it all over again. It’s sick, and it probably resembles something from an episode of JackAss rather than a lovely sport call wakeboarding.
But you know what, I would totally go wakeboard again!
(Miranda & Xiaopei, after watching Beauty World)
3) I had braces on
Don’t ask me why I put it on. Is there any other reason besides aesthetics that people would endure braces for 2 years? Did Betty put braces on out of a dare?
I don’t think so.
I was telling Mir that we have reached an age where it’s commonplace for us to ‘zhng‘ ourselves: ‘Zhng‘ eyes (Lasik) & zhng teeth (Braces).
We are on par now.
But I think she will succumb to botox first. heehee.
Some of you have been asking why I haven’t been blogging.
I try to come up with an witty excuse each time, like saying “I’m on a Writer’s Strike.” with a straight face, which granted, isn’t too witty, and alright, isn’t much of an excuse.
But oh well!
I have been pretty busy. Reservist & Hong Kong trip in December, hanging out with friends, chilling, gyming, tennis & soccer…
It’s my last semester in school, the last time that I will have a 2 day week (My weekend starts on tues evening!), the last time that I can sit at a cafe and watch the world go by on a weekday afternoon, the last time that I can wake up at 12 noon on a Wednesday, walk lazily to the toilet to take a piss, walk out to the living room, look at the papers, let out a gigantic yawn, scratch my balls & busk in the nothingness of my life.
It’s the last 3 months before my ‘adolescent’ schoolife chapter closes and the new chapter entitled “Corporate Slavery” (or “Poverty”, depending on my job hunt) opens up.
Precious moments that I’m trying to savor.
But i promise that i will blog. like tomorrow.
xoxo Gossip Girl Kenny
(yeah, thanks to Mir, I started watching this trashy series this week…urghh.. it’s so unlike me. I usually watch like erhm, Law & Order, and CNBC.. haha)
Teck & Jac wanted to take a nice picture of ourselves and unbeknownst to them, I decided to fuck things up & do my own interpretation of the Design Festival’s “Open Minds”.
We know that it is your secret fantasy to be a pop star. (we still remember you singing Paris Hilton’s Stars are Blind last year. my ears! oh! my ears!)
Thus, we, as “Top Friends” of Cornelius Chang, are more than thrilled to grant you this wish by producing your debut album on your birthday.
Mental note to self: Never ever post any embarrassing photos of myself on Facebook. It can, and will be used against me.
***
I had the most interesting conversation with Miranda at lunch yesterday.
We were talking about school, life, blah blah, and then she brought up the topic of starting our own ad agency. I was totally not serious at that time (busy eating my delish carbonara), but I still went along with her, and we started throwing up ideas. For instance, our agency name, we wanted to use our initials, “K” and “M” …. so it was K, M, K, M…. Karma!
We came up with so many crazy things during that one hour, and while everything sounded stupid initially, it then struck me that all these may actually work. There’s a some potential in the name ya know, to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the agencies, to position ourselves as a young, small but spunky agency, that’s bold & cutting edge.
This whole idea is only one day old, so the blog is still in its raw stages. I think we are going to leave it as a fake agency, and ‘hire’ our friends to contribute, and make it into a fun advertising blog. (although I still think that it will end up becoming stagnant! But okay, we should at least give it a try.) 🙂
There is this terrific sense of satisfaction when the sketches that you had conceptualized are turned into ready-to-print-ads.
A billion kudos to Eng Teck & June, people who played such pivotal roles in getting it done. It has to be the longest 36 hours of my life, but we somehow got the 8 posters done on time. (prayers do work!)
Brief: Internal branding campaign targeted at students & staff. For the students, it was that university life
should be more than just grades, & that their time at SMU is an ideal opportunity to develop themselves fully.
The idea for this is to transform Campus Green into an oasis of wonders. Students walking across a typically boring campus green are transported into a carnival of sights and sounds of famous attractions. This is to promote overseas exchanges, internships & BSMs.
This is a personal favorite of mine, because a) It’s my idea. And b) It’s a great idea. =)
The initial mock-up had no people inside and the feedback was that it looked artificial & contrived. And then it struck me that we needed to sell that experience as well. It’s not just famous landmarks that attract people, it’s the fun & excitement of being there with friends, doing the SMU jumps, taking loads of pictures.
And I decided to get my best friends in SMU inside the picture. This has been a difficult semester in school, for many reasons, and these people were important in getting me through it and plus the fact that it’s going to be my first exhibition & last fun project in SMU, they just had to be in it!
