Quote of the Day

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to."

- Jim Jarmusch

Eaux d'Artifice

Beautiful water movements. Beautiful fountains. Beautiful Villa d'Este.

Short film by Kenneth Anger. Summary from youtube:

Eaux d'artifice is a 1953 short film which consists entirely of a woman dressed in eighteenth century clothes, who wanders amidst the garden fountains of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Italy, until she steps into a fountain and disappears.

Quote of the Day

Heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common.

- Dorothy Parker

Story | Shaded Courtyard

Sitting underneath the moldy jello mocked up with colour steel toothpicks, I'm wondering if I'm supposed to get inspired by the architecture designed by Alsop. Is it okay if I just sit here and read? Interfaith chapel is not that easy to design.

What is faith actually? The act of believing, hoping something will happen? Or is it similar to doubt, but in a more positive and beautiful language?


2010/05/14

Quote of the Day

When we investigate the invisible mechanics of nature, we find that everything in the universe is directly connected with everything else. Everything is constantly being influences by everything else. No wave of the ocean is independent of any other.

- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Story | Almost Three Years

The landscape was still the same. It had changed.

The train was crowded. But the passengers were quiet, sleeping traveling time away. University Avenue seemed the same, with more pedestrian crossing buttons on light poles. The flat silver woman was still missing in front of the Court House. Staples and Timothy's were still existing. The lobby had renovated though. The office logo was updated. Mark looked slimmer. It must had been the stress.

I'm glad to know what I'm good at. Not everyone is talented in organizing and managing, you know.


2010/05/14

Story | Things are funny isn't it V

I was supposed to be the gloomy sulky one that no body likes. I dragged onto you for conversation, for comfort. I knew I had ruined my image of being a positive person in front of you. But what can I do? When depression and self-destruction hit you, no one else can stop it.

However I got enlightened by Maria. Maybe ze is the star for the lost in the overflown sea. Perhaps even the mother of all, saving all of us from destruction. Hir mother did not name hir wrong...

Yet now, you are having suicidal thoughts. I hope you were just too drunk and started to speak random things. I hope you were just like me, being inspired by broken abandon buildings, and at the instant wondering how would it feel to fly down the lego mountain of Ryugyong Hotel.


2010/05/10

*Read the previous stories, Things are funny isn't it IV, here: http://threequartertranslation.blogspot.com/2010/04/story-things-are-funny-isnt-it-iv.html

Story | Circle

What is a circle? What can it do?

Unification.
Grounding.
Peacefulness.
Constant.
Core with no separation nor distinction.
Self-reflection.
Personal yet collective.
Self-healing.

Engaging.

Acceptance.

Positive space.


2010/05/07

Quote of the Day

Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the whole world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.

- Ramana Maharishi

Squarepusher - Tommib

Beautiful video.

Story | Library

Out of surprises, this morning I brought myself to a Toronto library by chance. I think the last time I entered and utilized a library in the city of Toronto was probably, like, 10 years ago. This feels weird. Maybe I was constantly thinking of you, as if you are equal to the Toronto library, even though I know the library I'm sitting in right now is not the branch you hang out at.

This library was renovated to a stage where I don't recognize my childhood memories anymore. However the concrete box with the supermarket (well I think it changed from Food Basics to Nofrills) and Walmart are still across from the library, with a dry heated parking lot in between, servicing both complexes. More and more apartments and townhouses surround the little structure filled with books and knowledge.

Wireless internet can only bring you to a limited space.


2010/05/07

Story | Plastic Life

Nowadays people don't like spend time discovering the goodness within others' inner self. As soon as they see the surface, and it is not what they wanted, they turn away and never come back.

This is sad.

Why people are so focused on the shallow outer look?
They might as well date and fall in love with a poster image, or a robot.

Andy Warhol knows us all.


2010/05/05

Story | Third Space

There are always things in life that give you comfort, yet are not necessary good for you.

With the physical distance separating among us, I felt totally safe when I share the details of my life with you. However also because of the remoteness, I lost you to some random person.

I guess you don't win things unless you are willing to risk...


2010/05/05

Quote of the Day

Drag queens are living testimony to the way women used to be to be, the way some people still want them to be, and the way some women will actually want to be. Drags are ambulatory archives of ideal moviestar womanhood. They perform a documentary service, usually consecrating their lives to keeping the glittering alternative alive and available for (not-too-close) inspection.

- Andy Warhol

Story | 6:55am

Damn. The purple bus left right in front of me. Again, as usual. Was it because my current bus is late in the first place? Or that last passenger took too long to board the bus? How about the mandatory stop for all large vehicles before rail tracks?

I hate that long red light. There goes my bus. Fifteen minutes of solitude in the chic pavilion style bus stop, watching the GPS tracking arrival time display board and murmuring about the stupidity of bus connections.


