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October 30, 2005
saturday night with the boys
i took an evening train to amsterdam to meet robert, remco and jim. after fasting all day and torturing myself with food photos on flickr, i was in the mood for some okonomiyaki.
the boys were all okonomiyaki virgins, and i was pleased that their first time was with me in the japanese pancake world. haha! that sounds dodgy, doesn't it? like i'm harboring secret thoughts of foursomes! eek!
i had the tori karaage, the shogayaki special osaka and japanese ice-cream (macha, black sesame and white sesame flavors). it was soooooo yummmm... and green tea milkshake of course! i think i ate the most, and fastest, because i was so hungry from fasting all day.
afterwards, we ended up in de vrije vork, a few doors down from where we ate. de vrije vork specialises in organic and vegetarian dishes. there's a daily selection of freshly made dishes, which you buy by the weight (€1.80 for 100g) and they have lovely organic wines, tea and coffee.
when we came in there was a duo playing jazz/brazilian music on guitars and sax. i had a small glass of chocolate-orange liqueur, called the texel voorspoed *prosperity* and remco had the texel liefde *love*. this is where people would frown and ask, "isn't alcohol forbidden during ramadan?"
ho hum, i really had a craving for chocolate, and the texel voorspoed really did taste like a liquid terry's chocolate orange. ah well. to quench my chocolate thirst further, jim and i shared a luscious double-chocolate brownie.
we listened to the music and chatted away for a couple of hours or so. it was fun! with jim and remco being single, the conversations always veered to the subject of women, and girl-hunting. i thought it was funny!
jim and remco seem to have an attention span of 10 seconds. we're talking and i can see their concentration waver and then lose it completely when the female of the species walk past. it's so different how boys and girls look at ogle people.
with boys, you can always tell that they're looking: their heads turn, their eyes swim in their sockets, they stop mid-sentence. with girls, we just flick our eyes up for an initial gaze, and then discreetly undress the target with their eyes without losing concentration on the conversation topic at hand. or at least, that's how i do it. in their defense, jim and remco say that men can't multitask. hahaha. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 03:00 PM | Comments (1)
October 29, 2005
foodswapee
woo hoo! i got the best package ever from anna in chicago! :)
she sent a huge box full of yummy stuff: korean soda, japanese marshmallows, peanut butter M&M chocolate bar, Mrs. Field's chocolate chips for cooking, French-market coffee, Filipino spices for dishes, polvoron, childhood favorite cereal Cap'N Crunch, corn cracklings, and much more! all these goodies, just in time for halloween!
i am so happy!
who wants to join for Round 2? christmas is coming up, so that'd be a nice theme, or a nice excuse to exchange food gifts :)
Posted by Yasmina at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)
October 25, 2005
robert. the baker.
*well i thought i could write about bread instead of the dutch design week in this installment* :)
last weekend, robert baked a really lovely loaf of raisin bread! i couldn't eat enough of it! and i kept taking photos of it too! it was so tasty, and so soft and fluffy, like a pillow. it was great to eat it warm, thinly spread with butter. so good.
i fell in love with the bread, and all over again with the man :)
Posted by Yasmina at 06:27 AM | Comments (5)
October 23, 2005
DDW 03
ooooh, all the design-goodness coming from the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show... they never cease to amaze me. the student projects revolved around themes like 'man and identity', 'man and well-being', 'man and leisure' and 'man and living'. the work ranged from "omg, weird!" to "hmmm, nice concept but unsure of the execution" to "oh, that's clever!" to "hahaha, wow, that's brilliant!"
image above, top half: entrance to the graduation show. bottom left: 'klittenlamp' by masanao tomioka, lamp shades from corrugated metals sheets that can be built-up modularly by hooking and looping clusters of lamps to get the right kind of lighting for your environment. bottom right: sietze kalkwijk's 'LED it bee' modular lighting object made up of Light-Emitting Diodes.
so here goes, highlights of the graduation show:
images, from left to right: (click for a larger image)
image one is the exhibit of hilde koenders, a project titled 'bleeding till death'. plastic blood pouches filled with dye act as a transfusion vase for dying flowers. as the dye is absorbed, the flowers take on the hue of the dye. clever. ironic. beautiful. and sad.
image two project by jeroen verhoeven. this 'cinderella table' combines crafts and high-tech production method of laser-cutting. amazing stuff. i actually saw this table by accident at the modelmakers bruns, when i was over at their workshop for the simplicity project and saw this beautiful table there.