SO A BIG THANK YOU to you guys who made time to come down for the shoot. Carol, Corny, although u guys looked so stressed, still made it down from the library… Mir & Damien, although you guys had dinner plans and had to push back your reservation, thank you for paying the $2 parking fee so that I could take a shot of you guys. =)
You guys passed Kenny’s Test of Friendship with flying colors again!
This one, I admit, is very self indulgent. haha.
If you know Kenny well, you will know that Kenny loves the Bellagio fountains at Las Vegas. A lot. Ever since he got back from the States, he’s been thinking, if he one day has like a billion dollars, he’s going to build a mini Bellagio fountain to replace the lame reflection pond that nobody looks at. SMU will then, besides having a Li Ka Shing Library, have a Kenny Loh fountain, with mesmerizing light shows. =)
The ad is supposed to sell the fact that SMU curriculum is more than just finance and economics, and encourage students to take those arty farty mods like Creative Thinking, French Literature to develop their skills in other areas like creativity. It’s a weak link I suppose, but it’s my one & only chance to create this ad, so yeah, I wasn’t gonna take no for an answer.
And Teck saved it with his gorgeous Illustrator strokes!
The print ads to show that professors can play an important part in helping students reach their potential.
The professors have been surprisingly spontaneous! (more so than students). So yeah, a big thank you to Marcus Lee, Ted Tschang, Gilbert and Tan Hwee Hoon.
This is one of the projects where the grades really doesn’t matter at all. I’m sure there will be groups with nicer print ads than ours. But for me, the process of doing it and seeing its completion couldn’t have been more satisfying. =)
(psst… I got A+ by the way. *yay*)
The Bellagio Fountains! Its just jaw-dropping fantastic. Poetry in motion.
The refined architecture, the calming reflection pool, the gorgeous lightings… They all exude the beauty & vibrancy of a fun & “happening” university.
Students jumping, laughing blithely, having the times of their lives.
The beautiful facade.
But what people do not know is that inside this beautiful exterior, students are frantically fighting for power plugs to power their laptops, pulling their hair in frustration over impossible deadlines, gulping Red Bulls, & to further encourage physical & mental torture, the school library is now open 24 hrs.
Welcome to Week 12 of SMU.
p.s/ And you wonder why SMU has gantries on its compounds. I think I know why. It’s like N.Korea, they don’t want outsiders to know what really goes on in it.
*** Tasks for the week:
-10 page French Literature book review. (I’m at chapter 2)
– 6 A3 print ads for Visual Design (hur hur… die)
– 1 video for Environmental Science (*wide eye*)
– 1 Fixed Income assignment (die…)
Ah. It’s gonna be some week. =)
Haha. The idea that’s supposed to propel the marketing projects for this semester.
Made-by-Kenny card: S$1.50 (printing at Bras Basah)
I think it’s a little scheming that the gift stores do not display prices of the greeting cards that they sell. You pick one which you think is nice & doesn’t look too expensive (it’s only for a friend after all, lol), you go to the counter and the auntie scans it and it turns out to be 8 dollars. You think to yourself that it is way too expensive for a stupid, tiny, picture-less, scent-less, popup-less, music-less card, but you feel like it’s too late & embarassing to say no.
And even if you say no, you will still have to head back to the shelves and look at the myriad of cards, which you will then realize that you have no idea which is the cheapest.
What’s the point?
Lesson learnt: Crayon. Pen. Paper. DIY. It looks stupid, but so are your friends. 🙂
Seriously, Pasta Cafe (at Takashimaya) should be be featured in Harvard Business Review or something.
Last Friday, we were at the restaurant to celebrate Jac’s birthday. First, we hid our Bakers Inn cake with the staff. After our meals, just as the enthusiastic Cornelius was to surprise Jaclyn with our lovely cake, the manager surprised him by telling him that it’s a company policy that one of us have to sign up as a member in order to cut a cake &/or sing a birthday song on its premises.
The membership fees was $60. Like. Seriously. What. The. Hell.
Damn brilliant la these people.
Next time if I ever do open my own cafe, and my patrons want to use the toilet, I will stop them and tell them in a very polite manner that it is the company’s policy that he/she has to sign up for the cafe’s Triple mega-platinum VIP member in order to use the loo.
And let me assure you it is going to be totally worth it. Because you will get 20 free cupcakes within the next 2 weeks and you will have unlimited access to our loo for the next 12 months.
Total bollocks!
*
But it was great fun nonetheless. Lol, ruining people’s birthdays.
