Wallpapers

To prevent boredom due to cultural adjustments, homesickness and unemployment I made some (tadah!) wallpapers! Quotes are from the Bible. Photos are grunged a bit and colors subdued so it won't interfere with your desktop icons. Resolution is set to 1600x1200. If your screen resolution is different (e.g. widescreen) please leave a note in the comment section and tell me your exact screen resolution. You can find that out by right-clicking on the desktop then choose Display Properties for XP or Personalize if you're running on Vista. I'll gladly whip up something for you in my graphics kitchen.


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Graphics work is one of the ways I encourage so I sincerely hope that somehow these verses and artworks help brighten your day everytime you open your computers in the morning. That's it. I Hope you like it. Happy downloading! :-)

Hot Rock Cafe Thailand

A few days ago I finished re-designing the Hot Rock Cafe site.

Hot Rock cafe is in Chang Rai, Thailand near Mae Fah Luang University, a university established by the queen of the country. Hotrock offers free English language tutorials and in the process sharing the Good News to the students. I’ve been hearing lots of good news from the crew there. The Thai youth, from what I hear, loves anything Western; listening to music, watching movies and learning the English language. So let’s pray that this will be an open door for the Gospel.

If you happen to visit Chiang Rai, that’s in the northern part of thailand, please drop by the cafe. Its on the highway to Burma. The staff is friendly and Thai students hanging out there would really love to interact with you.

That’s it! Rock on!!!

P.S.
Hot Rock is included in my portfolio at Litratista.net.

Check it out.

Litratista.net

Simple

For 2008 I want to give my Pinoy Pan de Sal a facelift but still maintain the minimalist feel. It seems I've become a fan of simple.

I used to work in a broadcasting company and there was a VP there who was involved with several commercials from major companies. Remember FPJ endorsing San Miguel beer? Needless to say this guy's got credentials. His motto is "Less is more." So everytime I present a design to him he always strips it down to the barest essential, "katay" as they say in advertising agencies. I used to get angry at him for doing this. Kinakatay nya lagi yung layout ko. But now, sir, peace na tayo hehe!

I used to think that designers who create minimalistic artworks do not have the creative juice they need at that time to produce works of art. As the years go by I have learned that it takes a certain amount of self-restraint to design minimalistic works. There is so much you can do in a layout but it takes maturity to combine simple elements to produce an effective minimalistic design.

Leonardo da Vinci, one of the masters during the Renaissance age said "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." I will not dare go against a master.

Deleting Friends

According to Alexa.com list of Top Sites Philippines, Friendster is the number one most popular site in the country. The site is described as "a leading global social network emphasizing genuine friendships and the discovery of new people through friends. Search for old friends and classmates, stay in better touch with friends, share photos and videos, and so much more."

For the past few weeks, I was seriously contemplating on deleting my Friendster account. I went through all my "friends' account" one-by-one and noticed that I don't even know some of the people on my friends list. To think that I over-shared my personal information with them was unthinkable! How did that happen?

Tagalog naman please.

Naalala ko kasi noong 2003 medyo insecure ako kasi iilan lang ang "friends" na connected sa akin sa Friendster. Akala ko kasi kapag kaunti lang ang friends sa Friendster account ko e kaunti rin ang friends sa totoong buhay. Duh! Hellooo! [untog ulo sa laptop]

Sorry. Tao lang. Immature kung minsan.

Kaya approve-approve lang kahit sinong mag add. Feeling ko sikat ako kasi ang dami ko nang friends. Hanggang mamalayan ko na lang na nagbabahagi na pala ako ng personal na impormasyon sa mga taong di ko naman masyado kilala. Masama pa doon dahil iyong iba ay hindi ko talaga kilala!

Nitong nakalipas na mga linggo parang medyo mataas sa normal na bilang ang profile views ko. May stalker na yata ako hehe! Nakakatawa pero parang nakakatakot din. Dahil dito at sa iba pang mga dahilan tinanong ko ang Mama ko.

"Ma, i-delete ko na kaya itong Friendster account ko?"

Sagot naman siya.

"Huwag! Masaya naman ang Friendster."

[Ma, ikaw ba yan?]

Siguro naiinis lang ako sa coding ng Friendster kasi madalas error, mabagal at invalid links ang lumalabas. Lagi siguro absent ang mga programmers nila. Naiinis din ako kapag maraming nakikitang mga makintab at kumukutitap na mga graphics. Kaya nahilo ako sa MySpace hahaha! Paumanhin po pero para sa kin it is visually offensive. Dala siguro ng profession ko kaya hindi ko matagalan ang mga ganyang bagay. Ang totoo nyan parang nababaduyan na ako sa site.

Pero para sa isang taong tulad ko na kailangan "always in-touch with friends" ang personality, nahihirapan akong magdesisyon kung idi-delete ko ang account ko. Titimbangin ko muna kung anong magandang naidudulot sa aking ng Friendster -- kung meron man talaga. In the meantime I will clean up my account. Ang mga hindi ko kilala at hindi ka-close ay i-disconnect, lalo na ang mga kahina-hinala hehe! Malalaman kaya nila yun? Sana huwag ma-offend. Pwede din naman gumawa ulit ng bagong account. This time I will only invite my real friends. Basta bago matapos ang taon na ito mag dedesisyon ako. [kumplikado ba at ang tagal pag iisipan]

Walang kwenta naman itong problema ko hehe! Mas marami pa kayang importanteng bagay sa mundo!

My Visual DNA (daw)

According to Imagini its a whole new way of helping people communicate and understand each other. Kewl di ba?! :-) Read my VDNA here.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Number 1 - Yahoo!

It made me smile and feel good and warm inside. My site is finally number 1 in Yahoo Search. You might think it is a little shallow but it is a small triumph for me. Bakit ba?! Mababaw kaligayahan ko pagdating sa website ko.



I rank 4th in Google... pero ok lang. May oras ka. Maghintay ka lang. Hehehe!

You might ask, why the obsession with being number 1 in ranking. I guess any one who has a website wants to be at least in the first ten when it comes to ranking in search engines. Kasi naman parang ako unang gumamit nung name. Promise! Noon kapag mag search ka sa Google at i-type mo ang "litratista" yung blog ko ang unang lalabas tapos wala nang ibang litratista sites. Di naman ako ang nagmamay-ari nung pangalan pero sa web kasi unahan sa pag register ang labanan. Sayang talaga, ang tagal ko kasing bilhin nung domain. Gusto ko sana (dot)com. Let this be a lesson. Huwag magpatumpik-tumpik.com sa pagbili ng domain. Pero ok lang. Sige lang. Mababaw lang. Number one!


* March 6, 2007 - I'm currently renewing my domain and registration so the website may not be available for a while.