i got gloss on my lips.

MY CLASS RING CAME TODAY!!!

it was actually a little on the early side, but hey, i'll take it. i'm really glad i chose the smaller, signet design without any stone on it. i like the symbol of it, but i don't need the bling. not to mention i have tiny-ass hands and fingers anyway (my class ring size was 4.5), so anything bigger than this would look absolutely ridiculous.

after five years, this was definitely worth the investment. it was also a graduation present from the parents. :)

it works.

pretty.

and as our lives change.

a graduation 2011 photostream.

fifth year show | yea, i am!

fifth year show | me, mom + jess

pre-ceremony | with mom

pre-ceremony | with mom + jess

pre-ceremony | attached!

archi ceremony | man, i'm little... [aka. me trying not to just grab it and run.]

archi ceremony | all the graduates on stage

post-ceremony | me, smings + nana

post-ceremony | the fam [aka. i did it! they seen it!]

we did it! | yaaaaaaaaaayyy!!!

we did it | alex, ishita, i-shan, me, nana 

we did it | anna, i-shan, arlie, ishita, me

:) | me + B

pre-commencement | loitering

commencement | the ceremony 

my fam.

i iz a kollege gradumacate. :)

i can haz diploma?

5 years.
10 semesters.
10 studios.
10 final project presentations.
~30 projects.
over 17,000 hours.

done.

it's the best that i've ever had.

I'M FINALLY DONE!!!!


just had my one and only final for Issues of Practice today.  after the ridiculous document submission deadline we had just yesterday, I am done.  sadly, I had to pull my third official CMU all-nighter sunday night to get shit done.  in my opinion, it wouldn't have been necessary, had everyone just done what they were supposed to.  i'm angry.  but it's done.  whatever.  compared to that, this final was an f-ing walk in the park.

3 hours.
71 questions.
all multiple-choice.
answer options? A-U.


just a few examples of answer options that came up:
a) true
b) false
c) bunnies

c) whiskey distributors, whiskey distillers and catholic altar boys

f) definitely f
g) f and g
h) f,g and h

d) definitely k [NOTE: this question only went up to d)]

a) true
b) false
c) none of the above

a) everything is forced -- FOLAN!

#71. If you could be anyone for a day, who would you rather be?
a) Dick Butkus
b) Tinkerbell
c) Justin Bieber

a mystery box could be anything! even a bunny!

i am officially done with f10, and into my last semester of architecture undergrad. holy shit.

:D

<3

finally.

an epically accurate fortune i got out of a cookie yesterday with dinner. boomtown.

i am officially done with my final studio of my undergraduate career at cmu.

sure, next year i'll have thesis, but that's different. at least it seems different. it's different. this semester was definitely hell, but its finally over.

now to finish off issues, udm and modern architecture & theory with a bang. and hopefully, somewhere in there, i'll have time to add to and resubmit my thesis proposal before dec. 15th. it's just for the grade, but still. it's actually something i want to do, not just for the grade, but for the project. i think i can do it. i'm hoping i'm right.

for now, a chill night of laundry, a bunny, a kitty, some tv, some B, and most of all, some sleep.

:)

<3

it's the final countdoooowwwwnnn...

part two of thesis proposal presentations tomorrow.

4:48pm :: Euginie Kwan

here goes....

we are the leaders of it all.

i'm back at cmu for my fifth and final year. having just finished my first week back, i'm already up to my eyeballs in things to do. i'm still captaining the cmu money mellons, leading practices, planning practices, finding solutions to adding more practices. i'm starting a new ta gig with a first year architectural history class. i've already had a freakout that i wouldn't be able to graduate thanks to some system glitch that said i hadn't taken enough university electives. cleared up that mess with heather. i am still going to graduate on time. thank god. i'm almost completely moved into the gulag and am really liking the set-up of my room. puppy is safely back with me in pittsburgh. she's still just as aloof, fluffy and poopy as before and seems to be settling into her new home for the year pretty well.

this is going to be a long year...

risin' up to the challenge of our rival.

the cmu money mellons are taking on Penn Women's College Sectionals this weekend. and i honestly have no idea how i'm feeling.

excited? nervous? stressed? psyched? pumped? anxious?

so many things are reeling through my mind right now. granted, half of those things happen to be stuff going wrong and shit hitting the fan in almost all other aspects of my life, but still. my brain is pretty fried right now. all i want tonight is a good phone call, then a good night's sleep to let my frazzled mind settle and get it's act together for tomorrow's games.

