Weel 6 - Overwhelmed

*I do not own this artwork. Image is taken from Google

Monday, 24 july 2015.

I had my first anxiety attack.

I often hear stories about people who suffer from anxiety disorder. I never really acknowledge that as I thought I would never have to deal with it. 

That very morning, during class, my body felt odd. My head was lightheaded, I was not able to think straight and I was very restless. I thought that it was the side effects of my medications, which I had taken earlier. When class ended, I felt worse. I felt very anxious for no apparent reason and my heart started pounding very hard. As I did not wanted my friends to see me in such a state, I went up the rooftop where there were benches. Thankfully, I was alone. As I sat down, it worsened. My breathing was very short and I started worrying and overthinking about horrible situations that I clearly knew would never occur. The problem was, I couldn't push those thoughts away. I had a really hard time pushing it away. All I felt was fear and all I wanted to do was just cry. I have never ever experienced this before. I badly wanted those feelings to go away. I opened up Google on my phone and typed out the symptoms that I had and what I felt. The first word that I saw was 'ANXIETY'. I was stunned. Justice was serve as I have always been ignorant about people who had anxiety disorder. 

I then tried to calm myself down by drowning myself with positive thoughts. I also reminded myself that I am surrounded with people who care about me. Although it took a fair bit of time for me to completely calm down, it worked. Positivity is key. 

Anxiety was debilitating. It felt like my mind was on fire. Over analysing irrelevant thoughts and overthinking about illogical situations. Anxiety was like a person, controlling the voice inside my head, telling me that everything is not okay when as a matter of fact, everything is.

That very night, I reflected upon what happened earlier and wondered what triggered it. I was certain that I was just overwhelmed with all the assignments and I still am trying trying to adjust with the environment. 

I am thankful for this sudden anxiety attack as it had helped me open my eyes and be more understanding towards people who suffer from such disorders and has to deal with it frequently. I am optimistic that such circumstances will never occur again as long as I radiate positivity. 

Week 5 - Reflecting

Five weeks have past since I first stepped into this school. So much has changed. My life flipped, from tranquility to chaos. Peculiarly, I enjoy this hustle. In a period of five weeks, this precise period, I have learnt more about myself that I never knew about and trying to refine myself into a better individual. I've also learnt to become more responsible of my assignments and manage my time wisely. I am making small good changes to myself and with these small steps, I hope that it would make a remarkable change in myself as I genuinely desire to become a better human.

Moreover, I have been blessed with a bunch of amazing classmates whom I am very close with. It's fascinating and incredible how close and comfortable we've gotten in a matter of just five weeks. We have all gone out, take excessive amount of pictures, danced, laughed and also struggled together. This journey has undeniably been wonderful beyond words can describe. Having friends that I can count on plays a big role in this journey that I am on. I hope that even after we graduate, we will all still be in touch with each other. I would definitely, with all my heart, want them to stay on this journey with me. 

Week 4 - Brainstorming

101 ways to catch a crab

Brainstorming is a conference technique of solving a specific problem, amassing information, stimulating creative thinking, developing new ideas. For instance, spontaneously participating in discussion.

My group and I had spent weeks brainstorming on ways to catch a crab. Although we had a really hard time coming up wit ideas at the beginning of brainstorming for ways, we soon got the hang of it and managed to come up with several hilarious, playful and ridiculous was on how to catch a crab. One of my favourite ways was to catch it sideways as crabs walk sideways. Another was to threaten the crab that ‘Plankton’, a character from the show Spongebob Squarepants, was going to steal the secret formula for the kraby patty. Despite it not being rational/sensible, I strongly felt that it was a constructive idea. 

Ultimately, in brainstorming, I strongly believe that there is no such thing as a dead end if you are open minded and not narrow down your perception of an idea. In other words, individuals are generally narrow-minded when it comes to brainstorming. For example, when being tasked to come up with ways to cross a road, many would only think of the norm which is to just walk when in fact there are plenty other ways to cross a road. A good idea is to roller blade.

In conclusion, this brainstorming activity had sustained me to become an open-minded individual.

Week 3 - Breaking The Rules

Designers that employ “Breaking the Rules” 

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the images below. Images are taken from Google.

I am/will be majoring in Interior Design and I aspire to be like Chip and Joanna Gaines. 

Chip and Joanna Gaines, both are designers and have their own reality series "Fixer Upper" on HGTV. The married duo started from distinctive careers. Joanna was a boutique owner and Chip was working in real estate by buying, renovating and selling homes. Shortly after, they incorporated their values of their crafts into one holistic company. 

