Entries for July, 2007
I was sitting in a small square table on a sidewalk along Teacher's ville one night. You get the idea, right? If it's drinking sessions like this, one inescapable topic is issues about the country. Our particular topic opened with this question:
What do you think your profession can do for your country?
My drinking buddies were a film student, an education major, and a BA graduate. If you're not getting the point, because I was an architecture student, I was on the hot seat.
An upperclassman asked me that question four years ago. That time I was but a mere freshie, equipped with some Arch 101. Two years ago, it was I that asked the question to a stuttering freshie. I see my classmates, and I think this question is pasted on their foreheads. And its all good, because we've been speaking the architecture geek's language all these years. Even without really saying the answer, we know in ourselves the reason behind what we're doing. When we do our plates, we defend our design, and more or less we agree with a classmate's presentation. Because we do and speak design. We are students and professionals living in a saturated environment.
Yet, here I was with "other" people, and I honestly had a hard time answering the question. I'm hopefully graduating in nine months, and when asked about service to the country, I was stumped. I was sitting with possible clients in the future, and they were bombarding me with lines like "What do I care about architecture?" or "Your profession exists only for those who can afford it".
A horrifying realization came to me then that totally floored me. I asked them "Do you actually think that architecture is only about houses?" and in unison they said "Yes!".
So this is what "others" think. Architects draw houses, and are absolutely unnecessary. I happened to spend years studying design just for people to call my profession "unnecessary".
Architects and their students are so arrogant to claim they create space, but the people they're doing it for think it's almost stupid.
It was actually agreed by the organization of Architects that advertising was unethical. I think this is a factor why people don't seem to understand what architectural services are all about. However, as a defense, it is taught to students that architects must make it a responsibility to explain to their clients what we actually do as professionals. But it is the premise that clients come to us in need of the service, assuming that clients know they need it.
My point is that, we as architects and architecture students also usually miss the point about who our clients are. Everybody is in need of architecture, and they don't even know it. Meanwhile, we become prostitutes.
Baboysai reads Nodame Cantabile.
I told you about Nodame Cantabile before.
I thought the hype had gone down. Well, I was wrong before.
Nothing says love like this manga.
Volume 11, chapter 60, page 29
Panel colored by Baboysai (for the first time >.< I spent an hour!)
I had my thesis and all, but I just couldn't get the anxiety out of my mind. Chiaki took the courage to ask Nodame to go with him to Europe. But that's the farthest the drama has covered in Season 1. And I'm not hearing anything about when Season 2 will come out.
I knew I didn't have enough time for reading manga. I had two deadlines, both less than a week away, and I had to take them seriously. But I just couldn't concentrate.
"Will their love ever bloom?"
Apparently, that is bound to happen, no matter what the consequences. Because as they start adjusting in Europe (months before university begins), they only have each other. They do find friends eventually, but of course, they have their "bond", no matter how Chiaki denies it.
But just when Chiaki accepts the good things that happen in his life because of Nodame, he gets whipped away to go on a world tour with his master, and will be gone for three months. He realizes he didn't inform her about leaving, and when she hears about it, she gets into her usual depression 
(Aw). He leaves his key, and tells Nodame she can go to his apartment anytime. At this point I went 
.
Nodame receives a letter from Chiaki's tours, but a lot of them have women all over him, and she even gets more depressed. Chiaki calls her for the first time ever in their lives, swallowing his pride a little bit, 
but she hangs up on him because of the pictures, and he doesn't even know it.
Walking with a famous pianist, Chiaki passes by a jewelry store in China, and remembers that Nodame wanted a ring. He thinks buying Nodame a ring is too risky, since he didn't know her size. He settles on a necklace. The saleslady asks if it's for his girlfriend, and he denies it violently. The pianist tells him that giving jewelry is like an act of possession, but that if the girl wasn't his girlfriend, he must have special feelings for her at least.
Chiaki thinks...
Baboysai reads Nodame Cantabile.
I'm just going to say that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie (or HP film 5) is the best out of the 5 films so far. As opposed to the book which is 700++ pages worth of Harry's bitching.
Nodame Cantabile Chapter 64.
September has started but Nodame doesn't realize that classes are starting until the next door students knock on her door. Chiaki still isn't back from his tour and nobody's there to remind her about things. Good thing really that Nodame has friends already.
She comes to school, shocked about the levels of her classmates. She can't analyze music, she can't read notes.
Just a little background:
The story started with Nodame attending the music university as a 3rd year student in Tokyo. Because she wanted to catch up with Chiaki, who was at that time, a 4th year student and had a high possibility of going to Europe, she joined the Maradonna Piano competition. The prize money was enough to buy a ticket to Europe. Though Nodame's playing was the most impressive, she didn't win due to technical mistakes, but nobody was awarded first prize. I can't even describe Nodame's depression here.
At this exact same time, Chiaki asked Nodame to go to Europe with him (talk about wrong timing) but instead of the usual tail-wagging, she snapped back at him.
