Lamp that Light our Hearts

I really like lights and lamps. What’s so special about it?

Well, when I was young we used to live in the province before moving here in the city.  Life is much simpler there. No busy streets, fast cars and glittering tall buildings. The night is peaceful, filled with silence and darkness with some lamps and candles to brighten up our home.

I would always play with the candles as I wait for my father to go home from work.  When he arrives, he would then gather me and my siblings and tell us stories while we circle around the lamp and listen attentively. As the light slowly dim, he would tuck us to bed and kiss us goodnight.

Sweet memories…

Last Saturday, we just moved into our new house. It is a much bigger and more comfortable  than our old house. Today, I shopped for some silverware and checked out some lighting for my new room.

I saw a table lamp in the Lincoln Collection from the house of troy lighting, a majestic lamp from the Midsummer Night Dream collection by the fine art lamps.  And I said to myself, “I got to have that one!” But then there was this 20 light sleek chandelier from the george kovacs lighting which is also very nice, I know it would match our dining table. So, while making a decision on what to choose, I talked to a service crew and asked about the products. I said, I was looking for a cheap lamp I can put in my room that will satisfy my taste. He showed me a 5 light chandelier from Delavan Collection by kichler lighting. I’m very much satisfied with it. It’s stylish, simple, durable and cheap.

If  I will pass my father’s tradition telling stories to my grand children, (if I will ever had), they will no longer circle around the dimming light of the candle. Instead we will be lighted with this beautiful lamp I got. And I will promise them, I will tell them stories that will be the lamp that will light their hearts.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

The first practical automobile was designed by the German Mechanical Engineer Karl Benz , and by Henry Ford for his invention of car transmission mechanisms and make improvements for the assembly line of automobile manufacturing. Since then cars and automobile has been widely distributed all over the world catching the attention of people who want to have the best of what the car industry can give. How can we ever imagine that the technology about cars started with the desire of man to create a  vehicle no longer pulled by animals but by the use of the knowledge on physics and energy. The first theoritical plans of a motor vehicle was first conceptualized and put into drawings by two geniuses, Da Vinci and Newton.

However it was in 1769 when the first self-propelled road vehicle was invented for militiray use by French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas

1771 crash of Nicolas Joseph Cugnot's steam-powered car into a stone wall

Joseph Cugnot (1725 – 1804). Steam has been source of energy before to power locomotive rail vehicles like train, and this gave him the idea to use steam engines for road vehicle. However, his experiments ended having no more sufficient funds to pursue. This is the oldest recorded history of self propelled automobiles.

From then on, many inventions and improvements followed for self propelled road vehicles, showing the timeline of the long history of automobiles .

Road vehicles nowadays are not steam powered but gas powered. Steam engines are so heavy that it does not fit road vehicles. That is the reason why the gasoline is the more practical source of energy for road vehicles when gas powered engine has been invented and improved by either Damlier or Benz who invented with highly successful and practical automobiles, that ushered the age of modern automobiles. It is from their invention that our modern day cars are designed or patterned.

Today, with so many brands of cars and automobiles distributed on the market, it gives a wide variety to every car buyers. You will be surprised that almost everyday, you can see a brand new car, with new designs and capabilities running on the road from different car companies.

This is the reason why car reviews become so helpful for new car buyers to have at least the glimpse of what cars and automobiles they want.It would be wise for a first time buyer to seek reviews about a particular product so that he will be guided of the facts about any cars  he wants, be it lexus, or gmc car models, scion xd, or any car models distributed in the market.

Because of environmental issues, there has been a world wide campaign from environmentalist to choose cars and road vehicles that would not mean so much destruction to our Ozone layer. They are always raising the issue about this earth should be preserved, and man should be thoughtful on what possibly can destroy or pollute the environment. So, environmentalist are now seeking for road vehicles that are more environment friendly. So, they are looking for another source of energy that can run road vehicles, and maybe their dream has come to life. Watch this.

Mail, Mail, Mail!

Mr. Post Man is a popular song created by the Beetles during the 1960, and revived by Karen Carpenter during her career as a popular American singer. The story of the song speaks about a lover too much expectant of any letter from her loved one. It speaks about mail, mail, mail!

Benjamin Franklin (first Post Master General 1775)

Historically speaking, the first post office on America was established during 1639, in the house of Mr. Richard Fairbanks. Then the first “pony express” started during 1673, from Boston to New York, eventhough, this kind of mail sending service has been short lived. One of the interesting fact about mail, it was Benjamin Franklin, who became famous on his kite and lightning experiment became the first appointed Post Master General during 1775.

