Today's mindfuck is brought to you by TEDTalks.



The column, halfway finished. 1mm thick slices piled up on one another creating a most intricate structure.

There was a moment this afternoon when I felt like I wasn't really there. I wasn't really in front of the counter at my friends' cafe laughing and sharing wit. Like everything around me wasn't really real. B-grade cinema quality, dim lights, that feeling where you're an overseer -- like in a dream. It was really unsettling for me because I knew it was real, I knew I was there but it's like my soul wasn't. It was terrifying and liberating at the same time.

I am terrified of what's become of negara ku, Malaysia. Tanah tumpah darahku, I would bleed for my country but not for criminals of petty theft. Others have bled and their lives lost because of the lack of care by the government for her people. Corruption. Lies. The greater majority have turned into sheep for slaughter.

I sit here, AutoCAD, a scale ruler, a pen, my phone silent as the night -- oh, where have my people gone. I'd done some CAD things and now I'm trying to find an idea to run with. Anything at all would be a great thing.

I stumbled upon Ashie's blog, Glowdown, and on one of her posts was http://www.artyulia.com
Delicious and vibrant, so titillating was her paper art that it may have pushed me into the direction of paper quilling for my next project. Surely quilling would alow me to adorn the quick idea of a mask/breastplate of paper -- no sequins of course, it's not my style. Paper is such a malleable object!

I am, eventually, going to attempt making Kuih Akok and Onde-Onde...

Akok, which I like to eat straight out of the fridge:
Ingredients:
9 large eggs
1 coconut, extract cream equivalent to 1 bowl
2/3 cup sugar
70-80 gm rice flou
Method:
1. Beat the eggs lightly with sugar
2. Pour in coconut cream and mix well
3. Add in flour
4. Heat the brass mould
5. Spoon mixture into mould and close the lid
6. Remove when cooked.


Onde-onde:
Ingredients:
250 g Glutinous rice flour
200 ml Pandan juice (Blend 10 Pandan leaves with 220 ml water.)
150 g Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar), finely chopped
100 g Grated coconut
A pinch of salt (or sea salt)
Method:
1.In a large bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour with Pandan juice and knead lightly. Pinch a small piece of the dough (about 40 g) and drop it into boiling water.
2.When the dough rises up the surface, remove it with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water.
3.Mix it back into the main dough and knead well to form smooth dough.
4.Cover the dough and set aside for about 15 minutes.
5.Mix the grated coconut with a pinch of salt and steam for about 2 – 3 minutes and let it cool completely.
6.Bring a pot of water to boil.
7.Pinch a small piece of dough (about 15 g each) and flatten lightly.
8.Fill the center of the dough with gula Melaka.
9.Roll them in your palm to form a smooth ball and cook the glutinous rice balls in the boiling water.
10.When the rice balls float to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water.
11.Coat the rice balls with grated coconut and serve immediately.
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If this works, you can expect some to be served on the day of my open house because I'm lovely like that. AND Sirap bandung because it's awesome.

Rest easy that the obligatory Raya poem will make an appearance eventually, fasting started out well but I still need to drink more water.

Things to do:
- Source out Some cartoony photos of a bunch of characters and some topography maps for The Expanded Screen (ES)
- Do all ES readings in prep for Tuesday's class.
- Buy a sketchbook for Make and start sketching things
- Sketch out idea for the 'paper' portion of Make and hopefully not get overambitious
- Design two different ideas for the same house, zoning, examples of images and types of materials to use for the house for Light Trap (LT).

Really, now that I've written all those tasks down, it's not that much of work actually...

P/S, today's mindfuck is brought to you by AntiVJ


EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL from Joanie Lemercier (AntiVJ) on Vimeo.

I had done this little ditty on the plane because I was woken up rudely by sudden lights and food. Which I did not eat. So, naturally, I got quite annoyed.

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If one pauses to think about the modes of transport, the world is rather quite smitten with air travel which honestly is just a glorified cattle truck to take a person from point A to point B. I say cattle truck because that's what the economy class is all about. It matters little if the branding of such transport is considered 'low-cost' or the average, each-country-has-a-goddamn-airline deal. A cattle-truck is a cattle truck.
Being sucker punched by bright, white lights in the middle of sleep is the least of your problems and if you're a heavy traveller with a large amount of travel points in your little shopping cart of been-there-done-that, you're probably mastered the art of a. keeping yourself busy and b. sleeping in awkward positions which would probably cause you a fair amount of bullshit when it comes to medical bills but I digress. The lovely art of dozing off in relative discomfort -- albeit before being jolted awake by the coming of the food cart. Actually, I might still be a little miffed about being woken up.

I think, if I had to take a little gander at what the whole shebang must've sounded like if it was put in short bursts off words punctuated by swearing it'd sound like:
GOOD MORNING YOU LITTLE FUCKERS, WE HAVE FOOD, YOU LIKE FOOD! HERE! HAVE SOME BLINDING LIGHT TO GO WITH THIS LOVELY ANNOUNCEMENT! YAY OMG!

Good lord. If I'd had a go at everything. And I still need new headphones.

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Moving on.

I'm safely back in Melbourneland of sejok and senang. Paid the water bill, unpacked stuff and put some away but I've still a few things to put away but I have neither the want nor the tenacity at the moment. I would rather sit here and type in my most morose of moods.

A most interested post surfaced on my Facebok feed last week. It had said:

Bad grammar aside, it's quite true. Human nature is such that we've begun to hide away our true emotions in the opposite display because we, I, have decided that real emotions are too complex and disturbing for everyone to simply know about. One has to be in the thick of it to know anything I am feeling and so a close knit of people are held near and dear with my secrets.

I'm sneezing a lot right now. I hate the cold. Really. Another few months of solid labour... FOR THE PARENTS! I could just live with a pass.

I have issues when it come to toilets/bathrooms. I don't like wet toilets. I do't like smelly toilets. I don't like steps and random level changes in toilets.

Anyway, got back from Redang a couple of days ago and I must say, the trip was delightfully fruitful. It wasn't one of those meandering lepak sessions, more of a proper diving trip. Did one shore dive on Friday and three boat dives on Saturday. Big BIG BIG ups for the blokes who were dive-mastering. I can't remember what their names were (because I'm heinous criminal when it comes to remembering names) but those two shall henceforth be known as botakman and bleachguy.

Bleachguy was trip's diving hero. He was the one lugging me around on his back like a suitcase. A pretty heavy suitcase. In and out of the water, in and out of the boat. And I made some acquaintences with other divers as well. Most from KL. Kepong though. So the chances of meeting them again is slim to none.

Other heroes of the trip would be the pack of guys, and one girl, I went with. Big, big ups to you guys too! I scarcely know you but y'all made the trip easier. A+ for effort.

Back on the home front, I think mom's gotten pretty proud of my headstrong d everything and anything I want attitude. It may still bring her large amounts of anxiety but I am what I am and there's no running away or changing that.

Until the next post.