Rome is not built in a day

11pm in the night.. this week had been really stop-start, but nonetheless had been going great… I remembered last week was that i was highly enthusiastic about all my design projects coming up and wanted to do them quick, set up some plannings etc… but this week it seemed that my enthusiasm has somewhat died down… probably lethargy? complacency? procrastination?

i certainly do need to work on my expectations… not everything had to be done in a week, just like Rome is never built in a day… im sure the Roman officials had a lot to think about when building their Roman empire… i think its time to be tenacious and believe that i would set realistic goals to achieve my over-cluttering schedule…

i do certainly like the weekend where i met up with my best friend, KC, and we shared some guitar tips and watched Newcastle fought a 2-2 draw with Middlesborough… He told me to try out this site – www.justinguitar.com – to practise my skills on scales… Quite a cool site.. (One for the guitar fans).. KC gave me some song scales, so recently been practising hard on Guan Huai Fang Shi just to hone myself..

I remembered also that i helped my student with his Design and Tech, and although its done for free, i felt very much empowered.. as if learned something myself also… truely theres some truth in this saying:

“Knowing is not enough, you must teach it; Willing is not enough, you must do it”

I also thought of writing a book… but the title i cant disclose as yet, for obvious reasons… but definitely see myself as a teacher or mentor at some point in my life…

Lastly, recent inspiration saying by me:

“Salvation is not a life-time event but an eventful lifetime”

Hope this is self-explanatory.. and God bless you
Dan

More on design…

For those who wanna know more about me… im actually an industrial design student in Singapore… currently studying in the 4th year.. life is actually pretty tough for university students in general, especially for ID people.. where we have projects after projects… most of the time concurrently…

So here goes my list of projects going on…

1. Thesis (Personal) project:

Bathing System for the Elderly: Topic is proposed and chosen by myself and this research will take almost a year to complete… from there i have to create a working prototype of a bathing system to justify the research that i have done with the target users… I consider it challenging and yet theres a certain freedom to create something worthwhile for society, to enhance the quality of life

2. Dell Project:

Our clients from Dell, propose a certain project in order to extend their capabilities for technological ideas into the retail market… Me and Huai have decided to choose HMV, the music industry as our topic of study… pics i believe is coming up…

3. Osim Project:

Our Osim clients want a future healthy lifestyle product on 2010-2015… possibly on three areas.. health, fitness and hygiene… heres some pics taken at the OSIM company…

At their showroom, we tried out their OSIM stuff…

iGallop, uSurf, iBike, uPapa, iSqueeze…

some fantastic but yet sometimes sensual poses.. hurhur..

Im just wondering what am i going to name my product when it comes out :)

So thats it about my design life… i believe i will update more when time comes.. Adios in the meantime…

Dan

Secret…

Me and Ni caught “Secret” in Cineleisure on Wednesday.. This show is probably a remake of the “Lake House”, if you guys caught both shows before, you could possibly see the similarities… but then again its a secret :).. so i shouldn share much.. but im really impressed with Jay Chow.. from a talented musician to yet another talent in directing and screenplay…

But more than that.. im so happy to spend some quiet time with Dearie… its been a long time since i came back that we actually had a good quiet time alone.. i really treasure it even though i believe both of us are tired.. but i believe its a sacrifice also… Dear if u are reading this… thank you!

And check this out guys! I thought its damn cool… wahaha…

Burst out laughin, i couldn resist taking a snap of this…

Dan

PS. Oh yea.. i have passed my proposal! Thank God for that…

Sijme and Jerome!

A snazzy website from my two Dutch mates! Sijme and Jerome! In Singapore!

http://www.sijmeenjerome.com/ 

English translation available!

Dan

Bathing System for the Elderly

Last night only yield around 4 hours of sleep… but thankfully i finally came out with a new proposal for this morning presentation.. – Bathing System for the Elderly and the Physically Inhibited! I really wanted to research on the human factors and emphatic research and its a challenge to work with the elders… initially, im interested in researching on office behavior and designing for emotions, however my profs rejected it because there is no concrete idea or tangible product that could evolve…

Basically my whole class presentation was pretty good… with some specific tweaking in scope and context… it should be ready to go.. i was quite anxious before presentation but nobody could sense it during presentation so thats probably ideal… :)

so heres a pic of my possible target market…

Stats shows that more than 40% of the old people need assistance to bathe! As most the elderly have certain constraints to bathe.. i would believe that our current bathing system is just too dangerous and time-consuming for elderly individuals… i will be possibly updating my design process on the blog… for my reference and also for your interest :)

so hopefully i could pull this design through!

Dan

Hitting a standstill?

