Official launch: www.ChildrenSociety.org.sg/fundraising

“Hope is REALised when impossibilities are made REAL.”

REALise is an integrated campaign, which consists of print work as well as an interactive awareness and fund-raising website that promotes to the target audience, youths and young working adults, through unique storytelling, the organisation Singapore Children’s Society.

I knocked out, dead beat, and slept until noon. Here, the sun rises by 5 in the morning.. Without knowing the time, and from the strong sunlight penetrating through the thin curtains, I thought I’d really have slept till 4pm, like what I told Sean. A very good thing I brought my pillow and an old cloth to use as bedsheet. Macson and Sam put up at a hotel for the first night; by right, they should have moved in by evening but apparently the people staying there weren’t ready yet. This day, we arranged to drop by Carrefour at Zhong Shan Park to purchase whatever’s necessary that we didn’t or couldn’t bring.

Linda came at around 2pm with two workers so they could replace the light in my room with a brighter one, fix the aircon, replace the orange lights in the living room with white ones, change the entire lock of the entrance door (the previous people who rented this apartment still have the keys) and make sure everything was working fine. Because the aunties (we don’t call them maids or domestic helpers, just “阿姨”) would drop by later to clean the house, we took some time to look for food (late lunch and early dinner) and at the same time explore our neighbourhood. Here’s the view from the lift area on the 16th storey, the sky had cleared up to a large extent since yesterday, the weather’s hot but not as humid like Singapore, so you won’t feel too sticky after being in the sun for some time.

We thought we might check out the laundry shop downstairs and saw a price list although it seemed to be closed. A few days later we asked the security guard, he said they had stopped operating a long time ago.

This is the entrance of our condo, and of course the police station:

Along a stretch of road in the this area, we found not only food stalls but apparel stores, many salons, convenience stalls, a gym, kindergartens, an art club (named Artistic Club. oh how artistic…), newspaper stands, restaurants, hotels, massage palours etc.

Among these, was a kindergarten in particular; walled up in red brick walls and heavy metal gates, it looked more like a prison than a learning centre for kids. Aww. Most of the folks here are supposedly healthy and fit (and gosh, all the ladies have very good figures), we hardly saw any horizontally challenged people around. One of the reasons must be that they travel a lot. Cyclists, whether young or old, men or women, can be spotted on the road at any time of the day, it’s one of their basic mode of transportation. And they are as dangerous as cars =.= you might knock into one of them if you’re not careful.

While walking I saw this sign.. Doesn’t it so remind you of something =)

In this picture is a tray of.. lobsters? Crayfish? I don’t know.. but one think I know for sure: they’re damn red. For a moment I thought those were some kind of insects.. as food =) Yummy. I’d be the first to try and *omg take pics, so exciting!* if I spot any insect stall in Shanghai. They definitely do sell them in other parts of China, like the fried worms and bugs on skewers.

Well. Talking about food, Sean and I wandered around until we walked by an Italian restaurant Venexia and asked to browse through the menu. At 4pm, such a weird time, the restaurant was totally empty save a single waitress who showed us the menu and told us that we could come by during lunch (several set meals to choose from with reasonable prices considering the fact that this is a genuine Italian restaurant) or dinner. Might have to call to reserve a seat because of the crowd. On hearing that, we went *omg* and made up our minds to visit Venexia the next time round.

Around the corner, we found yet another Italian restaurant called Olives, more for “casual dining” than wine tasting lol. Sean was snapping away at the menu when the waiter walked over and told us not to take pictures of it. He came a second time while we silly idiots, thinking that taking pictures of everything else besides the menu was okay. I only managed to snap two pictures of the restaurant; cosy, and is a great place for relaxing and catching up with friends.

