Hello Water Dragon!

The year that was

So yeah this year is about to end and there is nothing we can do about it. This year has a fair share of ups and downs, well at least for me. I won’t be dwelling on the downs. I’ve done things that I’m not really proud of but I don’t regret them. I know things like those happen for a reason. I’ve learned my lessons and will still learn some more. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m thankful for everything: family, friends, people who support and believe in me, pets, Zephyr, giveaways I’ve won, couple of life lessons, connecting and meeting with people I look up to (and stalk), having been able to know myself more and setting straight goals in my life and all the other blessings. Again, I'm very thankful.

The year that hopefully will be

New Year is fast approaching which means it’s time for New Year’s resolutions once again. I have a couple of them but I won’t be posting them here so that I’ll be the only one who knows that I fail myself for the nth time. Bwahaha! ^o^ Seriously though, I just don’t want them to backfire on me knowing that I posted it where everyone knows about it. So what I’ll be posting instead are the improvements I want to do/see in my blog.

Limit lengthy posts – you probably noticed by now that I tend to write lengthy posts (like this one) and I don’t want the readers to bore to death with my seemingly irrelevant stories, comments and whatever.

Better photos -  I've been taking photos with Zephyr (my dslr) for almost a year  now and I can say that I've improve. But still, I need to work hard a lot on my photography skills and this blog will witness that magical journey with Zephyr.

Change layout and banner – One of the things I’ve learned this year is basic html and css. What a better way to use them in my own blog, right? I also want my banner to be customized.

Have identity – I’ve been blogging for a year now and I don’t know where this blog is leading up to. But we’ll see. I intended to make this as my outlet for things that’s happening in my life and it served me that way until it became a burden to me to post regularly and I want that to change.

I know this is not blog related but the ultimate thing that I want for next year is to be a better person I want to be better in all aspects of my life. Pursue dreams and endeavors. Be more creative and hardworking. Make this year my year!

So that’s it. I’m about to finish my obligatory year-end post with what I’ve said, this year is about to end and we can’t do anything about it. Earth will continue to rotate but what we can do is make the New Year (and all the succeeding years) a better year for all of us.

Happy 2012 you guys! Be safe. (^_^)v

Backyard of the Universe

Being an avid fan of Valerie Chua, I’ve been dying  to attend her first exhibit called Backyard of the Universe since its opening. Sadly, I can’t seem to do it. So when I found out that she was giving a talk together with other artists last week, I knew my chance finally came. 

The day came and I finally met Valerie in person and asked her if I could take a photo of her and she agreed. I really want to have a picture with her. But at the time, there was no one around and I don’t want to risk taking our photo the selca way because I’m not good with it. Anyway, she is really nice and approachable. I even asked her where the exact location of her exhibit (it was inside Heima) but she wasn’t sure if it was open. 

I finally reached Heima but I got disappointed because it was closed. Well, not entirely closed. When I got there, there was a close sign on the door but there were two ladies inside: a customer and a cashier. I tried to get their attention but I didn’t think they saw or hear me. After several seconds another lady went inside (apparently, I didn’t check if the door was really locked, that’s stupid of me I know) and asked her if I could enter, she nodded. Whew! That’s a relief. So, I started taking photos. The paintings are really wonderful in real life rather than seeing them online. If I only had the money, I would really buy one. There were fourteen paintings in total. The one I super like is the piece called The Fall is Short on Higher Ground. I hate the fact that my photos didn’t give justice at all. Oh, if you want to see her other paintings in larger view, kindly go to her blog. 

After some time, the two ladies went outside and when I turned around the cashier was waiting for me outside because she would lock the door. So I hurried taking photos, it would be embarrassing on my part if I kept her waiting. Besides, Valerie’s talk was about to start and I didn’t want to miss that. Thus, that explains why I only got few photos (yet this entry is quite long, haha). But that’s okay. I still got what I want even though I saw the exhibit very briefly. 

Apparently, it was a roller coaster ride for me that day. But it was all worth it. I’ve learned from the talk, saw Valerie in person and saw her lovely works. What would you say? Hitting three birds with one stone eh. Having said that, I'm ending this post with my favorite piece from the exhibit. 

P.S. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Heima. I often see features about them on magazines, blogs and television and I really like their furniture, analog and paper stuff. It’s my first time being there and I discovered that they offer a lot of products ranging from stationeries, cute lampshades, some artworks, even vinyl records and a lot of awesome stuff. Btw, Heima’s scent was so refreshing. It smelled like fresh-cut wood in Spring. And lastly, Happy Holidays! ♥♥♥

Heima’s Design Discussions 2 x MT Launch

How’s everyone? I apologize for the long absence. Actually, I intended to attend a handful of events since November and blog about them but there were things that always got in the way. It’s either I suddenly became lazy, unpredictable weather, lack of companion, venues themselves and time constraints. But hey, I still managed to attend one last week, which is probably the last event I’ll be attending this year. I’m talking about Heima’s Design Discussions 2 which I accidentally stumbled upon the net.

