Saturday morning, up at nine-ish. Chores done quick, had some juice, now staring into a blank white canvas. The sounds of keys on the laptop transcribes the slew of words jumbled in my mind. Less clear, more like a tornado spun around and flipped everything.

The sun is shining which helps the cat catch some rays and some z's, lucky little suncatcher. The lyrics of Seven Collar T-Shirt's Foreigner rings in my head while I occasionally sing along.

"The last time that I spoke to her 

She wouldn’t let her guard down, 

I’ll be yours if you stay mine"

Her, him... him. Him. The last time that I spoke to him? REALLY spoke to him was a good year ago. The only reason I reminisce was a Saturday morning trigger. What a way to start the day. Thinking back, it was fun while it lasted.

The Little Bitch Cookbook. By Ash, Meersy and Sha.

A cookbook with occasional swearing, talking like posh people, references to pop culture and the key things to make delicious food good enough to get you into bed (wink-wink-nudge-bdge-knowwhatImean?).

This sounds like an absolutely brilliant idea. Starting... NOW!

Aside from this, I am ojbviously procrastinating so here's a little survey thing I found:

Name Your Favorite…

1. Place: Kuala Lumpur
2. Person: Me? But seriously, I have favourite PEOPLES so picking one would be a nightmare!
3. Colour: Red
4. Food: Not Applicable
5. Smell: Kaffir Lime Leaves that you've scrunched up in your hands.
6. Book: Odds & Gods by Tom Holt
7. Movie: Robin Hood Men In Tights
8. Music artist: That's a tough one...
9. Genre of music: Metal
10. Genre of literature: Comedy
11. Magazine: The Economist
12. Texture: Unfinished woodgrain
13. Time of day: About 8PM
14. Day of the week: Sundays
15. Tumblr: None
16. Thing to do when bored: I do that thing called the INTERNETS!
17. Celebrity: Stephen Hawking, does that count?
18. Class in school: P.E. since I was exempt from it.
19. Website: TEDtalks
20. Drink: Water
21. Precious stone: Diamonds? Since it's my birthstone?
22. Animal: Tiger, rawr!
23. Flower: Torch Ginger
24. Time in history: The time they invented the wheel
25. Font: Advent and Balham
26. Video game: Crash Bandicoot
27. TV show: I have no idea
28. Play: Spamalot
29. Sound: Laughter
30. Fruit: I like all the fruits!
31. Vegetable: I can't choose!
32. Store/shop: Don't have one.
33. Article of clothing you own: A t-shirt that says "Protect your nuts"
34. Fashion/style: Laid back and comfy
35. Pattern: Paisley
36. Workout: Anything in the Pool
37. Quote: Veni, Vidi, Vici.
38. Historical figure: That dude who decided silicone would make great boobs, kidding.
39. Boy’s name: Mikael
40. Girl’s name: Kali
41. Potato chip flavor: Salt and Vinegar
42. Meal of the day: Dinner
43. Ice cream flavor: Chocolate Chip Mint
44. Soda: Orange soda
45. Popcorn flavor: Salted Caramel
46. Season: Summer
47. Month of the year: April
48. Word: Meow
49. Disney princess: Ariel
50. Insult: "You illiterate shitdick!"
51. Joke: Puns
52. Cussword: Puki
53. Letter: A
54. YouTube channel: Zachariah Scott?
55. Eye color: Brown
56. Memory: *giggles*
57. Dessert: Sago Gula Melaka
58. Candy: Lindt 65% dark chocolate
59. Restaurant: Suzi's
60. Lifehack: Putting leftover lemon juice in cube trays.
61. Language: Kelantanese
62. Thing to learn about: Everything
63. Thing about yourself: Everything. No joke, dude.

On my speakers play a very pretty and extremely improvised version of Little Wing -- that piece is absolutely beautiful. It's 2:30AM on a Friday morning as the blanket hides part of me from the cold night air. The back of my neck criss-crossed by a knitted scarf, bits of skin exposed. It's not uncomfortable per se, I lied.

It's been 4 weeks since the semester started and the ennui sets in again. Deaths, disasters, being and not being all happening at once, I feel nothing. I am probably a little bit dead inside? My brother said once that my idea of an endorphine rush is much more extreme compared to normal people. I am most likely a little bit dead inside that I need an envious amount of exhilarants before my id stops squirming from boredom. Breathe, I say. Breathe and things will move.

A state of decay, a totem of atrophy, a monument in ruin... I joke, I am not that much in disrepair to fall into that hole people seem to talk about. I am not broken. I am not crushed. I am not in some state of complete shambles. Cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am.