image three 'orbital park bench' by nami mizuguchi. the bench orbits around the tree so sitters can shift around the rail for the best view, depending on season or time of day. i like this; you never get the same view, and imagine all the cool photography i can do on one of these benches!
image four top half: 'shopcycle' by leonart vissers. clever three-wheel bicycle to shop with, as it features a crate and front shopping bags, and the back of the bike can be snapped into the "cart position", enabling the user to easily guide the shopping cart through the store. leonart won a sustainability award for this design. i would definitely shop in one of these babies :)
image four bottom half: 'refugee radio' by mareike gast. this radio converts radio waves in the air into electricity and sound for people living in areas where basic utilities like water, and electricity is scarce.
image five top half, 'inner beauty' by gudrun gunnlaugsdottir. visualising the inner beauty of people through furniture.
image five bottom half: 'kloonkoffer' by sarah van gameren. your DIY vacuum-forming kit, using the power of your own vacuum cleaner at home. i love this because kids (and adults alike) can make so many cool things, omg, imagine what kind of wonderful things i can put in there! :) the downside is, it would create a lot of plastic waste. :(
image six top half: 'urban jewelry' by carmela bogman. the "beads" on the top of the fence spin on an axle, therefore acting as a security obstacle for possible thiefs/trespassers.
image six bottom half: 'grafsteen' by kristian van kuijk. designing your own gravestone. sounds morbid, i know. but it's built-up in pieces, where the name/d.o.b/details of the deceased is compiled online by family members and then realised in 3-D form.
my camera battery ran out before i could get to all of the exhibits. bummer. :(
but here's two more that i'd like to mention: 'zinnebeeldige stalenboek' by siriane hunia, a beautifully printed book, with different types of ink that react to heat and UV-light. 'concrete landscape' where a concrete slab is produced with an "invisible" water-sensitive print. when it rains, the concrete wall or landscape changes its look. brilliant. the name of the designer eludes (suzanne?) and there isn't a suzanne with this work in the showcase book... anyone care to enlighten me?
edit: her name is susanne happler and the work is called 'solid poetry' :)
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next installment: DDW 04: TAC Hotel
Posted by Yasmina at 07:26 PM
October 22, 2005
DDW 02
more images and design goodness from the Dutch Design Week 2005! :)
below, top image: exhibit hall in Strijp S complex. middle image and bottom images: 'Past Tense, Future Sense - 80 Years of Design' exhibit. the book was launched this week to the public, although i received my internal copy last month. i also came to the book launch party last tuesday.
below, images of products from '1 meter sessie YKSI', the 2005 collection of YKSI.
below, top image: chair from '1 meter sessie YKSI', the 2005 collection of . bottom image: a blurry david walking through the YKSI exhibit.
below, images from the CliC Lounger by pelidesign. the parts come in one flat sheet, and you punch the pieces out and click them together to make a lounger, table, etc.
below, images from SPRNG exhibit and the CliC lounger.
below: series of macros from the Material Sense 02: Innovations. i love the printable concrete! i'll have one of those please, thanks!
below, collage of images from the Lift-Off exhibit. top images: 'Plant Lamp' by Quinten Lans. upside down or upside up. i like it, although the electric cable could have been done more elegantly.
bottom left image: 'Concrete', lamp constructed of concrete and silicon rubber, by Meta & Renate. i want one! :)
bottom right image: part of a wooden plank, in which holes are drilled and then little plastic cylinders are stuffed in. when held up against a light source, the coloured rings sparkle like LEDs. (please correct me if i wrongly credit the designers, got my notes mixed up) by Joeke en Marijne Beenhakker & Breg Hanssen
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next installment: images of the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation 2005 show! to read the first DDW 2005 entry click here :)
Posted by Yasmina at 07:26 PM | Comments (1)
October 21, 2005
DDW 01
yesterday david came down from enschede to spend a day with me, for the dutch design week. he was really nice and polite. it was my first time meeting david, after talking online for a while. as with offline meetings, i always get nervous about whether we were going to get along or not, etc, but david was really cool! i was also very impressed with his bahasa jawa :)
we managed to catch quite a few exhibits yesterday, in 4 different venues: klokgebouw, TAC,witte dame and the buro philip van den hurk. in 10 hours, we saw following exhibits: AirForm, Re-Use/Re-Make/Re-Value, Dutch Mountains, Material Sense 02: Innovations, Move Me, Graduation 2005, SPRNG, Lift-off, Tac Hotel, Arnhems Design, past tense, future sense - 80 years of design, 1 meter sessie YKSI... whew!