Some of the items in the menu are permanently unavailable, I remember it was more than two or three.. they could’ve changed the entire menu. Or alternatively, we could offer to redesign *tsk tsk* it hehe. After the meal, Sean was grinning continuously at the quite unbelievable lunch we had. For 62 rmb, I got myself a carbonara (the serving size is like Pastamania), a bowl of minestrone soup, smoked salmon salad and a glass of iced coffee! Too yummy to be true! We were pleasantly surprised when they further presented us with two 10 rmb vouchers, one for every 50 spent, valid the next time we have our meals here. Really, if it wasn’t for their limited selection from the menu, I would have gone there everyday okay. ^^

We got back to our apartment and the two aunties arrived soon after. My idea of a cleaner would be a person who carries pails, a broom, a mop, detergents and who smells like soap. When they came empty handed save for a couple of rags, I became doubtful, and I haven’t even locked the valuables in my luggage. The two aunties seemed to be from another part of China from the way they talk, I heard they live in the basement. No it’s true, although I can never imagine the living conditions there. Sean made two separate trips to the convenience stall downstairs to get things like detergents to clean the stove (called 油葫芦,which is such a weird name. But we definitely have weirder ones in Singapore heh), the toiletbowl, the windows and powdered laundry detergent for them to use to rinse their rags (also because it was necessary for handwashing our clothes). Chatting with them made me realise how pampered I am. One of the aunties’ daughter is only 12, but she’s already learning how to cook her own meals, just in case one day when her mum can’t be there for her anymore. She said that it didn’t matter if your rice turned out bad today, because there’s always tomorrow to try again. For your info, I cook cup noodles, eggs and pre-packed pasta =) That’s about it.

When we mentioned how much we paid to rent this apartment, their jaws dropped (figuratively….). Because they often clean other apartments in this block, they knew that there had been many people who viewed our apartment but it was never rented out.. cause it’s DAMN DIRTY. And old, since 1998. The previous person who lived here was a female teacher, one with very bad hygiene indeed, hence the current state of the house. The normal rent of this apartment would have been about 2k+ to 3k rmb a month. I KNEW IT. And we’re paying a hefty 6.7k rmb! *smoke rising from the top of my head*

We left the aunties to do the last bit of cleaning, made sure we kept our valuables and cabbed to Zhong Shan Park (it’s not really a part, you know) station.

There are different cab companies under which the cabs are of different colours (green, blue, white, maroon, black(?)), but most of them adopt this counter system. When a cab is empty, a sign “空车(empty car)” is lighted and you can clearly see it from a distance. When you enter the cab, the driver pushes the sign down, which means the cab is no longer empty (duh) and the meter starts jumping. You’ll be seriously annoyed *GRINS* if I tell you: the starting amount for Shanghai cabs is 11rmb (that will be $2.20) for the first 3 KILOMETERS, and then 1rmb ($0.20) subsequently for every x meters or waiting time (I’m not sure). Therefore, we decided, cab = our main mode of transport ;) It’s SO CHEAP. Unless, the driver decides not to push down the sign, or pretends not to if the passanger is ignorant, or has forgotten about it. When you reach your destination, he quotes an amount that’s surely higher than the actual cost if he had stuck to the meter. So we’re always alert and mindful about it.

A certain kind of cab has got an interactive touch screen used for advertising at the back of the passenger seat. Sean will show you more ~

But it’s so coincidental, we actually bumped into Sin Yew and one of our colleague-to-be at this overhead walkway connecting to the other building and he walked us there to find that the shop has already closed. Because it was necessary to get a local phone card as soon as possible, after Sin Yew left, we went to another China Mobile branch in the area. Temporary local numbers are priced according to the ‘value’ of the numbers. I chose the number 13501646201 for 30rmb(for the phone number, one of the cheaper ones) + 50rmb(credit). You can make an overseas call (to certain countries, Singapore included) at the rate of 0.4rmb (that’s less than $0.1!) per minute. That’s.. wowness, just as good as Skype. =D

Back there in the mall, we spotted another interactive installation like what we’ve seen in Singapore. (yes we are such hardcore IMD students… :D)

Especially on a weekend, Carrefour was extremely packed with crazily kanchiong shoppers and gigantic trolleys; just like an “F1 race”. We began hunting for food that we though might be good to last us for a week: clothes peg, hangers, clothes line, cheap basins, distilled water, a mop, tissue paper and whatnot. Sam and Macson joined us, and we shopped like we were shopping-deprived, until Carrefour was closing.

