tentang Banner

was bored so i made a banner for some thing friends wanted to work on

i like it but i dont know it it really look good :P

it does look like a banner right? heh

tentang Phantasy Core - malaysian digital art comp!

i just found out abt this today (via pergh.com forum) and i have to say.. i am truly psyched up abt it! excited and right now i really wanna join the competition!

so ok.. what is it?
kind of similar to Dominance War (which is also going to kick off in a few weeks if im not mistaken) but organized in malaysia. so maybe there'll be more local talents participating. and the prizes are in RM so.. yeah. the competition is open to anyone around the world but by the looks of it, i think it might not be so appealing to most people.. and the site's English isn't actually proper too :P

but anyway,

there'll be 2 categories, 2D and 3D art. participant may not use the same design in both categories. ima join the 3D category.

so in 3D (im not interested in 2D so i wont talk bout that one :P), basically anything goes except for 10k tri count total (that means everything total up to 10k tris max), no mecha. hmm what else. i suggest anyone interested to quickly read their guidelines and stuff at their page (link) because it has already started and there's not much time left to start doing what we need to do to qualify.

Submission Date

15^th October 2010

Closing Date

15^th December 2010

i assume submission date is actually start of competition, and closing date is, well, closing date.
so again, more details can be found here.

tentang For Animators

doing animation can be a very tedious, frustrating and painfully detailed work. and often animators burn out.

so if there's animators out there looking for some inspiration and motivation to keep going, i do hope this Epic Mickey video about their animation work. enjoy ya!

tentang My Scott Pilgrim Avatar Fun

saw this link at baliomegatron's twitter.. i cant help myself. just felt i had to make one too! lol

mine sucks but did not want to go overboard with it :P

make yours!

tentang Types of Banners According to Me

this entry is actually a part from my weekly 100penulis.com post. this week, i just wanted to rant about the important things we should think about when designing a banner. the entry was getting a little too long so i decided to take this part out and post it here. but it still managed to be a long post lol.

you can read the post at 100penulis.com

*** 

(cont'd)

like i mentioned at the main entry, there are many kinds of banners that we use as our headers. but to make things seem simple (:P) i group them up into 5 main groups. text banners, minimalist banners, photo banners, corporate banners and advanced banners

text  - a simple design indeed for a header banner. only text and not much styling but still can look good. check out these blogs' banners - farhanfirdaus.com, sophiesm.com
if u decide to make a this type of banner, do know which fonts you should avoid (ie. Comic Sans. avoid that one pls)

minimalist  - minimalist is a style of their own (and i really love btw). it is a style that has lots of negative space (empty space). examples - emilayusof.com, ariffshah.com

photo  - probably the most common (and recommended). choose an image as background, and put text on top.

corporate  - some blogs go for a clean design.. and a very professional look. a good look to choose but somehow, i don't have no idea why, these kinds of blogs love to put wayyyyyy to many ads on their site. which i despise! :P

advanced banners  - these advance banners are probably made by a proper web designer. and the better ones are those that doesn't take much time (and data downloads) to load. if you're interested to make these kinds of banners and you have no web-authoring experience, it might take some time. i suggest you pay someone to design it for you :D

song : Green Day - 21 Guns (Cast Version)

i just found out green day has a musical version of american idiot called American Idiot on Broadway. hum.. interesting idea. lol.

i am not a die hard fan of green day. but i always loved their lyrics and some of their songs are still in my playlist. i remember this first time i listened to green day was back when i was a little kid and my eldest brother left a green day cassette in the hi-fi and thought it listen to it and maybe it'll make me a cool kid. lol

but anyway, this version of the song 21 Guns by the casts of the musical. love it. still as intense but with a lot more different emotions.. because of all the different people singin i guess.

tentang Working on Doing Nothing

it is hard not to be able to do anything much. not to make much noise or disturb anyone. and not to fall asleep!
today i had to sit at this exam hall for two hours.

i planned to read so i brought a mario puzo with me and started reading. 30 mins in and the quiet room starts to look a little fuzzy. the air feels so comfortable and i realize i am nearing that state where i might fall asleep. so i started doing something else.. i started writing.

