A Weekend of Movies

Without planning to, it seems like I spent all weekend watching movies and eating spinach (2 spinach salads in two days!). Here are my reflections:

No Country for Old Men - I watched this movie on account of having seen two seconds of a guy's skull and brain neatly punctured through with an air tank and cattle something. It starts out like a straightforward modern Western. It is obvious who the good and bad guys are; the bad guy is a great, twisted, and admirable bad guy. The good guy is slightly morally shady and very likeable. Straight forward right? It lives up to this first impression with great pacing, action, and character development until the very end where the film jarringly prompts the viewer to reflect on the past 90+ minutes.

Breathless (1960 version) - Wow, really great movie. I can't really say why I liked it so much. Neither of the main characters were as lovable as much as they were gorgeous, flippant, and unscrupulous. Awesome dialogue, nuanced, convincing love story, and a beautiful ending.

Terminator 2 - nuff said. I only want to comment that it is a good thing Arnold dies in the end so he and Linda Hamilton don't have to compete over who has bigger biceps.

Juno - When I went to New York a month back, I kept hearing about this movie (people going or wanting to see it), even though all I wanted to see was There Will be Blood. I finally watched it last night. It was funny and enjoyable despite the fact that the kid from Arrested Development and the girl from Hard Candy had the same exact personality as their other roles. The supporting cast was also great with Jason Bateman, that Alias chick, and the psychiatrist lady from 10 things (RIP heath). It didn't get too preachy and handled serious issues in a thoughtful, refreshing manner.

Assassination of Jesse James - Watched this movie at Inga's house waiting for dinner time (corn chowder, spinach salad, and Inga bread). Waiting for dinner time turned into waiting for the movie to be over. Although IMDB gives this movie high ratings, I felt like the whole production should have gone straight to the A&E channel. Good acting by the two main actors (too good by the villain - I couldn't bear to watch the movie because he was so convincingly disgusting and creepy), but the plot dragged and the story was only almost engaging at points. Oh yeah, and the movie took itself WAY too seriously and didn't measure up. I hate that.

Math Game: 8-bit game for four legs and a dock

I was playing with the Airguitar yesterday when I remembered a game that I played in the past. In Boston, when it became too hot during the summers, we used to take my car and drive to Mystic lake where Tuft's boathouse is located. Though it is not legal to swim at that spot, it is the best location and has plenty of parking space. The best times to go are during the night towards the end of summer the water has already been heating up throughout a period of several months.

At those times, we swam always with the lurking fear that the lochness monster might be in residence that night. But to get to the point, the game I mention is a game to be played with four people and eight legs*. Each of the players sit on the dock with their feet sunken into the water.

Leg in the water = 0
Leg out of the water = 1

The left most person starts by raising his or her left most leg out of the water (1), then as fast as possible count 2 (10), 3 (11), 4 (100), etc... in binary. The goal is to not mess up and go fast. The result is a lot of splashing and of course if someone lifts their foot incorrectly there is a punishment of having to jump into the lake.

*Note: More or less legs can be added or subtracted, but then it wouldn't be an 8-bit game.

I didn't know John Maeda was Asian

Recently I have been regularly watching lectures from TED talks. I watched one on simplicity given by John Maeda, a name that has been in in the background of my life for awhile now. His name seems to serendipitously appear whenever graphic design, information aesthetics, or programming is concerned. You can't escape his name when thinking of Reebok, Pentegram, or the Media Lab. It was surprising to me to learn that he is Japanese-American. The image I had in my mind had always been that of an old white man. I am pleasantly surprised although I know I shouldn't be.

IFFR

Last year I volunteered for the IFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam as a member of the bouwplug. Under the dreads supervision of Waheed, I became one of the little minions who run around building things up before the festival i.e. stringing fiber optic cables across buildings and painting insides of warehouses). Unfortunately, I was so busy at that moment with school (damn you PAP), I didn't even go see one movie even though I had free tickets. I still haven't seen I don't want to sleep alone or various other movies that were on my "list" for last year, though the aforementioned has been rotting away in C:\ for ages now.

