Monday, November 05, 2007

Have you felt...

the unforgettable instant when everything started to make sense even as absolutely nothing was making sense?

Friday, November 02, 2007

Moonriver...


Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Buildings

I really like this work of mine for me it's like it came from a comic book or a 3d scale model.

What really made me enjoy it was the fact that I was able to (well at least in my opinion) pull off the perspective. As well as the shadow's lights and all those things. It is not too cartoony and well it's pretty easy on the eyes.

I would have wanted it with colors but I had some trouble in giving light and shade to color objects so grayscale for now.


Name

Saw this style in a picture once. I liked the look it seemed uhm well "Gummy" so i was amused when I saw a tutorial on how to make this thing so with no word coming to mind, I just decided to use my name for it.


Octo


Pen tool practice hehe.

After a friend saw my Love Me. Please? work She told me that I should continue doing it. I thought why not? and decided to try my hand at making a different pen tool created creature. And the end thing was Octo.

Actually the octopus wasn't that hard to do. It was the bubbles that gave me trouble. I used a tutorial for that and I guess it looks pretty good for a cartoon bubble.

Tiles

I borrowed Hans' graphic design book called breaking the grid, and one of the images there featured well a grid.

I tried to apply the grid in my work and here is what I came up with. The girl is from a picture taken from MAXIM magazine Korea.

This work is basically another practice in figuring out the different Blending options.


Smooth


Another tutorial based work...

Just the application of around 4 filters I think, and some more layer blending options. It looks nice but honestly, I have no idea where I can use this thing that I learned. I mean it's great as a stand alone wallpaper/focus of a poster but other than that, I have no idea where else I can apply the technique.

Squares


I was browsing through a graphic design book that I got and saw a design that was quite similar. I tried to interpret it in my own way and that is what happened.

I guess it's not really the final image that is important but what I learned while doing it (yes a terrible excuse for a badly done design).

So what is it that I learned? In this design I became more particular with using the grids (hence the title). I also figured out some uses for using layers as clipping masks. And also the effects of a soft brush.

Vanity Wallpaper

I saw the lightning tutorial from one of those photoshop tutorial sites and because of my vanity decided to just use it as a background to one of my pictures.

Typical photomanipulation techinques. Lasso tool to get the picture out of the background, Then posterize filter, then colorized it to red, then finally added the lightning thingies...

The size and layout are like that because I made them as a wall paper for my laptop/. Yes vanity indeed.



Save the turtles... Save the world.

I was tasked with doing the powerpoint for our group's final Theology 151 presentation, our topic was about the pawikans in the Philippines. I needed a turtle to use in the powerpoint, a mascot of some sorts and so I got one from the net, which was basically the easiest and probably most prevalent thing to do.

However I went with a black background with the power point and the image i got from the net had a white square around it. So instead of just cropping/lassoing or magically erasing the background. I went and just pen tooled the whole thing and made a vectorized turtle image hehe, Part of it was a practice for my photoshop thing i guess but the other is the constant reminder of my CS 176 professor about copyright images hehe.

Face 2

I am part of the school org ACTM and one of my tasks there was to be a hometeam head. Well I added someone by mistake and turns out she was pretty good with doing photoshop work.

I was browsing through her gallery in multiply when I saw her try to transform a pixel based image into a vector style one, I got her source, and tried it out for myself. And well turns out I'm not pretty good, but comparing it with the other one that I made this wasn't too bad.

Her version was actually the whole picture (with the body, background and all) but halfway through working on the face I began to realize how sucky my work was so I mercifully ended it by just doing the head.


Magazine Cover

I had all the Photoshopped things that I made in a folder here, I haven't upped them since well because I was too lazy.

Well anyway, here is one of the older things that I have made. Since It was done for project 2 of sir David Q. Tran's CS 176 class (electronic publishing). He required us to make a travel magazine.

The cover was probably the only thing that I did well in that project, but well it was enough for a 95 i think so Not too bad I guess.

