Brenda Yap

I've always thought I didn't like touchscreen mobile phones. The screen is too big; I will scratch it somehow and it will get oily. What if I drop the phone? What if the screen loses sensitivity, and there are no buttons as a back up? So I wrote them off.

About three to four months ago, my housemate got an iPhone 3G, and I fell in love! Everyday I sneaked into his room and messed around with his phone; I played Waterslide, TapTap, took pictures, surfed the internet and tons of other stuff. Super tak malu.

Two months ago when my birthday was approaching I asked my parents for an iPhone. It took a while of negotiating, but in the end we all paid one third each (actually I put in a bit less than one third, from birthday money I had saved up), and seriously, even though the phone has its flaws, I can seriously say I think it is one of the best, fun, yet professional phones in the market now.



While I'm no expert, the touch screen is super amazing. The sensitivity is great, I can't believe the amount of things I can do with it. I never really thought that a phone could only function with one physical button but the touch screen makes it possible.

Wifi is great, I love surfing the net from bed when my laptop is switched off, and checking the weather every morning with just a click. One gripe is that somehow my phone will not connect to a network automatically when it's not broadcasting, even though I have already saved the network configuration. I read online that some people have this problem and some don't, apparently it's kind of random...?

The app store is a bit annoying but it's easy enough to use. Oh, but I hate iTunes. It's so annoying and slow, and so is the app store on my phone. But the amount of applications and games available are overwhelming, you can keep track of your finances, shopping lists, to do lists.. There is even an application for a level (which has come in handy when I hung some stuff on my wall), and lots of random stuff. Some apps are seriously useless and some are pretty good. There are a ton of great games too, but if you play too much the battery starts to run out pretty quickly.



I even invested in a case that set me back quite a fair bit, the iSkin Solo FX, in red (actually I wanted blue but it was not in stock anywhere :( ) But I like red anyway, and this case is amazing! I think it looks great, and gives the phone great protection.



Anyway omg I'm so longwinded. When I started this post I basically wanted to say how I was so wrong when I thought I didn't like touchscreens and iPhones; I always thought they were such Mac fanboy things. I love my phone like crazy now, and although I am not an Apple fan, I love their iPods and now iPhones. I was thinking that I would get myself a Blackberry next year when I went home and started work, but here I am using an iPhone. Maybe I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon, but I admit I was wrong.

Images from apple.com and iskin.com

Do you believe in horoscopes?

A few years ago I signed up for horoscopes to be delivered to my email daily, but it's to my hotmail address, which I don't check regularly anymore. I've moved to gmail.

Anyway I checked it not long ago; and this is what my horoscope has been telling me for the past few days:

Tuesday, 20 Oct
Your internal discipline is generally quite strong -- which is a good thing, as you need to make use if it today! Something big is brewing, and you may have to push yourself hard to take care of it.

This is the day last week when I went out to buy materials to make a model. It took me a whole week to decide whether I wanted to make a model for my presentation next week, and I finally decided to do it. So I bought the stuff, went home, and got started.

Wednesday, 21 Oct
Now is the time for risk-taking -- but knowing you, you've looked at all the angles beforehand! Jump in and make the most of it, but remember that there's no such thing as perfect certainty.

Wednesday was day 2 of model making. I was still optimistic although the model was pretty massive in size and was starting to look a bit sketchy.

Saturday, 24 Oct
Don't be so hard on yourself! If you're regretting something that happened recently, the best you can do is to pick yourself up and try a different approach. Self-criticism isn't useful right now.

Today was the day I started regretting making a model. I started wondering if it was worth my time finishing the model, or if I should just scrap it altogether. But I had already put 2 and a half days of work into it by this stage, so I chugged on. I kept telling myself that when it was finished it would look better.

Sunday, 25 Oct
Show your friends that you're on their side today -- and make sure that everyone can see that you're doing so. It's a good time for obvious gestures and experiments with social issues.

By this time I had finished my model and had moved on to working on my presentation panels. A friend had issues with her computer so she came over to use mine.


I just find it somewhat freaky that horoscopes tend to have some truth in them. Sure I know that they're written in a way that is very broad, that can be applied to many contexts, but somehow can be rather accurate.

Try it out sometime; who knows, it may be true for you too. I subscribe to the one at Astrology. :)

2 days til I print my panels
4 days til the submission
12 days til my turn to present (yes I'm on the 2nd last day knnccb)
19 days til Brynna arrives in Melbourne
20 days til the opening of Index Exhibition (click)
1.5 months til the rest of my family gets here
Less than 2 months til graduation
2+ months til I'm going home

So close.

8 days to go til submission! I can't wait to get this over and done with.

I am so anxious for the list of presentation times to be released. There's about 40+ students, and about 8 people present in a day so it will take about 5-6 days to finish all the presentations.

And with my luck, it will be according to alphabetical order, and being a Yap, my slot will be on the last day.. -.- But who knows, hopefully it will be more random this time.. Last semester when I was still waiting for my turn to present one of my classmates had already finished on the first day and had gone home for holidays! -.- I'm damn suay right.

I think the Interior Design program at RMIT is incredibly hard and challenging. I don't know if it's because I'm a lightweight and, maybe I'm not meant for this field, I don't know. But what I can say is I've been working my ass off in this course, harder than I think I've had to work for a lot of things.

And I don't think it's just me; I see my friends and classmates struggling, unsure of what we're doing week after week, and even now, 2 weeks before submission, we are still plodding along taking it bit by bit.

But I've learnt a lot in my 3 years here. I've gotten really good with AutoCAD (I believe, at least from knowing nothing about it before!), and with my technical skills, which is something that I lacked incredibly in college. I can flip open a Francis DK Ching book and know exactly where everything is, and understand the details, which, 4 years ago, was still puzzling. I know standard measurements by heart. I've learnt about sustainable systems, which is something I will be taking home with me for sure.

And I've also had enough of people thinking that interior design is interior decorating, because it simply is not. It's much more than that, it's so difficult to explain, and too muhc to get into... but it is very closely related to architecture, and it's not fluffing pillows and picking paint colours.

In 3 weeks, I will no longer be an interior design student (if everything goes as planned lol. No, I shouldn't say that, choi!), I will be an interior designer. (Actually, I think I was already a qualified interior designer with my diploma, but never mind. I will be a better interior designer now.)

So if you're a student looking to pursue a bachelor's degree in interior design and you're looking for a challenge, sure, go and enrol at RMIT. It'll be hard, there'll be times you will curse and pull your hair out, there will be many sleepless nights, many frustrating moments with the printers and plotters, lots of money spent on materials and printing; but it will be worth it when you come out the other end.

Okay enough rambling. I have a section and roof plan to finish drawing.