keri smith's 100 ideas

1. Go for a walk. Draw or list things you find on the the sidewalk.
2. Write a letter to yourself in the future.
3. Buy something inexpensive as a symbol for your need to create, (new pen, a tea cup, journal). Use it everyday.
4. Draw your dinner.
5. Find a piece of poetry you respond to. Rewrite it and glue it into your journal.
6. Glue an envelope into your journal. For one week collect items you find on the street.
7. Expose yourself to a new artist, (go to a gallery, or in a book.) Write about what moves you about it.
8. Find a photo of a person you do not know. Write a brief bio about them.
9. Spend a day drawing only red things.

10. Draw your bike.

11. Make a list of everything you buy in the next week.
12. Make a map of everywhere you went in one day.
13. Draw a map of the creases on your hand, (knuckles, palm)
14. Trace your footsteps with chalk.
15. Record an overheard conversation.
16. Trace the path of the moon in relation to where you live.
17. Go to a paint store. Collect chips of all your favorite colors.
18. Draw your favorite tree.
19. Take 15 minutes to eat an orange.
20. Write a haiku.
21. Hang upside down for five minutes.
22. Hang found objects from tree branches.
23. Make a puppet.
24. Create an outdoor room from things you find in nature.
25. Read a book in one day.
26. Illustrate your grocery list.
27. Read a story out loud to a friend.
28. Write a letter to someone you admire.
29. Study the face of someone you do not like.
30. Make a meal based on a color theme. (i.e. all white).
31. Create a museum of very small things.
32. List the smells in your neighborhood.
33. List 100 uses for a tin can.
34. Fill an entire page in your journal with small circles. Color them in.
35. Give away something you love.
36. Choose an object, draw the side you can't see.
37. List all of the places you've ever lived.
38. Describe your favourite room in detail.
39. Write about your relationship with your washing machine.
40. Draw all of the things in your purse/bag.
41. Make a mini book based on the theme, "my grocery list".
42. Create a character based on someone you know. Write a list of personality traits.
43. Recall your favorite childhood game.
44. Put postcards of art pieces/painting on the inside of your kitchen cupboard doors, so you can see them everyday (but not become deaf to them.)
45. Draw the same object every day for a week.
46. Write in your journal using a different medium (brush & ink, charcoal, old typewriter, crayons, fat markers.
47. Draw the individual items of your favorite outfit.
48. Make a useful item using only paper & tape.
49. Research a celebration or ritual from another culture.
50. Do a temporary art installation using a pad of post it notes & a pen.
51. Draw a map of your favorite sitting spots in your town/city. (photocopy it and give it to someone you like.)
52. Record all of the sounds you hear in the course of one hour.
53. Using a grid, collect various textures from magazine and play them off of each other.
54. Cut out all media for one day. Write about the effects.
55. Make pencil rubbings of six different surfaces.
56. Draw your garbage.
57. Do a morning collage.
58. List your ten most important things, (not including animals or people.)
59. List ten things you would like to do every day.
60. Glue a photo of yourself as a child into your journal.
61. Trasform some garbage.
62. Write an entry in your journal in really LARGE letters.
63. Collect some 'flat' things in nature (leaves, flowers). Glue or tape them into your journal.
64. Physically alter a page. (i.e. cut a hole, pour tea on it, burn it, fold it, etc.)
65. Find several color combinations you respond to in public. Document them using swatches, write where you found them.
66. Write a journal entry describing something "secret". Cut it up into several pieces and glue them back in scrambled.
67. Record descriptions or definitions of subjects or words you are interested in, found in encyclopedias or dictionaries.
68. Draw the outline of an object without looking at the page. (contour drawing).
69. What were you thinking just now? write it down.
70. Do nothing.
71. Write a list of ten things you could to do. Do the last thing on the list.
72. Create an image using dots.
73. Do 3 drawings at different speeds.
74. Put a small object in your left pocket (or in a bag), Put your left hand in the pocket. Draw it by feel.
75. Create a graph documenting or measuring something in your life.
76. Draw the sun.
77. Create instructions for a simple everyday task.
78. Make prints using food. (fruit and vegetables cut in half, fish, etc.)
79. Find a photo. Alter it by drawing over it.
80. Write a letter using an unconventional medium.
81. Draw one object for twenty minutes.
82. Combine two activities that have not been combined before.
83. Write about your day in an encyclopedic fashion. (i.e. organize by subject.)
84. Write a list of all the things you do to escape.
85. Cut a random shape out of several layers of a magazine. Make a collage out of the results.
86. Write an entry in code.
87. Make a painting using tools from the bathroom.
88. Work with a medium that is subtractive.
89. Write about or draw some of the doors in your life.
90. Make a postcard that has some kind of activity on it.
91. Devise a journal entry using "layers".
92. Devise an entry using "layers".
93. Write your own definition of one of the following concepts, sitting, waiting, sleeping (without using the actual word.)
94. List 10 of your habits.
95. Illustrate the concept of "simplicity".

write down and complete five of your own ideas

96. Set the timer of your camera to the max, look only through the viewfinder or screen, and start shooting continuously of what comes across you until the batteries run out.
97. Draw the first thing you see when you wake up from sleep.
98. Write a letter to a friend using lines from movies or songs.
99. Ask a friend to suggest something as no. 99 (talk to a cat in japanese)
100. Dream.