Basically some filters, and layer blending options for this one. I'm not really a big fan of brown but I guess it fit my chosen topic so I just used it.




Thursday, October 11, 2007

You

Do moth's know that touching the flickering flame of a lighted candle leads to their demise?

I mean...
If you know you are going to get burned, would you still fly towards it?
It is quite easy to say No, to say that one should be rational in these things...

But
What can one do when one is drawn towards the beauty of the light?
How can one resist the gentle warmth and comfort that being around the flame provides?

To fly on is to realize that avoiding the light only leads to darkness.
To fly on is to feel the richness of life.
To fly on is to cherish that fleeting moment of unity.
To fly on is to to hope...

Tell me what does one do when he realizes that he will be burned yet continues to fly on?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Who am I?

I haven't blogged in a while, schoolwork has made me quite busy... I have no event to talk about I don't have an amazing story to tell either. I think this post is more of a rant, just typing words in white heat. I'm rambling on and on, because I doubt people would understand what I'm talking about but I wouldn't want to seem stupid and talk to myself about it. Well enough of that here goes...

Philosophy, CS 176, a website creation test and my Computer's collection of Hardware and Software made me realize something about myself... I don't know who I really am.

A little background:

CS 176 is my Major Elective. It is electronic publishing. I joined the class for a couple of reasons, the first of which is to be with my friends (they were required to take this class) the other is to improve on the talents that I thought I had when it comes to computer design skills. However, after a couple of projects and tests I realized that this artisitc talent is not really in me.

Friends of mine, especially those that I have worked with, have that impression that when it comes to these stuff (photoshopping and the like) that I'm pretty good. I think they miss the fact that the perceived skill that I have is not really talent but more of equipment.

My computer is basically wired for hardware-intensive graphic applications (a pretty good offshoot of wanting a gaming rig) and well the works that I have done are really just products of having better software to be able to handle those tasks as compared to my peers. I now wonder, if my friends had access to the same equipment that I'm using, the same access to the friends that taught me how to operate these things how good could their work be?

So how does this all play out into me not knowing who I am?

During Philosophy class, Mr. Strebel told us an anecdote, an artist who created masterpiece after masterpiece, then suddenly fell into a slump that he can't get out of and he begins to question himself, Who am I? am I really an artist? and maybe he begins to realize that he was not able to get out of a slump because he isnt really an artist to begin with.

Which is what I believe is slowly happening to me. That realization that I don't know who I am.

Perhaps if I ask people who know me, sa palagay mo ba ano ako? I'm betting that most would answer a techie guy, good with computers and stuff or something similar. But when faced with challenges such as that online web test, apparently I'm not as good as they and I thought.

My friend said, Mico ano lang yan parang jack of all trades, master of none... And it could be true but remember being an ok web designer, an ok graphic artist, an ok whatever would not be given as much consideration when compared with a great designer, a great artist or a great whatever else.

a jack of all trades, being versatile or just being mediocre.

So I Started asking myself what the heck am I really good at? What is that thing that could help me find that starting point to know myself? Up to now I still haven't found an answer...





Sunday, August 26, 2007

Face

An attempt to make a vector art face failed because of the details.

I basically just assembled shape layers, I didn't touch them after they looked like a face so of course it would lack details.

The eyes lack shine. The hair seems pasted on, everything looks bad.The nose is extremely bad, i didn't realize that just making the nostrils in a different color would have been enough to give the impression of a nose, but i didn't know that yet when I was doing the face so there.



This image sucks...


Friday, August 24, 2007

Love Me. Please?

I had been doing this Poring (from ragnarok online) rip-off since this morning (I even changed the wall paper at my school computer to one of my creations) however I had always used the paint brush to draw the eyes and mouth, but tonight I tried to make a different look.

When I was looking at my work, I thought that the eyes that I made seemed to had that sad look, something like its pleading for something. Because of that I thought of putting in tears, so i used the pen tool to try to create a tear like shape and there, I also thought of putting a statement that would match the eyes and Love me. Please? popped into my head.