it was a supercool day. lots of inspiring stuff. i'm still sorting out my notes, as well as the cards/flyers i picked up and the photographs. we took hundreds of photos; david has the supercool digital rebel. i was happy because he was also carrying around his extra lenses, so i didn't feel like an ultra-geek changing my lenses at exhibits.
there is so much i could write about but i'll just present the highlights. here's the first of the dutch design week series:
Re-Use | Re-Make | Re-Value
Designers Jo Meesters and Marije van der Park bowled me over with their collection. Laser-cut wooden tabletop, delicate ceramic tea set and a vase with a city skyline cut-out from delft blue motif, the natural beauty of an onion bulb.
Taken from their website:
Meesters & Van der Park Anno 2004 present during the Dutch Design Week 2005 the collection Re-Use / Re-Make / Re-Value. The collection is centred on the reuse and revaluation of discarded furniture and textile. Re-Use / Re-Make / Re-Value changes people’s views on existing and discarded products. In addition to this collection, the design duo presents new ceramic works. Natural containers based on the revaluation of natural beauty.
more to come during the weekend! have a good one, everybody! :)
Posted by Yasmina at 04:11 PM | Comments (1)
October 17, 2005
school. daydreaming about.
so a group of us were having lunch together last week and ramon asks me, "when do you move to milan, anyway?" to which i responded, "what? physically?" everyone else laughed and made jokes about me daydreaming and being already in milan in thought.
after that lunch, i really got to daydreaming. about the promise of a new life in milan. how nice! i got my routine down. i'm off in a cloud of daydreams...
how my daily school routine would be:
i take the metro in the morning to get to school *it's 14 stations, non-stop, from our apartment, i checked*, listening to music on my iPod *which i don't have, and am hoping to get at christmas, heheh*, reading the free metro newspaper to improve my italian, observing people and maybe even making Metro Daily Commute sketches in my moleskine. this is in the winter, of course. in the summer, in good weather, i will cycle *it's only 8.8 km, i checked* to school.
i get to school, attend the lecture or the workshop. in my imagination, my classmates would be an international mix of young designers, with various design experiences. i like design workshops :) you can say that i am a bit of a workshop whore. boy, did i swoon when i read that five-months of the course would involve workshops on various interaction design themes. woo hoo!
i don't like presenting so much, i don't know how the hell i manage to do presentations to clients in my current job, but i do anyway without big blurps or bleeps, however i think i can improve on my presentation skills. in my daydream, after months of practice, i am the perfect presenter ;)
in the afternoons we may do group assignments or projects. i like this as well, although i need to work on the chemistry... group dynamic is all about chemistry, isn't it? and i have to say that i don't get a "spark" from everyone i work with, so i'd need to work out how to motivate myself when the spark isn't there.
group assignments/projects would take us out of school. we'll be at the library, or doing mobile working, wirelessly from our powerbooks in a coffeeshop *mmmm, smell the italian coffee*, and visiting places of context to our projects: old-people's homes, local schools, cafes, public spaces, malls, etc.
how my desk in the studio would be:
at ravensbourne, we had an open studio with desks. everyone could just claim a desk and work there all year. my desk at DA would have lots of natural lighting, and i sit near a window, so i can look outside and daydreams some more.
knowing me, the desk would be messy, piled with my trusty toolbox from ravensbourne years, spilling with drawing pens, steel ruler, stanley knife, tape, modelling clay, screwdrivers, paint samples, etc. other stuff on desk: design magazines, clippings of articles, prints, photographs, boards with sticky-notes depicting flowcharts, design books, a hardmodel or two, stickers, etc.
i also like to pick up odd bits and pieces from construction sites or vintage shops, so i might have the top part of a mannequin on my desk as well. maybe a cool homemade lamp i made from spare parts.
what's in my bag:
every day i will bring my baby Sputnik (my faithful powerbook), digital camera + lenses, moleskine sketchbook (reporter's edition i love best), ID cards, pens, Metro pass and reading book in my school bag.
