Bought an iMac yesterday. It’s hot. Hooray for widescreen HD monitors! Of course, now there’s a ton of empty space on my desk (which was kinda small to begin with). Hopefully designing stuff would be a lot more efficient now. I still love my HP desktop, but every time I loaded Photoshop it would lag like crazy. My brother was complaining about always getting my second-hand computers. Kid, don’t be complaining. You have your own laptop and when you had your first second-hand computer, I was still traveling back and forth to the library at that age. Besides, you didn’t have to pay a cent. :p Anyway, there’s a lot of design work to do. Logotypes, fliers, pamphlets. Fun fun. Gotta abuse the font book later. Unfortunately, I forgot to save all my bookmarks from the other computer so…if you guys have any good design/inspirational sites to recommend, post the links below!

Here are some recent fliers I recently made:

(more…)

Despite my best efforts to ignore all the controversy between JYPE, Jay, and Hottests, it feels like it’s finally time to vent after their recent press conference with the fans. For those of you who do not know, it has been announced that Jay will not be returning to 2PM. Ever. No chance. Zilch. Of course, fans who have been led on these past couple of months, anticipating his comeback, are furious, and understandably so. Supposedly Jay personally did something so serious that it does not warrant forgiveness from his company, and the other 6 members have agreed to release him permanently. Details as to what he did back in the summer of the Again&Again promotions have not been disclosed, but many are already spreading rumors about all the possibilities from substance abuse to impregnating some girl.

Well, here is my take on this issue. I’m still curious about what Jay did. It must be worse than a DUI or drug abuse, because celebrities who have done that were eventually forgiven or at the very least tolerated. We can’t blame the other members for feeling betrayed. I think they were just as stressed out about this as all the fans were. And when you think about it, if Jay really did do something so seriously offensive, wouldn’t the members who knew him personally be even more hurt by this?

I was anticipating his return, too, but I think this might be the best course of action if what transpired could really tarnish Jay’s reputation. In a very sad way, it’s kind of like remembering someone after their death (in this case, 2pm’s death). Wouldn’t you rather keep the good memories instead of holding a grudge against them? I’m sure many fans will be forgiving, but think about the damage the truth can do to him when released to the public. First we thought of Jay as some kind of martyr of wronged celebrities in the kpop world. What will we think of him now? Even if the fans are willing to embrace him with open arms, what about others in the industry Jay would have to see on a regular basis? Can he bear the shame of seeing these people if they know what he did?

Instead of demanding the truth to be revealed, maybe it’s best to just remember the joy 2pm (as a septet) brought to their fans instead of having it run the risk of defamation, in which case Jay may never have the chance to return to the industry.

Yesterday I came across a site I was introduced to a while ago, The Wayback Machine. Basically, input a link and it’ll show you how the site looked like in years past. I tried it for several of my sites:

• another-tragedy.net
• tableseven.net
• trash-star.net
• paint-pops.net

I’ve made other sites back in elementary school and junior high, but they were hosted on homestead and geocities and I completely forgot the URLs. Anyhow, it’s fun to see how design trends have progressed throughout the years and also how I have adjusted layouts to fit more content.

(more…)

祝大家新年快乐，心想事成，万事如意！

Happy Chinese New Year! Yesterday I went to a family brunch at East Manor and unfortunately did not have much of an appetite. Waste of a buffet. =T Couldn’t concentrate on homework so I went shopping with my parents and brother. Got a new lipstick from Mac (Dubonnet) because my lips were pale as heck. I quite like this boldish, bitchy red color. Wanted to watch “Videocracy” at the IFC with my brother, but then I was reminded of the mountain of work I have left to be done. Looks like an interesting film, though. It’ll continue running this week.

Fortunately, I have my Olympic therapy. For those following the winter Olympics in Vancouver, you rule. Like many other fans, I primarily look forward to watching Apolo Anton Ohno on the short track. He’s the Michael Phelps of the winter (although with fewer gold medals). Tonight, pairs figure skating continues and hopefully China’s Shen and Zhao finally gets the gold. Their performance last night was flawless and emotionally riveting. Something about married couples skating together is so beautiful.

Anyhow, I am thankful that, at least for the rest of this month, my stress can be eased through sports spectating. How March will be like is a whole other story. No more big family dinners (Chinese New Year’s) or shows to anticipate. How do you get through the day?

[ music ] Stinky Stinky Ashtray // Damn!

So I figured since I don’t have much else to write about (I really want to update with more resources, but it appears I’ll be very busy this semester; have patience?), I would compile links to interesting sites I found or friends referred me to. Here are my picks this time:

• Gadling – this is a traveling blog my friend sent me since I caught the traveling bug. It has a bunch of great reads by authors who’ve visited other countries and documented their experiences (the one about Somali was pretty interesting). There are only so many places we can visit in a lifetime. At least we can check out what others saw!
• China Train Schedules – a friend of mine who lives in China sent this link to me. It has the train schedules, durations, and numbers for those of you who want to visit several cities in China.
• Seek Logo – I’m taking a corporate design class at my college right now, and we’re mainly focusing on logos and brand identity this semester. This is a great resource for inspiration and ideas on creating emblems and logotypes. It is an extensive archive of logos from small, obscure businesses and from large corporations.
• Missha – (deal) From now until February 12th, Missha is giving out $20 off coupons for new and existing customers ($40 purchase required). Shipping can get pretty expensive (around $9) but it’s still a pretty good deal. Basically you have to put $60 worth of stuff in your cart and pay at least $40 for free shipping. You still get a ton of goodies. If you spend $30, $60, or $90 you can also get freebies. There’s a free pouch for those who spend at least $50, too, although I personally think that’s a little too much.