Now all the critters that I've made previously were simple, just that weird roundish shape, which was quite easy since you basically had to make a circle and just manipulate the points, but now that I had a statement, I wanted the creature to hold a sign bearing that statement, and so I had to figure out how to give him "arms" which was quite a trouble since I really didn't have a great command of the mouse. Well here was my effort.


Thursday, August 23, 2007

Challenge 3

I saw the technique somewhere, I really can't remember where but well here's my rendition of it.

I used the picture of the Freshman R2 Block since it was the first picture that I saw in the folders haha, I hope they won't mind me using their faces for this challenge.

Splitting the picture was done quite easily, the problem spot was trying to make thumbtacks using the pen tool, but i guess i was able to do ok.

Challenge 2

I'll consider my previous image (You have stolen my heart) as the first so this is going to be number 2.

I don't know where i got the line, I don't remember hearing it from any movie or reading it from somewhere but well it was in my mind at the time I opened up photoshop so well here it is.

As I said the challenge isn't really about beauty but trying to learn more about photoshop from tools to techniques so there. And I guess 1 hour was too much for this haha, this was quite simple so I guess I just used up half of that hour.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Challenge Thyself

I've been playing around with photoshop these days. I guess part of it is attributed to boredom, another part is wanting to improve my skills. I guess I'm also subconsciously telling myself that I don't need to buy a pen and a tablet. I saw one a few days ago and I wanted to purchase something similar so I guess through playing with photoshop I'm trying to prove to myself that I could create something nice without having to purchase that pen and tablet.

So I decided to challenge myself, I have to make a graphic each day. I decided that for it to be not too time consuming for me, I'd limit it to an image done within an hour. Through this exercise I hope that I'd be able to improve my skills, my creativity and save myself a few thousand pesos.

Monday, August 20, 2007

You have stolen, you have stolen my, You have stolen my heart...


Dashbored mode...

I was bored and was just listening to some Dashboard Confessional songs. Not really sure if I can relate to the song, but it popped into my playlist and since I had half an hour before my download was finished and I wasn't really in the mood to do anything productive, I decided to create a very very simple picture based on the song.

I know its not really a beautiful image but if I had money I'd make a t-shirt out of that design. Haha I don't know i think it's also inspired by a shirt that I saw somewhere...

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Mico, Theology and Philosophy...

Cast:
Mico
Kobe (the persian cat)
isang ipis...

Siguro mga alas tres na ng umaga noon, gising pa ako dahil sa proyekto sa aking CS 176 Electronic Publishing na klase. Sumasakit na ang mata ko sa pagharap sa monitor ng Computer kaya napagdesisyonan ko munang tumayo at maghilamos.

Habang naglalakad ako papunta sa banyo, ay may nadatnan akong ipis na naglalakad lakad sa sahig sa may pintuan ng banyo. Dahil nakatuon ang pansin ng ipis sa kung ano man, hindi na niya napansin na may tao sa likod niya. Siguro ay "instinctual" na, agad agad akong nagangat ng paa at kinuha ang aking tsinelas. Sinipat ko ang ipis at umamba na ako upang hatawin ang walang kamalay malay na ipis. Ang ipis ay salot period, no return no erase. At dahil salot ito ay kailangan nang puksain.

Hindi ko alam kung bakit pero sa pagkakataong yaon, biglang sumagi sa isipan ko ang theology 151... "God's creatures" nga raw... Iniisip ko, hindi naman siguro demonyo ang lumikha sa ipis at marahil ay may nakalaang plano para sa kanya at sa mga tulad pa niyang peste sa buhay ng tao. Sumagi na rin ang Pilosopiya sa utak ko, kasalanan ba ng ipis ang kanyang pagkilos ng ganon. Ang pagkilos niya na itinuturing nating peste ay ang siyang pagkaipis ng ipis na ito. Naisip ko tuloy nasa kabuuan ba ng pagkatao ang pagpatay sa ipis? kung papatayin ko ang ipis na ito, mas nagiging tao ba ako?