Now, the issue about mail sending changed when there are so many people sending mails to their loved ones. Therefore they have to create systems that would prevent the miscarriage of mail or to ensure that mails are being sent to their loved ones. To prevent this, zipped codes has been applied to mails wherein mails will be separated by region or by areas then delivered to the sendee where the mail is addressed.

mail box

Another interesting thing happened when people started sending mails to their loved ones. Mail innovations has been incorporated through mail boxes to make sure that when the post man drop by, he can just easily put the mail on the mail box of the sendee. So, even if the sendee is not awake when his most awaited mail arrived, he could just easily picked it up on his mailbox. These mailboxes have bin a big help to both the post man and to the addressee of the mail. And even during this modern days, mail boxes are still distributed for home use. You can still see homes having their mailboxes attached in front of their houses to make sure that the post man will put their mail on the right place and not misplace it.

The concept about mail only changed during this modern days. Today, when we speak about mail, we might be referring to the mail from the post office or the mail sent through the internet through any online mail services like google and yahoo. But still, google and yahoo have to adapt the term what has been previously used. That is why, when you receive a mail, online, they created a system where your mail will go to your “inbox” or “mail box”, the same term used for actual mails sent from post office to residential mail boxes.

Anime Studio Debut Release

Anime Studio 6 Interface

This surprised me when I browsed the internet about Anime Studio. I found out that Anime Studio is now available in version 6 with its new shining interface that looks like flash. There are additional functionalities added to this software that will really help digital animators speed up animation including  motion tracking, built-in lip-synching, vector-based drawing tools, bone-rigging and importation of scanned images. With the previous version, the Anime Studio 5.6, lip syncing should be aided by another lip syncing software  which is the Papagayo. It is a good idea to stuff lipsyncing with the Anime Studio package so that Anime Studio 6 users don’t have to work to two softwares during lip syncing of characters (built in lip syncing tools is also available in Toon Boom). See the detailed additional features of Anime Studio:

Anime Studio Pro 6

Additional features include:

• Scatter Brush, which allows painting with vectors while controlling the size and spacing of each individual object to create seemingly random fills such as grass, bubbles or stars.
• Scripting with LUA 5.1, providing more power to create unique tools and plug-ins.
• Auto Shading, which creates realistic shading based on lines and object contrast within each layer creating stylistic 3D effects.
• Create, save and blend morph targets to combine character expressions and emotions. Save and reuse previous poses and character positions.
• Easily adjust the timing and synchronization of audio and video tracks by utilizing the simple timeline. Mix and match audio, video, images and animated components to create digital shorts and animations
• HD video support and professional output.

I have been using Anime Studio since its Moho days and using this software encouraged me to study the principles of animation. I can say that I am not yet an expert in animation, but Anime Studio helped me a lot in understanding so many things about it. What convinced me to believe that Animation Studio is such a powerful software? Actually, it is the Greykid Studios, who happened to produce amazing works using Anime Studio. They even posted some of their wors on youtube gathering a lot of views on yutube because of their wonderful skill in using the Anime Studio software.

As the current company distributing Anime Studio improve the capability of the software, they are making Anime Studio step forward to compete popular animation packages like Adobe Flash and Toon Boom. What is great about Anime Studio, you can produce animation that can compete with popular animation software without sacrificing the quality of your work. Now according to the information I have gathered, Anime Studio Pro 6 is available at the suggested retail price of $199.99, with upgrades available from $129.99. The software can be ordered direct from Smith Micro at , and from software outlets.

Source: http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/10147

Desperado

I have been listening to the song Desperado and it is an emotionally rendered song. The song started with the harmonica playing, then the first stanza followed beautifully sung by Karen Carpenter (This song was originally created by the Eagles) . The title of the song is but short, depicting something which may not be good, if we will get the definition of the word “desperado” literally. Desperado is a Spanish word which means an outlaw or maybe a desperate criminal in English. But I cannot see anything in the song that somehow relate to any shocking stories about a person killing someone or a person doing any acts that cost lives. The song is about a very lonely person, trying to live all alone in his life. It is a story of someone who seems to have no bonding to anyone at all. And the message of the song? It is really very sad to be alone, and something is really needed to live happy in your life. Why, sometimes, man, even if he is not a criminal, live in this world like he is a real desperado? The explanation is because he is trying to withdraw himself from others. He is treating himself to something which he thinks to be independent to anyone, seeking no advice from others. Man cannot be all alone by himself in this world. And individual is always a part of a larger group of people and interaction is but unavoidable.