planned some entries for this blog. wrote for the whole time as if i was the one taking the exam.

heh pretending to be morino ibiki is kinda interesting. fun almost. lol!

tentang Being Critical

im wondering if being critical is really a negative, positive or just neutral quality.

in blogging, i find often bloggers are more inclined to criticize something than being critical about it. which to me becomes more of a form of trolling and flaming than just a harmless critique. these things happens too often in the blogosphere

if i have not mentioned this before, i try to avoid posting negative things and negative emotions and, well, most things that cause negativity to spread. the only thing  i can think of, right now, that contains the word 'negative' that is a good thing is the negative space in design. that's a positive negative

so i googled up the word 'critical' before writing this post (to make sure im not too wrong, if i am). since uni, after learning what a critical review is, i always thought of 'critical' as an honourable word that is always misunderstood. and i found this

then i googled up ' criticize'

so turns out, 'criticize' and 'critical' is not necessarily a negative word. but often it is used to imply negativity. hence, im guessing, the reason why online trolls think they are criticising but the fact is they are just being another troll trolling.. no matter how smart they make themselves sound. sophists (lol a word i just learn the meaning of here) trolls.

perhaps to properly be critical, one must be able to (and understand how to) think critically. which is, really, to understand the topic, be neutral, and comment on both the good and the bad. owh.. and see the issue from different perspectives.

lol im being a smartass again!

song : My Chemical Romance - 'Na Na Na'

was browsing youtube when i found this vid. apparently the official music video (the vid 2nd vid below) was released a few days ago (the 14th) and the album will be out Nov 22nd 2010. it is not out yet. cool. i used to love their music because of the energy and the lyrics. i dont mind the emo image and the crap those 'real' emo kids say about them. i just love the music ^^

this song is a lot less emo i think. a little funky and a lot rock!

My Chemical Romance 'Na Na Na' official music video


My Chemical Romance 'Na Na Na' lyric video


i actually really love the lyric video. awesomely simple. yes it's just a lyric video but is made in a very cool way. the official music video is interesting. heh. i dig it but i think some people would go 'wtf?!'.

this song does, however, remind me of this australian banana commercial


lol

tentang Formspring Form on Sidebar

what is this formspring thingy? honestly i have no idea. its like twitter but less famous and specified for people to ask me questions. not that you can't ask questions on twitter lol.

anyway i decided to give it a go and see if it really can make a difference. the good thing about it (in my situation that is) is formspring isn't as saturated as twitter and i feel no obligation to 'add friends' there since i intend to make it as a medium for anyone to ask me questions and simply answer them. not for IMs or tweets or whatever. it is somehow convenient to me

so anyway, now everyone and anyone (yes anonymous is allowed but i honestly prefer to know who's asking) may ask me anything. simple questions, opinions, help, design tips, etc. i will try to asnwer all of them unless the question is inappropriate. please don't be shy about it

it is really a simple step. type in your question in the box at the formspring widget on the right sidebar and click 'send'. done! i'll answer the question when i get it. no i don't have any fancy iphone or blackberry so i dont get notifications ASAP. but i do check my email frequently.

so again, everyone is welcome to ask ^^

tentang The Previous Week

oh now it's weekend again. i kinda hope i can be more productive during weekends. have been too comfortable with the concept of weekends as two days of rest. hope i can really change that someday :P

but anyway, last week have been kinda busy. lots of things to do but got it done so im good. just that i did not manage to post much stuff on this blog. just a few crap but at least there's something.

so last week, i had to write up a special weekend entry for 100penulis.com for sunday. i wrote the post on saturday, then scheduled it for 8.00am sunday , malaysia time. the post was about our addictions and what addictions that we have. more like a rant really. i ended it with the question 'what is your addiction?' hoping that it will spark a series of comments. it did, sort of. it was OK.