Dahil sa pagiisip ko ay nagpasya akong hayaan na lang ang ipis... at dumiretso na ako sapag pagpasok sa banyo at paghilamos.

At paglabas ko eto ang eksenang tumambad sa aking paningin...

Mula sa isang sulok ay nandun si kobe, ang persian cat. Marahil ay nagising dahil sa pagbukas at sara ko ng pinto ng banyo. Nandun sya, nagmamasid, sinisipat-sipat ang ipis na hanggang ngayon ay nakatambay pa rin sa sahig. Pagkilos ng ipis ay dali-daling nilundag at inapakan ng pusa ang ipis. Durog... at tila hindi pa nakunteto rito ay pinagpasapasahan sa kanyang apat na paa ang unti-unting nawawatak watak na insekto. At ng masiyahan na sya ay bumalik sa kanyang sulok at natulog...

Ayun, natapos ang buhay ng ipis... Nadali siya ng isa pang Nilikha ng Panginoon, isang pusa na nagpapakapusa...

1255

Simple Joys...

Last friday I got really bored, I guess I grew tired of studying philosophy, grew tired of sitting still in front of a computer, grew tired of inactivity and decided to go out and exercise.

Exercise = Video Arcade...

of course not the typical sit on the stool, mash the buttons while rotating the joystick type, I decided to play Dance Maniax. You know the machine where in there are 8 sensors and you have to swipe your foot and/or hand according to the prompts on the screen and the beat of the music.

Being a gold card member in TimeZone entails a free game in one of their yellow swiper equipped machines and luckily Dance Maniax is a yellow swiper game.

The dance maniax machine that they have in Timezone gateway was the older version, I didn't really like it but I had no choice I guess. So I swiped and played...

I did the start-select thingie to choose Center (better control and view for me) trial mode (to be bale to get a good rank), and left the other options were left untouched.

After a few minutes of swiping, slipping, "grooving" and generally looking like an idiot who takes his games too seriously boom

1255 combo - S Rank - Machine ranking: 1st

finally finished a club mix trial mode without commiting any misses...

Haha

Simple joys indeed...

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Driver's Low

I'm in the coolest drivers high...


1. July 14, 2007: Unang araw ng SS area napagisipan ko na pagkatapos ng SS area bibisitahin ko ang mga freshie na kasama ko nung nag Log ako nong orsem at pagkatapos ay gym sa moro. Dinala ko ang auto dahil hassle magbitbit ng sobrang daming gamit...

Ayos naman noong pauwi na pinasok ko ng paatras yung kotse pasok na at nung ipwinepwesto ko na lang yung pwit nung auto ay boom...





ayun good job...

2. July 20. 2007
Nagdala ako ng laptop sa school, at dahil mahirap magcommute ng may kargang laptop naisip ko na dalin yung auto... Ayos naman ang buhay umulan kaya nagpatila muna ako. Umuwi ako ng mga 6:00 at noong ipapasok ko na ang kotse, di ko natantay yung biglang bagsak nung auto at bang

[Wala nang larawan masyadong katangahan ang nangyari]

nasabit sa pader yung right rear door ko ayun pucha warak na warak...

Hayy sayang ang 4,000. Siguro mas sayang ay yung nawalang confidence sa paghawak ng manibela...

* July 28, 2007 ayos na ang auto, maayos naman ang trabaho at di na halata ang mga tama sa pintuan at sa bumper. Ang kumpiyansa ko na lang ang medyo tagilid ngayon, pero catch-22 yan eh, parang paano ka magkakakumpiyansa ng hindi mo dala yung auto, at pano ka magdadala ng auto kung wala kang kumpiyansa? Kailangan ko pa man din yung auto sa darating na linggo sana by that time ayos na ang utak ko...


