First, he stands beyond the barrier instead of queuing up according to social norms.
Then, when the bus driver starts the bus, he looks at me and apologizes, making his way to the entrance of the bus.
He had the cheek to even apologize!!!
At least if he didn't, I'd know he is a jerk, like many typical rude Asians, thinking it's ok to cut queue because there are plenty of seats on the bus anyway, and he was suppose to be 4th in line.
When he looked at me and apologize, what was he expecting in return? Forgiveness for his inability to respect others? Was he testing to see what my reaction was? A smile? A rude stare?

I've had enough of having to tolerate the oddities of people.

For example:

I was sandwiched in the train during the peak hour. My next line would be a declaration.
Dumb/Vain ladies who do not know how to balance whilst wearing high heels SHOULD be declared national health hazard in the train to others.
Ok. You can sort of guessed what happened to me.
Laugh and call it bad luck. I was lucky not to get punctured bleeding feet. But I was very sore.
She even had the cheek to hold my arms and apologize, looking very remorseful.
I forgave her, but I wished she would have been more considerate in general.




Anyway, I visited the City Exhibition today. I visited the ID's side first because I know several people in the final year. Generally, most of the items were created for design sake. There was one. A teapot. I seriously do not know how the user will be using the teapot without a handle. She calls it a playful teapot. I call it a waste of resources and money. It may look fun, but aesthetics are worthless with the function component missing. Anyway, I then hopped over to the archi side, interested to know who among my peers got their works exhibited. My discovery disappointed me but it confirmed my opinions. There was only one project from sem 1 (EK's) and one from sem 2 (Matt's) for the archi track. There were way more year 2 and year 3 works, and one year 3 copycat who happily copied last year's Masters student's work (well copying is a form of learning, no? NO!). Anyway, this year's Masters students projects did not impress me that much. I think last year's was more indelible and impressive. This year's was just average? Very tech-driven, which then again, disheartens me. I'm not a tech junkie.

I bumped into a hall friend at Vivo. He too saw the exhibition. I asked him what he thought of it and he said he could remember a few projects from the ID (cos both the ID guys ware hall mates too and they're really top in their class) but none from Archi. He mentioned that the Archi schemes do not make sense to him and he was clueless in what they're trying to convey. He was totally puzzled by a scheme that proposes expandable buildings (haha... a hint of who it was... Mr. Top student, and his project reminded me of his yr 3 award winning scheme).

Firstly, I was skeptical of the venue for the exhibition. Obviously they want to draw the public in, to view the works of the future talents, as for the ID side, it was more for talent scouting and self-promo. However, being NUS, they forgot that the exhibition is FOR THE PUBLIC. What's the point of shrinking your plans, sections, etc when people cannot read. My friend asked me what was the purpose of putting many floors plans in the A2 sheets when she cannot read them. She asked me, 'Am I suppose to be able to read them?'. My only answer for her was, ' I suppose it's for you to see the overall shape of the footprint, get a feel of it but not for you to know the layout of the spaces'. To me, the exhibition was an exhibition of forms, some really terrible/missing models on display, and to get the general idea, be it a museum, a conservation area, a media park, an energy generator building, etc.. I feel, this year's best project and packaging ought to go out to KWH (go guess, it's a no brainer) for the rest just seem pale in comparison. I seriously had to squint to read the words or bend over because the labels were meant for kids below 5 years. What happened to human proportions? The sideline exhibits (belonging to yr 1s-yr4s) were in squares, on a table-like format. Hard to read and see. I merely glided through it for my interest was only in kaypo-ing whose works were there.

I know, it's always easier to criticize than to execute, but what would the world be in the absence of criticism? If my works were to go out on exhibition (dare I dream?), I'd make sure that the exhibitors execute it properly and that the public plainly understands it all. Isn't that what architecture is about? It's about the dweller and the building. Which human being isn't a dweller? It would be unfair to keep it all to the architect.