Lady in the water; Wedding update!

28 July 2006     •     6 Comments
Daily Dose

It would done more good if she had just stayed in the water.

Yeah. I didn’t like it. The story is a bit lame, and I might even be doing you a favor by spoiling it. This movie seems like an outpost of M.Night Shyamalan’s ego. I mean hello. The story is about a sea nymph “awakening” the creative drive of a writer who was destined to change the world with his book. Guess who was playing the writer? You got that right: Shyamalan. Of all the roles he could have played in the movie… Ah well. How vain is that!

I don’t really see the point of the movie. It’s basically just this group of people in an apartment complex helping the nymph get back to her world. That’s it. Nothing more.

What a waste. The only nice thing I could probably say about that movie is that Bryce Dallas Howard has nice nose (if I had money, I’d get Toronto rhinoplasty so I can have a nose like her! hehe). Yeah, the movie was that bad. Marc and I might have done better if we just saw “Sukob,” at least that one would have been a laugh. Yeah I know it’s supposed to be horror flick, but Kris Aquino’s there and I think she’s irritatingly funny (she makes horror funny). Besides, it’s a wedding-related flick. It might even teach me and Marc a thing or two (yeah, RIGHT. Hehehe).

And speaking of weddings…

Marc and I have completed HALF of Church Requirements step 1. We’ve acquired our baptismal certificates already, and will just need to get the confirmation certificates. I know, I know, we’re still a long way to go. But hey, at least there’s SOMETHING. Anyway, if we haven’t seen this on my email, we’re probably still slacking off:

Oh my. Still a lot to do!!!

I know this site meant no harm, and was probably intended from brides and grooms excited about their weddings… But man, seeing this freaked me out! Just goes to show how many stuff we still need to do. Getting married sure is a LOT of work 😛

So by now I should be personalizing my wedding details. Personalizing? It’s not even complete yet. Damn! My wedding gown is still non-existent (heck, even the attire for my entourage doesn’t exist yet), and our wedding rings are still fragments of our imagination. Ah well 😛 I guess Marc and I will always be buzzer-beaters hehehe.

“Greening” my computer room

19 July 2006     •     5 Comments
Daily Dose

Hey cool. I’ve actually had time to blog in two consecutive days! 🙂

I’ve been meaning to write some kind of a review for Superman Returns or Pirates of the Carribean, but I’ve seen so many posts wondering how in the world the Man of STEEL screwed Lois Lane (oh, that’s a spoiler hehe) and how utterly repressed Elizabeth was in Pirates, that I decided I didn’t want to jump in the bandwagon and just abandoned the idea. So there. I’m just going to talk about my new plant.

Without Marc knowing (he only found out AFTER I bought it hehe), I got me a cute bamboo plant. A real, live one.

My bamboo plant

Between you and me, I think the main reason why I bought this was because of the water gel’s color. I really, really liked the color, and thought it could liven up my computer work area. Marc wasn’t too happy about my purchase, for the simple reason that I’ll eventually kill it. Ah, well. Time will tell. When it dies, he’ll be the first to know. Besides, it WILL eventually die, you know. The plant will probably just die before it’s expected life span, but who knows? I might have gotten a bit of my late grandma’s talent for gardening (eventhough this thing can probably live without me intervening too much).

I remember that the only plant I’ve managed to sustain for some time was a monggo plant… And I didn’t even mean for it to live, it was really an accident. I bought some monggo seeds for a school art project, and left the extras on my desk. I must have spilled water on them or something, because the next thing I knew, there was a greeny growth on my desk near the window. Since it was alive anyway, I just watered it when I had the chance (well, monggo plants are kind of low maintainance, aren’t they?).

I haven’t really had the best of luck maintaining live stuff on my desk… I was so bad, I even killed my colony of sea monkeys (what are those friggin’ things, anyway?) I bought from HongKong with grandma. Well…. Let’s hope for the best for my bamboo plant, shall we?

Anybody out there who knows how to take care of a bamboo plant? Tips will be much appreciated.

I think I’ve been so happy having plants in my work area that I let mushrooms grow on the edge of my door hehe.