*i interrupt this daydream to bring sad news*
my orange messenger bag broke. the seams at the back burst and it's irrepairable. i'm so sad. i bought it at Gap for really cheap, like £15 in 1997, so it's lasted a really long time and it's served me well. it's great for carrying all your stuff around, because the sides can be expand to double its capacity. it has lots of compartments inside and outside for easy access, is easy to clean, it's not too big and it's orange :)
i'm trying to find its replacement, but every bag i see seems to:
a. have a huge logo splashed across the flaps *makes a walking ad for diesel/puma/etc*
b. too big/bulky/heavy *knocks me in the butt when i am walking*
c. too small/cute *my camera fits but my pbook doesn't, or vice versa*
eek! help! at the moment i am looking at:
- this bag which comes in orange, yay!
- this bag which doesn't come in orange, but i like the shape.
- this bag which is the bulkiest, but is on sale ;)
how my life-outside-school would be:
everyone at work keeps asking what robert is going to do, and they don't believe me when i tell them, "we don't know yet." i wish they'd fuck off and leave me alone. seriously. ideally, he comes to milan. if not, that's okay too. we can do the long-distance thing. i'm prepared for both.
if robert is not there...
i'll live in the apartment with a flatmate. the apartment has two bedrooms, anyway. my flatmate would be called eva, who is also indonesian. she is also a student. she studies industrial design at the milan politecnico. she did her undergrad in london. just like me!
we take turns cooking. and we do homework together. and gossip. and do girly things like painting our nails in front of the TV. i'd bitch and moan about missing my husband, she'll bitch and moan about missing her boyfriend (it's not clear where said-boyfriend lives, but it's not in milan, or italy).
we shop together for food and clothes, and we see our friends. we have different sets of friends because we go to different schools, but we know other indonesian students in milan. we both have part-time jobs. i freelance at a design company somewhere in the city, and she works at an interiors shop, so she can get freebies for our flat, yippee :)
on weekends, robert comes to visit me. we're out and about in milan, seeing friends, exhibitions. but sometimes i have to work on weekends, so he cooks me dinner and makes me lunch and does my laundry, hahaha, dream a little dream :)
if robert is there...
i come home to my husband every day and all is well :)
Posted by Yasmina at 07:00 PM | Comments (7)
October 13, 2005
dutch design week
update:
ugh. i hate football nights in eindhoven. it creates all sorts of traffic jams.
______________
tonight is the official start of the Dutch Design Week, an annual event here in eindhoven. there's several promising exhibitions that i am hoping to attend during this time, like:
- AirForm
- Re-Use/Re-Make/Re-Value
- Dutch Mountain
- Material Sense 02: Innovations
- Move Me
- Graduation 2005: degree show of the Design Academy Eindhoven, which according to the NY Times, was the best design school for 2004-2005. i've been to their degree shows every year that i've been here, and i've seldom been disappointed.
i received an invite for a book launch party for next tuesday night, and that should be cool! it's held in *surprise, surprise* the klokgebouw. it's probably the favorite venue to have a party right now, ex-philips factory building, cave-like and industrial, because every party i go to seems to be held there... well, i hope this party will be as good as last year's.
well. have a good weekend everyone! :)
oh and before i forget.
i must still be woozy from all that codeine. this week, i was at etos (dutch version of boots) and i asked for "homotherapy" instead of "homeopathy". humpfh.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:10 AM | Comments (3)
October 12, 2005
honest.
after going to the post office today, i went for lunch. *ketauan banget gue masih engga puasa* i went to toko murah, which is a little indonesian food shop in centrum.
i'm familiar with the staff there. *abis kalo lagi pengen masakan indo dan males masak sendiri, gue lari kesitu, hehe* the owner is a motherly-looking woman, really friendly, and kind. when she brought my food to my table, she told me, "i overcharged you for the lontong you bought, so if you wait here a bit, i'll give you your change."
hah? lontong? kaya'nya gue order lontong for the dutch wedding deh. which is 2 months ago. udah lama banget!
the lady returned with some change and apologised for overchanging me.
wasn't that a nice thing to happen to me today?