Richard and Karen Carpenter

Let us have some sort of explanation about this. There is a certain man from Australia who earned a lot and decided to make a property investment. He is a man of diligence and earned everything all from his hardwork. However, it is his first time to make an investment and he knows nothing about this. Would it be nice if he will be acting like a desperado and do what he wants without taking into consideration asking help from others for  property investments advice? It is but a desperado to shoot your arrows in an open air without any target at all. If you want to invest in Australia, then consider talking to people who has knowledge about property investing  Australia to be acquainted with the procedures and have a glimpse of an investment guide. If you worked hard for that money and you should not just gamble with the chances. You may ask, why is it important to consider making a property investment? That’s a good question and the answer would be, it is better to invest on something that has tangible proofs of your investment. In this case seeking help from others does not bring dishonor to you. We live in a global community and if one race extend their help to the other race, it is going to be a wonderful world. If a person opened his gate and let others help him, that will be more fulfilling than having no help at all.  As Karen Carpenter sung,

“Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses,
Come down from your fences- open the gates.
It may be rainin, but there’s a rainbow above you.
You’d better let somebody love you,
LET SOMEBODY LOVE YOU.
You’d better let somebody love you,
before it’s too late.“

In This World of Perils

We can see with our very eyes how the world has always been in threat from so many things that post dangers to the human population. Sometimes, it seems that the world is never safe for us. We are not even sure if in the next few hours, tomorrow, on the coming weeks, months or years we are still living in this world with a smile in our face. Do I sound scary? I don’t think so! I am 27 years old and I was born in 1982 when President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. More or less, I have a personal experience of what the word “insecurity” means. Our English teacher once asked our class when I was on college:

-“What is the most evident sign of insecurity?” My teacher said.

-”Security guard, ma’am!” I said.

The class burst in laughter. My answer could be a joke, but in some extent, that could also be a sound and logical answer. I did not defend my answer then and thought of it as one of my humorous experiences.

Later I realized, the world is really changing everyday to something that is turning to be a horrendous place for us. Obviously,  when we do not feel safe in our home or sometimes, in order to protect our properties, we even hire security guards. What compels us to do so? Nothing, but the news about killings everywhere, rumors of wars, theft and heinous crimes more than what man can ever imagine. I heard my grandpa telling me his experiences and then suddenly commented, “The world is a dangerous place. When I was young, man would kill because of a cent. Not now! Man turned so evil that he would kill just because someone threw a dirty look on him.” I heard of someone stubbed to death when he threw a dirty look on someone. What a mess to lose a human heart and kill just because of a look.

Most of the time, when we are far from home, we always say, “There’s no place like home.” It is indeed true. Man has an attachment to the place where he lives. That is the reason why he can’t just easily leave a place no matter what. Home offers man a sort of security. You can hear lovers say, “I found a home in you.” That means, that person to whom he or she refers the words make him feel safe. The same thing when we talk about the place we live. We put locks on doors and windows to make it sure that when we stay there, we will be safe. However, it is not the case most of the time. I do not know if you have heard of the famous cartoon character Lupin III , whom, of all the skills he can learn, he learned the art of stealing.

"I stole this red coat from the house few blocks away!"

He can break in into someone’s properties without being caught. Clever! And that is what we should always think of. Our concern about robbers and thieves is not only our properties. Criminals are criminals and you will not know what the devil can provoke them to do. So, it is the question of keeping our home safe.

We will be glad that technology has been so useful in dealing with the problems about thieves and robbers who are trying to destroy the “security” we feel in our home and properties.

"Mi mi mi mi mi!" The cat snores.

How can we sleep well during nights when we feel that tomorrow our children will see us bloody dead on the floor. Home security is essential to have a happy life, to sleep well during night and to free ourselves from worries of someone wicked breaking in.

"Boss! Boss!Thieves! Thieves! Put me down, will yah?!" The car said.

Those who love their car, do something for their car. What did they do do? They put alarm system on their car, so that anyone who will touch it will be electrocuted to death (joke). I mean, so that the car will make a sort of noise or signal that may tell or inform the owner that someone is trying to steal the car.

"Girls, someone is breaking in. Move! Move! Move!"

And that is not only available for cars.