somehow here is gone

i said i drew that line, and yet now im standing on it.
i thought i can maintain the distance, and yet, its me who was closing in
i thought i'll never fall into that trap, and yet, i let myself get caught
i told them it's nothing, but i guess i lied
i thought it was mechanical, and yet i can't figure it out now
i told myself it wouldnt be anything, and now, it's like everything
i tried to act like a gentleman, now im calling myself an opportunist
i thought honesty would solve the problem, so why am i still putting up a facade
i built this wall with only windows, but now theres an open door
i was expecting, hoping for another answer.............because it'd kept things simple


its like a magic trick i suppose.
the pledge was nothing out of the ordinary,
the turn was full of hints and clues, yet no one was looking,
and the prestige is how it is supposed to end, with a pleasant surprise.
but of course, in life, or magic tricks, or anything else............
shit happens.

the longest 5 days

day one, registration day at KMPP, penang matriculation college. registration was from 8smtg till noon. i went at 11. it saved me the trouble of congestion and long queues, and waking up early. got the room key, a bed sheet, and a pillow, along with some other stuff, ran up to C2.3.12, dumped everything in the cupboard, rushed back to sp, watched the district finals.....and our school won. then drove again to kmpp. met my roommates, 2 malay dudes, one from kelantan, one i forgot, and one chinese guy from pahang. i did have some serious trouble sleeping, because of the heat. slept at 3, woke up at 5-6...i was blur, for subuh prayers. the night was so hot, that taking a shower at 5am was not a problem.

we had some programmes throughout the orientation week, none seemed to have a purpose. here's the thing i did everyday there. wake up at 5, shower, prayers, morning exercise, tutorials, prayers, more tutorials, prayers again, exercise a little more, prayers, speeches, prayers, and the whole thing finishes around 11, kacau someone by texting till i feel sleepy, and wake up in the middle of the night because it's so hot, try to go back to sleep and wake up at 5 yet again for another brand new day. i had my meals at random times, whenever im not dead, sleeping or praying. i got into praktikum.......however you spell it, F2P6, meaning i got into physics instead of biology. so i changed into H5P1 on the last day, into biology. there wasnt much fuss about the change of courses in kmpp, but i dont know about other places.

the exercises includes a poco poco dance.........yes, i do feel like killing myself now, the chicken dance, the taichi, and the ayumi dance. while tutorials, conducted by mentors and facilitators have different stuff everyday, like money and time management lesson, all those character building talks and activities. the maghrib prayers were done outdoors, followed by a kuliah, then isyak, then another lecture from some guy i dont care from where talking about stuff i didnt bother listening to, and for all 4 hours, of 5 days, we had to wear the same shirt they gave us on the registration day. that translates to 20 hours of being sweaty and stinky and having breathing difficulties. i havent even add the subuh prayers to that 20 hours yet. and yes, this week alone, i had more prayers than my anual averages.

the tutorials were filled with some talks, games for little children and moments where gnawing off one's leg seemed the only way to remain sane. in fact, i didnt even have this many silly games back in kindergarten. and for some major events, we were required to have a rehearsal the day before. we had to practise clapping!!!! just to kiss someone's bloody ass!!!

theres 5 guys, and 19 girls in my bio praktikum. the guys are really funny though, kinda surprising since it's a bio class. the bio facilitator is one of the happiest and jumpy person i've ever seen. when we were lining up along the road to bid some dude a retirement farewell, we had to wait for the dude for like an hour. the faci was the one that came up with the idea of doing all that ayumi dance in the middle of the road. and for once, the dance didnt feel so stupid after all. being the only praktikum to dance and start initiating mexican wave whenever a car passed by, it was kinda fun. plainly because no one else did it and no one ordered us to. the faci only suggested it. doing something silly when told not to can be entertaining sometimes.

the only thing that kept me alive during the 5 days was my sagem....which has 3 of its button coming off the keypad.




my block.


outdoor prayers on the dataran pelajar


surau


my place


nowhere

and i did wear the baju melayu in the end. but no songkok. and definitely no picture. haha!

colourblind

racism isnt something new. it's everywhere all the time. i doubt it can be stopped, especially in this country. but the main issue here is that racism got its dirty hands into politics and the administration of this country.

though im more interested in talking about people than just the government. of course the current system favours one particular race for a reason i cant pathom, if any. surely, this nation acquired its independence, with the other races acknowledging the special rights of one race. that's how this country was formed. but that was more than 50 years ago. i believe we should have move on, move away from that race-biased system long ago. i believe that pact made prior to independence was rather out of desperation than tolerance. that pact may have given us independence, but it has not free us from racism. in fact, it made things worse.

it's worth noting that the real problems lies deeply within the society itself and its latent behaviour to changes of times. some people just cant accept those who are different from them, judging them as a freak of nature or of lower class. there are parents who don't like their kids mixing with those of different races. some jus't cant treat them as equals or as how they treat their own kind. some maintain socializing with only of the same colour. notice how students seat in class and during recess? language barrier and the lack of cultural understanding is nothing less than a pain in the ass.

but that's not the end of the world, because there's a new generation who's somehow immune to this poison in the society. it wouldn't take long for a child to be an adult, a follower to a leader. when the new replaces the old, the system will change. if the US can have a black president, something that no one would ever dream of years ago, then the impossible is closer than you think it is. all left to do is reach out for it.

random thought

guess when the gate is opened, no telling what goes through. should have just kept it locked huh?

at least i still got this wall.

.................

note to self : next time when blogging at 2 in the middle of a thunderstorm, don't put your stupid luck to a test against lightning. damn, could have fried my pc if the circuit breaker didnt work. i guess i was the only one online in the entire neighborhood, because my house is the only house in the area that suffered from blackout, lost the landline, and internet connection. life doesn't get any better does it.

yea, i got an offer from uitm to do asasi sains, whatever that is. so there's an alternative to matriculation, though i still can't run away from my baju melayu.

.................