This is my one and only chance almost this year to see a foreign film (not English or Mandarin) on the big screen and subtitled in English. I regularly call the Filmhuis Lumen in Delft to ask if their sneak preview is in English or Mandarin. This is how I came to see the Marriage of Tuya in Delft. My other gripe is that films come so slowly to the filmhuizen here. Any independent English film takes half a year after its release before making it to theaters here (i.e. Scoop)

This year, I have bought some tickets though many movies I would like to see were sold out. To remind myself what I will watch at the festival or must download later, I am listing the ones that sounded interesting here:

1. De Stille vor Bach - Feb 1st
2. Le voyage du ballon rouge
3. Secret Sunshine
4. Flower in the Pocket - Feb 2nd
5. Naissance des pieuvres
6. Shanghai Trance
7. Hotel Chevalier
8. REC
9. This world of ours
10. Tout est pardonné

Also watched recently: Flodder - 4.0, Flodder in Amerika - 3.5, There will be Blood - 8.5, Bender's Big Score - 6.5

Email from Dad

I don't think I have seen my dad in more than 5 years, but here is an excerpt from a recent email he sent me:

Dear Shauna*:

blahblah..

2008-2-7 is Chinese new year day and then the beginning of the year of Rats.
According to Chinese superstition, this is your "ben ming nian" 本命年, or
"self fate year". According to superstition, you have to do something to
protect yourself from evils. Despite theoretical "atheist" communist ruled for
over 60 years, most Chinese are still extremely superstitious. I found that
actually I am probably the only lone atheist in entire China.
Not only all commoners, also all communists believe in budda or ghost or
some other nonsenses. The first time I heard of the term "ben ming nian"
was only several years ago. And later I found it is a very serious big thing
in younger generations.

Lingling, who is my girl friend for a year now, is very nice to have
bought you a red waist ribbon which supposedly will protect you for your
"ben ming nian". She asked me to mail it to you before Chinese New Year
so that you will be protected :) So please tell me your mailing address
and I will mail it to you tomorrow. (I do not believe in such nonsenses, but
just for fun, and you may like it.)

blahblahblah. etc.

Sweet of him! Does that also mean when I was 12 I needed to be protected? and that I will have to be protected again when I am 48?

*Note: My dad never addresses emails to us (Lanna, Athena, and me) with "Dear Shauna", only "Dear X'nas" and cc'd to all of us.

Musical Things

1. Krashna Musika
It has been a busy, busy January. Last weekend was rehearsal weekend. I practiced from 10am - 10pm on Saturday, 10am-4pm Sunday, and 7-10pm Monday for my upcoming concert with Krashna Musika. I fell asleep a couple of times on Sunday while the soloist was singing only to wake up shortly when I had made a glaring mistake. I realized how much more I have to practice so I don't embarrass myself on stage. Thankfully, my new roommate Nikki (violinist and alum of Krashna Musika) lent me her music stand, and now I only need to find some opportunities to play when she won't be home to hear me practicing. You can hear me play next Thursday and Friday at 20:30 in the Maria van Jessekerk in Delft or Dr Anton Philipszaal in Den Haag. We are playing:

Brahms, Ein Deutches Requiem
Webern, Passacaglia, Opus 1
Schoenberg, Thema und Variationen, Opus 43B

I am pretty excited. I think the program is pretty good, and the Brahms sounds awesome with a choir, minus not really in tune winds and brass (they spent all their time practicing the other two pieces sadly, but who am I to talk?). You can book your tickets at: krashna@tudelft.nl, if you are interested in coming. I can't wait until the end of this concert season, because we will start playing Rachmaninoff's Symphony no. 2 and Mozart's Requiem. Eventually we will be going on tour in April traveling to Hamburg and Copenhagen.

2. Nodame Cantabile
Furthermore, during the last two days I was hooked on Nodame Cantabile, a Japanese drama. I can definitely blame it all on Ellen, who wrote a review of the show in her blog. I know it is pretty ridiculous to enjoy (only some, I swear) watching dramas (especially Asian ones), but I tend to be drawn to either high art or really low, low non-art. I justify my ridiculousness by saying it makes me a well rounded person (how do you think I got into college?). Anyways, this was definitely one of the better dramas in the spectrum because of several factors that are lacking in other dramas. I'll summarize shortly:

a. The girl wasn't totally retarded, her redeeming factor was that she was as much as a genius as the main dude. They both pushed each other to become better.
b. The drama was about an aspiring conductor and talented but unmotivated pianist, thus music!
c. The school scenes were convincing, people actually went to school and it was convincing that the were in fact studying to some end.
d. Good music, lots of engrossing performance snippets, though very known (Themes: Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet; Brahms; Beethoven, 7th, Adagio for Strings, etc etc.
e. Convincing orchestra and piano playing (I usually hate how unconvincing music playing is in even blockbuster movies..i.e. most everything)
f. Consistent characters, interesting side characters who are also more than 2D. Instead of hating their side stories, I actually wanted to know more in some cases.
g. Like Ellen already said, convincing love story.