With the help of technology also, houses can be installed with some sort of Home security systems that will help  protect our residence from robbers. It provides a home security surveillance system that will help the residents and house owners discover any signs or attempts of robbery or break in. What gave me this idea about home security system? I watched the 1995 movie “So Close” and it is an ephipany for me, “Danger can also be in our very home, and we have to do something before we can see how it can be true.”

W

CDE Boys Big Bike

CDE Boys again assigned me a customization game project in flash. They told me that I should create a big bike game. First part of the game is a to assemble the parts of the bike and the second part of the game is the customization part (which is what usually CDE Boys offers). What I did, I collected pictures of big bikes from the internet and did make a research which bike will suit for this project. The CDE Boys assistant artist told me that I should choose an angle wherein I can view most of the parts of the bike, and I believe that is a sound idea. So, when I have decided about the angle of the bike, I started working on with it and this is the finish product. Click here to see the preview of the working version of the game.

CDE BOYS BIG BIKE

Relax, relax!

JAW EXERCISE.

We live in this world not only to work, and work, and work. Maybe those workaholics do because they treat work as their vacation. Sometimes, we need a portion of our life  to relax and enjoy. It’s a day when we shall be freeing ourselves from worries and escape from the stressful office premises, intimidating co-workers and a terror boss (just joking). I can say, that we spend most of our hours in front of our computers, meeting deadlines, checking our schedules and similar stuff.

BRAND NEW PILLOW MADE OF LAPTOP

Well, there is no bad thing about being diligent. One of the good virtue in man is his diligence. It is not good to be an idle person. We should always think on how we can make our life productive and successful, by treating each day of our life as if it is our last day so that we can live and enjoy life to the fullest.

We should also be the same with our work attitude. Passion is the key. We need to have passion in in what we do  in order to become the best of what we are.

However, sometimes, we need some relief from the pressures we suffer everyday in our work.  We need a time to unload and that is when the issue about “relaxation” and “vacation” arise. We live in a mortal body, and the mortal body we have, as nature dictates needs some sort of relaxation.

I am so thankful, some couple of weeks ago, we went to the Myrtle Beach Resorts. It has been a very enjoying and refreshing experience. We traveled for about two hours in order to get there. We left home at four in the afternoon and was able to get there about 7 in the evening. A place to stay has never been a problem. My friend informed me that we can check in to the Myrtle Beach Hotels and we stayed there for two days.  Day one, we enjoyed the night eating pasta at the  Myrtle Beach Resorts. I really love Italian food and I treasure it like gold (joke).  After that, we set a bonfire by the seaside and enjoyed gazing into the stars. It is a great evening. We have shared both our lonely and happy memories together. I could say, it is a sort of bonding to the members of our group indeed.

BONDING 007

Then the next day, our group walked together on the seaside and enjoyed swimming.Funny to say, one of our tough guys Anthony cannot swim.

"I don't trust life guards."

So, he chose to stay on the shallow areas of the water scared of being drowned. Anthony is a workaholic type of person, and most of the time I can see him so busy with so many tasks and deadlines he needs to submit. At least, even if he cannot swim, he enjoyed the company of having at least one day to reassess his goals and unload himself  from the pressures of our work, in this beach, STRESS FREE. What a EUPHORIA!

They are burrying me in the sand! Help!

ANIMAHENASYON 2009: 3rd Pinoy Animation Festival

The Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) is calling all budding and professional animators from across the country to participate and submit their animated works to Animahenasyon 2009: 3^rd Pinoy Animation Festival, as it formally opens and accepts entries to this year’s festival. Entry forms may be downloaded from the ACPI web site at <http://www.animationcouncil.org>. The deadline for submission of entries is on September 15. Animahenasyon 2009 will be held from November 25 to 28 at the Gateway Mall Araneta Center.

In an effort to build an audience, awareness and development of original contents, ACPI puts together its flagship project through an annual animation festival called Animahenasyon that showcases original animated works of both aspiring and professional animators in the country through a competition.

The festival is composed of the professional and the student/amateur divisions that will have different running time categories: 1 to 5 minutes; 6 to 20 minutes, 21 to 60 minutes, and the full-animated feature (more than 60 minutes). There are also categories for music video, title sequence, public information, demo reel, and TV series. There will also be animated works in exhibition (full-length, special citation, and past Animahenasyon winners).

Last year’s grand prize winner of Animahenasyon is Love and Marriage, a jab at the folly of racial prejudice in marriage, as seen through the eyes of its Chinese-Filipino filmmaker Kenny Lynn Tai. Love and Marriage is a narrative musical cartoon that relates the story of Chinese-Filipino interracial marriage, and a comic take on this long-standing issue in the Chinese society captured in 7.5 minutes. Tai is graduated from De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde with a degree in Multimedia Arts, and is now a freelance animator.