Posted by Yasmina at 08:07 PM | Comments (2)
October 11, 2005
queue at the pharmacy.
so i noticed last sunday that i've been coughing blood. eww, i know, i know, that sounds nasty and is not too healthy. my GP checked my lungs however, and there's nothing wrong there, and he thinks i've been coughing so hard that my airway is irritated. so he's prescribed some codeine for me. strong stuff, right? that's why i am so woozy.
anyway, so i'm at the pharmacy getting my prescription, and i notice that several customers get surprises as they walk in. see my little illustration below.
as you can see, the waiting area of the pharmacy is concealed to anyone that walks in. so if i were in the street, and i look into the pharmacy, i can see maybe one or two persons being served at the counter. a-ha! empty place, no queues! that's when people decide to come in.
however, once you're in, you realise that the seating area is actually in an alcove on either side of the entrance, and that there's a roomful of people giving you dirty looks because you've walked in straight to the desk to be served.
orang kan jadi kecele gitu loh. oke, dan disinilah ketauan banget kalo Interaction-Designer mode gue = ON, karena selama gue nunggu giliran gue, gue perhatikan ada beberapa skenario dan akhirnya gue bikin flowchart tentang scenario-of-use:
the entry scenario
orang masuk ke apotik. perhatian mereka hanya tertuju pada counter, jadi mereka engga sadar kalo ada kita-kita yang udah duluan ngantri dan mereka berdiri di belakang orang yang sedang dilayani. nah dari sini, skenario menjadi:
the ticket machine scenario
orang tersebut akan melihat mesin tiket dan LED screen yang menunjukkan tiket nomer berapa yang sedang di-serve. pas dia melihat tiket ditangan dan LED screen dan perbedaan nomer yang besar, baru lah orang tersebut akan celingukan liat kanan-kiri, dan menemukan antrian yang sebetulnya. at this point, the person tends to do 2 things:
leave
because they think it will take too much time (it usually does). or because they can't handle the looks given by the people in the queue (ranging from dirty/angry to amused to "ha-ha, you did that too").
joins the queue
sambil tersipu-sipu malu. ato sambil merengut. ato sambil melototin kita-kita.
anyway. maybe you can tell that i have run out of things to do at home while i am sick.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:19 AM | Comments (7)
October 06, 2005
ewwww
ok, so a few days ago, we'd noticed a strange smell in the bedroom and we couldn't quite figure out what it was. robert is always tidy and cleans all the time, so we were quite puzzled as to what it could be. nevertheless, we frantically cleaned and tidied up some more in the hope of eliminating the odd smell. *gue sampe bakar-bakar incense segala, dan selalu buka jendela walopun diluar dingin banget*
then, robert noticed the stack of wedding presents lying next to the TV in the bedroom. we'd unwrapped all the presents the day after the wedding but because our flat had been the central meeting place, and sleeping place for out-of-town visitors, and was in such a mess, we wrapped everything up again and placed them in a neat stack in the bedroom, to be unwrapped and used another day.
one of the gifts was a beautiful bowl from laszlo and lesh. only now did we remember that when laszlo and lesh gave us this present, they had put two bananas in the box with the bowl! ewww... so that's what the strange smell was!
soooooooo disgusting, ewww, ewww.
but don't you think the bowl is beautiful? and so blue?
Posted by Yasmina at 03:18 PM | Comments (6)
October 05, 2005
nap.
so i come into work today, feeling really shitty. my sore throat has developed into a cough, and i still haven't gotten rid of my cold. it's an epidemic in the studio. designers are dropping dead like flies. john, who sits opposite me, also has a sore throat and a cold.
me: *sitting miserably at my desk, sniff, sniff, nursing my runny nose*
john: *looks at me pitifully*
repeat the above situation all morning long. then...
john: hey yasmina...
me: what?
john: why don't we go find a couch and take a nap together?
me: *wonders if the words 'we', 'nap' + 'together' should be in the same sentence*
michael: *starts laughing from his desk*
john: *the coin drops* oh! i don't mean napping together as in together together. *gives me an embarrassed look*
hummm. well. thanks for the offer anyway.
so i am now home. sick. i want my mom.
Posted by Yasmina at 01:47 PM | Comments (2)
October 03, 2005
bali bombs :(
my heart goes out to the victims of saturday's bali bombings, and their families, and to all those affected. what a tragedy.
i'm sick of all this violence; violence everywhere, not just indonesia. i'm sick of all the religious groups or individuals justifying their actions in the name of religion or whatever cause, and playing God to everyone else with different beliefs and opinions. where is the humanity?
*gila yah, di satu tempat, kita berusaha menyelamatkan nyawa orang, dan di tempat laen, orang malah buang-buang nyawa orang laen*
Posted by Yasmina at 03:18 PM | Comments (3)