The second installment of HDD2 features talks from guest artists: Kat Encanto on Design and Innovation, Dan Matutina on Graphic Design, Fozzy Dayrit on Calligraphy, Valerie Chua on Illustration, and Diego Mapa on Music and Tarsius (his new band). I always like attending talks regarding art in general but what I’m really excited about this is that Valerie Chua would come. Valerie is one of my local favorite illustrators. Also, at the time, her first exhibit was still running on the same venue. So, it’s obligatory for me to go to the talk, see her exhibit and ultimately, see her in person. The first photo below was a slide from Dan Matutina's lecture.  The actual  slide had a dog hanging from one of the letters and a man trying to save it. But that detail was lost when I post-process the photo. :( The second one was when Fozzy Dayrit was demonstrating her craft.

The event also coincided with Heima’s launching of its new product which is MT Washi masking tapes. Basically, they are masking tapes available in various colors and patterns. But there’s more to it than that. MT has a lot of uses ranging from sticking notes and photos, giving oomph to ordinary things, even making an actual artwork out of it. MT’s patterns are way too cute. I’m certainly going to buy some next time.  

During the first hour of the talk, there were also other guest artists who were doing some artworks using MT. Valerie also participated on that one. After they were done, their works were displayed for people to see (you can see some of the artworks below). Artists: 1) Andrea Cervantes, 2) Nic Lim, 3) Irene Sy, 4) MJ and Rian Of Heima, 5) Valerie Chua.

 Also, here are other photos from the event.

By the way, I didn’t include photos of Valerie’s exhibit on this post because I decided to make a separate post about it right after this. Speaking of Valerie, I’ll end this post with her advice on aspiring artists. This was also taken from her slides during her talk. So that’s it folks. :)

Advance Valentine Greeting

A very early valentine post because I'm bored. O_O

Blurred Days

 

There are days when you are faced with a lot of difficulties then everything seems like a blur. And you just want to stay in bed all day.

CosplayGen #2

This came in the mail today. It’s the second issue of CosplayGen with an article and photos by China Mungcal regarding different J-fashion styles. I also got lucky to have her autograph on it. :)

Cookie-Mini Review

It’s been around a month since I had my shiny LG Cookie-Mini or simply known as LG T300 and today I’ll provide you guys with a quick review.

Pros

Very light and convenient

Good sound quality

Good camera (under sufficient lighting)

Can record phone conversations

Can record directly from FM radio

Sturdy

Cons

Slow, doesn’t respond easily

Not suitable for people with big fingers

Can’t listen to music/radio while texting

If you’re listening to a certain station for a time, radio dial goes back to the first station once you change the station

No Wi-Fi

Specs found here.

What I really like about this phone is the cute cartoon user interface (which accommodates my childishness haha!) and its convenience. Looking at the pros and cons, I think it has a fair share of them.  Thus, I still like my Cookie-Mini over other phones. It’s also pretty sturdy. Less than a week after I bought it, it accidentally got soaked in water for half an hour due to my clumsiness. It took some days for the water to dry completely but it was still back to its normal working condition.

This could be the perfect phone for me only if it has: Wi-Fi, 3 MP camera, higher memory, faster response and most of all if it’s in clamshell. But since this phone only provides some basic necessities, I couldn’t ask for more.

If you’re like me who’s looking for a phone that can provide the basics and convenience at the same time, this might be the phone for you. But I don’t think this phone is still available because when I bought mine there were only a few of them and LG is no longer making this model. Don’t lose hope though, this phone is one of LG’s best sellers, I’m optimistic that LG will make something similar to it. Who knows, it might even better? 

So that’s it guys. I hope you learn a thing or two from this. 

Ratings: 3/5 stars

Inspiration Mondays: Natsumi Hayashi aka "The Girl Who Flies"

As I’ve mentioned on my older post, I will start adding variety to my post. That’s why I came up with this weekly inspiration post.  So let’s get started. 

I was browsing the net and I stumbled upon this awesome girl's website and from there I immediately became a fan and this had led me to feature her on my first ever weekly inspiration post. Her photos are totally eye catching. Looking at them gives this ethereal feel. There’s a certain grace and weightlessness on them that makes you think she’s really flying. Certainly, Natsumi had inspired me a lot and she made me strive more to do better in taking photos. I also like her fashion style. It reminds me of mori girl and natural kei styles. I tried doing her jumps but I miserably failed. I think she took ballet classes before that’s why she already mastered those graceful “flying” shots or maybe not. 

Some of her photos have this 3D effect. According to her, you can view these photos in 3D without using any optical glasses or viewer by doing the following:

For cross viewing, please see the image on the right with your right eye, the image on the left with your left eye. For parallel viewing, Please see the image on the right with your left eye, the image on the left with your right eye. Cool, no?

Aside from doing her "flying photos", she also took lovely photos of various things and she is also fond of cats, an ailurophile like me. 

 The girl behind all of these photos. Visit her website to see more of her photos.