then on sunday i wrote another post for 100penulis.com. this time is is for my weekly slot on monday. so i wrote my 'kongsi knowledge' segment and this time it was about composing photos with reflection. fished out the few reflection pics from the photo album (found only 2! >_<) and wrote some things while trying to keep it simple. again, wrote it quickly, scheduled it for 2.00am (@_@ btw!) monday malaysia time

on monday we cleaned up the house a bit. we had our quarterly house inspection on tuesday. it was such a hassle though we did not really have to clean up much. the house wasn't in a mess really. the only hard thing we had to do was to clean up the backyard. a rather small area but since the rain came and went, and with all the sun the week before, the grass managed to grow exceptionally fast it seems.

wednesday is work day.. until thursday. but on wednesday i managed to stole some time and work on my animation's storyboard. (checklist.. most pre production work is done except for the detailed storyboard, animatic, and maybe sound recording). though i only managed to draw 6 frames, but it's 1/3 of the way. so that's good

friday we went to the city and did some shopping and had lunch in the city. nasi ayam hainan was dreadful and my wife had singapore fried noodle which was also very very oily but it's a nice small halal place on rundle mall and it's not too expensive so im not gonna complain much :P. we bought all the groceries and a really cool baking book. we plan to try one of the recipes (that involves baking the cake, decorating with fondant and some cute flowers) this weekend ^^. i have a feeling that my wife will end up doing more work than me :P

oh im glad last week went well. now i really hope that i can finish the storyboard this week and start the modeling process before next weekend! yoshhh!

tentang SD9599

it looks like some code right? just means Sains Dungun 1995 - 1999.. the year and school we went to. i was asked to write the 'about us' section for our website so i decided to post it here.. and since i spend a lot of time admiring my own blog (lol), this also acts as a reminder so that i won't forget about this little thing im supposed to do

anyhow.. here goes..

***

about us

SD9599

We are a family, a community, a group of very close friends.


(school logo)From the year 1995 till 1999, we attended the boarding school in Dungun,Terengganu called Sekolah Menengah Sains Dungun (Dungun Secondary School of Science). Some of us stayed starting the first day of school until the last day of being a fifth former; some joined us later, some left us early; nevertheless, we all belong here and we are SD9599.

Spending all those years together in a boarding school means a lot to us all. We share stories, experiences and life lessons. We share victories, failures and all those silly little quarrels in between. We share secrets and we cherish every single memory of our friendship.

Now we have gone our separate ways and carried on with our lives. We have grown up and no longer the children we once were back in 1999. SD9599 will be the foundation of our future as we grow up and wise up with hope that it will be a future worth living for us, our children and our children's children.

This family, this community, this group of friends, this is sd9599

***

oh done! that was quick. hope the webmaster will like it and not ask too much amendments XD

tentang Reminder For Online Shoppers

blogwalking today i found ajjah's entry about her recent problem with her purchases she made online. i think it is a very good thing to be aware of and shared with others

on her blog she wrote of how this so called 'distribution' company people managed to get hold of the things she bought from overseas while it was at the customs'. and how they tried to scam her to pay more money for the taxes (that she was expecting to pay anyway).

so do read her whole experience here


i do hope people won't be scared off from buying things online. it is enough problems about people falsely advertising things and scamming online to get hold of ur credit card number, now this. i do hate scammers. and they think they can't be caught.

thanks to ajjah for sharing the info.


and an entry by editor d_tieah at 100penulis.com about her experience being scammed can be read here (link).


maybe in the future, we'll be better prepared to deal with these people if they targeted us. and maybe make them stop doing these things and realize 'hey people are harder to get scammed' and hopefully they'll stop trying to >_<

song : Somewhere Only We Know

just an old song that i haven't listened to for a while. love the emotion in this song. hopefully no new singers will remix this song and mess it up.



edit: because the vid i posted isn't full, i started searching for another video of this song. then i found an 'alternate' version. a different music video. nice!



edit: another song by keane is 'everybody's changing' (thanks cEro) which was the music for TM's re-branding campaign advertisements few years back

tentang Busy Start for a New Week

actually not too busy.

like i mentioned before, i joined this blog community called 100penulis.com. i am enjoying the friends there, writing there, commenting and be able to read someone comment before and after me. it is really picking up momentum IMHO

every weekend they'll give an opportunity to a few of us editors to have our entries posted for the whole day. yes, in a way, there'll be less entries during the weekend but the entry will have more attention than ususal.

