The First Step Toward My Dream

Being an architect was a dream for me. I love to design buildings, both exterior and interior. It's been my dream since grade 7 or 8. I was first inspired my my father. He was an architect, a pretty successful architect. I'm very proud to say that he brought many new ideas into Taiwan's building industry. He is one of the first few architects in Taiwan to build green buildings. Also, he amazed me with the ability of turning a building into a piece of art. When I saw a waste land turn into an artful townhouse with beautiful gardens and fancy buildings, I said to myself, "One day, I'm going to be an architect. And I'm not going to be a normal architect, no. I'm going to be an architect like my dad which other peoples look up to."

I was very lucky to be studying in Hsinchu International School. Our school allows me to design the student lounge. This was the first time I thought I could temporarily be an architect, which was was my dream. So I started designing. Although I don't have any experiences and don't really know where to start, I worked really hard and came up with this design in approximately a whole month.

It was made by a program called "Google SketchUp". It is a program that makes the 3D buildings in Google Earth. When I'm making this design, I was actually pretty depressed. I wish I could do this design in Auto CAD, but I'm still an amateur architect. Well...I guess I couldn't even call myself amateur architect yet, I'm no where at that level.

So, back to my design. I was actually very proud at how I designed my roof for the lounge. I made a huge 26 that sticks right into the roof. It represents how old the school was when the lounge is built. Also, all the darker curves are made with precise measurements. I didn't randomly draw circles.

(I made all the unnecessary parts of the building transparent. )

Lastly, I must talk about the table looking block thats sitting in the middle of the lounge. It's actually movable. The extra part of the block should be able to fit right into the slot. Having it fit into different slots will have different results. It could be for the purpose of fitting more students, or to make it more comfortable for lesser students.

However, this design is too costly. After the carpenter checked my design out, he gave a cost thats way over our school's budget. That's when I nearly collapsed. I thought the school is going to use other student's design because mine is too expansive. But after meeting with the teachers and the school board, they agreed to use my design, but only if I can get the extra moneys. So right now, I'm calling big companies and organizations to ask for their support. Even though this process is very difficult, and my pocket is still empty, I believe that I can make this student lounge come to live. I will do everything to fulfill my dream!

Tibet and Olimpic

I'm pretty confidence that everyone is already familiar with the topic on Tibet. The riot is spreading so fast and violently, it becomes threatening to everyone. I read a blog entry on Tibetan attacking Chinese Olimpic torch carriers in Paris. The attacker dressed as an Chinese supporter in the first place. But when the torch carrier arrived, he attacked her. The carrier was a woman on a wheelchair. For some, this might be nothing at all. Well, at least it is still "calm". The attacker didn't brutely attack the flame carrier and no one really got injured. Yet, this is just the tip of an iceberg. We can already see protests around the global. While the Tibetans are trying to gain their right, the Chinese authorities are trying to convince the world that the Tibetan protesters are just "terrorists". With this kind of tension building up every single day, there's no guarantee when the riot will become deadly. It is already clear that the Tibetan will not end their protest until they get what they want. After all, it is their families that are being abused, violated and eventually, tortured. If this situation doesn't appease, more violent attacks will happen. This not only threatens the Chinese immigrants in foreign countries, this also threats other races. This must END!