Just a few days ago.. I had a personal chat with my leader and mentor, Tony.. I have been asking him about a few things.. about life and things going to happen after i come back… Over these few years, I have learned to be optimistic where in the past, I couldn’t. I knew with growing maturity that some things just can’t get into your own hands.. much like your destiny…

After all the hype of an exchange trip to Europe, one would be gladly be satisfied and savoury.. but me for one ask for something more.. i asked my leader what should i do to be doing greater than what i am doing? At 24 years.. i want to impact more people in society.. not just one or two.. whether in spiritually or abilities or knowledge, which i believe is all closely related… my heart is desperately seeking to do something which even before i have never thought of…

Asking him of my investment plans, he is supportive of the idea.. but i am always warned to pursue stocks, bonds and business with extreme God-given wisdom.. And also to make wise decision in circumstances…

As for my career.. design has always been my passion.. someone said that if your work is like play then you never work for the rest of your life… market for grads has been good recently… i just hope i could find a decent job that increase my job satisfaction and build up my value..

Im thinking a bit too far right now… the thesis topic is coming up soon and i believe today could be the time of inspiration and creativity.. I shall not be in a standstill from here…

In Him i praise,
Daniel

Muar Chinese

Friggin’ Funny!

Site in rebuilding…

Upon discovery on the limitless possibilities of my website.. im really into rebuilding my site into a better one.. Special thanks to my sis for being my most ardent blog fan.. and of course others has been really encouraging as well…

A few updates on my blog:

1. Blogroll:

I have updated links of all my dear friends’ blogs right to the doorstep, so that people might have the ease of entering to them.. Most of them have came back from a travelling experience and theirs blogs absolutely contained beautiful and valuable contents.. I’m not really sure that they will update their blogs when they are back but i believe its definitely gonna be good.. click on them!!

2. Flickr

Great program! I haven’t had the time to put up some pictures on it but i guess its quite good to post random pictures or inspirations…

3. Chat BloX

A place for friends to update me or give comments to my blog! I will be really happy to hear from ya… hurhur…

4. The BOX

This program allows me to post some interesting files for all to share… dun worry no virus! I believe the first file i posted is SequoiaView.. its a fantastic program to check out your harddisk in a graphical format! You are able to colour your jpg files, mp3 files, avi files etc… and u are able to find temp files that are actually clogging your space!  I absolutely love it!

5. And of course the Pages…

Other than being a millionaire designer next time, I am really interested in being a motivational writer or mentor for the younger generation next time… so its quite cool to start off a series of “books” right on the Pages section.. starting with my travelling experience and design knowledge as well..

So surf’s up!
Dan

A Coconut Affair

Last week, we made our way to Changi Village… its almost the first time i went to specific place in Singapore to relax when i came back… truely Changi Village beach is very much relaxing… quiet at night, cool sea breeze and an occasional twinkly-lit airplane from afar…

Sijme is as his usual of always finding something (crazy) to do… discovered an old coconut by the beach and wanted to open it… armed with a house-key and 3 pairs of hands, and gritty determination from Sijme… we managed to pry the skin of the first layer… oh damn.. i really dunno coconuts are that tough! Really tired and we are having a laugh, Sijme really wanted to drink its contents…

We head to the Changi Village coffee-shop… and there we finally tried a real coconut drink.. Sijme and I made great friends there with the owners and they even treated us to a Thai coconut and the ’self-acclaimed’ best kopi-peng in Changi Village! But its really amazing stuff.. if u guys wanna know where i will be really pleased to tell you where!

@Bugis

I brought Sijme to Sim Lim Square… favourite haunt for Westerners to buy cheap gadgets compared to their home country… We din really get good deals and most shopowners seemed unhappy to do business with us… probably because im around and they are unable to cheat Sijme off his pocket!! But i really liked what Sijme said then:

The cleaners here are searching for dirt to clean! Its so clean already…

We had a Mala-huoguo (Spicy Steamboat) over at the Liang Seah area near Bugis junction… oh damn my tongue got really burned… i totally couldn take the heat man… Sijme and Ni also… Guess we overestimated our Singaporean identity.. :)

Ok heres some updates.. im going to school next week le… its anyones guess on how stress this will be.. meanwhile if anyone wants to know how am doing, dun hesitate to sms me and we could chat man!

Love and God bless,
Dan

TV links

Before i start any post yet… check this out!

http://tv-links.co.uk/listings.html

You can watch TV now without the restrictions of time… and whole lot of stuff are there… from documentaries to dramas like 24, House or Lost.. to animes..

and im like watching Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles again to relive my childhood memories! Hahaha…

Dan