The Beautiful Robie House

As promised earlier, here are the pictures of Robie House taken when I went for the tour. Unfortunately, no photography allowed for the interior part of the house. I forgot to ask the guide the reason for that. Probably due to the fact that they are trying to restore the house to the original state and making the interior museum quality standard. Or maybe they really don't want people to copy the building exactly as all of the houses designed by Frank LlyodWright are unique on the inside too.

Stained Glass Windows. These are considered as 'sacred' for buildings designed by Wright.

The unique shape of concrete throughout the house.
The secluded entry way. One of my favorite part of the building.

More unique stained glass windows. They increase the privacy of the house.

Stairs to the veranda.

The House

Robie House

I had the opportunity to visit Robie House in Hyde Park, Chicago, one of the most famous house designed by the great Frank Lloyd Wright. Considering the house was built in 1910, it can truly be described as "the true modern architecture". If you don't know anything about Frank Lloyd Wright or Robie House, you might mistakenly think that the house was built 2 or 3 years ago.

Frank Lloyd Wright, a true visionary...

Here's some background on the house. I do have several exterior picture of the house, however my computer is having a problem right now, thus I won't be able to upload those pictures, at least for now.

Robie Residence Commentary

"The Robie house, as Wright's best expression of the Prairie masonry structure, is a national landmark....Sheathed in Roman brick and overhung so perfectly that a midsummer noon sun barely strikes the foot of the long, glass-walled southern exposure of the raised above-ground-level living quarters, it demonstrates Wright's total control and appreciation of microclimatic effects. This is coupled with a high degree of integration of the mechanical and electrical systems designed by Wright into the visual expression of the interior. Living and dining space are in-line, with only the fireplace-chimney block providing separation...Sleeping quarters are yet a floor above, play and billiard rooms below; there is no 'basement.' Construction was begun in 1908 and completed the following year. The garage and surrounding wall were later altered from the original design."

— William Allin Storrer. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog. project 127.

The Creator's Words

"Architecture is the triumph of human imagination over materials, methods and men, to put man into possession of his own earth.

Machinery, materials and men—yes—these are the stuffs by means of which the so-called American architect will get his architecture....Only by the strength of his spirit's grasp upon all three—machinery, materials and men—will the architect be able so to build that his work may be worthy the great name architecture.

Bring out the nature of the materials, let their nature intimately into your scheme....Reveal the nature of the wood, plaster, brick or stone in your designs; they are all by nature friendly and beautiful."

— Frank Lloyd Wright. from Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Gerald Nordland, ed. Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas. p48.

p/s: I fell in love with Frank Lloyd Wright's work when I first saw the Falling Water, the more famous house designed by him. However, due to the rural location of the house, I have never had a chance to visit it, even though I passed the highway leading to the house several times.

Carbon Neutral Living...With Style

I am pretty sure everybody is now aware of the issue of global warming and the main cause of global warming is due to the large amount of carbon produced as the byproduct of energy generation.

As technology progresses, people now have options on the sources of energy they are using everyday. Renewable energy is not something that is futuristic anymore. Even better, you can generate your own energy by utilizing these technology below, and I promise, your house won't look like The Jetsons'.

1. Hot-Water Panels

Huh?
Water-Heating technology that is hidden under a roof, of even better, solar panels

How?
Solar thermal system is a series of panels installed under the roof which feature hidden tubes filled with non-toxic antifreeze. Once roasted by the sun, the liquid is pumped down to help heat your water tank. It works just like the hot sensation the moment you open your water hose left outside in the middle of hot summer day.

I get?
Up to 30 percent saving of the cost of heating your water

2. Solar Roof:

Huh?
Technically called Building-Integrated Photovoltaics(BIPV), these solar panels are integrated into traditional slate of roofing tiles. In other words, a sleek looking roof that will make the guy with the metallic body painted car envy.

How?
Not like the typical bulky solar panels, your roof itself will function as solar-energy collector. These sunslates are engineered to be slate-concrete tiles or shingles that blend into roof's appearance and wrk by converting the energy collected from the sun into an electric current hooked to your house's wiring. The great thing is that, when energy produced is greater than demand, it will be channeled back to your utility company, which in the US is obligated to give you credit (not sure in Malaysia).

I get?
Up to 80 off on annual utility cost, plus tax credit of up to $2000(in US though)

3. Wind Turbine( My favorite, but the trickiest thing to have)

Huh?
Small wind turbine like The Skystream 3.7 starts at 34 feet tall, which complies to most residential zoning of height of at least 42 feet here in the US(Might be a problem in linked houses in Malaysia, but certainly no problem if you have your own land)

How?
The mirror reflection of fan. Fan uses electricity to produce wind, where turbine uses wind to produce electricity. The blades, connected to shaft and gearbox, which then connected to generator. When strong gust or steady wind exist, causing the blade and the shaft to spins which the generator will then produces electric current and fed to your house. Same as the solar roof, excess electricity will be channeled back to your utility grid and gives your credit. Skystream will requires wind speed of at least 10mph to produce meaningful current.