and this sunday, as it turns out, will be my turn

i am freaking out a bit tho.. because on monday, which is the next day, my weekly post will be due. and to make it even more challenging, the deadline is at 2.00am malaysia time @_@ which is at 4.30am here. i need to schedule this one



ok better get organized and start writing ASAP. schedule the posts and done!


heh now all i need is an idea what to write. ideas anyone? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee................

tentang 100 Followers

this blog finally reached a milestone few days ago when i finally get 100 followers. lol 'follower' sounds like this is some cult XDXD

anyway, i am pleased to announce my 100th follower
author of blog 'Aku Bukan Cinderella' (i'm no cinderella), blogger CikGadis

thank you and congratulations! i did not announce this before because i just decided.. CikGadis will get a permanent link to her blog on my sidebar (with banner!). i know its not much :P but i'll make it pretty because it is a prize after all.

so again, thank you CikGadis for being the 100th follower and congratulations ^^

song : Estranged - 'Itu Kamu'

ima share one of the few malaysian songs i love and still have in my playlist even after a few years. it's a song called 'Itu Kamu' (That's You) by a local group (the frontman is AF's Rich if im not mistaken) Estranged

and the music video is actually very good too.. love it! it kinda have almost the same feel with videos made by Ghaz (maggis production).. but with less contrast. and definitely not like most malaysian music videos.. which tend to either look like a karaoke video or a someone's vacation video XD

but anyway, enjoy!





yeah i dont think this vid got the song title translated nicely. i would translate it to either That's You or It's You :P sounds a lot nicer but yeah what do i know i'm just a blogger. heh

For The Hundred

kawasan rakyat 100p bergelimpangan

..mari kita melepak!

(this page is for editors of 100penulis. let us lepak!)

find out more about or visit 100penulis.com

tentang A Nice Little Blogosphere Family

yeah well a family of 100 is not too little eh?

this little family im talking about is actually a group of bloggers who have banded together and write on 100penulis.com. we don't come from the same school, we are not the same age and not all us are interested in the same thing. we are completely different, some of us don't even live in the same country.

so naturally, being so different, everyone writes about things they like.. and because there's 100 of us, the topic varies from simple girly tips to heavy political issues. some , like me, like to write about design.. and others like to write about their travels and experiences. what im trying to say is there are lots of things to read.. and quite a lot of them very interesting. i know its almost impossible to love and read every one of them (because there are simply too many) but almost is not definite.

new posts are scheduled around every 3 hours. so, if you visit 100penulis.com once a week, there's bound to be something interesting. hey if you visit once a day there might be something you might like. and if you like the writings of one 'editor' (thats what we call ourselves), click on their names and read more posts made by them. each editor will write once a week, so if you pay a visit the same day next week, you can read his new posts. my turn is on every monday :D

100penulis.com is not like most blogs out there. we blog because we love to. we are passionate enough in blogging to accept a responsibility and be committed to it.

^^

tentang Come Bring Your Kids to New Upin Ipin TV Show Audition

last tuesday on their blog, les'copaque production made a post about their Hari Raya Bersama Kelab Upin dan Ipin which will take place this weekend!

though the event is especially for Kelab Upin dan Ipin members, non-members are invited as well. and can register to be a member of the club during the open house. but thats optional i think (i might be wrong but i believe people should be able join the fun without being a member.. it's raya anyway)

there will be fun activities including the debut of new mascots Mail and Ehsan. and.... there will be an open audition session for kids 7 - 13 years old. the audition is for their up and coming new Kelab Upin dan Ipin tv show which is expected to hit the tv next year on TV9. i'm guessing... saturday morning?

here's the promo video. pretty cute




anyway, some details :
the audition will start at 10am-5pm, 2/10/2010 and 3/10/2010 (sat, sun)
the Hari Raya event is at 2pm-6pm, 2/10/2010 (sat)

more details available here (les'copaque blog).
take note about payment details there.
and just in case.. click here for the map to get there

be there! ^^