And I have a tendency to destroy people’s birthday cards as well. =)
***
That’s me! Guitar Hero! Alright, that sounds stupid. But it was fun studying fooling around in the architecture studio.
You have 60k. GAP wants to increase brand awareness, sales and promote its membership launch during the Christmas period.
Come up with something brilliant.
***
I was jotting down some of the ideas that we came up with during our brainstorming session at the Esplanade rooftop (yes, the extent that we will go to to find inspiration!).
But sigh, the ideas that we had today are CMI. Haha, and the list has since been labeled by me as the “List of Extraordinary Bad Ideas.”
Come on guys, buck up! Break moulds. GAP wants a yacht, we will deliver an ocean liner.
It bothers me quite a bit, knowing that there’s a better idea somewhere, but I just can’t pinpoint its location AND it doesn’t help that there’s something called “Fixed Income midterms”, which is like an irritating fly that’s buzzing around my head.
By the way, the pic is now on facebook too. LOL. Lousy advertising group mates should be publicly humiliated.
Great TVC ad. It portrays exactly what an iPod is to it’s owner – a 24/7 companion.
Somewhere between 3 and 4 am,
Night time. The best time to drive.
The air flows fresh and cool through the open window.
All lights seem green, the road is mine.
Night driving,
It’s calm, it’s effortless,
It’s for the joy of driving.
No rush,
No need to be somewhere at a certain time.
The music floats along,
Mirroring the rhythm of the engine.
Never thumping, never overpowering,
Just softly underlining every passing tree and house.
And transforming one simple jouney
Into a beautiful film.
Slowly tiredness sets in.
I turn,
Arriving before the sun.
Leaving Megane
Until another night,
A night perfect for night driving.
Description: John Guk, 25 years old, Christian (Protestant), 4th year Architecture student. Loves swimming, KTV, photography. A former child actor on Cai Hong Xia Ri Ying.
Starting Bid: S$10.00
End Time: 6 days 23 hrs 43 mins (Oct 07, 2007, 23:59:59 SGT)
Postal Cost: Domestic standard mail (Singapore), but really, he can just take a bus
Item location: Singapore (MacPherson)
History: 0 bids. =(
He’s in mint condition!
***
Who’s that idiot who said Samy’s Curry is the best in Singapore?
Muthu’s Curry (the one at Little India) is better! It’s been a while since I ate till I was so bloated.
There was once a boy in a silly red sheet, who lived in the temporal & never the eternal. he was always happy for Now because for him, Now was all that mattered and the Future was distant & always somewhere beyond the horizon.
– “what happens if something bad happens in Future? will you still be happy, Then?”
“Well, i don’t care, because at least i’m happy Now.”
“What if you end up being sad Then?”
“Then I will lock back & see that I was once happy Now.”
And he honestly believed that his rationale was logical. for so long as he lived in the Now always, and so long as he was always happy Now, he’d be happy Forever, because the Future was distant & always somewhere beyond the horizon.
***
But the future is never forever away.
***
One day, the boy was told that the horizon was right in front of him, & beyond the horizon was the Future.
he froze.
he stopped walking, afraid of what the Future had in store for him. “If I stop walking, I’ll stay in this spot & be happy Forever. right?”
he was wrong.
The horizon was the one moving towards him.
***
Forever can only exist in the past, never the future
once truly past, something remains behind you forever.
***
He stood still, never wavering, but still the day eventually came. he then met Now and he stopped being happy. he looked back at the distant Past & realized how happy he was Then but not Now.
Now, he was dreary.
And he started to walk backwards, & when that wasn’t enough to get away from the sadness he felt Now, he started to run, hoping to catch up with the happiness that has passed him by. he turned, hoping to see it right before him but it was gone. gone behind another horizon that had loomed behind him, his happiness had gone beyond it to the distant Past.
*** “you knew that this day could come.”
“yes, but i didn’t think it would.”
“you knew that this day could come.”
“yes, but i didn’t think it would.”
“you knew that this day could come.”
“Yes.”
***
that boy in the silly red sheet.
I don’t think he was wrong to live in the Now back Then.
because even though he is sad Now, he was really happy Then. but until he reaches the next horizon (or till it reaches him), he’ll be sad Now.
but at least he’s getting used to it.
he’s happy with his unhappiness.
***
Hey Child things are looking down
That’s Ok you don’t need to win anways
Don’t be afraid
Just eat up all the grey & it will fade all away
Don’t let yourself fall down
Waiting for Godot 
