Thank You Colgate for Pimping Mah Self

Consumerism at it's finest. I betcha 500 bucks there'll be a new Colgate commercial before this year ends.

Ogle at him here.

More is a bore, less is bliss.

I've had it. I'm going back to roots.

Ad Reinhardt sums it up in these terms:

'The more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. More is less. Less is more. The eye is a menace to clear sight. The laying bare of oneself is obscene. Art begins with the getting rid of nature.'

Idiot Box indeed

In the persistent absence of a cable subscription, I'm happily stuck with the garbage the local TV networks serve me in the precious hours I'm home. But there ARE a few precious finds while abusing my remote such as ABC-5's "Shorts." Thank you ABC.

Ogle Earth II

Just flying NE off Sangley Point. Yes, I need something to do.

Ogle Earth

 A great software… shows how insignificant I am in the larger scale of things. Oh well.

Armed with a great deal of downtime and a coffee-induced ALT-TAB hand, I managed to scrounge up a few pokey finds such as:

Mischief Reef:
Our Chinese brothers seem to be feeling lucky . Years ago, concern grew in the Philippines about China's intentions after building work was started on the aptly named Mischief Reef.

the Chinese say they built this facility to house fishermen. As of current, six countries lay claim to this widely scattered chain of islands due to its strategic location. Now is that a cd-stamping machine facility I see?

More Ogle Earthing soon…

Angels Do Exist

A loud 'holla' goes to Pigarotti for uploading a certain turd of a file for me. Lifesaver!!!

Give us this day our daily dodos.

Safely ensconced in the confines of my modest room here in Makati, it is still wrong to say my room's retard-proof. Here are a few of my favorite questions/quotes from my colleagues here at work (and the replies I WISH I made:

a.) "Mike, pag mag che-check ako ng email ko ano gagawin ko?"
- "Tumalon ka sa 4th floor."

b.) "Mike san sa pc mo ang webcam? Na do-download ba un?"
- "Anong oras ang out mo?"

c.) "HTML… Short for HotMail"
- "…"

d.) Vice-president: "Mike lagay mo dyan sa bawat page sa website ang picture ko."
- "Gumawa ka ng account sa www.i.ph ako pa mag uupload."

e.) "Pag mage-email ako ilalagay ko ba sa TO: Field ang pagdadalhan ko?"
- "Hindi, sa recycle bin, ano ka ba."

f.) "Download mo naman ako ng 3G application sa internet para maging 3G na ang 8210 ko."
- "May gamot pa ba sa pantry?"

g.) "Diba dapat innovative ang design mo? Eto ang mga brochures gayahin mo ang concept."
- "Ay meron na akong Jolibee atsaka Matute Placement Agency leaflets… siguradong groundbreaking to."

h.) "Mike pumapayat ka yata."
- "Mag resign ka tingnan mo gagwapo ako."

To Rip Is Inhuman, To Err Divine

To rip is inhuman…

Web design plagiarism (or purposefully stealing a web site's code, layout and/or other elements) has been a very hot topic back at the ol' hangout.

How is it wrong?
Ethically speaking, it is benefiting from another designer's hard work sans permission and compensation. Design theft, put simply, is the worst crime any web designer can commit, and only serves to showcase the designer's lack of creative skills.

The web is not as big as we think it might be. If you are merely view-sourcing a website to debug and learn new tricks then there won't be any problem with that. But to totally reuse a website by merely substituting text and graphics and/or executing the layout down to the minutest detail then that is tantamount to doing the bunny-foofoo in a minefield. Remember that despite the size of the web, there is a great chance that the pirate's site will be spotted and will be on every web designer's crosshairs.

To err divine…
I've spent much too many years slaving on designs and mucking around in the black hole we call designer's cramp. As with other designers, I've churned out mediocre, if not badly executed sites. Some were just simply badly executed. The rest… well, the clients' smiles are enough for me. There were mistakes made along the way. But I’m still proud of the fact that they were my brainchildren (and there WERE a few ugly ducklings).

Fishing for inspiration is as hard as trying to fish for a compliment from your older sibling. Try thinking out of the box. Remember that each website and each designer has their own different goals. Take it from there.

The Big Black Funk : Designer’s Block

Don't we all love the sight of a blank Photoshop canvas in the morning? The problem starts if it stays that way the better part of the day.

Jumping the bandwagon.

Finally mustered enough balls (all 3 of them) to close my proverbial inbox and compartmentalize it into an area of my brain where it's biologically programmed to be forgotten. Now that there's enough time to start on this blog, a better part of the day was spent dicking around with the control panel.

So what do you get when you cross a web designer and a wanna-be blogger? NOTHING. The bastard's too busy mulling over color theme, layout and typography.