I also managed to infect my sister, Athena with the Nodame Cantabile fever. She took even shorter time to complete the drama (1 day).

3. Spelwarenmesse
Finally, I complete my musical post by saying that I will be visiting the Spielwarenmesse, Nuremberg Toy Fair for a week in February (6th-12th?) as a volunteer to demonstrate the AirGuitar and AirDrum for 1Up Toys. In the next week I will have to learn to play some songs, and in exchange I get 200E and an expenses paid trip to Nuremberg to the biggest toy fair in the world. What this also means is I will also have to print a ton of resumes, finish my portfolio, and maybe website before I go. Hopefully, I can get some leads on possible jobs or graduation projects!

Scheme

This is a scheme that I made today for a class, professional design practice. We (Sander, Pieter, Yvo, and I) will have to present a working model sometime next, next week.

The idea is an interactive game that can be used as a tool to explore possibilities of how to transition between the educational life at TU Delft and professional design practice.

Mapping the Future

The end of our education means that infinite possibilities and directions open to us that will define the rest of our lives; the gray cloud that seems to hang between the present and the future yields no insights into what “correct” decisions should be made. Uncertainties, insecurities, and the desire to keep all possible paths open cause us to feel stuck, unwilling to move forward in the wrong direction. However, decisions must be made or else no goals will ever be reached.

Taking a step back to view the whole picture and through discussing the dilemma of action versus thought and planning, we reached the perspective that the future is open, and there are many paths to the same goal. There is no point of no return, though it may feel that way. Choices can be irreversible, but it is possible to change the course of life at any moment though it may seem impossible.

Our visualization presents the result of our brainstorm. It shows that different futures can be achieved through different paths of attack and different stakeholders along the path. Though it seems like there is no going back once a decision is made, there are often unforeseen roads that can be taken backwards or forwards from critical decision points. The brainstorm helped us realize as a group that the future is fluid and there is no correct way of achieving an end. We should focus beyond our current graduation anxiety and be excited by all the opportunities facing us. It also teaches us that we should not be afraid of taking action towards an end.

Inga and Jamie Oliver

Inga came over two days ago and taught me how to make a delicious snijboonen (runner beans?) and anchovies pasta. The recipe is memory modified recipe from one time she was watching a Jamie Oliver show while vacuuming. After some searching, I think I may have found it. The trick is to melt the anchovies into the oil, which infuses the pasta and runner beans with delightful anchovy flavor.

Inga's recipe (for four or more*):
2 cans of anchovies
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
250 grams of runner beans
500 grams pasta
enough tomato sauce/cans/tomatoes
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Cut the runner beans into thin diagonal strips (0.5-1.0 cm wide). Finely chop the garlic.
2. Heat the oil in a pan, when hot, add anchovies and garlic. Stir in the anchovies until they mostly dissolve.
3. Add the tomato paste and stir well.
4. Add the runner beans and bring them to a boil within the tomato mixture.
5. Serve over pasta.

*With the four of us, I still had enough leftovers for 3.5 breakfasts/lunches

Reflections on the TU Delft

Recently many people have been emailing to ask me what it is like to study industrial design at the TU Delft. Here is my long winded and not grammatically or stylistically checked reaction (please excuse me):

Hey ---,

Sorry it took so long for me to reply. It sounds like you are in the same boat I was right before graduating from MIT. I studied mechanical engineering and architecture, and I also wanted to go in a designy-technical direction but I was scared of the implications of art school/didn’t want to be subjected to the normal engineering path.

Because I was so busy with double majoring, come spring of my senior year, I hadn’t thought much about graduate programs (though I had looked at some websites: RISD, Stanford product design, etc). I assumed I would work for a year or two at a random architecture/meche firm before thinking more about what to study next or how to move in a product design direction. However, around May I started panicking. I didn’t want to work for any of the companies I had gotten offers from; I didn’t want to be condemned as a ProE slave or a menial technical drawer. I had heard from Chandler Hatton and Dave Wallace about the TU Delft, so I applied. There was no stress because the application date was due after all my work was turned in (June-ish?).

