Respite

Just had to get outta the house. Contacted Wella last night and set up a date. Supposed to be at the Shangri La mall, then later changed that to Chilis. Rained so hard we couldn't get out (also parking at Chilis/Starbucks was full). Ended up at Tender Bobs for dinner. Walked to Starbucks Annapolis for the nightcap. Embarassing part of the evening was having to deal with my stuffy/runny nose while chatting w/ Wella. Stupid cold.

And for strangest sight of the evening: watching my sister laugh her ass off watching Peruvians wash their hair with their own urine as their American guests watch (I'm guessing in horror).

Gloomiest. Christmas. EVER.

First the father of a friend passed away. Now my uncle's in a coma (apologies to Pau and her mom for my premature pronouncement of his passing). And to top it off, a friend from Germany is in the country for a visit but I have no idea how to contact her, and NO ONE I'm counting on for help is helping me.

And On a Cheerier Note...

Happy Xmas, One and All.

Jesus Christ, is EVERYBODY F#@king Dying?!?

The dad of a good friend of mine passed away this morning. On f#@king Xmas Eve, of all days. Heart attack. This after having been told his health was "fantastic" in his last physical. I've only met the man once and he seemed okay. Nothing to indicate frail health or heart.

First Papa Cun, then my uncle (still in ICU after a heart attack despite a successful bypass operation), now this. Either there's no God, or he/she has really taken a stance of non-interferance from his/her free-willed creations.

The Faces of X3

1st row: Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Professor X
2nd row: Iceman, Shadowcat, Colussus, Cyclops
3rd row: Pyro, Angel, Phoenix, Magneto
4th row: Beast, Calissto, Mystique, Juggernaut

Adventures in Computer Coloring, Part 2

The original sketch and the finished piece

Been spending some time watching instructional videos on how to use Photoshop CS(2) more efficiently. Learning a lot. Now need to find a way to charge people for my services.

Anyway, the drawing above is by Jim Lee, currently the most popular Korean-American comics artist around. His style of drawing has produced dozens of clones and wannabees --for better (Travis Charest) or for worse (Al Rio)-- and for some reason any rendition of archetype superheroes he does becomes the standard look for months or years to come.

I swiped the drawing from his studio's blog and fiddled with it with my "newfound skills." The lasso was the hardest to color, since I still had to put in the glowing effect afterwards.

The first finished piece was completely colored and had sort of a flat, animation cel look. I felt it was too dark so I gave it another go by combining the original and the colored drawing to end up (almost by accident, really) with a watercolor/colored pencil sketch look.

What is WRONG With You

Three days of wonky internet connection now. Some sites load, some sites won't. What bothers me is the sites that won't load: my lycos and yahoo email accounts, and mininova! ARGH!

Even weirder is how some pages within the site won't load. Blog posting right now is okay, but loading images is not. CNN.com's come and go.

I'm wondering what to tell the "tech support" guy. Hey, my internet connection's been nitpicking?

Helping My Cousin Out

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

http://freedelwin.org/

Yes, he's my cousin.

Sunday, Lazy Sunday (UPDATED)

Went out to dinner with Lyndon and Dennis at Dayrits, where we were later joined by 'Sen and Christ, who brought gifts from Indonesia (banana and durian cake thingies.)
After dinner we drove to Dennis' place just to hang, go online and do Street Fighter II on his PS2.

* * *
On an unrelated note, a rash broke out my body when I got home tonight. This following the migraines I've been getting the past couple of days. I recognized these as symptoms of measles, except there's no fever and I already had the measles. Also, major itchniess hasn't started. Yet. Allerigc reaction? As usual my mind's going over the possible causes:

• Safeguard anti-perspirant
• New detergent/fabric softener?
• Food at Dayrits
• Not-so-clean couches in Dennis' room.

Argh. Itchy. Please let it be just the heat...

UPDATE: Rash is gone. Guess it was just the heat. Headaches are still there, though.

God, We're Idiots, Part II

My college professor in Logic taught me about statistical fallacy, e.g. if a statistic says that only 35% of Americans approve of President Bush's job performance, it doesn't really mean that only 104,227,817.05 (w/c is 35% of 297,793,763) Americans like him. In fact it only means 700 of the usual number of 2000 people polled (with +- 2% margin of error) like him. Statisitcs are supposed to save time, so governtment won't use it all up by physically counting who needs what when and where.

Surprisingly stats can also be used to entertain. Numbers become factoids and trivia (ex. Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted; One million U.S. students took guns to school in 1998, etc.) and they also make for good headlines.

I know I'm not supposed to take these Numb3rs at face value, but it irks me to read things like, "the Department of Education has reported to Congress that fully 75 percent of elementary school graduates "cannot read independently." Good god! Seventy five percent?!? I thought we were a country with a 92% literacy rate?!? What, was everybody cheating during the entrance exams?

See what I mean by irked? Earlier this year (March) it was reported that 30 of Filipinos didn't know that having sex can result in pregnancy. Well, at least it isn't elementary students trying to have sex. God forbid they trouble themselves with trying to read the instructions on the back of a condom pack.