Breaking The Rules

They have broken the rules in many ways. One of which was setting up a company together. Many have said that married couples should never work together because of various reasons that in fact are valid. Some examples are : -

• being capable of working on projects together professionally
• acting in a way that makes other individuals uncomfortable
• causing tension and drama from home to work if they have a fight which could jeopardise their careers as well as their relationship, vice versa

Moreover, setting up a company together which will emphasise its validity further. 

Many individuals have a common misconception that combining classic elements and modern elements in interior designing, is a call for a disaster. However, Chip & Joanna have proven that retro/vintage and contemporary designs compliments each other. The combination surprisingly goes well. Their designs also strongly depicts simplicity at its finest. It's the narrow perception of individuals that have caused this common misconception. How Chip & Joanna had approached such fusion of design had helped me perceive that designing does not only revolves around the norm. 

To conclude, Chip & Joanna Gaines are my definition of designers that breaks the rules. They are my personal influences and they motivate me to become an inspiring interior designer. I yearn to excel in this major to achieve my dreams/ambition.   

Form Vs Function 

Definition of 'form'

http://dictionary.reference.com

Noun

• external appearance of a clearly defined area, as distinguished from colour or material; configuration:
• the shape of a thing or person 
• something that gives or determines shape; a mould

Verb (used with object)

• to construct or frame
• to compose 
• to contract or develop

Verb (used without object)

• to be formed or produced
• to take or assume form

Definition of 'function'

Noun 

• the kind of action or activity proper to a person, thing, or institution; the purpose for which something is designed or exists; role
• any ceremonious public or social gathering or occasion.
• a factor related to or dependent upon other factors

Verb 

• to perform a specified action or activity; work; operate 
• to have or exercise a function; serve 

Without form, there wouldn't be function. For example, vehicles. Without the right elements of constructing, the vehicle is incapable of functioning. If you do not install the right 

Therefore, I conclude that one has to follow the other. 

Week 2

27 July 2015

I started out my morning with Drawing Fundamentals. We were tasked with 8 pieces of paintings using Chinese ink. Truthfully, I do not drag going to school. As a matter of fact, I look forward going to school because of my classmates. They start of the day with a smile unlike some unmindful people. I believe that beginning the day with a smile sets the stage for the rest of the day. It may perhaps, spread happiness. Additionally, the photo shown above was one of the pieces of paintings done in class using a bubble wrap. If you look closely, it is actually the Mad Hatter from Alice in wonderland, wearing a pair of shades. However, it also could be Saul Hudson, better known as Slash; former guitarist of the band Guns N' Roses.

29 July 2015

Creative Thinking: 101 Ways 

Moving on, my group was tasked to creatively come up with 101 ways to catch a crab. We had a hard time brainstorming  at the beginning because we thought that our ideas lacked of creativity. Ideas definitely was not flowing freely and we were being pretty unproductive. Unanticipatedly, one of my group members came up with the idea of linking our task with Spongebob Squarepants, referring the crab as Mr Krabs. Tons of ideas streamed in and we started scribbling all of it out. I later then realised that my group is more comfortable thinking with words rather than images. However, we did drew some characters from Spongebob to make our mind-map look more engaging.

I definitely think that brainstorming as a group is much more effective than brainstorming individually as it can develop ideas in greater depth. 

My Role Model: My Father

 

My role model is my father. He is an entrepreneur. Although he does not hold a degree nor a diploma, he is a successful man as of today. He owns a company which he and his brother had built many years before I was born. They started out from nothing and now they are something. Through the years, his business blossomed. And during those busy years, my brother and I had very little father time with my father of course. He has always been supporting and providing me with everything even when I have never performed academically well and especially when I make a wrong decision and things go wrong, he stays with me and guides me through it all.

Although he is a strict person, he does not get furious when we(my siblings and I; being the reckless youths that we are) often make mistakes. He knows that we are all human and we make mistakes. He believes that every mistake is a lesson. And with these lessons, we will be better humans. 

His open-minded character has also helped him to understand me better. He understands that a lot has changed over the century. For instance, youths. They are much more rebellious and angst today. He allows us to be citizens of our day. 

I aspire to be just like my father when I grow older.

The name of his company is Amideas (Pte.) Ltd. His company specialises in events.

Breaking the Rules

So how exactly did my father broke the rules? Easy, when he first started out this business, he did not take up any kind of courses on how to start your own business as its what normally people would do. People thought he was crazy as he had no experience in this industry. It was an extreme risk. But he was bold and fearless, like many of the past artists. He did not followed any guidelines. He did whatever he wanted to do. In the beginning, he only designed banners and made foam words. He came up with extraordinary yet conventional ways to create them. The methods that he used the create them was very different than how other manufacturers would do. He had originality.