I open my eyes (rub my eyes). I can still feel the trickle of drool under my mouth. So i brushed it with mu sleeve. I took a looked at my watch. It's 2.05 am in the morning.
Did i just said 2.05 in the morning???!!!
Oh no! Oh shit! Oh my @#$%%^&! I stood up and turned to Wayne. I yelled at him. "Why didn't you wake me up Why? Why didn't you wake me up at 2 hours ago?"
Oh no, I'm not going to finish this. It's doomsday for me...
Wayne answered. "Hey, bro. Relax... You haven't slept for two days. You need some rest before you can carry on."
I sat down to take a moment. I needed to calm down.
Contest chair, judges and fellow toastmasters,
I was sitting on the chair in a design studio 2.05 in the morning but i was not alone. Together with me were my studio mates of Bachelor of Architecture. We were working on our final project at the eleventh hour. In less than 7 hours, we were going to do our final presentation of our final project of the semester.
We are not night owls. We are all nighters and all dayers. Because we usually work from day to night and from dusk till dawn. We are fighters! Just because we believe that the best usually comes at last. SO we save the best for the last. We save the best design idea for the last minute.
I looked around. All my friends were still working. I turned back to Wayne to check his work progress. As usual, He the Kiasu-guy, had everything ready. Drawings and sketches in butter papers, and mock-up models to show his design development. Presentation boards to tell the whole story of his design scheme. But why did he stay up? He stayed up just to check on others. He wanted to make sure nobody outwit him at the very last minute.
I turned to my right, Che Lan was sitting there too as cool as cucumber, with his headphones on and eyes stuck to the laptop. I asked, 'What are you doing?' Shh! Shh! Shh! I'm watching The Last Samurai. Please don't disturb.
Suddenly, I heard a sound from behind. Fhok! Fhok! Fhok!... Beh, the lose cannon who was always uncontrolled at the crucial moment, approached from behind with a T-square in his hand. Fhok! Fhok! Fhok!... He was swaying the 1 meter long T-square from left to right and right to left, repeatedly. As if he was ready to pick up a fight. He walked straight back to his place and looked deep at his design model. He raised his T-square and Bam!!! Bang Bang Bang! He crushed his model into pieces. Oh boy, that was crazy. Please don't try this at home. Just do it in a design studio.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Designers in creative industry agree that there is no such thing as Best Design. No matter how hard you review and reassess your design scheme, it will become better but still there is room for improvement. My lecturer once told us, do you know why you got the grade C? Because A is for God, B is for me, and C is for you!
Therefore it is inevitable that designers tend to work until the very last minute.
Imagine you work for 3 days without sleeping? To make things worse, you are too busy to take eat and take shower. So you skip shower, and eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner 3 in 1. That is why people like us do lots of funny things when are sleepless, pressured and exhausted.
In order not to fall asleep, one of my friend developed this skill of singing when you feel like sleeping. He would start singing and humming the same old song over and over again until his battery runs off.
For me, it is easy. I just keep on talking and talking not to anyone but myself. I talk to myself while I'm working so that i don't fall asleep. But that hardly work.
Fellow toastmasters and friends,
6 years of Architecture Education might have been grueling to me, but what i learned from this experience was priceless. Trust me, it was definitely far more than just the skills of not to fall asleep.
~ End of speech ~
P/S: I drafted this speech for my humorous speech contest. The story was inspired by real experience during my architectural education in the university.
Good evening, lady and gentlemen,
These are the logos of the top 20 social media nowadays. Can I do a quick survey? How
many of you has a Facebook account? Please put up your hand. Twitter? Linkedin Instagram? Google+?
How many of you have more than 1 facebook accounts?
Well, obviously we are all users of social media. Have you ever thought of how much time you have been spending on them every day. Let me warn you, you might not aware of
your increasing dependence towards these addictive social media, and how they in turn, influence your daily lives.
According
to www.wearesocial.org, Malaysians spend an average of 5 hours online daily and 3 out of these 5 hours are spent on social media.
As in 2014, 64.7% of Malaysians use the internet. Social media is responsible for one-third of the web traffic in the country.
Facebook, being the most popular social medium is the most visited site in Malaysia. Up
till date, there are 12.7 millions of Facebook users in Malaysia, which makes it No.18 in the world ranking. This also means that 48.73% of the Malaysian populations are on Facebook.
Let me ask you another question. Do you know that Facebook allows you to control
your facebook activity with privacy settings? It allows you to determine what personal information of yours to be shared to the public, or to a certain group of friends. It allows you to choose what kind of information you would like or not to see in your Newsfeed. How many of you really spend some time to manage the privacy settings?
