We weren’t able to go to Kuala Lumpur as what we originally planned because of booking conflicts so we ended up getting weekend tickets for Universal Studios Singapore. As my digital camera is spoilt and still can’t decide which one to buy next I decided to take a gamble and just bring the Nokia N97 Mini demo unit from WOMWorldNokia. I previously stated that I hated my Nokia 5800… especially the camera. With the N97 mini charged in full we went to Sentosa (we’ll just use it for taking pics).
Here are some of the pictures we’ve taken at Universal Studios Singapore using the Nokia N97 Mini. I have to admit I really liked using the phone and the camera… well, except that it was a bit more sensitive than my 5800. But picture quality (for me anyway as I just take snaps of anything I find interesting there) is very good and I love it. Even the digital zoom’s quality was ok. We were there from 10am and the battery lasted ’til we got out of Universal Studios around 8pm as it was showing battery low messages already.
I recorded a couple of video clips also and there’s one I really like but I’ll probably upload it tomorrow and update this post… Wanna show it to my niece. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it. =)
I haven’t had the time to create new projects and/or posts since Jan.02 as I’ve been very busy with projects and errands. I missed making drawings, wallpapers and other graphic stuff. While I was packing my stuff, throwing away things I probably won’t be needing I noticed the mini notebook I bought 9 years ago. It contained some drawings but mostly some random notes at work. I tore the three drawing there and scanned them and here they are. These drawing made me remember the days I still have lots of pencils and erasers. hehe… Drawings were done in 2001. Found them earlier this month and I just managed to find the scanned files now.
Hopefully in the next month or so I can have some free time again to make new drawings or stuff.
Since it’s a new year, I’m starting a new project — Project 365. It’s about taking a picture each day for an entire year. It’s not just about taking a picture of yourself each day but can just be about anything to make you remember the day when you look back at it a couple of days, weeks, months, and even years from when you’ve taken it. Of course, I’m not a photographer so my pics aren’t really of good quality. They’re just taken from my mobile phone but it’ll do for me and each pic will be posted on my new photoblog.
My Project 365 Photo Blog
If you want to do it in a group, Flickr has one dedicated to this. Photojojo also has a tutorial here.
Goodbye 2009. May the new year bring me and everyone happy times and more success!
2009 hasn’t been quite good to me. Well, there were good things and there were bad things. I was able to do some of my resolutions last year. Would’ve wanted to accomplish all but certain issues seem to have affected my goals. Some of the goals I’ll list for this year will be a bit related to what I posted last year so here goes:
Refrain from letting other people use my credit cards’ limits no matter what. They’re just good at making me feel guilty so that I’d let them “swipe” or pay something online and then never bother to fulfill their promise of paying me on time even if they know it affects the other items on my billing statement, my good credit standing and my finances. It’s a tad bit better if they’ll give partial but, alas, I’m left to pay for what they’ve enjoyed… including the charges. Can’t believe even professionals will do something like not paying. They’ve totally ruined their credibility to me.
Pay off my CC bills hopefully within the first quarter so that I can finally save for myself. [related to no. 1]
Save, save, save money and look for feasible investments
Have the courage to finally use contact lenses
Have my hair rebonded [hehe]
Learn another language [again. But this is a must this time]
Overseas vacation
Take a picture for every day of the year [project 365]
Strive for self improvement
Forget the word “tired”
Career-wise, I found this post tweeted by Smashing Magazine very interesting. I’ll pick some I’d like to achieve this year:
Get some exercise. Working from home make me stick to my chair most of the time so I really need this goal.
Live beyond your workspace. Pretty understandable.
Don’t be scared of the dark side, take more risks
Work on stuff outside your comfort zone. I think I’ve started this last year. I’m quite happy so would like to continue doing so this year.
Read more… that and learn more from what you’ve read
Make time for personal design projects. I’ve started some projects last year and would like to give them a bit more priority this year.
Network and connect with people (it’s part of the job)
Work smarter
Use the internet to make your life easier, not harder
I guess… that’s majority of what the writer posted in that article. But they’re all very useful anyway so…
Here’s to hoping I’ll be able to do most of what’s listed here this year. I’m not aiming for all since that’s quite impossible, I think.
My 2-year old niece, Lexi, loves to work with pencils and colors. She’s been getting good marks and praises on her artwork at toddler school. She’s feeling quite cranky today so to make her feel better I took out the old oil pastels I saw one day while cleaning the cabinets. It lifted her spirits immediately.
So I took out some sheets of bond paper and she immediately went to “work” doodling on those sheets while I worked on a piece of sandpaper I also saw along with the old pastels. Sandpapers and crayons made me remember my grade school days when I saw my substitute teacher’s work with a piece of fine sandpaper and some crayons. She made a very, very nice bird art with it.
I didn’t know what to draw so I just made the first thing that came to my mind for Lexi: Mickey Mouse. Here’s my mickey mouse drawing and Lexi’s artwork. It’s now taped here behind the bookshelf’s glass for everyone in the house to see. Haha! She was so proud of her “abstract art” and kept showing it to everyone here. And then she sees my sandpaper drawing and she shouts Mickey! She even showed me Piglet and Barney meaning she wants me to draw them next. =p
These are the cropped and resized pics of the drawings taken from my very old camera phone:
After years of not drawing anime characters using just plain sketch pad and pencils, I finally decided to try it again. Since I’ve been meaning to draw Naruto (my fave anime nowadays) characters, I made two drawings. One finished last night. The other just a while ago.
