It’s been awhile since I wrote something not related to the Playstation Portable. Today I came across a really helpful website, ilovetocomplain.com. I think its helpful because it helps you get those things off your chest. Things you’ve been keeping about what you hate in life, work and in school. It’s actually a good site, considering the design and functionality. The website also introduces a new word called B*SH. B*SH was started to let people complain about what was on their mind on a day to day basis. (more…)

On December 2, 2006 , a huge multimedia conference will be held at the SM Mall of Asia and I will make sure I will not miss this one! This will be the first time I will be seeing creative talents from the Philippines and from the USA together in one huge event. Yes, this is huge alright!

On top of the speakers’ list is Joshua Davis, one of my huge inspirations and idol in the world of flash and graphic design. I’ve seen Joshua Davis’ works on the web ever since I was a newbie in the world of web and graphic design, and that was still 5 years ago. For those newbie designers out there who doesn’t know him, you should check out his website. Malupit ang taong to! His works are very inspiring and like a fan of great rockstars, i bow unto him. He’s like the Joe Satriani of Design. And if you don’t know Joe Satriani, he is just one guitar god.

MK12 is next on the speakers’ list. They are a team of six based on Kansas City. These guys are really good, they’re gods, when it comes to motion design. But did I say that they’re also topnotch in graphic designs? Coca-Cola, Adidas, Diesel, Levi’s, Disney, ESPN, MTV, AXN, Cartoon Network - these are just some of MK12’s past clients. I’d bow unto them like I bow on Silverstein.Well that’s not the end of the list yet. The next speakers will be the topnotch graphic artists and designers from the Philippines. Hell yeah. Joyce and Rex Advincula, collectively known as Inksurge will also be there to give us some inspiring thoughts and lessons in designing. If you are a web designer from the Philippines and you don’t know this guy, well I think you’re just one newbie and you don’t know anything yet about the world of web design in the Philippines. Inksurge designed lots of stuff we see on print and TV. They designed the cover for Sandwich and made some stuff for MTV too. Inksurge’s Rex Advincula together with Drew Europeo, who will be there to speak for the Graphika Manila conference, were founders of one of the best design portals in the world, HalfProject. In addition to that, Drew Europeo together with Jose Illenberger was the founder of Philweavers, the most famous design community in the Philippines. Drew Europeo also brought to her BlackFlood, her team and a book on black and white graphic designs by top notch graphic artists from around the globe.

Nico Puertollano, a director and a designer who is currently working on Reality Pictures and teaching design on Phoenix One will also be there to share us some inspiring design tips and tricks.

Team Manila, well I guess most of you guys know these guys, is also part of the multimedia conference. Team Manila is a collective group of great designers who started the clothing revolution Graphic Designed Lifestyle, RePublic and Ang Pambansang T-Shirt. I’ve met these guys at the Murder By Design Conference last year.

Last but not the least, is Avid Liongoren. Who is he? If you don’t know him well you are way too old or a newbie in the design world. Avid is an illustrator, designer and a commercial and video director. Have you seen Cheese’s music video of their song Mottaka? Well this guy directed it. You can see a list of his works on his online folio.

So what are you waiting for guys? Login to graphikamanila.com and get your tickets now. Why get your tickets now? Well, because I think they’re cheaper if you avail of them now than you just go walk in there. Tickets online cost 950 PhP for the Conference pass and Student pass only costs 500 PhP. Tickets will be sold on the gate for 1200 Php. So if I were you, I’d get my tickets early.

Now don’t argue about the ticket price because I’m telling you, those speakers who are attending the conference have priceless works which means if you go in there, it’s just like seeing a very huge rock concert.

I just saw this video about the Wii vs PS3 on google videos and it’s definitely funny. After seeing this one, I think I’d probably get a Wii later this year or early next year. Not that I don’t like the PlayStation but it really costs so much than I can afford. I mean if I were a brat and still living with my parents, I’d probably get it but my parents don’t support me anymore. I support myself and just found out that it’s really hard to come up with some cash.

Wii is cheaper than a Playstation 3 and that is a fact. Why would not I choose a Wii over a Playstation 3? Well first of all, the Wii brings in new experience with it’s wireless remote control. I don’t want to explain it but well, i took a couple of text from the Official Wii Site so you can read why Wii is a new experience:

To make gaming as accessible to people of all ages and all abilities, Nintendo wanted to create a controller that was as inviting as it was sophisticated. The outcome is the Wii Remote controller. Nintendo fused the familiarity of a remote control with the sophistication of motion-sensing technology to come up with an input device for the ages!