Recently I read about a survey result published by LIRNEasia, a think tank organisation.
It says that Millions of Facebook users do not think that they are using the internet. They confuse Facebook with the internet. They thought the internet didn't exist and Facebook is viewed independently of it. This might sounds ridiculous but the phenomenon is quite alarming in developing countries like Indonesia and Thailand. As we can see, despite the relatively high internet and social media penetration in Malaysia, we still have a long way to go when it comes to internet awareness, not to mention the social responsibility in the cyberspace.
http://www.lowyat.net/2015/02/millions-of-facebook-users-dont-think-theyre-using-the-internet/
Fellow toastmasters and guests,
Have you heard of the saying: “One man tells an idle story and it becomes fact in the
mouths of ten thousand”?
This cannot be more true in the context of social media. Do you remember our last GE in 2013? Many says that it was a ‘Social media election’ after all. Social media were exploited to spread the facts and lies. It was exploited to the extent that you don’t even know which is true of false, or who to believe.
Another example will be the sad tragedy of MH370, which remains a mystery until today. When the tragedy struck us last year, it became the talk of the town in no time, thanks
to social media. I’m sure you came across the posts about the aircraft was found in somewhere, which in fact were all baseless allegations from unreliable source.
Fellow toastmasters and guests,
Never underestimate the power of words. The pen is mightier than the sword. If you are going to say something online, thenbe comfortable saying the same in person, to someone’s face.
So, always remember that you are what you share, comment, like in the social media. You are what you post!
Thank you.
Have you ever loved and hated something or somebody at the same time? Do you develop a love hate relationship with your best friend, your kids or your wife? Or how about some guilty pleasures like taking a cigarette? and drinking? : ) huh... I believe most of us do. This evening i'm going to share with you the one thing that i love so much and hate as much at the same time.
A-R-C-H-I-T-E-C-T-U-R-E
Ladies and gentlemen,
Do you know why i chose architecture? It is because Architect is named the most attractive male profession in the world. Don't believe me? You can google it.
Anyway, that was not the main reason. When i was a teenager i love visual arts. I enjoy sketching and painting. At the same time, i performed well in my science and language subjects. I told my parents, i want to be an artist. My mom said No! No! No! My dear boy. Trust me, you don't want to be an artist. You have good results. You can be a doctor, a lawyer or even an astronaut. So in order to not disappoint my parents. I chose architecture. I wanted to be an Architect.
I thought, architecture is the perfect combination of art and science. It is the art of designing and constructing buildings. Hmm.... After working for 3 years. I seriously doubt that.
Fellow members and guests,
Let me guide you to see architecture from another perspective, i.e from a perspective of an architecture student.
Architecture is better known as Archi-torture in the universities. My university life as an architecture student was a nightmare. What was your longest hours of staying awake? I clocked my personal best of 36 hours. Solid! You know what? If i say this in front of a bunch of architects. One of will jump out and say, Hey i did 72 hours! And yes this might sound funny and stupid to you but this is really what an architecture student has to go through.
You see. Art is very subjective and sometime very personal. Architectural design too is the same. There is no best design. Your job is never done until the time is up. So, very often, when we were given a design project, we had to work to the very last minute. Burning the midnight oil was never enough. Because we would work from sunrise to sunset and then continue to sunrise.
Because of architecture, I picked up the habit of drinking coffee. I had my breakfast, lunch and dinner 3-in-1. I mastered the skill of sleeping in sitting position, with my head on the drafting table. I didn't shower for 2 days. I accidentally cut my fingers. I slept at 4am and woke up at 8am to attend a lecture and ended up sleeping throughout the lecture.
And the best of all, i lost 8 kilograms. :)
Despite all the hardships, I don't know why? I somehow survived.
As a designer, nothing is more happy then seeing your ideas turn into a series of presentation boards that communicate, that can tell the story of your design. From concepts and sketches, they slowly take form and transform into 3d models and rendered graphics. You know that you have accomplished something after all the sleepless nights.
Just when you thought my job is done and i can go back to my hostel and sleep. Hold on! Wait, wait wait. The job is not done. We still have a presentation to go through. In architecture, we call is a crit session. The is the time that your work is open for assessment and criticism. Many a time, you will be treated with all the harsh comments.
My lecturer once told me, Do you know why you got C? Because nothing is perfect. A is for God, B is me, your teacher. and C? That is for you!
Imagine that is what you get after not sleeping for two days.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Because of Architecture, i learned that in life, 1+1 is not always equal 2. Sometimes, you may get more than 2 if you are lucky. It taught me to be okay when 1+1=1/2. You just need to hit harder next time.
But there is one thing i know for sure. 0+0 is always 0. No pain, no gain.