I used to have lots of pencils in different shades (6H-6B) to use for my anime drawings before. However, people love to borrow stuff from me and always forgets to return them. That’s why in these two drawings I only used one exam grade pencil and a drawing book I bought for project use. The paper isn’t as thick as the one I used for my Sailormoon drawings so quality isn’t really good. Also, eraser marks are really noticeable esp. the line in Itachi’s cape. Made a line there to end the drawing and then decided to just continue ’til the end of the paper. Ugh! Whatever I do the marks are very, very noticeable. =( It’s also difficult to do the shadings as I only have one pencil to use unlike before.
I have some Naruto pictures/walls here in my lappie and used them as basis for drawing on my drawing book. I can’t remember where I found them really so credits to whoever made the walls/images where I based my pencil drawings. =)
Anyway, I don’t think they’re quite good after years of not doing pencil drawings but I’m glad I managed to draw two. Here’s my drawing of two of my fave characters: Uchiha Itachi and Yondaime Hokage. I just noticed Yondaime’s hair is quite unbalanced compared to the image I used in my guide. :p
Edit: I just finished drawing Naruto in Sage Mode. =) Next characters I want to draw are Kakashi and Gaara.
You might ask why I’m using just paper and pencil. Hehe. Well, I’m not really good with drawing this kind of stuff (anime) in graphic applications so it’s easier for me to just draw and scan and then later on I can trace and color this using graphic software. Also, I have a small drawing tablet here which until now I still have trouble using. :p But I’ll definitely try again next time.
Years ago, I started a postcard collection. I bought postcards from bookstores and office supplies and loved looking at them. Then I realized I want postcards from other countries, too. I thought about how to get some and luckily found some old ones sent by my father whenever he’s abroad. I’ve also found some sent by my mom’s friends. Others were given to me when they realized I liked postcards.
My Old and New Philippine Postcards
I like looking at postcards esp. those of other countries because I start to imagine what it must be like if I’m there. Later on, I realized postcards aren’t just about beautiful places but can just be about anything. This makes it all the more interesting.
However, I’ve lost most of them (along with my stamp and anime/cartoon card collection) when we were transferring homes. I can only find some of them. I stopped collecting then. But friends who knew I love postcards kept giving me some brought by family members during travels. I can’t help it also if some friends who travel ask me what I want to receive and I’ll just automatically say just a postcard is enough.
Various International Postcards Mostly From Friends
So after finding my remaining postcards and along with the new ones I received and/or bought, I want to start my postcard collection again. I also just now registered in PostCrossing where you send postcards to random people in other countries and you’ll randomly receive postcards from others, too.
I’ll be starting a new blog on this. Once I’ve set it up I’ll post the address here.
If you want to help me with my collection, feel free to send me some postcards. Hehe…
I have a pack of eyelets here that I bought some time ago. I have no idea what tool to use for them. I was told that there’s a tool for punching eyelets but the lady at the store where I bought the pack told me I can just use a hammer. While searching for eyelet tools, I saw crop-a-dile, fiskars eyelet setter and others. But they don’t seem to be available here in my area so that means I still have to pay for shipping and other charges. I had to go looking around in craft shops and bookstores.
Scrapbook Tools
It was in National Bookstore that I saw an eyelet punch tool with a hammer which does not cost much. It’s a product of All About Scrapbooking. Only a couple of stocks left so I bought one. I also saw quite a number of scrapbooking items to choose from. I’m not really into scrapbooking so I just looked at the other items available. The distressing inks caught my attention. It doesn’t cost much, too, and I wanted to try it. There were, however, very limited colors. I can only find two. So I just got the 2 colors along with the eyelet punch and hammer set.
I’m excited to use them. I have so wanted to make a simple fan invitation and other projects using eyelets and I’ll be trying them soon. I also just bought a replacement black ink cartridge for my Epson printer which is nearly out of black ink. I’ll print the stuff I’ll be doing using that printer although printout isn’t that great unless I use the genuine Epson paper. As soon as all the ink cartridges run out I’ll have my printer converted to CIS.
I’ll post some projects I will be doing using these tools soon. =)
Ever since I can remember, invitations are normally assigned to me. The past two weeks, I’ve made two kiddies popup (? not sure about the term) invitations. Both are 5R in size (5in x 7in). The first one was a Barney invite. It contained a Barney, Baby Bop and BJ group popup, as well as, 2 popup stars. This week I just finished a word world invitation containing 6 popups (sun, bear, dog, ant, pig, duck). In the picture above there’s also a Thomas and Friends (train popup) in 4R size (4in x 6in). The other Barney invitation was for my niece’s 2nd birthday invitation. The star containing the invitation text was the popup. There’s another one I made last year (hello kitty) but I still have to look for my copy. =)
What I don’t like about this is that cutting the popups can be really, really tiring. I’m left with a sore hand the following day. If only I have a digital cutter like Craft Robo, Silhouette or something like these… I bet it’ll cost a lot! *wishful thinking*
This blog's template is a modified version of the default Kubrick theme and is still a work in progress. Site layout [headers and stuff] and content arrangement will still change. c",)
Edit: Something is off with my main navigation bar. This happened when I upgraded my wordpress version. I'll fix this later.
