When Sambal Becomes Sriracha

Have you ever felt like you started to lose articulation and fluency of your own mother language? If you have, then you feel what I'm feeling. I just wanted to share a bit about how my Bahasa has become ever since I moved to US two years ago. It's kind of embarrassing to say that my English might have improved but I gradually started to lose my fluency and articulation in my own native tongue. How embarrassing and even ironic was that, seeing that I was even enrolled in Language Division back in high school for two years. Being in Language Division should make you one of the people that is rich of Bahasa vocabularies, which sadly I started to lose now.

Mellow oldies

First off, I just wanted to say... HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAP! Yes, today's my dad's birthday. Too bad I couldn't call to send my greetings directly to him. I'm all so occupied with midterms and I assume he's been busy too. Just today I'm so bored listening to mainstream songs, and even often one or two songs were over-played on the radio they make me sick and I'm currently taking a break from Kpop since there's nothing really new from it. Later on, I bumped into this new chocolate commercial starring the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn (thanks to the insanely realistic CGI effect). The background music was captivating that I found out that it was Moon River, from Ms. Hepburn's acknowledged movie no other than Breakfast at Tiffany's (I gotta watch that movie).

Ideas are everywhere, literally..except...

These past few weeks, my roommate and I have been working profusely on our Design 2 midterm, which includes 6 different abstract compositions made into different formats of artwork (print, painting, installation, sculpture, 3D work). Basically, we need to convey the 4x4" mockups that I posted previously on this blog into a real artwork.

It's pretty hard to find ideas on what to do for these 6 compositions in color, like what materials to choose from and how you are going to execute them. The class professor suggested that the students should go out and do some activities to draw inspiration. For example, my roommate and I went to Orchard Supply Hardware to look for materials. The variety of materials the store has suddenly showered both of us with some ideas of materials and format to work on for this project.

...which ironically barely happened on my campus, or at least in my class, since everyone became stressed out due to the hard critic almost all of us got in type class.

Dots, lines, and tricks

I still don't have a chance to continue my North Sumatra story. Things have been quite hectic, particularly for one class. Yep, Design 2 has been energy and idea drenching for the past four weeks, where we all had to come up with 30 4"x4" abstract compositions. The requirements for each compositions vary, and so are the concepts.

Compositions: Symmetry, Asymmetry, Figure on Ground, Figure and Ground, Depth Gestallt, Pattern based on a decade (I chose 1920s), Unity by Diversity 

Color/Temperatures: Emphasis by Hue, Emphasis by Tint/Shades/Tones,
Emphasis by Saturation 

Concepts: Anomaly, Technology, Dynamic, Luxury (I screwed this one)

The Perks of Being in a Photography Class

So after collecting enough money (well, some of them are part of my parents' contribution), I finally got my first legit DSLR camera. I actually am a little hesitated to get it because my dad already got one but he kept it with him in Indonesia to fulfill his fondness in photography.

Since this term I'm taking photography class (and as mentioned by another photography professor that a graphic designer should be equipped with at least a good quality DSLR camera for photo references), I got one as well.

Horas North Sumatra (pt 2)

The next day after our arrival in North Sumatra would be energy spending, as we were all going on a full-day trip around Brastagi. I actually underestimated this town in the first place, but the visit proved me wrong. There was a lot to take a look in Brastagi. Anyway, our journey started with an early breakfast at the hotel, as usual. I had a plate of omelet and fried rice to kick off my day. My dad apparently already took off earlier in the morning for a stroll. The clear, unpolluted sky in the morning allowed him to take a snapshot of a nearby mountain which the hotel overlooked.

Once the breakfast was done, we set off on our first destination of the day. I was made curious with brief mentions from others that we were going to see some sort of a “golden temple”. A place like that in this pretty isolated hillside place almost sounds impossible. However, when the van started to enter a smaller road with rough surface, a glimpse of blinding gold color reflected by a tall object in the far distance caught my eye.

Horas North Sumatra! (pt 1)

Finally, North Sumatra trip post is up! At least only the first part of it. Last winter break, as you might have known, I went back to Indonesia to take care of some things. One of the events that took place during my almost-a-month holiday includes a trip to North Sumatra. I have to say I really anticipated for it, considering that I've never stepped a foot onto one of the most renowned major islands in Indonesia, Sumatra. Such a shame I've never been there.

On December 27, 2012, two days after Christmas (6 days after "the apocalypse"), I woke up early in the morning, around 6 am. I couldn't believe our flight was actually at 9 am and at that moment, I doubted if we'd make it on time for the flight. However, since it was going to be a domestic flight, so I assumed the check-in process and everything would take shorter time than the international one.

My family and I hitched on a cab to the airport, where we soon met with The Gunawan family and The Tanu family. So there were around 9 people in our trip:

The Ugliest Moment: A Flu+Homesick+Jetlag Story

I'm glad I'm halfway through completing my first Design 2 assignment. I know halfway is actually still a long way to go, but I just feel like writing something.

The semester started off quite roughly for me, and even you can say it's one of the worst times I've had in my almost three years of living in US. Over last week, I got back from Indonesia. Up to the part when I reached my apartment, greeted my roommate who was already back here from SF, and unpacked, was still okay. I had anticipated the jetlag and all, but the worse part came the next day.

After trying to sleep at 3 am after unpacking stuff from my gigantic green suitcase. By the way, I did wake up at 5 am in a still okay condition, but that was merely because of jetlag and it's a common issue. Like I said, I've anticipated that. I heard stories of my friends that were still wide awake at dawn after going back from Indonesia to the states, but in my case, I already slept beforehand and woke up at 5 am. Adjusting your body's circadian rhythm to the local time does take time. Right at that time when I initially woke up, I had the weirdest feeling one could ever feel at 5 am. I was hungry, and I could tell that by the funny, grumbling noises from my stomach.

MLK day

Long weekend is always everyone's favorite. It's simply the perfect time to loosen up a bit from your work aka procrastinating. I just finished Type 2 homework, but I think I need to put some more effort to  it since I did it a little too fast. Homework starts coming and I'm currently and slowly gathering my determination to work on them.

Anyway, tomorrow, we have a day off. It's Martin Luther King Day. I'm glad we finally have a day off despite the fact that it's going to be the only holiday of the semester, and that we just kicked off the semester last week... at least for my school. Probably other universities and schools will have more holidays later in the semester. I was surprised that the semester kicked off really well. Well, I was sick - completely bedridden for three days - last week when I just got here from Indonesia, but the week after was surprisingly amazing. I hung out two days consecutively.