The cat sleeps, nestled quietly between my feet. A staccato, his heart beats and his furry belly rises and falls from somnambulous breathing. Comfortable. If I don't follow suit, time will tick slowly revealing dawn and I would have missed out on an opportunity for a state of unimposed calm. Eyes shut, good night and until the morrow, I bid you adieu.

Brainfart until I can get a piece of paper.

My thesis is about short term collaboration through sound
Question: How can we invoke a sense of short term collaboration amongst strangers?
Overlain topic: Incitement of community and safety

Accidental collaboration?

_______________________

Also, this post is a little self serving (What blog post isnt, really?)

I'm listing down my name and what it means in various languages.

Sha: King (Persian)

Aishah: Alive or She Who Lives or Womanly (Arabic)

Nor: Light (Arabic), Flame (Hebrew)

Shimah: Nature or Habit (Arabic), Mother (Navajo Indian), Cream or Character (Indian)

Sometimes Archdaily is pretty damn informative...

Bridge Project 1: Combination of The Ursonate and Fluidscapes

Amazing acoustics doesn't have to look ugly. Beautiful sounds can be aesthetically pleasing to everyone ESPECIALLY for the occupants of a space who are creating, interacting or even living in that soundscape. Research has found that "the threshold for possible noise induced risk of myocardial infarction is established at a daytime emission level of 65dB(A)" That means we are at risk from your garden-variety heart attack every single day. Does anyone care?

Now, I'm not implying that just because we all live and work in spaces with a volume average of 65dB(A) we're all going to die from a heart attack, far from it. What I'm putting forward is that we can rectify existing spaces to not emit, or dampen emissions of above 65dB(A) by implementing smart material usage as a means of acoustic intervention.

Too often have we been immersed in negative sound spaces. This can mean anywhere from public waiting areas like tram stops or train stations to even classrooms. Bad sound spaces mean less positive activity and reaction from the people occupying it. Bad sound spaces also mean that people are actively trying to actively block out those negative sounds in any way possible (like headphones) and risk being cut off from the world at large. Hearing is a vital part of the key human senses. When you cut sound from an environment, you effectively stop stimuli that will inform you of your immediate situation, thus putting you at risk.

After half a semester floundering along, wondering what the lecturers wanted exactly for the presentation, I've finally resolved what my thesis is.

What started off as a meandering through happiness, expressions through photography, observations, collations of data through social media means such as Twitter, getting people to sit in the cusp of joy by reading excepts from The Ursonate as well as other various representations of happiness through several projects under the umbrella term of 'Felicity', I've had to stop and look at the body of work and define patterns of progression within each mini project and the most striking factor I've seen is the parallels of happiness or joy through sound.

EPIC TANGENT: This brought me to, amongst other things, a SMALL PODCAST DISCOVERY which I think you should definitely look into.

But...
I'm sitting in my own head instead of actually doing 'bridge' projects that informs this damnable leap in instances. I actually have a few ideas which I should probably run over the course of this week. And I finally finished all the deliverables for the other two classes for this semester which frees me up to do said mini projects.

These new mini projects involves several spatial interventions. I can't obviously just do one so three or four would definitely help in the realisation of these bridges... Or in my case, grappling hooks, towards the realm of sound and acoustics.

I do also need to photography my old projects... That would take... a fair bit of planning around the house. >.> Should have done it during the interim presentation but I completely forgot. Shame on me.

Three projects in 7 days. Let's do this!

Tijana's reading Casanova so she sent me this:

Casanova (C); Protege (V)

__________________________________

V: 

How can one become a philosopher?

C: 

By thinking.

V: 

One must think a long time?

C: 

Throughout life.

V: 

Then it is never over?

C: 

Never, but one improves as much as possible, and obtains the sum of happiness which one is susceptible to enjoying.

V: 

And how can that happiness be felt?

C: 

by all the pleasure which the philosopher can procure when he is conscious of having obtained them by his own exertions, and especially by getting rid of the many prejudices which make of the majority men a troupe of grown-up children.

____________________________________

Absolutely fantastic.

How to make a shambala bracelet. Alright, this means I start beading again. And everyone gets a bracelet. HAHAHAHAH




I've still got no ideas for the mini projects that runs within 4 weeks. GOSHDARNUDDIT.

Edit: Doing some hearty, hearty research for the rest of my mini projects this semester. Kind of dying from information overload. But hey, lookie what I found to help supplement my projects. (Or I can use this to supplement my silly projects. lel.

It's raining.

This was me responding to Lindsy's mini project. My project will involve the crossing of eyes... hahahahaha