This year’s Animahenasyon will feature a global animation forum where delegates from the continents of North America, Latin America, Canada, Australia and the Asia-Pacific will come to the country and showcase the latest trends and best practices from their respective countries in the field of animation, game development and the digital creative industry in general.

These foreign representatives will present the current state/condition of their industry and feature sample contents from their country. These delegates will also bring with them a group of people for possible business matching in the Philippines. The global animation forum shall provide a venue for exchange among animators, producers, industry supporters, and possible business opportunities

Animahenasyon 2009 will also include an investors’ forum where business seminars would be held in conjunction with business meetings. The forum will cover content sales and distribution, outsourcing, co-production, financing and even for education partnerships. This assumes a full day, divided into six sessions of 60 minutes each for presentation with an open forum. This component of Animahenasyon shall help set direction for the development of the animation industry.

Also part of Animahenasyon 2009 is the animation master classes/ workshops, and exhibit of works of this year’s lifetime achievement awardee Jose Zabala Santos, nephew of renowned artist Nonoy Marcelo.

Animahenasyon serves as a venue for Filipino animators to present their world-class ideas, and opens doors of opportunities for them to meet with and be inspired by the finest names in the industry. It also aims to create greater awareness of the Philippine animation industry and its contributions to the global entertainment business, while tapping locally produced content for promotion in animation markets here and abroad.

ACPI’s vision is to make Philippines as the prime provider of animation and content creation services to the global marketplace. On the other hand, ACPI’s mission is to be the center of excellence for animation and content creation services through building more efficient and effective collaborative business practices that will elevate the country’s economy and culture.

As an organized body, ACPI aims to promote the Filipino talent both locally and internationally. With the cooperation of its members as well as the Philippine government, it is envisioned that the member studios and schools will be considered competitive both creatively and technologically.

ACPI is a non-stock and non-profit organization whose member companies specialize mainly in, but not limited to, 2D, Flash or 3D animation. It aims to promote the animation industry globally with the intention of creating an identity for the Philippines to be considered amongst the preferred countries that service the animation industry.

For more information about Animahenasyon 2009, please call 483-9501, 8172727 local 108 or email the secretariat at animationcouncil@gmail.com, or visit www.animationcouncil.org.

Man’s Best Friend as Others Say

There are many movies, cartoon series, and shows that features dogs. It  only shows that dogs have been the subject of entertainment for long long years and they make us smile, more so, when we see them do the acting like humans do. Dog is a domestic animal. By definition, a domestic animal is:

“domestic animal: a domestic carnivorous animal with a long muzzle, a fur coat, and a long fur-covered tail, whose characteristic call is a bark.” (Microsoft® Encarta® 2008. )

Now based on the historical dictionary of words, which presents the etymology of the word, the  word dog came from the Middle English word dogge, from the Old English word, dogca “powerful dog breed” . So more or less, the modern  word dog is of historical origin with minimal change in form.

Now, people say that dog is man’s best friend. That may not be absolutely true, but I consider it valid. Remember the cartoon My Patrash wherein the dog Patrash has been the friend of the poor and talented boy artist. They lived the life of friendship and died together one winter night because of the freezing temperature. A great story indeed. I also remember Lassie, a dog that is a star since 1957 famous of Lassies’s heroic acts, and came into Holly Wood by the year 2005.

Lassie: I swear, I do not pee just anywhere!

Now, we may domesticate dogs for different reasons, to guard our houses or to have a pet for the family. Choosing breed of dogs for pet depends on people’s need. There are dogs used by the FBI to sniff bombs on the airport. It is really a tough dog huh. Or others get their dogs to be groomed and let their dogs join competitions.

Dog: HEY MISS! Pay attention to what you are doing you might cut my EARS!

There are  dogs for sale all over the world, and you can get the best of what you want with so many breeds to choose from. Other people choose cute dogs like the Pugaliers willing to pay for puppies and pugaliers for sale  to domesticate them as pets. It also makes me laugh whenever I see people dressing and grooming their dogs as if they were humans. If there are parlors for people, then dogs also have dogs grooming services wherein they could be groomed and dressed like humans. Ha ha ha! I just don’t know how dogs feel when they are treated like dolls. Anyway, they are pets, and sometimes pets should be treated with love. Amor con amor se paga!

Dog: Ssssssh. Be silent, I am peeing secretly.