Plastic bags are sold for 0.20 rmb each, as part of the ’save the environment’ scheme similar to Taiwan. I guess Singapore ought to implement this too, our plastic usage is terribly high. Half the total cost (split with Sean) for shopping was 312 rmb! All the items we bought couldn’t even fit into the plastic bags because they don’t have the bigger ones. Tired and hungry, all four of us found a restaurant Manabe (真鍋, in Japanese) that opens till 12mn, scurried in, dropped all our shopping bags (look at that…)

and sank into the chair. I happily ordered a yoghurt ice blend drink while the rest of the guys got something more substantial for themselves. All I can say is, awesome drink (25 rmb) :3

Midnight charges for any cab (after a certain time) starts at 14rmb instead of the usual 11rmb. Not much of a difference, really. While I was brushing my teeth, I began to notice the sink was clogged up because the water didn’t go down very much. And so I plumbed the sink. Look at the contents, omg. Wait, I don’t think you can see the insects from this photo. >_<

By the way, hello to the handful of people who were patient enough to check back here for updates. Loves! =)

[ Expenses ] :
62 rmb (meal), 25 rmb (drink), 312 rmb (grocery shopping), 33 rmb (cleaning), cab, 80 rmb (local phone card) = 512 rmb

The Appletastic Portfolio site, full flash, best viewed in 1024 x 768.
For potential clients, companies or just anyone who’s curious.
A summary of the more decent stuff I have been doing in school all this while, as well as other miscellaneous artwork.
If you’re unsure of how to navigate, let me know.

Would be good to hear from all of you =)

Since I haven’t posted pictures for such a long time, and there have been so many interesting happenings in this week alone, I decided to do a super picspam today. Say yay. School reopened in a hurry, I guess no one was really prepared for this block to start partly because everyone’s so busy with their portfolios and interviews.

On Monday we had our first lesson for textiles manip class (the elective offered by Apparel Design) it was my first time stepping into the Print Shop in a long time.

Over the week we busied ourselves with handling pieces of cloths and essentially tie-dying. They’ve a huge dye bar with 4 basic colours (red, yellow, blue and black) and so by mixing, you get even more colours. There are various techniques for tie-dye, but the most common is to use rubber bands to create patterns and flow. First we determine the type of design, do the prep, collect colours from the dye bar with cups and then begin experiment. The cloth can be dipped into the colour, or we use a syringe to inject the pigment into certain parts, then they are left there and dried. We repeat the process on those of which results are not satisfactory; the colours are faded, many areas are left un-dyed etc.

What you’ll end up with is this.. and from my first batch of tie-dyes, I like this one best because it turned out unexpectedly nice.

Before we move on to batik and screen printing, Veronica wanted us to dye a t-shirt yesterday as part of the last tie-dye assignment:

I’ll post it up when I have the completed tshirt.

P4 is such a Pain in the neck. Concepts are reallly a Pain in the neck. P4 is open topic, similar to Final Year Proj, which means we source for and create our own information, formulate the brief, determine the scope of work to cover, and now it’s no longer a website that’s strictly required; we can choose from installation, video or print, as long as it encompasses the key element of Interactivity. The best thing is that we gotta go for consultation 4 times a week?! Crap……..!

On Weds and Thurs we split into 2 groups, took turns to go on a class outing to Discovery Centre and National Museum to view the interactive installations. A CLASS OUTING! It’s something I miss very much from sec school (other than PE). Luckily, we’re back here safe, instead of ending up in an obsolete island, having explosive collars around our necks and weapons to battl…. oops I digressed. I swapped over with Jac, my group was led by Yong while the other was led by Tommy.

Our tickets to Discovery Centre were subsidised. Child ticket!!

At the canteen, there were two vending machines like the ones we have in school. I got a pleasant surprise when I found this! It’s a candy from my childhood where you squeeze the tube and create mini ‘ice’cream cones. (what’s with the name… =_=”) Tastes kinda crappy actually, I have no idea… it’s like eating glucose paste. And I didn’t even bother opening the pack of biscuit cones lol.

We went there on a guided tour.. “Walk in pairs, kids!” Already, there were many things you can interact with physically on the wall and boards. Interaction doesn’t mean it has to be elaborate, something simple also counts.