Sporting the size of a traditional remote control, the wireless Wii Remote controller is a multifunctional device that is limited only by the game designer’s imagination. In a tennis game, it serves as your racket you swing with your arm. In a driving game, it serves as your steering wheel. For first-person shooters, the remote acts as your weapon that you point at an enemy. The list of potential uses goes on and on.

Got it? So now, what would you pick if you were given a choice between a PS3 and a Wii?

The Microsoft IE team has just released Internet Explorer 7 which has been waited by a lot of people like me for a long time. IE 7 has been released in English and other languages would follow soon. I haven’t tried it out yet but it has some features like tabbed browsing which isn’t new since Firefox introduced it.

According to the IE Blog, IE 7 has more CSS improvements and a better RSS support. It has new features like shrink to fit printing and easily customizable search box.

Am I supposed to be happy or not? I have been designing the web using CSS for 2 years now and I admit that I have been using a lot of hacks on my code. What I’m worried about is those old websites that I have used hacks on. Will they still work on IE 7? For now, this is still a question to ask but I’ll find a solution for myself.

Grab the latest version of IE now.

Google just bought YouTube for 1.65 Billion dollars. That’s the biggest purchase Google has ever made for eight years. Well I think it’s really a good investment though. Google Videos doesn’t receive quite much traffic compared to YouTube which has far more visitors and users. Being the number one search engine, Google’s services are becoming vast and now conquering the web. I’d really like to be a part of Google someday.

Now can anybody tell me how I could be a part of Google?

What is stylemo? Stylemo is supposed to be my portfolio and blog site. I also have a plan to make this one a development site for templates. But I guess I don’t have enough time right now.

I was supposed to have this redesigned a month ago but due to a lot of projects coming in, I guess it does have to wait. So what other things aside from Web development and design projects makes me busy? Well, from my previous post, I’ve told the whole blogosphere about the new PSP that I bought. So what am i using it for?

Everyday I bring it with me while I’m on my way to work so I could listen to my MP3s. I’ve got a whole bunch of them. I’ve currently got System of A Down, My Chemical Romance, Tenacious D, Fingur and Dicta License on my PSP right now. When I get tired of listening to music, I switch to the photo viewer and read PSP formatted comics and magazines which I downloaded from PSPmagazines.com. I’ve got NYC2123 - Dayender issues 1 to 6 and Super Spy. I’ve got a few FHM copies too.

Well anyway, what I’m really doing right now with my PSP is that I’m playing this really good RPG that my girlfriend just gave me. It’s called Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light. It’s about a young warrior named Lance who has travelled seeking for martial training and discovers an awakened evil from the depths of history. When I first loaded the game, I was stunned at the amazing anime introduction movie. Well, I’m a fan of anime but I’m really not obsessed with it. I just happen to like anime.

What can I say about Blade Dancer? Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light is an RPG developed by Hitmaker. The overall graphics of the game is actually amazing. For me, it has better graphics than that of Final Fantasy VIII on the PSOne. The controls is a little bit not too easy. What I mean is when you go into battle, after your first party member has made his move you still have to direct the cursor to the next character. I just think that the control cursor should automatically move to the other party member. What I like about the game is the Luna Abilities which is a very Vital part of the game. It’s a special attack which you can only use when you have enough Lunar Points. You can check out the Lunar Points through the Lunar Guage which only increases when you make or receive a normal attack. The battle system is a little bit complicated at the start but once you get the hand of it, it’s easy as eating a pie. When you are exploring in a field, you can see the enemies roaming unlike in Final Fantasy VIII which you don’t see the monsters but you always get into random battles. In Blade Dancer, you can run away from enemies. It’s a good thing especially if you don’t wanna attack those monsters. What I really don’t like about the game is that you have to have many weapons because each time you use a weapon, it degrades. When you’ve used it excessively and breaks up. The weapons actually has a life meter too. You also get limited slots for the weapons and items. One more cool thing that adds to the challenge here is the side missions. There are actually a lot of missions you could do. When you get in towns, talk to all the people and they will give you good and challenging missions. The best part of it are the rewards you get from these completed missions.

What are the levels of my characters in Blade Dancer right now? My characters level averages from level 24 to level28. So where am I in the game right now? I’ve currently surpassed the scene where Goran releases the Dark Lord. I have all the characters in my party right now. The game is kinda frustrating sometimes because my weapons break fast. Well, that’s because I use them a lot. Good thing I have them appraised so that I can rebuild them again.