2010/04/29

Story | Torture

It hurts. It hurts. It really hurts.

I've been trying to indulge myself in drawing and painting postcards. I spent all my energy on translating a fantasized dream onto a piece of cardboard, creating a life in an alternative way.

I really don't want to care about your adventures. I really don't want to hear about your ups and downs. I really don't want to know about your dates and bedmates and whoever.

Leave me alone. Can't you see I have suffer enough already?


2010/05/05

Story | No. 902

This is cold. Am I too early? Darn I should of came out later.

The new bus was pretty. The outside was painted in three shades of light blue and white, gradient from the back a deep sky blue colour to pure white in the front. As I boarded the bus, I noticed the entry level was lower than those ones who were in service since ages ago. I guess it gave more accessibilty to wheel-chair or trolley users, and others who could not climb.

You could smell the freshness of the bus. The new plastic odour that would make people complain about. But I loved it - finally the revamp of the transit company arrived to my bus route.

Ding.

I have been a bus rider since high school. The transit system had drastically changed since my first trip. Rapid transit was introduced on major corridors, with honesty-based validating ticket machines to mark fare prior to boarding. More routes were available; connection time and frequency of services were improved. However I don't really live here anymore...

Thank you. I hope the purple hasn't come yet.


2010/04/28

Evolution of Human Beings

The illustration explains all.

Story | Another Spring

There goes April.

I hope I can keep up my blogging,
I hope I can maintain my mostly vegetarian diet,
I hope I can take things lightly, less personally,
I hope I can finish the term without huge troubles,
I hope I can figure out what I'll be doing for the fall,
I hope I can feel better about everything that surrounds me,
I hope I can accept summer's invitation to sunshine...


2010/05/01

Story | Promises

I did it. Once again. I accomplished what I had wanted, envisioning myself doing.

This time is self-destruction, some sort of depression. Permanently destroying my personality, my reputation, my connections, my everything. I had became this anti-social, pessimistic, mad, crazy harsh, negative person.

Well I guess things are not that bad yet - since at the moment I can still openly talk about it. I don't even know if this is good or bad.

Depression is hard to combat. It's a monster that kept on huanting you as soon as you are tiny winy bit down.


2010/04/27

Story | Gemini

Rhianna's Unfaithful is playing on the radio.

I had felt really bad, imagining to play with that other person. I had been questioning myself all the time I could grab onto, wondering was it moral, was it acceptable to seek beyond this dying relationship. I had tried hard to involve with you, but things just were not working that way I envisioned. It seemed the more I wanted to get closer to you, the more repulsion I had received. I had to admit that I couldn't stop thinking about the flirty images, intimate texts, playful exchanges, and wonderful time I had spent with her.

Guilt. Haunted by guilt.

The struggling and grounding were intense and tearing my body apart.
Saying I want to leave was hard. Hurting you was heart breaking.
But I have to do it...


2010/04/24

Quote of the Day

It doesn’t really matter what a person decides to do, or how radically a person plays with gender. What matters, I think, is how aware a person is of the options. How sad for a person to be missing out on some expression of identity, just for not knowing there are options.

- Kate Bornstein

Story | Lost

Over the past two years or so, I have turned into this sulky pessimistic person. Or monster rather. My old self is no longer with us.

I walked myself into a forest.

I do not contain the positive energy that used to be so natural to me anymore. Those were the sweet days - I am the listener, the mood booster, the provider of optimism. However now I am constantly envy and jealous of other people's status, daily lives, achievements, or even the tiniest thing that does not really matter. I cannot stop comparing myself to my friends, whom are:
- involving in a loving relationship with their partner (where I am still grieving over the past and struggling with the present ephemeral),
- starting their wonderful career doing what they enjoy (what am I doing? my work is not recognized, not even by an anonymous blogger),
- living a simple life with a simple mind (I wish I can think like a child, or maybe just be ignorant and pass on problematic issues that does not involve myself directly),
- studying more and more school plus traveling around the world because their parents can support them financially (for me there is already a huge sum of government loan to repay already, don't even mention about flying to Korea and training in Transylvania),
- knowing how they want to proceed with the future (I have dreams, I just do not know if I will have support of any kind)...

Get me out please!

I have been trying to be a good person. Hopefully karma do exist and good things will happen and guide me through the darkness.


2010/04/22

Quote of the Day

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

- Charles Darwin

Domestic Transformer: 24 Rooms in a Tiny Apartment

As an architecture student who appreciates efficient use and homey-ness of tiny spaces, I want to have a home like Gary Chang's...

During early years in architecture school, my professor from the design studio course always thought I'm not a good designer because I don't give enough space to users and tenants in my visionary projects.