Monday, July 02, 2007

Missed Shots...

Nakapaglaro akong muli ng soccer nung sabado. Matagal tagal na rin na panahon ang lumipas ng huling maglaro ako nito (ayan ay kung hindi kasama ang futsal). Siguro ang huling laro ko ay nung unang summer ko sa ateneo kung san nakisali ako sa isang laro doon sa field nung pauwi na ako, pero di ko maturing na ibilang ito dahil wala lang yun haha nakapantalon ako noon at ang sapatos ko pa ata yung mga tipong casual walking shoes lang.

Ayun nga naaya ako ni Luigi na maglaro, akala ko nung una mga tipong pick up game lang kung saan ang mga kasali ay mga kung sino sinong naimbitahan lang na maglaro mga tipong wala lang pilian lang ng kampi, kaso ang naging kalaro namin ay maituturing na isang buong team hehe ang mga manlalaro nila ay galing ng iba't ibang bansa tulad ng india/myanmar/korea hehe meron naman kaming 2 import na Japanese.

Masaya rin naman kaso marahil sa tagal ko na na hindi naglalaro sobrang bano na ng galaw ko. Wala na sa tyempo yung mga pasa, di na matantya yung distansya ng bola at kung ano ano pang kabanuan haha Pero masaya din naman dahil kahit papano laro yun, at ang bait at ang kasayang kalaro nung mga nakasama ko.

Missed shots.. mga sayang na pagkakataon, iniwan ko ang camera ko at sayang dahil sa palagay ko maraming possibleng magagandang larawan ang makukuha doon sa araw na yun. Kaya simula ngayon sa bawat labas ko siguro ay dapat ko na talagang bitbitin tong camera na to.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Knockout...

Alam mo yung sa boxing? yung tipong babanatan ka ng jab tapos biglang kombinasyong ng kanan at kaliwa tapos tatapusin ka ng isang matinding hook at yun knockout...

Nagising ako ng mga bandang 8 ng umaga (tumunog ang bell) sakto lang para sa 9:30 class ko CS 176: Electronic Publishing with David Tran as Prof. Ayos naman sana to eh, kaso hindi pa kami umaabot sa hand's on part so isang oras ng lecture na hindi ko rin masyadong maintindihan. Pero dahil maaga aga pa ayun kinakaya pa naman (parang jab lang).

Sunod naman yung Theo 151 with Mr. Dy-Liacco. Bible talk + lecture (bumanat ng straight) mukhang nayanig ako at nakaramdam ng antok hehe buti na lang kinaya pa, di naman ako natumba:

(Class room)
Prof: Discussion tungkol sa Amos sa bibliya chapter 3 ata yun
Ako: (inaantok antok at halos tulog na yung tipong nakapikit na at nahuhulog hulog na yung ulo)
Prof: Mr. Ruiz, do you go to prostitute houses after sunday mass?
Ako: huh? NO sir no,
Prof: Good Afternoon.

buti na lang kahit papano may malay pa ako nun kung di matinding kahihiyanan na

Tapos Philo 103 boom nagsasalita si sir strebel nalunod na ako boom para akong na straight ulit hindi man lang ako nakabawi sa tama kanina sa theo hehe pero di namanako natodo sa durog dahil may break pa ako.

Knockout punch yung tatlong oras na LS 100, hahay 6-9 pa talaga badtrip talaga yang ls department mag assign ng oras para sa amin. Di man lang kami binagyan ng matinong pagpipilian, kung hindi 6-9 na lunes, 6-9 na biyernes o kaya 9-12 na sabado, badtrip

paguwi ko pa di ko trip yung ulam haha kaya ayun knockout na

Tueday's 1-2 Punch: ITM 122 and CS 156

've been sitting in front of a computer for 4 hours and 30 minutes straight. Normally this would have been perfectly ok as I had been known to really sit and stare at a monitor for hours, however in this situation the computers are not equipped with computer games and I'm also not typing a paper for class. I could choose to listen to the discussion that is happening in front but what are the chances of that?