--------------------------edit-----------------------

saturday's games:

9:00am - CMU 6 - 12 Penn State
11:00am - CMU 13 - 4 Gettysburg
1:00pm - CMU 13 - 6 Franklin & Marshall
3:00pm - CMU 6 - 13 UPenn

sunday's games:

9:00am - CMU 13 - 7 Dickinson

11:00am - CMU 15 - 5 Bucknell

1:00pm - CMU 15 - 4 Edinboro

3:00pm - CMU 5 - 15 Swarthmore (backdoor)

the CMU Money Mellons finish 5th, breaking seed but losing in the game to go to Regionals...

it's all coming back to me now.

currently, i'm sitting in the basement of hunt library with anna. i'm randomly rotating between checking my email, writing emails, preparing work samples and a cover letter for an internship application, and plain ol' futzing around on the interwebs. she, however, is being the ever so responsible fourth-year and actually working on her studio project.  being that her project actually has the chance of being built, her studio has decided to be extra stringent on construction details and the like. with me being an m&a ta, i have suddenly become her personal m&a-specific wikipedia. in the last hour and a half, i have been bombarded with so many construction questions about things that 1) i didn't think had soaked into my head at all when we first learned it in second year and 2) came flowing back strangely fluidly with barely an extra thought to them at all.

for example, i remember that:
...exception #1: spacing studs 16"o/c means it's 16" from center-to-center of each stud, except when it's not. from the ends, it's 16" from the outside.
...exception #2: 2x4s are always 2x4, except when they're not. 2x4 is nominal, but much easier to label and read than 1 3/4x3 3/4. so in construction, 16"o/c doesn't actually call for a 14" gap between studs as you would think.
...exception #3: vapor barriers are not to be penetrated or compromised in anyway, except when they are/have to be. turns out, you need a way to attach said vapor barrier/wrap to the rest of the structure, correct? what are you going to do; superglue it? don't worry. holes made by staples are small enough that the compromise is negligible.
...construction rule: how do you structure an exterior wall? SPAIGR. not even a good acronym, but turns out, it's pretty memorable.

i'm impressed.

well played, steve lee. well played.

now how about changing the second year syllabus back so that the wee little ones actually learn this stuff?...

...just saying...

you're it. you're the ultimate.

SPRING ULTIMATE SCHEDULE:

jan. 16 - CWRUL Indoor Women's Tournament @ Case Western, Cleveland, OH

mar. 8-11 - High Tide @ Brunswick, GA

mar. 13-14 - Philly Classic @ UPenn, Philadelphia, PA [rain site: Messiah College, Manheim, PA]

mar. 27-28 - Roll Call @ Poolesville, MD [Cultimate FAIL.]

mar. 27-28 - Battlefield Brawl @ Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA

apr. 10-11 - Sectionals @ Manheim, PA

may. 1-2 - Regionals @ Princeton, NJ

rockin' high tops and sayin' no to stilettos.

after much persuasion and convincing by the city council and much bitterness by administration in response, cmu had a four day weekend. ridiculous. it snowed about 2-3ft friday night. and pittsburgh, being pittsburgh, had no idea what to do with that. like, literally no idea. we're talking about a city who hasn't even quite gotten dealing with 2-3inches of snow right yet. nothing was plowed, nothing was shoveled. it was a snowpocalypse.

this has also most definitely been the hardest, or longest, i've ever partied. thanks to the casbah.
friday = "warming up"
saturday = "no winter league? still rockin'"
sunday = "the superbowl" followed by "snow day!"
monday = "connect 4" aka. "second snow day!!"
tuesday = "one for the thumb" aka. "snowpocalypse, day 5"

almost 100% sure i haven't made it back to my place and into bed before 3am all weekend, with the record of only getting to bed at around 5am last night/this morning. realizing this upon waking up at 1:30pm today...damn...

this has also, on record, been the least stressful weekend of my life. seriously. i couldn't have been happier. i couldn't have been more full of energy. and while i am positive that pittsburgh is already well on its way to becoming yet another massively dreary and slushy mess, i absolutely have the ass load of snow that got dumped on us to thank for that. so thank you. :) [p.s. its snowing again. we're expecting another 6-inches. damn.]