I get?
up to 100 percent saving from your energy bill (Free energy!)

4.Water Harvester

Huh?
Below ground water harvester made our of polyethylene tank with various sizes depending on your household demand.

How?
Very simple technology. Rainwater is collected via your roof gutters and channeled to the underground tank. First few minutes of the water from the rain will be discarded as they are the most polluted. The tank has enough storage capacity to last through three months drought. The water is also pressurized for power showers and car wash.

I get?
Saving of up to 60 percent for your water bill.

All of these environmental friendly technology is feasible for country like Malaysia, considering the weather is hot and humid everyday! Imagine the saving that you will get from it as the byproduct of you being a little environmental sensitive.

p/s: I am pretty sure, living a house just like the Jetsons is not a problem too, as you wished you had that kind of futuristic house when you were 4 or 5 years old watching that show ; )

August 31st- Wear Maize (Yellow)...For Michigan and for Malaysia

Why?

1. College Colors Day.

Mission

College Colors Day, which coincides with both “back to school” and the kick-off of intercollegiate athletics, including football, seeks to celebrate and promote the traditions and spirit that make the college traditions great by encouraging fans, alumni and students to wear apparel of their favorite college throughout the day of Friday, August 31, 2007.

College Colors Day strives to promote higher education in the United States through increased public awareness and celebrates the achievements of colleges and universities in the United States, acknowledging their critical and fundamental importance to the United States.

The annual College Colors Day celebration is organized by The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) and its Consortium of colleges and universities. For more information about CLC, please visit, www.clc.com.

History

The first College Colors Day was celebrated on September 2, 2005. The 2006 College Colors Day celebration included a concert with country music star Kenny Chesney at the Savis Center in St. Louis and the first annual College Colors Day Classic football game between the University of Nevada and Fresno State University. The game, which was televised by ESPN, served as the official start of the 2006 college football season.

2. People’s Power

As everybody notice, Malaysia is celebrating it's 50th anniversary (or 44th anniversary, depends on when do you consider the creation of Malaysia). Apparently, the country is being plagued by all sorts of problems( from Chief Judge issue, Port Klang Free Zone Bailout, Racial Sentiment, Obviously Corrupted Politician Running Free, Raising Crime Rate, and on and on...) created by the politicians which are hampering this year's 'supposed to be grand' national day celebration.In the same time, the Malaysian Royalties are coming out of their 'ceremonial role', asserting people to hold on to the country's constitution and opposing corrupted politician.

Thus to show our support to the royalties on their role in enlightening the country and to show our peaceful protest to the wrongdoings that are going on in our government , Malaysia Today has suggested for us to wear yellow during our National Day and Malaysia Day (Sept 16).

MAIZE OUT!!!!!!!

My neck...and the thruth....It hurts!

Wow, the last time I posted an entry on this blog was exactly two weeks ago. I was kinda busy updating myself on the current issues that are happening in Malaysia. Some of the few big things I discovered were:

Government is about to use 4.6 billion ringgit from taxpayer money to bailout The Port Klang Free Zone Project

20 people died in an accident involving an express bus. The driver supposed to be off the road long time ago. (Police are busy chasing blogger, not crooks)

Apparently, people in Malaysia are more interested with the latter news more than the first news.(Well that's from my observation, since the mainstream newspaper did not cover anything on the bailout, or if they did, only a few of the less popular newspaper did cover it)

Last Friday, I had a nap when I woke up suddenly and I had sore neck. It has been five days and I can still feel the pain. I went to see the doctor today, walking out with even painful feelings. I took a day off from work just to see the doctor and all I got was pamphlet on neck stretching which I could obtain by 'Googling' and advice to take pain reliever which I've been taking almost every night or else I won't be able to sleep.

On the personal side, I was browsing around facebook, just to keep myself updated on what's going on with my friends. Recently, my friend change her status from single to being married. At first I thought she was just kidding on the status, knowing her personally and I thought she's kind of girl who would work on her education first and think about getting married later. Apparently, I was wrong. She is married, in UK. Congratulation Nazzi.

Thinking my friends are getting married, just made me not want to get married anytime soon. If I wanted to get married at 28 before this, now, knowing Nazzi is married, makes me want to get married at 30 or later.