ITM 122's course name seemed like fun, ITM 122: Gaming and Management Games, well after 2 meetings we havent really started playing any games yet, hopefully things would pick up next week/meeting.

CS 156 is Management of Communications Technology, it's quite a boring class filled with lectures and powerpoint slides save for the occasional quips from the prof..

On the flipside at least I get to blog again, haven't really been active in doing that, I'm also planning on fixing the layout of both my blog and multiply account but I haven't got the time to do that yet.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Cross Posting

I finally realized that Cross posting between blogger and multiply is now working, I do remember a few months back that Beta Blogger (when google accounts where needed for blogger) was not quite compatible with the multiply cross post option so now it works so sorry for the deluge of posts coming from my previous blogger posts hehe was too lazy to uncheck any of them.

http://Golden-X.Blogspot.Com
http://micogold.multiply.com

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Firsts...

Today marked a lot of firsts in my life I guess...

First time that we had a free cut in philosophy. Sir Strebel didn't arrive within the 15 minute timeframe usually given as allowance for teachers before declaring that the class is already a free cut. Kinda cool since this was the first time in nearly 1 and a half semester that Sir just didn't show up.

Today was also the first time I participated in an IAC semifinal basketball game. We ended up losing by 12 (44-32) and I played the last 30 seconds of the 3rd quarter. Not that I'm complaining but well there went my dreams of being the Sasha Vujacic against Dallas for the day.

Firsts... While I was in the Gym, (well actually papunta sa beverage bar) may nasilayan akong isang familiar face... A face that I haven't seen since the day we broke up... kinda funny to meet her here though hehe in ateneo of all places, i do remember our time together when she avoided going here hehe changes i guess.

Monday, January 01, 2007

2007

Ayun natapos ang 2006...

Masasabi ko na isa na ang taong nagdaan sa pinaka aktibo (?) o action filled (?) na taon sa buhay ko. Maraming mga pangyayari ang naganap noong nagdaang taon, mga pangyayaring nagpasaya, nagpalungkot, nagpabagabag, nagpaexcite at nagpagulo sa akin. Sa loob ng nakalipas na labindalawang buwan, mayroon akong mga nakilala, nalaman, nawala, natagpuan.

Siguro ang makakapag summarize lang ng lumipas na taon ay ang linyang madalas naming ginagamit ng mga kaibigan ko kapag nagbibiruan kami. Madalas naming masambit ang mga salitang

"Para kang sinampal sa mukha ng katotohanan"

Ang nagdaang taon ay isang Right-Left Combination ng katotohanan sa mukha ni Mico Ruiz.

Ang nagdaang taon ay nagpamulat sa akin sa mga bagay bagay tulad ng

Some of them are:
* The fine line between being understanding and being stupid.
* How every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.
* How you can't force people to like you or your work. (HSBC)
* How interest is the key to studying. (CS 30)
* That faith must be a personal conviction and not blind belief imposed by my parents (Sir Dacillio, Fr. Rex, Luigi)
* Sometimes hanging back and just being a good soldier works (Gerald and Statistics project)
* Sometimes taking charge could do wonders as well (CS 30 presentation)
* Teamwork is the key to philosophy orals... (Luigi and Keb)
* All nighters are discouraged but are quite amusing if you got other people staying up as well (Thanks to Pau, Tracy, Khristian)
* kailangan mo ng mga matitinong kausap kapag ang gulo gulo na nang mundo (thanks to jeerah, james, iyah, luigi)
* Minsan naman beer ang kailangan mo (Shout out to: Khristian, Vanjo, Chris, Bianca, Tal, Chino)
* The mind is such a wonderful thing to waste hehe (Finance, Marketing, OPMAN)
* It actually feels good to work out...
* when all else fails, sleep

Ayun sana mas masaya sa 2007