::photos of snowpocalypse to come::

welcome to hell month.

so we're through with that first week...

two more weeks to:

- plough through all my studio shit

- finish my plans, section, 3D digital model, physical model and my presentation board...

- not lose my mind

- get through running and going to practice until team dinner

- pack and get ready to fly out tuesday evening :)

- get ready to be back in boston

- get ready to be back in my B's arms :)

- not have a complete meltdown about every single aspect of my life

i can do this.

...i think. i hope.

g20-ness.

d'awwwww...

g20 shanty town @ the fence

yea. no f-ing idea.

more shanty-town-ing...

archis. keeping it classy.

awkward big head thingies...yea. i have no idea.

read 'em. and judge.

...and again. oh, cmu...

get serious like crazy.

so G20 craziness going on this weekend. half the campus is shut down. security has been upped like whoa. i haven't managed a walk down into oakland, but i'm betting it's looking pretty ridic.

what with bill gates and australia's rep coming onto campus, suffice it to say security on campus has gone through the roof. this is all going to be followed by a conference/meeting/dealio at phipps conservatory right behind campus. hence, the back half of the campus has been closed down and classes in those buildings cancelled. i just happen to have class...in the buildings next to/between the ones being shut down. grrreeeeaaat...

what i got to walk past on my way off campus:

<-- at first, about 10 police officers stationed every five feet outside warner hall. checking IDs of everyone attempting to get inside. fyi, this is the building where the hub and whatnot are, so ie. not a small amount of traffic.




then, i walked around the corner.
that's about 50+ officers waiting outside cyert to be dispersed all over campus.
not to mention the 30+ who joined them later. and did i mention they were all packed with cable-tie handcuffs, batons and whatnot?

well, at least it's making this start to the year all the more eventful...

golden lips and cherry wine. moonshine in your hair.

the room's finished. and it looks pretty friggin' sweet. next up? the exterior of the house! except, let's leave this one up to the professionals, yea? ;)

how the hell is it august already? the buda scl tournament is this weekend, and i fly out the weekend after that back to pittsburgh. boo that.

in some ways, i guess this summer has been as productive as it could've been seeing as the whole job/internship-search dealio fell through. multiple times. but seriously. after having so many summers not quite go as planned, i was hoping this one would be different. i was hoping this one would actually be good. with minimal hiccups. not so much. everything just could've/should've...gone better.

i guess i got to go to a couple more tournaments this summer, with the comedy of errors, wildwood and the buda tourney. and i guess in lieu of a job i spent the summer stripping, cleaning and painting a bedroom. and i guess i got in more hanging out with other people than i normally would have back in hk. and i guess i got to spend it in boston like i had originally wanted. but other than all the stuff before summer in boston actually "started", going to watch nationals and visiting jess in london, nothing really went as planned. it became a summer that i just had to wing as i went along. the first summer that i decide to plan all for myself on my own just didn't turn out to be quite as satisfying as i had hoped.

and now i have to start preparing myself for another year back at cmu that i am certainly not ready for. fourth year of architecture school. one year closer to the real world. new studio space in cfa. my class schedule looks pretty good and chill. though something tells me that newly opened space in my timetable will soon be replaced with even more studio time. just a hunch. it's going to be life back at cmu, but missing a couple of key players. and adding a couple more responsibilities. things are going to be just that little bit emptier. and to compensate i'm probably going to get just that little bit busier. to kill time. to take my mind of things. i'm worried, afraid and nervous for how things could turn out. hopefulness has never been my forte. i'm more a worst-case-scenario kind of person. not that i'm boasting about it. just saying. no one is really proud of that surge of trepidation at the thought of the prospects of the near future, but it doesn't stop it from happening no matter how fleeting that feeling is.

pittsburgh. it's fine as a college town. but i'm pretty sure i'm going to have had more than my fill of it by the time spring 2011 rolls around.