Gail's squatter mushrooms view 1

Are these poisonous? I took their picture first (they looked pretty, honestly) before removing them. I didn’t want to risk having my dogs make a snack out of them, so they’re gone now. Here’s another one:

Gail's squatter mushrooms view 2

Don’t ask me how they got there… I don’t know how. Probably because the door’s edge gets wet frequently? Oh, well. I think I’ll be seeing a lot of these during this rainy season.

Bloggers’ dinner aftermath

18 July 2006     •     7 Comments
Tech Things

Marc, Arelle and I went to the bloggers’ dinner Jayvee organized last weekend at Italianni’s in Greenbelt, Makati. Luckily, we had a meeting at Oody’s before it… And I do mean LUCKY. Damn, Italianni’s is EXPENSIVE. The food there is damn expensive that you’d think it was made of platinum (ok, I’m exaggerating… and yeah, maybe I am a bit stingy hehe). Well, anyway, it was more on the chitchat we were after so what the heck.

The bloggers

The people who attended the dinner were the ones looking at the camera. Jeez, my hon really doesn’t like smiling at cameras 😛 Oh, and yeah… The guy wearing an orange long-sleeved shirt in the foreground wasn’t with us… I think he was just ordering.

Me and Marc!

Abe took this pic. I just HAD to repost because he was so proud of it. Hehe. This photo was one of the “products” of Markku‘s photography tutorial for Abe. I have to admit, it is a good shot 🙂

These two were shamelessly stolen from Abe‘s site. We asked him to put our pics up there for us to steal. Hehe. Anyway, if you’d like to see more, just take a look at Abe’s gallery.

I’m really not the type who goes to EB’s (eye-ball) like this one, especially when Abe was the only one we knew personally, but I got to admit I was curious about the people behind the blogs. Besides, I’m going to have this WordPress “project” with Markku, and I wanted to meet him first so we could discuss the details (hush, it’s a surprise hehe).

Reboot: Kutitots and the Beanstalk

14 July 2006     •     8 Comments
Tech Things

You are now seeing the 8th reboot of Kutitots. I’m still working on integrating the new design at the moment, so please hold your horses before reporting any bugs to me. I’ll just update this post when you CAN start reporting them. I’m an ass, I know.

Here’s a screenshot so I’ll have the image in the archive when time comes that I change the design:

Kutitots and the Beanstalk

Yeah. I made it for 1024 x 768 screen resolution. Looks best in screen res higher than that actually. I’m selfish, I know, but I think it’s about time you get a new video card if you’re still stuck in an 800×600 screen res and a good monitor.

Who’s willing to bet a million bucks with me that Loyal Ripper will rip this design again? Haha. I don’t have a million bucks, but if you’re willing to wager, why not? 😀

Reboot on the way; Rippers galore

10 July 2006     •     6 Comments
Tech Things

Yeah, Adam, I got jealous so I made one of my own. 😀

Seriously though, I’m getting tired of this bamboo theme even before I finished it. I guess I never really liked it that much, so I’m making a new one. Here’s a preview:

Kutitots version 8

Did you really think I’d show you the entire thing? Nope. Call me paranoid, but I’ve honestly gotten tired of this perennial ripper of mine. Who knows? That pain-in-the-arse might copy my design even before I get the chance to launch it. I am TYPICALLY one of those people who have high thresholds of patience for rippers (duh. I’ve even released themes for godsakes!), but this is getting ridiculous. I don’t think it’ll be long before that person copies my entire portfolio.

Yes. BEFORE anybody says it… I know. “Ripping is one of the sincerest form of flattery.” Flattery my ass! I don’t think I would have been bothered that much if this sorry human had the decency to NOT BRAG ABOUT THEM. Yep. Ripper brags about them. So ok, maybe I really shouldn’t care if the ripper brags about it on that person’s blog, it’s that person’s world, wtf do I care (when my sister was still having schizophrenic attacks, she had her OWN world… Hmm…). The friggin’ irony of this all is that this person actually brags about them TO ME!

Now tell me. Would you be flattered if the person who ripped your site (SITES) was thick enough to get all high-and-mighty to you? Of course not. You’ll be pissed. And I’m PISSED.