Well, I’m off to bed now or maybe not. Just typing these words make me grab my PSP and get into the game again. Well, when I get into the middle of the game I will blog about it again and tell you how I got there. Or maybe I should try writing a walkthrough? Nah. i don’t have time. I’m too busy. Maybe when I beat the game. If anybody out there has already beat the game, please give me some tips.

For all the cups of coffee I consumed and for all the sleepless nights I’ve spent, it finally paid off. I just bought a long-term investment for the child lurking inside of me, a brand new Sony PSP.

I spent a lot of time, choosing between a DS and a PSP. I visited a lot of gaming forums to find out the multimedia support of each and finally the decision was made final. I went for a Sony PSP even though some Sony haters out there keep on bashing this amazing company providing us with clear and crisp multimedia experience. I do not hate Nintendo nor do I love Sony, but my point here is choosing the right thing for you. And I think I have made the right decision. Sony PSP is just the thing that I have been looking for. Now I do not need to buy an iPod to have a mobile music player nor an iPod Video to have a portable video player. PSP’s got it all.

I’ve got the Asian Version of the PSP which isn’t downgradable. Why would I want to downgrade? Because in PSPs, a downgrade is like an upgrade. Downgrading your firmware to 1.5 enables you to play homebrew games but I didn’t buy a PSP to downgrade it, I bought it to have a new multimedia experience. What are homebrew games anyway? These are full games which can be played on 1.5 firmware version of PSP but sacrificing the features of higher firmware versions like browser support. And hell yeah, the PSP’s browser works better than IE. Beat that.

For the next few days, I will be busy doing a lot of experiments and downloads for my PSP but that doesn’t mean I won’t accept any projects. Of course, the projects of my clients are my priority and now that I’ve seen PSP’s browser, I might as well add it to my CSS. I better research on how to hack CSS codes for the PSP browser though. I hope someone out there can give me a hint.

I’ve been very busy recently with work that’s why I can’t even start on the web design and layout of my own site. My current company, where I’m employed right now, is giving me too many projects to deal with that I can’t even post updates here. Well anyway, I’ll be starting a design for Stylemo once I finish all my projects.

I’ve currently discovered a new Open Source CMS. It’s called Code Igniter and the latest version is 1.3.3. I’m still studying the system if I can use it for my website or not. It’s for PHP developers and programmers and I’m still on the basic level of PHP so I’d study it carefully if I can use it for future projects.

Taken from the Code Igniter Home: If you’re a developer who lives in the real world of shared hosting accounts and clients with deadlines, and if you’re tired of ponderously large and thoroughly undocumented frameworks that require rocket science to understand, Code Igniter might just be the right tool for you.

It’s been almost a week but I still haven’t started on working on Stylemo. I’m pretty pre-occupied right now. Got a lot of stuff to do at work and I can’t work at night because I don’t have a computer setup yet at the apartment.

So what’s my plan for this website?

I’m planning on making this a blog about CSS, xHTML, web accessibility, bug fixes, illustrations, photos and everything that is related to the web. At the same time I’m gonna make this an online portfolio for my past and present works. I’m recently collecting comics right now so I’m also planning on putting a section about what I’m currently reading. I’m a musician too so I’ll also reserve a section for albums or songs that I’m currently listening to. As an amateur photographer, I’ll also post some of my best hand picked photos on flickr and display them here by using a plugin. I’m currently looking for the best WP plugins so I’m hoping someone out there can suggest anything.
I’ve only got little time but I’m not rushing this one. I want this site to be perfect and work smoothly.

So to start with, what am I reading right now? Well I’m enjoying the beautiful pages Civil War #3. Hail to Steve McNiven!

I’m really excited to redesign this site. Too bad I’ve got too many tasks to be done at work. Yep, I’m busy all right - too busy that I can’t even watch TV anymore. I actually don’t have a workstation right now but I know a lot of people who would let me use their PCs. I’m kinda like a parasite right now but I’m looking forward to buy my own PC. I’m still deciding on what to choose between a laptop and a desktop. I want a desktop because it’s extremely upgradable and much faster but I’m a mobile kind of guy. I like to go places and I don’t usually stay in one place. My life seems exciting but it’s not. This is the life of a designer. Always looking for clients and more projects - which explains the reason why I can’t redesign my own site because I’m working on the site of others. Why? The reason is simple. Designing is my life and it’s my job.