But to grew up in a tightly packed environment described by the architect Gary Chang in the video, it's no wonder that I tend to compartmentalize everything in a small volume without considering personal space and comfort - one learn from what one had lived through after all.

Now the questions...
Are all individuals advantage enough to have personal space? I think this is less in discussion when most people in the particular community are packed like sadines anyway.
Also what are the standards for comfort? Things that are comfortable to one might not be well enough, or actually too good, for another. Different cultures and various living experiences can change the level of comfort one can accept and tolerate.

Story | Capturing Memories within a Floorplan

No matter how hard I tried to focus... I cannot stop the processing. Luckily I am just polylining those spaces. I can't even imagine if I'm doing something that requires brain power. I think I will have a really bad work evaluation.

I wonder what is in your mind right now? You have your exam coming up in less than a week. I hope you are concentrating on it.

Best wishes.

2010/04/19

Quote of the Day

[Transformation] is not the willful attempt to change who and what we are, but the art of becoming who we are.

- Jeffrey Maitland

Story | Ephemeral

I miss you a lot.

However I have to pretend I do not care, and preoccupied myself with other things.

I miss you calling me sweetie and honey.

I miss your frequent online and offline instant messages.

I miss your sexy texts and emails.

It is okay.

Tomorrow will be another day, and I will be good.

2010/04/19

End of Envy, Realization, and Cherish

I've been always envy of what others did or experienced, without noticing the great things I got my hands on or had experienced that people are fond of...

I went to see my friend's recital recently. I never saw her as a pianist; she was my good buddy since early in high school. You know, skipping classes together, going out for bubble tea, chatting until 3am and stuff. At her performance, I was simply shocked. She looked very professional in her beautiful dark navy blue dress, and played many pieces of wonderful music which I couldn't describe nor comment as I'm not familiar with music scores and I was totally sunken into the passionate melodies. But definitely I was surprised by the pianist aspect of her. During her play, with all those powerful notes sipping through my mind, I couldn't stop wondering my current unsuccessful status. I am just a soon-to-be-graduated architecture student, with no wish of working in the architecture field. Even though I have been dipping lightly into graphic arts and photography, I would not say I can take them too seriously and make a living out of them. I should feel bad with my empty accomplishments.

Yet, my friend's younger sister reminded me of something. I was chatting with her during intermission, and she did not recognize me. However as soon as I mentioned my name, she immediately knew I was the one who was working in Shanghai. Wow, even my friend's sibling remembered me for having an internship aboard. Suddenly I felt special, well sort of.

I guess people never realized the stuff they did or things they experienced in their own lives can be extraordinary to others. We always wanted what we don't get. But as soon as you have it, the exoticness evaporates. They will just become part of daily life. The ordinary.

Story | Fruit Stand

Standing here in one of the intersactions at Kensington Market, I realized how you had grown up. I felt like I can relate and understand you slighlty little better... The places that you explored as a teenager. The alleys that you trailed through. Those poles where you parked, and locked your bike before grabbing a fruit from the senior vendor with loose grey hair.

Well, nothing matters anymore. My ashes are spread through the suburban land, forming identical cookies across the expressways.


2010/04/16

Story | Headbands and Jackets

Tonight I saw a pair of couple at Forever XXI. No, it's not my favourite store, but they do occasionally have some goodies I enjoyed. Like the thin brown belt with gold-coloured studs that I bought just now. I mean, thin strips on waists are not really my style, but that pair of pants that had small belt loops needs a new buddy.

I was trying on big satin bows, ribbon knotted, Lady Gaga inspired headbands in front of the mirrors on the art-deco-ish columns. Playing around with stuff that are usually not part of my daily life was delightful. Also my good friend who tried to have devil horns with a wired ribbon bow headband and snapping pictures of each other - it was fun to act like little girls who got super fascinated by their mother or elder sister's closet, no? Also that white silky ribbon bow matched with my fauxhawk hair and brown jacket surprisingly.

* * *

The taller girl was a femme, even though I only saw her back. She had shoulder length brown-dyed course Asian hair, wearing a not too thick headband that was peaking out of her lushy fold of bangs. A medium-sized Louis Vuitton backpack was on her back, lying on top of a red cardigan. The rest, I don't know; they would remained in mystery. The shorter girl was about five inches shorter than the femme. She was kinda boyish. Not exactly, but by instinct I knew she was the more dominate one. A roughly fitted jacket, with tight light turquoise blue suede kinny pants that showed every muscle and lump and scar on her plumpy legs were what my eyes noticed. I grasped the short black but permed curly hair too. The two were browsing then playing around with the wife-beater tank tops in pastel and neon colours on the display tables.

* * *

That couple had reminded me of, umm, something. They resembled the shape and dynamic that I had always wondered about...


2010/04/16