Suing this person will be an utterly waste of time… and money. They’re harmless rippings (note the “s”), not like this previous client of ours who demanded a full refund and STILL used my design (copied it horribly, I might add). My hon laughed when I asked him to spot the difference, and my friend Arelle practically covered her eyes and said the site rip was giving her sore eyes. This kind of ripping is a nuisance, but something you still can laugh about. Kind of like that annoying fly you just want to swat away.

As I said, it would take a lot of my patience before I get pissed when it comes to issues of ripping. I would even probably “encourage” little doses of it for people who are still starting out. “Mimicking” somebody else’s style is a good way to start out, it will give you an idea of the industry you’re getting into. And from there on, you will slowly be able to develop your own style and your own design personality. But if you’re still in the “mimicking” process and you already consider yourself above all… Now that’s where the problem begins… And that’s exactly what pisses me off.

My parents are both artists, and I’ve been brought up in the artist’s lifestyle. My parents, especially my dad, always (and I do mean ALWAYS) kept on reminding my sister and me to keep our feet on the ground. We’ve been taught to keep in mind that there will always be somebody better in the craft than us out there. This thought will not only be a source of humility, but also be the drive for us to better ourselves. If you’ve made yourself believe you’re the best of them all already, there won’t be any drive to improve yourself further. You’ll just be stuck in that black hole where only your dog is your “fan”. Or maybe you could just get a rhinoplasty New Jersey so we’ll have the same nose! If you keep on copying somebody else’s design and style, why stop there? Heh.

A bittersweet story

5 July 2006     •     5 Comments
Family Stuff

My week had been so full of extreme contradictions. Kinda makes you wonder how life can be so mean but incredibly nice at the same time. Bittersweet. That’s the best way to describe it.

I barely had enough sleep this weekend and the two days following it. I don’t even know why I’m blogging right now, when I should be catching up on the loss of rest. But I just had to write this down before I lose the feel of it.

My week was pretty exciting, really. Imagine getting insulted by a client who knew deep down that the root cause of the issue are her inability to come up with a FINAL decision, unending requests for changes and still insisted that production time to be not extended. You then lose sleep over the friggin’ account because the client’s delays have cost an overlap in production schedule: you have to finish two at the same time. A few days before that, you get notified that an unpaid design you made was used without permission by the very same person who didn’t pay you (more on this later on). Same week you also learn that an existing design of yours is ripped by somebody you know personally. I can’t help but summarize all these by one, simple sentence: I had a shit of a week.

That’s even an understatement, actually.

But then… It’s also the same week you realize that there exist people who will stand by you. You realize that there exists some kind of solidarity within a community that is usually full of selfish and arrogant little berks. The indignation that greeted your sarcastic story of the client who used your design without paying somehow gives you confidence that you’re on the right track. For the existing design you made that was ripped, the client who owned the site requests for you to redesign it (Yay. Payment again…). Coolness. Ripper will have another design to rip… ha.

And amidst all of these days turned shit, you are also reminded how much your family loves you.

Ah… The irony of life.

Marc slept very little to help me with the rush invitation order (the freaky client who wanted to change the design every single day and still insisted on keeping the deadline at no additional cost, eventhough the changes she wanted had corresponding overhead expenses. What a biatch.). He even stayed here as long as I needed his help. My sister also stayed and helped me even in the all-nighters, and just slept enough to have a bit of energy or get rid of a headache (of course, she drank her meds regularly so she won’t go schizo again… She IS still schizophrenic). My dad… My dad who didn’t particulary have patience for arts and crafts helped us too. And best of all… My mom did her best to help out by cutting ribbons using her unparalyzed hand. Apparently, the stroke she suffered a year ago wasn’t going to stop her from helping her daughter.

There was a moment when I took a breather yesterday and surveyed my family: working, joking, and laughing regardless of the impending unreasonable deadline. All of them helping me. Not because they had to, but because they WANTED to. This, I believe, is the closest thing to the definition of “sincerity.” My family is far from perfect, but for me, I have just seen another clear actualization of what it means to be a family.

Well. That’s my bittersweet story. Till next time 🙂

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Have some shame. Don't copy my flea, my layout and my design.