I love nursery rhymes, even that now I am 21. Maybe its the rhythm, that i started to like to listen to poetry without really getting its contents. Even old English political pieces that poses almost no meaning to me at all - interest me because of their sound patterns.

It never really occurred to me how terribly violent nursery rhymes can be until i wanted to teach some little kids to read them last week. Its funny i never realized wht cruelty and disaster they contained, since i would always chant these rhymes over and over again since i was a little little girl.

Consider this lullaby:
"Rock a Bye Baby, on the tree top.. When the wind blows, the cradle will fall.. Down will come baby, cradle and all.."
Poor baby! I cannot see its relevance to putting anyone to sleep, if the baby understood it would have scared him off.

Or this all-time favourite:
"Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.. Jack fell down and broke his crown.. And Jill came tumbling after.."
Who would have thought that the roots of this nursery rhyme came from the Reign of Terror in France? Jack and Jill referred to are said to be King Louis XVI - Jack, who was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette - Jill (who came tumbling after). Scary gilerr..

Then there's this one:
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.. All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again."
The innocent fella was just sitting on a wall! What wrong did he do??

Of course, there are less violent ones. But look again carefully and you would see the protagonists in these nursery rhymes seem to be beset by a whole lot of problems..

We have perverts:
Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry, When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.

We have future serial killers:
"Ding Dong bell, Pussy's in the well.. Who put her in? Little Tommy Lynn.. Who pull her out? Little Jack Sprout.."
The jingle repeats, telling tales of the cats he drowned..

We also have mentally disturbed weirdos:
Wee Willie Winkle, Runs through the town.. Upstairs, downstairs, in his nightgown.. Tapping at the window, crying through the lock.. Are the children in their beds? It's now eight o'clock!

Is this what the kids are learning? I listened to these since i was a kid, but i dont think there is any affect to my mental growth - at least not known for now.

But considering the increasing amount of ridiculously over-protective parents who wouldnt even let their poor kids ever have a taste of candies because their teeth might rot.. Maybe nursery rhymes are, too, going to be condemned like coffee, sugar or salt, for containing dangerous contents for one's health? I wonder if the contents do not matter at all..?

The truth is, I dont care.. I love nonsense and the more nonsensical, the more enjoyable they seem to me.. For instance, Ninja Turtles are like my childhood heroes.. I still love them but i dont know - its just funny now to think how a bunch of Teenage Ninja Turtles, dressed in their underwear, and mutants at that, could have made their creators multi-millionaires overnight.. .

Perhaps someday.. I might change my mind when i start to have kids of my own..? That would be a long long long long time from now. Haha.

I have finally decided to revive (and relocate) my blog site due to popular demands. Hee-hee! Im so sorry, my loyal friends and readers for being MIA for months now.. I have came to realize the importance of blogging and the significance of its role in keeping friends in touch (err, ya.. finally! Dont kill me please)

Yesterday kinda marked the final review sessions for our group site analysis for us Design Studio 4 students at Taylor's. While most people were deep asleep from studying or a night out clubbing, the lights in our campus studios remained on at all hours of the night and day for the past three weeks.

You could walk into the architectural territories in Taylor's at 3a.m. on a Friday night, and i guarantee u would see students building models and rendering 3dmax/Sketchup as if it was 3p.m. As an architecture student myself, the lack of sleep has been a difficult nuisance to overcome... (Especially if u are the reigning Prom Queen (muahaha!) and sleeping disorders would mean lots of pimples, or worse, a bad bad migraine!) So, if you don't already know that this is an accepted part of the course by most students, you would probably ask - is it actually necessary?

Many of my friends from outside of the Architectural World have posed the question to me. "Why must you stay up all night? Does building a model really take that long? Are you procrastinating?"

Honestly.. When people say that, I feel like killing them. What more so if you categorize all my hard work as last minute work. And i warn you now, it would be much much worse if you asked me that question after a few weeks of almost-sleepless nights. Or if you are one of those guys who's giving one of my girl friends a hard time for not being able to spend time with you.

While it is easy to lash out at those not in Architecture, there are some actual reasons as to why the work takes so long. To me, it is that there is no end. And as much as you work on one project, it can never be right. Especially if you were a perfectionist like me. If a project is not finite, how can you tell when is the right time to end the design process?

It all comes to a sad fact that most students (oh well, maybe only me) depend on the deadline of the assignments to tell them when their design is done. It may seem absurd to say that the design of a building is dictated by the amount of time you have, but this may not be so far from the truth. Like, in my case, i have no choice but to finalize my design at a certain stage so that i have time to produce the proper materials for the final crit sessions.

So, you may ask again, why not finalize our designs sooner, so that we could have alot of time for the presentation board plus loads of sleep?? The problem is still that its never done, there is always something we can change on it. There is never once that i could look at my work and give up a sigh of relief or say "perfect!", nor is there a word limit as if writing an essay. And besides, designing is not about just fuilfilling the minimum requirements. Even if a student has completed all his work, there is no guarantee they will receive a good grade for his efforts.

And that's not the only one thing that i don't understand... As Nads and I would always discuss, is it really true that one would never be able to think or feel in our shoes unless one take Architecture? Its a sad fact that we have to give up our time with our family and friends, but its even worse to feel like they do not understand, or worse, blame you for not being able to spend time with them.

Oh well, I must say i am extremely thankful to have supportive family members who understand, and a loving boyfriend who is on the same boat (Architecture). And of course, if you are my friend and you forgive me for being MIA so often, thank you so very much. And if you are mad at me for not spending time like we used to, then this post would represent my apology to you.


Goodnight peeps, better sleep whenever i have the chance.