NUSSU Appreciation Dinner

Went for the Appreciation dinner held by NUS Student Union Last week. It was a dinner for all the standing committees under NUSSU. The blardy rich Union had belanja some 300- 400 people(i estimate) , students and school administrators alike to the 5-star rated Orchard Hotel in Orchard Road. A standard 8 course dinner was served . To further showcase the union's wealth , they offer free flows of Whiskey , vodka and gin. Quite an amazing feat , isnt it ? Now I know better where my school fees gone every year . It justified the price hike of my already killing's school fees ! YaY ! ( well .. the union's financial report for this year during the AGM : remaining
asset = half a million SGD . How's that sound ? 1 million ringgits. LOL ).

Quite a numbers of awards was announced that night , and my SAVE swept some really big awards , like Outstanding Projects among all the standing comms , Most improved comm etc. For me , i got a "Merit" aknowledgement certificate for my contribution to the union , lol , I dun know how did I qualified for the award but my name did showed up on the list. We also saw the newly appointed NUSSU President for year 09/10. He's a chinese student from Sitiawan malaysia ... Malaysia Power !

After the event , 6 of us went to KTV in orchard road. Dunno where comes the form ... 12 am sings to 4 am .. everybody 's so keen on singing , hell we paid 28 dollars for that 4 hours + 10 dollars for the money to take taxi back to NUS . LOL ... NUSSU sure has taught us how to spend money the right way .

The menu of the night , and the ball room.
my table.

Vodka. Since it is free .. why not drink more ? I drank at least 2 glass of it . And funny how the server(an auntie) dunno anything about vodka. She serves pure vodka without any mixer in it. Damn it 40% she wants my life . LoL . Anyway we requested some sprite to go along with da vodka. Well , i certainly think the vodka I tasted in America was way better than this in singapore.
Well . dress code is lounge suit .. so everyone kinda wear formal. Coincidentally we all wear black shirt that day. LoL .Oh yea that was Sky , we know each other in grand canyon.
One of the challenge shield we won that night. It's quite a big award to be honest !
Best projects organised in year 07/08 ... the small star trophy. This pic is to show our da dui zhang , if u remember him
IMHO , the best photo of me taken that night. LoL .
bunch of idiots too much money dunno where to spend.
King of the idiots .

Digital Sculpting artwork update (Zbrush)

Been long time didn't post anything and feel quite pity that only Atlantiz0 keep the blog going. I'm still at sunway, and I studying for 3rd year 2nd term. Wokring on my final project short film animation, still on the beginning stage, the timeline of doing this final project is 6 - 7 months.
By the way, I'm here to show my recently artwork. What I show this time is all digital sculpting by using a software called Zbrush 3.1. If you still not understand hiw I do it, just imagine a people sculpting a sculpture inside the computer screen. So....... stop reading, no more word, no need luo luo suo suo....


This piece of caricature sculpting is the most recent work, about 10 hours ago.
Been try out something different and cute.
This one I quite like it. called quan shi. Dog's dead body.
Started sculpt this creature with a empty mind, really don't know what I want this time. So I just randomly pull the wireframe of the basmesh until I satisfied. But after that, I still keep changing the proportion. At last, I sculpt untill the neck got a face shape, so I make it into a China hero warrior face, yeah! is so random.

And this chinese warrior die in a great war, and his side lost the battle. He wanted to revenge but he cant do it with his only died soul. His hate, anger become a devil at last. He using his dead evil body to start killing for revenge.
(Whoa!! Horrible Story.....)
This is a Alien.
3.5 hours.

1st try of oldman and wrinkles. not a very tough work but need alot of time.
3 hours.

Clementine.
While I sculpting, I also watching 1 movie called "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Been watching the 2nd time, because I like the concept and is 1 of the most crazy concept I ever watch. Starring Jim Carrey as Joel and Kate Winslet as Clementine. This movie is about some mind and brain stuff, and I really like Kate Winslet character. So I also named my mutant as Clementine, hahaha!!! Big Brain!!
I try to search my muscle reference folder and study it while I sculpting this, and I really spend very long time to finish this, is very slow, I think about 6 hours. But few parts I still don't like, like the shoulder, bisep muscle.... but I quite satisfied of the face.
I called this the Fatty mascular. Just wanted to try mixing fat and muscle, cant make any sense.
3.5 hours.

If you got problem of viewing the images, I liked to visit my artblog. http://atlantiz15.deviantart.com or http://atlantiz15.deviantart.com/gallery

Comment and welcome man, cheers!!

Random Thoughts - Xu Shen

Just here to write down some of my random thoughts recently to keep the blog going ！

Firstly , somebody please post something ! Ah boey , Ong , Kai Yuan , Peter , Shin liang .. anyone ! You can't be that busy right ? Just write some random thoughts .. it wont take you long !

Entering week 6 of my Semester 1 , i still cannot part my heart from USA . Life there is simply amazing ... No stress , no hectic lifestyle , no things-must-do , no financial burden , no boring moments , no cold-hearted strangers on the road ... etc etc . I am registering myself again for Work and Travel next year , the destination this time is Yellowstone National Park. If i couldnt find any other interesting internship during that holiday , then i will go to US again !