Chiaki: But didn't you join so you could go to Europe?
Nodame: No! I joined so I could play music!Chiaki later realized that was an outright lie, but only after Nodame had packed up and left for her hometown. Chiaki followed her there, and surprisingly, Nodame already had an invitation to Paris.
See, the judge for the competition was apparently a famous professor from a university in Paris, Sir Auclair, and had recommended Nodame to take the entrance exam.
It was in Nodame's hometown that Chiaki met her parents. Her father explained why Nodame behaved the way she did, especially towards piano. She was a prodigy, and learned to play by ear any piece she could hear. But because she would do her own style and not really follow notes, the local music teacher struck her. Her head hit the wall and bled. She acted differently since then.
Back to the story so far:
Nodame, still in her first day at school, gets to her major class. She finds Auclair-sensei waiting for her. He tells her to play anything she likes. She plays a most recent piece she heard, a highly technical piece that was played by a famous chinese pianist she saw playing with Chiaki in his tours. She finishes ten movements, and turns to the professor.
Auclair: That was horrible.
Nodame: 
Auclair: I told you to play a piece you liked, not a piece to see your technical skill. There are a lot of people out there who can play such difficult pieces.
What is it you really want to achieve, Nodame?
MEANWHILE!!
Chiaki, somewhere in Prague, talks to Stresseman (Chiaki's master) about Nodame. That if only she had the proper guidance when she was young, she wouldn't have turned out like she is now. It's a good thing that his mother has taken the initiative to support Nodame, and he has also decided to bring out her talent.
Stresseman: It would have been good if she became like Lui (the Chinese pianist), or if there was someone infatuated with her to take care of her like you.
Chiaki: Who do you mean is infatuated?!!
Stresseman: She's being neglected again. You should stop doing that. You should be clear with things like this. It's about time.
He f*cking stole my Sunday. 
I finally reached the end of the quite epic tale of the Boy-Who-Lived and all I could say was "Pfft."
Okay, so let's praise JK Rowling a bit. The story was original. The idea was brilliant. The books managed to make my heart beat a little faster when I read them. Well, except for one. And that was the annoying part. All that build-up, and years of anticipation it planted in me (8 years, I think), and I found myself quite like reading one boring work by a kid who didn't know how to write a book report.
After about 5 chapters, I was literally sweeping over the paragraphs and seriously wishing it would cut the crap and get to the end. Too many and too little things happened in all chapters, and I found no details to have helpfully enriched my imagination of the whole story. I had spent almost 12 hours reading 750-something pages of a very fleeting, forced- uh- summary.
It was probably because, while reading the book, I could not separate the image of Daniel Radcliffe, etc. And conversely, that Rowling wrote a screenplay of the final movie rather than write the final book that would have done the story justice. In all fairness, I imagined this movie would be quite entertaining.
To judge all of the Harry Potter books, I'd say that book 6 was the most masterfully written. Then probably book 3. Book 1 and 2 gave me goosebumps in the final chapters, so they go in 3rd place, with Book 4. I'm even going to say that book 5 would not take the last place.
Book 7 would be the greatest disappointment of all. I never expected it to end like this.
Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (Book 7)
Type: Book
Author: JK Rowling
Rating:
/10
Baboysai reads Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet
I'll just be reporting the events of the week, but you'd have to read to know how I came up with the conclusion stated above. That is, if you care.
1. There is a nagging presence in my home that affects my discipline, will, and diet.
And that presence is, well, my home. It's barely livable. I come here to do my routine internet and sleep, and mess the place up in the process. This rant appears once in two months, if you notice. I guess I should stop ranting about it because it happens all the time, and I always know how to fix it. It's just that, whenever my place is a mess, there is a psychological effect that makes me disorganized, lazy, and sad. It affects my diet because I don't want to cook in a dirty house. And when I don't cook my own food, I eat out- excessively.
2. See, it's a cascading effect. I've gained 5 lbs within the week. I am now officially over-weight.
I don't even want to explain the money I unexpectedly spent to gain that extra weight. Not to mention my shopping expenses when I realized I no longer fit in my bathing suits.
It may not look like it, but I like water. I may not be all giddy when people talk about the beach and all, but I really like swimming. I think I was born to swim. I've been swimming since time immemorial. But it's a curse, I think, that I belong in a place where I have no car (thus making travel to the "nearest" pool a hassle), or that there's just no convenient pool. I've stopped swimming for five years, and I think my weight gain a consequence.
3. Even if I'm innately kind, people still think I'm a bitch.
And that's the reason why the world is unfair. I usually don't have a problem with professors. I think I only had one issue so far, and that's been solved. Being a goddess, and a public figure, people know me as someone very enthusiastic, and it's never my nature to be sarcastic, or bitchy, or mean. And it's very, how shall I put it, un-UP-like of a professor to punish a student (though not physically) for being naturally inquisitive and eager.
To that kind of professor, I can say "F*ck you" on the internet. To me, he can say "minus 30 points".
Baboysai watches Michael Jordan miss a free throw.
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