But this Sunday, I will be 23 and for the first time I will be by myself. I still have Snowball the cat. I still don't know what to do on that day. Thinking about visiting west coast Michigan if I would like to spend part of my paycheck for this week.

Is our healthcare becoming more and more stupid like America?

I just go back from watching the movie-cum-documentary Sicko made by Michael Moore. In terms of Michael Moore movie, it is not that great, comparing to all his previous production. Like typical Michael Moore production, the way he presented his issue was entertaining, in a humorous way yet keeping the issue serious. However, for me, Bowling for Columbine was the best among all of his production so far. If I were a real film critic, probably I would give 7.5 out of 10 (as contrast to 9 for Bowling for Columbine).

Now back to the real deal on this matter. Recently, the government of Malaysia released a press statement related to our government hospital. (July 27, 2007, “Hospital Putrajaya, Selayang laksana konsep bayaran penuh 1 Ogos”). Apparently, our government hospital also being turned into private hospital? This is sad, knowing rakyat will have to pay even when they are visiting the government hospital. I remember about 5 years ago one of my friend was involved in an accident, in Shah Alam. Apparently, Shah Alam, a bandaraya (big city) of the most developed and richest state in Malaysia, does not have a government owned hospital. ( I was told, before they declared Shah Alam as a city, they had to build a gigantic court house, then the Shah Alam will get the title. Isn’t it better if they build a hospital? ). Oh wait a minute, Shah Alam do have a hospital, Selangor Medical Center, a private hospital located ‘conveniently’ next to a low cost housing area. Using common sense, she was sent there. As she got admitter, I still remember what the first question the nurse or maybe the doctor asked. No, not that normal people with heart and humanity “Are you alright?” or maybe “Do you feel any pain anywhere?” kind of question. They asked, “How are you going to pay the bill? Do you have insurance?” What kind of heartless person would ask that question when someone is in pain???!!!

Another sad thing occurred to me personally, was when I was driving down the road, at Shah Alam too when there was an accident occurred just in front of me. A pizza delivery guy got involved in an accident, and it was pretty bad. Let make the story short, I had to call the ambulance. It took them 30 minutes to get there. Not to forget, the police arrived at the scene just about the same time as the ambulance did. They had to dispatch the ambulance from the nearest government hospital, in Klang. And now, rather than improving the government hospital like make it easily accessible to the rakyat, the government will start asking for people to pay for it.

One reason they said is that it will improve the service and keep the specialist from running away to the private hospital. Oh come on. Who own all these private hospitals? I guess even if you were to be sent to the government hospital, they will ask the same heartless question as what the private hospitals been asking. Not to mention, even now, rakyat yg susah has been asking for donation from the public to cure their serious illness. Even when the government had created the fund for these people, we still see people hoping the public to help ease their burden. I wonder, what had happened to the fund as nobody talks about it anymore.

I wonder what had happened to our tax money. Of course, the built the highways. But wait, we still have to pay Toll, even on the road that used to be federal highway. Now they are asking us to pay for hospital. Where have gone all the tax money? Where do they go? Not to forget, Petronas Money too! We have belanjawan every year, where PM presents the budget for next year. But do they really spend the money just like they stated? I’m pretty sure rakyat would like to know what they had spent the tax money. And please, try and fit somewhere the justification of where did the money to buy the new government aircraft came from.

My sister went to England with here husband to further her study, when she had her first child. The hospital service there was even better than in Malaysia and she had to pay nothing. See, there’s a country where you could get everything for 1 ringgit, even cheaper. And they are ranked better than Malaysia in the World Health Organization ranking. Check out Cuba, they are ranked better too, yet medical is free there. Malaysia hasn’t become a country where someone could be denied from having access to the necessary medical attention. But if we see the pattern here, the country is inclining towards it.

These people, who decides how the health system in Malaysia, don’t even go to government hospital for medical treatment. They have all the money, (god knows where they came from) to get medical attention at private hospitals, and even better, overseas private hospital. Yet rakyat is being left, begging for money to fund surgery, at government hospitals, which they paid to be built using the tax money, and get at best, par service.

Disclaimer: Rather than thinking so hard to bash my post, might as well you put your half dead brain and think about how to solve this health problem, think about how you should present where the tax money had gone. Government should be scared when this question being asked, not rakyat that should be afraid to ask this kind of question. If you have answer, then that’s good.

Sights from Saturday Farmer's Market

I always like Saturday because it's two days away from Monday and there's Farmer's Market! Usually when I'm not that lazy to wake up a little early in the morning, I will ride my bicycle and grab a cup of coffee from Sweetwaters Cafe (no Starbucks please !), buy some organic vegetables and enjoy the sight of people buying local harvests.

Mode of transportation...

People and Corn

Flowers...

And more flowers...