Sometimes i just think , why everybody work so hard for CCA in Uni or trying hard to get an internship. To get early exposure ? To learn something more ? I dunt understand. Youth only comes once , and we should really enjoy life while we can. Why dont you enjoy while you still studying , still dont have burdens ? I can spend one more year in the industry to gain experience after i graduate . Well , it 's just PERHAPS one year slower than those who fight hard for CCAs or Internships. Take Work and Travel for example ... I dont think i will have the chance to do something similiar again in my life after i graduate. I traveled and played while i still can let go of the stuffs around me , go enjoyed life with my best mates , and opened my mindset while it is still open ... For people that cant even let go their school cca works , can they let go of their formal work after they graduate ? How about if we already have a family to take care of ? LoL !

Anyway , i should stop playing that much starting on year 3 .. gotta build some networks up for my future !( One thing i really dislike ) . I am actually quite a busy man now lar... Am a project director for NUSSU (student union) Hotline ( a funny club ) workshop , a project director for NUSSU SAVE ( an environmentalist activist club .. lol ) 1DegreeUp project , Vice project director for NUSSU welfare Diary , and a member of BINGO ( global business network dunno what ) . Quite looking forward for the works invovle in Diary project. I think i have to oversee the marketing part of the program. We are looking at not less than 30k SGD sponsorship and advert profit ... hm . Oh yea ! forgot .. i am a member of NUS Literary Society too ! Haha . just help out my friend with his publication and stuffs and meet girls in the society !

I am really tempted to try the Exchange program offered by NUS. These few days i was doing research on the universities offered by NUS. Was initially interested in New Zealand University (auckland) because of its cost of living and all . But after some research i found that Europe Unis' cost are quite similiar to the one in new zealands , some even cheaper. With my current results , i don't think i will stand a chance to choose those famous universities like UCLA ,UCB , UOT or those in England. Anyway , my objective of this exchange is not about academic afterall .. i just want to see the world , and experience how other students study in different cultures. I picked 5 prefered Unis and submitted it to the dean already... I picked 1 Uni in Poland , One from hungary , One from France , One from Norway and one from New Zealand.

Really interested about europe ... so hopefully i can get a placement ! My simple strategy to finance my exchange is : For exchange program , we have to fund our own expenses including air fare , accomodation and living expenses . Only the school fees are paid for us ( Actually , we paid normal NUS fees instead of oversea Uni's fee ) . Air tix to new zealand is about 1500 SGD , to europe is slightly higher , but still below 2000 SGD. For Accomodation and expenses .. because i purposely choosed all the unis with low cost of living , it is still managable . Homestay in Europe is about 200 Euros/month , in new zealand is 200 SGD / month . The expected normal expenses as indicated in NUS's infoweb and google is about 300-400 euro/month in poland/hungary(higher in France) or 400 SGD/month in new zealand . Total everything up , about 9000 SGD to New Zealand and about 10000 to Europe. That is a really BIG sum ! So... i got 1500 SGD given by the school each year , 1500 more for normal nus accomodation ( since not staying in NUS i can take this money out ) , 2200 subsistence loan ( haven renew for this year ... if this year get this , next year also get this it would be 4400 already ! ) , annual bursary for 1200 SGD . That makes a total of about .. 8000 SGD already . Then , i must study hard this sem to get my CAP(result) higher so that i can apply for exchange award , about 3000 SGD / student ( i think it is easy to get this lar .. they offer 600 awards while everyyear not more than 600 students do exchange.. so .. ) That covers all ! If it is still not enough , i might consider loaning money from the Student Exchange Loan scheme (up to 3000) . Lastly , NUS allow us to work part time oversea ! ( that is , if VISA approved ) . And my mum willing to fork out some money too ... hmm . who knows.

Lastly , i've been doing all the research about the upcoming Vietnam/Cambodia Trip. I already got us the air ticket (thanks andrew for the master card , all of us haven pay him yet ~ ) , tigerair to vietnam and airasia back. Getting kinda worried now because of the Air Fares we are getting , i might not able to plan a below 500 SGD's travel itinery ( oh sucks ... andrew you told me 500 more than enough to cover everything ! ) . Well , there's some really interesting places i plan to include in our travel , that is Halong Bay ( world heritage side , a would-be world 8th natural wonder ) , Sapa village ( bumiputra in vietnam ,extremely poor , in the mountain ) , hanoi and ho chi minh city , mekong delta ( soure of food for SEA depends on it ) <-- vietnam . Then for cambodia , i hope we can visit Tonle Sap Lake , other than Phom penh(capital) and Angkor wat. Anyway , i got a very nice documentary here about the wonderous of Angkor wat ( its 1 hour long) http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=IN46a_PjKFM&feature=related . I already finished watching it ( and absolutely fascinated by Angkor wat ) . Anyway , if you not free to watch it , you can alwasy ask me to explain it to you during the trip in cambodia !! haha , that's if i still can remember .


So ! There goes ... Study hard , do my various projects nicely , plan the vietnam/cambodia trip well , hopefully next year summer go Work and Travel 3 months , fly back rest one month then can fly to Europe for half a year ! Haha ... dreams ~ hope it can come true !

Xu Shen .
Dare to Dream !