Entries for April, 2006

METHODOLOGY

1.HOUSING NEEDS RESEARCH:
survey sheet


I wrote that on 200 envelopes. I thought, "back to arch 1, lettering and stuff."

2.I had to distribute them to some few hundred houses if my feet could take it. Super thanks to my friends for accompanying me. And all they asked in return were free transportation and food. My budget, therefore, multiplied threefold. But no matter, I really couldn't do it alone. Haller!

3.I had to get back the survey forms after one day, provided the people were considerate enough to cooperate, and that they realized the importance of my research for THEIR well-being.


Results:

I ended up going to two subdivisions only, giving only to 14 houses in the high-end one, and t0 39 households in the low-average one. I managed to pump myself with some confidence and give to enrolling students in one university.

I never realized people could conceive surveys as harmful. Or something I cannot fathom. What's so hard about a damn survey, why turn me down???? aaaack. F*ckers. Don't you know I'm doing a study for the improvement of your lives in this urban hell? No, they don't know.

Another thing that stopped me was of course, my body. I couldn't take it anymore. C'mon, it must have been 128 degrees out there for all i knew! Sweat wouldn't stop, my skin was burning, my mind getting hazy. Not only that, we almost had no rest, and I think we walked a pretty 10 kilometers total. I'm talking in exaggeration, I'm sure you understand.

The following day was the time to get back the survey sheets. With fingers crossed, we pumped ourselves again with some confidence, hoping it would do us good. Better yet, bring us luck. I mean, what was the sense in all the confidence if we end up with nothing?

Out of the 53 households, we only got back about half. Super. People were so uncooperative. I hated it. But such is the case of public service, I believe.

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The third day was an unprojected rest day. Sunday. Almost forgot how sundays ought to be. The lazy day. Family day. Good food day. And where libraries are closed. But it didn't matter here. There were no sources on architecture to help me, closed or not. Life sucks.

But then, I bring myself again to the thought that it was Sunday. And after three weeks (they said) of dry spell, it rained. Hard. Like a Hayao Miyazaki cartoon. With the appropriate sound track. God loves this place. And I stay home, my lamp lit up, loafing under the thick comforters, reading Haruki Murakami's genius.

We all need breaks. And after that, like today, we wake up with reality slapping us in the face.

Nobody cares.

I really couldn't isolate the dominating element that pulled me toward Haruki Murakami's novel.

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

Maybe it was the sarcasm. Maybe it was the humor. Maybe it was the style (aren't the previous ones part of his style though?). Just proves that I really can't figure anything out.

Except that I was drawn. Except that I couldn't put the book down. Except that I chose reading the book over doing a fateful research paper.

Haruki Murakami is a genius.

Come to think of it, I didn't know what the main character's name was. I didn't know any character's name at all. He wrote a novel, gripped me, and not once did he mention a name. How many writers can do that?

I'm not much of a Sci-fi fan, but again let me say, Haruki Murakami is a genius. That the mind could be implanted with a re-written version of its own subconcious, and that one would, in the end, choose to live in that sub-concious, leaving the physical world behind, causing immortality of the mind. Brilliant.

Thus, I am now a Haruki Murakami fan.