Here, Syafrin and Qinghui were testing out the blue ’screen’ background for us. Notice there’s a webcam installed in front of the speaker while he’s reading. The computer then erases the background and replaces it with a video clip. When Qinghui sat there, her whole shirt disappeared, replaced by the video background. Go figure. / Our lecturer Yong explained to us the concept of the touch screen on the ground which senses shadows blocking the projection (from the top) and hence triggers reactions. The projection on the wall was another similar application. / At another section, Esther tested the blue screen for us. We noticed there was an area where the webcam captured, basically a rectangle, and when she crossed the boundaries, it was visible on the screen.

This is another one of the interactive projections where participants circle it and take part in a quiz, with buttons at the side to choose the answers. / In a huge dome like structure, there was a large number of touch screen monitors/kiosks which allow participants to play the game at a certain time. It’s most probably meant for students and groups like us touring the place.

Doesn’t this look just TOO FAMILIAR……. where’s Shinji? :D

Actually in the middle of nowhere, they took us on a tour on the bus around the entire SAFTI site. WJ told me he trained there at OCS before! So cool, the place was really neat and serene. Too bad we went at the wrong time, no hunks to drool at for Momokz. LOLs. After one round, we were back at the centre again. If you’re there, visit Little George the android, talk to him and try to piss him (or the person behind) off like Sean (well mostly) did.

Singapore National Museum showcases a lot more artsy installations, basically in a more mature style because of a difference in the target audience. It’s suppose to be an intuitive tour; we were each handed a device and headphones and according to indications on the ground, if we pressed the number(s), information relevant to the area we were viewing would be played back. Thus you could explore the exhibition individually and skip/go through information that you don’t want/want to hear. There was a 360-degree projection and the audience sits in a circle to view it.

The architecture at National Museum is awesome! Among the exhibits and installations at the site, these are some that might be of interest to you: a magnetic wall with random objects such as spoon, helmets, funnels and bowls you could rearrange (you really don’t want to know what the classmates did); meet David (LOL G and H, fanclub!), a very taaaallll sculpture standing at the main entrance and he’s covered in pink textured cloth if you look close enough; a lightbulb at one of the galleries upstairs.. within the lightbulb, you can see a mini live projection of two feet stamping with complementing sound effects (it took quite some time but we couldn’t figure how it was projected INSIDE the bulb); and lastly…

…a live size replica of the metal pins thing which you put your hand or face through and it forms the shape. Hey presto! The Incredible Hulk! The Iron Man! So cool right!

//

Got some more work to do for both textiles class and P4. The utmost important one is to secure a CONCEPT! Argh! On Monday, the team will resume CDI, do packaging for our motifs and tie-dyes, more consultations for P4.. yada yada. In short, it’s another long stressful week ahead. But no matter what, I’m doing my L fanart for this weekend, watching my TV and meeting dear leng loi Claudyne for lunch tomorrow. Omg I spent 4 hours on this post!

WJ, hope you won’t feel so lousy anymore =) Think of Baileys!
Have a nice weekend everyone!

Publicity part 1, here.

To make up for the lack of updates and hereafter (for the next n weeks in fact), I’ve decided to up the rest of the youth camp publicity stuff, mostly done in April. For humour as well, the flash presentation below was based on an idea proposed by the camp committee, which is about characters who, at first confident, fail at their jobs/roles and eventually come to the realisation of their real identities.

They sourced out the comic strips from a variety of mangas (therefore I do not own any of them, except one of two filler frames that I drew, but it doesn’t really matter), discussed about the storyline and from there I picked comic frames to go with the story and arranged them together with photos taken when we conducted an informal photoshoot in the youth room. I got a lot of kick out of editing their photos so that they look like they exist in the manga =D Character dialogues were fun too.

The last of the holidays CDI has officially started. Submission for mobile module was yesterday noon, rushed my work overnight and had little sleep. And we started with the CDI project right after, until late afternoon. In these two weeks, four of us (and three seniors also working on the project) will have to be in school everyday from 9 – 6pm. Unbelievably taxing, and when the next block begins, we would have a major project module (P4, what else) and an elective module on top of this project. All these for a chance in having internship overseas.. I’m doubtful if I’ll survive till then =/ Yong is overseeing the CDI, and will own us for the next 6 weeks. Oh, by the way, you should really see his mini puffer fish! It feeds on mini mini snails!