Friday, November 16, 2012

Computer Calm



Some of us spend a lot of time in front of our computer screens and up to some point, staring at it can affect us.

My photography teacher Jo Avila told us that it's better to set the desktop background to grey in order for our eyes to adjust to the color. I did that for the longest time, even at work. But then, I have to admit, it got boring, and cluttered at the same time with all the icons littering the screen. So I decided, time to put some images back on it! Before I knew it, it became a habit of mine to change desktop backgrounds every month depending on what I want my mood to be, or the season, or just because I saw another beautiful wallpaper. Most of the time I want it to calm me so I always choose minimalist photos of landscapes. With a simple swipe to the lower right corner, my windows give way revealing my wallpaper. I look at it for a couple of seconds then back to work.

Try it! Don't underestimate what your eyes see every time because it can act like a subliminal message. :)

ps: yeah yeah, I need to recalibrate.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Health in Progress

laeksa-red.deviantart.com

Progress leads to result and I'm happy to report that I'm definitely getting there. I just had my follow-up checkup last Thursday and the results of my medical tests show that I've improved. Albeit it's still considerably high based on what normal levels should be, it's relatively better from my first exam. Before my blood cholesterol was at a two digits percentage higher than normal now it's down to 2%. I think if I would have been more serious on the first two months, I would have closed the gap and lowered it below the margin of acceptable levels. The next check-up will be in three months and I'm sure I'll be back to normal by then. Looks like my exercise and diet paid off and nothing motivates me than seeing progress and knowing that my goal can be achieved! Now I have three locations where you can easily find me, either I'll be in the office, or in my house, or the gym.

Other than helping myself out of this condition, my other goal is getting my strength and stamina up so that I can finally complete Insanity. Yes, that goal is still in the table and I'm not giving up on that! 3 months of pure body workout with only Sundays for rest, insane right? I remember when I first tried it, I died. Good thing I came back to life for a chance to try it again, but this time I'm preparing for it. So far, jumping on an exercise of that level is like jumping from 1 to 100 on my part so guys be warned. I'm so out of shape that time hence my disappointment but now I'm coming back to conquer those DVDs!

Now about my my condition, it's not like I have myself entirely to blame (although technically I should be) but it runs in our family. My doctor was telling me that at this day of age, people having this condition are getting younger and younger so it doesn't apply anymore that only old people get this. Before it was just 50 and above, when he was training he said it dropped to nearly 30 and now it's below 30. I'm sure if people on my age group gets tested, there will be a significant number that will test positive for high cholesterol. Blame the fast food and our current lifestyle. I'm sure you guys are doing a lot better than me but I know you guys know someone who might be a candidate and it might seem invasive to them but at least give them some advise. And if you care about them, don't let them say YOLO.

OK, so 3 months of work to go so that I can reach my 'baseline' and then from there, I'll lift off!

Have a healthy weekend guys!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Photography Idols: Christine Day Lorico

Today I feature Christine Day Lorico. A name that instantly comes to my head when I want to browse beautiful portraits and editorials. I've been following her photos for I guess a year  or more now after I saw her in DeviantArt. She's really good with ambient light and post processing plus I like her treatment on the photos. She makes simple and gorgeous photos, not to mention that she has a good model friends and connections to various modeling agencies so you can expect beautiful sets from her regularly.


 Christine Day Lorico 
(Philippines) 

Friday, October 12, 2012

Foster The People in Manila

Foster the People came to the Philippines last Saturday and I was there together with Petite and a lot of 'hipsters'. :) We weren't able to catch Techyromantics as the opening act though. Too bad but we were not disappointed with the performance of Foster the People. It was a short concert but it was a good one and I'm sure the lively audience would agree! To think I was only listening to them about a year ago in my playlists and then there I was watching their concert!

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Photos from the concert taken with Petite's Canon S95.

I was trying the total out-of-focus shots but the camera can't create good bokeh, you'll know when you see them. I also noticed in this concert, there weren't that many iPad owners compared to the last concert I went to and that is a good thing!



















Friday, October 5, 2012

Sesame Street Playlist 4

Pardon my absence on this blog but I come bearing gifts (141 gifts to be exact). I'm sharing my latest Sesame Street Playlist. Songs that I heared from surfing the web, the indie song gods, suggestions from friends, and of course from the good ol' radio. As usual, this playlist includes indie tracks with some electronica, pop, an old cover, rock, definitely some Smashing Pumpkin tracks and then some. I'm hoping to add OPM (Original Pinoy Music) songs in the future. OPM indie is really hard to find (or I just don't know where to look) and I'm hoping that someone points me to where I could start. Thank you in advance!

WARNING: Listening to this playlist may induce mood swings. :)

This playlist's special mentions:
random cover featuring Nicolai, from A Workshop, and her dog.
(click on the songs for their corresponding streaming links)


141. Casablanca - Yes

Enjoy :)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Pinoy Photography turns 7!


Pinoy Photography, otherwise known as PiPho, celebrated their 7th anniversary the other week. It's an event where Pipho forumers and Pipho org members meet for a day long set of talks from masters in the photography industry, shop for photography gears as well as to meet and greet the people behind the forum names. (There are two types of members in Pipho, those who are in the forum and those who are accepted in organization inside the forum. Being a forum moderator is the place in between those two.)

For this year's anniversary, I was more excited to own a PiPho 7 shirt because of that beautiful logo made by Mon Corpuz. You can see it on the poster above! I'm glad and thankful that I am still a moderator in the forum for 2 years now. I just realized that I need to get my event IDs laminated to preserve them.

It was a successful event with some really interesting talks from different industry personalities. Too bad I missed Mango Red's talk because it was the first one for the day. (I came in late) The event was actually moved from it's original schedule last September because of the intense rains that drenched most of Metro Manila but it was still a success! I heard that the turnaround this year was a lot more compared to the year before. Though I didn't win in the raffle... still... A lot of prizes were given a way but I guess I'm just not lucky with raffles. There were discounts to photography seminars, camera straps, and even some p&s cameras from Olympus! At least I got to play with the Olympus OM-D and the Fuji X10 (gear head!). I also checked Canon's booth but I haven't decided on what printer I want to get. The day ended with me having dinner with the Pipho org members.

Congrats to Pipho for another successful event! Hoping for more anniversaries to come! :)

GROUP HUG! from the PiPho Facebook page.

Before the Event. from the PiPho Facebook page.

from the PiPho Facebook page.
Now for some of my photos

Raffle!

Geebee and Mon Corpuz

Jim Paredes talks about his photography

George Tapan talks about his experience in National Geographic

More Raffle!


Ricky Ladia talks about off camera lighting

Jun Miranda talks about doing prints.

hosts on the side

crowd of photographers



Mr Arkiroms (Romyr), co-moderator in the forum

Arki's Fuji X10

Canon brought some big guns. 1DX + 400L (i think)

Nikon bought theirs as well. They actually have 3 in the event!

My keeper shot of the day.

Pinoy Photography 
(Philippines)

Friday, August 24, 2012

Photography Idols: Nicolas Méphane

Today I'm featuring portrait photographer Nicolas Méphane. I found out about him in Facebook by accident as I was browsing for photographers to follow or subscribe to. His portraits are like the ones that made me fall in love with in portraits in DeviantArt and by now I guess you guys already know the look and feel that I want in my portraits. One thing that I notice with his photos are his compositions and I'm sure they will look great in prints. I really wish I have his talent as well as contacts to his talents. :)

Nicolas Méphane
(France)