Before I can go further, I have to explain the education system in the Netherlands. All education is basically free for each and every Dutch citizen. Anybody can go to any university or college they want studying anything they want, assuming they have passed the required classes in high school (some number of math or science classes). Not only can anyone study anything and wherever they want, they also get 10 years of subsidy from the government. Within those 10 years they can get up to their bachelor’s, master’s or higher with the government paying them money to live. What this means is there is no selectivity except self selectivity. Even though the TU Delft is the technical school of the Netherlands, anyone can get in. The TU is prestigious, but the least prestigious of all the departments amongst students (in terms of hardness respect) is Industrial Design. It is also where all the failed engineers and people who don’t know what they want to do when they grow up end up studying.

There are about 2,000 people studying industrial design at the TU Delft. Of those students, some are very motivated and hardworking. Almost everyone has something they are really good at. There are also many people who don’t care at all about school and many more in between. Most graduates do not end up as product designers. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you realize that this is the fate of most majors for generalists (i.e. course 2 at MIT). As you know, many mechanical engineers at MIT go into finance, law, consulting, etc. There are many people here who are very dedicated to what they do, and there are many smart people who you can learn from, professors and students alike. There are also people who are passionate about other things besides work.

As to your question about keeping your technical background, the courses in the master are not very technical owing partly to the fact that all engineering basics have been covered in the bachelor’s program and partly because of the nature of the study. However, each half year there is a major design project where you may be able to put your technical skills to good use (depending on the design project/company). Also, because of the huge student body, there are a huge number of people who are well specialized in the whole spectrum from engineery to designy.

The program is set up so that each semester there is a major design project to work on. The other master courses are designed to support the progress of that major design project, and you can choose your own electives beyond that. The supporting classes are not very rigorous or hard. Absolutely none are very technical, but some are quite interesting (business aspects, research on p-design, methods, technology, etc). For me, the fun parts of IPD are the design projects. In these projects you work with a company and other students (depending on which project) to create a product/solve a problem. The greatest strength of the TU is that it is very rigorous on teaching process and documentation, but at the same time I think this also hinders the creative process…alas, thus is the nature of negotiating design and engineering. The graduation project is where you can really pursue what you want to do and to what degree of conceptuality or engineering.

In the end, aesthetics takes a second seat to industrial engineering at the university. Coming to study in Delft will not be an art education. Like I said before, the design process is what you learn at the TU Delft. You will have to take some drawing classes, but the aesthetics aspect is assumed. The Dutch master students will have already have had extensive form-giving and drawing classes, so these will not be taught in the master itself. I have learned many things from working within the projects and with other people. I have also had to use a lot of Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator in the context of report/project/product presentation.

Not knowing Dutch isn’t a hindrance at all in terms of studying here or living here. All the master’s programs are now in English as of two years ago or so. Also, everyone speaks fluent English, and I mean everyone (unlike most other European countries). The only place that you could run into trouble is in the area of making friends. In general, Dutch people are very insular and cliquish. I believe they are less so towards Americans because we speak fluent English and we share similar TV culture. That said, there is also a lot of political negativity here in terms of generally hating Bush and US foreign policy.

If you want to learn Dutch, being enrolled in a master’s program entitles you to two free, first level Dutch courses that are offered by the TBM faculty. I took them and they give a pretty good intro to Dutch, and you can use the class for elective credits if you wish.

For myself, I am happy I chose to come to TU Delft. I feel like I have learned a lot, though it is not necessarily what I expected I would learn. I loved MIT and don’t mind working hard, but I was feeling a little burnt out just after graduation. Living in Delft has been kind of a vacation/master’s all in one. Right now I am in my last half year of the IDP program here, I get about 9 hours of sleep per night, and probably will graduate cum laude. Because I have so much free time I have been working on my own graphic design projects, took a screen printing class, and joined the community orchestra. When I leave here, I will feel well rested, have my masters from a respected university, and will be confident about becoming a designer if I choose to stay in this field.

I hope that this has helped answer some of your questions. Let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

*Note: Jorn wants to comment that work is not the most important thing to many Dutch people and I am writing from the perspective of a capitalist pig. Living in a socialist state affords such luxurious living.. sigh.

p00p

Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. These past few days, I have finally discovered what the downside to living in the city of Delft next to the most picturesque of canals is...p00p.

Dutch people love dogs. Dogs must be walked. Because Dutch people love and therefore own dogs, they must be walked. But where? In the most picturesque of streets of course! The little tree boxes next to the canals in between the car parking spaces is coincidentally where I park my bike and the ideal place for these little doggies to do some biznass. Unfortunately, p00p is brown like the ground around the trees especially at night, and there seems to be a disproportionate amount of dogs pooping in these spaces. I've ruined two of my shoes in the past days and they are still sitting in the hallway waiting to be cleaned. Good thing I still have a couple of shoes left...